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In this section, I include the project Dr. Mejia designed and the research questions she created.

Dr. Jamila Pewu noticed enough similarities between what I had suggested as a project and the project proposal Dr. Mejia had submitted. Our journey helped us explore the connection between equitable instruction and how classroom technologies are chosen and employed in K-12 classrooms. Since technological progress moves at such a rapid pace, we needed to investigate only the most current research possible, and as we did so, we also recognized that another facet of our research needed to include Artificial Intelligence (AI)—especially since both fears and wildly creative ideas were (and still are) rocketing through education. None of these pursuits were new to Dr. Mejia, but they were new to me. Sure, I had dabbled with AI, but until this DEFCon fellowship, I hadn’t carved out any dedicated time to pursue these areas of interest outside of the degrees I was working toward.

Here you will find the following sections:

Study Proposal

Research Questions

Present/Future Directions

AI Reports and Research

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Before I started working with my mentor, Dr. Madeleine Mejia, I possessed limited language to express what I thought my digital project could look like. Also, though I understood the essence of DEFCon (Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium), I was unfamiliar with the nuances of digital projects and many of the tools used to create them. However, I knew these projects were often about illuminating hidden histories and the people affected by hundreds of years of systemic silence. I also suspected that working in this arena would expand my resources and skills as a budding teacher. I wanted to explore technology in ways I hadn't before, and I had an inkling that technology and equity were linked. My mind was on the marginalized students I had observed at a local alternative high school who struggled to engage with course content, often via technology, that was the same (equal) for every student but not significantly, or at all differentiated. I wondered, were students learning, or were they just biding their time until the bell rang?

In this section you will find my DEFCon application and Award Letter, as well as the necessary IRB certifications and my Researcher Positionality Statement.

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From Idea to Onboarding: My Path into Action Research

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From Idea to Onboarding: My Path into Action Research

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Welcome! What you will find here is a journey from an idea to a full-fledged project, via the training, encouragement, and resources within DEFCon and the guidance, wisdom and support of Dr. Madeleine Mejia, which has led to being onboarded into the action research that will only grow as I do as a graduate student and then as a secondary educator.

This ongoing archive serves as a roadmap to the work I have collected and shared in my digital portfolio (this is a living/on-going portfolio).

In this section you will learn a bit about me and what led me to apply for a DEFCon fellowship at Cal State University, Fullerton (CSUF).

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Being awarded the DEFCon Fellowship has onboarded me to think about my role as an educator in new ways and has onboarded me to think about the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of any decision I will make as a classroom teacher.

Fall '23: student-teaching in a high school while in grad school and pursuing a credential

As I complete my teacher credential, I will be student -teaching in two 9th grade English classes at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, California.

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My DEFCon Application (NEED COPY OF THIS)

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My DEFCon Application (NEED COPY OF THIS)

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This is the application that started me on this journey. In it I describe my interest in learning more about how to engage students with technology projects and portfolios in ways that support accessible, equitable, engaging learning.

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This section chronicles the new learning I have acquired through the DEFCon Fellowship. I attended many of the workshops provided. Each post is organized using the workshop title, date, and my take-aways.

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This is organized into two sections/posts.

The first lists the various podcasts I listen to regularly, which help me broaden my cultural knowledge, learn about people and organizations working to dismantle systemic racism, and learn more about marginalized humans, such as those in LGBTQIA+ communities.

The second lists the books I have read which serve as mentors and guides that help me think broadly about systemic racism and its ongoing consequences.

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My name is Britton Minor. Soon, I will be a secondary education teacher.

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My name is Britton Minor. Soon, I will be a secondary education teacher.

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The classrooms I'm in will become a lab site in which I will conduct important research; this will be an inquiry into practice that will inform and help shape me as an antiracist educator. This experience will inform how I create an environment where my students and I will become collaborative partners learning about the world and our collective role in it.  This is a journey that has helped me develop racial literacy and has onboarded me to become an action researcher.

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In this document, I reflect upon the path that led me to apply for a DEFCon fellowship, as well as how the program led me to a critical mentorship relationship, research impactful to my career as a secondary education teacher, and an appreciation for the value of sustained research practices.

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This is the study Dr. Mejia is conducting and is using her course: READ 507 Literacy Across the Disciplines to investigate.

Disciplinary Literacy (DL), ethnic studies, and technology provide a dynamic interplay that benefits teachers and students. Yet, K-12 educators often lack the necessary preparation to effectively develop and teach DL and ethnic studies lessons by sleeting and leveraging technology tools to promote students' critical thinking skills. the proposed study will investigate how high-quality literacy preparation develops teachers as equity-literate social justice educators and students as critical thinkers.

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These are the research questions Dr. Mejia created to guide her study.

1. How is technology used in K-12 classrooms?

2. How do teachers make decisions about using technology in the classroom?

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Here you will find where conversations with Dr. Mejia led us to think about how AI can be leveraged in classroom instruction, as well as how it is already being used. Thus, we have begun to cull the literature for documents that will inform our upcoming project and answer these research questions:

Is/how is AI being used to promote classroom equity?

How can AI be leveraged to support the development of high school students' racial and critical literacy?

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At present, we are reading the US Department of Education AI report and its recommendations (below) for instruction. We plan to use this as a guide in our upcoming study, which will be conducted in my classroom.

1. Emphasize Humans-in-the-Loop

2. Align AI Models to a Shared Vision for Education

3. Design AI Using Modern Learning Principles

4. Prioritize Strengthening Trust

5. Inform and Involve Educators

6. Focus R&D on Addressing Context and Enhancing Trust and Safety

7. Develop Education-specific Guidelines and Guardrails

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U.S. Department of Education Shares Insights and Recommendations for Artificial Intelligence

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Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET) released a new report, "Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations" that summarizes the opportunities and risks for AI in teaching, learning, research, and assessment based on public input.

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This document serves as a roadmap to help you understand my journey as an emerging high-school educator and action researcher who is interested in:

Antiracist education

Culturally relevant and sustaining instruction

Leveraging technology to support students’ critical thinking skills

Action research and critical self-reflection

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x_kpWJZaDyXHSD-4Gb2kGF2zmYGmUWA5gLJr_eCtMqA/edit?usp=sharing

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Note: Redacted personal content

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As I prepare to engage with my mentor teacher's syllabus, I am thinking about how am I going to be teaching students critical thinking skills by leveraging technology—during units on To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet.

Research Question: How can AI be leveraged in classroom instruction?

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Getting Started with Digital Scholarship (March '23)

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Getting Started with Digital Scholarship (March '23)

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We explored a variety of digital projects, platforms, and applications. This was all new information to me, and though not all of it was relevant to this stage of my project, it will be later, when I am creating new projects and working with students on their own. I appreciated learning about the scope of a digital project as well as the components necessary to plan each one, as well as the plethora of tools available.

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Digital Mapping 101 (March '23) "From Basic to Highly Customizable, Collaborative and Interactive, this hands-on workshop explores various tools for making and sharing spatial data using maps."

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Digital Mapping 101 (March '23) "From Basic to Highly Customizable, Collaborative and Interactive, this hands-on workshop explores various tools for making and sharing spatial data using maps."

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I appreciated learning about various programs, and the hands-on learning we did with a couple of them. I had used Google Earth before, but Felt was new to me, so it was great to give it a go with others also using it for the first time.

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Spatial Literacy in the Classroom: Using Geographic Information Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research (March '23)

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Spatial Literacy in the Classroom: Using Geographic Information Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research (March '23)

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Dr. Virginia Ochoa-Winemiller helped us familiarize ourselves with spatial literacy and its applications in the classroom, exposing us to technologies that can be used to represent spatial data in teaching and in research.

For further study, a short course in Canvas was made available to registered attendees.

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Getting Started With Zotero (April '23) facilitated by Colleen Green —How to create and manage your own personal library of references, generate citations and bibliographies and more. 

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Getting Started With Zotero (April '23) facilitated by Colleen Green —How to create and manage your own personal library of references, generate citations and bibliographies and more. 

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Having all my sources in one place for each of my projects and/or classes, reduced my stress level tremendously. And the ease with which I can create citations and bibliographies saves time and energy. Additionally, basic information, including abstracts, when available, are visible in the right-side panels of each article—an easy and quick way to refresh my memory about each source without having to pull them up.

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Making the Most of Mentoring (April '23)

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Making the Most of Mentoring (April '23)

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A live workshop and "meet-and-eat" with peers and mentors. It was great to connect with each other in person, share a meal, and discuss the art of giving and receiving mentorship as well as revisiting our goals and progress achieved thus far.

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Community Engagement, Information Curation, and Storytelling through Digital Portfolios (April '23) 

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Community Engagement, Information Curation, and Storytelling through Digital Portfolios (April '23) 

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Led by Eduard Arriaga. There were technical difficulties with this workshop and I was unable to complete the hands-on Wakelet portion due to a time-constraint, but I have since begun to explore Wakelet as the result of this brief exposure to it. The course description is informative and important in light of portfolio creation and purpose. It has informed my thinking:

This workshop will discuss the use of digital portfolios both in traditional and community-engaged courses. Portfolios are usually seen as collections of previous work that students tend to dump in a given structure, making it less useful and significant for their own learning. However, this session will discuss how digital portfolios can be used to foster critical, reflective and productive skills through which students become agents of their own learning process. (Hands-on Wakelet training was also offered.)

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DEFCon Virtual Annual Meeting (June '23) 

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DEFCon Virtual Annual Meeting (June '23) 

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This was a fascinating day listening to project presentations from DEFCon fellows at large. Presenters also discussed various challenges and nuances of these projects that helped me understand some of the challenges and areas of sensitivity that can arise when exploring and documenting the history of marginalized groups of people. This was an impressive and inspiring meeting that made me feel part of a community of people making a difference in the world by elevating unheard voices and stories.

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IRB Certification: RCR Basic Course Certificate

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IRB Certification: RCR Basic Course Certificate

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IRB CERTIFICATION: Social and Behavioral Research Certificate

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IRB CERTIFICATION: Social and Behavioral Research Certificate

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Zotero: This program is a game-changer for me, allowing me to keep all aspects of my research, right down to individual research questions and projects, organized and easily accessible. 

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Zotero: This program is a game-changer for me, allowing me to keep all aspects of my research, right down to individual research questions and projects, organized and easily accessible. 

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For managing all my research

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To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and We Wear The Mask and Sympathy (Paul Dunbar)

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To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and We Wear The Mask and Sympathy (Paul Dunbar)

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Themes to explore:
Race
Racism
Biases
Societal expectations

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, instead of doing a traditional short stories and/or poetry unit, I prefer to teach a novel or drama and then supplement with thematically relevant texts. Here are the texts I pair with and the skills I emphasize with each.

To Kill a Mockingbird Poetry Pairings

Since To Kill a Mockingbird is the first text my sophomores read, this unit is also the first place my students encounter poetry. For this reason, when I select poems for this unit, I look for texts that are thematically relevant. But I also look for texts that help my students build the fundamental skills needed for analyzing poetry.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

1. " We Wear the Mask" and " Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. This is often the first poem my students encounter. So this is often the poem I'm using to teach my students the 4 steps for pre-reading a poem. Here are some of the reasons this text is a good introduction to poetry annotation:

Reliable meter and rhyme scheme. One of the steps to pre-reading poetry is to identify the rhyme scheme. And Dunbar keeps an intentional rhyme scheme with purposeful deviations.

Empathic punctuation. Similarly, Dunbar's use of punctuation is varied but deft. Students are able to have a meaningful first experience analyzing his choices.

Meaningful point of view. Point of view is key to understanding most texts, but the plural "we" in this poem is especially meaningful. From a teaching perspective, this is a great way to introduce students to the idea that point of view can be telling.

Apart from its poetic merits, "We Wear the Mask" is thematically relevant. One of the criticisms of To Kill a Mockingbird is the portrayal of Black characters. "We Wear the Mask" provides some insight into the roles characters like Calpurnia are asked to play. Reading this poem against the scene at First Purchase Church can be powerful.

Additionally, students also read Dunbar's "Sympathy." Like To Kill a Mockingbird, this poem uses a bird as a symbol. For this reason, reading this poem opens up a great conversation about synthesis thinking. How do two different authors with two different historical and cultural contexts arrive at a similar symbol? Why this symbol?

Furthermore, the devastation at the heart of "Sympathy" helps students think through Tom Robinson's fatal decision to run. Before reading "Sympathy," ask students if they think Tom's decision makes sense. Ask the same question after reading "Sympathy," and you will have an extraordinary conversation with students. Read both of Dunbar's poems here.

Maya Angelou

After reading Dunbar's poem, we also read Angelou's re-interpretation or adaptation of his work. This opens up a great conversation about the way authors and artists build on one another's work, finding way to address similar themes and concerns. In particular, this is a poem where I begin to introduce the concepts of tone and allusion.

Similarly, "Caged Bird" makes significant allusions to Dunbar's work. With this poem, students build on annotation skills and on their understanding of tone. But now we've added symbolism and started in on our synthesis skills. At this point, we are able to start building a synthesis map to visualize connections between texts. Read Angelou's poetry here.

To Kill a Mockingbird and Nonfiction

While To Kill a Mockingbird is fiction, it touches on significant real-world concerns, issues, and themes. For this reason, I always pair the novel with a few pieces of nonfiction. This is also where I introduce my students to the 4 steps for pre-reading informational texts.

First-Person Nonfiction

This short piece from Gaiman is a recent addition to my To Kill a Mockingbird unit, but it's proven to be invaluable. This is the first piece of nonfiction my students read with me. So this is a vehicle I use for introducing the 4 steps for annotating nonfiction. Here's what makes this a strong first piece of nonfiction:

It's nonthreatening. To Kill a Mockingbird is a long novel. And poetry is often intimidating for students. So having a text that seems nonthreatening can be a boon for students.

Text features! In order to understand this text, students may need some prior knowledge about Gaiman, his purpose for writing, and some common allusions. For this reason, this is a great text to help students find value in text features.

Paraphrasing and summarizing. Sometimes teachers use these terms interchangeably. But paraphrasing and summarizing are not the same. So I like to teach students the difference early in the semester. We use this text to learn the difference between a paraphrase and a summary. Then we use this graphic organizer that we reference as we write about To Kill a Mockingbird.

Third-Person Nonfiction

4. " The Economics of the New Jim Crow " from Inequality.org

While Gaiman's piece is in the first person, this piece is in the third-person. So this text offers an opportunity to review points of view. Before deploying this text, read it carefully because it begins with a powerful image. The text helps reinforce the notion that American racism has not ended but that it has evolved and has an economic component. This is also great for discussing how authors use evidence and figurative language to make and support claims.

Inequality.org also has " The Disparate Impact of Climate Change ," which I do not always have time to teach (and it's getting a little dated). However, this article makes a great point about the connection between class, poverty, and discrimination. My students often miss the class implications of To Kill a Mockingbird , so I value that aspect of this article.

Challenging Nonfiction

5. " Of Our Spiritual Strivings" from Chapter 1 of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois.

This is another recent addition to my unit. And it's also, perhaps, the most complex text students encounter in this unit. Nevertheless, this text is incredibly powerful. In this section of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois introduces the concept of "double consciousness." In other words, he names the very sensation Dunbar and Angelou describe in their poetry. Reading this piece helps students understand Calpurnia and Tom. But this poem also helps students understand the limitations of To Kill a Mockingbird and of individuals who only "read" the world through one lens. Since this is such a complex text, I have heavy scaffolding in place. Check it out here.

Unique Resources

While my students are constantly engaged in traditional texts like poems, nonfiction articles, and novels, there is value in exposing students to alternative texts and resources. For this reason, I suggest these two text pairings. However, when pressed for time, these are also the texts I omit from my unit.

6. Ruby Payne's Hidden Rules for Understanding Poverty from A Framework for Understanding Poverty

Many of us read Ruby Payne's work as undergrads. And while I admit that the text has some problems, the chart of Hidden Rules works extremely well with To Kill a Mockingbird . This is a discussion point for my students as they evaluate how the hidden rules work within To Kill a Mockingbird . This is an opportunity to continue synthesis. But this is also another place to work with text features and discussion skills.

I rarely show these clips to the whole class. But I often use them as discussion stations. I'll place one clip at one station and ask students to either write or answer questions based on the clip. If you are not able to use these in class, you can post them to your Google Classroom. Be careful about when in your reading you use a clip so as to guard against spoilers. I also have listening guides for both episodes.

What texts do you pair with To Kill a Mockingbird? How do you use this text to teach the intersection of history and literature? What texts should I add to this list? Let us know in the comments!

Photo and clipart credits: Blake Meyer on Unsplash; Caryn Wheeler; and Old Market

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Paired Texts for To Kill a Mockingbird / Moore English

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Prepare to teach Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird with these texts, including 3 poems, a creed, an informational text, chart, and video.

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A source to review: Shakespeare’s principal source for the plot was The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562), a long narrative poem by the English poet Arthur Brooke, who had based his poem on a French translation of a tale by the Italian Matteo Bandello.

Themes to explore:
Gender equality
Women's role in society
Biases
Societal expectations

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Demographics:

2062 students: 1061 (M), 1001 (F)
American Indian/Alaska Native: 3
Asian: 85
Black: 15
Hispanic: 659
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 3
White: 1148

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Will be updated once student shuffling has settled; student schedules are still morphing.

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This is part of my journey. In its beginning form, I list who I am, what shapes my thinking, what informs the research I want to conduct, and more importantly, what I want to accomplish as an educator engaging in the practice.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y2TzBlBuYm3465-ufsGenIYknGhjZHlJIN4E5DtdPpo/edit?usp=sharing

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What I Want To Know—Kevin P. Chavous
Code Switch—Lori Lizarraga, et al.
Systemic—Joe Erickson
White Lies—NPR
Forward Together—LA Civil Rights
Teaching While White—Elizabeth Chandler Ward & Elizabeth Denevi
Queer America—Leila Rupp and John D'Emilio
The Sum of Us—Heather McGhee
Cult of Pedagogy—Jennifer Gonzalez

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What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society - from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.

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We Want to Do more than Survive-Bettina L. Love
Lives in Limbo—Roberto G. Gonzales
White Women—Regina Jackson and Sara Rao
Waking up White—Debbie Irving
Native Son—Richard Wright
The New Jim Crow—Michelle Alexander
Just Mercy—Bryan Stevenson
Making Meaning of Whiteness—Alice McIntyre
When They Call You a Terrorist—Patrisse Khan-Cullers & Asha Bandele
How to Be an Antiracist—Ibram X Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race—Ijeoma Oluo
Caste—Isabel Wilkerson
White Fragility—Robin DiAngelo
Currently reading:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-sum-of-us-what-racism-
costs-everyone-and-how-we-can-prosper-together-heather-mcghee/14618549?ean=9780525509585&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnf-kBhCnARIsAFlg493HuJq1X1R-43dMrncayN-j8i4EBBXD62ZmTDqLUIfe91gMj3dv1BQaAiFZEALw_wcB

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The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together a book by Heather McGhee

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LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone--not just for people of color. WI…