After reading my last couple of entries, my ever-astute better half has informed me that in my reflections I seem to skew towards talking about the young men in class. I tried a number of ways to rationalize this: it just SEEMS that way, because all the character names from "The Wire" are guys; but it's just because my small work groups are 100% male (slight exaggeration, as it turns out); but there's an 11:5 ratio of boys to girls and one of the girls (Rhonda, the only one I've mentioned so far, and for fairly negative reasons) never bothers to show up (oops, there I go again)! Clearly no amount of rationalization can hide the fact that, after only 5 instructional days I have fallen into the trap of interacting more with, focusing more on, and thinking more about the young men in my class and the challenges they present. And all this after reading BOTH "Failing at Fairness" and "Still Failing at Fairness!"
A bit about the young women of Room 204:
Lester, the soft-spoken model student, seems to have been exposed to a number of concepts in math and reading that other students are learning for the first time. Of course, this only exacerbates the problem of not giving her enough attention, as we struggle to catch the rest of the class up and take for granted that Lester will do okay with minimal support/care. Plus she's reading on a 4th grade reading level (other students are entirely illiterate), a full level ahead of just about everybody, with the exception of ...
Stringer, the slightly less soft-spoken model student. Stringer was the only student to look at her mid-summer-school progress report to find Bs AND be disappointed. Stringer struggles in math but is easy to overlook because she follows directions, copies problems from the board and is well-behaved. She is also the tallest student in class ... or maybe the second tallest to ...
Rhonda, the "5th-grade-lookin girl" with the attendance problem. Rhonda -- when she comes to school -- gets more attention than the other girls, for the sole reason that she acts out more. Between her aforementioned death stares and her inability to keep her hands off her "Scholar Dollar" bag (which can't have many Scholar Dollars* in it), Rhonda gets a fair amount of attention -- but usually the disciplinary kind. When I discovered at one point that Rhonda and her neighbor (Poot) didn't understand a key concept, however, and spent some time working with them as an impromptu small group I found Rhonda to be very responsive and a quick learner.
Avon, a quiet girl who wants to be a school principal when she grows up, has been struggling in just about every subject and with every concept so far and yet probably has received less individual attention than she needs/deserves. I have, however, been very good about confiscating the two notes that I've seen her writing (one of the "F*** you" variety and the other more of a chart than a note, listing in one column the "cool people" (yours truly included) and in the other column the "not cool people" the sole occupant of which happened to also be the recipient of the "F" note). My teacher advisers tell me that these notes bode well for her potential career in administration.
Finally, Kima, who I originally worked with quite a lot in my first couple of math classes. Kima loves math and is a quick learner but gets frustrated very quickly and, unlike the boys in the same situation, shuts down rather than acting out. You can guess how teachers (including myself) respond to this when there are four or five frustrated boys banging on desks, yelling for "Mr. M" and threatening/punching their classmates.
And yet it is not fair to these young women for this behavior -- my behavior -- to continue.
Thus I resolve the following:
-Despite the fact that -- as a general rule -- they tend to be quieter and less attention-demanding than their male counterparts, I will show an equal amount of care and concern and attention to the education of Lester, Stringer, Rhonda, Kima, and Avon as to their male counterparts.
-Given that my colleagues are likely to be falling into the same trap, I commit to give positive attention to these students.
-In addition to giving more positive attention, I commit to holding these students just as accountable to the classroom rules and procedures.
-In spite of their 4th grade reading level (on average 2-3 (and in some cases more) above their classmates), I will work and engage with Lester and Stringer during our small group for reading to make sure that they are being challenged to grow as readers and to speak their minds about the materials they are reading.
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