RELATIONSHIP BUILDING: THE FOUNDATION FOR TUTORING &

LEARNING

Beverly CrossUniversity of Memphis

KASSERIAN INGERA: “HOW ARE THE CHILDREN?” You can determine the quality of any

city/community by the way it treats its children

You can determine the future of a city/community by the way it treats it children

You can determine the ethics, morals and culture of a community by the way it treats its children

Education reflects the quality of leadership in a community

Education is a civil rights issue A community either views its children

and youth as an asset or a nuisance—there is no middle ground

Do we have faith in our kids? (Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation & Improvement, US Department of Education, James Shelton III, 2/2011)

EXIGENCY STATEMENTS

A superior democracy cannot exist with inferior schools (Corey Booker on Oprah, 9/24/2010)

Our future will be increasingly determined by our capacity & our will to educate all children well. (LDH), 2007

While the US is going backwards in educating its citizens, most of the rest of the world is moving forward.

We know that education is the foundation for our students’ success and ultimately our community’s success. (Cash, 2010)

Fourteen million diverse children in poverty are currently being miseducated. The seven million in urban poverty (disproportionately represented by children of color), attend school in the 120 largest school districts. By many accounts, these districts are failing school systems in which greater size correlates positively with greater failure. Every miseducated child represents a personal tragedy. Each will have a lifelong struggle to ever have a job that pays enough to live in a safe neighborhood, have adequate health insurance, send their own children to better schools than they went to, or have a decent retirement. In most cases their lives are limited to dead end jobs or wasted away in street violence or prison. Living in the midst of the most prosperous nation on earth, the miseducated will live shorter, less healthy lives characterized by greater stress and limited life options. Miseducation is, in effect, a sentence of death carried out daily over a lifetime. It is the most powerful example I know of cruel and unusual punishment and it is exacted on children innocent of any crime.

Haberman, 2006

USA MYTHS Education is the great

equalizer in our society We live in a meritocracy Underachievement is

individual or personal failure

Traditional middle class pathways to success are open to all McLaren, P.

Or

“Ensuring that young people, particularly low-income African Americans and Latinos, are fully equipped with the tools they need is a continuing civil rights issue NAACP

EXPLANATIONS FOR SCHOOL FAILURE Parents don’t

care Students don’t

value education

Lack of role models

They are poor & this limits their abilities

Single and/or broken households

Students are culturally deviant

Community disinvestment

A message of redundancy

Low/no expectations

Necessity for status quo & capitalism

Overwhelming presence of institutional mediocrity

Ignoring the gaps and breeches

TOO MANY GAPS Between teachers and

students Between the curriculum and

students Between school culture

student culture Between school realities and

student realities Between schools and

communities Between Resources Between opportunities to learn All represented as

performance Gaps rooted in eugenics

PEDAGOGY OF POVERTY Giving information Asking questions Giving directions Monitoring work Reviewing tests Reviewing homework

CULTURALLY RELEVANT TUTORING--RESPECT Keys to respect

Express interest Value diversity Be culturally self-aware Limit barriers Understand the dynamics of

cultural interactions Engage students in planning their

experience Ask students to reflect on their

own lives & how they came to believe, understand and feel as they do

Foster relationship building Appreciate identity development Encourage academic excellence +

identity formation

CULTURALLY RELEVENT TUTORING--RIGOR Require rigor & high

expectationsBelieve the student can achieveBe persistent in tutoringHelp students see major

content & big ideas rather than isolated facts

Get students actively involvedAsk students to question

common sense or assumptionsEngage students in applying

ideas to the problems of livingAllow students to redo, polish,

& perfect their workHelp students build vocabulary

CULTURALLY RELEVANT TUTORING--RELEVANCE Create relevance

Connect content to vital & current concerns & issues

Relate content to human differences

Assist students in applying ideals such as fairness, equity or justice to the world

Connect to real-world & real-life experiences

Use technology

RESOURCES I Won’t Learn from You by

Herbert Kohl

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Gloria Ladson-Billings

Star Teachers of Children in Poverty by Martin Haberman