by Deborah Dimmett, University of Arizona
As teachers, one of the tasks delegated to us is selecting texts for students to read. But, in choosing a text, we need to ask ourselves what it is we want the text to do for us. And, how will students be supported when they identify conflicting discourses—particularly those that conflict with the teacher’s original intentions? Continue reading
by Deborah Dimmett, University of Arizona
Haitian families struggle to send their children to school. Although there is no tuition for attending national schools, parents who earn $1 or less a day still have to find the means to purchase textbooks, supplies, uniforms, and pay the registration fees of $20 to $30 per year if their children are to attend school. Many families make the initial investment in their children’s education through Grade 3. However, the cost of schooling increases after 3rd grade. In fact, it is not unusual for schools to send students home who come without textbooks. Continue reading
By Marie LeJeune and Tracy Smiles, Western Oregon University
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Over the past three weeks our focus on high stakes testing (SBAC and PARCC) has examined our personal and professional tensions in our roles as both parents and teacher educators. It is not an exaggeration to say we are deeply concerned over these movements in education and their impacts on children, teachers, and schools. So concerned that we have lost sleep, written letters to administrators, met with colleagues to brainstorm and strategize solutions, Continue reading
By Marie LeJeune & Tracy Smiles, Western Oregon University
Assessment literacy- (Gallagher & Turley): [teachers’] deep understanding of why they assess, when they assess, and how they assess in ways that positively impact student learning. In addition, successful teacher assessors view assessment through an inquiry lens, using varying assessments to learn from and with their students in order to adjust classroom practices accordingly. Together these two qualities—a deep knowledge of assessment and an inquiry approach to assessment — create a particular stance toward assessment. (NCTE, 2013).
For the month of March we have presented reasons for pushing back against high stakes testing, and offered examples of how citizens comprised of teachers, parents, and community organizers are, through grassroots movements, resisting these punitive, and often harmful assessment practices. Continue reading
By Marie LeJeune and Tracy L.Smiles
First grade was visited by a woman from the principal’s office carrying a big pile of papers with little boxes all over them. She explained, “We have some tests for you.” Continue reading
by Andrea García, Keith Donnelly, and Michele McGuinness, Hofstra University.
Our writing for this week will take us to explore Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate (2008). This is the third book in the text set I created focusing on Global Explorations in verse for my children’s literature graduate course. In this story, we meet Kek, an 11-year-old refugee boy from Sudan, who is relocated to Minnesota escaping the civil war in his country, after witnessing the death of his father and brother. Unaware of her mother’s whereabouts, Kek joins his aunt and cousin in the U.S., and begins a memorable journey into learning to live in a different culture and in a different language. In this unforgettable story of hopefulness and resilience, Applegate makes use of spare free verse to tell Kek’s immigration story. Continue reading
by Deb Drotor & Julia López-Robertson, The University of South Carolina
This week we revisit La Linea by Ann Jaramillo and focus our discussion on the ever present [over]testing of English Language Learners. Ann Jaramillo wrote La Linea for her students. She wrote to tell their story. In reality La Linea, is the story of many students who sit in America’s classroom today. Continue reading
by Jenna Noblin & Julia López-Robertson, The University of South Carolina
Miguel’s family is not very different from many immigrant families in America today, and yet this is not a story put into the news or shown in movies. Instead, it is hidden from the majority of America. From research and bits and pieces I have heard along the way, I knew that that the journey across the border into America was dangerous, but it was never shown to me just how much until reading La Linea. The closest representation I have ever seen on this topic was on the T.V. show Criminal Minds. Even that vision made the journey look safer than it really is, Continue reading
by Caitlin Walker & Julia López-Robertson, The University of South Carolina
This past summer I taught EDRD 797: Assessment for English Language Learners; our class met Monday through Thursday for three hours during the month of June. Naturally we spent time discussing assessment, testing, the Common Core and all things related — however our richest discussions centered on the young adult novels we read and the connections that my students made between the novels and the professional literature. I infuse young adult literature in all my courses as a means to provide my students with some insight into the lives of the children and families that they may be serving in their schools. Continue reading
by Deborah Dimmett
There is an abundance of young adult (YA) literature that lends itself to exploring issues of social justice. Introducing young adults to nonfiction books about societal and global dilemmas can be a very exciting way to engage youth in problem-based learning through literature. One issue that has local, national, and global implications deals with huge influx of unaccompanied and undocumented children from Central America. Continue reading