In my three years as an educator, I always find myself looking back on lessons and units and critiquing them. I have the mindset that nothing will ever truly be perfect, therefore, I can always make something better. This also happens throughout the day when I am teaching a lesson. There are some things that I do that work with some classes and will fall flat with others. It would be easy to just do the same thing every year, and for every class. I believe though that it is important to try and make lessons accessible for every class. This week I was reminded of that through some readings and videos that I went through.
One thing that I had not explicitly considered before when it comes to accessibility is the context and conditions in which you teach a lesson. As I am typing this it makes me compare my current school to the one that I student taught at. The school that I student taught at was in one of the wealthiest suburban districts in Metro Detroit. When I was teaching there, I could use a lot more references and examples to help contextualize my lessons. This is because I had a similar experience growing up. I went to a large suburban high school in the Grand Rapids area that for the most part was very well off financially. I believe that this allowed me to make my lessons partially more accessible because I was coming from a similar background to the students that I was working with.
The school that I am currently teaching at is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city of Detroit. The context and conditions that I am working in is very different from what I grew up with. This meant that I had to work harder and learn more about the community that I was in so that I could make my lessons more accessible. I did that by getting more involved in the school community. For example, I am currently coaching two sports at my current school (Cross Country and Track and Field). This provides me with the opportunity to get to know my students outside of just a classroom setting. I believe that this has done wonders because I am learning to adapt to my surroundings and provide examples which are more culturally relevant and accessible for my students. My students are very capable, it really just involves putting in the work and showing them that you care (Arredondo 2013.). I believe the video below shows the importance of making sure that students have the access to resources that will allow them to succeed in the future.
Another thing that I am going to concentrate on improving is my use of language in the classroom. I want to use more accessible language in order to be more inclusive and reduce stress for my students. I tend to use a lot of language like, "You should be able to finish this." and "This makes sense, right?" in my teaching. This is a bit too presumptive of the abilities of my students. This is mostly happening in the classroom rather than online, but it makes me consider more closely the content that I am putting in PowerPoint slides and how I word different assignments (Bork 2020.). I believe that this is just me thinking back on my own experience in school and forgetting to realize that my students are not going to be doing things likely at the same rate that I can or did at that age. I say this in reference to the majority of my students. I do have some that are clearly above where I was and are always excelling despite their conditions.
Overall, I appreciated this time to think back on these experiences and consider what I can do in the future. I want to make sure that no matter what I am doing in the classroom, my students feel as though they have the same chance as anyone else. I am going to be putting it on myself to make sure that I am doing my best to improve how I do that for my students. If you are interested in checking out any of these resources follow the links included in the post.
References:
Arredondo, P. (2013). My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/pearl_arredondo_my_story_from_gangland_daughter_to_star_teacher
Bork, W. (2020, December 19). Powerpoint accessibility checker tutorial. MSU MediaSpace. https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/PowerPoint+Accessibility+Checker+Tutorial/1_1h2i2dws/138093712
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