YB Providence featured on Edutopia!
Posted on September 17, 2015 by Anthony Hubbard - No Comments
In this episode of School Hackers, we go to YouthBuild Providence in Rhode Island to see how many school hacks we can find in one learning environment. YouthBuild Providence is a diploma-granting program for students ages 16-24 offering project-based courses designed to teach students the skills they need to succeed in careers, college, and life. Faced with both time and physical constraints, YouthBuild Providence’s Executive Director Anthony Hubbard and Lead Teacher Michael Deragon explain how they “do more with less” to create a positive learning space for their students.
Dear YouthBuild Providence,
Posted on September 17, 2015 by Anthony Hubbard - No Comments
Dear YouthBuild Providence Community,
You have made the first step to creating a brighter future for yourself and your family. You have joined the YouthBuild Providence family! By doing so, you have demonstrated the commitment and dedication that is needed to become a true Scholar. You have displayed your ability to live by the principles of Respect, Commitment, Discipline, Stewardship and Excellence. These principles are what guide how YouthBuild Providence operates our program and teach our scholars.
At YouthBuild Providence, we care about each scholar that we engage and those that are not fortunate enough to be accepted into the program but seek the assistance from my talented educators, counselors, youth workers and administers. What we do at YouthBuild goes beyond academics and workforce development, WE CHANGE LIVES.
This will prove to be a challenging year for both scholar and staff but TOGETHER WE CAN EXCELLENCE. In addition, I am confident that through our collaboration with other programs and agencies throughout Providence, we can and will make YouthBuild Providence an even better place for our students to learn and grow as individuals.
Yours in Solidarity,
Mr. Hubbard
Back to the One Room School House
Posted on August 31, 2015 by Anthony Hubbard - No Comments
What We Can Learn From the One Room School House in Today’s Educational System
Modern schooling is all about efficiency, and what better way to drive efficiency in a classroom setting than group students based on their skill levels (or age) and employs a set teaching solution that can be utilized year after year, right? While this may look good on paper, the varied learning capabilities of students and the general academic results say otherwise. Now if you looked at the other corner, you will find an entirely different classroom setting, one where students of different age groups and learning capabilities are encouraged to learn under one roof. Yes, we’re talking about the classic One Room School house setting. The One Room School house seems almost as if a fable today, but their perks over the traditional classroom remain just as relevant. In fact, there are many lessons that we can pick up from the classic schooling module, let’s take a look at some of them.
Challenging the teachers and students
The problem with a traditional classroom and syllabus is that educators are confined to a specialized teaching formula which is repeated year after year. Now unless an educator makes the effort to periodically reinvent their teaching methods and material, alongside stay updated with the latest advancements, they fall into the same teaching pattern that is neither exciting nor challenging. In a One Room School, educators are constantly challenging themselves to come up with new teaching methodologies that can be comprehended by students with varied learning styles and skills. The educators are expected to keep students of beginner and expert level engaged whether it is through activities or other collaborative settings in the classroom. This makes the teaching role far more satisfying than in a traditional setting.
Often, students are enthusiastic about the idea of learning, but a dull, time-tested learning curriculum that does not match with their learning style may douse their enthusiasm. When the teaching style is more in line with their aptitude and different from the usual one-fits-all solution, the students are in a better place to grasp it, which no doubt bears better results as well.
In short, the One Room School approach is interesting and fruitful for both the educator and the student.
Encouraging individual learning
A One Room School House has individualized lesson plans for each student. This can go a long way in nurturing independent learning capabilities. In a traditional classroom, boundaries and benchmarks get in the way of the students’ learning curve. Benchmarks on what students are expected to achieve may deter slow-learners from reaching their full potential, as there is a constant pressure from these expectations which takes the focus off the primary goal of education- to learn. Students who are able to adapt to a traditional curriculum do not look beyond what is being taught and constrict their learning view. In One Room School Houses, students are always pushing boundaries on what else can be learned. They are not judged based on how they fare with respect to their peers and equals, and instead know that there is always scope for growth and to learn more. This hits the nail on what education should be achieving in the first place.
A holistic learning approach
The thought of a heterogeneous-level classroom may seem slightly ill-planned and chaotic at first glance, but given the right approach, it can make learning a holistic experience for students. For instance, say you have students of different learning capabilities in a music class. Managing students with different learning skills and styles may seem somewhat of a difficult task, but once you have individualized lesson plans in place it gets simpler. The key is to also have a collaborative approach while teaching. So how do you bring a collaborative approach in such a diverse setting? You could try bringing in the high-level students to improvise and play on the spot, while the mid-level students watch them and try to pick up the chords that are being played.
You can then have the mid-level students try and play the same under the guidance of the high-level students. This also helps reinforce the basics in the high-level students, while they teach the mid-level ones. The beginner-level students can try getting the basic chords right, as the mid-level students tell them about the same. This is exactly how students with different learning skills collaborate under a One Room School House setting, making the learning experience far more interesting than otherwise.
Encouraging literacy proficiency in males of color
Posted on February 3, 2014 by Anthony Hubbard - No Comments
By Anthony L. Hubbard
How often do we hear academics and scholars use the phrase “One size does not fit all”, when discussing a number of educational or socio-economic issues facing America? Well, one very pressing challenge that fits that description is related to the task of building literacy proficiency in young males of African American origin.
The issue is not just about getting these males to complete the “must-read” text in the classroom. It goes much beyond that. The real challenge lies in encouraging these young men to embrace reading and writing so that they might develop “in total” both education and socio-emotionally – and not simply in terms of passing an exam or moving to the next grade.
Addressing the root cause
At the heart of the problem lie many non-literary challenges that sometimes get overlooked in our eagerness to build a ready-made solution. The tools we use to build those solutions, such as policy decisions, teaching methodologies and curriculum content, take a “one size fits all” view of the classroom. And often, as we develop and implement what we perceive to be the “ideal solution”, we lose sight of the fact that we are tailoring solutions for a disparate group of students.
The Broad Prize for Urban Education endows a $1 million benefit to urban school districts that can prove they have contributed significantly in the academic performance of, and reducing improvement gaps between, poor and minority students. As recently as March 2012, educational experts gathered in Washington to nominate deserving school districts for the award noticed exactly the disparity that I am talking about here. Although in
this case the spotlight was on the differences between Hispanic-American and African-American students, the lessons learned are equally valid to any two (or more) groups of students. As noted by USA Today:
“The real lesson is that we need to stop lumping blacks and Hispanics together – both in terms of how we measure progress and in terms of policy — as “students of color.” The groups have different education needs“.
The report very aptly identified the root cause of the challenge that educators face when trying to encourage literacy proficiency amongst males of color in the following words:
“Lumping the two groups together only shifts attention away from differing strategies that can work for each group.”
Different strokes
Promoting literacy proficiency amongst men of color must consider the environment beyond the classroom, in order to be successful. Afro-American students have a unique set of socio-economic and socio-emotional circumstances that make them open to a different teaching/learning style than that used for other ethnic communities. And unless educators and policy makers realize that, no policy tool or teaching method will meet with success.
Recognizing the fundamental differences between various groups of students is therefore the first step to encouraging learning within members of those groups. Once some of the social barriers to learning have been removed, men of color will respond more positively to any stimulus that aims to foster literacy proficiency amongst their ranks.
As a result of such reorganization should also come the realization that curricula currently used in traditional schools therefore deserve a second look. Teachers and educators need to understand that what a Hispanic-American student will relate to in the classroom is different from that to which an Afro-American student will respond to, which is totally divergent from that which stimulates white American students.
The fact is that each student learns differently. And a student’s ethnicity helps shape his/her learning styles. These differences in learning styles are well articulated in the text “Moore, Carol. (1992): Learning Styles – Classroom Adaptation“, where the case for “Different strokes make different folks” can be made. The underlying message here is that while students may find it extremely hard to change their unique learning styles, educators should adapt their teaching methods to meet differing learning styles.
Best practices to bridge these differences
So what can we do to bridge these differences? A lot, actually! Over the years of being involved in the learning and development of youth of color, I have seen first-hand the results that certain practices can bring to bear in fostering literacy proficiency in males of color. I’d like to propose some of my “best practices” for educators to consider:
- Cultural responsiveness: Bringing cultural sensitivity into the classroom means that teachers are aware of the learning style of their pupils, and adapt their teaching methods accordingly
- Recognizing ability: Given the right literary environment, boys of color will shine too. Teachers should recognize their student’s innate abilities to learn, and must do away with oversimplification of lessons
- Collaborative classrooms: Rather than promoting “individualism” in learning, help foster a collaborative literary environment
- Enabling text: Choose text books and other learning material for the curriculum, to which men of color can relate. Using “standard” text will make them “tune out”
- Unapologetic learning: Choose literacy plans that don’t force boys of color to be apologetic about their place in the community when learning or writing their assignments
- Readers write & Writers read: Have students read as authors and write as readers. Fostering both these perspectives is a key element of fostering literacy proficiency amongst males of color