My biggest take away from this course occurred
during the first few weeks of the semester around personal
experiences. The Johnson text, Privilege,
Power and Difference forced me to think in a way about myself and my teaching
I have not previously done. It opened up my eyes to a completely different
point of view which allowed me to consider other positions besides that of a
white, middle-class female. Hearing others’ experiences in the class, also got me
reflecting more on my life and how fortunate I am. They often shared things that made me think
differently about past experiences. These discussions have allowed me to
embrace diversity and meet the needs of students.
The photo essay we had to complete also allowed me
to see my district in a different light. Learning about policy and social
justice standards this semester allowed me to see that my district is not strong
in this area. After speaking with my curriculum director, I know this will be
an area of focus for the upcoming school year. My participation in the class
will allow me to bring more to the discussion moving forward on how we can be a
more culturally responsive district and address these standards.
Teaching elementary school, I know the importance
of starting these conversations around differences, stereotypes, and culture at
a young age. I will continue to develop
a culture that is respectful and open to discussions in my classroom so we can meet the needs of all students.
I appreciate all the hard work of everyone in the class and their ability to be open and forthcoming about diversity. Thank you to all for a great semester.
Throughout this course, we explored how diversity plays a role in education from different perspectives. From a policy standpoint, we examined how governing bodies worked to foster diversity in public schools. Through policies like Title IX, schools strived to become more equitable and accessible for people from different backgrounds.
While the powers that be have set policies to improve conditions, we learned how societal changes needed to occur before the impact was felt. When the cultures of schools remain the same, the policy changes do not work. When public entities are motivated to promote diversity in their institutions and participants recognize the benefits of diversity, genuine change occurs.
We also learned how cultural background and identity contingencies affect people’s education. Challenges like stereotype threat can hinder student performance before they even enter the classroom. Most importantly, we learned ways to recognize the challenges of oppression and privilege to better meet the needs of all students.
There were many aspects about EDUC 577 that have impacted the way I teach. Recognizing how cultural background affects a students perception of school has helped me better differentiate my lesson plans to meet the needs of my students. Recognizing my own identity contingencies has helped me acknowledge that my experience in society may be very different than that of my students and coworkers. Identifying how privilege and oppression play a role in the school system has changed the way I view my classroom. I look forward to applying the principles we learned throughout this semester in my everyday life to ensure that my students get the education they all deserve.
Contextual
information: How culture affects fashion
Grade
level: 7th
Subject:
FACS
Lesson
time length: 49 Minutes
Characteristics
of the class: (multi-age or grade level, developmental level, etc.)
Social Justice Standards (Teaching Tolerance): (Check all that
apply)
Identity
X 1.
Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in
multiple groups in society.
X 2.
Students will develop language and historical and cultural knowledge that
affirm and accurately describe their membership in multiple identity groups.
___3. Students will recognize that
people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex
individuals.
___4. Students will express pride,
confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of
other people.
X 5.
Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture
and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in
multiple spaces.
Diversity
X 6.
Students will express comfort with people who are both similar to and
different from them and engage respectfully with all people.
X 7.
Students will develop language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully
describe how people (including themselves) are both similar to and different
from each other and others in their identity groups.
X 8.
Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived
experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded
way.
___9. Students will respond to
diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection.
X 10.
Students will examine diversity in social, cultural, political and historical
contexts rather than in ways that are superficial or oversimplified.
Justice
X 11.
Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals
rather than representatives of groups.
___12. Students will recognize
unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the
institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination).
___13. Students will analyze the
harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
___14. Students will recognize that
power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and
institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those
dynamics.
___15. Students will identify figures,
groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the
history of social justice around the world.
Action
___16. Students will express empathy
when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and
concern when they themselves experience bias.
X 17.
Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion,
prejudice and injustice.
___18. Students will speak up with
courage and respect when they or someone else has been hurt or wronged by
bias.
___19. Students will make principled
decisions about when and how to take a stand against bias and injustice in
their everyday lives and will do so despite negative peer or group pressure.
___20. Students will plan and carry
out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will
evaluate what strategies are most effective.
X
Empowered
learner- Students leverage technology to take an active
role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning
goals, informed by the learning sciences.
Computational
thinker- Students develop and employ strategies for
understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of
technological methods to develop and test solutions.
Digital
citizen- Students recognize the rights,
responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an
interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe,
legal and ethical.
Creative
communicator- Students communicate clearly and express
themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools,
styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
X
Knowledge constructor- Students
critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct
knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning
experiences for themselves and others.
Global
collaborator- Students use digital tools to broaden their
perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working
effectively in teams locally and globally.
Innovative
designer- Students use a variety of technologies within
a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or
imaginative solutions.
ISTE Standards for Students (click all that
apply)
Purpose/Rationale:
Students will be
learning about how culture shapes the way we dress. This will be taken place
during a clothes/fashion unit. The purpose of this lesson is that students will
research and present information about different cultures, how geographic and
cultures affect personal adornment, and how others in said cultures can have
positive or negative stereotypes based on how they dress.
The
classroom consists of 10-19 students that meet every other day. About 1-3 students
in each class has an iep or 504 plan. Most accommodations consist of extra time
for projects or test.
Materials and Technology
Tools:’
Instruction
sheet posted on schoology
Chromebooks
Objectives:
Students
will be able to collaborate as a group to research at least 10 key facts about
a unique culture or subgroup.
Students
will be able to present of research and images of corporal and external
adornment of a specific culture
Students
will be able to reflect on their own fashion choices and how it compares to
others.
Instructional
Procedures: (please remember to integrate
technology tools)
Introductory Activity:
-Spend
3-5 minutes on bellringer: Describe your process when buying clothes in 3-4
sentences. Helpful prompts: Do you look at labels or brands? Do you consider
function over fashion? Do you always go to the same stores or try different
places? How much of an influence are your parents or friends on your decisions?
Class
will have discussions on student answers. Have students get in groups of 2-4.
Introduce the project.
Developing Activity:
Students
will have up to 5 minutes picking a culture, country, subgroup, or time period
to research.
They
will be using Google slides to make a presentation about their culture. They
are to research fashion originating from the country, both corporal and
external. They will be researching what aspects affected the fashion (climate,
culture, economics, etc.). They will research if there were negative
stereotypes or bias based on the clothes.
Students
may be able to present today, if not they will present next class.
Concluding Activity:
Exit
Ticket:
How
does your fashion choice differ from the group you researched? Explain the
differences and the reason of these differences in 2-4 sentences.
Assessments:
Bellringer
+ Exit Ticket
Presentation
Rubric
Observation
Fashion Around the World
Description:
You and your group are tasked with researching the fashion of a group of
people. They can be from a specific country (ex. Africa), culture (ex. Hindi),
subgroup (ex. “emos”), or time period (ex. 1920s). You will be working together
to research and present through google slides. Read instructions and
grades to ensure that you are working to the specifications of the project.
Example of research topics: You are not limited to these suggestions
Africa
Thailand
Japan
Ireland
Hawaii
Western culture
Indosphere
Sinosphere
Islamic culture
Arab culture
Tibetan culture
Punk
Emo
Goth
Prep
Jock
1920s
1930s
1960s
1980s
2000s
Required Reseach:
-Types of fashion that originated or is highly used from your group.
List at least one external (temporary) adornment and one corporal (permanent)
-What factors influence their type of clothes (money, religion, climate,
etc.)
-Negative or positive stereotypes that based on the group of people you
researched (ex. Everyone in the Islamic culture are terrorist is a negative
stereotype).
-How can people, as a whole, change negative stereotyping?
Grading:
Criteria
0 Point
1 Point
2 Points
3 points
Group completed assignment on
time.
Group did not use research tools
or contained little to no information.
Group answered some of required
research but is missing sufficient detail.
Group answered most of required
research but is missing minor details.
Group is well-detailed and
answers all required research.
Presentation
Group did not present
information.
One member presented.
Most members presented information
or did not present clearly.
All members presented
information in a clear and
Group-Work (graded individually)
Students did not work within
group.
Work was uneven divided. Student
did not do much work
Student did some work within
group
Student worked well with group.
Time and effort.
Students did not complete any of
the assignment on time.
Group did not complete most of
the assignment or was turned in very late.
Group completed assignment but
was late.
Group completed assignment on
time.
Feedback from peers:
Peer Review Sheet
EDUC 577
Dr. Waid
Name of Reviewer: Miranda VanDonsel
Name of Person submitting lesson plan: Andee Bartholomew
Categories to review:
Category Target Feedback
Contextual information
Included all the required contextual information for
the lesson.
This lesson
was well organized, but was missing the classroom characterization. This
information is crucial for others to gain a better understanding of the
developmental level of the classroom.
Standards
Lesson was well-aligned with the Social Justice/ISTE
Standards
The
social justice standards and ISTE Standards were clearly identified and met
within the lesson.
Instructional strategies
Instructional strategies were well- aligned with the
objectives of the lesson. Made
good use of technology
The
lesson followed and met each of the stated objectives. Technology was present
and used effectively through the use of Google Docs. Each objective was met
Assessments
The assessments were well-aligned with the
objectives of the lesson
Assessment
supported lesson objectives
Reflection- N/A ( each student will include this in
the final submission (on the lesson plan template itself) on WordPress
The reflection richly addressed the strengths and
weaknesses of the lesson
N/A
Additional comments:
Great Job! Your lesson was clearly put together and aligned
perfectly with your objectives and standards!
Reflection:
Address the following:
What did you do to insure that you had met
your objectives in this lesson?
–I
looked at each objective and made sure that everything was addressed in at
least one part of my lesson. All of my assessments gauge if students meet each
objective.
What were some of the strengths in the
lesson?
It has students learning about different
cultures and beliefs of the world around them. It may introduce the thought
that people around the world are different then where they grew up.
What are some things that could be improved
in this lesson?
I would spend more time on this lesson than
just one day. Make the exit ticket more of an essay than a paragraph late on in
the unit.
Social Justice Lesson Plan Rubric
Ineffective
Developing
Effective
Contextual information
Included minimal of no contextual information for
the lesson
Included most of the required contextual information
for the lesson
Included all the required contextual information for
the lesson
Standards
Lesson had minimal or no alignment to the Social
Justice Standards
Lesson had evidence of alignment to the Social
Justice Standards
Lesson was well-aligned with the Social Justice
Standards
Instructional strategies
Instructional strategies had minimal alignment with
the objectives of this lesson. Used no technology
Instructional strategies were mostly aligned with
the objectives of the lesson. Used some technology
Instructional strategies were well- aligned with the
objectives of the lesson. Made good use of technology
Assessments
The assessments had minimal alignment to the
objectives of the lesson
The assessments were mostly aligned with the
objectives of the lesson
The assessments were well-aligned with the
objectives of the lesson
Reflection
The reflection minimally addressed the strengths and
weaknesses of the lesson
The reflection mostly addressed the strengths and
weaknesses of the lesson
The reflection richly addressed the strengths and
weaknesses of the lesson
After taking this class, I have learned a lot about
diversity and how it relates to myself and my classroom. There were many aspects
of privilege I was not aware that I had, and how this impacts me and my teaching.
Although I do try to incorporate diversity into my classroom, it seems that
there is always more I can be doing. I also realized that diversity does not
have to just be about skin color, but it can also relate to gender and
socioeconomic status as well and those are important aspects that I would like
to work on incorporating into my classroom as well. I also got some great ideas
on social justice lesson ideas from my classmates that would be incredibly
beneficial to use in the classroom to help teach diversity. I believe that
teaching students at an early age about diversity will make them more tolerant
and accepting of those who are different from them. The sooner we have these
discussions and teach these lessons, the better off our students will be in the
future.
After taking this course, I have absorbed a tremendous amount of information relating to diversity on an everyday basis and in educational environments. Since I am currently teaching, I was able to relate the content of this course to my classroom. I believe that being able to apply this knowledge to my current classroom environment was very beneficial for my students and for myself. Using this information, I was able to see how diversity impacts my students on a daily basis. The biggest takeaway about diversity in education that I did not realize prior to this course is that it does apply to the mathematics curriculum. As a math teacher, I never understood how to incorporate diversity in to my curriculum. Due to this, I was never able to fully relate to my diversity courses during my undergrad. Now that I am able to see that diversity can be appreciated in a mathematics classroom, I understand how important it is to emphasize on in an educational setting. Being able to focus on different cultures, identities, and student differences in the classroom has been very beneficial for my entire class. My class has now appreciated their differences and is proud of their true identity. As a teacher, I will strive to provide my students with this type of education for the rest of my career. I believe that the students who receive this type of education are more well-rounded and respectful adults. Preparing students for this diverse future is an amazing way to set them up for success. Overall, this course has provided with an immense amount of useful and applicable knowledge. I now believe that I have a better understanding of my current students and the ones that I will be teaching in the future. I understand how to embrace differences and utilize each student’s strengths to aid the curriculum.
