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Teaching Through Social Media: Enhancing Communication

Implementing Social Media and Global Communication into Our Teaching:

As we enter a new decade and move away from communication skills of the past, we are engulfed in an online world where it is more common to talk to someone over messenger than face to face. Social medias impact hit hard in the early 2000’s as society was beginning to adopt new online platforms that would make it easier to talk to loved ones, contact employers, and share information, whether it be professional or recreational. However, we did not see a huge incorporation of social media in education until just recently.

Background of Social Media Usage

According to an article written by Jon Allen from the Future Marketing “The History of Social Media” https://www.future-marketing.co.uk/the-history-of-social-media/ the earliest use of social media was a bulletin board system launched in 1978, however the number of people who had access to such sites back then was very limited. I was born in 1997 when according to the timeline Google had only been established a few years later. It blows my mind how much the internet has changed from when I was growing up compared to today, and that is only because I was able to experience the birth of social media growing up. So, I can’t imagine how mind blowing it must be to those who grew up without internet or access to online media when they access it today. I grew up being a part of the generation that learned the nitty gritty of the internet when there was no one to teach us what a virus was. The first online platform I ever used was MySpace. If you never used MySpace before then you won’t know how big of a cultural impact this website had on young adolescents.

 MySpace was created in 2003 as a social site where you could upload images, post statuses, display your top friends, and what really appealed to younger users, edit your page. Myspace allowed its users to customize their page layouts by editing the HTML and embedding various sources such as music sites like YouTube. Your page defined who you were, it was what people clicked on to find out more about you. 

Sample MySpace Layout. https://www.deviantart.com/jkarts/art/MySpace-Layouts-2008-103328638

And just like any social media website today, there was a lot of pressure on users to fit in and meet the “norm.” I can remember spending hours upon hours editing my website, I didn’t know anything about coding, but boy did I try. There was this huge pressure to fit in, to make sure you were displaying the best information you could to make yourself look cool. This is something that even today, has not gone away. It is the same as using Instagram or Facebook, just more modern.

The reason Myspace is no longer around today is because as a social media website, it failed in many areas. When the platform was first created there wasn’t a lot of thought put into the future of the site and its potential to grow. Amy Lee author of “Myspace Collapse: How the Social Network Fell Apart https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-myspace-fell-apart_n_887853 describes the issue with this as a lack of audience consideration: 

“Myspace was created by people in the entertainment industry, not by technology gurus, therefore they could not innovate at the pace that they needed to compete,” Connie Chan, an analyst with Chess Media Group, told HuffPost in an email. “So when Facebook came on the scene, a newer better way to network with your friends surfaced - Facebook offered something as basic as being able to actually see your real friends vs. anonymous friends.” Where Myspace failed, Facebook picked up the slack and soared high. 

So why is Facebook still so successful as a social site to this day even after 15 years of its launch? There are many reasons that contribute to this ranging from the easy accessibility, the constant upgrades, engaging features, etc. But perhaps one of the most important reasons is its ability to connect on a personal, and global scale. In “10 reasons why Facebook has thrived for 15 years” written by Maggie Tillman https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/facebook/126998-10-reasons-why-facebook-has-lasted the author notes: 

“You can't talk about Facebook's success without talking about its users, and they're worldwide. Facebook has around 2.3 billion users, approximately 85 per cent of whom are outside the US and Canada. Not only are they spread out across the globe, but they also range in age and sex. In 2008, Facebook announced an extension of Facebook Platform called Facebook Connect. It made it easier for Facebook users to take their online identity with them across the web, according to Zuckerberg.It also enabled them to share what they do online with their friends and stay updated on what friends doing, without having to create separate accounts for every website or app. They could simply use their Facebook login wherever Facebook Connect was available.A small idea like Facebook Connect is an ideal example of how Facebook just gets it right. It also suggests that Facebook is forward-thinking. Because let's be real: a company with a vision for the future has a better chance of succeeding than one that doesn't.”

When it comes to global communication, Facebook thrives as a platform. This is why so many organizations, non-profits, companies, independent businesses, etc. look to Facebook to reach a larger world-wide audience. Elise Dopson discusses how non-profits use Facebook to help achieve their goals, “To put it simply: Using social media correctly gives you the chance to promote your nonprofit and find people to help with your mission. And, in an industry that doesn’t always have much to offer in return for someone’s donation or offer to volunteer, the short-form content you’re sharing on social media means your audience don’t have to do too much to get involved. If your audience are giving a donation and don’t get anything back physically, it’s wise to make it as easy as possible for them to get involved.” https://www.sendible.com/insights/social-media-for-nonprofits

So, how can we take something that is such an important skill to know (navigating social media) and implement it into our teaching practices? Our students must know how to use effective online communication skills if they wish to succeed in this day and age where future employers will be looking at their online knowledge. In his publication How to Write for the World of WorkSeventh Edition, Donald H. Cunningham makes the point that “Employers want you to come with the ability to communicate. Read the want ads. One of the most common qualifications you will see is ''strong communication skills."” However, it isn’t just about helping our kids acquire a job in the near future but teaching them the power and influence online communication can have. As an educator we must be able to first recognize which types of platforms are the best for global communication to teach our students to use. Obviously, we wouldn’t want them to go out and start a project using MySpace today. Teachers can plan lessons and assignments that encourage exploring various types of social media platforms and discuss the values of these different sites in terms of communication both locally, and globally. 

For example, when I taught middle school (briefly) my teaching team decided to create a PBL that focused on natural disasters. Basically, the students were assigned a prompt and a scenario first in their math class. The prompt was something along the lines of “you are planning a vacation to Florida and need to set a budget and count the distance from here to there.” Each student group had a different vacation spot, once they calculated a budget for expenses and such they were then hit with the scenario “You’re at your vacation in Florida when all of a sudden a hurricane hits you. You now need to reevaluate your budget in order to compromise for these new survival expenses.” This then led to their math teacher showing websites that discussed how to properly budget for a natural disaster. In our ELA class we decided to live post our vacation on a social media website throughout our entire journey. Students were able to use Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as their platform options. On their page they were to post updates of how their vacation was going, and once the natural disaster hit, they had to figure out what would be the best way to communicate their safety to others and to check up on their partners. After the lesson we discussed which platform would actually be the best to use in case a natural disaster really did hit and the students came to the consensus of using Facebook. They came to this conclusion after exploring the website more in depth and looking at sample organizations, disaster relief non-profits, and sample posts from the site. We then discussed how important it can be to have access to social media during times of crisis as we are able to communicate not just in out areas, but to other states, and even countries. At the end of this all, students were able to view social media not just as a place to post selfies with their best friends, but as a crucial form of communication. 

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Comunicación Efectiva

Writing in the Hispanic and Latin(x) Discourse Community: 

This blog post is intended to help educators understand the best way to approach writing (genre) for students’ part of the Hispanic and Latinx discourse community (subject matter) in order to help them achieve college readiness. 

The Differences Between Hispanic and Latino/a (https://www.hnmagazine.com/2017/09/difference-hispanic-latino/)

Defining terms

A person who identifies as Latino or Latina: Comes from Latin America: “Unlike Hispanic, which refers to language, Latino is a term that refers to geography. It is used to signify that a person is from or descended from people from Latin America. It is, in fact, a shortened form of the Spanish phrase latinoamericano — Latin American, in English.Like Hispanic, Latino does not technically speaking, refer to race. Anybody from Central or South America and the Caribbean can be described as Latino. Within that group, like within Hispanic, there are varieties of races. Latinos can be white, Black, indigenous American, Mestizo, mixed, and even of Asian descent.” 

Latinx: A term used to replace Latino and Latina to promote inclusivity. 

A person who identifies as Hispanic: Comes from a Spanish speaking country and background: “Hispanic refers to what language people speak or that their ancestors spoke, it refers to an element of culture.This means that, as an identity category, it is closest to the definition of ethnicity, which groups people based on a shared common culture. However, people of many different ethnicities can identify as Hispanic, so it’s actually more broad than ethnicity. Consider that people who originate from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico will have come from very different cultural backgrounds, excepting their language and possibly their religion. Because of this, many people considered Hispanic today equate their ethnicity with their or their ancestors’ country of origin, or with an ethnic group within this country.” 

When I was in high school, I remember feeling lost at the question of what I wanted to do in the future. As someone who dedicated themselves to taking honor and AP classes I knew that I wanted to attend University but had no idea where to even begin looking. There was not a lot of direct support from my school or my community in regard to college preparation. The only help I actually received came from my AP English teacher that I had taken classes with my Junior year. She was running an afterschool program to help guide students through the application process for applying to local universities and community colleges, but it was very vague. Nobody really tells you what needs to go in your college application, what an application letter looks like, where you can get help filling out your FAFSA, nothing. It was up to me entirely to figure all of these procedures out if I wanted to attend University. Looking back, I think if I had had better guidance, I might have been able to apply for more scholarships and even out of state schools. However, we can’t go back and change the past, only the future.

Being a first generation student, you can’t ask your parents for help, because they’ve never applied for college, most of them never even made it past middle school in their home countries. In a study done by Angelica M Tello “The Role of High School and College Counselors in Supporting the Psychosocial and Emotional Needs of Latinx First-Generation College Students” https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1164907.pdf She describes how these first-generation college students  or (FGCS) are “a growing population faced with unique challenges for college retention and graduation. Because their parents did not attend postsecondary education, this group of college students has not inherited the social or cultural capital common to many traditional college freshmen. Both high school and college counselors are in positions to support the psychosocial and emotional needs of Hispanic and Latinx FGCS, which may increase successful college completion rates.” (Tello, 349) As a collective culture, the Hispanic and Latinx community believes strongly in hard work and dedication, something that many young students carry with them all throughout their public education experience. But no matter how hard you work and study there will always be obstacles to overcome, the problem is if you have the motivation and support to jump these hurdles.

Motivation, guidance, and support, that is what young students in the Hispanic and Latinx discourse community need if they are to succeed in the higher education setting and make it to college. Now that I have graduated from a four-year university and am attending graduate school, I know that it is possible to beat the odds and make it out of the community that once held me back. It is important to be able to recognize and understand the way a community functions and the genres part of it if you are to try and help instill change. Charles Bazerman describes genre as the activity systems we are a part of that shape our lives. He claims, “these organized complexes of communication shape our ongoing relationships and identities, and within these complexes we change and develop through our sequences of mediated participation.” (Bazerman 15) Therefore, we must understand how members of specific community have come to form their identities and discourse languages that influence their lives and perspectives. Our social spaces help us develop different genres of communication and sometimes these spaces also can influence how we perceive the world around us. These perceptions, however, are not definite set in stone. Just as language is constantly changing and evolving so are we.

As I mentioned, the first step to help this specific discourse community is motivation. Motivation inside the classroom means providing materials, projects, and academic opportunities that will allow students to practice writing in their familiar genres while meeting writing requirements. Students will be more engaged in school if they can form a connection with what is being taught while expressing their voices. In another study done by Jason Irizarry “En La Lucha: The Struggles and Triumphs of Latino/a Preservice Teachers” https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ988308 the study found that many of these participants in the cohort of Latino/a students experienced “systematic silencing, the result of the acts of individual agents and institutional practices and policies that manifested in overt and subtle forms of subordination.” Which in turn, pushed them away from pursuing their educational career. Motivation can also look like positive feedback.

Sometimes, members of the Hispanic and Latinx discourse community have different interpretations of genre writing requirements. Since our context shapes our understanding of genre, many students may have influence of genre styles from their first languages which can interfere with the requirements of genre pieces in schools. As teachers, we should not dismiss their genre writing as wrong, but rather open up to the idea that genre doesn’t have to mean only one thing. The term genre is ever changing, Amy J. Devitt notes the issue with viewing genre in this manner, “The common understanding of genre among too many composition scholars and teachers today is that genre is a relatively trivial concept, a classification system deriving from literary criticism that names types of texts according to their forms. Viewed in this way, genre is not only a rather trivial concept but

also, a potentially destructive one, one that conflicts with our best understandings of how writing, writers, and readers work, one that encourages the dichotomies in our field.” (Devitt 574) Motivation should look like encouragement, writing encouraging feedback can go a long way.

The final requirements I mentioned are guidance and support, inside and outside of the classroom. Guidance and support go hand in hand when it comes to increasing students’ possibilities of attending community college and beyond. Teachers can provide time in class to connect learning material to future uses, such as; teaching how to write cover letters and application letters, teaching academic writing versus non-academic writing, providing resources and materials with information on college applications, and even having mock application writing assignments. Throughout these activities and assignments its important to again remember genre and the role it plays in our students’ writing. Guiding them to use the appropriate genre for each setting can come a long way in their futures. Supporting students by being a vessel of information and a resource to their education should be a part of every teachers plan. Hosting outside activities like college tours, after school programs, and even clubs can also help support these students. It may not be doable for all teachers considering funding and time but seeking out help from the community and reaching out to parents can help, as long as they are made aware it is for their children’s futures.

All students are entitled to education, but not just k-12, they should have the same opportunity to reach college despite their backgrounds, culture, socioeconomics, identity, etc. In “Literacy from a Right to Education” by Gianna Alessandra Sanchez Moretti and Tobias Frandell, the authors describe education as:

“The human right to education, as a social good, constitutes a solid foundation for human development. Its implementation, protection, fulfillment and promotion can lead to the creation of opportunities, freedom of choice, economic sustainable growth, improvement of health conditions, poverty reduction, social mobility enhancement, and prevention of autocratic rule (Coomans, 2007, p.185). In other words, education is a means to risk-prevention, as well as a tool that can help improve the human quality of life in a sustainable manner. Not only does the right to education have intrinsic value, but it is indispensable for the exercise of all human rights. A quality education as a right becomes the concrete key that empowers individuals to fully develop their personalities and participate in society through the acquisition of knowledge, human values and skills. Thus, education as a right can provide a solid tool in poverty reduction strategies worldwide.”

Establishing the importance of education in the Hispanic and Latinx community can help bring students out of poverty and crime by creating opportunities for a better life. The Hispanic and Latinx discourse community is only one of many minority groups that face low retention rates when it comes to college enrollment and completion. Although I am writing for my specific community, much of this can be applied to others as well. As teachers, our goal should be to see our students succeed not only in our classrooms, but outside in their personal lives as well. We have the ability to help make this happen, so let’s use our knowledge and experiences to build students up and guide them down the right educational path.

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The Importance of Discourse Communities

Bernadine Cotton, Teacher Leader with Mathematically Connected Communities (MC²) and 2014 winner of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST)  illustrates student-to-student discourse through the implementation of a math activity known as SPLAT! in her classroom. Following the lesson is an interview with Ms. Cotton.As an educator ask yourself this; how often are you communicating with others on a daily basis, and does the way in which you communicate ever change? For example, consider the language you use to address your students or even your class, is it the same as how you would address your principal or coworkers?

As teachers we are members of many different discourse communities, whether you realize it or not.

So, What is Discourse?

In “Discourses and Social Languages” Paul James Gee defines discourses as

“the different ways in which we humans integrate language with non-language “stuff,” such as different ways of thinking, acting, interacting, valuing, feeling, believing, and using symbols, tools, and objects in the right places and at the right times so as to enact and recognize different identities and activities, give the material world certain meanings, distribute social goods in a certain way, make certain sorts of meaningful connections in our experience, and privilege certain symbol systems and ways of knowing over others.” (13)

Language has the power to create or fit certain situations depending on how we use it. A discourse community then is a group of people that you find yourself amongst in which you all share similar goals, ideas, purposes, values, and discourses or language use.

Discourse Communities in Education

Thinking again in the educational context, some common discourse communities you might find yourself a part of are:

Professional learning communities (PLC) Meetings – In PLC meetings you are joined by other educators, advisors, and mentors sharing the same goal, which is to work together to discuss how you can better improve your teaching skills and the overall academic performances of students. Now consider the language used in this setting, depending on who is present, the environment of your school setting, and who runs the meetings you might use language that is “academic” and professional such as when you are using terms to describe the progress of your classroom. Ex: “I saw a high increase in students’ performance after taking the ELA assessment and their scores reflect positively on my teaching abilities.” However, if you are sitting amongst your close coworkers, you might use a more “relaxed” social language which would not be considered appropriate to share with others in the meeting. Ex “Those kids totally bombed that test and made me look like a clown!” Both types of language use communicate a point that reflects on the setting in which the teacher finds themselves in.

Teacher and students in the classroom – When you are teaching in your classroom that is a discourse community that you have built around you own beliefs and values, but the students also have their own perception of the classroom being a discourse community. For example, if you teach in a low-income public school where the population is 95% Hispanic/Latino and you are not a part of this background and culture, you might have different ideas of what the discourse community looks like in your classroom. The reason for this, is that language, discourses, helps build us and our “situated identities” which refer to our different identities or social positions we enact and recognize depending on our settings. (Gee 12) For you, your classroom might be a place where students are expected to practice academic language and terminology that relates to your lessons and teaching objectives, and the way you teach displays these language expectations.

However, no matter how much you may try to encourage this type of academic discourse, students have their established social identities that can be difficult to switch between or can “conflict with one another.” (Gee 16) That is not to say that you should not encourage them to learn academic English, since it is something they will have to continue to use throughout their educational careers, but you also should not punish them for using their social language. Rather, students should be encouraged to write in their social discourse languages in order to help relate to their experiences and encourage connection between lessons.

Encouraging Social Discourses in The Writing Classroom

In an Educational Leadership article (http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/114010/chapters/Why-Pair-Discourse-with-Writing¢.aspx) titled "Thinking Is Literacy, Literacy Thinking," it was argued that

“To teach thinking consistently … we should treat it as a fundamental literacy skill, whether the language in question is algebra or English. There is no question that reading, writing, speaking, and listening are interconnected skills that develop synergistically. They are also the key to teaching thinking. The more fluent students become as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners, the clearer, more coherent, and more flexible their thinking will become. (Roberts & Billings, 2008, p. 33)

Literacy and language are interconnected and one’s social identity helps shape one’s literacy practices. If teach students to write in a language that they feel comfortable using, then not only will their writing skills improve over time, but so will their speaking, and reading abilities. The tricky thing is knowing how to find the right balance between allowing social languages and academic languages, since we do work in the academic setting.

Here is what I propose: First, it is important to establish and teach “intertextuality” in the writing classroom. Intertextuality as defined by Vincent Leitch is when

“a text is not an autonomous or unified object, but a set of relations with other texts. Its system of language, its grammar, its lexicon, drag along numerous bits and pieces— traces—of history so that the text resembles a Cultural Salvation Army Outlet with unaccountable collections of incompatible ideas, beliefs, and sources" (59)

It is important to teach students that no matter what they write, they will always be influenced by something other than themselves, or, as James Porter describes it in “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community”

“By identifying and stressing the intertextual nature of discourse, however, we shift our attention away from the writer as individual and focus more on the sources and social contexts from which the writers discourse arises. According to this view, authorial intention is less significant than social context; the writer is simply a part of a discourse tradition, a member of a team, and a participant in a community of discourse that creates its own collective meaning.” (225)

Teaching in this mindset can help students better connected to their discourse communities and write for a larger purpose, for some sort of cause that holds true to them. If we wish for our students to write with meaning and to write for change, then they must first be able to reflect on what matters to them.

As someone who grew up in a primarily Hispanic/Latino discourse community one thing that I valued the most from my education was my teachers’ understanding of their places within this community. My school was a low-class public school with a bad reputation that not a lot of teachers wanted to work at. However, the brave few who decided to venture into our world did so in a way that respected our culture and beliefs and encouraged us to use them in our learning environments. In return, we respected our teachers and saw them as members of our discourse communities even if they were not necessarily from the same backgrounds as us. Which leads me to my second suggestion: If we want students to be successful writers, we should allow some room for them to write in their social languages.

In the writing classroom this can look like various different assignments starting small:

·      Personal Journals

·      Blog posts

·      Free Writes

·      Occasional Mini Papers

Looking at bigger projects that can help connect their writing to issues within their communities could be:

·      Research papers on issues within their community

·      Collaborative writing projects

·      Narrative essays

·      Class presentations

·      Letter writing to professionals in their communities

All of these writing assignments can help practice both academic languages, as well as social language, it is a fine mixture and balance between the two and can serve for a bigger purpose than just to receive a letter grade.

It is important for teachers to be able to recognize the discourse communities of their students and of the school in which they work if they want to establish meaningful connections with their students and also, with the surrounding communities. As a teacher one of your biggest roles is contacting parents, whether this be for positive or negative reasons, it is still something that comes with the job. Using my example from earlier, if you work in a school with a 95% Hispanic/Latino demographic, then you need to consider how you would write home to this audience and to student’s parents using this information.

Communicating with Parents of Different Discourse Communities

Just because parents do not speak English, does not mean that it has to be difficult to communicate with them. One ELL and English immersion teacher writes in her article “Engaging Parents Who Don’t Speak English” (http://www.nea.org/tools/tips/engaging-parents-who-dont-speak-english.html) some easy tips and methods to breach this language barrier gap and reach out to parents.

1.     Use online platforms such as Facebook (with your school’s permission) to send written messages and reminders. This can be helpful for parents because they can easily translate written text to their native language online, however not everyone has access to the internet.

2.     Send letters home in both English and Spanish

3.     If you don’t speak the parents’ first language, then find someone who does and enlist their help. Some schools have “room parents” who are bilingual parents willing to contact parents who speak their same language and share teacher information.

4.     If there isn’t a parent or person at your school, try your district—almost every district has outreach workers who speak the languages spoken by the families in their district. This can help to clear up any misunderstandings and lets parents know that you want to talk to them and took the time to seek out help! (NEA)

Just by making it clear that you still want to talk to them even if there is that language barrier can make all the difference in parent-teacher relationships.

The main thing I wish for teachers to take away from this post is that if you do not understand the discourse community in which you work, you will have a hard time connecting with students, parents, faculty, and overall have a difficult time establishing the importance of writing in the classroom. By being aware, and an active participant of these communities, you can make a world of difference as a teacher.

Bernadine Cotton, Teacher Leader with Mathematically Connected Communities (MC²) and 2014 winner of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST)  illustrates student-to-student discourse through the implementation of a math activity known as SPLAT! in her classroom. Following the lesson is an interview with Ms. Cotton.

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About Me

Hello, and thanks for checking out my blog. My name is Beatriz Perez and I’m a current Masters Student at Northern Arizona University. I’m pursuing my degree in Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media studies while also teaching English 105 as the primary instructor. I received my Bachelors degree from Arizona State University in English Literature as well as two additional certificates, one in secondary education and the other is TESOL. I’ve worked teaching English with a variety of age groups and backgrounds. My most recent teaching experience before English 105 was working with middle school ESL students for half a year. Although there is a distinct age difference between middle school and university, there is still a common issue amongst both that I discovered. Students are not interested in learning ELA if they can’t form a connection to the material being taught. Through proper communication and inclusive teaching practices this can be changed.

This blog will look at improving my own educational practices and sharing my discoveries along the way to create a better learning environment for all students. Using principles of rhetoric and writing I plan on expanding my research and posts even further as I continue my graduate studies. I hope you find some of the content I present here at least a bit enlightening to your own teaching practices if you are an educator. 

This blog is centered around one of my current graduate courses, therefore I will often include links and readings from the class to help support my posts. 

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An Insightful Interview

In order to expand my own understanding of community building in the classroom setting I decided to reach out to a veteran teacher who I had previously worked under several years ago. Brandon Thompson teaches at Tempe High School in the Tempe Union School District in Arizona. He has been teaching for over 20 years now and has carefully worked to craft an amazing teaching persona and classroom environment, something that I was able to witness firsthand. Mr. Thompson teaches 10th, 11th, and 12th, grade ELA with a mixture of regular, honors and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) courses. AVID is an organization centered on helping students overcome obstacles throughout their school experience. In their own words “Regardless of their life circumstances, AVID students overcome obstacles and achieve success. They graduate and attend college at higher rates, but more importantly, they can think critically, collaborate, and set high expectations to confidently conquer the challenges that await them. In 47 states across the U.S., K–16 educators are driving student success through engaging, rigorous, and student-centered learning environments.” (https://www.avid.org) Mr. Thompson goes above and beyond for his students to help ensure they are on the right path to success. He is my main inspiration for pursuing a career in education as well as the core of my blog’s principles.

I asked Mr. Thompson a variety of questions all having to do with the communication he uses in his classroom as a teacher, as well as an AVID coordinator. The first thing I wanted to find out was what sort of community was the AVID program and what role did it play in Tempe High School. His response resonated with me deeply, “AVID in a sense is the only path students have to getting into college. We help prepare the students from the moment they enter high school to believe in themselves 100 percent and continuously improve their abilities in all subjects. Not just ELA, but Math teachers, Science, Social Studies, we all work together to guide the students.” (Thompson) For many of these teens, AVID keeps them grounded and out of trouble

As someone who grew up in a low-income community, I didn’t have a lot of guidance for helping me reach college. I know what it’s like out there in these public schools, just how easily a student can fall into the wrong hands and down a path of regret. The AVID program helps to prevent this. Mr. Thompson practices daily writing in all of classes. When prompted with the question “what kind of writing is the most important?” He responded with, “writing that allows students to speak the words they’re unable to speak outside of class, writing to find their voice.” (Thompson) He allows students to keep daily journals in his class not just as reflections of their lives, but in order to communicate with him. He reads their journals weekly and through this system he is able to reach the students better than through direct lecturing. Mr. Thompson mentioned to me how many of these students, especially the younger ones, struggle with direct communication with their teachers. However, through written language they are able to express themselves in a less pressured sense with reassurance that someone on the other end is listening. Peter Drucker establishes that communication is based on perception, expectation, and demand. As Drucker writes in Functioning Communications “Unless there is someone who hears, there is no communication. There is only noise.” (Drucker 262) These students are practicing daily communicating with their peers and with their instructor in order to help prepare them for the outside world.

However, to do so in an effective manner Mr. Thompson is constantly exposing himself to his students to create a shared experience and reassure them that he understands their perceptions. These shared experiences have a lot to do with his background, upbringing, and current lifestyle. Although he is the authoritative figure in the classroom, he first establishes himself as a human who’s endured similar experiences as his students. Tempe High is made up of a 1500 student population; 70 percent Latino,  14 percent Black, 5 percent American Indian, 2 percent Hawaiian, and more (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/tempe-high-school-profile) These demographics are important when taking into consideration students of different cultures, and beliefs. Minority groups are at a higher risk of dropping out of high school, “Minority students dropped out at disproportionately higher rates than their White counterparts — In 2009, 4.8 percent of of blacks and 5.8 percent of Hispanics between 15 and 24 dropped out of grades 10-12, compared with 2.4 percent for white students.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/high-school-dropout-rates_n_1022221) In order for teachers to effectively reach their students and help prevent these dropout rates from increasing they need to be careful of the communication practices they are using. This is where Mr. Thompson incorporates AVID into all of his courses. By reassuring his students that despite their background, gender, race, culture, etc., they are still able to work hard and achieve higher education.

Author Craig Smith describes the human myth as a function for establishing society. In his work Rhetoric and Human Consciousness, he writes “Since prehistoric times myths and narratives have been used for entertainment, but they also built tribes, cultures, and nations. Myths were used to advance values and to order lives, villages, and the world.” (Smith 20) Not much has changed since then. There is a common myth amongst the lower-class public-school setting in America. A myth that if you work hard enough in school, you’ll be able to make something great out of yourself. The problem with this myth though, is that it doesn’t take into consideration the many overlining factors that affect a student from reaching their college aspiration goals. No matter how hard a student may work they will never be able to reach that end point of success without the proper guidance.  This is a myth that Mr. Thompson works against daily. I asked him what some of the major struggles are he faces when it comes to written communication in this setting and his response centered the most around overcoming cultural and language barriers. Although any student can enroll in the AVID program this does not take into consideration their academic standing. Meaning, that many of his students are at different reading and writing levels despite being in the same grade. Their first language may not be English, and they may have grown up in a community where reading and writing was not as prioritized a skill as others. It can be difficult at times to make these students understand the importance of written communication, because they’ve never experienced the power their written words can have. Through positive affirmations and practice Mr. Thompson allows the students to breakthrough from this careless mindset and discover the potential they all have, despite how great or how “poorly” they may write. One thing he does that not many other ELA teachers do is allow students to write in their home languages, not just standard academic English. He later makes them translate whatever their writing was, but the principle of allowing them to use this form of written communication allows for all students to participate in the writing experience.

Mr. Thompson has faced a lot of backlash for his teaching methods as they are not seen to be “traditional” in the eyes of other veteran teachers. He is also constantly fighting to receive the necessary funding for his AVID classes. He relies a lot on social media specifically Facebook in order to help reach a larger audience when it comes to communicating issues and reaching out to the community.  The great thing about Facebook he says, is that “almost all parents nowadays have access to it.” Even if they don’t have a computer at home, the school offers technology hours in the library after school where parents or families are able to use the computer lab for a certain amount of time. Through this platform he is able to spread messages about what’s going in class, events, or even ask for funding. The AVID school program has their own Facebook page and allows public access for anyone interested in learning more about the organization. “I would have never imagined I’d become such an active Facebook user, but it helps me stay in touch with the community that my students are a part of.” I asked Mr. Thompson how he works to incorporate social media in his classroom, and he mentioned that he’ll do an end of the year project for students using a social media platform of their choice. Through whichever social media platform, they chose, they are able to bring awareness to a major issue occurring in or outside of the US in an attempt to create a research and project solution. This allows students to realize the importance of online communicating as well as the role social media plays in our daily communications.

After interviewing Branon Thompson I became even more aware of where I need to self-improve on as an educator. He allowed me to see a different side of what it takes to be an effective communicator in and outside of the classroom.