Ms. Smith, a 2nd grade teacher, had been very successful with most of the students she taught in her suburban school district. When the district implemented a busing plan to desegregate its inner-city schools, however, Ms. Smith began to experience failure with many of the new students assigned to her class. Many other teachers in the district experienced similar failures.
To address this problem, the district brought in consultants formerly with Research for Better Schools—one of the U.S. Department of Education Regional Educational Laboratories—to introduce teachers to activities designed to focus instruction on the experiences, abilities, and knowledge of learners. During a professional development session, Ms. Smith expressed reservations about being asked to introduce an instructional approach that required her to learn more about her students. "I already know how to teach children. What's so different about the strategies being recommended for students who are poor and culturally different?"
Every day teachers make decisions about curriculum content and instructional strategies that affect the academic success of their students. Their decisions directly influence the extent to which learners relate to what is being taught and engage in the formal curriculum. Research and theory suggest that teachers who have a thorough knowledge of their students are better able to engage those students in formal learning because they can use this knowledge in every facet of educational decision making (Knapp et al. 1993; Overton and Palermo 1994; Vygotsky 1978).
Generally speaking, constructivists, including Vygotsky, Piaget, and Dewey, define learning as the creation of meaning that occurs when an individual links new knowledge with the context of existing knowledge. An emerging group of theorists and researchers suggests that changing the focus of teaching and instruction from curriculum content to making connections with learners' knowledge is a major challenge and a paradigm shift in teacher preparation (Darling-Hammond 1996).
To help address this challenge, the Urban Education Project staff at Research for Better Schools developed the Urban Learner Framework. The framework categorizes research and theory to present a New Vision of the Urban Learner. This vision sees urban learners as capable, motivated, resilient learners able to build on their cultural strengths, and it rejects current perceptions of urban children as at risk, lacking abilities, unmotivated, and culturally deprived. It helps educators make better connections with the strengths and experiences of their students. The underlying goal is the development of autonomous individuals able to participate in making decisions about their future and society. (For a more complete discussion of the Urban Learner Framework, see Williams and Newcombe 1994.)
The framework concepts have been introduced in several urban districts through readings, videos, observations, discussions, and structured experiences that enable educators to share their dilemmas, to practice strategies, and to learn together in a supportive atmosphere. It is currently being introduced to suburban districts in Stamford, Connecticut, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, whose student populations are growing increasingly diverse.
Gaining Learner Experience
Learner experience, an outgrowth of the Urban Learner Framework, includes all of the dynamic influences from the home, the school, and the community at large that help to shape students' learning—their thinking, language, knowledge, belief systems, values, and behaviors.
To simplify matters from an educational perspective, we can understand learner experience as originating from two sources: in school and outside of school. The learner develops in-school learner experience through interactions with both the formal curriculum and the educational norms, rules, and other aspects of school culture. He or she develops outside-of-school learner experience through daily life apart from school activities.
Most teachers gather and use information about in-school learner experience (school records, achievement test data, teachers' comments), but there is considerable variation in how much teachers know about students and how often they use outside-of-school experience. In some cases, teachers are unfamiliar with important aspects of out-of-school learner experience. For urban learners, these may include leadership roles and responsibilities or survival-related problem-solving abilities. For example, during an Urban Learner Framework interview (a process described below), a teacher in Baltimore learned that her "disengaged" student had organized his own recycling business, recruiting several of his neighborhood buddies to collect materials such as bottles, cans, and plastic. He shared with the teacher his dilemma: could he increase his profits more by enlisting additional neighborhood friends or by limiting his business to the materials bringing the highest income? The teacher found that this knowledge about her student changed her perception of him tremendously and stimulated ideas for incorporating his experiences as well as his leadership and organizational skills into formal classroom instruction.
Finding out about out-of-school learner experience can also help teachers better understand the difficulties some of their students face in classroom situations. Bowman (1992) points out thatchildren from inner-city communities, for example, often do not come to schools or centers having had the experiential background that ties easily to the reading materials considered most appropriate for young children. Books focus on baby animals, zoo animals, pets, milkmen, kind policemen, grass, and flowers—ideas and concepts not frequently encountered in the children's daily lives. When children do not have the relevant background, they do not learn "naturally," the seamless and organic way that teachers have been led to expect (p. 133).New evidence (Knapp et al. 1993, MacLeod 1991, Moll et al. 1992, Sylvester 1994, Villegas 199l) suggests that teachers who continually learn about and consistently use out-of-school learner experience are able to create caring classroom environments where urban students are more motivated, and able to learn, and have positive feelings about themselves.
Identifying Connections
- What knowledge does the student have based on his or her out-of-school experiences?
- What does the student do well in his or her out-of-school experiences?
- What are the out-of-school issues, events, objects, people, and problems that most engage and excite the student?
- Who are the significant caregivers in the student's life?
Primary teachers from four schools in Stamford participated in student interviews following their introduction to the Urban Learner Framework. During this initial phase, teachers selected students who were characterized as "behavioral problems," with descriptors such as "disruptive," "disengaged," "easily distracted," and "having difficulty staying focused."
Like the teacher in Baltimore, the Stamford teachers found that many of these students had interests, talents, and skills they were not aware of. Thus they missed opportunities to connect student strengths to daily school experiences. Teachers learned, for example, that individual students were interested in skiing, flying, perfume, fishing, hunting, cartoons, and the trampoline. One student really enjoyed reading to a younger brother. Another student's face lit up as he spoke excitedly about his pets.
During an evaluation discussion, one teacher was eager to share her experience with the student interviews. She enthusiastically presented the work of two students who previously had not completed an assignment all year. To what did she attribute this success? The teacher described how she took information that she had gained from the interview and designed a lesson building on the students' interest in pets.
The Stamford experience helped many of the teachers understand the significance of expanding their efforts to integrate learner experiences with the formal curriculum. They developed plans for the 1996 -97 school year that included establishing September as Get to Know Your Students Month; developing specific questions for primary students; setting aside time each day for students to talk about their experiences and what is important to them; and scheduling Friday activities reflecting students' interests.
Developing Meaningful Instruction
One of the ways in which out-of-school learner experience can be incorporated into lesson plans and instructional activities is through the Lesson Infusion Process. This process, developed with teachers in Washington, D.C., reflects the findings of a number of researchers suggesting that students come to school with strengths that must be identified, valued, understood, and used in order for the students to be successful socially, culturally, and cognitively (Gay 1994; Haberman 1994; Ladson-Billings 1994; Williams and Newcombe 1994).
- Review subject matter to determine what you plan to teach. Then ask yourself, "What about the lesson objective really matters to the children?" What teachers understand about how children learn determines the extent to which their students will connect to learning. This is a critical first step because as teachers consider their instructional objectives, they are establishing the foundation for the remaining decisions that will influence the quality of the learning experience (Bowman 1994).
- Make a connection between the students' experiences and the curriculum content.Student experiences include such things as household knowledge associated with earning a living; values, beliefs, interests, and motivations representing things that are important to urban learners; and routine behaviors. These daily experiences are rich with examples that can be used to create themes, analogies, and other learning strategies that serve as powerful emotional, cognitive, and cultural connections between learner and content (Moll et al. 1992; Stevens 1993).
- Begin the lesson with an activity that connects to the strengths students bring. Then, build on it with activities that draw on their experiences and further their learning. Activities that center the learning event in the student's own experiences help the student become part of the curriculum (Asante 1991; Haberman 1994).
- Reflect on the instructional experience to note new insights and considerations for change. Reflection provides opportunities to think deeply about what one is doing, to ask better questions, to break out of fruitless routines, to make connections, and to experiment with fresh ideas. Reflection helps teachers to consider how well their beliefs and practices are aligned with the concepts of the Urban Learner Framework, and it enables them to use that information as the basis for instructional decision making and change (Brandt 1991; Williams and Newcombe 1994).
Using a lesson developed by a teacher from Washington, D.C., we introduced the Lesson Infusion Process in the fall of 1996 to principals and classroom teachers in Ann Arbor. During the Washington, D.C., experience, teachers shared lessons they had taught. One original 6th grade science lesson on volcanoes included an introductory activity that called for students to share prior knowledge, that is, anything they already knew about volcanoes. During the discussion, the teacher noted terms that would connect to future activities and asked students to look up their meanings. Other activities included small-group research on a particular volcano and the creation of a map showing volcanic activity around the world.
In suggesting strategies to infuse the lesson, we pointed out the need to consider the connections that can be made between volcanoes and the lives of 6th graders. We suggested the importance of exploring the answers to questions such as, What is it about volcanoes that really matters to the students? What experiences are similar? Can I develop a theme or concept related to volcanoes that will interest them and motivate them to explore these ideas with me?
Answers led to the theme "eruptions" as a way to make connections with the 6th graders. Students were asked to describe—from their own experiences—how they have been exposed to eruptions. A brainstorming technique called a mind map captured student responses, which ranged from eruptions of acne to eruptions of laughter or anger. In each example students described various aspects of an eruption that became the basis for making connections to the curriculum content. Although they used different terms, their knowledge of the nature of eruptions was clearly evident.
The infused lesson approach asks teachers to slow down and take time to think through their lesson and determine what aspect of it matters to their students. The teacher's challenge is to demystify the process of learning and help students understand how their knowledge and daily experiences relate to the curriculum content. In this case, instead of being preoccupied with identifying prior knowledge about volcanoes, the teacher put the students ahead of her content and drew from them experiences that were in many ways analogous to volcanic eruptions.
The teachers in Washington, D.C., reported that lesson infusion allowed them to strengthen the lessons they teach. The Ann Arbor educators concurred and saw this as a strategy that did not require district-level change and that they could use immediately in their individual classrooms.
The Impact on Urban Educators
In several districts where the Urban Learner Framework has been introduced, educators are exploring the concepts and the changes required in their beliefs and practice. Their experiences suggest the value of knowing learners and building on learner strengths to improve instruction and educational outcomes. As an Ann Arbor administrator said of lesson infusion, "This is so simple, it makes so much sense, and yet it is so powerful. Why haven't we tried this before?" A teacher's comment provided perhaps the best endorsement: "I'll never go back to teaching the way I taught before."
