Annotated Bibliography | Blythe Stephens

(a) Source: Buehl, D. (2011). Developing readers in the academic disciplines. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

(b) Essential Quote: “Chapter 1: Mentoring Students in Disciplinary Literacy” by Doug Buehl:

“As Heller and Greenleaf (2007) note, ‘To become competent in a number of academic content areas requires more than just applying the same old skills and comprehension strategies to new kinds of texts. It also requires skills and knowledge and reasoning processes that are specific to particular disciplines.” (p. 10)” (Buehl, 2011, p.13)

(c) Major concept/idea/finding:

Contextual literacy: just because we’re generally literate doesn’t mean that we have disciplinary literacy across subjects, topics, and technical language.

Understanding personal and student literary identities/reader profiles

Distinction between Choice Texts, Obligation Texts (Obligated by Others or Self)

Reading and writing practices specific to my discipline

(d) Identity:

Our role is to help students access disciplinary literacy by understanding their existing skills, strengths, and interests. We can better serve students by also assessing our own literacies.

This work by Buehl inspired me to create my own reader profile as I read about the author’s and possible student readers’ profiles. Being able to understand my own and other perspectives and access points to disciplinary knowledge are important to my role as an educator.

My Reader Profile:

Dance Educator, Choreographer, Performer, Coach

Arts, Dance, Education, Politics, Environment, Health, Poetry, Personal Development

Emails, Texts, Social Media, Podcasts (Blogs), Student Work

Highly confident as a reader in Humanities, Health and Fitness, and Social Studies, and Technical when the techniques are Dance (ballet, modern, jazz, musical theatre, improvisation, composition, performance), or other performing and fine arts

Generally competent in Literary Fiction and Biological Science

Can get by in Physical Science

Sometimes struggle in History

Often struggle in Mathematics

Avoid at all costs: I would say Math, except I sometimes sub for math and have found that I can usually coach students to keep problem-solving, even if I don’t have a quick answer. So even if I don’t love a subject, I don’t avoid it at all costs.

I’m a naturally curious person and have been encouraged in my investigations by family and educators. My interest in a variety of topics has helped me overcome obstacles to understanding reading in diverse subject areas, which has then expanded my literacy(ies). Of course not all students share these advantages, so part of my identity as an educator is opening doors and promoting curiosity, then helping students leap over hurdles in their way.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice:

In Dance, I’m working to understand students’ lives, interests, goals and perspectives so that I can address their needs as well as disciplinary practice. It is important to get to know one another and create a trusting community of inquiry, and in dance this involves both physical and intellectual safety. Modelling ways to create this type of nurturing and challenging environment from the outset of the program is helpful in ensuring I do the same in my daily teaching practice.

In the past, I have started every course with a student questionnaire to find out more about students’ backgrounds in dance, athletics and performing arts, preferred learning styles, etc. I plan to continue this practice and allow the questions I ask and the information gathered to evolve. This practice helps me formatively assess my students as readers, learners, dancers, and human beings.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice:

Helping students develop as readers and build literacy potentially strengthens their sense of Identity and their appreciation of Diversity. It may even sow the seeds of Justice and Action. For a start, under the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards, developing literacy/cies contributes to Identity #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 peoples’ multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals,” #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” and

Diversity #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.”

With regard to Identity, Buehl refers to another scholar’s work, “In Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s Learning, Johnston (2004) extensively examines the powerful relationships between what we as teachers tell students, the language we use, and the emerging academic identities of our students: Building an identity means coming to see in ourselves the characteristics of particular categories (and roles) of people and developing a sense of what it feels like to be that sort of person and belong in certain social spaces. As children are involved in classroom interactions, they build and try on different identities….Teachers’ comments can offer them, and nudge them toward, productive identities. (p. 23)” (Buehl, 2011, p.8)

In the area of Justice, “As literacy researcher Moje (2008) so cogently Observes, ‘Although literacy educators and researchers acknowledge the value and power of the knowledge, practices, and texts young people bring to school, it is also critical that we work to expand youth knowledge, practices, and texts as a function of education. Young people do not need to go to school to learn what they already know; content literacy instruction can help youth gain access to the accepted knowledge of the disciplines, thereby allowing them also to critique and change that knowledge.’ (p. 97)” (Buehl, 2011, p.7)

(g) Wonder: An explanation of how the the major concepts, ideas, and/or findings can be used leverage children’s natural curiosity in order to promote a more meaningful and relevant learning experience. I have found that students are good at building relationships with each other, and just need some support to understand creating safe spaces for inquiry and exploration. We are looking at community building, sharing our various identities, and setting the stage for learning to take place in any discipline. Children have a natural tendency to explore movement, expression, and identity, so it is always exciting to engage their curiosity. I appreciated the focus on loving human relationships (Yos), and disciplinary language and literacy (Buehl).

(a) Source: Delpit, L. D. (1988). “The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children.” Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-299.

(b) Essential Quote: “I believe that the actual practice of good teachers of all colors typically incorporates a range of pedagogical orientations. Rather, I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over ‘skills’ versus ‘process’ approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and thereby to an understanding of the ‘silenced dialogue.’” (Delpit, 1988, p.125)

Skills Approaches vs. Process Approaches; Ethnographic analysis

Culture of power:

Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.
There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power.”
The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.
If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier.
Those with power are frequently least aware of–or least willing to acknowledge–its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

Liberal education movements vs. non-White, non-middle-class teachers and communities

(d) Identity: I am a responsive, sensitive listener and this helps me tune in to students and their needs as far as participating in the “culture of power.” I want to empower students to be full participants in their education, and this involves welcoming them into a culture of respect and inquiry.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice: I will continue to listen to my students and evaluate my classroom culture, considering issues of power in my classroom/studio such as the teacher-student relationship, power of texts/publishers/curriculum, state and structures, assessment, career, economic status, linguistic forms, communicative strategies, self-presentation (talking, writing, dressing, interacting), institutional success, explicit cultural rule sharing, acknowledgement of power.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: This essay by Delpit is all about Social Justice! In particular, Standard #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,” #9 “Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection,” #10 “Students will examine diversity in social, cultural, political and historical contexts rather than in ways that are superficial or oversimplified,” and #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” apply to the sort of classroom culture Delpit discusses.

(g) Wonder: Where are my students situated regarding the culture of power? How do my students learn? How can they be equipped to navigate cultures of power? Students are keenly interested in the social workings of the world, how things are, how they got to be that way, and how they can be changed. Developing awareness in this area can open countless doors for their futures.

(a) Source: Erickson, H.L. (2001). “Concept Based Curriculum.” Stirring the head, heart, and soul: Redefining curriculum and instruction. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press Inc. pp. 18-36.

(b) Essential Quote: “There are several effects of this lower-level love affair with trivia. Perhaps most significantly, studying topics and facts as information to be memorized fails to engage the deeper intellect of students. When students are encouraged to think beyond the facts and connect factual knowledge to ideas of conceptual significance, they find relevance and personal meaning.” (Erickson, 2001, p. 20)

Fact-based vs. Concept-based

“Many teachers still rely heavily on textbooks to tell them what to teach. Yet textbooks, because of their topic focus, usually cover too much content and fail to address the higher-level, lasting ideas that can be applied to current and future trends. The problem with this model is that the information bas in our world is challenging the best of microchips.” (Erickson, 2001, p. 19)

Deeper, transferrable understandings

“Historians use specific events and people to teach historical thinking and avoid conceptual generalizations. Social studies educators use specific events and people to teach historical thinking but encourage students to identify the lessons of history and the human experience by relating specific content to conceptual generalizations.”

“If the breadth of content forces teachers to choose, they are going to emphasize the fact study because they perceive that is what will be tested. And in most cases, they are correct. It is harder to assess historical thinking because it includes factual knowledge, conceptual understanding, and reasoning ability. Yet it is historical thinking that will develop depth of understanding and the ability to critically reason.”

“In The Disciplined Mind, Howard Gardner (1999) states, ‘It should be clear by now why a ‘fact-based’ approach will make even less sense in the future. One can never attain a disciplined mind simply by mastering facts–one must immerse oneself deeply in the specifics of cases and develop one’s disciplinary muscles from such immersion.’” (Erickson, 2001, p.22)

“The reality in many classrooms is that the rich ‘performances’ Gardner advocates materialize as shallower ‘activities’ that fall short of a demonstration of understanding. I believe this happens because our curriculum designs do not explicitly state the deeper ideas, and, consequently, classroom performances demonstrate a skill tied to a topic rather than to an understanding.” (Erickson, 2001, p.22-23)

Hilda Taba’s research on increasing the intellectual functioning of students (1950s-60s)

Concepts as “high level abstractions expressed in verbal cues and labels, e.g., interdependence, cultural change and causality” (Erickson, 2001, p.48)

Generalizations and Principles

“Generalizations usually include qualifiers in their statements, such as, ‘Conflict is often caused by differences in values and beliefs.’ Taba proposed that content coverage could be focused and delimited by letting the main ideas–the generalizations–determine the direction and depth for instruction. She held that specific content should be sampled rather than covered (Taba, 1966, p. 49).”

Main Ideas

“Learning has multiple objectives–the learning of content and the learning of increasingly sophisticated behaviors in thinking, attitudes, and skills–and these objectives call for different forms of instruction at different levels of complexity.” (Erickson, 2001, p. 24)

Developing students’ cognitive processing abilities, sequencing, pacing

“The concept formation strategy required students to identify what they were seeing, formulate groupings of items by common characteristics, and label and subsume like items under organizing concepts.” p. 24

Cognitive Maps: “levels of understanding related to the content under study, as well as the nature of the thinking processes. The teacher’s task of ‘protecting the student’s creative and autonomous thinking’ while reinforcing the logic of content called for high sensitivity in the instructional setting (Erickson, 2001, p. 60).”

“Test results demonstrated that the time spent on process teaching and learning did not impede strong achievement in learning the fact-based information (Taba 1966).”(Erickson, 2001, p. 25)

Conceptual Organizers

“A universal concept is a mental construct that is timeless, universal, and abstract.”

(sometimes referred to as themes, but the definition of theme is so loose that topics sometimes become confused with concepts.”

Figure 2.3 The Structure of Knowledge (Erickson, 2001, p. 26)

“Perhaps in the days of relatively unsophisticated technology and global isolationism, it was not as critical to think at high levels. But the game has changed. Global interdependence and sophisticated technologies require that we raise the intellectual as well as the academic standards in classrooms.” (Erickson, 2001, p.27)

(d) Identity: My training in philosophy really comes out when it comes to teaching conceptually. I have never taken to just teaching steps when it comes to dancing, and I’ve always been into the big picture of the difference concepts make in our lives. I typically have students think, speak, write, and dance about what we’re learning, and take the time to tie dance content to bigger ideas and themes.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice:

“Once you have a list of terms related to the unit theme, you can run them through the ‘Concept Definition Test.’Does the term you are considering as a higher-level concept serve as a mental frame or construct for a class of examples? Does it meet the following criteria?

Broad and abstract
Represented by one or two words
Universal in application
Timeless–carries through the ages
Represented by different examples that share common attributes

Example: Conflict, as a concept, has many different examples, but the examples share the characteristics of ‘opposing forces’ and ‘friction.’” (Erickson, 2001, p. 30)

I’m excited to apply this model of planning for concept-based lessons! I already use the Elements of Dance and a Criticism Model with my students, and I’m working to organize my syllabi more conceptually so students can see a clear overview up-front.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: concept-based pedagogy helps provide cognitive skills for all areas of life, rigor, help all students connect to real life, develop Identity and awareness of Diversity. Focusing on universal concepts as they apply to subject matter can help students make connections across disciplines and more easily demonstrate knowledge in a variety of settings, helping them to navigate different spheres.

(g) Wonder: In my experience, students are keen to understand universal concepts which will apply to their lives as dancers as well as human beings. Making connections is exciting, and by teaching them ideas that apply to all areas of life, students become lifelong learners.

(a) Source: Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools.” Educational Researcher, 35(7), pp. 3–12.

(b) Essential Quote: “The achievement gap is one of the most talked-about issues in U.S. education. The term refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between Black and White, Latina/o and White, and recent immigrant and White students. This article argues that a focus on the gap is misplaced. Instead, we need to look at the “education debt” that has accumulated over time. This debt comprises historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral components. The author draws an analogy with the concept of national debt-which she contrasts with that of a national budget deficit-to argue the significance of the education debt.”

(c) Major concept/idea/finding: Race and Education in Contemporary US. The yearly fluctuations in the achievement gap give us a short-range picture of how students perform on a particular set of achievement measures, therefore looking at the gap from year to year is a misleading exercise. Educational inequities initially were formed around race, class, and gender. Gradually, some of the inequities began to recede, but clearly they persist in the realm of race. Desegregation/integration was a project that has never been successful in the US and the results are unequal educational opportunities for students.

(d) Identity: My identity is a liberating educator who helps students understand themselves and possibilities available for their future. Poverty and discrimination limit the possibilities that students see for themselves. This article shows how historical bias and discrimination still affect students of racial minorities. The goal of equality in education is opening possibilities to students, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice: My goal is to promote equality in education and make sure to see possibilities for all students. I’m still figuring out how to teach each of the Social Justice areas through the medium of dance, but I’m starting at the beginning with developing a strong positive identity, then an appreciation of diversity, the will to promote justice and get into action.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: Before reading this article and the “Equity and Empathy” one by by Carter, I didn’t fully understand the degree to which the US has been unsuccessful in its integration efforts. The desegregation promise has never been fulfilled and therefore we have a dearth of research on the effects of integration. School districts are vastly unequal, and we do have evidence of the educational debt we owe minority and impoverished students. The relevant Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards pertain to Justice and Action, whereby teaching in a culturally sensitive and sustaining way will promote opportunities for all students. Working as educators, we also have the opportunity and responsibility to change systemic injustices in the public school system.

(g) Wonder: Children understand what Ladson-Billings quoted legal scholar Derrick Bell (1994) saying: “just because something is impossible does not mean it is not worth doing.” They can relate to Alice in Wonderland when she says: ““Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” This makes them good candidates for the arts, where we aim for the impossible repeatedly and ongoing, and hope to slowly reach closer to perfection over time. And they are the ones who will ultimately make a better future happen.

(a) Source: Makaiau, A. S. (2015). Cultivating and Nurturing Collaborative Civic Spaces. C3 Teachers.

(b) Essential Quote: “With a focus on building inquiry skills and key concepts—within a collaborative civic space—the C3 Framework breaths new life into John Dewey’s (1916) assertion that, in order for democracy to function as it should, teachers must provide students with opportunities to experience democracy in schools.”

(c) Major concept/idea/finding: In order for our democracy to work as it should, students need to experience democratic principles in action during their education.

(d) Identity: I identify as a progressive educator, but also value passing down technical, artistic, and historical information about the artform of dance. By applying the p4cHI framework to the teaching of dance, I can begin to instill democratic principles in my classes.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice:

This article suggests three strategies from the philosophy for children Hawai‘i (p4cHI) approach to deliberative pedagogy: Intellectual Safety, the Community Ball, and Plain Vanilla. This is in the context of Civics/Social Studies content instruction (C3 Framework: College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards), but shouldn’t be used exclusively with this content. Dance and other subjects can benefit from these techniques of safe intellectual community-building and inquiry. I did take Philosophy with Children with Dr. Jackson during my MFA at UH Manoa, and I’ve been working to integrate ideas into the teaching of dance, so Dr. Makaiau’s article is a good reminder to keep going!

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: “When students are given the opportunity to experience what democracy feels like in school, then they will be more likely to draw from and implement these experiences outside the classroom.” (Makaiau, 2015, p.4) When students experience democratic principles in action in the classroom, they also start to learn Social Justice Standard Justice #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” and Action #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.”

(g) Wonder: A democratic approach to education supports students’ natural curiosity in that they can identify problems and propose solutions, then test them out. “Right” answers are less important than understanding problem-solving, creative, knowledge-producing processes to igniting students’ natural curiosity.

(a) Source: Ormrod, J. E. (1998, April). “Teaching teachers: The problem with emphasizing ‘isms.’” Paper presented at the annual Educational Research Association Conference, San Diego, CA.

(b) Essential Quote: “Despite theorists’ disagreements regarding the basic Isms of educational psychology, describing some of these Isms in our educational psychology courses is probably a “must,” if for no other reason than to promote students’ awareness of some of the overriding philosophical perspectives that dominate the field. At the same time, we can probably better serve our students if we not dwell to much on these Isms, but instead focus on Big Ideas–those that transcend any particular Ism.” (Ormrod, 1998, p.9)

Big Ideas in Education:

Learners do not passively absorb information from the environment: rather, they actively work to make sense of their environment nd construct their own, unique understanding of the world. (Cognitive Theory, Knowledge Construction/Constructivism, Elaboration/Information Processing Theory, Information Seeking/Behaviorism)
Learning is more likely to occur when learners pay attention to the information to be learned. (Dual Store Model of Memory/Info Processing Theory, Modeling/Social Cognitivism, Orienting Response/Behaviorism)
Learners learn more effectively when they relate new information to prior knowledge. (Chaining/Behaviorism, Assimilating/Piaget, Script/Schema Theory)
The close contiguity of events increases the likelihood that learners will associate those events with one another. (Behaviorism, Info Processing)
Learners’ future learning and performance are influenced by the consequences that follow their behaviors. (External and Internal)
Hints about how to think or behave often facilitate performance. (Retrieval/Info Processing, Scaffolding/Sociocultural, Discriminative Stimuli/Behaviorism)
Learning and development are fostered when learners are challenged to perform increasingly more difficult tasks or to think in increasingly more sophisticated ways. (p.11, pretty much every theory)
Learners benefit from hearing or reading the ideas of others. (Conditioning/Behaviorism, Social Constructivism, etc.)
Learning is enhanced when learners engage in self-evaluation. (Programmed Instruction/Behaviorism, Comprehension Monitoring/Info Processing, Self-Regulation/Social Cognitive Theory)
Learning is best assessed by using an assessment instrument that reflects the goals of instruction (i.e., an instrument that has content validity). (paper-pencil test, authentic assessment, etc.)

(d) Identity: I am working to integrate educational theory/what works into my teaching practice, innovative approaches and tools, reflective practice to continue to revise and refine. I want to be aware of the main theoretical directions of inquiry or “Isms,” but remain focused on big ideas shared between various schools of thought and disciplines.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice: Using psychological and theoretical research means not just trying different things, but making targeted advances based on my understanding of my students, my subject, the goals of my courses, and best practices as currently understood in the field. I will do my best to keep up with pedagogical research and continue to integrate best practices. I will also keep in mind Ormrod’s Big Ideas and try not to get too bogged down by theory to put it into practice.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: I can best serve diverse students by understanding an array of teaching approaches and psychological learning theories, empowering them to construct knowledge.. Ormrod’s “Big Ideas” #8: “Learners benefit from hearing or reading the ideas of others” and #9 “Learning is enhanced when learners engage in self-evaluation” align well with Social Justice Education on Diversity and Identity, and #7, “Learning and development are fostered when learners are challenged to perform increasingly more difficult tasks or to think in increasingly more sophisticated ways” is consistent with Action.

(g) Wonder: Learning how to learn helps train students’ natural curiosity on necessary and desired topics, skills, and actions. Ormrod’s approach of focusing on universal Big Ideas is effective for technical training, conceptual learning, personal discovery and expression, and social justice education.

(a) Source: Paris, D. (2012). “Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice.” Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.

(b) Essential Quote: “Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster—to

sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling.” (Paris, 2012, p.93)

Culturally Relevant or Responsive Pedagogies are no longer enough, so Paris is introducing “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy.”

Keywords: bilingual/bicultural; cultural analysis; diversity; equity; instructional practices; multiculturalism; social justice

(d) Identity:

I already aim to understand students’ cultures as a part of building community, but I need to keep centering the importance of sustaining our distinct and shared cultures. The beauty of dance is that it is a great medium for cultural sharing, I just need to leverage this. Strengths-based rather than deficits-based (Paris, 2012, p.93)

Having grown up on Hawai’i, I’m aware that at one time here, as well as elsewhere in the U.S., educational systems were guilty of “Forcibly stripping Native languages and cultures from Indigenous American students and communities.” (Paris, 2012, p.93) For a while, the Hawaiian language and cultural practices were in danger of being lost, and a vast and sophisticated history threatened. Fortunately, educational policies are now in place to support the revitalization of Native Hawaiian culture.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice:

I am a teacher in diverse settings and my students come from a variety of backgrounds, with different languages, cultures, and unique experiences. It is important that I not only understand what is important to my students, but also help them maintain a vital connection to culture. I typically conduct a survey at the beginning of each course so we can get to know each other and I can help them understand strengths and weaknesses and goals for the course. In almost every class I teach, there are verbal and written means of communication in and out of class so we can keep in touch as a community of inquiry and keep our shared goals in mind. The danced, spoken, and written sharing reflects our different perspectives.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice:

For too long, education sought to erase or minimize students’ cultural practices in favor of dominant cultural paradigms. A socially just pedagogy aims to value and sustain students’ cultures alongside dominant educational culture. Key links between culturally sustaining pedagogy and the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards, include Identity #3 “Students will recognize that peoples’ 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, and # 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,” as well as others in the domains of diversity, justice, and action.

(g) Wonder:

“As we consider the need for culturally sustaining pedagogies, we must once again ask ourselves that age-old question: What is the purpose of schooling in a pluralistic society?” (Paris, 2012, p.95)

I believe that it is to enlighten, uplift, and empower, but it’s good to keep asking the question and holding our practice up for examination. I’m also curious how students conceive the purpose of schooling and this bears further examination. Why do they think schooling is required? What do they hope it will provide in their lives? What do they want to learn? Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy has the opportunity to make connections between education and students’ lived cultural experiences.

(a) Source: Tau-Tassill, L., Menton, L.K. & Tamura, E. H. (2016). A History of Hawai‘i 3rd Edition. Honolulu, HI: CRDG.

(b) Essential Quote:

“Some writers think that some Hawaiians also died simply because they lost the will to live.” (Tau-Tassill, Menton, & Tamura, 2016, p.110)

“Public education beyond the fourth grade is not only a waste, but a menace. We will spend money to educate them and they will destroy us.” (Tau-Tassill, Menton, & Tamura, 2016, p. 255)

Nahi’ena’ena struggled between her Hawaiian traditions and Christianity, died at 21. Born 1836, same year Nahi’ena’ena died, Kalakaua experienced cultural conflict while attending the Chief’s Children’s School, Royal School, joining the Privy Council at 19 and then the House of Nobles, becoming Hawaii’s last King in 1874. Kalakaua valued Hawaiian culture and had the Kumulipo chant recorded and translated. He was known as the “Merrie Monarch” and revived hula after it was suppressed by missionaries. In 1883, Kalakaua celebrated with a coronation ceremony at ‘Iolani Palace, reflective of his appreciation for parties and innovations. Alarmed by decline of Hawaiian people, he founded the Ho’oulu Lahui Society (providing medical care etc), dedicated a parcel of land (now Kapi’olani Park), and working to address epidemics and alcoholism. His rule also caused much controversy, in part due to conflicts with colonizing plantation owners and businessmen. In 1876 he signed the Reciprocity Treaty, dealt with an opium scandal, and in 1887 the Bayonet Constitution stripped him of much of his power before he went on vacation in 1890 to San Francisco died there of acute kidney failure.

Hawai’i has been struggling with cultural conflict ever since the missionaries tried to impose Western educational and religious ideas, depriving native Hawaiians of their language and culture. This was exacerbated by epidemics, alcoholism, power struggles in government and business, controversy, and corruption.

(d) Identity:

Growing up in Kailua-Kona, I was taught the history in Hawai’i (and the educational system here) to an extent. I sometimes struggled socially in school as a haole (white students were a minority at Kealakehe Elementary and Intermediate and bullying happened), but I also knew that in the larger culture of the United States I was in the majority, and had many advantages.

It’s a strange experience to be in the majority and minority at the same time, but I’m coming to realize that it highlights the various overlapping cultures of which we are a part. It saddens me to think of the loss of culture and even life inflicted on the native Hawaiian people and I want to use my practice to help prevent future injustice of this kind.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice: It is difficult to restore a culture damaged by outside influences and suppression. Fortunately, Hawai’i has made strides to revitalize the culture through education, and I hope to become a culturally sustaining educator. Understanding history is an important first step, then addressing systems of oppression. In my view, education should be liberating, but it’s clear that schooling has also been used to propagandize, control, oppress, even brainwash.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice:

This text highlights Hawai’i’s history of colonization, discrimination, and cultural suppression particularly in the field of education. Through learning history such as this, students can begin to apply a couple of the Social Justice Standards (pertaining to Justice) such as #12 “Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination)” and #13 “Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.” It’s pretty clear from this and other historical sources that Hawaiians and other cultural groups in Hawai’i have faced systematic discrimination and suppression, and this knowledge can help us create change and understand how other cultures have also faced similar challenges.

(g) Wonder:

I believe that students are naturally interested in how things got to be the way they are, and this can be accessed through history, such as that shared in this text. It’s sad to read of the loss of culture in Hawai’i and other colonized places, but encouraging to see revitalization happening. It’s so intriguing to investigate how lost or nearly-lost cultural knowledge can be revitalized, such as Polynesian navigation and the journeys of the Hokule’a. In my practice, I will seek to leverage student curiosity and cultural diversity.

(a) Source: Voltz, D., Sims, M.J., & Nelson, B. (2010). Connecting Teachers, Students, and Standards, ASCD.

(b) Essential Quote: “Introduction: Teaching in Diverse, Standards-Based Classrooms:”

“The overarching goals of standards-based reform, inclusion, and teaching for cultural and linguistic diversity are the same—to enhance the educational outcomes for all students.”

The inclusion and teaching for cultural and linguistic diversity movements infuse instructional approaches that maximize opportunities for all students to learn from their diverse peers while working in a standards-based curriculum. These approaches include differentiated instruction, universal design, sheltered instruction, and multicultural education.

MMECCA framework elements:

Methods of Instruction. This element shows the strategies and techniques that are employed during instruction. This is the “how” through which instruction is accomplished.
Materials of Instruction. This element pertains to the tangible items that are used to support instruction. This is the “with what” through which instruction is accomplished.
Environment of Instruction. This element focuses on the physical environment of the classroom, behavior management, and general classroom ethos. This is the “where” of instruction or the instructional context in which learning will occur.
Content of Instruction. This element details what is being taught to students. It addresses curricular issues related to what students should know and be able to do. This is the “what” of the learning process or the knowledge, facts, and understandings that are the essence of teaching and learning.
Collaboration for Instruction. This element pertains to how educators should work together in delivering instruction to diverse populations. It includes educational practices such as collaborative problem solving and co-teaching. This element also addresses how educators and parents should work together. This is the “it takes a village” element of instruction.
Assessment in Instruction. Finally, this element focuses on the assessment process that begins and ends the instructional cycle. It includes informal, teacher-made assessments, as well as large-scale standardized tests. This is the “how do we know what students need and what they know?” element of the instructional process.

(d) Identity: I believe that serving all students in integrated classrooms benefits all students. I appreciate strategies to leverage diversity in my courses to enhance educational outcomes and find a variety of frameworks helpful in planning and assessing my instructional practice.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice: I will utilize this framework to design instruction and assess the effectiveness of my methods for the diverse populations that I work with. This is related the the UDL/Universal Design for Learning method that I have been applying to my planning for instruction since I took and online course on it for UH system faculty from Leeward Community College. I’ve been focusing on using varied methods to serve students, such as computer and online tools, videos, reading and listening to reading, writing, speaking, and sharing using other media.

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice: Justice and Action

Voltz, Sims and Nelson’s ideas about connecting students and standards are consistent with Social Justice Education, in particular the standards of #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,” #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” and #12 “Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination).”

(g) Wonder: Students learn by interacting with one another, and they stand to learn more from more diverse classmates. I think they are naturally curious about others’ experiences, just need to feel safe and comfortable interacting. My role is to create that safe container for learning. Also, if students are not aware of the variety of ways in which people think and learn, they may assume that they or others lack intelligence, when in fact our intelligences manifest in many individual ways. I want students to know that we are all smart in different ways and to help them discover many strategies to learn and help one another grow.

(a) Source: Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. ASCD.

(b) Essential Quotes: In Chapter 1 of Understanding by Design, “Backwards Design”

Wiggins and McTighe claim that “Answering the ‘why?’ and ‘so what?’ questions that older students always ask (or want to), and doing so in concrete terms as the focus of curriculum planning, is thus the essence of understanding by design.” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p.15)

“Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results.” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p.15)

Design for District/State/National Standards and Student Needs, form follows function, specific learnings sought, evidence of such learnings.

“Too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning.” (Wiggins&McTighe, 2005, p.15)

Content-focused design vs. Results-focused design

Twin sins of traditional design: Activity-oriented curricula (think that learning is the activity rather than learning comes from considering the meaning of the activity), “Coverage-based” textbook or lectures (not the same as a purposeful survey p.21 “teaching by mentioning it”)

Need a guiding intellectual purpose

“Try asking students: What are you doing? Why are you being asked to do it? What will it help you do? How does it fit with what you have previously done? How will you show that you have learned it?” (Wiggins&McTighe, 2005, p.17)

Priority learnings, implied performances to demonstrate

“We are coaches of their ability to play the ‘game’ of performing with understanding, not tellers of our understanding to them on the sidelines.” (Wiggins&McTighe, 2005, p.17)

“Backward design calls for us to make our goals or standards specific and concrete, in terms of assessment evidence, as we begin to plan a unit or course.” (Wiggins&McTighe, 2005, p.19)

Design for Engagement AND Understanding (not just rewarding engagement)

(d) Identity: As a life coach, I learned to plan with the end in mind, with a clearly-articulated goal, backwards with intention. This is clearly an effective technique in personal and professional life, and in my opinion is a valuable skill to share with students as well. When we’re goal-setting for each semester or course, I make sure to have students follow a backwards design framework, not just setting “SMART” goals and envisioning the future, but also creating intermediate landmarks with regards to knowledge and skills, so they learn to scaffold their own learning and personal development while watching me do the same in class.

(e) Connection Between Theory & Practice:

I have used similar procedures in the past, and now have the UbD model to refer to in my instructional planning:

Stage I: Identify Desired Results

Stage II: Determine Acceptable Evidence

Stage III: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

(Wiggins&McTighe, 2005, pp.17-19)

(f) Critical Link to Social Justice:

“We must be able to state with clarity what the student should understand and be able to do as a result of any plan and irrespective of any constraints we face.” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p.14) Learning differences and other diverse traits should not impact content or standards, which means that we are serving students in an equitable manner. Backward design of this kind makes peer reviews possible, which will also positively influence our teaching to diverse audiences. For students, UbD aligns with the all of the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards, in particular Identity #3 “Students will recognize that peoples’ multiple

identities interact and create unique and complex individuals,” since teaching methods would reflect a diversity of learning styles and approaches and students would also have the opportunity to develop their own personally meaningful goals. By becoming familiar with a backward design process, students would also be working toward Action #20 “Students will plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world

and will evaluate what strategies are most effective.”

(g) Wonder:

Students really do want to know “why” they’re being asked to learn the material and what they’ll get out of it! This will keep them engaged despite inevitable challenges, and I will work to reiterate the goals and purpose of each lesson so that every student is always clear about our objectives.