Session 3: Considering ELs as a Resource in My Teaching

LA 3.1 (20 min.) Water as a Problem, Right, Resource.  You begin by watching VS 3.1 found at this link  https://education.byu.edu/tellvideolibrary/bilingualEducation. You will scroll down and select VS 3.1 on the left screen and then scroll up to the video screen and click on the video to start. It is 10 minutes. Each group will need a hard copy of the chart found at this link,  https://equitypress.org/-hAkG). After the video, give directions for discussing and recording their thinking on the chart. After the group fills in the chart together, the class as a whole will discuss and you will ask each table group to share ideas.  

 

LA 3.2. (25 min.) Language as a Problem, Right, Resource. This activity builds on the previous one. Show VS 3.2 in resistance and have them fill out the viewing guide. Supply the chart to each table or each person as you determine.  They now determine how language can be a problem, a right, and a resource and record their thinking on the chart. 

 

LA 3.3 (30 mins.) Mr. Chacon’s Story. Have students work in pairs to read the story and then fill out the chart that records their thinking concerning deficit theory and cultural capital).  Lead a class discussion to be sure teachers understand deficit theory and cultural capital, elicit examples from them and provide some of your own. (One idea that might prompt discussion to be deeper is the research conversation on teachers that records the ways in which policy and professional development programs represent them as deficit (see for example Hattie’s work).  

 

VS 3.3 (10 min) Social Theories 2.  For some reason, the link is currently broken. We are seeking to fix it. If it doesn’t work when you are teaching this course. Have students review the active viewing guide—which is pasted in the chapter--and discuss the theories. This will be reinforced in the Norma’s Story activity which is next.  

 

LA 3.4. (20 min.) Norma’s Story. Have students work in pairs to read the story and then fill out the chart that records their thinking concerning where evidence of resistance theory and funds of knowledge are evident in Norma’s story.  Have students report their insights ot the class. (In later courses teachers will learn more about funds of knowledge).  

 

LA 3.5 (40 mins.) Jean Anyon Study. Teachers read a summary of a study by Jean Anyone. Teachers often point out the date and indicate this is old news but this article published in 2008 reports that the situation in schools with minority populations continues and a second below that tracks achievement gap issues across two decades and finally a 2014 book by Jean Anyon that reports similar issues continuing.: 

“Geography of Opportunity”: Poverty, Place, and Educational Outcomes 

William F. Tate, IV https://equitypress.org/-vBW 

Abstract 

This article is an expanded version of the 2008 American Educational Research Association’s Presidential Address. The purpose of the article is to describe the geography of opportunity in two metropolitan regions of the United States that are engaged in significant efforts to transform their local political economies. Both metropolitan regions have invested substantive resources into the development of an area of industrial science—one in telecommunications, one in biotechnology. A central underlying question in this article is, how does geography influence opportunity? The article’s two case studies investigate this question, using different methodological approaches. The article concludes with two important lessons learned from the research. 

Here is a link to a study of a two-decade examination of similar disparities:  https://equitypress.org/-mLZf 

Anyon, J. (2014). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement. Routledge. 

Teachers read and discuss the Jean Anyon study.  End the activity with a class discussion. 

 

Review of Homework We have allowed time for you to review homework at the end of this session (5 min) use these notes to guide your review and also remind teachers to bring their notes from watching the 2 Pam Perlich videos from HW 2.4 for the next session.  

 

HW 3.1: Reflection Assignment. This follows a pattern that will be used in all the courses but sometimes there will be more guidance.  However, for this week because we are focusing on issues of social justice and multicultural understandings which are applicable and allow teachers to take different perspectives on cultural misunderstandings, we ask them to specifically consider these questions: 

 

Here are the general directions  

  1. Think of what you learned this week. What action did you take after this session in your practice or how did your change in thinking impact your beliefs. Use the Reflection Model. You can begin with your experience, your wonder (questions) or the new idea that lead to your change and then include each of the elements: personal voice (I), description of an experience, link to knowledge, questions raised. Allow yourself to reveal your emotion. Review the documents linked to support you in your reflection. 
  1. Some helps include thinking about what event either before, during, or after some action you took in teaching sticks in your mind. Think about based on this session --What did you learn, unlearn, and relearn this week? 
  1. Consider as you complete your reflection what are the next steps you will take in your practice? What do you hope will result? 

Remind the teachers that at the end of this course they will construct portfolios and should save artifacts and explanations of aha’s (insights) as they go. They will need one for each characteristic of Inclusive Pedagogy Including the center question which is Who is this child? 

 

 

HW 3.2 Considering Myths and Realities Concerning ELs. For this homework students will need to have the text book by Samway (I think either the first or the second edition will work, but students seem more sanguine with the 2007 edition than the earlier one). Teachers will read the article and the selections from Myths and Realities.  They use the charts to report their responses. 

 

HW 3.3 Reading about Poverty PhD’s. Teachers write three Ahas or wonders based on this reading and their learning—they should submit on the course management system or bring to class.  

 

HW 3.4 Discovering Assets in My Community. For this assignment teachers gather information for building an Asset Map that identifies landmarks, resources, and strengths of the neighborhood community of their school to chart them on a map. Teachers will add to this assignment later in this course and then they will revisit it in the Family course so tell them to save it for use then. 

This assignment requires that teachers look at their community through an asset orientation and pushes the teachers to go out into their school community to discover for themselves assets and resources that lie within the neighborhood.  This may require a push from you, but since it will appear here and in the Family course, they should be more willing to spend time and think deeply about this. Also, if this requires a bit of selling from you, we have included a short article from a principal who reviews the benefits to his school when teachers walked the neighborhood.  Be sure to point out the benefits of understanding the positive parts of a school community.   

 

HW 3.5 Considering the Difference between the North Star and the Map to Philadelphia 

This is a video segment that informs them about the Inclusive Pedagogy characteristic “Guiding Principles” which they will need to understand for their final project and issues of legalities that will be discussed in the next session. 

This content is provided to you freely by Equity Press.

Access it online or download it at https://equitypress.org/tell_facilitator_guide/session_3.