Customer Reviews

Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was disappointed after finishing Crossing Over to Canaan.

Some parts of the book were helpful such as: * Describing how the old beliefs of teaching effect the demands on (new) teachers * Theories of pedagogy * Reflective Practice * more.

For the most part, however, I was quite bored and have read more helpful books than this. The book is coated in quotes taken from the different grad students journals about their experiences with Teach for Diversity. Very few - if any - strategies are shared about teaching in a diverse classroom. I was expecting something different than what it was. Please browse through the book before purchasing to see if it's what you're looking for!

I was drawn to this book by Gloria Ladson-Billings in hopes of finding out about new and better ways to reach a growing diverse population of students in my classroom. In this book, the author explains the shortcomings of current teacher education programs and their inability to prepare teachers to reach all types of students. I strongly agree with her viewpoint and, therefore, was intrigued by her creation of a new teacher education program entitled Teach for Diversity. This is a graduate level program based on her study to find out how to best help teachers reach more diverse types of students. Throughout the book, Ladson-Billings gives narrative accounts about the eight participants in the teacher education program and how they learn to be aware of different students' cultures, focus on academics in the classroom, and be aware of the influence of the outside world on their students. Her accounts of the participants are very easy to read and seem magical in that everything connects for these participants when they step into the classroom.

I found that the original reason I wanted to read the book was not truly addressed. I learned some good lessons about ideas to keep in mind when teaching students from various cultures, but I found that the experiences she describes in the book are not very relevant to what I see and what I am required to teach in my classroom. I was looking for more concrete ways to help diverse students and did not find a lot of specific answers. If that is what you are hoping to gain from this book too, then this may not be the book you want to read. Nevertheless, I would still recommend reading this book because I think it gives any teacher a broader awareness about the need to reach different types of students and a different mindset about teaching students from various cultures. Finally, I think the best lesson from this book is that teachers need to learn more about students' culture in order to be able to teach them in a more meaningful way that they can relate to.

Unfortunately, the only parts of this book that I enjoyed and found thought-provoking were the preface, introduction, and chapter one. This book discusses weaknesses in the current way that teachers are educated and describes one program, Teach for Diversity (TFD),that the author created to address those weaknesses. In the last chapter, the author writes that the program was abandoned after a few years.

TFD was created based on three propositions: academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. After a chapter introducing the teachers from the cohort, the following chapters examine each of those propositions.

Regarding academic achievement, Ladson-Billings offers a variety of hypotheses to explain why some students of color reject academic achievement in school. She continues to define academic achievement in terms of what a teacher does in the classroom. She also offers what she feels is necessary in a classroom for academic achievement to be evident (academic achievement indicators). Her definitions of academic achievement and the indicators are not based on research, subjective, and at best, basic knowledge to someone who has ever taught.

Regarding cultural competence, Ladson-Billings wrote that "cultural competence refers to the ability of students to grow in understanding and respect of their own cultures." She encourages teachers, who she writes are primarily white, to live in the culture of the children they are teaching for an extended length of time, to get to know the families as an insider would. This sounds great on paper but does not seem realistic as an expectation of teachers. She also writes that she believes that children of color struggle to make the decision to be smart or to be cool and that these two descriptors are mutually exclusive. I think she overgeneralizes the ignorance of teachers when it comes to knowing other cultures on more than a surface level. Culture is a complex subject that can't be taught but learned through education and experience. It is dependent on the individual teacher and that teacher's motivation and initiative - some teachers have more than others.

The last proposition, sociopolitical consciousness, is a needed goal for schools to aspire to achieve. Teaching children about the world and what they can do, even as children, to influence it provides a voice and a feeling of power when action is taken. It is unfortunate that activities to promote sociopolitical consciousness are not a basic part of every school's curriculum. Ladson-Billings gives great examples of action projects that the teachers in the cohort did with their students but she doesn't give much information about how they did it. For example, how did the teachers get the principal to go along with their ideas and how did the teachers get the parents to accept this non-traditional form of instruction and classroom work? Knowing how one teacher was able to do this would have provided a first line of action to someone wanting to try such projects.

Throughout this book, I was disappointed that I read a lot about what was done but not how it was done. This book would have earned more stars from me if it would have provided some practical ideas of what I could do in my classroom right now. I finished the book feeling let down by the promise of learning more about working with a diverse group of children and feeling no different than when I started. The inside cover states that this is "an inspirational and practical book that will help all teachers." I think my expectations were set too high.

Crossing Over to Canaan is an excellent book for anyone planning to be or thinking about becoming a teacher. It tells a lot of real life situations that student teachers have been placed in while working in the classroom. It also gives lots of information about what is really necessary in order to effectively teach in the diverse multi-cultural world that we live in today. It's a must read for anyone who wants to be the best teacher they can be no matter if you have been teaching for years or just thinking about it. It has something for everyone to learn or think about.

Ladson-Billings makes an attempt to inform the reader of diversity within the school setting but is most often promoting her own program, Teach for Diversity or TFD, throughout the book. I chose this book because of its great title, hoping to increase my knowledge about different cultures and how I could apply these lessons in my classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners. The book starts out with its first chapter "Can Anybody Teach These Children?" which I enjoyed reading. This chapter poses the rhetorical question: Can all children learn? I really wanted to dive in to this chapter coming away with ideas on how to best teach challenging, below grade level students and help them improve their self-efficacy. Ladson-Billings explains the increasing need for educators in inner-city schools, where beginning teachers often take on these challenging positions. These new teachers have the least experience and training to deal with such high needs classes. I could easily relate to this section in the book because when I graduated from college I was in fact one of these first year teachers thrown into a demanding position at an inner-city elementary school.

The book then focuses on the emergence of the TFD program and the eight students who practice this curriculum throughout their placements in the elementary school setting. The author's case studies are interesting, therefore any classroom teacher could relate to the struggles and triumphs touched upon in these stories. After learning about the eight students this program follows, the book then looks at the schools primary tasks within the community and how to focus on diverse students who have become academically challenged. There are many good points brought up by the author, yet the ideas are often not addressed in depth and often times I was left without an answer or reason as to why Ladson-Billings brought up a specific topic, yet did not fully describe in detail.

Overall the book was easy reading and I was left with a few good points of advice, but lacked the real-life practices I could have transferred into my classroom. I am giving this book two out of five stars based on my personal expectations.

Gloria Ladson-Billings' insights into the diverse population in our schools and her active commitment to change in teacher education programs can only begin to make one think. Her use of Joshua's journey into the Promised Land as a metaphor underlines that reform within the certification systems of teaching universities needs to engage the future teacher, provide her/him with a deeper understanding of who she/he will face in the classroom, and help these beginning teachers build a new frontier.

The voices of the cohort members from the Teach for Diversity program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison heard throughout the book reflect the need to support teachers from various cultures as well. Ladson-Billings shows that the days of "Western-biased" traditions in content may be what is keeping qualified candidates away from teaching.

With her detailed plan for an Urban Teaching Academy that promotes immersion into the communities in which teachers will teach, Ladson-Billings champions innovative decisions that can only strengthen the goal to meet every students' need.

I was introduced to this book during undergrad and I never took the time to read the book until now. I actually like the book and disappointed from a few of the reviews I have seen. First this book is not a step-by-step guide on how to, just like there is no how to guide on teaching. Throughout the book Billings is narrating the thoughts, ideas, and goal of a cohort she was currently teaching. She gives quotes and tells the feelings of those memembers of the cohort. Within the shared stories of her students and her goals for the cohort, she is more so talking about their self-discovery to critical think about their instruction practices, curriculm & standards, and the biases they have/had before entering the classroom.

I found this book to be helpful because it compelled me to critically think about how I view myself, culture, and other cultures and races. As reiterated before this book is not meant to be a guide, but more so evoke deep thought about oneself and their environment and within that context how does that view fit into their teaching practices and perspective on the world. I really have enjoyed this book and have written in the margins and placed Post-Its throughout the book. Also on another note as I read this book I thought about "Legacy of Love" written by Arun Ghandi. I think it can be tied into teaching since school is the initial start of teaching an ideaology.

This text motivated me to really take responsibility for my classroom (in lieu of using every acceptable excuse for why students can't learn). The author provides detailed reviews of 8 novice teachers and how their teaching philosophies and backgrounds influence their first year in the profession. She provides you with hope, empowerment, and concrete examples for how to make your classroom a culturally appropriate atmosphere for ALL of your students.

I had to read this book for an education class, and it seemed obvious that this was just the published research of one project. Although there were some interesting parts, it was a bit too focused on that one project to be really that helpful.

I recommend this book to all educators who strive to meet the needs of diverse students in their classrooms. While the book was not the instruction manual that I expected, there is a lot to learn from Ladson-Billings experiences and lessons for teachers. The book summarizes the experiences of teachers who went through an intense training program on how to reach children from backgrounds including educational learning styles, abilities, race, and socio-economic status. As a public school elementary educator, I was impressed by how applicable the ideas are to my own classroom. While reading the book teachers are led to reflect on what is diversity, what is the actual purpose of school, and what is "teaching well?"

I found that the Social Cognitive Theory can be easily applied to these classrooms and ideas. The underlying purpose is that competent teachers can reach every single student and instill a sense of self efficacy in academic achievement. Bandura's idea of reciprocal determinism, that the environment, behavior and personal factors all affect each other, support that teachers can be the changing factor for children who come from diverse backgrounds who need the cycle to be broken. Ladson-Billings's book is inspirational for teachers to strive to help every student achieve greatness.

~Review by Charlotte Roberts, Raleigh, NC