1 Language & Culture in the Classroom LLED 5040 Spring 2011

Instructor: Stephanie Abraham

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesday 9:30-10:30 or by appointment

Location: Aderhold 126C (first floor)

Email: [email protected]

Course Description This course examines the concepts of language and culture and their relationships to teaching and learning in U.S. public schools. We will discuss different perspectives concerning school achievement of diverse student populations and strive to expand our notions of what it means to develop a multicultural perspective regarding teaching and learning.

Course Objectives We will develop an understanding of 1) socio-cultural factors that both promote and impede school achievement; 2) critical perspectives on curriculum, pedagogy, and learning, 3) multicultural school reform efforts, and 4) tools that enable teachers to link theory with practice in order to create responsive learning environments for diverse student populations.

As LLED 5040 is one of the required courses for the completion of the ESOL teaching endorsement for the state of Georgia, students are expected to prepare, participate, and interact in a thoughtful & professional manner at all times. One of the goals of LLED 5040 is to give pre-service teachers a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that accompany the commitment you make as a teacher of linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Class Atmosphere  This course is meant to open space where we can deconstruct personal ideologies as well as the ideologies of others. This process usually causes some discomfort, so it is important that we are sensitive and respectful toward others. However, we still want to have conversations that address complex and difficult issues such as prejudices and biases regarding culture, language, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.  I have chosen the readings here based on my own experience and the advice of teacher educators. However, these readings are only a starting point. I hope that you will bring additional readings to the group, either through the class wiki or during your time to lead us in inquiry around the week’s topic.  Please turn off all cell phones before entering class.  Laptops are welcome here, as they provide access to a wealth of resources to facilitate our discussions and small group work. However, please do not use laptops for inappropriate purposes during class time.

Assignments 1.) Participation 20%

Your participation in this course will be graded on three factors.

 Engagement with the Readings (evidenced by notes, copies of readings in class, questions brought to class)

 Engagement in Class (evidenced by discussion, response to other students)

 Attendance: Two free absences, two point deduction in your final grade for all other absences 2 (I define engagement as critically thinking about the readings and discussions and responding to them through applying to your own life and to your future classroom.)

2.) Cultural Autohistory (Anzaldúa, 1987) 15%

For all educators self-reflection is vital. By examining our attitudes, beliefs, and cultural values and behaviors, we can discover what has influenced our value systems. Each student will produce a cultural autohistory (3-5 pages) that describes and analyzes how you came to be who you are at this point in your life and what contributes to how you view your culture. You will identify salient characteristics in your life, which may include your gender, ethnicity, race, religion, etc. You may also choose to discuss particular people in your life, or an event, which symbolically reflects your cultural identity. The key for this paper is depth rather than breadth. I encourage you to focus on key details, a singular event, or aspect instead of just creating a biography or timeline. Also, include at least three good references from our readings up to this point. We will share several of these each class after the due date. Some suggestions and guiding questions: o Multimedia is acceptable. o Incorporate song, poetry, or another other visual art in or with your narrative (they do not count toward your page requirement) o Cultural artifacts accompanied by narration/text are acceptable o Analyze current events relating to language, race, culture, etc. and consider how these reflect your own experiences growing up (for example, can you connect to the experience of immigrants facing deportation in Georgia because of new legislation?) Consider the following: o How do you connect or disconnect to American values of individualism, competition, hard work, self-reliance? o What was the knowledge environment like in your home? What type of reading was done in the home by parents and others? o What is your best memory from elementary school? How would you describe your favorite teacher? o Was your school experience ethnically and racially diverse? o What is you ethnic group? What symbols or traditions do you participate in that derive from this group? What do they mean to you? How do they fit into or clash with dominant cultural traditions around you? o Describe a time when you felt extremely proud of your ethnic heritage. A time when you felt particularly ashamed. o What has been your experience with ethnic diversity? What are some of your earliest images and experiences with race and skin color? Has there been a time in your life when you sought out diverse contacts to expand your experience and understanding of the world? o What contact do you have now with people of dissimilar racial or ethnic backgrounds? How would you characterize you desire to learn more? What are your plans for making this happen? 3.) Inquiry Guide 15%

During one class, you will lead the group in a 30 minute inquiry about the readings/topics for the week. Please, be creative. Approach this as an opportunity to try out classroom methods, but please modify them for adults. Your inquiry plan can include any of the following or a combination of them.

 Small Group Discussion

 Powerpoints/Prezis 3  Creative Internet Displays

 Posters/Visual Displays

 Group Activities

To help with your lesson you may want to refer to some websites that have great teaching resources. Here are a few:

 www.readwritethink.org

 www.tolerance.org

 www.rethinkingschools.org

 www.zinnedproject.org

 www.tesol.org

 www.cal.org

 http://bakers5thgraders.wikispaces.com/

 http://www.childrensbookpress.org/

 http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807743836/ref=rdr_ext_tmb (Teaching Science for Social Justice)

 http://illuminations.nctm.org/

UGA also has many ejournals available to you that are potential resources.

Go here. http://www.libs.uga.edu/ejournals/, then type in the title of the journal.

 Science and Children  International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism  The Reading Teacher

 Anthropology and Education Quarterly  Journal of Language and Literacy Education  Radical Teacher  Journal of Language, Identity, and Education  TESOL Journal

 Journal of Latinos and Education

Your grade for this assignment will be bases on the design of your inquiry, the inclusion of references to required readings, and using at least one strategy from the above resources. Please post your lesson plan on the wiki on the day you will guide the class. Please indicate where your resources and strategies come from.

4.) Boundary Crossing 15% 4 For this assignment, you will immerse yourself in an unfamiliar cultural environment. The purpose of this assignment is to give you a short firsthand experience with culture shock. There are many possibilities; for example, you might:

 assist nurses at a hospital or nursing home  attend services for a religious denomination unfamiliar to you  attend social gatherings of a cultural group or association unfamiliar to you (e.g., Chinese Student Association meeting on a university campus, a Saturday language school in an immigrant community, etc.) Respect is KEY in choosing the location for your experience. Things to consider: is this a “safe space”, both for you and the group/community. How would I feel on the other end of this assignment? Is my interest sincere? I highly recommend that you find a person who can be your cultural broker in this circumstance, for instance do you know someone who is part of this social and who would be willing to take you with them to the social or cultural event? You must spend at least four hours in this environment (best if spread out over at least 2 visits). Keep a record of your experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Begin your “documenting” of this assignment when you are considering possible locations—like right now possibly! Watch especially for reactions such as "I wouldn't go there!" or other feelings of discomfort. Reflect on how you respond to "foreign" environments. When you are done with the experience, reflect on the experience and how it ties in with things we've discussed in this course.

Your response should be a four to six page paper (excluding title and bibliography pages) describing what you did and where you went (including times/dates), how it made you feel, how being othered relates to topics from the course, and what analogies you can draw for those in who are considered the other in American societies and other nations, as well. Writing in a descriptive narrative style is encouraged. You must include at least three references in your paper. However, they need to good references, not just dropping in names.

5.) Cultural Group Studies Wiki Page 15%

For this project, you need to form a group of three to five people. You need to choose a cultural and/or linguistic topic relevant to Georgia. Some topics may be the New Latino Diaspora in Georgia, Deaf Communities in Georgia, Bilingual Schools in Georgia, Korean Americans in Georgia, the History of Hmong migration to Georgia, Southern American Englishes in Schools, African American English in Schools, and many others. I want you to choose a topic that is interesting to you. For this assignment, your group will create a wiki of resources on this topic. (I will show you how to make a wiki page, if you don’t know how)  Your wiki page will include:

Embedded Videos: Please include movie trailers, newscasts, documentaries, music videos, and anything else you can find embeddable on your topic.

Links: Include links to websites that you think would be helpful to another teacher who has a student who identifies with the cultural group you are researching. Please include links that are useful for adults, not just children.

Readings: Include a short book review of a children’s book, young adult book, or novel that relates to your cultural group. If you need help choosing a text, please let me know. Everyone is responsible for reading the book, but you may who and how to write up the review.

Article Review: Include a short article review of research or pedagogical article that relates to your research group. Use UGA’s ejournals, Google scholar, or Galileo to help you here. Again, every group member needs to read the article, but your group should decide on how to divide up the writing of the article review. Also, attach the article to your wiki page.

6.) Journals 20% 5 During the semester you will keep an academic reflection journal. Every week or so I will give you a prompt to help you reflect on the concepts we are exploring, but you may write anytime that you want. Your final project will consist of these reflections. Date your journal entries and also include the critical question for the topic you are reflecting on. These journal entries need to include references to the readings or discussions that we have in class, please use APA style when referencing the texts.

A = 4.00 95-100 A- = 3.70 90-94 B+ = 3.30 87-89 B = 3.00 83-86 B- = 2.70 80-82 C+ = 2.30 77-79 C = 2.00 73-76 C- = 1.70 70-72 D = 1.00 60-69 Academic Honesty:

All students are responsible for maintaining the highest standards of honesty and integrity in every phase of their academic careers. The penalties for academic dishonesty are severe and ignorance is not an acceptable defense. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will be handed over to The Office of the Vice President of Instruction who will determine your woeful fate.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT

The Department of Language and Literacy Education welcomes you to what we hope will be a productive and enjoyable semester. We recognize the University of Georgia’s contributions to the nation¹s intellectual, cultural, linguistic, and environmental heritage. We share the College of Education¹s stated mission to (1) recognize, respect, and affirm differences among peoples; and (2) challenge oppression and structural and procedural inequities that exist in society, generally, and in local educational settings, specifically. These inequities arise from social, historical, economic, and political structures that influence and are influenced by culture, race, religion, language, ethnicity, age, gender, educational and socioeconomic status, disability status, sexual orientation, world-view, and community. Through our programs and courses we are engaged in a process of continual reflection and evaluation to work toward an equitable democratic society.

We value your participation in this process. If you feel that our department program or courses fall short of this commitment, we encourage dialogue with your instructor. Enjoy your learning this semester!

JoBeth Allen, Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Laurant Cammarata, Viktoria Driagina-Hasko, Linda DeGroff, Mark Faust, Peg Graham, Linda Harklau, Ruth Harman, Don Rubin, Peter Smagorinsky, Bettie St. Pierre, and Joel Taxel.

Class Topic Readings In Class

M 1/9 What questions do you have In class read aloud: Watch: The Danger of A Single about languages and Story In class: Forward to A Critical Discourse Discuss Syllabus. cultures in your future Record the questions to guide Analysis of Family Literacy Practices (Gee) classroom? our semester inquiry into this topic.

Watch Kris Gutierrez’s interviews on W 1/11 Culture Matters : Rethinking Educational Equity (Gutiérrez) teaching tolerance.org. Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires http://www.tolerance.org/tdsi/asset of Practice (Gutiérrez & Rogoff) (Be prepared to discuss /culture-students 6 the terms, individual traits and repertoires of practice.) http://www.tolerance.org/tdsi/asset Go to www.tolerance.org/tdsi/, join, and log-in. Go to /cautionary-issues-learning-styles Learning Resources and watch a couple of videos. Come prepared to share what you learned. http://www.tolerance.org/tdsi/asset /repertoires-practice

W 1/18 Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard? Watch (Christensen) Naming and Interrogating our English-only What is Language? How do Legacy (Bartolome & Leistyna) http://www.tolerance.org we come to see some a Explore www.childrensbookpress.org, click on /tdsi/asset/multi- form of communication as resources to find teacher’s guides for books. lingualism-asset-not- language? Why do we deficit evaluate people based on their language use? http://www.tolerance.org /tdsi/asset/recognizing- multiple-forms- expression-an M 1/23 Desperate to Learn: Latino Youth in NC Watch 35 mins of Precious Schools Knowledge.

NABE Newsletter July-Aug 2011 W 1/25 Watch 35 mins of Precious of Knowledge What are the school contexts regarding students’ First Journal Entry cultures and languages? Inquiry Guide: Email your boundary crossing proposal: Just a short paragraph explaining when and where. M 1/30 Choose one autohistory to read from this Groups according to your list: reading choice: Share a How to Tame a Wild Tongue (Anzaldúa) quote you loved, you Stubborn Girls and Mean Stories (Allison) didn’t understand, and Superman and Me (Alexie) one you didn’t agree with. How do we uncover culture What themes of reflecting within ourselves? How do Write/create your autohistories. on your past are we see the biases we hold? represented? W 2/1 How do we come to see Bring a paper copy or ourselves and others Inquiry Guide: some physical way to differently? share your autohistory. Email me a copy before class. We will read/view these in small groups, not aloud or to the whole group. M 2/6 What do teachers expect from students and why do The Need for Educators With Political and they expect it? Ideological Clarity (Bartolome and 7 Balderrama)

Explore www.zinnedproject.org Read A Young People’s History of the US W 2/8 Inquiry Guide: Second Journal Entry M 2/13 What problems will you face Seeing the strange in the familiar: as teachers regarding how unpacking racialized practices in early schools are structured? childhood settings (Brown, Souto- What power do we have to Manning, Laman) W 2/15 change structures? Inquiry Guide: M 2/20 Lessons From La Maestra (Flores-Dueñas) Creating Space for Critical Talk (Baker)

W 2/22 Inquiry Guide: Third Journal Entry M 2/27 Read one: What can we learn from the What’s Your News? Portraits of a Rich educators before us? Language and Literacy Activity for English Language Learners. (Manyak)

W 2/29 Inquiry Guide: Fourth Journal Entry M 3/5 NABE Newsletter How else can schools be W 3/7 Inquiry Guide: Due: Boundary Crossing structured to explore power Reflection for Group relationships among Discussion (email a copy language and culture? to me, but bring a paper copy to class) M 3/19 What does theory to The Family Stories Writing Project practice look like in the (Dworin) classrooms? Developing Biliteracy in the English-Only Classroom (Baker) Read Gisela’s Story W 3/21 Inquiry Guide: Fifth Journal Entry M 3/26 What does academic Beyond the Methods Fetish: Towards a http://www.teachingbook achievement mean? How do Humanizing Pedagogy. (Bartolome) s.net/book_reading.cgi? we know when students id=4690&a=1 learn? What should NABE Newsletter Sept-Nov 2011 W 3/28 students learn? Inquiry Guide: Sixth Journal Entry M 4/2 Explore these news sites: In Class: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/educatio n/index.html http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/sc holasticnews/index.html How can we connect our current life to our current Inquiry Guide: pedagogy? W 4/4 Inquiry Guide: M 4/9 Explore three resources listed in the In Class: syllabus.

W 4/11 Inquiry Guide: 8 M 4/16 What are teacher’s roles in Teacher’s Beliefs about Parent and Family the larger society Involvement: Rethinking our Family surrounding the school? Involvement Paradigm (Souto-Manning & How do approach and Swick) respond to the families’ of Inquiry Guide: our students? W 4/18 Share Wiki Pages M 4/23 Share Wiki Pages W 4/25 Share Wiki Pages M 4/30 Journal Entries Due No Class