As I was teaching our first "official" Social Studies lesson today, I asked my students to predict what our "Weekly Reader" would be about by looking at the cover. I am trying to teach my students to raise their hands to be called on, as well as teaching them to "turn and talk", where the students first turn and talk to their partner before coming back into a whole group discussion. After a "turn and talk" about the Weekly Reader's cover, I asked student pairs to share out their answers.
A particularly bright student, we'll call him Rio, started to speak out with out raising his hand. I reminded him that I would like students to raise their hands to participate and then I heard this:
"Ms. Robb, Rio is like the smartest student. You should just call on him all the time."
"What, Miguel*?", I replied. "Sure, Rio is smart, but every single one of you has something great to say and things show me you're smart as well."
"Not everyone is smart, Ms. Robb. Some people aren't." Miguel responded, completely serious.
"Well...I....", I was stunned. This is Kindergarten! "Miguel, I don't believe that for a second."
I was really at a loss. Sure, my 3rd graders had called each other "stupid", pointed out deficits in their peers and themselves and generally had low confidence in their abilities. But my Kindergarteners? Was it really that obvious that Rio was leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of his classmates?
And I thought back to all of the times that my MT and I had called on Rio, and his equally as "well-read" female counterpart, Lilana* to help us out or to answer questions. How many times had we made them the captains and the leaders? How many times had we praised these two students for doing exceptional work? Looking back, it is honestly more than I am proud to say.
I do not want my students to feel like they are not just as smart, or capable or well-read as their peers. I don't want to be the teacher with "favorites" because having favorites means having students who are willing and eager to work for you and having students who could really care less because they do not feel like they could measure up to your standards. I want all of my students to believe in themselves, and believe in each other. I don't want to develop a dichotomy where the students find it extremely important to "pair up with the smart kids" and "leave te dumb kids out".
Because, in my mind, there is no such thing as a "dumb kid".
This is a great noticing post and very insightful. It seems that you are experiencing the types of conclusions that were hinted at in Project 1 - namely, issues of status, etc. I don't think that your case is an example of picking "favorites" as much as it is communicating an implicit message through the instructional tasks that are enacted in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think that your responses to these student responses are natural. But I think that the real way to address this is not by continually telling students that everyone is smart, but rather by constructing instructional tasks that address not only content goals but process goals - specifically, process goals such as helping students learn how to communicate their mathematical ideas. When the classroom discourse becomes centered on thinking about, sharing, and defending ideas (as opposed to completing worksheet full of "right answers"), students will be less likely to discriminate amongst themselves as who is "smart" (e.g., who catches on right away and who doesn't). Instead, you will be providing all students with the opportunity to think and share their ideas - in this way, everyone will have the opportunity to be "smart". This, most importantly, requires the teacher to thoughtfully select and structure the mathematical tasks that will be used in the classroom.