Notes
*Did not print out Resource Readings. Read on computer. Used Onenote to help capture and take notes.
Why teach?
Notes on Nieto, Sonia "Why Teach," Ch.1
Chapter 1: Public Schools and the Work of Teachers
the lofty goals of public education
what teachers think about issues that define teaching in today's classrooms
Teaching Context
Why? help. mission. love. idealism. passion.
Discourse: bureaucratized, business-focused
contrasted to
Discourse of possibility stemming from a quest for equality and social justice
What is an effective teacher of all students?
Teachers need reflection, collaboration, study and investigation.
- strong subject matter knowledge
- pedogogical effectiveness
- excellent communication skills
- connect learning to students' lives
- have high expectations of all students (regardless of previous experience, gossip, or reputation)
- stay commited to students even when obstacles emerge
- value student identities as a foundation for learning
- parent and community members are partners in the learning process
- create a safe space for learning
- dare to challenge bureaucracy
- resilient in the face of difficulty
- use active learning strategies
- view self as life long learner
- care about, respect and love their learners
NCLB
L407.L507 Au. Edwina Left Behind.pdf
Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice by Wayne Au (2009)
Chapter 23 Edwina Left Behind by Soren Wuerth
Edwina - 12th grade language art student
The test
In my class I deviated from required: critical thinking, inquiry-based learning, cultural literacy
and
taught to the test: test strategies, test content and preparation
Making learning relevent to students:
read Native-American authors
Re-construct traditional narratives into plays
Analyze home language and Standard English
L500. NCLB. 2005. Evans and Hornberger.pdf
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: REPEALING AND UNPEELING FEDERAL LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES by BRUCE A. EVANS and NANCY H. HORNBERGER (2004)
onion: national, institutional, interpersonal
"we speculate on policy discourses and their underlying
ideologies at the national level, issues of school accountability and
scientifically based research at the institutional level, and perceptions
of both ESL and mainstream practitioners at the interpersonal level."(p91)
National
"three orientations commonly found in language planning in the
United States and elsewhere: language as problem, language as right,
and language as resource." (p91)
"The discourse of Title III, however, reflects a language as problem
orientation and certainly provides little or no evidence of either a
language as resource or a language as right orientation."(p92)
Ironic as global culture - respect and practice of diverse languages - is more important now than ever before.
Footnote: "Three themes of the ecology of language are that languages ‘‘(1) live and evolve
in an eco-system along with other languages (language evolution), (2) interact with
their sociopolitical, economic, and cultural environments (language environment),
and (3) become endangered if there is inadequate environmental support for them
vis-a`-vis other languages in the eco-system (language endangerment)’’ (Hornberger,
2002: 35–36)." (p92)
Institutional: School Accountability and Scientifically Based Research
"Examples are schools, organized religion, the media, civic and
other private and publicly subsidized organizations (libraries, musical organizations),
and the business community. (Ricento & Hornberger, 1996: 415)" (p93)
sanctions - "With each subsequent year, the
sanctions get more severe including paying for students to get outside
help, sending students to other schools, removal of personnel and
ultimately reorganization of the school."(p94) get the whole school involved in English
disconnect between NCLB policy and Educational research
"Title III provisions appear to be based on
the assumption that with only three years of special language services,
students with limited English proficiency can reach a level at which
they perform academically on par with native English speaking peers"(p94)
"However, to carry out cognitively demanding, context disembedded
mainstream academic work, students need to attain advanced levels
of English language proficiency (Cummins, 1984, 1992; Krashen &
McQuillan, 1999)." (p94)
"However, the level of language proficiency
necessary to do the type of academic work required by the No Child
Left Behind Act takes much longer to develop, typically more than
5 years (Cummins, 1979; Thomas & Collier, 1995), and as many as
10 years when children are schooled exclusively in the second language
(Collier, 1995)." (p95)
"Indeed, the more their learning contexts,
contents, and media allow language learners to draw from across the
whole gamut of their languages and literacies, the greater are the
chances for their full biliterate development and expression
(Hornberger, 2003)."(p96)
"In the preface to its discussion on scientific
research in its Strategic Plan for 2002–2007, the Department of
Education characterizes currently accepted educational research as
not meeting the standards for science.
Unlike medicine, agriculture, and industrial production, the field of education
operates largely on the basis of ideology and professional consensus. As such, it is
subject to fads and is incapable of the cumulative progress that follows from the
application of the scientific method and from the systematic collection and use of
objective information in policy making. (US Department of Education, 2002: 59)
Recent educational practices have also been compared to ‘medieval
medicine’ and current knowledge in education has been characterized
as ‘superstition’ by officials of the US Office of Educational Research
and Improvement (Erickson & Gutie´rrez, 2002: 22)."(p96)
"This definition of scientific research is out of alignment with that
of a number of educational researchers. The law fails to recognize the
unique nature of educational research which must contend with
complexities of context, the interactions among participants and a
range of intervening factors, and the changing nature of the social
environment that invalidates or renders irrelevant solid scientific
findings from the previous decade (Berliner, 2002: 18). The emphasis
on causal analysis by means of experiment in order to determine
effective practices is another concern." (p97)
Interpersonal
"Ricento and Hornberger,
in contrast, claim that ‘‘educational and social change and
institutional transformation, especially in decentralized societies,
often begin with the grass roots’’ (1996: 417). As teachers interpret
and modify received policies, they are, in fact, primary language
policymakers." (p99)
"Given their university preservice
training, in-service training, and experience, their understanding
of what constitutes effective education for English language
learners could be in conflict with federal No Child Left Behind Act
language education policy." (p100)
"All educators interviewed expressed concern about the change in
tone in the policy from what we have characterized as a language as
resource or a language as right orientation to one that seems to be a
language as problem view." (p102)
Conclusion
"As things stand, however, No
Child Left Behind is likely to have only a negative impact on the
education of language minority students, given its failure to incorporate
research-based understandings of the necessary and optimal
conditions for English language learners’ language and literacy
development." (p103)
L407 L507 KRASHEN on NCLB Our_schools_are_not_broken.pdf
Talks like a politician/businessman:
"1. American education is not broken. Our less than spectacular international test scores
are not because of bad teaching, but are because of our high rate of child poverty.
2. Reducing poverty will improve educational attainment, not vice-versa.
3. A reasonable first step is to protect children from the effects of poverty: No child left
unfed, more health care, improve access to books.
4. We can easily pay for much of this by reducing testing." (p4)
Further Readings on NCLB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTzLILQx3c&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7od-RU1Jw
Supplementary & Optional Reading NCLB
http://www.ed.gov/category/program/race-top-fund
