Making a Connection to my School
I teach English Language Arts to 8th grade students, and serve as the English Department Chair at Redan Middle School. 95% of my school population is African-American while only 5% is comprised of other races. From the outside, it appears that my students who are African-American are all the same, but take a closer look and you will discover that culturally, and in range of aptitude for learning instilled by caregivers, these students differ greatly. These cultural differences may seem trivial to many, but in reality, there are tiny voices in all of us that want to be heard as well as that need to escape from our own diffidence and inhibition. One goal of this project is to examine how the student can relate to different forms of poetry in terms of who they are as readers and interpreters of the poem. What is the culture and background of the student and what is the culture and background of the writer? Are there similarities or differences in how the reader views himself or herself to the self-conception of the speaker in the poem? Additionally, how can the student use his or her own culture and diversity to create poetry for others to read and interpret and have their voices clearly heard in poetry?
Redan Middle School is one of the newest middle schools in DeKalb County, Georgia. The school is located in a suburban community in which many lower income to upper middle income families reside. As of March 2011, the student population was approximately 941 students. This figure reflects 483 male students and 458 female students. 466 males are African-American, while 2 are white, and 18 are multi-racial. 436 females are African-American. 2 are white, and 8 are multi-racial. There are 760 economically disadvantaged students attending Redan Middle School which qualifies the school as a Title One School. Since we are a Title I school, we receive the benefits of having additional instructional coaches to assist with instruction in English, math, science, and social studies. While many of these students appear the same in racial make-up, their learning styles and cultures are quite different. This is what makes this project so unique. My students need an avenue and a voice to tell their story. They need to know it is okay to be different in culture, values, and upbringing. They need a voice.
Connection to the Georgia Performance Standards
Another challenge we face as we move toward the beginning of Common Core Standards in almost all states is how can we address the student's needs, increase the rigor in the classroom for our students, and make them college ready. Knowing the regulations and rigidity of the curriculum that is to come, how can the teacher create an environment in which students can feel comfortable with poetry, the poets and the messages in the poem? The key is to use analyzation of the speaker's voice as a method to get students involved in rich reading and comprehension activities which will cause them to think critically and to increase their depth of knowledge. This will be extremely beneficial to students as we move from state standards to National set of standards or Common Core Standards.
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