A. Hey guys, I'll be doing a Quotes Analysis on Kohn's "What to Expect in a Classroom", and I’ll tie it into the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy video at the end.
B. Firstly, I'd like to just point out, boy does this chart put things into perspective on just how dull my high school was. I don't think I ever had a class with all categories in the "Good Signs" column, I'm gonna be honest.
The first quote I want to mention is under the "Possible reasons to worry" section and its "Chairs all facing forward (even worse) desks all in rows". This really surprised me. 99% of my high school classes were either all students facing forward or students completely in rows. I never really thought about how detrimental/negative that arrangement could be until I saw it in the "bad" column of the chart. We really don't realize how having our seats in a group can help morale even if it is just the teacher talking. Rows with students all facing front now just feels so institutionalized. Some of my classes in college are like this too, I won't be able to look at it the same way.
The next quote I want to mention is also under the "bad" column, and that's on the location of the teacher being "front and center". I never realized how this could be a detriment to the classroom either. Having teachers floating around and helping kids honestly feels so rare to me having been in AP/Honors classes in high school. Honestly I couldn't tell you when a teacher spent at least 50% of the time milling around with students, never mind a majority of the time.
The final quote I would like to mention is also from the same column, and it's on stuff in the classroom being "Textbooks, worksheets and other instructional materials predominate; sense of enforced orderliness' '. This is one thing I would like to refute, at least in my opinion as a student. A majority of my teachers had a lot of reference materials like this around their room. Although some did balance it out with decorations I was still appreciative of those with such materials as it made it easier to get help and extra practice. Granted the room may have looked a touch more dull, but the teachers normally would make up for it in other ways. Decorated classrooms are tough subjects because you have to find the line between too plain and too chaotic.
Classrooms exhibiting these traits from the negative column lack the ability to appropriately utilize culturally responsive pedagogy, as discussed in the video. We really don’t realize all that we are missing when it comes to such stagnant classrooms. As the video stated, there is no such thing as “one size fits all” classrooms with how diverse people can be. Having classrooms following the negative column of Kohn, makes it so they cannot properly connect with the cultures of their students.
C. One question I would like to ask is, can anyone confidently say they have had a class that fits the entire "good signs" column? If so please share because that is SO rare. I'm including an article on the benefits of decorating a classroom.
https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/getting-the-principles-just-right-classroom-decoration/
Hi Rey! To answer your question I have not had a classroom that fits completely in the "good signs" category. I can relate to all of the quotes you chose for example all of my teachers were front and center when I was in class and the desks were constantly in rows and facing front. Thank you for sharing your experience with each quote because you are not alone.
ReplyDeleteHey Rey :) I also do not think I have ever had a class with all of the good signs and I really agree with your second quote. In AP or EEP classes they would primarily stand in the front and lecture while stressing that this is what teaching is like when you go to college, but now that I am in college it is not like that at all! But, overall I feel like there are pros and cons to every class I've taken.
ReplyDeleteI also had the same experiences in high school where the desks were arranged in rows and teachers mainly stood in the front of the classroom. I feel as though it is harder to learn in circumstances like this as it is harder to keep the classroom engaged in the content. Being more active as a teacher in the classroom can also help students to stay focused rather than being off task.
ReplyDeleteHi Rey. During my high school years, I had a different experience, which fitted more in the good signs' column, and to be honest, that experience made a huge difference in my life, and has an impact on how I want to be as a future educator.
ReplyDeleteRey. I definitely agree with how the classrooms were set up. I found that they way my high school classrooms were not beneficial to allowing us to have conversations with each other at all, a lot of the times my class would be silent because of the desks being in rows.
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ReplyDeleteI definitely had classrooms that were very close to having all of the elements in the good signs columns, but those's were all classrooms from elementary school. Which is sad because if there is evidence out there that says all of these things are essential for a good classroom environment and education then why does it all stop after elementary school?
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