Diversity Plan

Diversity Plan: A Democratic Classroom

Summary

The principal objective of this plan is to provide a classroom atmosphere where students, irrespective of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, and sex, can learn in an effectual, enjoyable, and encouraging manner. As the chief facilitator, I want to empower my students and teach them how to be mini-facilitators so they can effectively convey material in a peer-to-peer, peer-to-teacher fashion. Ideally, I envision a classroom where I can set things in motion as more of an advisor/monitor of the class, guiding classroom democracy when necessary. An underlining, adjunctive theme will be the concept of social justice. I want students to develop their voice and cultivate opinions on concepts that truly matter to them as individuals representing the larger democratic body. With this in mind, student safety is paramount. Students who develop a better understanding that they can defend or stand against ridicule is essential in curbing bullying activities in settings where teachers may not always be present. Providing defense from potential dangers must come from other youth if more vulnerable youth are to feel safe in their schools and democratization of the classroom is an essential starting point.

Classroom Design

“What matters is not to know the world but to change it” (Gorski, 2012). This simple, yet profound quote from doctor, author, and activist, Frantz Fanon, is one that is universally applicable to students. It has a timeless quality and is one that is easily memorized. Quotes like this will be posted in the classroom and periodically rotated and replaced by new ones. There are several reasons for choosing this quote. First, the words are powerful and applicable to any student who chooses to appropriate this mantra. Second, I want the study of the words to develop into the study of the works. Frankly, I want the students to research the author and his published material to delve deeper into the writer’s back story. Third, this feeds into my philosophy of developing change agents to make a difference in the word and sometimes a simple quote like this can ignite that flame. Finally, students will see the author, Frantz Fanon, is of a “mixed” ethnic lineage and they can connect some mutual similarities, a common ground. His father is descended from African slaves and his mother is a combination of European, Indian, and African blood and they were part of the middle-class community on the island of Martinique (Wikipedia, 2012). This quote by Fanon and his life’s story provides a bevy of informational caveats that can be introduced for discussion purposes as this lends itself to our pluralistic, multicultural society.

In addition to quotations of social justice advocates, I would stress color schemes, specifically earth tones. This move would shift from the drab, hospital waiting room motifs that I witnessed as a middle school student with light gray or yellow painted concrete walls. Shifting away from the institutionalized look, I would focus on colors that show the richness of the students that comprise the classroom itself: various shades of brown, yellow, orange, and red. A decided effort would be made to reduce the monolithic tones of black and white as those colors are the racial bookends in which other identities, ethnicities, and cultures, regrettably, are compared –or contrasted. The décor is about inclusion and warmth sans the unconscious “othering” and alienation brought about when youth are unable to see colors that reflect their cultures, customs, and creeds.

Supplies

In a similar vein to the classroom color scheme, many of the supplies –crayons, colored pencils, and construction paper- will consist of the various earth tones and colors of the rainbow (e.g. Roy G. Biv). Students will be encouraged to create projects expressing their idea of social justice and how they can implement it in their lives. Written and hand-crafted work will be encouraged based on the student’s comfort level with their chosen approach. The goals are to help creatively-inclined students with any trepidations of writing, improve the performance of struggling writers, and encourage good writers to become great writers.

Literature will be visible and readily available in the classroom. Books, magazines, and graphic novels from a myriad of diverse authors are an essential ingredient for the students to develop an interest in reading. Time will be made available throughout the week for reading activities –peer group readings and literature circles, reading aloud, and reflections- to be implemented to engage the students and develop critical readers, writers, and thinkers.

James Loewen (2010) in his book Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks & Get Students Excited About Doing History suggests acquiring several textbooks spanning the last one hundred years and having students give a critique on a specific topic (p. 39). This technique allows students the opportunity for critical analysis of the selected subject matter and see how perspectives may have altered over time. This process, according to Loewen (2010), can move readers from the passive state to a more active one, especially in terms of discussing controversial topics like slavery, Herbert Hoover and the Depression, and the treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government as just a few examples (p. 40). This exercise strikes a chord because it utilizes what could be perceived as discarded, useless textbooks and converts them into valuable, comparative resource tools. It is another way to take lemons and make lemonade, a more effective and palatable alternative.

Socratic Seminars

Steven Mertens, Vincent Anfara, and Micki Caskey (2007) discuss the importance of Socratic Seminars as a means for students to better develop understanding and peer interaction based on selected readings. The questions should arise organically and spontaneously compared to the methodical, professorial probing of yesteryear (p. 146). This concept will undergird my classroom practice in efforts to democratize and engage students to share ideas and insight that may be new and insightful to pupil and teacher.

The reasoning for incorporating Socratic Seminars into the classroom is partly a selfish one. Speaking at an audience has never been inviting activity. Mundane lectures and equally tired lesson plans of my previous school experience will be replaced with dynamic activities to better engage the teacher –me. In order to stay fresh, engaging and thriving off the students’ energy will be vital to my success and longevity as an educator. I picture myself as the facilitator helping to guide discussions, challenging ideas with my students and partaking in an active, critical, and democratic interaction. Disagreeing without becoming disagreeable is a crucial component of a healthy democracy and it can broaden the pools of knowledge of all the participants. Mertens et al. (2007) echoes John Dewey’s sentiments that democracy goes beyond a form of government, but a necessary ingredient to educate all students (p. 148). This statement contains the ethos that will form my class and fuel my students’ drive to be part of an active and participatory “assembly,” the democratic classroom boasting students of different ethnicities, socioeconomic status, religions, languages, gender, sex, and abilities.

Resources

Gorski, P.C. (2012). Webpage. Retrieved from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/language/quotes_alpha2.html#F

Loewen, J.W. (2010). Teaching what really happened: how to avoid the tyranny of textbooks and get students excited about doing history/ James W. Loewen. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, c2010.

Mertens, S.B., Anfara, V.A., & Caskey, M. M. (2007). The young adolescent and the middle school. Information Age Pub. ; Westerville, Ohio: National Middle School Association, c2007.

Wikipedia. (2012). Retrieved July 8, 2012 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon