Prompt Six Lisa Delpit

The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to cultural and linguistic differences. A teacher must speak with a voice of authority as well as a friend at times, and always with a voice that speaks to all or many children. This communication, both verbal and non-verbal must set a positive tone and support positive interaction between teacher and student. If we do not communicate to all students with taking in to account how we should be speaking to them, they might miss the message we, as teachers, are trying to send.

I held off on this blog prompt to see if there were any differences to cover between the "permanent" substitute teacher I spent much of my tutoring time with, and the real teacher who came back very late in the year. They both used very different teacher "voices" and set entirely different moods to the class. I could see that the children reacted differently to the new teacher and it made me extremely sad to see that she had pretty much ruined the class dynamic.

The substitute, Ms. K had the kind of voice and communication that worked with all students, seemingly bringing with together during lessons and when working with them individually, she seemed to have their attention and they wanted to speak with her. Ms. K began every day by letting the kids control which order they settled in, allowing them to hand in homework and then put their things in the closet, or the other way around, and then she began to set up the day by giving them their schedule, clearly and deliberately but with a light and friendly tone. She would then follow this schedule in exact order and always ask if anyone had questions, and to "Please raise your hand if you need to ask me something." She would clearly ask her students what they were doing, why they were out of their seat and tell them what they needed to be doing if they were not on task. Ms. K never worded anything in the form of a question, like "Is this a good time to sharpen your pencil?" and she always made sure the class knew what she meant. With all these strict rules, she also had a soft side in which i remember a day when a student was out of his seat and Ms K did not like it. She calmly walked up to him and asked "What are you doing?" he respond with a "getting a pencil" and she said "You need to be sitting, my friend." SHe handled it with both authority and kindness!

The new teacher on the other hand made the kids wild and they did not respect her because they clearly did not know what she was saying. She always worded things in this liberal, non-authoritative questioning that made the kids wonder what the right response was, not what they were being asked. And when she wasn't confusing them, she would be screaming at them about how they were wrong and not paying attention. It was awful.

Lisa Delpit would take the side of Ms K in that children of this classroom, and many classrooms need ot be spoken to in an authoritative and even commanding way so that they understand the message or what they are being asked. Delpit's article the Silenced Dialogue explains that what someone wants for their child is not always best to give to every other child, because every child is a student with different needs. The need to be commanded or spoken to in a lighter tone is important to see within each child, because it will help them in their learning.