P. DuPont's Blog Spot

This week’s article, Radically Healing Communities, was a very good read.  The need for relational pedagogy resonated with me the most.  The article shed light on several teacher classrooms to show the impact and importance of relational pedagogy.  For instance, the students trusted Ms. Woods because she had established a relationship with them outside the school.  As a result of their relationship, the students trusted and respected Ms. Woods. Ms. Jennings too connected with the students by allowing them to share details about their life through her class assignments.  I really loved the idea of the students creating a real mask that represented something in their life. This provided a great opportunity for the students to share something personal about themselves, which helps with creating trust and regard of others.  Whereas, the young English teacher failed to incorporate relational pedagogy into his classroom resulting in the students being inattentive and disrespectful.

T he use of translanguaging immediately comes to mind as one of the ways to create a culturally responsive classroom.  Translanguaging became a huge part of my classroom this school year. I definitely view translanguaging as a resource because it allows my emergent bilinguals to make connections with what they already know and new academic content.  It also encourages our students to maintain their native language which is so important. I definitely support and agree with the videos in regards to the benefits and use of translanguaging in the classroom.  With that in mind, I will continue to encourage and practice translanguaging in my classroom in multiple ways such as including and referencing their native language when introducing new vocabulary and anchor charts more regularly.  In conjunction with including my students’ native language on our word wall and by listening to and reading multicultural books. Unite for literacy is a website that provides access to various pictu