- Accommodating diversity: Creating availability (information,resources)

Student 1: I like the way she (teacher) uses different boards for different things. So I don’t get lost…I know that the saying will be on the side board, our posters (group work production) will be at the back.

Student 2: And content and class assignments will be on the front board. Yes…now that you mentioned it…she (the teacher) doesn’t stay in the front…she moves towards who speaks, walks among us and even teaches us from behind …M2 likes to hide himself sitting in the back…but she goes to him.

Student 3: She worries…remember she said there is a study that says those who sit in the front get better grades?

Student 2: Yes…this is why I sit in different rows…I feel like I'm taking away the best place…

Student 3: I like when we sit in a circle

Student 2: Or in the horseshoe shape…then there are no front seats!

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Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)

- Being empowered: learning our learning style

A group of students are memorizing for a test using flash cards

S1: Why is it important to determine your learning style?

S2: To learn faster and efficiently

To understand how I process information

To understand my preferences

S1: What preferences?

S2: Maps, illustrations, flash cards, making a song, walk and read. You said you like to learn by listening, there are people who like to learn by teaching others, talkative people. I am right brained; I am more visual, more kinesthetic and less auditory

S1: How do you process information?

S2: ?

S1: Verbal or not, Linear or Random…like jumping from one place to another, Logical or Non Logical (Intuitive), Holistic or following a sequence of little facts, concrete or non concrete(symbolic)

S2: I am holistic, nonverbal, intuitive and...

S3: random.

S2: All these worlds. How do they help me?

S1: They help you to ask for help. Once you know you are right brained, you will be at ease to ask for help instead of just getting frustrated and lost in the classroom. The teacher might be talking about details when you didn't understand the big picture: You are holistic, intuitive. You would say: "I need to read the text before the lecture. Could you give me the materials to read about what you are going to teach tomorrow?"

S2: Are you dreaming? Is the teacher going to give me this material?

S1: At least, you would know what to ask him and he would be uncomfortable to say No.

S3: Or you could ask him the big picture and how these details connected to it?

S1: You could say you are stressed out, not following what he is saying. You could ask him to draw an illustration, a scheme, to show you what has been taught?

S2: I am lazy, we day dream together (laugh, and holding S3 arm)

S3: Yes, I day dream in class but I am not lazy. I am right brained too; I do extra work to be here. While a left brain student can learn by listening, I need to go back home, read the book, make the cards, put colors all around my things. See, these are my flash cards. I keep them in my purse.

S1: Right brained students like to read the answer first and try to guess question and they should always use a spell processor before giving the assignment to the teacher. Grammar is just too much detail for them...but they usually come up with clever answers in class because they use their GUT

S2: I always have incomplete assignments; I flip one task to another and forget about priorities

S1: The right brain must make a list and get into the habit of checking it everyday!

S2: What a curse to be right brained!

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- Being transformed: Plagiarism, whose tradition has been valid?

After learning a quote has been attributed to Chinese and Aboriginal cultures

Despite offering an empowering environment, we were surprised with the disempowering effects of our lack of knowledge of non scientific Traditions, we were surprised to see ourselves so embedded in the scientific world that we acted against our empowerment commitments, inadvertently denying recognition to aboriginal culture in class.

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- Connecting public resources: the library across street

Student 1: In the library across the street? I never heard they have a device that reads books for you!

Student 2: It is like a photocopy machine! Page by page, word by word…you just listen. It is for everyone but it’s normally for blind people… the librarian said “it's very rarely used”

Student 1: Amazing! I hate to read but I am like a sponge, I learn everything the teacher says…well when I pay attention

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- Connecting student and didactic resources: helping student to choose to enter

S1: Making the flash cards in class, we can ask around for the answers

S2: I am not in the mood. I know how to do it…I will do at home

S1: I bet you won’t

S2: I would if I needed

S1: Whatever…“The teacher opens the door and we choose to enter or not”.

S3: I hated this saying

S1: Why?...

S3: I don’t know…um…it’s not easy to go through all the information they throw at us, I guess. Usually I don’t know what to do. There is so much to catch up on

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- Escaping teacher’s agenda: Hiding

Student 1: He doesn't like to read...he had scored 0 (zero) in Linguistic Intelligence!
Student2: Yes, he told me so. I was surprised because he is always with a book. When I confronted him, he said: "this book is my passport for privacy...teachers don’t bother you if you are busy with a book". I didn't know that “Pretending to be reading” is a popular strategy among the students; it is a way to disappear.

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- Escaping teacher’s agenda: Not getting involved

• Not participating of the discussion

Student 1: How come?

Student 2: They want me to guess what they are thinking and I have my own ideas. I don’t like teacher’s “Guess what I’m thinking” game. They don’t want to listen to my ideas, I don’t say a word.

Student 1: Give me a concrete example…

Student 2: They ask “what should we have done” instead of “what could we have done” so they already have their idea…they are just pretending to be interested in our ideas.

Student 1: Ah, like yesterday on TV, they wanted audience opinion but the question was “don’t you think we have a moral responsibility to…?” Seriously, they should ask “what are the pros and cons...”

• Avoiding looking at the teacher

Student 1:I was surprised that “Stress Management” was the first theme the class chose to study

Student 2: I thought it was a good choice. The relaxing techniques have helped me a lot. Don’t you feel stressed by coming to school?

Student 1: Yesterday I got so mad. I could use the deep breathing technique but I just stopped breathing…I tried to kill myself but unfortunately here I am (laugh). M1 (a classmate) had asked my help so I hadn’t read the text when the discussion began. I tried hard to understand what was going on…I was lost. Nothing was making sense. I was so irritated that I could not face the teacher so I turned to the side and I saw the phrase “Just do it!” on the side black board. That is what I need: a black board to understand me (laugh)

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- Focusing on what’s relevant: Challenging unfair rules

Student 1: In class, the teachers can decide what to do… even break school policies.

Student 2: Yeah. Last block I missed more classes than I could but I had good marks so I passed

Student 3: You’re lucky…there are the Hitler ones. They do what they are paid to do and they are not paid to break school rules.

- Fostering diversity appreciation: Avoiding Yes/No questions

• The Art of Questioning

Sometimes our daily discussion “Saying of the day” was not a conversation but exposure of one’s perspective with the silence of others. Despite the teacher's effort to foster “there are many interpretations” mentality, there were debates that caused distance between us.

The question “Do you agree or disagree with this saying?” promotes the idea of dichotomy, perpetuating the reductive and narrow approach of right/wrong answer, the agree/disagree formula.

The question “What does it bring to your mind and to your feelings?” brings the idea of separation of mind and feeling. It might cause separation between those who are more analytical and objective from those who are more intuitive and subjective. However, this question was helpful to let students know the teacher was interested in their experiences as a whole person, not only about what they learned by reading the text book.

Questions that worked very well were “What are the pros and cons about it” or “Compare with a life event, movie or Tv show” or simply “What does it bring to you? What is your experience?” These questions fostered effective discussions by helping students move out of the narrow agree/disagree or right/wrong traditional discourse. These questions require more than simple affirmation or negation.

- Fostering values: No time to care

Student 1 and Student 3 were talking while the teacher was giving a class assignment

Teacher: Did you finish the assignment?

Student 1: Sorry, he doesn’t know about the assignment of yesterday…I was showing him. I didn’t listen to you.

Teacher: Better concentrate on what is due today. I want everybody working on this today.

Student1: What is to be done?

Teacher: I am not going to repeat it. I need to go forward but it is all written on page 23. Read it to find out, ok? Leave doubts about yesterday for lateri

Student 1: Sorry.

Student 2: She (teacher) will be here correcting assignments after class today

Student3: I know but I am all messed up…I am moving again. I should not be in class today

Student 1: Yes, she(student 3) can not stay.

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- Grasping contexts: start point

a) mark in red, please

Student 1: Wow, it is all marked in red! I would give up if I were you

Student 2: She said she would usually not be so picky. It is a special treat. As an immigrant she is helping me out. This way I study ESL while learning the class subject.

b) no choices, please

"I want to know exactly what is due today, if I am not told I have more urgent interests…I am like married style guy, I don’t want to think (laugh). Just give me clear instructions. I don't want to choose between fancy coffees...just bring me a regular coffee" (a student who runs between part time jobs and school)

"I don’t like to be asked to choose. I like when I know what to do. What? Teachers don’t do their homework and expect me to plan for their class?! I do not have patience" (student whose boss has given him time off to study)

c) no lies, please

"…So according to the ABSOLUTE QUALIFIERS rule…if I say I never lie, I am a liar!? It is bullshit. I refuse to learn this! I don’t want to learn how to cheat on tests..I am a person of principles" (a student who was facing a difficult divorce in court)

d) caps, please

"...caps are not always for gangs. I hate that. People say things they don’t know. Doesn’t matter I don’t mind missing school if I feel like wearing a cap… Do you think my hair is always like this? If I am having a bad hair day I skip class. No cap, no class."(this student’s hair hides a facial scar which she got in a fight with bottle)

e) no group work with people with accents, please

I used to call you Chink...Oh dear! You keep coming...the first time you walk to our group…Oh dear! Nobody believed how irritated I got. You don’t know but chink is very disrespectful, like N word for blacks. I want you to know, I am not like that at all...back in my home town, we were all white and people used to tease the only Chinese family, owners of the China restaurant. I was the one who felt sorry for them and I walked to school with their son...It was your accent...I have difficult to concentrate on voices and your accent made it worse. I guess I wanted to understand you…I am glad the teacher and him helped me, we are friends now, right?

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- Grasping the paradigmatic challenge: Student resistance

• Teacher's thought on resistance
  

Teacher: This reminds me about what I wrote “the learner resistance is not something to fear or ignore but to examine and face, this resistance is a process of student transformation in their own empowerment

• Teacher's encouragement
  

Student 1: Cool, you did the schedules you told me you were not going to do

Student2 : I like this teacher I was afraid to write down that I mostly go to parties and sleep. I am glad I did. She said I should slow down on parties…respecting me though

Student 1: ?

Student 2: She could just come over with “Don’t you have responsibility?” and accuse me deciding to go party the night before the test. She asked me what would be the pros and cons of continuing with my past schedule.

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- Learning the teaching challenge: Inadvertently practicing exclusion

The teacher had credited the saying on a poster the students had made as Chinese. She didn’t know the quote was part of the student’s aboriginal tradition.

Student: I was told to prepare a list of quotes to validate his aboriginal culture, I didn’t take time to ask him which aboriginal group he belonged to; I grouped all aboriginal cultures in one pot as if they were all the same. I was surprised I had made such a mistake; I had gotten an A in Aboriginal Studies!...After a quick look, the aboriginal student politely, refused to accept the list. He said: “You might find a better use of this list, it doesn’t interest me; no saying is credited to my Cree tradition”.

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- Learning the teaching challenge: My boring text

Student 1: Next day I heard M1 (a classmate) saying he was too lazy to research about the college he was planning to attend, I brought some printed material with lots of information from the college website.

Student 2: That is good. I have done lots of research for friends of my son. Teens...they just need a little push.

Student 1: The idea was perfect but the implementation was poor. Two weeks after I had given the material to him, he still had my research inside his bag, but he hadn’t read it, and he was not going to read it. As he explained, he only reads of the first page gets his attention. The first page of the text I had given to him was a boring interview

Student 2: He doesn't like to read...he had scored 0 (zero) in Linguistic Intelligence.

Student1: Yes, he told me so. I was surprised because he always has a book.…I didn't know he was hiding behind it

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- Listening beyond stereotypes: Students are experts

• Students know when they learn better
  

I learn better when it is my own interest, when I have no money problem, when I get paid to learn, when I have a right environment, when I dance, when I have brain food (rest, group and teacher good energy, visual handouts, interesting subject), when I have time enough to learn and time to repeat once and repeat again” (quote from a poster made in class)

Student: ... I prefer to learn by listening. I am too lazy to write, draw or walk a sequence.

• Students know what a good teacher is

“We expect the teacher to provide “us” the knowledge to success in this class, understanding of personal circumstances within reason, respect our opinions and views, provide different pathways for each student, stimulate our minds, hearts and souls daily, provide “us” the skills to become KILLERS in the real world, have reasonable expectations over the period we are together (quote from a poster made in class)

• The students brought the following saying to be discussed in class
  

If you step on it then it’s your problem

If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me

Opportunityisnowhere

Everybody loves hard workers

Failure is a bump on the highway of life (Perigord Cleaners Road Sign as seen on the Kingsway)

An unwritten want is a wish, a dream. A never happen. The day you put your goal in writing is the day it becomes a commitment that will change your life. Are you really ready? (Tom Hopkins)

Do what you want to do now, we can not live in eternity

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hands – and meeting like a snowflake (Mary Bayron Ray)

Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what your going to get
(Forest Gump)

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- Listening beyond stereotypes: Women have special needs

Student 1: I would like not to be tested when on those days, before my period
Student 2: And I would like to have classes at the beach
Student 1: Seriously, why not?
Student 2: The school prepares us to work
Student 1: In the past...women didn't have maternity leaves

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- Silencing voices: power issues

• Unintentionally rudeness

The teacher asked the students who knew what a hypothesis was. The aboriginal student answered “an educated guess”. Without hearing the soft student’s voice, the teacher said: "A proposition assumed as a premise in an argument, we are not 100% sure about it but it is a reasonable explanation for something that occurred!”

Student 1 (commenting to students on his side): I thought hypothesis was an educated guess”.

Student 2: I think you are right. Repeat to her, I think she didn’t listen. Why don’t you repeat it to her?

Student 3: Repeat it, beg for her attention (laugh)

Student 1: I am not a credited voice…

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- Silencing voices: Assertive academic culture

• A whispered conversation
  

Student 1: That is a so cool definition! Say it aloud!
Student 2: No
Student 1: I will say it and get some class participation points
Student 2: No, it could be plagiarism

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