Windows and Mirrors

Students’ educational experiences need to be both windows into the experiences of others as well as mirrors of their own experiences, according to Dr. Veronica McDermott of the National Urban Alliance. The curriculum windows provide students an opportunity to stretch whereas the curriculum mirrors help students develop efficacy; it validates who they are as people and learners. Students’ efficacy, their belief in their ability to reach their goals, is the most influential factor in their achievement, in both school and life. And, more often than not, our students who struggle do not see themselves represented in curriculum and pedagogy.

Jen Kohan, MN-ASCD Executive Director, Dr. Veronica McDermott, me

I had the amazing opportunity to spend two days last week with Dr. McDermott at MN-ASCD’s Teacher Leader Institute, tackling the issue of closing the achievement gap for underperforming students. She shared – and modeled – several instructional strategies designed to engage students in high intellectual performances. “What I read; What’s in my head; What my neighbor said” and “Read, draw, talk, write” incorporate best practice in reading instruction into all content areas. But more compelling were the videos she shared to provoke our thinking.

The first was “A Girl like Me.” Kiri Davis, at the time a high school senior, directed a documentary on perceptions of beauty by girls of color. She also re-constructed the “doll test” originally produced by Dr. Kenneth Clark for the Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation case. Nearly 60 years later, children overwhelmingly continue to prefer the white doll over the black doll, and to perceive the white doll as the good doll. Teachers, adults, society in general, need to use mirrors and windows to celebrate success of people of color so that these self-perceptions can change.

The second video Dr. McDermott showed us was the “Original Dance Factory Preschool Tap.” As you watch the video, frame the behavior of the star first in an assets perspective. Then reframe the exact same behaviors from a deficit model. The message here, of course, is that we need to look for the strengths of underperforming students and to build on that. Most behavior in itself is neutral: is the child creative or disruptive? Is the child energetic or distractible?  

Throughout the conference, I kept connecting this work – windows and mirrors as a means of celebrating who students are and who they may become – with last week’s discussion of student voice. Students not only want to be heard; they want to see themselves in the curriculum and pedagogy.