4 Quick Topics through an Equity Lens

So Hey, this episode is going to be a little bit different because I'm going to treat it more like a trailer of like four episodes that are going to come about later on. Um , but I really wanted to try to hit some, some things, some topics really quickly , uh , well relatively quickly , um , in one episode , um , you know, looking at uh , things through an equity lens and then given some, you know, some relatively quick advice , um , after that. Because look, I, I'm not going to lie.

It's like a lot of folks, they just need a little bit, a little bit of an idea and then they could take off with it . Well other folks, they want the full link episode because all the, you know, the thinking and all that stuff that goes into it. And I appreciate both styles of learning here. So let's, let's go about this one, right?

And so , um, the topics that I want to do are in classroom participation, final papers and presentations , uh, group work projects, and then a cumulative finals, right? And so then if we're looking at these things, I want to, you know, first start with an equity lens. Again, remember this is supposed to be quick, right? And so it is what it is. Um , and I'll go into way more detail in the fooling episode on each of these topics.

And so, but within classroom participation, I know who we're privileging, right? When I was thinking about in classroom participation, I knew that I was privileging extroverts, right? People who would speak more in class of whatever versus introverts. And I knew I was doing that, but I never thought to myself that there might be , um, a disproportionate impact on certain groups because of the way I was valuing extroverts , um , in a classroom.

As so when I'm thinking about the privileges, the privilege, the people who are privileging are definitely males. Males are definitely privileged in this space because they're more likely , uh, they're, they're encouraged and more likely to speak up in class. Um, but then you're also , uh , privileging people who just literally just kind of process things the way that you do. Right?

Because I mean, I'm assuming, and maybe this is the wrong assumption, that you're privileging extroverts because you were probably an extrovert yourself. And that's me. That's me. I'm an extrovert and anytime I'm in class, I have no problem of, of talking in class and the teacher asked me a question, I have no problem raising my hand and answering the question right there at that moment. And , um, and so think about that, right?

It's like, think about that processing if you would, and I don't want to make it into, you know, into some bad thing . It's just an alternative learning style, right? It's like some people, they just process slower then , I don't want to say slower, they just process differently , um , in different spaces. So therefore in this space, it might not go as fast as you want it to. All right.

In order for that or won't go as fast as they want it to in order for them to be able to answer a question right on the spot. And so that's a big deal, right? That's, that's I don't like saying learning disabilities. What I like , what I prefer to say is alternative learning styles and whatnot is so , um , the way people process is definitely alternative learning style is . So we need to think about that.

And then also , um, you know, this one is probably clear, but I didn't even think about this in the beginning and that I was, I was privileging people who spoke English as a first language, what I was doing this because a lot of students , um, for whatever reasons don't feel comfortable speaking up in class because they have an accent or because they don't feel like they have full command of the English language and things like that.

Um, and you know, and those are things that when I'm thinking about classroom participation, well this is like a hundred out of a thousand points that I'm talking about here, folks. And so, you know, and so this is something to definitely be considered , uh , in the space in regards to what is it that we can do, right? And so when I figured this out, this is , so this is my quick hits. So these are my quick hits on what we could do, right? And so the first thing is how the students write first.

That's it. Have the students write first piece of cake, right? And then have them talk second. Right? And so whether that's talked to you or talk to a classmate, right? Cause this is like the think, pair, share type of deal that a lot of people do in class. But you know, talking doesn't have to be to a partner talking can be to the teacher and whatnot. But um, the idea right, is to get the students to , to write first and to get them to talk to a classmate about that.

And then you can, you know, then you can have them share out into the bigger classroom , uh , if you would. And so , um , that's, that's a way of doing that. But when you're, when you're asking them to talk to each other, just make sure that you're doing an easy question, relatively speaking. You want to do something that's, that's easy, right? Rather than ask them, you know, how does this video demonstrate the sociological imagination?

What I do is I just ask them like, what do you think about something? Right? And because they may get the sociological imagination question wrong, but they'll never get the question wrong about how they think about something or what they think about something. Right. And will , or at least that's what I do in my classroom. And then lastly, just to have them turn it in, right. For the participation points.

And so then you can a grade that I would grade it lightly, like I would lightly, I lightly touch , uh, you know, this is something that I very lightly grade , um , and whatnot. Um, so, you know, just , just think about that in regards to , uh , participation points, right? How we think about in classroom participation. Um, the next thing, final and presentations. Now here's the deal. Remember we teach at the community college folks. And so students are in our spaces who come from poor schools.

A lot of them are coming from either poor schools or, I hate to say bad schools cause I don't know how to quantify that. A lot of these schools never even taught their students how to do a presentation or a final paper or something like that. And so , um, there's an episode that I talk about , uh, where the school that I went to, it didn't even have a big library.

And so when I did this research paper only wound up using three books and, and so, you know, I got and I got seriously dinged for that one. I got a D minus on that paper, largely because our only used three books on this research paper.

And so when you have a final paper or a presentation, especially a presentation, the final paper, not so much with this one, but the presentation is that it also, when you have poor students, right, when you have poor students, what they were for, the presentation can also be a disconcerting for them. It can also be troublesome, worrisome for the student, right? Because they're , they're thinking like, are my clothes good enough and whatnot.

I'm not saying don't do the presentation or not how the students do presentation. What I'm saying is, think about this, right? Think about those, those parts of it. And so then what can we do? What we could do is we can scaffold , um , the paper and the presentation, right? So this is so scaffolding for people who don't know , um, and what not . It's just a big fancy word. Just saying you got to give it out in pieces. You gotta give your , your, your presentation, your papers out in pieces.

And so the first thing is to go to the library, right? And then have that be something right that you do as a class, right? Don't just send them to the library, have a go as a class with a library, right? Have them write out their topic. Right? Whether that's one sentence, two sentences, however many sentences, but then have that be part of the grading, right? How would that be part of the grading?

You turned this paper, you know, you turned in your topic and that's 10 points out of a hundred or something like that. And you know, I'm just making it up point values, but that might be as much, maybe five, five to 10 points that I would give a in a space. Then the next thing is like 10 citations, right?

If you're going to do this research paper or you know , presentation , um, you've already had them go to the library now just have them look up 10 things that you know, look up, you know, 10, you know, 10 things and you know, cited and for us it'd be APA or ASA style or something like that. And then right now, so as pieces, right? And so then you , you write , you don't, you have them turn it into introduction and the thesis.

Then you have them turn in the literature review, you have them turn in their analysis, right? And then they can turn in the whole paper, right? The last thing will be to turn in the entire paper, right? That's all these pieces connected together and now they're T they're giving it to you right. Now. This to me, honestly, I don't know if this has anything to do with class. I just, I really honestly feel like this is as much about good teaching as, you know, good solid teaching points.

But why, why would we assume, especially at the community college level, why would we assume that a student knows how to do something? That's one, two, why would we assume that even if a student did know how to do something, that they wouldn't appreciate a reminder and a process of how to go about it? Right? So that's something for us to, to really be thinking about. And lastly in that space is to not overvalue flashy features on like PowerPoints or Prezis or whatever it is.

Um, to not overvalue that because a lot of those students who were from the resource rich schools , um, were exposed to those, you know, those types of presentations. And so therefore , um, they're getting a leg up just because they know the software better. Right? And that's, to me, that's not grounds to raise someone's grade, right.

If they're using and they developed and all of this stuff and , and people are , are thinking through the project and really making a solid connections all the way through that something to reward, I would argue versus this saying like, you know, somebody did, you know, the spinning pitcher or something like that versus just have a PowerPoint that just flip from one page to the , to the next.

It's like, do you really want to overvalue something that students that came, that may have came from a resource rich school may just have an advantage on, right. Um , and whatnot. And so then the next thing is thinking of group work projects and that, look, this is real, this is real, right? Is that we have a poor students, right?

We have a lot of poor students at community college level , uh , way more than what , uh , proportionately to what our , after you sees in the CEO's shoes over here and just want you to understand, right. It's like, look, it's not even our understanding is it's just this common sense type of stuff is not like when I say that poor students are more likely to work like that . Surprising but understand, right? It's like if you have a group work project, right?

These students who are poor now have to work with other students and if those students, right, don't have jobs, then the student with the job becomes harder to reach. They become hard to work with. They become the person that's like, yo, I can't make it to your Sunday meeting at 2:00 PM at two to 4:00 PM at freaking the coffee shop. Right? Because I've got to work, but I need to be part of this project and everything.

But how can I write as a working student, it's like, well , there's things that we're doing that are making things harder on just students that work. And my question comes back to is that what you want to do, right? Not do you want to oppress students who work? Because I , um , I'm fairly confident that no one wants to do that. And yet at the same time it's like, look, if you really want to do this group work project, what are some ways to make sure that this kind of happens?

But then also when it comes to the group work project, like stereotypes about people of color and females, especially females in STEM, it's like, let's just be real about that as that those are where things can become very , uh, you know, dicey.

Also because you have this group work project and now you have this person to color and you have all this cultural, historical, stereotypical stuff that that happens is society is so, it's very, you know, whether constantly or subconsciously we apply that, we apply those things onto, you know, other students and whatnot. And so when students are interacting with other students, you can't help but to read their race and their sex right onto them. Right.

And so then , um , so that , that's something to think about. And in regards to group projects, now here's the deal. When we're doing group projects, right? As instructors, I want you to just think about like, what's the purpose of your group project? If the purpose of your group project is to get students to work together, well , you can't just get students to work together in one shot. It's kind of like dating in one shot or something like that. That's a bad analogy.

But just kind of work with me here folks, is that if you want students to do a group work project, then that group needs to be established in the beginning of the semester. Not at the end, not towards the end when all the stakes are high and everybody's freaking out and stuff like that. You gotta establish group projects in the beginning, right? And then roll forward, scaffold them, right, scaffold them as we're going along there. But you have to establish group work projects in the beginning.

Um , cause that's, that's the biggest families that I see. And so you know, when, when you're, you know, just get this group kind of thrown in with each other. Um, it's easy to fall back on the how we've been socialized into stereotypes of groups and everything like that.

But when you've been working with folks for the whole semester, you can build a relationship with them and that should always be, that should always be the focus of a group work project is to help students build relationships with each other. And lastly, let's talk about cumulative finals. Now here's the deal. Again, poor students are more likely to work, therefore have less time to prepare for a cumulative exam. Now here's the deal. I need you to understand this.

I really want you to think about this. It's like cumin, a final and a question. There should be a big question Mark behind that. Why? Why do you want to have a cumulative final? Because we know, we all know that we're doing the cumulative final because we feel like it , we feel for whatever reason is that we need to make our final hard right? We need to make a final heart .

And so it's going to take, you know, at least twice, if not three or four times the amount of time to study for a cumulative final than it would for just a regular exam. Now we know this, right? We know it takes longer for them to study for a cumulative final, and then we also know that they're going to have other finals during the same week long period. Right? And so then why are we doing this? Exactly? These are things that I think about all the time.

Why exactly are we doing a cube of the final? This is something for us to think about, right? And it's not even met. So I mean poor students are more likely to work and so therefore have less time to do this. But this is not even a mentioned students with learning disabilities in regardless of retention. And then also test anxiety, right? I mean just flat out test anxiety or whatnot. And so like I said, I really want us to think about like, do we really need a cumulative final for the final?

Does it need to be cumulative? And so a light wrestle. What do we, what we can do, right? I mean, why not just have a regular test? I mean there's a lot of other considerations to have in the space, but why not just have a regular test on the last little bits of what it is that you did for the semester versus amping it up and making it go all the way back to the beginning and whatnot.

Because to me, look, I'm going to tell you all this and this is, you know, I'm , I'm definitely foreshadowing here just saying like, I really honestly believe that cumulative finals are an abomination to learning. I straight up during an abomination, an abomination to learning, and this is what I mean by that is that if you really want students to learn and to retain this information 20 years from now, cumulative finals are the worst way to do it.

Maybe not the worst way, but definitely one of the worst ways of doing it. Cumulative finals if you, like I said, if you want students to actually remember stuff 20 years from now, cumulative finals is definitely not the best way to go. Honestly. Look, that's not my opinion. That's research, you know, take that for whatever it is that you will. And so, Hey, so that was me doing these quick hits. Um, I'm going to be doing episodes on each one of these topics and going in way deeper.

Hopefully I can , uh , get some guest speakers in on each of these things that could give us even more ideas about what we can do for each one of these topics. But you know, for this episode, that's all I got. Hope you learned something. Peace. Thank you for listening to this episode of reteach. If you want to learn more about me or my open source introduction to sociology textbook, please go to Bruce hoskins.com. In closing, I want to leave us all with a question.

If you learned something today that you think would help close your student equity gaps, how long will it take to incorporate this into your classroom? A year , a semester? Next month. Today, no matter the time table , we must commit ourselves to becoming better teachers. Our students deserve it. All of them, not