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SPED - TLT 404, Spring 2013 - Course record

SPED - TLT 404, Spring 2013 - Course record

Apr 16, 2013

Navigation short-cut: Session jump by number

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Session 1 - Tuesday, 15 Jan

Before class

  • If you can, get into CourseSite and poke around

  • Purchase copy of the textbook (Amatea, E.S. (2008). Building culturally responsive family-school relationships. Allyn & Bacon – see Amazon page.)

During class (ppt)

  • Brief introductions

  • Going through the first part of the syllabus

  • Online resources for you to use

  • Frameworks / metaphors for the course 

    • Hands up demo

    • Metaphors to work by: Teacher as collaborator, communicator, student

  • Going through second half of syllabus: Assignments we'll be doing

  • Matching game

  • End of history effect

  • Discuss Self-in-Context assignment

  • Closure

After class

  • Reading

  • Assignments

    • WTL

      • In CourseSite, post to class forum (and update your profile with a current pic)

      • Start your individual thread and share it to my gmail address. In your first post, please briefly summarize the prior experiences you have had (if any) in diversity / multicultural ed. Did you take a course? Have a class session focused on identity, culture, or privilege/oppression? Attend a workshop? It doesn't matter if this was in college or in your K-12 experience. Out of these experiences, what worked for you or didn't work for you? What insights did you gain (if any)?

    • Bring in an artifact for your personal sharing. (For example, I’m posting a URL to my flickr feed)

    • Start working on Self-in-Context assignment

    • Please let me know if you have any contacts with traditionally underserved families that might agree to participate in the Family & School Interview project. Just fill out this form. (If you have more than one contact in mind, you can fill it out multiple times.) Thanks!

 

Session 2 - Tuesday, 22 Jan

Before class

  • Complete readings (in CourseSite)

  • Do WTL

    • Class forum (in CourseSite – two postings) on the topic of metaphors for teaching

    • Private thread – this is what you're supposed to create on your own in Google Docs and then share to my gmail address. If you need help with this, let me know. Topic = prior experiences in diversity classes (see above)

  • Work on self-in-context assignment

  • If you have any leads that I can use in matching folks up for family & school interviews, please let me know! I created this handy form to collect suggestions. (If you have more than one contact in mind, you can fill it out multiple times.)

  • Don't forget to bring in an artifact for sharing something about your personal background!

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping – how are things coming with the Google Docs? Questions about portfolios?

  • Conceptual work

    • Sharing artifacts

    • Dimensions of identity; identity as monopolar or multipolar

    • Challenging the model: WEIRD people...and just how weird are we, anyway? 

      • Activity: Name That Norm!

    • Defining culture

    • Personal identity & broader cultural context

      • Special case: religion

    • Models of cultural identity development

    • Identity & cultural context revisited: Privilege and oppression

      • ur-text: McIntosh "Invisible Knapsack" 

      • Going broader: PrivilegeCheck.

      • Two suggested tactics for recognizing the constraints of identity & culture

  • Closure

    • Connection game

    • Discussing Self-in-Context; note newly-created checklist for grading.

After class

  • Reading

  • Assignments

    • Complete and turn in your Self-in-Context assignment

    • Writing-to-learn

      • Class forum (in CourseSite)

      • Individual thread (via Google Doc shared to Dr. H): Think back to your own school experiences and/or what you're observing in your current field work. Identify one or more areas where you feel a group of students (and this could be you!) either received a privilege or was oppressed. Explain what the privilege / oppression was, under whose authority it took place, what the community reaction was (if any), etc. How did you feel about it? Did you speak up or take action? 

 

Session 3 - Tuesday, 29 Jan

Before class

  • Complete reading

  • Do WTL – be sure you've shared your private thread with Dr. H!

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping

  • Draw your family activity

  • Family models, theoretical frameworks

  • Family-school dynamics

  • Closing: Inter-personal bingo!

After class

  • Reading

    • Amatea, Ch. 4 and THEN Ch. 3

    • MacDonald, 2012 – Be sure to recognize the source and context of the reading. I'm NOT holding it up as an exemplar but rather as a contrasting view. As you read the article (and the comments!), do you see a family structure lens at work? What assumptions does the author make? 

  • Assignments

    • WTL

      • Private (your individual thread)

      • Group: See forum in CourseSite

Session 4 - Tuesday, 5 Feb

No class session, due to STEM presentation. Enjoy your week off!

 

Session 5 - Tuesday, 12 Feb – meeting in STEPS 102; then heading over to Zoellner to hear Madeline Albright!

During class

After class

  • Assignments: just WTL this week

    • Group WTL on Albright presentation (specific prompt to come)

    • Individual WTL on whatever you want

  • Reading – nothing specific

Session 6 - Tuesday, 19 Feb

Before class: Complete reading, WTL

During class (ppt)

  • Opening activity to get into concept of 'outness': I am 'in' about; I am 'out' about...

  • Opening activity to look at gender: Everyone's favorite Swedish toy catalog. Do you like happy, Nordic children? Check out pp. 62-63, 66-67, 70-71, etc. 

    • And is Sweden weird or are we weird? Well, judge for yourself: Here's the same company's catalog for the Danish market. Contrast their layout of pp. 60-61, for example, with the equivalent from the Swedish catalog (pp. 70-71). 

  • Gender roles, gender 'success'

  • Where do these come from? Panopticon; technological panopticon: Gender app!

  • Fluidity of gender: 'Sworn virgins'

After class

  • WTL

    • Group (posted in CourseSite)

    • Individual

  • Reading

    • Gould, 1972

    • Katz, 1990

    • Kimmel, 2000

 

Session 7 - Tuesday, 26 Feb

Before class

  • Complete reading

  • Complete WTL, both group and individual

During class (ppt)

  • Frame to start this session: Group dynamics

  • Discussion of Gould, 1972 – how much of this still rings true since the 1970s?

  • Discussion of Kimmel, 2000 – gendered classrooms, differing rationales

  • Discussion of Katz, 1990: Heteronormative culture, heterosexual privilege

  • Working with LGBTQ (etc.) individuals and groups

  • Resources for further exploration

After class

  • Reading: Amatea, Ch. 5 & 7

  • Writing-to-Learn (group & indiv)

  • Read over Neighborhood Walk assignment in syllabus, start thinking about where you might go

Session 8 - Tuesday, 5 Mar

Before class

  • Complete reading

  • Complete WTL

  • Review syllabus description of Neighborhood Walk assignment

  • We'll be using computers pretty heavily tonight, so please feel free to bring your own laptop / tablet / smartphone / whatever

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping

  • Conceptual work: Families and communities

    • Opening activity: Selections from In My Room: Teenagers in Their Bedrooms.

    • Families: Life cycle theory, crisis/coping, resiliency

    • Community

      • Again, as with individuals and families, challenge of creating acceptable models, definitions. Typology, yes; functional clarity...not so much.

      • Why study your school's community? Consider what you don't know – here's a clip from a PBS documentary about community health (Unnatural Causes).

      • To ground this conversation in a reality: Southside Bethlehem. Let's do a modified KWL activity

        • Establishing the frame: What geographic area are we talking about? To put a school frame on it, here are some handy websites

        • K: Write down 5 facts that you know about SSB. For each: How do you know this? Personal experience? Hearsay? Something you read or saw on TV?

        • W: Write down 3 things you want to know about SSB. For each, write down a possible source.

        • Investigation phase

          • Share your Ks and Ws at your table. Can you help one another out in filling in gaps of knowledge? Thinking about resources? Do you have any conflicting knowledge?

          • Turning to (social) media: Without overtly focusing on your 3 "want to know" items, use the following tools to learn more about SSB. Feel free to divide up the labor at your table, or just do a free-for-all. We'll start with a demo with this YouTube clip from April, 2012.

        • Discussion at your table: What did you learn about SSB? What sorts of information did different media channels tend to offer? Try to focus your discussion on funds of knowledge – what funds of knowledge were presented in the organized media? Social media? What funds of knowledge do you think exist within SSB that the organized media might not report? That the university might not know about? 

      • L: Class-wide discussion of what we learned, what we would need to do to investigate further. 

    • Putting the exploration of the Southside into a larger context

      • Research perspectives vs. parent perspectives

      • Schools' community action efforts to support schools and/or support families

      • Support families: Deficit-based approach and/or asset-based approach

      • Real-world examples

        • Broughal as a community school

        • Asset map of Easton

        • Harlem Children's Zone

  • Closure

    • Plug for two sources that certainly push my thinking about community, families, and education

      • The documentary Born Into Brothels– VERY uncomfortable to watch, lots of ambiguity to deal with, definitely worth thinking about. The FML Media Center has a copy.

      • The writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates. I read his blog; you could also consult his memoir (The Beautiful Struggle). Here's an interview he did on NPR about his memoir.

    • Building up your own employability: See the questions on p. 193 – GREAT material for interviews during the "Do you have any questions for us?" stage.

After class

  • Re-visit Amatea Ch. 5 and Ch. 7 – be sure to note that handy job-interview prompt!

  • Follow up on our community investigation as needed. What community will you visit? How can you use the links (e.g., school data, maps) to prepare? To plan the walk? To reflect?

  • Plan out when (and with whom!) you'll complete your walk

  • Plan out when you'll complete your Family & School Interview, fieldwork, etc.

  • WTL

    • Indiv

    • Group

 

Session 9 - Tuesday, 19 Mar

Before class

During class (ppt)