It’s finally spring. The weather is starting to warm up, but the rain continues to plague our daily plans, causing us to run the “Rainy Day” schedule for lunch and recess. Anyone who has had to endure “Rainy Day” schedules recognizes how this makes for an extraordinarily long day with little respite for the students and the teachers. It is early in my career as an instructional coach and I have been charged with the task of leading an impromptu intervention group during the “extra” academic time as a result of the “Rainy Day” schedule. The standardized testing season is upon us and students need to be prepared. I have essentially been given practice tests and work through the tests systematically with a small group of students, working with them on test taking strategies to help them navigate these complex tests designed to make students second guess themselves throughout the test’s entirety. We work through the various question types and I model a strategy for them to try, and then they practice it on their own. We go through this for a few weeks as our “Rainy Day” schedule persists. Finally testing is upon us. The tests are distributed, which I am not allowed to see, read, or experience in any way, and students begin. I am proctoring the test, essentially watching students to ensure academic integrity. I have the same group with whom I have been working these past few weeks. The students stare blankly at their test booklets, and then look to me expectantly. I remind them that I cannot help them, they must navigate this on their own. Students begin arbitrarily filling in the bubble sheet and within the matter of an hour announce they are finished. Finished?! The test is designed to take at least two hours, and they technically have all day to complete it. How could they be finished? Knowing there was not much more I could do, I collect the tests and dismiss my group. I catch up with a few of them at lunch and inquire as to why they rushed through it. To my dismay, they informed me that they had come to rely upon me telling them which strategies to use and when. This is when I realized that I had been doing all the heavy lifting for them. They never had to engage in critical thinking to identify strategies to support them. I had contributed to the stagnation of dependent learners. My intensive small group work had been teacher-centric. It was the Rachael show – look at how I can navigate a complex text! What good did that do?
I was well-intentioned. While I am not a proponent of the standardized testing regimen implemented nationwide, I do understand the importance of assessments and recognize that right now these tests are a fact of life. It would be unfair to ask students to take these tests without exposing them to their format and the expectations. My small group format was intended to prepare students to be successful by providing them strategies. However, was I teaching them how to be learners? How to be critical thinkers who can think for themselves as new situations and new content arise? No. I was giving them a crutch, and in many cases I served as their crutch. I wanted to help them. I felt for them, knowing their histories, the trauma they’ve experienced, and the obstacles they have had to overcome in their learning. I wanted to help them feel successful and feel as though they had the tools to be successful. My earnest efforts failed them. They felt successful, but through my successes with them. Not independently.
Being culturally responsive means recognizing and affirming diversity, and leveraging it to strengthen students’ perceptions of self and giving them the tools to navigate complex scenarios independently and critically. Contrary to what its name may convey, culturally responsive pedagogy transcends ethnicity and race and dives deep into deep culture, beyond what we can see and experience on the surface. It is understanding students’ lived experiences, community values, how students and their families perceive education, and designing instruction that engages students in a way that is authentic and meaningful to them. It is connecting with students on an interpersonal level to help them navigate their own paths and make decisions with the knowledge they have. Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) is helping students to feel confident in their abilities, showing them the tools they have to evaluate, make judgments, and engage in creative problem solving to find solutions. It gives students a voice and the confidence to negotiate new circumstances with dexterity and reflection. It moves students towards a level of independence in their learning. Culturally responsive pedagogy is not teaching to the test, but teaching students how to think. My students would have been better served by discourse around the tools they already possess to tackle new challenges. Rather than me telling them what strategy to use, we should have had deeper discussions about what the strategies are, and how and when to use them. Students should have been driving the discussion and making the decisions. My job should have been to make them aware of the strategies and skills they already have, teaching them new ones when necessary, and then letting them take over and decide how to use them. This critical shift towards independence, the gradual release of responsibility, is the linchpin to successful CRP.
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