Reflection and Teaching English Language Arts (ELA)

        Everyone will have biases; that is something we can not change. Children and adults will have favorite foods, places to visit, and people we choose to spend time with. I have biases within my personal and work life. They can implement themselves into my decision-making and cause trouble or doubts when trying to take a stance. Biases are not something to be afraid of; according to Tricia Ebarvia in her book "Get Free," biases are natural: "Although the word bias often carries negative connotations, the truth is that biases are natural, even necessary, and theory is neither inherently good nor bad" ( p.16). While biases come to everyone, how we turn them into action matters. 

In the book "Get Free" by Tricia Ebarvia, she speaks about different biases teachers could experience. With all the biases that teacher can experience, they develop from their personal experience in life, and even though she has expressed to us that biases are not inherently evil, biases can still cause problems if not corrected or acted out incorrectly. For example, as teachers, we can see ourselves in our students. They might like the same things, look similar, or have the same behavior when the teacher was in school. So we take time to put more effort into that student learning. That is fine, but without realizing it, we ignore other students or don't give them more help than we should have in the first place. This is called in-group Bias, "showing a bias to those who are similar to us" ( p.24). I have been guilty of this. As a teacher intern, I am biased towards students who take their work seriously and stay on task. I was a quiet middle and high school student who enjoyed reading and other silent activities. Many of my teachers would express their fondness for the students who were more outgoing or simply louder in class. They would answer more questions and participate more than I or other students. It was easy for those students to ask the teachers for help or favors. I found comfort in teachers who would take their time with me or who could relate to me. Unlike me, I never considered how they might have related to other students. I never stopped to think that if one teacher didn't give me enough help or attention, it could be said about my favorite teacher. In chapter one of "Get Free," Ebarvia says that "Discrimination today is less about treating people from other groups badly, DiTomaso writes, and more about giving preferential treatment to people who are part of our "in-groups" (p.26). As a teacher, I need to think before acting. Am I giving all my students the same opportunity to challenge and express themselves? I need to learn to direct my route with thinking, for just because a student might not think or act like I would want them to does not mean they shouldn't have the same opportunities as other students. 

Ebarvia, T., Cherry-Paul, S., Johnson, A., Osborn, A., Parker, K. N., & Silvas, T. (2024). Get free: Anti-bias literacy instruction for stronger readers, writers, and thinkers: Corwin, a SAGE Company.