HomepageISTEEdSurge
Skip to content
ascd logo

Log in to Witsby: ASCD’s Next-Generation Professional Learning and Credentialing Platform
Join ASCD
October 1, 2020
Vol. 62
No. 10

The Problem with Pumpkins

author avatar
    Culturally responsive lessons start with knowing our students and unpacking our assumptions.

    premium resources logo

    Premium Resource

    Instructional StrategiesEquity
    Gonzalez-edupdate-Oct2020-image
      Last fall, I worked with a 1st grade teacher who didn't understand why her students weren't excited or able to write about pumpkins. "They just can't do it," she said. "It's too hard."
      As a consultant, I have heard these words time and time again from educators who are passionate about teaching but need guidance in their planning. This teacher was working on a differentiated lesson plan and was troubled by the number of students who could not write, describe, or speak about what she thought was a familiar object. When we dug deeper into her students' strengths and needs, she acknowledged that many were learning English as a second language and used to different customs, traditions, and seasons. There it was: Most of her students had never seen, tasted, smelled, or touched a pumpkin.
      As an immigrant myself, I shared that I didn't learn about pumpkins until I was 15 years old and had pumpkin pie at a friend's Thanksgiving dinner. I thought the pie was dense and strange. Heck, it was one of the first pies I'd ever tried! For the first few years after arriving in the United States from Nicaragua, my family didn't celebrate Thanksgiving because it was an unfamiliar tradition. When we did eat Thanksgiving meals, we served rice, beans, and pork—traditional Latin foods for festive occasions.
      These details surprised the teacher. But once she understood why her students did not have the background knowledge to engage with a pumpkin-themed lesson, her fixed mindset that students couldn't do it shifted to a growth mindset about how the lesson needed to change to meet students where they are.
      We started by unpacking the standards addressed in the lesson and understanding the learning purpose. In the school's curriculum guide, the essential question to address was, "How do seasons change?" We refocused on learning writing skills anchored to the universal concept of change—one to which all students, including dual-language learners, could relate.
      The teacher still wanted to use pumpkins in the lesson, but she would bring in a small pumpkin and cut it, giving students a chance to build background knowledge by feeling, smelling, and seeing it. The presentation would emphasize academic vocabulary development with opportunities to collaborate and practice orally, an activity that especially supports language acquisition for dual-language learners. Sentence frames would provide additional supports.
      The problem with pumpkins is the assumptions that accompany these types of lessons—and the subtle but significant ways those assumptions shift our focus away from the standards and the true purpose of learning. When these kinds of narrow lessons were taught to me, I felt lost, confused, and like I did not belong. Learning in a second language is hard enough; we shouldn't further isolate students by making them feel out of place. Culturally responsive lessons start with knowing our students and unpacking our assumptions. Once we do, we can identify gaps in teaching and better affirm students' varied cultures, backgrounds, and identities.

      Maria Gonzalez provides professional development to teachers and leaders in diverse districts in both urban and rural areas as an education consultant. As a member of ASCD's Differentiated Instruction and FIT Teaching® (Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching®) Cadres, she works on building the capacity of teacher leaders, school-based coaches, and administrators nationwide.

      Gonzalez has a passion for reaching all students' potential and is an expert in working with multicultural student and school community populations. She has worked extensively in inner-city schools with teachers who have both struggling and gifted students, guiding them through various frameworks in curriculum and design in order to provide them with rigorous instruction.

      Her skill set includes educational technology, instructional design, curriculum development, public speaking, and teacher training. She has presented at various ASCD conferences on topics related to differentiated instruction, meeting the needs of English language learners, and research-based best practices in curriculum, instruction, assessment, gradual release of responsibility, and capacity building.

       

      Learn More

      ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

      Let us help you put your vision into action.
      Related Articles
      View all
      undefined
      Instructional Strategies
      Making the Most of Mental Tools
      Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey
      4 weeks ago

      undefined
      Thinking Harder About “Trigger Warnings”
      Matthew R. Kay
      2 months ago

      undefined
      Disciplinary Literacy Means Doing the Discipline
      Rachael Gabriel
      4 months ago

      undefined
      Three School Tools for Literacy
      Kate Stoltzfus
      4 months ago

      undefined
      New Findings on 3rd Grade Retention for Struggling Readers
      Kate Stoltzfus
      4 months ago
      Related Articles
      Making the Most of Mental Tools
      Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey
      4 weeks ago

      Thinking Harder About “Trigger Warnings”
      Matthew R. Kay
      2 months ago

      Disciplinary Literacy Means Doing the Discipline
      Rachael Gabriel
      4 months ago

      Three School Tools for Literacy
      Kate Stoltzfus
      4 months ago

      New Findings on 3rd Grade Retention for Struggling Readers
      Kate Stoltzfus
      4 months ago