Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

Written by Lisa Delpit First Edition released

in 1995 Second Edition

released in 2006

Part 1: Controversies Revisted

Chapter 1: Students may lack the skills to correctly complete an assignment if it has never been explicitly taught to them. These students are most often from non-White, non-middle class backgrounds.

Chapter 2: Middle-class rules and skills are not inherent to the daily life of “minority” students. Direct and indirect manners of speaking and instruction often have different affects on student learning.

Part 1: Controversies Revisited

Chapter 3: Difficulties and excessive and constant, negative error correction can break down a student and raise the “affective filter.” Context helps lower the filter.

Drama Break

Pencils OUT! Bathtub

Things to take with us...

Do cover the basics, and don’t gauge the knowledge of the class on the highest performing students. Delpit says explicitly teach all applicable skills.

Do pay attention to the different backgrounds of the students and modify your instruction and directives as needed.

Relate the material being taught to real life situations and contexts.

Discussion Questions:

Do you have any examples of implicit directives, such as “What’s are you supposed to have on your desk?”

Part 2: Lessons from Home and Abroad

Chapter 1: When teaching, consider your students’ home cultures and languages.

Vilis Tokples Chapter 2: Point out differences between cultures so

as to establish the relevance of learning “standard” languages and practices.

Human interaction occupies different roles for different people (shuffling paper while giving instructions).

Consider personal stories and stay away from generalizing students as a statistic.

Part 2: Lessons from Home and Abroad

Chapter 3: Minority teachers feel as if they are seldom heard by administrators and veteran teachers. Many teachers leave after only a few years in the profession.

Drama Break

Non-Standard GPS

Things we can take with us...

Do research and be involved in the community to learn about your students’ lives and culture. Attend important events and bring culture into your classroom.

Treat your students as people and listen to their input.

Go out of your way to make friends and cultivate relationships with new teachers. Really listen to what they say to you.

Discussion Questions

Do recruiting and retention difficulties apply strictly to minority teachers? Do you feel that the reasons given by Delpit for low minority retention applies to all teachers? (see page 105)

Part 3: Looking to the Future

Chapter 1: Teacher assessment should not be based on a multiple choice test. Assessment should be based on content knowledge, as well as on teaching observations by individuals with knowledge of the teacher’s cultural background.

Teachers should be assessed in a similar manner as a preacher.

Displays of emotion play different role in different classroom environments.

Part 3: Looking to the Future

Chapter 2: For literacy education to succeed in minority classrooms, explicit skills need to be taught.

Teach what is expected of students in the majority culture.

Discourse as an “identity kit” (see page 153). Chapter 3: Teacher culture may conflict with

student culture to the detriment of student learning. Develop a multi-cultural faculty and staff.

Drama Break

America’s Next Top Teacher! Cake

Things we can take with us...

Be conscious of your emotions and the roles they play in your classroom. Be cognizant of how students will interpret your actions.

Teach your students how to survive and succeed in the middle-class world.

Vary teaching styles to reach all students as best as possible.

Discussion Questions

How do you best balance the different needs of your students? Give an example of how you deal with different learning styles in your class?

(class notes and Johnny Depp)

Wrapping it all up...

How did we find Delpit and her ideas?

Amy Stephanie Dave