Professors Discuss Use of Film

3 queries 

Students’ Perceptions of Themselves

“I’m not gonna raise my hand & have everybody look at me like, ‘oh, what an idiot, dumbass’ or something….”

“Usually the male-ego thing will get involved, and I don’t want to raise my hand and act like I don’t know what I’m talking about…The male ego is, I guess it’s the guy taking the classic not wanting to take directions, and I feel like if I have to ask directions then I’m straying off the path. And maybe that’s a sign that I’m being weak…I don’t think that teachers even factor that into their students. They probably don’t analyze it in that way, like, ‘Hey, this is a male student, and maybe he’s not willing to open up and say he can’t do this.”

“Yeah, I did. And you just feel really awkward. Cause a lot of people don’t understand: They think you’re being lazy, and you’re not taking the time to…People don’t understand how hard it is. It is really is. An everybody’s telling you that, “You’re so lazy, cause you’re not trying.”

1. What do you think about these quotes?
2. What can we do as staff and faculty to help students have a clear perception of who they are?

Student-Teacher Relationship

“Cause with most teachers, I don’t have a good student teacher relationship with, so if  I talk to them, they’ll be like, “What are you serious-this is college, you’re asking me how to read? I can’t help you, you should have learned that in eighth grade. Sorry, I can’t really help you out there.”

“It just seems like they’re always in a hurry. And they’re rushing to get to the next class, and they never really have time. When I had my math teacher, I would hunt her down and make her sit and talk to me, and explain to me.

“Well, hey why am I going to even bother if you don’t give a rat’s behind if you help me or not, or if I’m getting the material?

1. What do you think about the students’ quotes?
2. What can we do to build stronger teacher-student relationships?

Student’s Emotional Needs

“They diagnosed me with a disability when I was like in preschool….How does your little tests know what grade level, or whatever I am? (sarcastically) Oh it was great for my self-esteem.”

“I have bouts of depression and bouts of mania. I go up and down. And I don’t want to get up and—what I do, I just get up and go anyway. It affects me. I get overwhelmed sometimes. My mind wanders.

“I think everybody goes through those stressful times…you know, depression times. I know I’ve been through it. I know I’m still going through it. But if you’re just like ‘oh I’m not going to be able to read this, there’s too many hard words,” then it’s like you’re just putting…negative, being negative…you’re just gonna put yourself down and gonna give up and put the book down.”

1. What do you think of the students’ quotes?
2. How can we support students when they are having emotional challenges?

Fear of Failure

“I’m pushing myself, I’m pushing myself constantly and I’m constantly stressed out because I can’t..I, I hate the word fail. And if I fail I, I swear I think it would destroy me. It really would.”

“I mean I cried when I went home. And I couldn’t speak without crying. It was a really bad day… I feel like, I’m almost like, I’m drowning and trying to keep my had above water because I haven’t read what these other people ar talking about. I feel very lost. And sometimes there’s just times, you know, time where I don’t feel like doing anything cause I’m exhausted. And that makes me feel like I’m being lazy. At some point you have to stop and take a breath. I feel like I’m sinking.”

1. What do you think of the students’ quotes?
2. How can we help students overcome their fear of failure?

 (This is an excerpt (written by Prof. Michael Thompson) from an email thread whose focus was discussing 1.) student responses to “Reading Between the Lives”, and 2.) teaching issues found in the video.)

 Hi All,

I've shown the first 25 minutes of Sean's video to my History 20 (Af-Am Hist) and History 7 (Am Hist) classes and used some of Katie's questions to spark group discussions.  I got some pretty interesting conversations going.  It probably was most effective in my afternoon History 20 section which is a bit smaller.  What was most interesting was the degree to which students were honest in their admissions of not getting the reading (or not doing it) and fear of appearing to be stupid.  In one section it turned out that a stumbling block for some students in getting through the reading was their inability to pronounce the African names and words in the textbook.  I began to tell them that the pronunciation wasn't that important, but quickly realized that this was the wrong strategy. We created a list of words and names they had trouble with and I went over the pronunciation of each of them.  Not a huge thing, I know, but I felt we had worked to take down one barrier to their understanding the reading.

Also, I'm finding teaching with a partial schedule (rather than having the whole semester mapped out) pretty liberating.  I've been a bit under the weather and missed a couple of classes. As a result, I'm already behind one week in my schedule.  Surprisingly, I'm not feel particularly pressured to rush and "catch-up," and I've communicated that to my students as well.  Knowing I can shape the future of my teaching schedule anyway I like, means I can can focus more on the topics and issues I want to cover in the present, rather than feeling a constant pressure to get to the next topic.

I had my student's respond to the 1526 letter from the King of Congo to the King of Portugal (asking for an end to their trade in slaves) by having them write a letter back as the King of Portugal.  A couple of students even volunteered to read their letters out loud.  I'm not sure I introduced this teaching strategy in the most effective way, but plan on using it in the future.