AFNED502Summer: Bringing Joy Back Into The Classroom

Recommitting To The Joyful Classroom

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/recommitting-to-the-joyful-classroom/

By The editors of Rethinking Schools

I've always had a misconception around joy. When I think of joy I equate it to happiness when in reality one can be joyful during some of the most challenging of times. I'm reminded of when COVID became a pandemic and we all had to find joy as a means to keep going. Meeting on Zoom, singing songs or rereading their favorite story was a joyful experience during a really hard and scary time.

In the article, Recommitting To The Joyful Classroom I found much of what the authors wrote resonating with me, especially with the quote

"We must reject district initiatives that begin from a narrative of “learning loss,” echoing the tired lines used over the decades to track students by their test scores with problematic and inaccurate assessments tied to ineffective and deadening teaching."

Learning Loss and achievement gaps are all the rage in schools today. There is a huge drive to get kids "caught up" and providing all students with a rigorous tier one curriculum followed up with intensive tier 2 and 3 interventions. This to me feels very political. The ones choosing the curriculum are the ones who hold the power in what is being taught. Finn stated that, "Teachers and students are locked into a system of rules and roles that none of us understand."(Finn, 5) We are locked into teaching curriculum that many of our marginalized populations cannot connect to. As teachers, we are mandated to assess our emergent bilinguals English fluency when they are still acquiring the language and using that information to identify students with "learning loss" and "achievement gaps." None of it makes sense for the learner but we do it anyways. What administrators need to ask is, "What interests our students? What funds of knowledge do they bring with them? What are their cultural backgrounds?"

"Instead of surrendering to despair, let us choose to create a different path."

As educators we can choose the path that is the best for our students. When June arrives, and I have checked off all of the necessary curriculum and assessment boxes, I find my classroom is the most joyous. What is the shift? Well, it is simple. We spend time researching animals that are of interest to the group. We visit two local zoos and learn more about the animals we researched. There is a themed camping week where all literacy, math, and science activities connect to camping themes. We participate in creative challenges and have choices in our writing. I choose a different path that incorporates the common core and capitalizes on student interests and funds of knowledge.

"Students experience joy from their connection with one another, how we invite their lives into the curriculum, the new insights sparked from their studies, their engagement in things that matter. Joy is the product of our respect for our students as intellectuals, writers, artists, and activists."

Inviting students lives into the classroom is a huge part of being a culturally responsive teacher. When students feel that their language, culture, and identities are a part of their classroom community, it allows them to show their authentic selves. In the text, Literacy with An Attitude by Patrick Finn, he discusses the types of schools. There are working-class, middle-class, affluent professional, and elite schools. These schools all had different dominant themes. Thinking about the themes, the only one which would encompass respect for students intellectual ability and joyful learning would be affluent and elite schools. poor, working, and middle class schools do not allow for such things.

Bringing Joy back into the classroom and Finn's article connect to the text written by Zaretta Hammond, titled Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. She believes that culturally responsive teaching is the antidote to inequality. She also believes that culturally responsive teaching is about, "helping culturally and linguistically diverse students who have been marginalized in schools build their skill and capacity to do rigorous work. The focus isn’t on motivation but on improving their brainpower and information processing skills....it is the ability to level up their cognition so that they are ready for the rigor. " I think it is important to remember that joy in the classroom is achieved when the educators decide to encompass culturally responsive teaching along side with district mandates so that students can see themselves within their classroom and the curriculum they are learning.

Click on the link below to hear Zaretta Hammond discuss culturally responsive teaching and its implications on students ability to access content and curriculum.