Online Assignment #1
Jessica Lipschultz
Here is the start of a threaded conversation for your Online
Assignment. You will find the full description of the assignment in
the packet of assignments I distributed on the first night of class.
Reminder: the first post is due by this Friday at 9 p.m.
When you are posting, hit "Reply to Author" so that all comments form
a single discussion.
Thanks. See you next week.
Jessica
anntayl...@aol.com
I'm having a problem getting onto the discussion. This is the message "You cannot post messages because only members can post, and you are not currently a member.' What should I do?
Thanks
Ann
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Jessica Lipschultz
I played around with the group settings. Please let me know if you're able to log in now.
Thanks so much.
Jessica
Jessica Lipschultz
Even though some of you (Ann and Nicole Shelton) are getting messages
from Google group that you are not members and cannot post, your posts
are appearing.
I fiddled with the settings. Please let me know if this continues to
be a problem.
Thanks,
Jessica
jasmijn quon
Jessica,
I am a bit confused with this assignment and I feel that I have not had enough time to get this tongether. Is it possible that we have an extention till Saturday or Sunday to post online? Or, since we are a week behind, is the first post due next Friday after the 10th? I am confused...
Also, where are the posts to our group? I cannot find the posts (are they links? How do we find them? how do we email the google group without a reply?). I am confused how to access the google group. Please advise me (or anyone else who can help, please help!)
Thanks,
Jasmijn
--- On Wed, 3/3/10, Jessica Lipschultz <jlips...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Jessica Lipschultz <jlips...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Online Assignment #1
> To: "1301: Negotiating Curriculum" <1301-negotiat...@googlegroups.com>
Jessica Lipschultz
Please check the Google Group under Discussions and you'll see one for Online Assignment #1. Today's posting deadline by 9 p.m. has already been adjusted from an earlier deadline.
Please check with a classmate for more information.
Thank you.
Jessica
jasmijn quon
Where are the Discussions sections? How do I even get to the group without hitting reply to you? HTe only way I am accessing this is through sending a reply. I am not understanding how to send the discussions...
Thankjs,
Jasmijn
suzette cross
Hi Jessica,
As discussed, I wanted to send you a copy of my work that Nicole will be helping to post to our Google page for me. It was sent as an attached file. I am awaiting her response as to how she's managing to do it.
I hope the glitches will be sorted out in the near future. It seems Ann, Jasmin, and others are definitely having similar problems. So, as you proposed, it is not my computer afterall.
Thanks |
awhodat
I desperately need you to let me know what I'm doing wrong. I'm
agonizing over completing an assignment that I am not even too clear
about. Second, the assignment said the post was due 3/11 and it
wasn't until Friday after that some called and told me that it was
due that same evening. I posted one article attached to Nicole's work
and I can't find it to make corrections, so I had to do another post.
HELP
awhodat
to the other posts online. FRUSTRATED
On Mar 3, 7:44 pm, Jessica Lipschultz <jlipschu...@gmail.com> wrote:
Leandro Olivares
that the due day was sometimes before 3/10/10. You mentioned on
Wednesday that we can start posting the assignment this last Friday.
I never thought that the due day was this last Friday.
Should I complete my assignment anyway and give to you on Tuesday?
--- On Sun, 3/7/10, awhodat <pahun...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: awhodat <pahun...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Online Assignment #1
> To: "1301: Negotiating Curriculum" <1301-negotiat...@googlegroups.com>
Pauline Hunter
I revised my entry and is resubmitting it
Pauline
--
Sent from my mobile device
GRISEL MARQUEZ
(#1) The common thread found in the Hidden Curriculum Packet can best
be described in a quote from the first article, “The Hidden and Null
Curriculums: An Experiment in Collective Educational Biography” by
Ahwee, “Fostering both empowering and disempowering behavior schools
teach far more than they advertise.” The articles in the packet
together provide excellent examples of both extremes.
In “Letting in the Sun: Native Youth Transform Their School with
Murals” the school incorporated members of the community to work on a
project with students in which their experiences were used, through
the medium of art, to make the school a more welcoming place that
valued their experiences and built upon these experiences to make
connections to curriculum. The other extreme is evident in “Minority
Parents Should Know More about School Culture and Its Impact on Their
Children’s Education” where Christopher T. Vang asserts that test
scores are used as “a way of trapping students in low-quality courses
in order for the schools to obtain state and federal monies.” The
absurdity in this extreme is that if students make progress, funding
is reduced. A big question here is where to we as pedagogues fall
within these extremes?
(#2-Article 1: “Disrupting the (hetero)normative: Exploring literacy
performances and identity work with queer youth”) If there is to be a
medium, a remedy, a tool, a weapon to help in the fight against
“hidden and null curriculum” I believe it can best be done through
Hollland’s theoretical framework, within the four contexts of identity
found in his theory of identity—figured world, positionality, space of
authoring, and making worlds. In this article Blackburn uses the
example of Justine to show how moving in and out of these contexts can
be a an empowering experience where “identity work” can segue into
social change and become a venue for imagining alternatives in the
face of oppressive circumstances.
I chose to explore this article in more depth because it took me back
to my third grade class many years ago where I was rewarded for a
piece of writing that was exemplary in the eyes of my “white”
teacher. I had written a perfect three paragraph essay describing my
family which recounted how I did my chores, how my brothers helped me,
how my mother and father helped me with my homework in the evening,
and all the fun things we did as a family. However I was conflicted,
proud, silenced. In the third grade I no longer needed to be pulled
out for ESL, I came into the system in kindergarden not speaking a
lick of English. My parents did not speak English and obviously never
helped me with my homework. Instead they depended on me at a very
young age to fill out job applications and interpret a multitude of
mail. We did not do many fun things as a family because my parents
were too busy working two jobs to make ends meet. My brothers and I
fought constantly about the workload at home…I wrote my standardized
essay based on what I saw “white” families do on television shows I
watched. I learned early on to form a figured world in which I
discovered that my home life/culture was not acceptable in the school
culture, I learned to position myself in these figured worlds where I
was empowered at home and silenced in school. In school where I was
silenced I authored myself into the dominant culture and was accepted
by my teachers with my imaginative writings about my family.
This theoretical framework becomes more powerful when we begin to
explore and analyze our “figured world” as teachers. As teachers we
need to examine our postionality, in regards to how we view ourselves
within educational institutions, and how we view our students. What
do our own experiences say about the ways in which we author ourselves
into the school culture, in the classroom? How do we construct
“identity work for social change”? For example, I think many of us
disagree with the emphasis that is put on testing and how these scores
are used against teachers and students; however we continue to drill
our students with test-taking strategies and stress to students the
importance of the test. At the same time we want to incorporate
curriculum that students can identify with, we want to use their past
experiences, and their culture to teach literacy skills, but the
reality is that their past experiences and culture are not represented
on the test. The problem is—how can we as educators begin to assist
students in successful identity work for social change when what we
are learning in the Transformative Literarcy Program is not always
accepted by school supervisors. I suppose that’s where this class
comes into play.
(#2 Article 2) The article “Toward a Critical Race Theory in Teacher
Education” provides a framework in which educators can begin to
challenge aspects of the hidden curriculum by having students think
critically about race in the media and their environments. The
activities mentioned could be the beginning of identity work for
social change.
This article was particularly appealing to me because the comments
made about Latinos resonated with my own knowledge and beliefs about
myself. I will explain. The article contends that “[M]inority
cultural values, as transmitted through the family, are dysfunctional,
and therefore cause low educational and occupational attainment. The
model explains that deficient cultural values include: present versus
future time orientation, immediate instead of deferred gratification,
an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition, and placing less
value on education and upward mobility.” What surprises me about this
model is that it does not take into account that it has more to do
with socio-economic class than color. For example the majority of
Latinos who come to the United States do so illegally. That act alone
reveals that in their own countries they were treated as second class
citizens, because if they were from the upper class there would be no
need to come “illegally” to the United States. First and second
generation Latinos might not resist or question the educational
institutions because they are all too familiar with “hidden
curriculum” and hidden agendas, both abroad and at home. The cultural
deficit model is prevalent and can be applied to all classes in any
culture around the world that is living in poverty.
A pedagogical goal that I would like to attain a year from now is to
be able to implement the framework used in critical race theory in my
classroom to help my students better understand the role that race and
racism play in education.
(#2 Article 3) The final article that I will focus on is “Minority
Parents Should Know More about School Culture and Its Impact on Their
Children’s Curriculum” because it validates some suspicions that I had
about ELL students.
I worked for three years in California and during my first year of
teaching I was assigned to teach Language Arts to beginning ELLs,
intermediate students, and a mainstream class that included some of
the advanced ELL’s. I was shocked because I had no experience or
“training” for this class. At first I thought I was given this
assignment because I spoke Spanish, but as the year progressed I felt
that my being able to speak Spanish was actually a handicap. I really
felt that I had been misplaced and thought that a teacher who was a
native English speaker would do a much better job.
The standards for the ELLs were different from the state standards,
and yet students were unable to go from one level to another unless
they performed well on the state exams, as Vang describes “students
are being taught in one way and tested in other ways.” In the middle
of the year new mandates from the district/state for ELLs had to be
met. It appeared that many of these students had been “mis-labled”.
All students were tested using the CELDT test, and students were re-
organized into the “proper” level class. I remember one student
(Mexican-American) who had been in the mainstream class sadly saying
to me when she found out she was moving to the intermediate class,
“But Ms. Marquez why do I have to move to that class, I am not stupid
and I speak English, I’ve never even been to Mexico.” The problem with
this student was that she was not proficient because she was a 2 on
the state exam and that was considered “below basic”. So until she
could pass that CELDT exam or score a 3 on the state exam she had no
choice but to stay in that class, unless her mother came to the school
and signed a letter requesting that she wanted her daughter in
mainstream classes—this was also an option for students who spoke no
English, however teachers were told by administrators that this was
illegal and that parents should not be told about this option by the
teacher. I remember that I advised a couple of parents to do this and
the school tried to deter them, some parents had to go to the district
to get it changed, but realistically many minority parents do not have
the time or patience to be this involved.
Two years later there was a new wave of mandates and students were
tested and shuffled around again. I came to the conclusion that this
caused constant disruption and never allowed for any true progress. I
also found out how much money the school received for the ELLs and I
came to the “crazy” conclusion that maybe the school did not want them
to progress because then they would receive no money. Then I quit and
came to New York where I thought the pasture would be greener.
(#3) The whole “Hidden Curriculum” packet makes me feel uneasy about
my job. I do not like the institution that I am in and feel angry
when reading articles especially the last one mentioned above. When
asked what aspects of our 1300/1301 would these articles find valuable
I would say… Don’t know what they would say. I think that we have
just begun to scratch the surface especially with these articles that
expose the negative aspects of education. I think Vang would suggest
that we look for ways to get minority parents involved curriculum
design, the author(s) of the article on critical race theory combined
Blackburn’s article on “identity work” would suggest that we introduce
the concepts mentioned in both articles to move students to change
their worlds by challenging the inherent racism found in school
curriculum and society.
Leandro Olivares
I was reading your posting and I agree with what
you said about, how are we as educators will be able
to assist students in successful identity work for
that we have to prapare students for the City and State
Exams.
Well, I guess we will have to do as much as
we can. It is hard sometimes implememt certain
pedagogical ideas in our teaching because the
way that the system works.
I could identify with most of the things you
mentioned about your elementary school years.
When I was in elementary school I was also
placed in classes I knew I didn't belong.
Once I was placed in a monoligual class
at a time I couldn't say a single word
in English.
--- On Wed, 3/17/10, GRISEL MARQUEZ <mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: GRISEL MARQUEZ <mar...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Online Assignment #1
> To: "1301: Negotiating Curriculum" <1301-negotiat...@googlegroups.com>
suzette cross
|
jasmijn quon
I like the question that you ask about where we fall in terms of the extreme within the community involvement and the minority articles. I agree- where do we fall, and how do we know if we fell into the right spot? Well, maybe this is partially what we have to negotiate for ourselves and our pedagogy. I think the article about minority parents would also be interesting to explore since it is something that needs to be addressed in terms of how to negotiate when you are not really sure about the approaches you should use in teaching or how to deal with a different culture. Perhaps we need to be the social activists and call our undergrad programs to let them know of this! Level 4 - there you go!
-Jasmijn
Subject: Online Assignment #1
Pauline Hunter
drawn to some of the same articles. For example, in Letting in the
Sun, had it not been for the desire of a small group of people who
were willing to make a change those children would still be having
classes in the dull, uninterested building which definitely influences
how the children feel about themselves as learners. What some of us
as educator sometimes fail to realize is that we pass on certain
characteristics to the children we swear to despite our personal
beliefs. Yet, in some uncanny way the children recognize whether or
not we care about them based on how we treat them. What I mean by
this is we may inadvertently out of our frustration, prejudice or
inexperience throuught our actions and sometimes even verbalize that
we don't care. As educators we must find and implement creative ways
to teach the children. We must get the parents involved because they
are actually the first line of defense in their children succes or
failure in school. Parents trust us as educators and what we do with
that trust is totally up to us. While it is true that we are working
within the constraints of much bureaucy we must consider ourselves
army of "one". Like the teacher in "Letting in the Sun" who was
willing to "give it a try", we too must do the same. Although my
formative education was not here in America, as a parent I experienced
the role raced play in my own childrens education. One white male told
my young black male that he was not qualified to take the exam to a
gifted junior high school - of course my son made him eat his words.
Another white female teacher told me a black female that my child
belonged in special education because he did not socialize with other
children. He too proved the teacher wrong because he ended up in the
schools gifted class, went to a gifted junior high, graduaded with
honors from high school and went on to and completed one of NYS top
universities. We must move away from the Hidden Curriculum and educate
other peoples children as if they were our own.
--