Required Blog: Delta Autumn
I also read Delta Autumn a long time ago, but more recently re-read the section centered on teaching social studies in critical needs schools. Everything that it discusses has applied to my teaching job so far. It reiterated everything that we learned and discussed in summer school, but was put together in one easy to read owner’s manual, more simply put. The First Days of School was helpful, but it isn’t population centered like Delta Autumn, which makes a massive difference. The schools that we are teaching in are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the schools that are pictured in The First Days of School. Wong is sitting there with smiling, happy go lucky kids, and the other random teachers are lecturing to groups of eager, smiling children. This is not even close to the same scenario within critical needs schools in the state of Mississippi. Apathy is the main factor that changes everything. Situations at home change everything, but most importantly, emphasis on earlier education changes everything entirely.
What was really applicable in DA was the discussion on the overall reading comprehension ability of students in these critical needs schools. It is terrible. It is unfathomable. It is almost to the point of disgusting. Most of my students, around 75 percent or so, can not read a paragraph, and then turn right around and tell me what the main idea actually is. It was a constant struggle with the teacher corps members that wrote the book a couple of years ago, and sorry to say, but it is a constant struggle still. Reading, comprehension, context clues, and vocabulary must be emphasized early on in every child’s life, no matter what.
What I found interesting in another section of the book, was the topic of “using any means necessary” to teach social studies. Well, this is what I have been doing. We were told time and time again that students need structure, routine, and a consistent plan, on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this has not been happening in my classroom. I’ve been doing exactly what I found mentioned in DA after I re-read it for a second time. It says to teach your lesson by whatever means necessary, and believe me, I’ve been doing just that. The structure of my lesson changes on a daily basis. They have to. Some of my kids learn one way, and some of them learn a completely different way. So, no, I’m not structured, I’m not consistent, and no, I don’t have a regular routine in my classroom. I do whatever works, when it works, and that’s what makes it difficult. But hey, nobody said it was going to be easy.
