Recently, I posed the following question to my 9th grade students, "Why is it important to hear other people's stories?" This question was born out of our reading of the text, Bless Me Ultima. Prior to reading the text, I heard a lot of complaints about how boring they heard it was. I used this as fuel to fire them up about the importance of reading a text that highlights a culture with which they are unfamiliar. When I first posed the question we had a small group discussion and they gave me typical answers such as:
- We can learn from them.
- They can be interesting.
- Stories are meant to be shared.
I wanted them to dig deeper and see more of the significance of hearing other people's stories, especially those stories of other cultures. So, I teamed up with Emily Grammatico and her ESL students. They took us up on our invitation to come and talk to my students about the stories of their cultures. Not only did her ESL students share their stories, my students were able to ask specific questions about their cultures and relate some of this information back to Bless Me Ultima, which prompted further questioning related to the ideas and concepts presented in the text. It was an amazing experience to watch them interact, and see my students learn from Emily's students. This conversation deepened their understanding of the subject-matter because suddenly what they were reading about wasn't so fictitious anymore, the ideas and concepts in the text were very real to the people of other cultures.
After the visit from the ESL students, I posed the same question a second time. The responses were much different. They wrote and talked in small groups about how their understanding of the story had changed, and they shared how their perspectives of themselves, the world, and the ESL students had changed as a result of their interactions. They were able to convey on a much deeper level why hearing other people's stories matter. This question and the experience linked to it cultivated thinking dispositions that I want to grow in students and those dispositions are: we not stay stagnant in our beliefs, we grow our perspectives by listening to others, and we understand that just because a text might seem boring doesn't mean that it can't have a significant impact on our growth as a person and how we see our place in the world. Using the understanding map, I can clearly identify that students were making connections and considering different viewpoints as evidenced by their written responses and post-visitation discussion in response to the question "Why is it important to listen to other people's stories?"
Jess,
ReplyDeleteYou made learning relevant to your students. You broke down the walls to your classroom and invited another group of our student body in to be the "experts". This symbiotic relationship will continue because your students are sure to see Emily's students through school events and daily life on campus. I know some ESL students feel different, even isolated from their peers, but you honored them by honoring their culture. You have helped students build understanding of differing cultures by bringing them together. In other words, you have made CJHS an even better place:)