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| Sixth-grade teacher Tanisha Taylor uses SANKOFA techniques while working with students at King Middle School in San Bernardino. |
In Tanisha Taylor’s sixth-grade class at King Middle School, students are intently focused on their books during exploratory reading. Most have selected literature with African American themes, ranging from historical accounts of Harriet Tubman to contemporary stories about race relations or growing up poor in the inner city.
Unlike most schools, this San Bernardino campus incorporates African American culture into lessons on a daily basis. It’s part of a program called SANKOFA, where teachers attempt to infuse cultural relevancy into lessons for their students. The goal is to keep students more engaged, resulting in higher academic achievement.
“As a school district, we needed to do something to reach a subgroup that has underperformed — or been underserved — for so long,” says Taylor. “You can’t just keep looking at data and doing things the same old way. So out of that philosophy, the SANKOFA strategy was birthed.”
Taylor is one of 10 program specialists in the district providing professional development to other teachers using SANKOFA. Most do professional development on a fulltime basis, but Taylor and four other teachers have their own self-contained classrooms. All are members of the San Bernardino Teachers Association.
SANKOFA stands for Students Acquiring New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishments, and is also an Akan word from Ghana that means, “We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today.” The philosophy comes from Sankofa Shule, formerly a college preparatory public school academy in Lansing, Mich., with an Afrocentric foundation.
In addition to King Middle School, SANKOFA classes are held at the district’s Rio Vista Elementary School, which piloted the program. In classrooms strictly dedicated to SANKOFA principles, students have the same teacher for consecutive years in a strategy called “looping.” Most but not all of the students are African American; the program is open to any student who applies.
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“We are not saying that there is a different way to teach African American children — our teachers in the program have superior skill sets in a number of strategies where they are teaching to life experiences.”
— Wil Greer, San Bernardino program specialist |
Many teachers and administrators were given training in culturally responsive teaching last year, says Wil Greer, the district’s program specialist for equity and targeted student achievement. Presently, 100 students in the district are enrolled in SANKOFA classrooms, which emphasize high expectations, standards- based instruction and parental involvement. At other school sites, teachers have learned to incorporate some of the strategies of SANKOFA without being officially in the program.
Cultures reflected in curriculum
“I think it gives kids an opportunity to see their own culture placed in the center of their learning environment,” says Greer, who recently created modules for SANKOFA professional development. “When kids are able to see themselves reflected in curriculum, their learning increases.”
Greer’s modules include: data and department overview, where teachers look at data about African American students in the state, district and school sites; elements of cultural proficiency, where teachers create a three-step plan to become more culturally proficient; a unit titled “More Than Slaves,” to move teachers beyond the traditional tributes to Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and culturally responsive instructional strategies, planning and pedagogy.
Teachers must often find materials themselves to supplement curriculum with culturally relevant information. For example, if a textbook contains a passage about baseball, a teacher could explain about the history of African American baseball including the Negro Baseball League and Jackie Robinson, the first African American player to break the color barrier in major league baseball.
Rosemary Hyder, a SANKOFA teacher who is now the program facilitator for Rio Vista, believes it is important for students to learn the richness of their culture in the early grades, which boosts their self-esteem. Sometimes, she says, all students hear about is slavery, “and we want to make them proud first, so they are able to understand and tackle that issue later.”
Varied learning styles
But cultural relevancy is only part of the SANKOFA equation, says Greer. There is also strong emphasis on teaching students with different learning styles. Many African American students are kinesthetic learners who may not do as well with scripted curriculum or traditional, lecture-based instruction, he says.
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| Wil Greer, San Bernardino Unified School District, specialist for equity and targeted student achievement |
“We are not saying that there is a different way to teach African American children,” emphasizes Greer. “But our teachers in the program have superior skill sets in a number of strategies where they are teaching to multiple intelligences and life experiences. And we support language instruction without belittling African American English.”
Taylor believes that African American children may be corrected so much in regular classrooms for the way they speak that they become hesitant to talk at all, much like English learners. So rather than correct students all the time, she tells students there are times to speak appropriate “academic language,” and other times when they can relax and speak their own jargon.
“There are times when we focus mainly on ideas,” she explains. “If a student is really passionate and expressing ideas and says, ‘they ain’t got no,’ it’s not the time to correct them, because we are focusing mainly on the idea. Or I can also ask them to paraphrase what they have said in academic language.”
Eboni Freeman, a fourth-grade SANKOFA teacher at Rio Vista Elementary School, says her students are very “rhythmic,” so she tries to tie in what they are learning with songs, chants and rap.
“Through the training, I have built up my knowledge bank of African American culture and have learned the ins and outs of culturally relevant pedagogy,” she says. “It’s no longer about what I am comfortable with, but how it meets their needs. Some African American children tend to be circular, not linear, thinkers. Things don’t always fall into nice, neat patterns. So I have to address their learning styles. This may not fit the traditional model of telling them to sit down, open a book and begin work — or just listen to me lecture. So in my class I have a lot of dialoguing and students working together. Sometimes there’s a lot of movement.”
SANKOFA students begin each day by chanting a positive affirmation, such as “I will respect my parents, my teachers and myself. I will use my knowledge to stay in school and make a new and better world. I am great. And my education will make me even greater.”
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| Leona Goodman and Shamiya Fuller work on a problem together; Donjay Budd and Traviona Watson at King Middle School. |
There is also emphasis on the “seven principles” of Maat, an ancient Egyptian philosophy which includes order, balance, justice, righteousness, reciprocity, harmony and truth. This form of character education, says Freeman, allows students to take responsibility for their own behavior.
“Students can set a goal each day and work on one principle,” says Freeman. “If a kid is having a hard time with order, we can focus on cleanliness and the routines of the classroom. A child may tell me that he or she is working on order today. And if the class is bickering, I can ask, ‘What principle are we not following?’ and they will tell me that it’s harmony.”
“I also tell them not to become selfrighteous because they are in the SANKOFA program,” she adds. “I remind them, ‘Appreciating who you are doesn’t mean you can put down others.’”
Proof in the output
SBTA members using the training say they are getting very positive results.
“My kids have made tremendous growth in reading and math,” says Freeman. “And kids who were on the edge of grade level are now meeting grade level. Even kids far below grade level are making gains because of these strategies.”
“The impact is just wonderful,” says Hyder. “My CST scores were above those of the district. My students did very well, probably because my lessons were relevant.”
“It has also helped with behavior,” says Taylor, who says she hasn’t had to make one referral to the principal’s office so far this year.“If students are busy working on meaningful tasks they don’t have time to misbehave.” Students also enjoy being in the program, which happens at a parent’s request.
“I like SANKOFA because you actually get to know more of your history and it makes me happy to learn more about my culture,” says Ronjay Budd, a student in Taylor’s class. “I’m learning now about our kings and queens and my ancestors.”
“I think it makes school more interesting,” says classmate Bra-shona Jones.
When SANKOFA students transition to high school it can be a bit of an adjustment, but in most cases students do just fine, say teachers. However, when they move on, students return to traditional curriculum containing stereotypes — that may lack cultural relevance.
“But now they know enough to notice those things and to refute some things,” says Freeman. “It will definitely spark lots of good discussions in high school.”
