How does classroom and school climate affect teaching and learning?

Field Experience Connection:  Recently, I observed at another sixth grade language arts class at a different urban middle school.  This middle school's demographics were approximately 80% African American, 15% Caucasian, and 5% other ethnicities.  This demographic make-up is the opposite of the demographics within the middle school in which I have been teaching.  Students at this school were separated by gender, so all sixth grade boys were in a class while all sixth grade girls were in another class.  I was surprised that the boys' block seemed to have the majority of the students off task throughout the period.  The boys were laying across the tables, rolling pencils on the desks, and giving each other a hard time verbally.  It would seem that these students were not focused and not learning upon initial observation; however, when the teacher used the "call and response" model during the lesson all of the students were shouting out the answers.  To my surprise, these students who looked like they weren't "getting it" were actually understanding the material.  The students were also able to produce high quality work although it seemed like these students were off task most of the time.  I was amazed at how this type of learning environment could still produce the high quality work that the students were producing.  I have continued to reflect on this experience and toss it around in my head, but I think I finally found a possible reason why this behavior might not be so out of the ordinary when I read the article "Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management."

Research/Text Connection:  The article "Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management"  begins with a vignette from Cartledge & Milburn (1996) about a European American woman in her first year of teaching.  This young woman was a product of an upper-middle-class family and was schooled in a setting lacking a lot of diversity.  Thus, when she started teaching in an urban environment she did not understand some of the cultural nuances between her students.  For example, the African American youth, especially males, have a unique communication style which Irvine (1990) "refers to as 'verbal sparring,' also called 'ribbing,' 'capping,' 'woofing,' and so forth.  Essentially, these interactions are verbal battles characterized by Irvine as Black male rituals that are valued and generally conducted in an atmosphere of sport" (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, Curran, 2004, p. 25)  Could this be the reason why the young African American males in the sixth grade language arts class interacted in such a way?  I believe this could be the very reason why these students were able to interact through verbal sparring throughout the class but still be able to concentrate on the content.  The students did not have animosity toward each other as a result of the verbal sparring, so I believe that this was "conducted in an atmosphere of sport" (Weinstein, et. al, 2004, p. 25).

Personal Connection:  This article resonated with me as I am probably more like the first-year teacher in the vignette.  As an observer in the aforementioned classroom, I personally thought that it seemed crazy and out of control.  However, I read that "European American teachers, for example, are generally accustomed to a 'passive-receptive' discourse pattern; they expect students to listen quietly while the teacher is speaking and then respond individually to teacher-initiated questions.  When some African American students, accustomed to a more active, participatory pattern ("call-response"), demonstrate their engagement by providing comments and reactions, teachers may interpret such behavior as rude and disruptive" (Weinstein, et. al, 2004, p. 26).  The research completely fits my initial reactions to this classroom environment.  The learning environment was not the style in which I was accustomed to learning in and not how I expected my own classes to act.  But, this research article was an eye-opener and made me really stop and think.

Future Teaching/Learning Connection:  In the future, I know that I will need to reflect deeper on the reasons why my students may display different types of behavior.  The reasons may not always be based on some type of conflict, altercation, or situation at home, school, etc.  I will need to remember to continue to consider the cultural nuances as a reason why the behavior might be different and learn to broaden my expectations of a successful learning environment.  As the European American teacher in the sixth grade class mentioned above told me - it was tough to get used to this type of learning environment but when the students are learning and showing what they know by producing great pieces of writing, then it is hard to argue that their "untraditional" style is not acceptable.

Resource.

Weinstein, C., Tomlinson-Clarke, S., Curran, M. (2004). Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management. 
    Journal of Teacher Education. 55:1, 25-38.