Literacy Project

With a heterogeneous class of 25 learners ranging in English language proficiency, native language ability, and learning preferences, I find myself challenged year after year.  How do I most effectively meet the varying needs of individual students when they’re so vast and different? Through student questionnaires, I gathered information that shows a learning preference that ranges from independent learning with teacher scaffold, partners, triad, small group, and even whole group.  This coupled with the assistance of technology, it adds a whole new layer to the learning preference.  

As an ELL educator, the acquisition and use of home language play a major role in proficiency of English oral language development.  The Developmental Bilingual program model has allowed me the opportunity to conduct a study in the last two years.  Before the Developmental Bilingual Model, Providence School District used the Transitional program model where students exited upon meeting the EXIT criteria.  With this outdated Transitional model in place, I could not follow student progress, so it was mere speculation.  Under the updated Developmental model, however,  I am able to follow student progress because students who meet the EXIT criteria remain in the program for the remainder of their elementary school career.  Through the study conducted, I could see parallels between English oral language performance and testing performance.  Since English language proficiency is an indicator of students’ achievement as it relates to testing because there needs to be an understanding of language to make meaning.  

This current year, according to the WIDA ACCESS literature score, the upcoming academic class of 2018-2019 is as follows: three students are ‘Entering,’ three is ‘Emerging,’ nine is ‘Developing,’ seven are ‘Expanding,’ one is ‘Bridging,’ and two are ‘Reaching.’  The two ‘Reaching’ have met the criteria for EXIT. What does all this teacher terminology mean?  It means I have beginner, intermediate and advanced English proficient students.  Because of my experience and study conducted, it will mean I have to find a relationship between their oral language and learning with interactive approaches that encourage more student talk and less teacher talk.  As Wesch would suggest, learning happens in the absence of a teacher, for it then that the learner pursues which great passion the questions that are meaningful and relevant in their own lives.  

The use of technology, Google Classroom will allow to more effectively meet the needs of the students.  As one educator trying to meet the needs of 25 students simultaneously, technology will allow me to do just that without sacrificing most students for some students or teaching to the middle.  It will allow me to simultaneously diversify the lesson scaffolding individual students’ needs at their pace.  Although students enter the program in Kindergarten and sometimes Pre-K, while having access to the similar educational experiences, the outcomes vary.  I can assign the work online providing scaffolds that range from pictorial and graphic representations to more specialized application options.   Also, the use of technology allows for students to take responsibility for their learning, where teacher acts as a facilitator.  Students assume the role of the expert, where the information needed is at their fingertips, using this information they have to teach.  In the process of teaching, they are learning.  “Teaching to learn and learning to teach” I believe empowers students by giving them a voice and helps them to feel that they too have much to contribute.  The learning is not the sole responsibility of the teacher, but a joint collaboration between student to student and teacher to student.  As Sugata Mitra, from school in the Cloud had stated, it is a self-organized learning environment, S.O.L.E.  The differentiation of the same lesson adapts the range of items the learner is expected to complete. The level of support will vary depending on which games students will choose to play if the audio along with the visual will help the learner.  The difficulty will be adapted to how they choose to teach the word to the class.  The roles students work in will be dependent within their collaborative groups.  

I like to think of my classroom as a platform where I encourage the students to develop their identities through leadership opportunities.  The student-leaders develop quite naturally as some students embrace the idea to take the lead while others cautiously observe as I did when I was young.  I observe their individual personalities and encourage all students to improve their actual and perceived needs through sharing stories.  I let the students share their personal narratives in written form that are later published by Student Treasures.   I believe everyone has a story to tell and through storytelling, we can find common threads and realize our strengths and find healing.

....I believe in the power of empowering students. 

My task as a digital immigrant, in conventional speed it to pick-up into twitch speed to engage the natives.  To do so according to Prensky, I must learn the language and the culture of technology. This use of technology is a gradual transition from technocrat, to techno-traditionalist.  I will be using technology proficiently to accomplish a traditional task.  It a step moving towards a techno-constructivist where hopefully, technology will change my approach to teaching and learning. In this approach, students work with teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the material.  Ultimately, the goal would be to move towards students creating and producing their own content not just consuming it through media. 

As a result, the media literacy class has inspired me to use the tool of technology to take my beliefs and philosophy about teaching and learning to another level.  As the presentation, Pecha Kucha will demonstrate the growth process undertaken from digital immigrant to learning about digital natives has been a journey.  Before this class, I would not have conceptualized simultaneously meeting all students' needs as a single educator.  I would find myself saying, " I am one teacher and there's 24 of you.  This is why I need leaders in my class." With technology, the possibilities are endless.  I can have student leaders and still meet the varying needs of students.  It allows me to think outside the box.  The sky is the limit with what could be done with technology and our environment will thank us for it.  

This I believe

This I believe...

As an educator, I locate myself with my students by sharing with them my Dominican roots.  I find the students are able to better connect with me when I share my personal struggles as a student in the classroom.  When I explain that I was that student sitting in their seat.  I was that shy little girl who spent a year “silent period” just observing everything before I found my voice.  I shared, how I repeated the first grade because I lacked English proficiency and the teachers thought I needed more time.  My mother unknowingly agreed.  

...I believe in transparency...Sharing who you are to being vulnerable to your students. 

Being an educator in the Providence School District in a Developmental Bilingual Class of 24 heterogeneous learners of the English Language, who all share a common thread creates a challenge.  Although, we are all recent immigrants or children of first-generation immigrants many of the cultures represented in my room are from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This common root connects us all together as we navigate our way through life trying to find our truth of who we are in a land foreign to us.  Struggling to identify with unfamiliar cultural concepts that both challenge who you are and society thinks you should be is a process.  This process of acculturation creates a divide between the two worlds, one of your ancestors and the other you are trying to make your own.  

...I believe in being content with who I am and embracing me. 

I like to think of my classroom as a platform where I encourage the students to develop their identities through leadership opportunities.  The student-leaders develop quite naturally as some students embrace the idea to take the lead while others cautiously observe as I did when I was young.  I observe their individual personalities and encourage all students to improve their actual and perceived needs through sharing stories.  I let the students share their personal narratives in written form that are later published by Student Treasures.   I believe everyone has a story to tell and through storytelling, we can find common threads and realize our strengths and find healing.

....I believe in the power of empowering students. 

Flight n' Crisis

The Flight from conversation by Turkle and The Crisis of Significance by Wesch share a theme evolving around how technology has impacted human interaction.   The flight leads to the disconnection felt with one another in any environment whether social, or academic.  The crisis begins when the search for meaning and inspiration remains unfulfilled for periods of time which may seem an eternity. 

In Flight from Conversation, Turkle claims conversations are sacrificed for mere connections when families and friends sit together, text.  This new art of “being alone together” has enabled us to be with one another and also elsewhere. Consequently, we end up hiding from one another as we connect to one another.  The author points out how technology is advancing to  look for ways to make artificial intelligence with more human like qualities.  This reminds me of a movie, Her  2013, based on a main character, Theodore who is recently divorced and finds himslef alone.  He invests in the latest technology,  a program for an Operating System designed specifically for him.   Eventually, he becomes emotionally and intellectually attached to Samantha, the operating system and its human like qualities.  However, the intellectual stimulus is no longer sufficient to satisfy Theodore.  He needs more.  Theodore needs companionship in the way that Samantha could not provide.  In our rush to connect, Turkle asserts we flee from solitude, but fail to experience people as they are.  

In Crisis of Significance, Wesch states that the physical structure of the classroom does not inspire dialogue and critical thinking.  His focus is on managing the environment.  He describes his auditorium-like class, as a sterile environment of neatly lined-up seats all facing a massive stage.  The podium, housed a computer with him as the focal point instead of the students.  

As the ad states, let's disconnect to reconnect. 

Let's Make Stuff Workshop

In class, we had a guest speaker who talked about the benefits of having students make stuff in class.  It holds students accountable for their learning in a way that simultaneously engages them.

 The implications for teaching and learning is to think outside of the "box" and allow time for creativity to flow.  We should not leave it up to the media to teach our children but guide them through thought-provoking conversations around the images we see.

Grammar Saves Lives

How to Use Grammarly

Using Grammarly can be broken down into simple step-by-step instructions.

First, you must sign in using a google account, Facebook or simply log in.

Once you are signed in, you will need to install the application.  

After the application is installed, you can begin using the features immediately.  On the home page, type or upload a new document.

Remember to set your goals.  This would prove helpful in the end for insightful tips for improvement.

Click the green button on the upper-right hand corner for checking assistance.

Underlined words will automatically appear on the document.  As you place the mouse over each highlighted word, options to correct, dismiss, flag and/or detailed explanations with specific examples will appear.  

In the end, insights will rank your writing in comparison to other users based on vocabulary and readability.  

Media Violence

Write about your chapter on your blog in a way that will help teach it to the rest of us who have not read it.  Include major argument (thesis) and any supporting examples the author uses to explain his or her point.

I chose to read the article Examining Media Violence: How can we help students to think about the relationship between media images and violence by Bakari Chavanu.  The setting begins in the classroom where an English teacher has to deliver a nine-week unit to his 11th graders on violence in society.  The author uses a resource entitled Beyond Blame produced by the Center for Media Literacy in Los Angeles. 

The major argument is that the media is not the sole cause for violence in society, but that the media plays a major role in reinforcing the myths, images and even attitudes that support a culture of violence.  Just as the media shifted around smoking, cholesterol, and buckling your seat belt, it can do the same to encourage choices about violent behaviors. 

One particular exercise the teacher uses with the students is “Damsels in Distress: Women and violence.  Student set the purpose before watching video clips by having to circle descriptive words that describe how men and women are depicted in music videos.  The first part of the activity served to help the students recognize the differences in gender.  After this activity students watched a selection of videos first with sound and second without sound.   The students quickly realized that the music served as a distractor and they were able to see more without the sound. 

Another activity the teacher includes from the resource is entitled Media Heroes, Real Heroes.  Students had to call out descriptive words used to describe actions of a typical hero. Then students had to describe people in real life who they could describe as heroes or heroines.  The point of this exercise was to help them see the contrast between media and real-life heroes.

The teacher finally ended with a segment special Kids Killing Kids and a discussion about non-violent solutions. One student was quoted as saying, " Without violence, TV would be boring." What do you think?

Animated Culture

What is your relationship to Disney and animated children’s culture?  What role did these texts play in your life as a child, if any? In that of any children you share time with? How do your memories challenge or reflect Christensen’s claims? How does Frozen meet or challenge your memories of princess culture? 

In unlearning the myths that bind us by Linda Christensen, the “secret education” refers to the indoctrination of young children through books and movies.  This wouldn’t be so dreadful if it were not for the fact that the marginalized remained voiceless and invisible.  

Because most of our early information about how others live does not come from first hand experience, our cultural stereotypes are shaped and distorted by what is seen in the media.  

For me personally, being in the minority of the minority, Hollywood and media images portrayed did not represent me.  The images of the Latina in the ‘novelas’ were always fair-skinned or white as this is what is valued in the Latin culture due to colonized mindset. Whenever, I would see the images depicting Latina that are upheld as a standard of beauty.  I was not celebrated, as I did not see my reflection in them.  My image was not mirrored within the dominance of the minority culture. This absence is an aspect of the oppression I felt.  The indoctrination left behind by the colonizers runs deep in the blood of my people that the ideologies are accepted and the vicious cycle of negation is perpetuated.  The negation of who we are to who we think we must be.   

How has this affected me in my adulthood?  Accepting the notion, that I could not play the damsel in distress as I lacked the characteristics of beauty as portrayed by the media, I came to a resolve that strength and intellect would be my innate qualities.  These same qualities have been my driving force and kept me motivated to push past and redefining for myself what is beauty. 

Frozen the Disney movie challenges my memories of princess culture, because she chooses her love for her sister to teach her how to control her powers.  Even though she is locked away and isolated in a castle, it was by choice.  A choice made from desperation and lack of guidance.   In the end, she no longer had to hide and suppress who she is.  Embracing her true self, and understanding her love for her sister lead to her happily ever after. 

Media Literacy

What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky (per our discussion in class and/or per the article above?)  Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?

To assume that the youth are native to technology ignores the fact that not all teens are technologically savvy or that they know what to do with the experiences.  I agree with the statement that digital immigrants can support them by helping turn their experience into knowledge.  Together the digital natives and digital immigrants have something the other needs.   It is interesting to see that with the wide spread of social media, false news is on the rise.  So teaching critical-thinking skills to our youth is of upmost important.  To have the ability to discern fact from opinion through various fact-checking techniques is a skill the digital natives would need now more than ever to protect themselves from lies, and manipulations.  The digital era opens doors and puts information at your finger tips, but one should be weary of the falsifications be presented as facts.   It was hilarious hearing the term immigrant and native used with reference to technology for the first time in class.  While trying to understood the culture of technology in terms of first culture and first language, I was able to see parallels in my upbringing to that of my parents.   However, I did not attribute the way I process information differently than my son, to the  technology gap between our generations.  No matter how we process information or use technology, immigrant or native, we both need technology.  

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant?

I definitely consider myself to be a "digital immigrant."Digital Immigrant cannot become a digital native
according to some who argue this point.  I work really hard and make a conscious effort towards integrating technology into my daily life to access information more efficiently.  This work of integration unlike a "digital native" is not effortless and ingrained as I was not born with technology in hand.  In the process of this integration, my hesitation towards technology exhibits my accent.  The initial uncomfortable feeling I get when I have to learn something new.  For instance, I have yet to be technology savvy to create a google classroom account.  This may be my next professional growth goal so I can integrate technology meaningfully with my students.  Although I have welcomed blended learning with the use of Lexia, and Dreambox, I do so with hesitation as we're asked to assign individual assignments based on student need, which should be monitored.  It feels like more work! So I step into the digital age (information is at your finger tips) where my conventional speed of teaching and learning is not engaging enough to my twitch speed learners.

My summer Digital Media Literacy

 Who am I?  I am many things, as this is a loaded question.  I identify across many different areas on many different levels in my lifetime.  I am female. I am Black.  I am Latina.  I am a speaker of another language other than English.  I am native born to the U.S. from immigrant parents.  I am a culmination of different cultures in one universe trying to make it make sense in a changing world.  With a mindset for growth I accept challenges sometimes knowingly and others subconscious that I have internally struggle with to overcome. 

Mapping out Interconnected Care

When Nice is NOT enough, and Justice is required

Mapping out my role as a teacher would not fit into one neatly packaged body of parts, but into many bodies as I assume a variety of roles to meet the very challenging needs of my students.  Most days I walk into my classroom I do not know what to expect so to be prepared, I carry a  

      

  

Throughout the day, I  

 between multiple roles to manage the behaviors and  and cope with the different personalities.  At times I get confused managing so many roles.  Managing multiple roles as a common practice for many of us on any given day, but I think as teachers we are required to draw on different aspects of our personalities and experiences we bring to classroom.  

At times, I feel like I have to deliberate and settle a conflict between students, so I wear my robe as a  

            

and listen cautiously to both sides of the case.  My job here is very important because the plaintiff and the defendant have to be heard objectively so my biased opinion of either students does not cloud my judgement.  

At the end of the day, I do not want to

 a student.  All students deserve a chance to be heard and made to feel validated. This requires a very fine of listening to every one’s perspective and considering the facts.  

Sometimes facts is not sufficient when deliberating on a case, and I have to rely on my

skills to get to the root of the problem.  In most instances I have to filter through layers of social emotional needs to discover deeper underlying reason, some ones’ feelings were hurt.  If and when I am able to help the students come to a resolve I feel like it’s all in a days work.  Just doing my job so I can do my job.  After I have finally won their trust through our established relationship of mutual respect, I can now begin to 

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy left me feeling inspired and validated for the work I do as an educator.  The video expressed the work I do as an educator so eloquently.  I am the cultural translator that bridges the school culture and the home culture by building on students’ prior cultural knowledge.   I help make connections between what is known and what is to be taught and understood.  The ‘cultural filters’ as they were referred to in the video, is when students try to receive the message from school culture and try to adapt just as the school culture should adapt to the students.  It is not or should not be a ‘one size’ fits all model, as in the sink or swim situation I experienced.   Home language should not be silenced in the classroom, but used as a resource to leverage learning. 

• In my classroom this looks like the use of both Spanish and English to keep up with content while learning language.  Students have literacy text in both languages.  Spanish is used to help bridge understanding and make sense of content.  Students are encouraged to use their native language when necessary, either verbally or written.  

• The series of videos made some great points about bilingualism.  First episode Getting Acquainted states that students should not remain silent just because they do not speak the English language. The educator should find a means of being able to reach that student and establish a means of communication through the students linguistic background.  The goal ultimately, is not to silence the student into learning English, but to make them bilingual. 

• The second episode, Advocating for Bilingual Students showed how the teachers in the classroom went above and beyond to welcome the students in the classroom.  I really liked the language and culture portraits that shows how students identified with language.  The use of the multicultural and multilingual touchstone text is an awesome way for students to see themselves in the books.  Finally, I was touched by the teacher’s honesty when she expressed how she had to let go and become a co-learner with her students.  This act of humility can go a long way with students showing them empathy in the process of adaptation to a culture and a language system that is foreign.  

• The third episode, Bilingual Superpowers was very impressive way to have students create text.  Students are so into the graphic novels that having them create their own through the use of their home language is an ideal way to encourage their creativity and keep their interest level.  

• The quote from the fourth episode, Knowing your students, the teacher was quoted the book they were reading in class to Kill a mocking bird, she took a classic and added her own unique spin to it,” you can never understand a person until you consider things from his perspective, climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  She did this by celebrating the small victories in class helping the students feel accomplished.  She provided scaffolds in their language through prompts and visuals even though she did not speak their language. 
• https://youtu.be/t1gcinsjuZE

• The fifth and final episode, Benefits of Bilingual Education inspired me because my Teach Out project is directly related to this concept.  It sparked some new ideas to use with my students in class.  I like the story, My name is Jorge on both sides of the River.  I could read some touch stone and mentor text, and shows some videos to spark the students with ideas of the benefits of being bilingual so they can brainstorm.  

• Good teaching is just that, regardless if you can speak the child’s home language.  Incorporating the use of home language has many benefits, among them is academic success.

Engaged Pedagogy

• From Paulo Freire’s work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, although I have not read it, the documentary has given me the impression that he believed in a higher power other than himself.  If this is the case, is that one of the basic elements to achieving social justice?

• Also the documentary claims the importance to label an issue, because through the labeling one can better understand the concept ultimately to be able to dismantle or deconstruct the issue.  This reminds me of ‘intersectionality’, with these multiple invisible and visible identities can we begin to deconstruct the social injustices?  Does language begin to evolve as we give labels to issues in an attempt to understand them better? 

• Also, the article mentioned that Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of the teacher as the healer.  What happens when the healer needs healing?  Or the teacher is not able to practice freedom of education because of some absence of empathy or understanding of the human part of students? 

• What if the teacher’s teaching and learning philosophy  is that of the cognitive approach and therefore in tuned to the child’s nature and not how they are nurtured?

• If the practice of teaching as a form of freedom through healing and the healer must reach self-actualization that should be to help the self before helping other, the last ultimate step in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs a desire for self-fulfillment namely, the tendency for her the (the individual) to become actualized in what she potentially is, what would this look like if took it more seriously?  

Intersectionality

This idea of intersectionality is a living breathing concept that grows and evolves as one’s understanding and the many shades of meaning expressed as individualistic as each person.  Kimberlé Crenshaw has coined this term back in 1989 to envelop the multiple identities that intersect to make us who we are socially, economically and politically in which systems of oppression and privilege overlap and reinforce each other.   An example of intersectionality in my life would be that I am Black, Latina, woman, educated, bilingual, working professional and able-bodied.  Even though I enjoy privileges of being educated, bilingual, and able-bodied there are traits of being Black and Latina, a minority within the minority are challenges I am faced with daily.  It is an oppressive trait I experience among other Latinos who are colorist, and it is a challenge I am confronted with as people see my race which is visible and not my other positive traits which are invisible.  It is hard to get to know some one’s invisible identities unless you take the time to get to know that person.  
As an educator how does this play out in the classroom? What biases, stereotypes or assumptions do I make about my students if I do not take the time to get to know them individually outside from school to understand how their personal lives may inadvertently affect them academically?  For instance, I have two students in class who tend to demand one on one teacher attention more so than most of the class.  These two students share a commonality at home.  Even though one has a stay at home mom and the other has a working parent, both have a baby sibling who has ‘dethroned’ them.  My role in the classroom as an educator, tends to take the back seat to attending to their social emotional needs first.  At times I find myself in a crossroad where my biases cloud their struggles and oppressions.  In one case, a student has chronic absences.  I have reached out to the attendance team to meet with the parents to understand the home situation.  I have spoken with previous teacher to gain an understanding as well.  But I have yet to sit down and have a one on one talk with the student to remove any biases and get to the root of her problem.   I am not aware of her invisible oppressive traits that I am contributing to instead of helping her find a resolve.  

Attached is a cute video with kids explaining their thoughts on intersectionality. 

https://youtu.be/WzbADY-CmTs

In the Shadow of Brown Special Education and Overrepresentation of Students of Color written by Beth A. Ferri and David J. Connor  assert key points in the after math of the court decisions.  Sixty-four years later, after the decision  that segregation is to be deemed as harmful, schools remain to be as segregated as they ever were.  These are the unfulfilled promises of both landmark cases.  In Spanish we have a saying that describes this well, “el que hace la ley, hace la trampa.” 
The article continues to purport the problem of overrepresentation of minority students in special education classes.  The authors draw attention to the inappropriate placement and labeling of racial and linguistic minority students based on their performance on IQ test and other standardized test, criticizing them as biased.  Culturally and linguistic biased, and there fore these test are not valid.  Rather it is seen as a form of institutionalized racism. The report explains how the initial referral process begins with the teacher, who is most public schools are 90% White; whereas, 40% of the student population is of a racial minority.  
The Staff at my school consists of teachers, teacher assistants, principal, vice-principal, school psychologist, speech therapist, secretaries and nurse combined equals 50 people.  There is a fairly equal split of staff regarding teachers of color and White teachers. 
Consequently, because of the problem with overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs, there has been an increased effort not to identify as many students.  The number of students receiving services in the co-teach classrooms has been slowly dwindling over the last few years.  Does this mean students academic performance is increasing? No, our school is still labeled a ‘focus’ school due to low achievement on standardized testing known as PARCC.  This simply means the staff is finding creative ways for  working with the English language learners in program as well as out of program.  Also, there has been an attempt to redesign the standardized test, such as the interim assessment to be less culturally biased.  The characters in the story and the plot mimic some of the struggles students and their families share.  In other words, some students can see themselves reflected in the story line.   However, the wording of the questions are difficult and too ambiguous, so students still have a hard time answering the questions correctly.  
A suggestion the authors make that I find shocking is about the data on Hispanic students.  In the article, the authors impress that the data for Hispanics is complicated because on one hand they are underrepresented in elementary schools, but then overrepresented in high school.  They further suggest that they are more likely to be placed in self-contained, bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) classes and that these classes are overly restrictive and limit a student’s ability to gain access to the general education curriculum or to keep up with their grade-level peers.  First of all I do not agree with this statement.  In my understanding as an educator of Bilingual Education classes and as a former English language learner myself, students whose first language is not English versus their mono-lingual English counterparts is no comparison.  To begin, the bilingual or ESL classroom if properly run, using such techniques as “translanguaging” or allowing students to use their first language to make sense of acquiring the second language creates for a rich language environment full of learning opportunities.  Additionally, students access to knowledge is not being limited to only English.  That is limiting. The goal is to make input comprehensible using  their native language and the target language.  Studies have shown the many benefits to having a bilingual brain that operates with two or more language systems.  Placement in a bilingual or ESL classroom is neither overly restrictive or limits students.  It serves to enrich students and validate who and what they bring to the classroom.  
The article concluded by saying that we must learn from the history of Brown versus Board of Education and consider how certain practices serve to exclude students and that we should try to create a more inclusive future.  The practices of exclusion is due in part to the student population of Providence School District. For instance, currently, school-wide data taken from infoworks.ride.ri.gov shows a student population for 2016-2017 based on 88% of the students receive subsidized lunch, 43% receive ESL/Bilingual services, 12% receive special education services.  The student characteristics based on racial/ethnic background is as follows: 8% African-American, 1% Asian, 83% Hispanic, 2% Multi-cultural, 1% Native American, and 6% White.  With a combined population of African-American and Hispanic at 91% it is safe to assume that the majority of the students receiving special education services at the school are minority children.  Looking at the city-wide data it shows a student population of: 17% African-American, 5% Asian, 64% Hispanic, 4% Multiracial 1% Native American, and 9% White.  The state-wide data shows a student population of: 8% African-American, 3% Asian, 25% Hispanic. 4% multiracial, 1% Native American, and 59% White.  In my findings, the data shows that the majority of African-American and Hispanic students are highly concentrated in the Providence School District.  So unless there is going to be busing of students across city-limits, I do not see desegregation of Providence Schools as is stated in the Brown vs Board of Education.  https://youtu.be/nRz-l5nInvs

Crippling School Curricula

• In the article Cripping School Curricula the author David Connor states that a child with a disability who is mainstreamed in the least restrictive environment, that the disability is associated with shame and stigmatized by a model casting the disability as a deficit in need of examination, diagnosis and treatment.  In recent years, I have taught in an inclusion then a co-teach model where students with varying degrees of learning disability were mainstreamed with regular students who were not identified.  In both types of programs, inclusion and co-teach the treatment of the students was basically the same.  I, the regular education teacher would be responsible for teaching the whole class, and planning the lessons.  The inclusion or co-teach would pull a small group and give modifications or make accommodations based on their disability, or as otherwise stated in the individual education plans.  This model is known as alternative teaching where one teacher takes responsibility for the larger group while the others work with a smaller group.  In these smaller groups the inclusion or co-teach teacher uses remediation.  With the support of the administrator, he instated common planning time for all of the co-teach teachers to be able to plan lessons together.  The initiative for this was to afford time to plan a lesson that met the needs of the students, but most importantly to try a different co-teaching approach. 
• This was helpful because it opened up lines of communication between my co-teach teacher and I to be on the same page.  I was able to use the time productively to express how the students should be supported and what that should look like.  We were able to reach an understanding and compromise a little.  I offered to open up and allow her the space to teach in the way she was most comfortable with and I in turn could feel supported in the classroom.  Co-teaching is challenging for several reasons.  As a generalist, I do not have the special training to work with the students individual needs.  I felt overwhelmed to make accommodations for such a wide range of abilities with the limited supports of only having the co-teach teacher for a fraction of the day, and with little time to plan made it a daunting task.  After the administrator had left, the new administrator did not see the benefit for common planning time for co-teach classrooms, and it was removed.  This luxury of common planning was short lived and only lasted about two semesters.  
• The other types of co-teaching approaches are one teach, one observe, station teaching, parallel teaching, teaming and one teach, one assist. In the one teach, one observe just as it sounds one teacher teaches while the other observes with a specific purpose that is decided on by both teachers.  Then together the data from the observation is analyzed and used to inform instruction.  The teachers take turn with the different roles of teaching and data gathering. In the station teaching both teachers divide the classroom evenly to teach the content to one group and subsequently repeat the instruction for the other group.  The teachers could be creative here adding a third station for independent work.  The parallel teaching model is where both teachers are teaching the same content simultaneously at different levels. Teaming is when both teachers share delivery of the same instruction to a whole group. Finally, one teach and one assist is when one teacher has the primary responsibility for teaching while the other professional circulated through the room providing unobtrusive assistance to students as needed. 
• Some of the co-teaching approaches mentioned above can lend itself to create more labels in the classroom when certain students are pulled away from the whole group to be given special instruction.  I can see how this type of treatment can stigmatize a child and give a sense of shame.  What type of model is conducive to the teaching and learning environment of students with a disability?