Stand And Deliver
A reflection as a Perspective Educator
I have often wondered what it would take to motivate a group of young, adolescent students. Although I have been taught many strategies in theory that I could use in my classrooms to motivate my students, it still seems difficult to implement those strategies in a real classroom. In the movie "Stand and Deliver", Jaime Escalante uses some of those techniques to motivate his students to work harder and be more successful in mathematics. By doing so, he instigates a desire in them to better themselves and their future. Jaime Escalante uses many of the various methods of teaching and instructional strategies that I have been introduced to in my educational foundation courses. These techniques motivate his students to not just do better in school, but to work harder for a brighter future.
One teaching strategy that Mr. Escalante uses is differentiated instructions. Differentiated instruction stimulates creativity and helps students understand ideas at higher levels of thinking than teaching through rote memorization alone. When his students have trouble understanding the material, he uses alternative methods to present the material to them. When Mr. Escalante first steps into his classroom, the biggest challenge h is faced with is the behavior of in his classroom. His students demonstrate no discipline. Most of them don’t have any aspiration to learn. Their new teacher, Mr. Escalante just seems like a regular to teacher to them who, they assume, will just turn out to be regular boring teacher that doesn’t have much faith in his students. Instead of lecturing the material to his students, he tries to find ways to make it relate to their own lives so that they can understand it better. An example of this is when he brought in apples for everyone and cut certain sized slices out of the apples. Since the students were learning about fractions, he asked them how much was missing from each of their apples. Instead of lecturing to them about fractions, he brought in visual aids to help them see and feel what they were learning about.
Another example was when Mr. Escalante presented a word problem about Jiglos and their girlfriends. The students in his class come from a society where usually men are players, having multiple girlfriends at once. The more girlfriends you have, the higher status you possess among your friends. This was Mr. Escalante’s attempt to create a scenario that is indirectly related to his students to teach them algebraic equations.
Using portions of apples to teach fractions worked effectively for Mr. Escalante. At first the students seemed confused when he asked “how much of an apple do you have”. But as a couple of them understood and gave the right answer, the rest of the students also caught on to the activity. They were able to understand the topic better when they could actually visualize it. However, using jiglo’s girlfriend as example didn’t work effectively for Mr. Escalante. He asked several students to identify the unknowns and solve the problem but no one was able to give the right answer but one. One student even asked how it related to their lives.
Mr. Escalante also worked on building a close relationship with his students since the first day. To overcome their belief and self-esteem, Mr. Escalante started off by letting them know that he comes from the same background as them. Instead of having a formal relationship with his students, he got on the same wavelength as them and got to know them and care for them. An example is the relationship he has with Angel Guzman. Although Angel gives him trouble since the first day, Mr. Escalante sees the potential in Angel. He understands that appearing smart/intellectual would affect his social image. To make sure that he is able to without that happening, Mr. Escalante gives him three textbooks: one each for home, locker and work so that Angel never has to be seen carrying one on him. Another example that portrays the close relationship Mr. Escalante has with his students is the night before the retake of AP exam. In that scene, all the students are gathered at Mr. Escalante’s house. He cooks for them while they sit and review for the exam. This also allows him to assist the students if they have any questions as opposed to if they were studying individually at homes.
Building a good relationship with his students helped them gain confidence in themselves. Positive, encouraging, honest teacher student communication and teacher student interaction showing mutual respect between teacher and students in your classroom and all students in your school is so vital on so many levels. Showing interest and caring for your students creates a trusting and genuine bond with them and in most cases they reciprocate, like the students in Mr. Escalante’s classroom, establishing a win-win situation for both the students and teacher.
One teaching strategy that Mr. Escalante uses is differentiated instructions. Differentiated instruction stimulates creativity and helps students understand ideas at higher levels of thinking than teaching through rote memorization alone. When his students have trouble understanding the material, he uses alternative methods to present the material to them. When Mr. Escalante first steps into his classroom, the biggest challenge h is faced with is the behavior of in his classroom. His students demonstrate no discipline. Most of them don’t have any aspiration to learn. Their new teacher, Mr. Escalante just seems like a regular to teacher to them who, they assume, will just turn out to be regular boring teacher that doesn’t have much faith in his students. Instead of lecturing the material to his students, he tries to find ways to make it relate to their own lives so that they can understand it better. An example of this is when he brought in apples for everyone and cut certain sized slices out of the apples. Since the students were learning about fractions, he asked them how much was missing from each of their apples. Instead of lecturing to them about fractions, he brought in visual aids to help them see and feel what they were learning about.
Another example was when Mr. Escalante presented a word problem about Jiglos and their girlfriends. The students in his class come from a society where usually men are players, having multiple girlfriends at once. The more girlfriends you have, the higher status you possess among your friends. This was Mr. Escalante’s attempt to create a scenario that is indirectly related to his students to teach them algebraic equations.
Using portions of apples to teach fractions worked effectively for Mr. Escalante. At first the students seemed confused when he asked “how much of an apple do you have”. But as a couple of them understood and gave the right answer, the rest of the students also caught on to the activity. They were able to understand the topic better when they could actually visualize it. However, using jiglo’s girlfriend as example didn’t work effectively for Mr. Escalante. He asked several students to identify the unknowns and solve the problem but no one was able to give the right answer but one. One student even asked how it related to their lives.
Mr. Escalante also worked on building a close relationship with his students since the first day. To overcome their belief and self-esteem, Mr. Escalante started off by letting them know that he comes from the same background as them. Instead of having a formal relationship with his students, he got on the same wavelength as them and got to know them and care for them. An example is the relationship he has with Angel Guzman. Although Angel gives him trouble since the first day, Mr. Escalante sees the potential in Angel. He understands that appearing smart/intellectual would affect his social image. To make sure that he is able to without that happening, Mr. Escalante gives him three textbooks: one each for home, locker and work so that Angel never has to be seen carrying one on him. Another example that portrays the close relationship Mr. Escalante has with his students is the night before the retake of AP exam. In that scene, all the students are gathered at Mr. Escalante’s house. He cooks for them while they sit and review for the exam. This also allows him to assist the students if they have any questions as opposed to if they were studying individually at homes.
Building a good relationship with his students helped them gain confidence in themselves. Positive, encouraging, honest teacher student communication and teacher student interaction showing mutual respect between teacher and students in your classroom and all students in your school is so vital on so many levels. Showing interest and caring for your students creates a trusting and genuine bond with them and in most cases they reciprocate, like the students in Mr. Escalante’s classroom, establishing a win-win situation for both the students and teacher.