Jones Chapter 7 & 8 (Memo Post #12)

From Pledging Allegiance to your Flag to Sharing Beignets
Call and Response as Critical Pedagogy

Stephanie Jones 

Chapter 7

This week’s reading shows teachers how to recognize verbal and nonverbal responses from students; which gives educators a clear view on how students become engaged in their learning journey.

The chapter focuses on the honest and compelling stories found on this chapter focus on connecting with one student as it uncovers valuable insights for becoming more responsive to all students.The chapter introduces the Oral Inquiry Process and examines its role in fostering critical awareness among teachers. Angela Dean and Dawan Coombs Angela’s classroom observer and their collaboration inquiry experience. Both The English Teacher and the classroom observer wanted to investigate the reason why there was a complex interaction between Angela and one of her student (Antoine). They both wanted to find the best strategy to support Antoine regarding communicating with his teacher Angela.

Antoine was disengaged from school and this disconnection was visible as the pledge of allegiance was being recite. Antoine felt like he did not belong here. As he repeated the pledge, he said “I pledge your allegiance”, and to “your United States of America” (Jones p 101). Antoine’s comments during the pledge is something many teachers see in their classrooms. When students feel they are not welcomed, they start to disconnect themselves from their classroom environment and from their teachers. Sadly many Emergent Bilinguals feel disconnected to their new home, their new culture, and new language as they do not know where they really belong.

Students often find themselves between the adults' alienation and their own competition as peers. There are many things that can lead them to feel isolated as a class and as monadic individuals. They now find themselves trapped in a place that does not mean anything to them. They do not know the people, they do not speak the language and certainly do not feel they belong in this new space that has no connection to their life back home. Students who are not allow to share their own story, they feel powerless, frustrated and left out and because of these and other reasons, lose interest in participating in their own learning.

Angela was looking for ways to encourage more student/teacher participation through healthy and meaningful dialogue. Their current communication affected Antoine’s performance in class as he was marginalized from the rest of the students. Antoine felt, in a hole, he felt frustrated and his frustrations were evident in his writing.

Both teacher and researcher wanted to closely looking at how students from the most vulnerable populations were being defined at school. Sadly in many Schools district’s students who come from a marginalized are will easy fall into the cracks and due to the fact that they are invisible to others, this result on academic and social isolation and failure. Antoine was an example of how low-class students would distanced, isolate themselves from the other members in the classroom, resulting in teacher and student disengagement.

Antoine and his family had to relocate from their home state of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina devastated most of the State. They were able able to leave the state before Katrina hit, but they lost everything they had. Antoine described having a different life in his new community. A life he did not feel comfortable or happy with. Antoine had a happy life back home as he spent his days playing, interacting with friends and neighbors. His new home did not offer this to him and his family. H hardly had any interaction with his new neighbors. The disconnection started in his new neighborhood.

At his new school Antoine felt like “an outsider” (Jones p103) in a large suburban school. In comparison to his old school, Antoine describe his new school as a place where he was learning something, but sadly felt like teachers did not expect much from him. Sadly, Antoine life experiences lead him to think he was being neglected. He believed that many people who talked down upon him, did it simply because of his ethnicity and where he came from.

He described himself as a smart student and because of his place of origin, he feels like he constantly needs to prove himself to people so that they can treat him respectfully. Even though Antoine’s new community offered what his home city could not offer to him and his family, Unfortunately, he experienced stereotype in his new community and as a result decided to just give up on proving how smart and capable of succeeding he was.

Both the researcher and the classroom teacher wanted to find how critical pedagogy in Angela’s classroom could help educators create a healthy engaging classroom where students needs are met successfully without allowing anyone to fall behind.

So in order to figure out how both teacher and student can recognize each other and create critical connections, calls and responses between Angela and Antoine were examined. Angela’s call and Antoine’s responses and vice versa were deeply and carefully were looked at how these calls and response exchanges between the teacher and student were impacting his academic performance.

So to explore this issue deeply, teacher field notes and observation were taken and reviewed as their goal was to highlight the daily interaction(s) between Angela and Antoine while in school. Antoine’s interaction with his teacher was mainly in the form of nonverbal interaction(s). Angela’s way of leading Antoine to be aware of his disengagement from this classroom without embarrassing him publicly in front of his classmates was a great strategy Angela’s goal was to reach a student who was hesitant, resisting, and unresponsive in the traditional forms of teaching and learning.

Through the use of calls and responses both Angela and Dawan are looking to get a clear understanding of the meanings that verbal and or nonverbal exchanges will add to communications with one another; which exhibits their speakers ideas, intentions and their identity.

The classroom observations results clearly exposed Antoine's frustrations in schools since he was crying out for his teacher’s attention. He wanted to feel welcomed and recognized by his teachers and classmates. When his classmates ideas were taken into consideration and his were not, hew simply gave up on participating in the learning process. Antoine wanted the teacher to “see him, to hear him, to recognize him and to be acutely aware of the power of his interaction” (Jones p118). The teacher sadly failed to recognized the signals Antoine was sending and that is why Antoine walked away from the teacher. Angela failed to meet Antoine’s expectations as well as her expectations.

The call and response strategy in my point of view is a great tools that invites healthy teacher and student dialogue. I will definitely try this strategy with my Spanish Classes. This year I noticed that some of my students are open up to me as they come to ask me for advice. I now listen to their words, I try to give them a word of comfort. If I can not offer them a solution, I tell them that I promise I will make sure I will connect them to the right person.


In my PLT class, I have the opportunity to meet individually with my students every week. I notice that my students are responding well to our meetings because they know that I am not there to demand from them, but that I am there as a mentor. They know they can see me as someone who they can trust and come to when they need an advice or when they clarification of a concept they are currently learning or reviewing.

After reading this story I realized that as teachers, we always try your best to make sure every student need is met. Sadly, we focus too much in making sure the curriculum is followed accordingly and in the process many of our vulnerable souls are left behind in the process. I now know we all have done it at a certain point in our teaching career. Sometimes we do not even realized that we are letting our student down by not seem them or recognizing their abilities to be successful.


This chapter did a great job at helping educators realized that even though we may have students who always seem disengaged or disconnected from the learning process, our teacher/student interactions are vital when establishing and maintaining a healthy relationship. A relationship that promotes trust, active, and meaningful learning. 

As Jones stated, “a willingness to engage with and take advantage of moments of dialogue with even seemingly non participatory students, can help teachers initiate transitions with students who might traditionally sit in the silences of the school community” (Jones p 120). I agree with this quote 100%. As caring educators we must be willing to allow our students words and life experiences to shape us just as we expect our words to shape their understanding of our learning environment. 

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On Writing Selves and Other Selves out of Blindedness

Toward Beauty and Grace

Stephanie Jones

Chapter 8

This chapter discusses how the power of policy directives and how school districts and teacher’s hands are tied as they are forced to receive and make sure these policies are put in place. These policies or education laws are not taking into consideration what is best for our students. Standardized tests are designed to measured student’s general knowledge, but are they fair? Are they valid and accurate? Do they really measure human growth? Do they even take into account the student's diverse background, social and economical status? 

The same can be asked from the curriculum that are been utilized in many of the school districts and schools around the nation. Is the “one-size-fits all” (Jones p 125) curriculum even reaching all students? Sadly the educational curriculum being used by many districts focuses on expectations, values, practices, language that supposedly guides students to move toward success in school and eventually in life. 

What we are witnessing is that the intensity of testing and measuring and concepts such as the time each students get on each test task, when combined with the limited goals of social emotional and physical well being of our young minds has a negative effect on all those involved in the education process. Sadly we are all being thrown into a restrictive learning environment, where policies dominate and dictate how curriculum should be delivered. 

Unfortunately our most vulnerable students are paying the price because teacher’s hands are being tied on their backs regarding making decisions that will benefit all students the privileged, but also the marginalized). We may use many tools to measure student’s knowledge and growth, but how do we collect data that is meaningful, truthful and an accurate account of what is really happening in our classrooms?

How can we make sure that our daily teacher and student interactions and reflections are a valid and accountable piece of of evidence; which will really tell us how our interactions are impacting our students classroom performance? Writing is certainly a great tool teachers and research can use to document data that will provide a clear picture of how we learn something about ourselves and about how are relationship dictates how teacher and students will navigate the learning path together. 

Chapter 8 tells us that our writing should not be a “looking like writing” (Jones p 126). Our writing should not be based on fantasy, it should be based on real facts. It should not be formed through power relations. Our writing should not condition our lives and the discourse of society. 

This chapter highlights writing as being a great tool for classroom observers and teachers as it provides us with a clearer view of of things we tend to either ignore, or simply just fail to see as we try to live through the day. Educators are oriented to identify things like, marginalization, inequity in the classrooms, but often fail to see them or recognized them as they happen within their own classroom. Classroom observations and writing certainly helps teachers go make educated decisions regarding their teaching based on data collected from their field notes.

Our writing can shine light on things that were there before, but since we were not paying attention to them, they simply went unnoticed. Stephanie Jones tell us that these experimental writing endeavors that help us “evolve beyond the fixities and limitations of the present moment” (Jones p126). The stories the moments, the memories that may arise from our writing(s) will definitely change the way we perceive and respond to different situations. 

 Both authors agree that presenting the stories of children, young man and woman and their families in the writing is vital because as researchers and writers our main focus should be, how can we explore the different Narratives presented in this book and the issues that all subjects faced without imagining them from the fictional space beyond into the real space. 

Writing certainly changes the way people perceive their environment, other people and places forever. And as the chapter reads “will likely change again” (Jones p 129). As we continue our quest for the perfect learning environment where all student’s stories are heard, where all students needs are met, We should ask ourselves, are we doing the best that we can in order to make sure what we do matters to the young minds we service? What small, but powerful things we can do in order to reestablish a healthy connection between ourselves and other people? Across student’s needs, discipline and desires? 

The chapter ends by asking educators, as a caring teacher are you willing to act with presumably bond position?; which in many cases will not benefit our young students and their families. So are we willing to continue to look the other way and pretend not to know. Are we going to continue to ignore and not allow our students stories to become part of our classroom learning environment? 

Or are we willing to become courageous and find opportunities to write ourselves out of “bindedness and toward beauty and grace” (Jones page 129). 

Most of the stories presented in this book were fictional stories waiting to be resolved in future interactions, but I guess that we have the power to change their endings. We can change how they all end and hopefully will be a happy ending for all of us, teachers and students alike.