1. In "Where We Are: Disability and Accessibility", the authors urge against treating disability like a checklist, as this isolates and others disability. With that in mind, how can a teacher create an environment in their class that encourages openness and inclusive of all, regardless of the individual differences among the students?
2. What are ways that we, in a teaching context, can listen? How can we avoid reproducing the issues that we see in the scenes that Royster includes in "When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own?" How can we be inclusive and value a diversity of voices in the classroom?
Hi Nicholas, in response to your second question: we can be sure to have an equity of voice in the classroom by implementing strategies to encourage all students to talk and not just the eager, like-to-fill-in-the-silences type (mmhmm, like me). Having a participation grade that requires each student to speak at least once a day helps. I don't know if it would be too juvenile, but I've seen classrooms where the teacher has a collection of large popsicle sticks with each student's name written on one and she would pull one at random to be sure to not just continually call on those with the excitedly raised hands (or something similar to this idea). Also, writing assignments that allow the students to write about themselves and use their unique voices, implemented at the beginning of the semester, can encourage a classroom culture of openness and inclusiveness.
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