Storytelling around the Globe

Introduction

Last year, I strode around my classroom observing my students during a free write, which I assigned to get their "brains flowing" before an intensive, structured writing activity. I tell my students, "You can write about anything! Your favorite recipe, the dream you had last night, what you're doing this weekend. . as long as you're writing." While roaming the room, seeing topics ranging from meatballs to upcoming social dates, I noticed Connor had written a rather lengthy journal and was now accompanying that journal with an illustration. The picture immediately caught my eye: fiery bombs exploding out of an enormous cannon from the United States (with a rather large illustration of our flag) toward Iraq partnered with drawings of stick people wearing large turbans. The caption underneath stated very plainly "They deserve it." I realized then that our children develop or absorb serious misconceptions about others as being completely different and disconnected from ‘us.' I would like them to see that on the contrary, we (as humans, anywhere) share certain experiences possibly more than we differ in them.

This desire for cultural awareness and interconnectedness became my passion for the unit. In order for our children to create accurate distinctions of cultures in their minds and, consequently, informed opinions, they must also be given the facts. If they do not receive informative material either from their parents or the media sources surrounding them, it therefore rests on the shoulders of their teachers to export the knowledge to them. Given that my students only see a Social Studies teacher every other day, I want to insure that they get every possible opportunity to learn as much as they can about foreign cultures.

My School

First, I would like to take a moment to acquaint you with the environment of my school. Quail Hollow Middle School, a FOCUS (Finding Opportunities; Creating Unparalleled Success) school, prides itself on building relationships and diversifying instruction. Being a FOCUS school means that according to our state's standardized test scores (End of Grade or EOG) our students do not perform at a proficient level and thus, do not meet all of the achievement goals mandated for a school of our size and/or makeup. (This is called Annual Yearly Progress, AYP, of which our school only achieved 25 out of 29 necessary progression goals in 2008.) Many of our students perform below grade level and with the high stakes of EOG pass rates, teachers feel the pressure of "making the grade." Being a 6^th grade Language Arts teacher, I know that the limitations of my students do not come from them being inadequate or not being "smart," but rather that their reading level does not necessarily match where they are supposed to be. For example, in 2008 approximately 49% of our 6^th graders earned a I or II (failing) on the End of Grade test, nearly 60% received a I or II in 7^th grade and 38% in 8^th grade (1).

In direct correlation is the socio—economic breakdown of our school. Our school definitely exhibits a salad bowl of culture with its 950 students creating a pie of 36% African American, 31% White, and 25% Hispanic, with significantly lower levels of Asian, Native American, or Multi—racial students (2). Although our school nestles next to the Quail Hollow Country Club, we bus the majority of our students in from lower—income housing or apartments. The one thing the majority of my students have in common is low economic level. Sixty—three percent of our school population receives free/reduced lunch and ninety—two percent of absences get categorized as unexcused, with no parent/guardian contact. Many parents shut off their phones or cancel service when a bill cannot be paid and several move to a different apartment without notifying the school of the address or contact information changes. ges.

This correlation between minority populations, socio—economic status, and low achievement has been coined the "Achievement Gap." Nothing creates a better image of this than the separation of students into Standard (lower level), Standard Plus (proficient) and Honors (above average) classes. I teach three classes of a heterogeneously mixed Standard/Standard Plus, which allows for lively debates and discussion given the diversity in my classroom. However, my classes frequently struggle with school—wide fundraisers, while our neighboring classroom of Honors students excels. Often I find that my students lack background or prior knowledge of information or concepts we read in our stories simply because they may not have had the opportunity to learn them elsewhere: the beach, items in a museum, the experience of being at a baseball stadium during a game. You can probably imagine then that their understandings of other cultures may be severely limited. With rare circumstances to even branch out within their own society, the likelihood of my students having experienced another culture becomes nil. I want to captivate my students with the opportunity to step into other worlds, to learn about new cultures, and to build their own opinions from the information gained through the experience.e.