It Takes Many Voices To Teach A Child

MATC Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum
Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Elizabeth L. Gutowski
PID A39 32 7448
April 3, 2016

Ms. Gutowski, I solved the problem! Carson said. It was music to a teachers ears. But
as I approached Carsons desk, I became disheartened. Carson had moved onto the next problem
and as I was watching, he was not solving the math problem as I had instructed during my
previous mini lesson. I was teaching my first grade students how to count up to find a missing
addend in an equation. I had instructed students to start at the number they knew and count up to
the sum. To find the solution to 6+_=9, students would start at six and count up to nine.
However, I watched Carson count backward. He put nine fingers up and slowly put one finger at
a time down until he got to six. He wrote a three in the missing addends spot. As a beginning
teacher, I was distraught that this student had not listened and done what I had taught him.
Looking back on this moment from early in my teaching career, I bristle at my reaction to
this student and his innovative solution strategy. Rather than being open to different
perspectives, I was only looking for whether Carson internalized my single voice. I was teaching
from one perspective and expecting students to share that one single perspective. In that moment
of my teaching I was missing the importance of how diverse perspectives can be invaluable to a
childs education. However, teaching is an ongoing learning process and I have certainly learned
a lot over the past several years of teaching coupled with my graduate work in the Masters of
Arts in Teaching and Curriculum (MATC) program. An African proverb made infamous by
Hillary Rodham Clintons book It Takes A Village proclaims that it takes a village to raise a child.
My work in the MATC program in conjunction with my teaching experience has led me to
believe that it takes many voices to teach a child. My work over the past several years has
shown me that there are many places where incorporating many voices, and multiple
perspectives, is invaluable in teaching children.
Representative Voices in Literature

One place where multiple voices, and multiple perspectives, are crucial to teaching
children is in childrens literature. In Artifact 1, my Literature Position Statement, I address what
literature can do, and what I want literature to be and say in my classroom. In this project, I
applied different conceptual frameworks, perspectives, and professional literature in analyzing
the possible uses of literature in the classroom. One important conclusion I came to is that an
important part of childrens literature in the classroom is incorporating multiple perspectives and
varying voices so that children may see themselves and others represented in books.
Multicultural childrens literature is literature that represents diversity in society (Bishop, 1997,
p.2). This diversity includes race and ethnicity in addition to other kinds of groups such as those
based around gender, religion, region, sexual orientation, disability, etc. Books serve as mirrors
for children to see characters who look like themselves and have feelings and experiences similar
to their own. Books also serve as windows through which children learn about their world by
looking beyond their immediate surroundings and seeing characters and events that occur in
other communities or other parts of the world (Blaska, 2004, n.p.). It is crucial that books serve
as mirrors. All children need to see accurate portrayals of themselves in literature. In fact,
students who only see stereotyped reflections of themselves, or no reflections of themselves at
all, learn that they are not valued in society (Bishop, 1997, p. 4).
However, alternatively, students who only see reflections of themselves in literature come
to believe that they are normal and see differences as other or even worse, wrong (Bishop,
1997, p. 3). Literature is one way in which students can see and learn about themselves, but it
also helps students learn about and experience the other. Thus, it is important to include
multicultural childrens literature in classroom libraries and in curricular materials in order for
students to learn that society is diverse and to see diversity as positive and something to be

respected. These conclusions I came to in producing Artifact 1 also demonstrate my

commitment to students and their diversity.
Literature that represents diverse voices introduces readers to people, places, times, and
situations that they may have never encountered otherwise. In this way, literature representing a
full range of diversity teaches children significant lessons. Thus, it is imperative that the
literature to which children are exposed through read-alouds as well as in classroom libraries
allow children to see diverse people and hear diverse perspectives. In Artifact 2, my Teaching
Log, I track literature lessons I delivered to my first grade class over the course of a semester in
order to expose them to multiple genres, perspectives, and voices. This Teaching Log was an
important part of my progress in thinking about how to teach subject matter. I crafted the lessons
for my Teaching Log based on my own developing understandings of childrens literature and
fostered student thinking and discussion around complex facets of childrens literature. I also
developed reflective inquiry and valued the refinement of my instruction that came with my
reflection and synthesis recorded in my Teaching Log after teaching each lesson. Literature is a
powerful tool, used daily in classrooms across the globe. Its power to introduce students to
diverse voices and perspectives needs to be recognized and exploited so that students may grow
into worldly citizens with knowledge of diverse experiences. It takes many voices to teach a
child.
Multiple Perspectives in Content
Another area in which it is critical to present multiple perspectives is within content
areas. This can be difficult because of the predominance of white, western, and male viewpoints.
However, children need the exposure to varying perspectives in content for many of the same
reasons they need to see themselves and others in literature. Teaching multiple perspectives

about social studies or science content, for example, prepares students for the world, to
understand the world, and to make the world a place for everyone.
In Artifact 3, my Action Research Inquiry Project, I questioned whether using revisionist
history to teach students about Christopher Columbus from the perspective of a Native American
rather than a colonizer would change their perspectives about the famous historical figure. While
the perspective of the colonizers is typically taught, especially in lower elementary classrooms, I
found that presenting additional viewpoints has significant implications for the way that students
think about Columbus and colonization. Because students learn about Columbus in kindergarten
as well as first grade, many students had prior knowledge about Columbus. Before teaching my
students about Columbus, I surveyed students about whether or not Christopher Columbus is a
hero. The vast majority claimed that Columbus was a hero. When asked about heroism, students
suggested that heroes are people who save others, help others, or are exceptionally kind to others.
During my unit, I incorporated multiple perspectives, not only that of the colonizers, but also
perspectives of Native people, who were treated cruelly by Columbus and his crew. After the
unit, the vast majority of students argued that Columbus is not a hero.
Clearly, the inclusion of multiple perspectives changed students understandings of the
world. When students were just aware of the dominant, white, colonizer perspective, their
worldview was opposite than their worldview once they were introduced to the same events from
varying perspectives. As a teacher, this made me recognize and celebrate the importance of
including multiple perspectives in educational content. I now know that students are capable of
learning and interpreting revised, more fully developed history. Now I proactively search out
multiple perspectives to teach in content areas, and seek to add knowledge and perspectives to
my own understandings and teaching repertoire. I believe that students develop a more holistic
and complete worldview when they can integrate multiple perspectives.

Students need to be taught multiple perspectives, not only in history, but in other content
areas as well, so that they may encounter the world in a more truthful, accurate, multicultural,
and socially just way. Sonia Nieto writes, regardless of our individual personalities, we are all
situated within a racially unequal structure that we often unwittingly perpetuate (Nieto, 2008,
p.28). Further, there are many power structures in addition to race that affect what gets taught in
classrooms. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers constantly reflect on and examine their own
beliefs and assumptions in order to effectively incorporate and teach multicultural curriculum.
This addition of varying perspectives is critical to teach children because of the broadened
perspective that children will internalize. It is not only dishonest, but also a disservice, to teach
children from only one perspective. When a child is taught from only one perspective, it robs
them of the opportunity to see the whole picture, to take into account the diverse voices involved
in any story and perpetuates the dominant perspective. Young students, in fact often society,
expect instructors to teach the truth. However, I believe the truth lies in many perspectives,
and I now know even first grade students can internalize various perspectives, not just the
dominant view. When students learn and integrate multiple perspectives, they develop a
broadened, holistic worldview. It takes many voices to teach a child.
Drawing on Colleagues Voices to Improve Instruction
In addition to content areas and literature, multiple perspectives are also important for
teachers to seek out and receive from each other. I have come to learn how valuable it is to work
and learn in a professional learning community. Colleagues are an important source of
information and one that is all too often underutilized. It took me time and effort to learn to seek
out opportunities to effectively work with my colleagues with the end goal of improving
instruction for students. However, the power unleashed by this strategy is invaluable. At the

beginning of my teaching career, my classroom door was literally and figuratively closed. I did
not actively invite peer feedback or seek out opportunities to collaborate with my colleagues.
The scarce resource of time prevented me from prioritizing what seemed like a stressful activity.
However, these feelings about potential feedback are shared by many teachers. Because
feedback is often tied to evaluation, it is not uncommon to experience increased anxiety,
vulnerability, and fear, creating an emotional, not a cognitive, reaction (Roussin & Zimmerman,
2014, p. 39).
In fact, however, [e]ffective feedback both maintains and amplifies high performance
(Lipton & Wellman, 2012, p. 15). I soon found the value of collaborating with my peers, giving
and receiving feedback, and working together to improve instruction and determined it was more
than worth the time expended. This change in my thinking took place when I participated in a
peer coaching cycle with an MATC colleague. This is demonstrated in Artifact 4, my Peer
Coaching Cycle Reflection and Revised Stance on Quality Teaching. During peer coaching, my
partner and I exchanged artifacts from our teaching and followed a structured peer coaching
protocol in order to provide feedback and improve instruction. This artifact shows my concerns
of criticism going into my peer coaching cycle and also the tremendous support I felt after
participating in peer coaching.
By working through the structured protocol with my colleague about a video of my
teaching, I was able to clarify my thinking, talk about what I was doing well, and also improve
both my professional communication as well as my classroom instruction. In the lesson my
colleague and I observed and debriefed, I used powerful oral feedback to help guide students but
I realized that I needed to work to provide feedback to students who are not necessarily
contributing to whole class discussion by either meeting with them in small groups or providing

written feedback. This peer coaching session helped me to realize one strength of my teaching,
providing the immediate oral feedback, and I continued to use the strategy in future lessons. The
peer coaching also changed the way I provided feedback in subsequent lessons by making sure
every student received feedback, even if they did not receive immediate oral feedback as part of
a whole group discussion.
The discussions I had with my colleague during the peer coaching were important in
helping me to reflect on and improve my practice. Furthermore, I also had the opportunity to
provide feedback and ask questions of my colleague about her artifact and instruction during this
peer coaching. I was able to contribute my own knowledge and expertise to my colleagues
thinking and thus, together we improved instruction for two classrooms of students. By
combining our voices, and utilizing our various perspectives, we were able to move forward as
stronger teachers.
Incorporating other teachers voices and perspectives into my own teaching and learning
has become very important to me. Artifact 5 shows my Leadership Project in which I led my
grade level team in collectively improving our reading instruction. My school was in the process
of providing teachers with additional resources for reading instruction. However, frequently
these books or instructional resources got lost in the day-to-day shuffle and were not utilized.
For my leadership project, I organized a lesson planning workshop session with my team
members. Together, we crafted lesson plans based on strategies from our new resources. Then,
team members taught a lesson we had crafted together while another team member observed and
collected data. We used a Teacher-Driven Observation Protocol at our debriefing meetings
(Grimm, Kaufman, & Doty, 2014). Leading my team in co-planning lessons as well as
observing and debriefing each others instruction were new experiences, but ones that paid off

for both professional and student learning. This process helped improve instruction not only for
my own students, but in students across the grade level. This project was successful in part
because of the combination of voices that not only went into planning the lessons, but also that
debriefed, improved, and critiqued the lessons after teaching. It takes many voices to teach a
child.
Valuing Childrens Voices
In the same way that multiple voices are important as teachers collaborate and improve
each others instruction, it is also critical to recognize and value the many perspectives brought
to school by students. Classrooms are increasingly diverse (Fry, 2009), filled with students from
different backgrounds and with different funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005).
In Artifact 6, Supporting the Needs of Diverse Learners, I address this increasing diversity and
suggest characteristics of teachers able to meet the needs of diverse students. An important part
of meeting the needs of diverse students and also encouraging students to learn, grow, and take
ownership of their learning, is drawing on each students perspective. In fact, honoring and
building on childrens connections to their cultural and linguistic roots and their communitybased identities provides the best base for academic learning (Sleeter, 2005, p. 16). Because
students come to school with varying experiences, resources, and ideas, students are able to teach
one another, build on each others ideas, and come up with their own innovative ideas and
solutions.

Student discussion can help students not only to construct meaning but also to

identify the manner in which that meaning was constructed (Berne & Clark, 2008, p. 74).
One way to help students collaborate, contribute their voices and ideas, and learn from
one another is through discussion based learning. In discussion based learning, students learn
talk moves to politely agree and disagree with other students as well as to respectfully extend

and challenge each others thinking. Classroom dialogue supports student learning directly by
providing direct access to academic ideas and also indirectly by building a learning community
(Chapin, OConnor, & Anderson, 2009, p. 6). This strategy helps teachers and students to bring
out and appreciate varying student voices.
Artifact 7, my Discussion Based Learning Analysis, shows an example of how I
integrated student discussion into a math lesson in order to have students working together to
reach conclusions about mathematics. Throughout this lesson, students had the opportunity to
contribute ideas, listen to other students, and work collaboratively through discussion. By
incorporating discussion into my lesson, both the students and I became exposed to, and came to
appreciate the power of listening to and integrating, many voices. As I teacher I learned helpful
talk moves, such as re-voicing, pressing for reasoning, and asking follow up questions, for
bringing out student discussion. Through transcribing the class discussion and analyzing the
transcription, I came to understand how those talk moves pushed students to explain their
thinking and understand, not only their own, but others thinking as well. This process was
useful to me because it helped me reflect on my teaching practice, as well as think about
designing instruction that fosters student understanding, thinking, and communication. When
students discuss their thinking and ideas in mathematics or any other subject, they expose each
other to varied perspectives and multiple voices which lead to fuller, richer learning experiences.
This extends their learning far past what students would learn on their own, or with a single other
voice. Rather, students who get the benefit of interacting with multiple voices have a more
holistic, versatile approach to content and learning. It takes many voices to teach a child.
Conclusion

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When I think back on my reaction to Carsons alternative strategy to finding a solution to

a missing addend math problem, I know I would respond differently today. My work on
improving my own teaching practice as well as my work in the MATC program has shown me
the monumental importance of continually inviting, seeking out, and appreciating multiple
voices. Carson would be empowered to explain and share his innovative thinking. His voice
should be coached and practiced and mingled with other students and teachers so that we all may
learn from him.
While it may take a village to raise a child, it certainly takes many voices to teach a child.
Including books that represent a diverse array of voices and teaching content from multiple
perspectives reaffirms some students backgrounds and experiences while at the same time
introduces other students to new or varying experiences or ways of thinking. Developing a
professional learning community and seeking out and reflecting on other teachers feedback,
suggestions, and ideas helps teachers to draw on their resources immediately available to them in
their own school and improve instruction for students in their own classrooms. Reciprocally,
teachers can also provide feedback and ideas to other teachers and thus improve instruction in
other classrooms as well. Finally, it is of crucial importance to appreciate students unique
approaches, to coach students to share their own voices, and also to acknowledge and appreciate
others voices. This allows students to work together, empowers their voices, and draws on the
expertise and innovation that students bring to the classroom. It has never been truer that it takes
many voices to teach a child.

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References
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strategies. The Reading Teacher, 62(1), p. 74-79.
Bishop, R.S. (1997). Selecting literature for a multicultural curriculum. In V.J. Harris (Ed.)
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Littlefield Publishers.
Blaska, J. K. (2004). Childrens literature that includes characters with disabilities or illnesses.
Disability Studies Quarterly, 24(1). N.p. < http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/866/1041>.
Chapin, S., OConnor, C., & Anderson, N. (2009). Classroom discussions: Using math talk to
help students learn, grades K-6. Math Solutions: Sausalito, CA.
Clinton, H. R. (1996). It takes a village to raise a child. New York: Simon & Schuster.
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