As we read chapter 8, connecting to the content, and had our guest speaker, Risa, everything really came full circle for me. Risa bravely shared her stories of growing up and making it through education, along with the challenges along the way. This chapter paired perfectly wither her message, as both emphasised how educators can enable student success by creating connections to the content. Risa shared a few powerful examples of how she connects her students to the learning content, with great success.
Our textbook discussed the importance of using students interests and identities to shape learning. Risa highlighted the importance of this in a couple ways. First, she spoke about her experience, and the lack of a connection that she had. She shared that growing up she felt a underlying feeling of racism toward herself, impeding her younger self. She did not see herself represented in the material she was taught, nor did she feel supported in her learning, she felt unseen. This unsupportive environment led her to feeling like she could not succeed in school. On the flip side, as a teacher herself, Risa shared ways in which she has created environments that allow her students to feel represented, the environment she once needed. In one strong example, she incorporated stories of the buffalo and invited students to present material that reflects their own lives and cultures. As Goulet and Goulet describe, this is the essence of connecting students to the curriculum, where learners can see themselves in what they are studying.
In my own practice, this week has challenged me professionally, and has made me reflect deeply. I think to the many lessons I have had a hand in designing, and questioned if I enabled an environment that would allow students to connect meaningfully to the content. Upon reflection, I unfortunately admit I recognize there are time when I could have done more to make learning more personally relevant. With competing deadline, it is sometimes easier to miss this step, as long as the core content is delivered, but as this chapter and Risa highlight, enabling students to connect to the content creates a supportive environment. This realization is an important one, it showed me where I need to grow as an educator. Like Risa has achieved, I want to create learning experiences where learners see themselves represented, feel valued, and enable them to bring their full effort to the table.
Overall, this week reminded me that instruction is about far more than just the content, but also how learners connect to that content. Risa’s words and Chapter 8 reminded me that education is more than just teaching. When we connect learners to the content, and the content to their lives, we transform learning into belonging. A learner who feels seen and that they belong, is a learner who will succeed and continuously show up to lessons with a positive outlook. This is an environment I will strive to create!