1. The Skin that we speak Lisa Delpita and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy
Alyssa Barrett
Post University
EDU 604
Dr. Michele Herrera

2. Introduction About the Authors LISA DELPITA JOANNE KILGOUR DOWDy
Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education
M.A., Harvard Graduate School of Education
B.A. Antioch College
Executive Director/Eminent Scholar, Center for Urban Education & Innovation, Florida International University
JOANNE KILGOUR DOWDy
Professor at Kent State University, Ohio.
 Juilliard School in the theater division
recognized for her book, "Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters." 
 the recipient of the 2009 American Educational Research Association Narrative and Research Special Interest Group's Outstanding Book Award.
Overview
The Skin that we Speak is a multicultural lens on language and purpose of schooling. It asks the tough questions about how society has created an educational system around the colonizer and still discriminates in its school systems. Therefore, deepening the learning gap and forcing people to "fail" in societal terms because their cultural identity does not fit into the colonizer's mold.

3. Food for thought
“What does the country lose when it loses individuals who are comfortable with themselves, cultures that are authentic to themselves, the capacity to pursue sensitivity and some kind of recognition that one has a purpose in life?” (p.2)

4. How does this connect to our course?
Case Studies to Analyze
p. 3
p.17
p.32
Contrasting Conflicting themes of acceptance and success within expectations of society
Ex. Ebonics Debate p.34
"Most importantly, it is imperative that Americans- of whatever color, race, or sex- be enlightened about world cultures: sensitivity through language is one way to achieve such enlightenment" (p. 173).
Objectives: 
Develop a rationale for multicultural education
Evaluate the nature of race relations and prejudice
Contrast conflicting themes of assimilation and pluralism
Analyze how culture affects learning and achievement
How does this connect to our course?

5. Connections Another Inconvenient Truth: Race and Ethnicity Matter
" Race and ethnicity influence teaching and learning in two important ways: They affect how students respond to instruction and curriculum, and they influence teachers’ assumptions about how students learn and how much students are capable of learning" (p.66)
Culture is significant in the classroom.
Culture is a great talking point and relationship builder
Cultures must come together and coexist in order to lead to success  
A classroom must create its own cultural identity of understanding, acceptance, and genuine care in order to create an environment that will lead to the success of all students. 
"Teaching and learning are rooted in and dependent upon a common language between teacher and student. Language is rooted in and an aspect of culture. Culture is nothing, more nor less, than a shared way that groups of people have created have used to define their environment"
 (p. 89).

6. Connections
"Also unlike high-achieving nations, we have failed to invest in the critical components of a high-quality education system. While we have been busy setting goals and targets for public schools and punishing the schools that fail to meet them, we have not invested in a highly trained, well-supported teaching force for all communities, as other nations have; we have not scaled up successful school designs so that they are sustained and widely available; and we have not pointed our schools at the critical higher-order thinking and performance skills needed in the twenty-first century" (Restoring Our Schools, 2010).
Emphasis on testing as successful indicators
Pressure filled teachers and administration to meet numbers
Expectations to meet deadlines and curriculum needs make teachers hesitant to spend more time on relationships, or reteaching due to consequences. 
Lack of training in this critical pedagogy. 
High stakes environment for funding. 
"When you see trouble, attune your work and topsy-turvy your practice in the service of your students. If you see your students failing, re-attune your work. Listen when you talk and understand that you are listened to as well as talking to your students. And sometimes laugh at the things you've said under pressure and share that laughter with your students and talk, talk, talk about how people speak and listen. We have to become a more literate society and I think literacy will not come through testing and an obsession with standards, but through patient, intelligent, and sensitive speaking, reading, 

7. Connections Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: New Approaches That Work
"It's not only immigrant students whose cultural values may differ from those underlying most classroom practice. U.S. born students from a variety of backgrounds American Indian, African American students, Latino students whose families have lived here for generations may also feel alienated by common classroom practices" (p. 3). 
Not just immigrants that need support
Every students has a different cultural identity even the teacher. 
Must come up with common culture/language in the classroom that is cognizant of the purpose of students and their cultural identity.
The idea of trilingualism is more open to a multicultural education setting. 
"Trilingualism" (p )
-Home language
-School Language
-Professional/Job Specific Jargon
Versus
"Right/Wrong Language" (p.52)
-Fight or flight mentality 
-Resist teachers/education because fighting against your identity. 

8. How does language reflect our cultural identity, power, and privilege?
"Through my mother's and grandmother's tutelage I was on a journey to becoming the 'good girl' according to the colonizer's belief system" (p. 8)
Power/Privilege Lies Within:
The colonizers (white, english speaking, "civilized behaviors", followers)
Conformity
English Language and Cultural Indicators of English Speakers 
Due to:
Historical and modern day oppression
School systems based upon these objectives
Work places heavily dependent upon these qualifiers. 
Language and testing bias
LANGUAGE SHOULD BE A USEFUL TOOL THAT OPENS DOORS FOR PEOPLE, ALLOWS FOR CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS/DISCUSSION.
 NOT PROHIBIT PEOPLE FROM SUCCESS 

9. what would and could you do to assist these culturally and linguistically diverse students to be successful socially and academically? 
Teacher usage of language: both verbal and non-verbal. Significant influencer of class environment, but also ability to read and understand people culturally. Must be addressed first before looking to create a classroom environment cognizant of the importance of all language. 
"And the analysis and consciousness of your own language as a teacher is equally essential. How do you sound? How is anger expressed? How is failure expressed in front of the class?" (p. 160). 
Understanding that the classroom is a constant discussion and leanring space full of changes for both the students and the teacher.
"It is a question of understanding, translation, and strengths. But in a major way it is also a question of language, communication, and the creative arbitration of differences" (p.160). 
Through teaching multicultural education and a critical pedagogy that allows studnets to rewrite the world's narrative to fit one of their own in order to give them powerful voice that allows them to create a social movement changing our educational system for the better. 
"Trilinguilism" (p )
Home language, school language, and professional/job specific jargon

10. Implications for Society
Step One: 
"We should work with the publics schools to develop uniform standards and guidelines for linguistic performance" (p.175)
Step Two:
Plans should encompass (p. 176):
1. a better understanding of the language of wider communication
2. promote the legitimacy of mother tongues and dialects
3. promote bi- or tri-lingualism
Step Three: 
Multicultural education prevails
The learning gap closes
Students learn more than the necessary work place skills but also social skills of acceptance and grit

11. Conclusion
Language and culture should not be looked upon as a scary and a hushed thing by teachers. It is an opportunity for teachers and students to bond and create something special within the classroom. It is a chance to close the haunting learning gap that our ignorance has cost our children. We must find a way to come together and create success. To utilize critical pedagogy in order to give our students a voice and the power to rewrite their endings. Multicultural education is necessary. It is what our children need. It is neglect if educators do not turn to this now. Ask the hard questions. Discuss with your students. And collaborate to fine a better way. 
Lessons Learned

12. "All that is required for oppression to take hold is for good and well-meaning folk to do nothing" (p. 168)
Reacting and not acting are forms of oppression too. 

13. References
Darling-Hammond, L. (May 27, 2010). Restoring Our Schools. The Nation. 
Dowdy, J. K., & Delpit, L. D. (2002). The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. New York: The New Press.
Hawley, W. D., & Nieto, S. (2010). Another Inconvenient Truth: Race and Ethnicity Matter. Educational Leadership, 68(3), 66–71. 
Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P.M. (2000). Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: New Approaches That Work. Knowledge Brief. San Francisco: WestEd.