Noticing Students Strengths: Developing Relationships

I work in a kindergarten classroom with children of mainly two different racial backgrounds and most of the families of these children are working class or in poverty. Based on my three weeks with them, the children don’t seem to bring their experiences at home into the classroom but they do express their own learning styles when they are allowed to be expressive such as during playtime or in the library. Rosebery comments on children’s everyday experience in sync with their educational experience saying, “Everyday experience is a critical yet misunderstood and undervalued intellectual resource in science learning and teaching.” While choosing books, I notice that most of the children don’t particularly like to take books with people who look like them in it. At first, I found this very strange and it took me back to the “Doll Test” performed on children during the Brown vs. Board trial. Yet, once I started to talk to the children I noticed that the few students who showed this behavior did not necessarily come from stable homes. Of those children, some have moved quite a bit, have many more brothers and sisters at home or do not live with parents. Rosebery states that “[…] Not only can everyday knowledge be a powerful resource for these children but it can deepen learning for these children whatever their families’ linguistic, cultural, educational or economic history.” This factor I notice during “Fun Friday” for my class when they are allowed to visit two of 6 or 7 centers at the end of every Friday and just have fun. There is an area of the classroom where a play kitchen is and this is where I see most of the students home life portrayed. I find it compelling how these children who can’t count to ten or even write their names properly can act out a full day at home with their husband/wife and children and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them actually do help take care of younger siblings. These children are smart beyond our school system allows for them to get credit for and I plan to take use of some of this knowledge in implementing my lesson plan.