For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education (Race, Education, and Democracy)

by Christopher Emdin

Students should know that this space is also available for those who may not be as verbal as their peers, and who need a platform for posing questions related to the content to their peers and the teacher that they may not feel comfortable asking in class. Many have called this type of space a parking lot—where participants in a social field can pose questions or share thoughts to be addressed later. In this iteration I refer to it as a “W board” because whatever is shared in that space should be a question (who, what, when, where, and why), not a declarative statement. I choose this practice because once the question is posed and then posted in the space, the rest of the class is responsible for finding an answer to the question. The teacher has to encourage students to research and find answers to questions, and then post responses to the questions back on the W board. This practice creates a physical space that promotes going beyond the content and elevates the discourse.