Welcome
Chapter 1 - The Centrality of Culture and Social Ideology in School Learning
Personal Perspectives That Influence Teaching Practices
Introduction
This first chapter provides a brief overview of the social ideology that serves as the context in which individuals develop perspectives and values that influence learning to teach and teaching. These ideologies influence how teachers make sense of the purpose of schooling and the processes of teaching and learning. For example, in planning instruction, the teacher’s perspective influences how and the extent to which he or she strives to develop good learning experiences to meet specific learning goals that will be required for all students, or to provide a variety of experiences from which students can choose based on their individual needs, interests, and values that meet the specific learning goals.
Tasks
In the present context of high-stakes testing and accountability a significant part of teacher evaluation is based on student learning outcomes. Those teaching in schools serving a high percentage of traditionally underserved students and those teaching in low-performing schools are very concerned about the evaluation of their teaching practices. After reading Chapter 1, develop a brief statement explaining your perspective on the challenges faced by teachers in low-performing schools and schools serving a high percentage of traditionally underserved students.
Identify one high-achieving and one low-achieving school with high percentages of traditionally underserved students. Working with a partner, interview at least two teachers at each school. Carefully document the comments from the teachers interviewed. The following are suggested questions for the interview:
- How would you describe this school?
- How would you describe the students you teach? Do they have any particularly unique characteristics as a group?
- When you think about teaching your students where do you focus most of your attention? What do you believe is the most important thing for your students to learn from what you are teaching? What is your greatest concern?
- In reflecting on your time teaching at this school, what do you believe has been your greatest accomplishment?
Write a brief summary of what you learned about the perspectives and values of the teachers you interviewed. Compare the teachers’ values and perspectives with those in the typology in Chapter 1 of the textbook. Share your results with other class members who conducted teacher interviews. What conclusions can you draw from this experience? Were there differences in the perspectives of teachers in high-achieving and low-achieving schools?
Resources
Urban Education: White teacher
The Education Trust: Dispelling the Myth http://action.edtrust.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=11559
Chapter 2 - The Deep Meaning of Culture
Core Beliefs, Practices, and Values
Introduction
The United States is often described as a nation of immigrants where the culture is complex, multidimensional, and transformational. Developing and enacting core beliefs, practices, and values continues to be a challenge for the nation. Primary source documents related to negotiating land rights with the American Indians and citizenship rights for the many immigrant settlers and enslaved residents illustrate the struggle for building one nation composed of many people from disparate cultural and experiential backgrounds. Completing the tasks below will help you re-examine your personal values, national values expressed in historical documents, and the contradiction between espoused values and related practices.
Tasks
Open the links to the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Read each of these documents. Think about the historical setting in which these documents were written. Write a 100-word statement of your reaction to each of document.
Open the links for Broken Treaties and the Emancipation Proclamation. Read these two documents. Think about the values espoused in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Write a brief statement explaining the values not included in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, but that are evident in the treatment of American Indians and enslaved Africans.
Open the link to the Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson and the Jackie Robinson Letter to President Eisenhower. Read both documents. Write a brief statement describing the values expressed in the initial contact letter and in the receiver’s response.
Open the link for Decades of Change 1960–1980. Read the document. Write a brief statement about your reaction to the core values that were being challenged and changed during this time period.
Open the links to the International Student Guide to the United States of America and Visiting the United States. Read both documents. Write a brief statement explaining how the core values observed by international visitors are related to the core values in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the civil rights letters.
Watch the videos on the Crouser family, being Lakota, and the American dream. Write a brief statement explaining the culture, experiences, and perspectives of the Crouser family and the American dream.
Resources
Constitution of the United States of America
http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/full-text
Bill of Rights and Amendments to the constitution
Broken Treaties
http://broken-treaties-opportunity-race.tumblr.com/
Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html
Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
http://www.realdesignmedia.com/firstclass/read.html
Jackie Robinson’s Letter to President Eisenhower
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/5669918642/in/set-72157626653340554/
Decades of Change 1960–1980
International Student Guide to the United States of America
http://www.internationalstudentguidetotheusa.com/articles/understanding-american-culture.htm
Visiting the United States
http://www.immihelp.com/newcomer/american-culture-and-behavior.html
Crouser Family (video)
Chapter 3 - Personalizing Cultural Diversity
Threats, Risks, and Opportunities
Introduction
Race is an inflammatory concept in the United States. There is evidence of racial disparity in almost every aspect of society including education, employment, housing, incarceration, and income. These disparities are part of a cycle of stereotyping, discrimination, and the rise of extremist and hate groups. Extremist groups are a real threat to the quality of life in the United States and can even place target groups at risk for torment, torture, and the loss of life. Addressing this issue and developing a safe and comfortable environment in which all members of the society prosper requires the active participation of many different social agencies and responsible individuals. Schools are very powerful places for socializing the young into the values, perspectives, and practices that support civility in a culturally diverse society. Classroom teachers are primary agents for the socialization of the young. When carrying out this role in the best interest of all citizens, it is important for teachers to carefully examine their own experiences and those of citizens different from themselves. The tasks below will help you think deeply about extremist and hate groups in the society, their impact on targeted groups, and how you might promote support for human diversity in your classroom.
Task
Open the link to the Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate and Extremism website. Click on the menu item Extremist Files and then click Browse by Ideology. Read the ideology for three extremist groups. Think about the threat that each group poses from a personal perspective. Explain in a short statement the extent to which you feel uncomfortable, personally threatened, or fearful of an encounter with a member of one of the extremist groups in the profiles you read. Explain your reaction if you found yourself at a restaurant seated at a table next to members of one of the extremist groups in the profiles you read? Explain how your feelings and responses might be different if you were a member of the group targeted by the extremist groups in the profiles you read.
Open the link to Two Questions About Race. Give particular attention to the two questions and the author’s responses. Open the link to the American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race.” Compare the two statements. Write a brief statement of your own perspective on the meaning and impact of “race” on the society in the United States. Think about your role as a classroom teacher responsible for socializing the young into values, perspectives, and practices that support civility in a culturally diverse society. Write a brief statement explaining how you might address “race” as an aspect of diversity in the United States.
Watch the video on the Repass family and the American dream. Explain the relationship among the central tenets of racism, the disproportional impact on members of certain ethnic and racial groups, and the core values of the United States.
Resources
Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate and Extremism
http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism
Two Questions About Race
http://raceandgenomics.ssrc.org/Goodman/
American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race”
http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
Repass Family and the American Dream (video)
http://www.kcpt.org/programs/local-programs/your-fellow-americans/repass-1-ariel/
http://www.kcpt.org/programs/local-programs/your-fellow-americans/repass-family-part-4/
Chapter 4 - Learning About Diverse Populations of Students
Making Connections
Introduction
An important aspect of facilitating and supporting learning for diverse and underserved students is making connections with what students know, what students have experienced, and what is of interest to students. Developing deep knowledge of the community and social context in which students live and learn outside of school is the foundation for making meaningful and powerful connections between learning inside and outside of school. This requires that teachers get to know the community in which students, their families, and peers carry out the activities of their daily lives.
Tasks
Working in a small group of three to five peers, develop a photo documentary of the points of interest in an attendance area for a designated school community. Points of interest might include historical sites, distinctive or period architecture, gardens, parks, museums, etc. In the photo documentary provide a brief description of each point of interest, including its significance. Provide an example of how each point of interest can be used in the curriculum to support student learning.
Working in a small group of three to five peers, develop an electronic portfolio for the local governmental structure at the community and city levels, including representation at the state and federal levels. This electronic portfolio should include organizational charts showing the relationships among different aspects of governance (including the school board), a list of officials and their positions, a description of the process for appointment or election, agendas for the past three to six months, and newspaper articles discussing any issues that were contentious. Identify major issues addressed in recent elections of city officials or state or federal representatives from the local community. Based on the information you compiled for the electronic portfolio, write a brief commentary describing the concerns and issues in the local community and the patterns of representation in the governance structure. Explain how the concerns and issues in the local community might be used to frame the presentation of the school curriculum.
Working with a small group of three to five peers, develop a demographic profile of the local school community. The community demographic profile might include race/ethnicity, family composition, education, household income, employment/unemployment rates, employment sectors, crime statistics; and performance data on local public schools including test scores in reading and mathematics at the elementary and secondary levels, high school graduation rate, and college attendance and completion rates. In a brief commentary explain the potential impact of the performance of public schools on improving household income, rate of employment, and changes in the sectors of employment of the next generation of adults in the local community. Briefly explain how the data in the demographic profile can be used to develop more productive pedagogical practices and to develop a more supportive social context for classroom learning.
Children live in different situations. Many children are displaced from their homes and their families. Watch the videos on A Place at the Table, Children in Foster Care, and Hard Times Generation. Identify two or three ways teachers and schools can support these children academically, emotionally, and socially. Discuss the approaches you have identified with your class mates. Determine which of these approaches can be implemented during a field experience in your teacher preparation program.
Resources
A Place at the Table
Children in Foster Care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBa9cK52vM
Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK_RnxYdrqU
Teaching Urban Students
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/urban/index.html
Bill Strickland: Rebuilding a Neighborhood with Beauty, Dignity, Hope
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_strickland_makes_change_with_a_slide_show
The New City: Rebuilding the 21st Century Urban Community from the Ground Up (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZnX9jw6iZ4
Great Urban Parks: Landscape, Planning, Policy, and Health (video)
Chapter 5 - Reframing the Curriculum
National Efforts to Improve Schooling for Underserved Students
Introduction
The education of underserved populations has been a challenge in the United States since the beginning of the nation. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act designed to address the education of children living in poverty was passed by Congress in 1965, it was acknowledged that Congress had struggled with this issue since 1870. This legislation was based on the idea that children from low-income families required more educational services than those from more affluent families. Since 1965, public school practitioners have struggled to close the achievement gap between middle class, white students and low-income, urban, and ethnic minority students. Colleges and schools of education have struggled to consistently prepare teachers with the ability to promote academic excellence among traditionally underserved students. However, there are individual teachers in low-performing schools who facilitate academic excellence among their students and particular schools located in low-income urban communities where students perform as well or better than their more affluent counterparts. This indicates that academic excellence is possible for all students regardless of their life circumstance, but has been an elusive goal for many school practitioners. The purpose of the tasks below is to help you become knowledgeable about the substance and impetus for contemporary federal education mandates and the response of particular stakeholders.
Tasks
No Child Left Behind is the title given to the redesign and reauthorization in 2001 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Open the link for No Child Left Behind. Read the section labeled Title I: Improving Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged. Give particular attention to the purpose, strategies for accomplishing the purpose, and the focus of the incentives. Write a brief description of any contradictions or inconsistencies among the purpose, strategies, and incentives. Identify stakeholders who might oppose this approach to achieving educational equity for underserved students and write a brief explanation of their argument. Write a brief explanation of the implications for society if the issue of educating underserved students is not addressed.
Open the link for A Blueprint for Reform. Read the sections titled “Priorities in a Blueprint for Reform” and “Meeting the Needs of English Learners and other Diverse Learners.” Write a brief statement comparing and contrasting these two sections of A Blueprint for Reform with the section you read from No Child Left Behind. Write a brief statement of what might be challenges to accomplishing the purpose and priorities of policy statements from these two documents.
Open the link for Common Core Standards. Click on the link “About the Standards”. Read this section. Open the link “Other Resources.” Read the sections “Key Shifts in English Language Arts” and “Key Shifts in Mathematics.” Think about this information as big ideas for organizing the curriculum. Briefly describe the challenges, risks, and opportunities that might be encountered in implementing the changes represented in the common core standards.
Watch each of the two videos listed below on the common core standards. Write a brief position statement on the common core standards based on the understanding you have constructed from the videos and other resources you have consulted.
Resources
No Child Left Behind
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
A Blueprint for Reform
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/publicationtoc.html
Common Core Standards
Common Core State Standards for Math (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJ44te7jrw
Common Core State Standards for ELA and Literacy (video)
Chapter 6 - Redesigning Instruction
Engaging Students in Learning
Introduction
The school curriculum provides the content and organizational structure for classroom instruction. The curriculum is organized around big ideas, concepts, principles, theories, and practices for a particular discipline or subject area. The common core standards, state and district curriculum standards, and grade-level standards developed by local school districts are designed to monitor student progress in developing basic or minimum academic knowledge and skills. In some schools and school districts teachers engage in a process of “unpacking” standards to develop specific learning objectives, to determine what students need to know and be able to do to demonstrate meeting the standards. Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other indicators including high school completion and college admission, many low-income, urban, and ethnic minority students do not attain minimum standards in reading and mathematics. Improving learning outcomes for traditionally underserved students requires engaging students in meaningful and powerful learning experiences. The highest quality learning for any group of students is connected to what students already know and can do, and engages students in meaningful and productive experiences and tasks.
Tasks
Think about what you have learned about students in a local school through all of the data that you and your peers have collected. In collaboration with three to five of your peers, develop a bulleted list of the big ideas you can glean from your data to guide your planning of meaningful and productive learning experiences and tasks for your students that will lead to meeting common core and/or district standards.
Interview a teacher whose students are consistently high performing in a low-performing urban school that uses a scripted curriculum, pacing guides, and that emphasizes preparation for testing. Ask questions to reveal how this teacher engages students in learning that achieves high academic performance in this context. Ask such questions as: What motivates your students to do the work necessary to achieve the expected learning outcomes? What modifications do you make to the scripted curriculum or the pacing guide? How would you describe your relationship with the students? How would your students describe their experience in your classroom? What does a beginning teacher need to know to facilitate student learning to achieve high outcomes from traditionally underperforming students? Write a brief commentary comparing what you learned from this expert teacher to the big ideas on your bulleted list.
Select a big idea or concept from the curriculum for a particular subject area or discipline. Develop two or three specific objectives or learning outcomes. Link these objectives to standard(s) from the common core or the district standards. Based on what you know about the students and the content you plan to teach, develop a series of learning experiences and/or tasks for these students. Ask one or two of your peers to evaluate your planned learning experiences in terms of the probability for meaningful and productive learning that will accomplish the specific learning objectives and enable students to meet the identified standards.
Making subject matter meaningful for students includes making connections with their everyday experiences and personal identification with subject matter when seeing others like themselves and members of underrepresented groups generating highly valued knowledge. Watch the Nova: Forgotten Genius video on the work of chemist Percy Julian. Explain the potential value of using the work of this chemist in helping students understand specific concepts in science.
Resources
Common Core Standards Initiative
Common Core Standards
High School Dropout Factories http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/dropout/index.html?SITE=AP
Nova: Forgotten Genius (video)
Chapter 7 - A Framework for Understanding Cultural Diversity in the Classroom
Culturally Mediated Classrooms
Introduction
Central ideas in Chapter 7 are that: (A) habits of mind (ways of knowing, reasoning, and thinking) result from enculturation through a cognitive apprenticeship begun in infancy and continued through adulthood, referred to as culturally mediated cognition; (B) meaningful and productive learning experiences are connected to, build upon, and extend prior life experiences and habits of mind in culturally mediated instruction; and (C) a cognitive theoretical perspective (information processing theory) can be used to explain and illustrate the relationship among cognition, culture, and classroom learning. A conceptual understanding of the relationship among cognition, culture, and classroom learning combined with a deep understanding of a theoretical perspective on learning enable developing epistemic practices to support consistency, coherence, and continuity in framing the curriculum and planning learning experiences over time. Epistemic practices are teaching routines and procedures that bring coherence, consistency, and continuity to teaching and learning in the classroom.
Tasks
Read the information in the PowerPoint presentation titled Application of Theories of Learning to Practice. Remember that each of these theoretical perspectives has been used in teaching students from different cultural and experiential backgrounds. Think about the data you have collected on a particular population of students. Write a brief commentary on your thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the theoretical perspectives on teaching the particular population for which you have collected data.
Read the information in the PowerPoint presentation titled Constructivism Theory. Think about the data you have collected on a particular population of students. Use the constructivist theoretical perspective to develop an interrelated sequence of five learning segments focused on a big idea, concept, principle, theory, or skill. A learning segment represents one portion of subject matter knowledge that has an identified learning outcome, application, or product. Write a brief commentary explaining your application of the basic tenets of the constructivist theoretical perspective in the design of the learning segment. Explain your use of epistemic practices in the planned learning segment.
Watch the video on the early learning class. Think about what you have learned about the relationship between culture and theories of learning. Based on your knowledge of learning theory and culture, develop a brief written explanation of the class described in the video.
Resources
Overview of Learning Theories
http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/learning-overview/
Learning Theories (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP2PWuRAeLQ
Use a Learning Theory: Constructivism (video)
Early Learning Class Based Upon Aboriginal Culture (video)
http://tvoparents.tvo.org/video/196186/early-learning-class-based-upon-aboriginal-culture
Chapter 8 - Putting It All Together
Developing a Teaching Philosophy
Introduction
A teaching philosophy is the keystone supporting all other elements of teaching practice including how the curriculum is framed, the nature and quality of learning experiences, the relationships among students, and the relationship between the teacher and the students. A teaching philosophy incorporates (A) a vision for the future of the larger society and the local community in which teaching takes place; (B) a vision for the future of the learners as individuals and as participants in the local community and the larger society; (C) an explanation for how students are expected to benefit in the present and in the future from the knowledge and skills being learned; (D) a well-articulated theoretical perspective on learning that guides the development of meaningful and productive learning experiences aimed at accomplishing the vision; and (E) a view of the role of the teacher and the students, the relationship among students, and the relationship between students and teachers that support accomplishing the vision.
Tasks
Think about the needs of the society at large and the local community where you collected data on the students. Social justice and education are major challenges facing the larger society. Urban communities disproportionately face challenges related to the quality of education available in public schools, employment, housing, law enforcement, and poverty. Develop a teaching philosophy that begins by explaining your vision for the future that addresses the specific needs of the society at large and the local community. Then address your vision for the students as individuals and as participants in the larger society and the local community. Make your statement as specific as possible about how students will benefit from what they learn in your class/course, the theoretical perspective on learning that will guide your work, and the social context you will foster in your classroom. Refer to items A through E above.
At its core, a teaching philosophy is a set of beliefs that influence everyday classroom practices. Given that this is true, write a brief commentary explaining how you will use evidence to inform or change your beliefs and to adjust your classroom practices.
Read John Dewey’s My Pedagogic Creed. Locate each of the items in A through E above in John Dewey’s My Pedagogic Creed. Write a brief commentary explaining the similarities and differences in your teaching philosophy and the philosophy espoused by John Dewey.
Resources
Dewey, J. (1987). My Pedagogic Creed. The School Journal, 54(3), 77–80.
Chapter 9 - Transforming Professional Practice
Evaluating Teaching Performance
Introduction
Teacher accountability and teacher evaluation are contentious issues in the United States. Research indicates that the classroom teacher is the single most important influence on learning outcomes for students. However, some teachers and other stakeholders continue to argue that teachers cannot be held accountable for student learning outcomes because there are many other factors involved. Evidence shows that the ability to foster academic excellence for underserved students is inconsistent among teachers in the same school and for schools serving populations with similar demographics across school districts and in different states. Some teachers in low-performing urban schools foster high outcomes from their students. Some schools in low-income neighborhoods foster learning outcomes similar to, and at times better than, those in wealthy neighborhoods. Additionally, the academic performance of traditionally underserved students varies by state and school districts within states. These examples of variations in the academic performance of traditionally underserved students indicates that differences in the quality of opportunities for learning and the social context within classrooms and schools can have a significant influence on learning outcomes.
Tasks
Open the link to the National Education Association (NEA) policy statement on teacher evaluation. Read this policy statement. Write a commentary on your response to this policy statement giving particular attention to any areas about which you have concerns, or an especially positive or negative response. Explain how this policy statement addresses issues related to the impact of teaching on the learning outcomes and the quality of school life experienced by traditionally underserved students.
Open the link to the statement by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) on teacher evaluation and development. Read the statement. Write a commentary on your general response to the AFT statement. Explain how this policy statement addresses issues related to the impact of teaching on the learning outcomes and the quality of school life experienced by traditionally underserved students. Explain how this statement is similar to and different from that presented by the NEA.
Identify an area(s) that you believe essential for improving learning outcomes for traditionally underserved students. Write a commentary explaining the evidence you would collect to monitor your effectiveness in this area. Explain strategies you might use to improve your practice in the areas you have identified. Explain any aspects of this list about which you had a particularly positive or negative response.
Watch the video on the Bread Loaf teacher network. The website www.theteachingconnection.com provides an opportunity for you to work with several of your peers to design a collaborative network that will continue after you complete your teacher preparation program. Additionally, you can develop a special interest network on the website www.theteachingconnection.com by creating an open invitation to teachers from across the nation.
Resources
The Teaching Connection
http://www.theteachingconnection.com
New Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability—Adopted as Amended
National Education Association
http://www.nea.org/grants/46326.htm
Teacher Development and Evaluation
American Federation of Teachers
http://www.aft.org/position/teacher-development-and-evaluation
Bread Loaf Teacher Network: What We Do (video)