Students’ mental culture needs to be developed. Teachers need to create a classroom environment where student intellect awakens their interest and genius. Think about who is represented on the classroom walls, if the library is rich with literature and technology that enables critical thought, if there are quotes from leading thinkers of the past and present posted around the classroom, how students are welcomed each day, if you avoid the use of worksheets that inhibit intellectual culture, and if the curriculum is designed for students’ identities.

Have students consider what is going on in the world and within media and then intellectualize the topic and connect to the skills and standards of the content area. Provide students with opportunities to put their learning into action and practice. 

To cultivate an intellectual school culture we must promote an academic mindset which means we need to foster a positive classroom setting. We also need to encourage students to value their identity within their academic community.

Each of us can create our own positive  and valuable classroom culture by establishing positive classroom discipline practices. This means we maintain a safe and orderly environment for our students culturally. By doing this we can resolve conflicts which can reduce behavior problems and classroom disruptions which will improve our intellectual school culture.

As stated in the article on page 105, “Some have connected the aim of intellectualism to higher-order or higher level thinking, but historically among Black communities, intellectualism wasn’t seen as exceptional learning-it was just a norm and the way they approach learning”. Because of this way of thinking, we still observe disparities in areas such as standardized testing. With new ideas on how to create an intellectual school culture, we will be able to relieve the disparities, make adjustments that include the entire class culture.

In this article, Rasinski identified reading fluency and Prosody as  primary contributors of reading proficiency among readers within the elementary grades. To address the nationwide issue, he proposes intentional and intensive instruction that follows a predictable protocol delivered on a daily or near daily basis. Such instruction ought to include: 

-Read Alouds followed by meaningful responsive activities

-Time to read and explore bokx independently 

-Phonemic Awareness activities, 

-Opportunities to engage in authentic writing 

-Daily employment of the Fluency Development Lessons (focused on the mastery of texts). 

-Extensive and intentional focus on Prosody in everyday reading and writing activities, one of which could include the focus on punctuation.