Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Inquiry Study: Getting Started

Due: Sept 12, 2012


As you are already two weeks into your school placements you have likely already gotten some insights into how diversity exists in your schools and classrooms. The sooner you can focus in on a topic for your inquiry project and start forumlating some critical questions, the better. 

To that end, over the next week, I'd like you to really focus in on this topic of Diversity in your placements, maybe jot down some notes, and then Create a Comment at the end of this Posting and address the following questions:

1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?


30 comments:

  1. 1. I have only received my middle school placement at this point in time, but it has proved to be pretty diverse in multiple ways. The easiest for me to just see, without knowing the kids, is the diversity in terms of gender and race. There doesn’t appear to be a large disparity between the genders on the team, although some courses have a few more of one or the other. There is large Latino population at the school that can be seen by looking at them and hearing them speak to each other in Spanish. These students range heavily in their ability to speak English; some are fluent (some with accents and some without) while some struggle to understand the directions at all. I have, in my three Humanities courses (and these children may repeat in my Advisory or Enrichment courses) several African American students as well, but already I see a lot of difference between these students and their actions. One of these students, and the only one whose religion I am sure of at this time, is a young Muslim girl. This is visible due mostly to how I can witness her dressing. Beyond these traits, my students are all very different and I am only beginning to learn these differences along with their names and in class behaviors.

    2. My first instinct to work with those who struggle with English because we are reading and writing focused at this time. As I go around the classroom, these are the students that call me over the most, especially those who are soft spoken or don’t ask but try to struggle alone out of fear for asking an adult for help. I am also working on a TAG endorsement, so I want to work with those kids as well but we haven’t necessarily identified those students yet (having only had access to previous OAKS scores so far). I intend to focus on reading, vocabulary and grammar skills no matter who I work with but how they are approached will be different.

    I have no doubt that once I post this, I will come up with more ideas or remember something I forgot to add but these are my current thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is good to hear that you can identify that much diversity within just your middle school placement. In my middle school placement (of course location, location, location is important and has influence) the only real diversity comes down two main population groups (Latino and White) and the obvious age,gender, and student disabilities. Because of this I feel the issues of cultural diversity do not play a significant role within content.

      Delete
    2. We are most definitely in a school that focuses on literacy skills and while in my placement I have been involved with reading interventions already and it's very surprising to see so many kids who are way below the standards and that the standards for the students are so low. It's most definitely been an eye opening experience

      Delete
    3. There seems to be a drive to expect high things from these students but keeping it within a reasonable range. My mentor teachers said that, due to interventions, they had multiple students who rose four grade levels in reading. That is amazing! They hit it hard in enrichment, humanities and reading intervention pull outs.

      Delete
  2. This is a good start Krystal and you have identified potential themes of ELL, Muslim, Latino, gender, African American. Given the large number of ESOL you might want to focus in on that, but you still have time to decide.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Between my two placements, Forest Grove High School has more diversity than my other placement in Hillsboro. The CityView Charter School isn't big at all because it only contains about 190 students from kindergarten to 8th grade. Within this school, there isn't a lot of diversity issues that is substantially significant but it is something to note that makes it very appealing. I am in a class of 24 students, mostly white, and there's only one or two students that are different. What I found interesting was the interactiveness among the white students to include these students in their group. There were no second guesses or judgments made to shun the different student. Instead, it was collectively decided to allow these different students to participate in becoming a bigger family. Since this is a charter school, it is a different environment when we compare it to an actual middle school. There is more diverse students. Within a high school, especially Forest Grove High School, the number of diverse students increase because there is a bigger student population. Within this placement, I see a huge Latino population ranging from different educational levels. Some students that are Latino are in TAG programs and some students are barely passing, that is what I heard from my mentor teacher. In the school, I believe there is an even split between Latinos and White students that range from different educational programs. From what I can see, there is a lot of groups that contains only one diverse group of whites or latinos or a mixture of whites and latinos. I can't say that I only see one type of group, which that isn't true at all. It is definitely a mixture of whites and latinos. Once in a while, I tend to see at least an African American student walking around the hallway. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. I have a lot of students in my classes and all I see is Latinos and Whites. Since the number of students is so high, it will be very difficult to know each single person that I have for class to notice any diversity issues among the group.

    As I begin my placements I noticed in my CityView placement, kids don't know how to remember their multiplication tables in a timed setting. So as a teacher, how can I help these students get better in their multiplication tables within a timed setting? In my high school placement, I notice that my mentor teacher doesn't "write" out definitions because in the classroom there is a smart board. So, my mentor teacher uses all of his notes to put his definitions, etc., on the smart board. In a traditional way of delivering content to the class, we would normally see the teacher go up to the board (chalkboard or whiteboard) and writes "definition", whatever the particular idea is, and write word for word what it was. However, we are moving into smart boards where the possibility is endless. I haven't used a smart board before, so my interest would be, does having a smart board improve the efficiency of time in taking notes down compared to taking notes in a traditional sense? This is all in a mathematics setting. Can we cover more material with a smart board than the traditional way of delivering material on mathematics?

    I am sure that I have more to think about it, but this is all I got so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It can be hard to get your head around diversity that is not visible. From what you say the primary cultural diversity seems to be Latino and you may want to work with that. But you could also spin the task of addressing diversity in terms of learning variance and so your thought about doing something on math that helps students catch up still works for me. I hope you had planned to come to OTEN on saturday? Apparently there will be a presenter who does amazing things with Smartboards. You can register here - it's free and lunch is included.

      Delete
  4. I only have one placement at this time. Whitford seems to be fairly diverse in terms of race, creed, gender, language, and ability. In my classroom their are student from various racial backgrounds, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Euro American, and Middle Eastern. There are also from what I observed distinct diversity in religious creed. Not just faith itself, but different levels of dedication to faith, most notably a group of students that wears rosaries and other religious symbols. There are also students that are ELL or bilingual. The largest and most visible group in my classes though are SPED students, partly because of the number of them that are in my classes, 9 student in a class of 30 during one period. Another reason the SPED students are particularly visible to me is because so far they have been the only students that have come to me for help so far at my placement.

    At this point I think I would like to focus on the SPED side of student diversity. Mainly because at my current placement SPED student are pulled out of English and Math for additional help, but are offered no additional help for science and it seems to me that these students need just as much assistance in science and I would like to find a way to create a classroom that is just as productive for them as it is for everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it is great your interested in the SPED side of student diversity. It would be interesting to explore the issues specifically relating to why this group is in need of specialized help in literacy surrounding English and Math and not in Science. I am also interested in the same type of concepts since the push for Science and Math are so pronounced within the higher educational system.

      Delete
    2. Yes Whitford does provides lots of opportunities for exploring themes related to diversity. Focusing on SPED would be a good idea. You could use this both as a chance to get your head around how the whole SPED thing works - IEPs, team meetings, IAs, SPED dept, etc - as well as focus in on how to support the SPED students in your class.

      Delete
  5. 1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
    Evergreen Middle School
    • Inclusive classrooms (specifically with students who have Autism-assisted by ads)
    • Class sizes of 35-40 students typically have 30-40% Latino
    • Age groups range from 12-14 years old
    • 1-2% of classroom population consist of students of color other than Latino
    • Roughly 60% rest of classroom is White/Caucasian
    • Teachers represented at school are almost all White/Caucasian
    Glencoe High School
    • Suppose to have inclusive classrooms but mostly segregated into separate courses (such as SPED, Learning Content, and ELL-smaller classroom sizes with aids provided)
    • Freshman Biology-class sizes of 35-40 students typically have 50% Latino
    • AP Biology-class of 35-40 students typically have less than 5% Latino or students of color
    • Age groups range from 14-18 years old
    • Teachers represented at school are again almost all White/Caucasian, with the exception of Spanish influenced course which are taught by teachers of Spanish speaking background

    Overall between my two placements, I see much more student diversity within the high school compared to the middle school when it comes to cultural diversity. However, when looking at students with disabilities, the middle school seems to incorporate/promote more of an inclusion modeled classroom. The big differences between the two schools could be due to differences in student populations/teacher-student ratio (resources available). I also think between both schools there are two different systems in place when it comes to teaching and promoting the best learning environments for minority student groups and student with disabilities.

    2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?
    • I am interested in exploring the relationships between cultural diversity (specifically the Latino population) and the achievement gap/deficit in science content
    • The different cultural interpretations of teacher/parent roles within the educational system
    • Resources and opportunities encouraged to help minority groups further education in science

    ReplyDelete
  6. You've got some good ideas for what topics you might address in your study. Over the next week I'll ask you to focus in on one of them. Keep in mind that the more specific you are the better and the focus in teacher research is taking action to improve student learning/outcomes, the classroom, or your practice.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
    There is a high range of cultural and ethnic diversity at Whitford middle school. The is also a range in socioeconomic status, which I guess could maybe fit under cultural. I had to write every students name on a Popsicle stick and that where I started to notice the diversity. I am not saying a surname tells me anything about the students. However this was the first time I encountered so many students with two last names. I know some people choose to hyphenate there last name but I've never seen it with out a hyphen. I learned that apparently in some Hispanic cultures it's custom to take both the mother and the fathers name.

    There is also diversity in the learner levels in the classroom. We have SPED and ELL students in almost every class. I noticed a high range of math skill in each class as well.

    2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?

    How socioeconomic status and access to technology affect academic achievement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it might be useful to think of socioeconomic status [SES] in connection with diversity as opposed to culture and there is certainly a lot of literature and information out there about the correlation between SES and achievement. In terms of your study, the challenge would be how to address it in terms of action within your classroom. So what I mean is that this study should not be about pursuing some research topic that you are interested about, but rather be in response to some tangible issue that you are seeing in your classroom [related to diversity] that you want to address. [think for an example of Tony's situation with lack of basic math skills that threatens to affect the students' ability to succeed in his class]

      Delete
    2. I definitely see a lot of differences in my classes of socio-economic class and I can see it between my eighth grade classes. One is mostly latino students on free or reduced lunch who ride the bus and the other is Spanish 1 and almost all the kids are caucasian and bring their lunches to school and their parents pick them up. The latter also has all the materials and extra materials they need to succeed whereas the former do not.

      Delete
  8. I have my placement at Whitford middle and have found it to be a fairly diverse school. Located in the suburbs of portland almost on the border between Tigard and Beaverton my class consists of difference on a wide range diversity. Race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic background, and learning ability. Within in my courses about half of my students are white, making race not nearly as diverse as some of the other cultural identity markers. However, amongst my students of color I can see many different ethnicities including, African American, Middle Eastern, Indian, Pakistani, Asian, and a large number of Latino students. Furthermore there is a wide range of learning abilities and religious affiliation amongst my students. With that being said the diversity that most caught my eye and seems to be most prevalent throughout my classroom is the socioeconomic background of my students. Naturally this is a hard identity marker to tackle has it requires making some assumptions or asking some inappropriate questions of my students. With that being said, I remember our first day at Whitford during inservice week where our Vice principal broke down the number of students Whitford would have on free or reduced lunch this year. Over the last ten years that number has increased by nearly 40 percent making Whitford middle no longer “Whitford Academy” as he stated. Furthermore, when looking at our students information with my mentor teacher the number of students whose parents were either unemployed or “self-employed” (which he informed me was often code for unemployed) was astounding. After the first day with our students I already began to notice cliches among the students who “had” (often dressing better than myself, and came prepared with numerous school supplies on the first day), and the students who “had not” (appearing to have been without a shower in sometime, old hand me down clothes, and a lack of school supplies). It is because of this disparity and the groupings within my classroom that I will try and focus on the achievement gap between students from a middle class or upper middle class background, and those from a working class background. Including how to provide additional resources to my students who may not have them available outside of the school and also how we can get these two groups of students to blend together rather than working apart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So I would say check the response I made to Kynah above, but it sounds like the 'action' you are thinking about is how to support these students from low SES. This is a good goal but can be tricky. For one thing no student wants to be singled out because they are from challenged circumstances, and it is also not clear what kind of support you would give. You might want to think about how you can indirectly support this group through an intervention that is framed as something else? This is a bit difficult to describe so we should probably talk in person. But as you explore your idea, be looking for other issues arising from your setting that you might want to address or that might be related to this idea of SES.

      Delete
  9. 1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
    I have not really gotten to study my high school yet, but there is a lot of ethnic diversity at Whitford Middle School where I am placed. I could see this in the halls and in my classroom when we were trying to learn names. We also have many ELL students and our classroom is right next to the ISC section of the school. There are some girls in our class who always ask for help spelling words that we would think as simple, but are difficult for them because English is not their first language. Also, my mentor teacher does this neat activity for his Enrichment class called Travel Quest, which is a travel simulation game where students have to explore other countries, by doing research on them. I think that this is a good way to let kids discover different cultures and make connections.

    2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?
    Home practices. How many students of different backgrounds are actually truly aware of their culture and do they practice it at home?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The topics of home practices and cultural awareness are really interesting one and I could imagine doing an interesting study involving questionnaires etc. What I want you to think about in terms of the action research study you need to do for this course, however, is the action part. So as I have mentioned above to some other postings, this is not research on a topic of interest [i.e. a traditional research paper] but rather research based on an issue arising from your classroom setting that needs to be addressed [i.e. that you take 'action' on]. So from what you have said above support for spelling might be something you could take action on [e.g. do an intervention using games to help students improve their spelling]. Keep looking for those kinds of opportunities in the classroom that would help you support student learning or your effectiveness as a teacher.

      Delete
  10. 1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
    Like most other schools in our collective placements, I've noticed that in regard to race, it is specifically between two predominant groups: White and Latino. I believe there's a 1% "other" population, which is not very racially diverse. I'm observing a bit of segregation among the student population according to race with the exception of high achieving students. I don't really think this is really publicly addressed because most people seem to be under the impression that in this day and age, racial issues are resolved. I find that not to be the case. In addition, like Dylan, I also noticed a significant SES gap and like Tony, I noticed the variety of learners within the school.
    2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?
    I'm interested in investigating how to address the needs of various learners in the class (besides cooperative learning), particularly how to balance instruction and assignment differentiation. I'd also be interested in exploring the SES gap and racial tension. I find it interesting that these issues exist even within extracurriculars. In addition, how can we better motivate and educate students about each other? I don't even think students themselves are aware of the differences and similarities they share with other students. There is an overwhelming poverty in Forest Grove, which affects a large population of students, yet I get the feeling that not every student understands the weight of this label--'poverty' due to association or unrecognized privilege. Overall, I want to learn how teachers can better reach students, but I mostly want to know how students can reach out to other students because this can confront many of the public or unspoken issues within schools/communities/districts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So you've raised some good ideas and made some excellent observations. In terms of your interest in reaching students who are not at level, you might think about this idea of designing an intervention specific to some gap you are seeing under the theme of 'outliers' This could further be expanded to include TAG [outliers on the other side of the curve] if you also find you have students in this category in your classroom.

      Delete
    2. "How can we better motivate and educate students about each other?"

      I think this question stands out above the rest for me. Should schools eventually adopt classes devoted specifically to diversity, community, racism, and essentially human acceptance? It may sound ridiculous to those that are already experiencing the major cutbacks in schools, but where are students going to truly learn this?
      Should it be the sole responsibility of the parents?
      If one of our educational goals is not to teach our students to accept one another then the fundamentals principles of education need to be reevaluated. I don't think simply promoting equality and diversity occasionally, (aka merely disciplining students who act against these ideals), is enough.

      Delete
  11. 1. Like the majority of our class, the primary example of diversity that I see at Whitford Middle School stemms fro the high Spanish and Mexican population within the area. In addition, like most public schools, there will always be economic diversity. Is this more difficult to study than cultural diversity? I'm not sure.

    2. A question that diversity poses to me within the Social Science realm (the class I'm mentoring in is Humanities) is that what "History" should we teach in the classroom. Yes all of these students are living in the U.S. and thus American History should be a part of their curriculum. But when a large percentage shares heritage with other parts of the world, why wouldn't we engage with the teaching of that History as well?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great question. Shouldn't it be as simple as that? It's surprisingly not.

      Delete
    2. Great question Alex. One thing that I have been encouraged about with regards to new developments in the teaching of history is using a postmodern approach. That is, including multiple perspectives and stories. I think this is a great way to reinvigorate history for students, to validate their cultural connections to history and hear stories and perspectives other than the usual white male perspective.

      So how to turn that into a critical question that recognizes and includes the rich heritage of your students? Well this could definitely be a CQ/theme you build in to your Work Sample as you create your unit of study. In the short term, you could build on something your mentor is doing? Think on this and we can talk more next week.

      Delete
    3. I have been wondering that as well. I don't remember ever looking at early Latin American societies (Maya, Inca, Aztec), does anyone else? This year I am supposed to cover Greece or Rome this spring, and I know they look at Egypt in 6th. Mesopotamian Civilization gets 10 pages in the hsitory textbook we have while Rome has a whole chapter and Christianity another. Is this fair?

      Delete
    4. What should we teach and what is fair....sigh. What would Steele have to say about this one huh Krystal? Not only what should we teach and how much time should we spend on such topics, but what are the potential repercussions of these decisions?

      I can imagine very possible scenarios in which the parents of white public school students become upset to discover that their son/daughter is spending "too much time" learning about Latino Culture and not enough about American History. Is a little bit of everything the best way to go?

      Delete
  12. 1. How do you see diversity reflected in your school placement?
    I think that I have a special placement in the sense that I am specifically working with immersion students and most prominently with latino students. I think the diversity is really surprising in some ways as most of my latino students speak in English during class and even during side conversations in class. However, once they get outside of class, into the hallways or out waiting for the bus, they switch to Spanish which leads me to believe that they are using English as an official language and Spanish as a personal and cultural language. This is what I find peculiar.
    2. What specific topics related to student diversity do you think you might be interested in exploring?
    Well since most of my latino students are from Mexico, maybe some assignments exploring their regional homelands and be able to really delve into the social studies aspect of my humanities class, especially when we are supposed to cover the America's (Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas). That way they could develop their own history and explore their own cultural past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is definitely a goal you could build into your work sample - i.e. this idea of connecting to the students' diverse cultural experiences - but as I have mentioned above for some of the others, is there an issue that needs to be addressed presently in your classroom? Maybe reading through some of the postings and my responses above will help you think more about this and we can talk more next week.

      Delete
    2. Is it just peculiar Ben? I think it is fascinating, and completely makes sense. Why would a student want to continue to assimilate through English when students share such an intimate cultural bond that allows them to communicate in the words that they speak at home? My question is: is this okay?

      I too hear side conversations in class in Spanish, some gossip, but often a student assisting another in their English assignment by explaining it in Spanish. I think this is great. English, however, is what they need to learn to be successful in this society, and of course the more they are enforced to use it the more proficient they will become.

      Delete