dream keepers

22
Tyrisha Brown Dre Housen Dafney Brown Jacob Horne Aleka Francis Brittani Justice Courtney Thomas PRESENTS

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Page 1: Dream Keepers

Tyrisha Brown Dre Housen

Dafney Brown Jacob Horne

Aleka Francis Brittani Justice

Courtney Thomas

PRESENTS

Page 2: Dream Keepers
Page 3: Dream Keepers

Chapters• Chapter 1- A Dream Deferred• Chapter 2- Does Culture Matter?• Chapter 3- Seeing Color, Seeing Culture• Chapter 4- We Are Family• Chapter 5- The Tree of Knowledge• Chapter 6- Culturally Relevant Teaching• Chapter 7- Making Dreams Into Reality

Page 4: Dream Keepers

Chapter 6 Culturally Relevant Teaching• “One of the critical national indicators of

educational progress (and national development) is the literacy rate (Billings, p. 102).”

• “Literacy has been seen as a process of consciousness-raising aimed at human liberation (Arnove and Graff, p. 103)”

Page 5: Dream Keepers

Chapter 6 Cont.• “For African Americans learners, in

particular, literacy has been an especially tenuous struggle, from outright denial during slavery, to limited access in the early 1900s, to segregated schools with often outdated textbooks well into the 1960s, to–many might argue–marginal acceptance of their culture and capacity as learners even in the 1990s (Gadsden, p. 103).”

Page 6: Dream Keepers

Ann Lewis• A Literacy Revival• First introduced in Chapter 3• Lewis is an Italian American in her mid-

forties• Lived most of her life in a largely African

American community• She always wanted to be a teacher but did

not have to until she divorced and had to get support her family

• Lewis was very involved in the politics of teaching and was elected as the president of the teachers’ association

Page 7: Dream Keepers

Ann Lewis Cont.• Since Lewis was so involved with fighting

the school board she often was given “subtle forms of harassment” such as she was given the students that the other teachers did not want

• Lewis rethought her career as a teacher until one of her friends told her about a writing seminar offered at UC Berkley

• This experience caused Lewis to change her whole curriculum around writing and literature

Page 8: Dream Keepers

Ann Lewis Cont.• Lewis began teaching books that were

culturally relevant to her class• Since the students were anxious to ask

questions, Lewis began to encourage interaction with each other and help answer one another’s question, while Lewis posed questions such as “How can you relate this to your life?”

• This kind of interaction between student and teacher and student and student helped the explosion of literacy and thinking

Page 9: Dream Keepers

Ann Lewis Cont.• Larry- the oldest boy in the class because he

had been left back and had a slew of bad history including a drive-by shooting of his favorite aunt

• “An accident waiting to happen” one teacher said.

• Lewis referred to Larry as:• A piece of crystal. He’s strong and beautiful but

fragile. I have to build a safe and secure place for him and let him know that we-the class and I-will be here for him.

• By the end of the year Larry had been elected 6th grade class president, involved in peer conflict, and had A’s and B’s in every class

Page 10: Dream Keepers

Julia Deveraux• “Gimme that old-time [religion] teaching.”• Deveraux grew up in the same community

as Lewis and was her successor as the president of the teachers’ association

• African American• Unlike Lewis (who taught whole literacy),

Deveraux taught direct reading instruction (basal text)

Page 11: Dream Keepers

Deveraux’s Teaching• Fourth grade teacher• First 30 minutes students can do any

activity (spelling assignments, journal writing)

• At 9:00 everyone is quiet and in their desk with a basal reader on the desk

• Deveraux starts out with phonics• Justice• Kinsman• Veranda

Page 12: Dream Keepers

Deveraux’s Teaching• Once the phonics drill is done Deveraux

recaps with her students about the last story that was read

• After the story is recapped the class goes over new words such as:

• Demonstrate• Influence

• As you see Deveraux is a much more organized and structured compared to Ann Lewis

Page 13: Dream Keepers

Deveraux’s Speech• Billings says the experience is “boring” and

when she talks to her Deveraux says:• “I know it seems old-fashioned but I believe

the students benefit from the structure…I have children in her who other teachers told me could not read. Heck, they told me they couldn’t read. But I look them squarely in the eye in the beginning of the school year and tell them, you will read, and you will read soon…I award prizes for completing the reading logs…I am pretty easy going about a lot of things, but I keep my reading time sacred.”

Page 14: Dream Keepers

Deveraux Cont.• Book of the Month Club (rewards are “intrinsic”)• Michael- his file was “two inches thick”

• In and out of foster homes• Mother was a drug addict and neglected him• Every teacher had given up on Michael but

Deveraux

• When asked why he just now started reading he said:• “I don’t know, she just told me that I could read

if I wanted to and she was going to help me want to.”

• Deveraux had got Michael to start reading by giving him books about athletes and rap stars

Page 15: Dream Keepers

Margaret Rossi• 6th grade math teacher, strict, but well respected• Taught her students by teaching about the African

origins of Algebra (Jaime Escalante)• Rossi constantly tells her students how perfect they

are and that they are capable of mastering the problems

• The atmosphere was much like Lewis with everyone helping each other and cheering each other on

• Rossi to recycles the students question so that they understand that they are capable of answering their own questions

Page 16: Dream Keepers

Chapter 7 Making Dreams Into Reality • In the introduction, Billings says that she

will be addressing two separate but related ideas in this chapter:• The Classroom Teacher’s Power and

Responsibility• A Vision of a Culturally Relevant School

Page 17: Dream Keepers

The Classroom Teacher’s Power and Responsibility• To be a good teacher of an African

American student, the teacher should be able to get the students to choose academic excellence and not have to compromise his or her cultural identities

• Culturally relevant teaching is about questioning and preparing the student to question the inequalities and injustices that they will face

Page 18: Dream Keepers

The Classroom Teacher’s Power and Responsibility• All of the teachers Billings studied work in

opposition to the system that employs them

• They do this because it is what is best for the students.

• Some of the teachers said that their administrators let them teach the way they want because of the great results they are seeing from the students

Page 19: Dream Keepers

The Classroom Teacher’s Power and Responsibility• Working in opposition to the system is the

way that students will most likely achieve educational success, but how do we get the oppositional nature to be expressed in teachers?

• A conscious effort must be made to reconstruct the teacher preparation program for prospective teachers. They should be better prepared to be in a culturally relevant classroom

Page 20: Dream Keepers

A Vision of a Culturally Relevant School• She began the book with the question: Do African

American students need separate schools? • She concludes the book with the answer: What

they need are better schools• Billings wonders what a classroom that followed

these practices would look like. She gives a fictional description of what a culturally relevant school looks like:• The school she described was an effective

educational environment where the community, faculty, parents and students play equally vital roles in the students’ educational success

Page 21: Dream Keepers

• Billings ends by saying that African Americans have long challenged the “American Dream” and believed that education is the key to making their dreams come true

A Vision of a Culturally Relevant School

Page 22: Dream Keepers

THE END