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Coleman, M.B. & Cramer, E.S. (2015). Creating Meaningful Art Experiences With Assistive Technology for Students with Physical, Visual, Severe and Multiple Disabilities. Art Education, 6-12.

I found this article to be incredibly informative and I will definitely be referencing it to help me when I plan my lessons.

The adaptive tools are essential and I hope to start collecting my own collection for use in the classroom.

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Project Creates Adaptive Equipment for Kids out of Cardboard

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After reading “Creative Meaningful Art Experiences with Assistive Technology for Students with Physical, Visual, Severe and Multiple Disabilities,” I found that students with disabilities need access to art making experiences as much or more than their peers.  This article mentioned many ideas that would help to provide access to meaningful art experiences in an art teacher’s classroom.  In order to provide the right kinds of services that are needed for students with disabilities, it’s crucial for an art teacher to read literature and also team up with an adaptive art specialist.  When teaching my assessment for assignment # 4, I must really take into consideration that in order to have an inclusive art program, I must provide students with disabilities a voice in expressing their ideas. Afterall, the art classroom is a place where students of all learning levels come together to create artwork. Assisted technology is “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” With assistive technology devices such as: expanded keyboards, communication devices, pointing devices and computerized drawing software students with disabilities have a chance to be active participants.  Implementing AT into my classroom would be helpful for my students with disabilities to perform my assessment in ways that they might not have been able to perform efficiently.  I found it interesting that partial participation is a teaching strategy that allows the student to do as much of the task as independently as possible and then receive support for the rest. Also, with a high technology communication device, students have screens that could cover elements and principles such as art topics in art history.  This would benefit me in my assessment because a large component is to study and understand the importance of Kara Walker’s work and her place in contemporary art history.

Upon reading Garcia and Kleifgen's "Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Chapter 9," I understood how important it is to have an inclusive classroom that meets the needs of all students.  If I were to teach my assessment from Assignment # 4, I would like to know the personal background and culture of my students.  That would only serve to be beneficial in understanding where they're coming from. For example: There shouldn't be high expectations when testing ELLs or bilinguals who aren't proficient in English.  There's no validity in testing something that they don't know. I believe that testing should be a means for informing teaching and developing learning. It's important to note that emergent bilinguals come into schools with very different schooling experiences. Also that schools teach students to use language for tasks that are different from those they perform outside of the classroom.

When reading about Jeehayae, a newly arrived student from Korea, I imagined how I would handle having a student like this while teaching my assessment.  I found it particularly interesting that Jeehayae has an extensive knowledge of reading and writing in Korean but when applied to similar tasks in English, she would do poorly.  I learned that it's not about the capability of this student but rather the kind of teaching required to help her become as proficient in English as she is in Korean. When it comes to the standardized testing for emergent bilinguals there are concerns because the tests don't measure what it intends.

These tests are constructed for White, middle-class, monolingual populations and they always contain a built in content bias.  They also don't include activities or concepts from the worlds of minoritized students.  Because my assessment would be about the concepts of race and gender in Kara Walker's work, I think that it would be crucial for students to have a frame of reference that isn't White or middle-class. If I were testing my ELL students I would highly consider the performance-based assessments mentioned in this article.  These tests ask students to produce a product such as a portfolio or perform an action.  This would be better for bilingual students because it provides a wider range of opportunities to show what they know and are able to do in both language and content areas.

Performance-based multimodal assessments are less language dependent than are traditional tests, enabling teachers to better distinguish between language proficiency and content proficiency.  The most important takeaway from this article for me was that "there's no relationship between the language used on tests and that used in real life." Clearly, monolingual constructed and administered tests cannot validly measure the complex language practices of bilingual students.

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In "I aint writin nuttin" Gloria Ladson-Billings explains what it means to 'demand success' of students instead of giving them 'permission to fail.' She recounts a teacher who pushed most of her students academically, except for a young Black girl who she allowed to fail. Ladson-Billings contrasts this lack of teacher rigor and care with a young teacher, Carter, who would not give up on his students even after they repeatedly protested his writing assignments. Instead, he demanded success by recognizing the language skills students already had and connecting those skills to more "conventional forms of literacy" through a jazz song that became the impetus for a class writing project (p. 117).

Carter took responsibility for his students' learning. It wasn't that the students were incapable, but rather something in his teaching style and lessons needed to change to get them engaged. As Ladson-Billings writes, it's one thing for young teachers like Carter to "talk a big game" about their pedagogy and goals; it's another to put the pedagogy into action by being resourceful and willing to experiment and possibly fail. It's the putting-into-action that counts.

In the 74 Interview, Ladson-Billings explains that culturally relevant teaching — and its three pillars of academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness — are philosophical outlooks on teaching, not a single project or technique. Adopting this outlook takes rigorous work on the part of a teacher. For example, taking big ideas and "pulling them across all the different cultural groups" (instead of isolating these groups in discrete lesson units) requires a wealth of knowledge, understanding, and research. As Ladson-Billings adds, however, "changing the content is not going to be enough if you are pedagogically doing the same things." In other words, tacking on multicultural units of study is not sufficient if you're not actively and concurrently building students' academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Importantly: ask students what's going on in their lives and connect them to the material at hand. Guide them through difficult conversations, give them the tools, and teach them how to "provide evidence" to back up their opinions.

Black students are the subject of Ladson-Billings' work on culturally relevant teaching but this work is not solely 'for them.' The question is: "what can we do to improve their performance that would likely improve performance for everybody?" We simultaneously need to acknowledge the racial inequalities and racism that plague our education system. A "historical legacy" of unequal access to education, lack of resources, and inequitable funding for Black Americans has left society 'in debt'  to generations of families who have been deprived of the same opportunities as white families. The rhetoric around "achievement gaps" ignores this historical reality and shifts the blame to individual students and families.

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Gloria Ladson Billings

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Gloria Ladson Billings

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Gloria Ladson Billings

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Ladson-Billings writes about a teacher who encourages African-American students who hate to write by creating culturally responsive lessons that include music and drama as precursors to their writing. Culturally relevant pedagogy is a theoretical construct based on three things: successful teaching focuses on students academic achievement, students cultural competence and promote students socio-political consciousness.

Carter, a well educated new teacher is excited about his new role. However he lost momentum once he realized that his under privileged students didn’t enjoy writing and were not doing well in his class. He brought in a jazz record and asked the students to write about the various characters that were reflected in the melodies that inspired a conversation that encourages students to create character roles based on the wordless music. By acting out these rolls from their own character webs they were inspired to write. They worked on their language and literary skills through this fun theatrical activity. He showed his students respect and encouraged them to learn through very creative methods.

In the interview with Gloria Ladson-Billings on “culturally relevant teaching in Trump’s America and lessons from her two decades in education research” she references her own childhood and a teacher that inspired her. She speaks about the great need for diversity and integration in the student body and the teachers.

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In "74 Interview," Gloria Ladson-Billings starts by putting the concept of "the talk" out there.  "The talk" speaks to black students honestly about what it means to be African-American in a way that their white counterparts never could. This was addressed by black teachers who were being "real" with their black students.  An example of this is if a class was on a field trip and if the black children didn't behave, outsiders would think to themselves, "look at those badly behaved BLACK students," rather than "look at those badly behaved children."
Ladson-Billings sees three pillars in culturally relevant teaching.  The first is academic success. The second is cultural competence. And the third is sociopolitical consciousness.  These pillars give students the space to talk about and investigate problems that affect them, such as the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri.  The threefold approaches mentioned above is an approach to ensure that all children are successful. It's a focus on students' learning as an attempt to develop cultural competence and to increase sociopolitical or critical consciousness.  In order to be culturally relevant, you need to do all three things.

A culturally relevant teacher is someone who understands that we're operating in a fundamentally and inequitable system.  The role of a teacher is to give their students the skills, knowledge and the dispositions to change the inequity.  When referring to sociopolitical consciousness, it's important to ask "why?" questions.  A culturally relevant teacher would ask, "Okay, here's why you need to know this." The teachers put it in these terms because if they're going to change the way things are, they're going to have to speak to this level of unfairness and inequity and need the tools to do so.  Teachers often shy away from critical consciousness because they're afraid it's too political.  Also, the schools say that "you can't talk about this."
Ladson-Billings has made black children the subject of her study.  This study is centered on the experiences of black children.  People presume that her work is only for black students.  What's being overlooked is that white children desperately need people of color as teachers as well.  An important question from the reading is: "Do you think you can go out into the world and interact with people, when you've never had an ongoing relationship with someone who's different from you?" Ladson-Billings stated that people think everything can and will be fixed if schools pair black and brown kids with black and brown teachers.  However, the most segregated groups of kids in this country are white kids.

In this article, Ladson-Billings comments on the problem in the neighborhoods of black and brown students.  The neighborhoods are deeply segregated and it's the black and brown kids that get bussed all across town.  The only instance where white students make an effort comparable to this is when they get bussed to speciality schools.

An important takeaway from reading this "74 Interview" of Ladson-Billings is that teachers have to know the experiences of their students.  And culturally relevant teachers don't shy away from asking, "Hey, did you see that thing on the news?"

In "I Ain't Writin' Nuttin': Permissions to Fail and Demands to Succeed
in Urban Classrooms," Ladson-Billings introduces us to a little African American girl named Shannon.  Shannon was paired up with three white children and was given the task of writing a sentence that describes something special that happened to them over the weekend.She refused to write and said things such as: "I ain't writin' nuttin," and "I don't want no white people pickin' me!" What's most surprising is that Shannon's teachers permitted her to blow off her assignments and slip further and further behind her classmates. Although most students were encouraged to write each day, Shannon was regularly permitted towards failing. No demands were being made for her to perform at the same level of her peers. It was powerfully said in the article that: "Her resistance is a challenge for her teachers but it's their challenge."

Ladson-Billings work is grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy.  It's based on a theoretical construct that is made up of three propositions.  The first is successful teaching that focuses on students' academic achievement.  The second is successful teaching that supports students' cultural competence.  And the third is successful teaching promotes students' socio-political consciousness.  Students' academic achievement represents intellectual growth and the ability to produce knowledge. Students' ability to read, write, problem-solve, make critical decisions, each represent examples of students' academic achievements. Culturally relevant teaching is described as being "designed to help student's move past blaming the victim mentality and search for the structural and symbolic foundations of inequity and injustice."

In this article, Ladson-Billings has begun to look carefully at the teaching practice of novice or beginner teachers. She was particularly interested because of her desire to understand how people learn to be good teachers. She asked herself, "What does a classroom that demands success from all students look like?" Then we're introduced to Carter Forshay, a 20 something year old, African American man who was given a fourth grade class, where he discovers that his students absolutely hated writing. They would say things such as: "Writin' is too hard," and "I don't have nothin' to say, why are you makin' us write stuff?"

Carter began a systematic examination of his own practice. Although his students' musical taste was more of the rap and soul variety, Carter recognized that they loved music.  He then chose a jazz CD and song by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. He started the students in a discussion about what they thought the action was and how they thought the characters were feeling and behaving.  From there Carter encouraged the students to take turns role-playing the characters and their interactions.  The students started writing by writing some of the dialogue. Then they reviewed their rough drafts. The lesson ended with the children publishing their books and sharing them with students from other classrooms.  The students were able to motivate each other, didn't give up and came such a long way in terms of progress. Carter could've given in to his students' complaints and accepted their mediocrity. By doing this, he would have set them up with the permission to fail. Instead Carter decided to demand success.

James Gee (1998) stated that there's reading and writing with a small "r" and a small "w," as well as reading and writing with a big "R" and a big "W."  A big "R" reading and a big "W" writing refers to "any specific social practice or activity in which reading and writing are involved together with distinctive meanings, values, attitudes, ways of acting, interacting using oral language and other symbol systems."

Carter believed it was important to cultivate a professional personal stance with his students. He developed a series of pedagogical actions that he needed to take to make that idea a reality.  One would think that being African American would guarantee that he had an automatic "in" with his students but they came from completely different backgrounds.  While Carter was from a middle-class background and graduated from an elite private University. His students on the other hand. came from the poorest section of the city.  As a young African American man, Carter felt an obligation to present an image of African American maleness beyond that of a hip-hop rapper or gang banger.  Instead he presented with a business-like demeanor and focused on caring for his students. And while he empathized with the students' struggle to write, he understood that his job was to teach them to do it.  He didn't "let them off the hook" and instead helped them to appreciate the power and fulfillment of writing.  This then resulted in the preservation of each student's sense of self.

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WEEK 9 Readings: Gloria Ladson-Billings on Culturally Relevant Teaching.

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WEEK 9 Readings: Gloria Ladson-Billings on Culturally Relevant Teaching.

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The interview with Gloria Ladson-Billing on Culturally Relevant Teaching to be necessary, especially these times. Although I'm not really in the position to give the talk to minority students, I still can operate my classroom in a way that is culturally relevant to them. When teaching students, I especially believe that to discuss things going on in the world that affects them personally in their lives is important. It will bring the students to be interested, involved in, and have equity in the Classroom experience, helping to immerse them in the learning experience. Students bring their whole selves into the classroom to ignore what is going on in the world today is ignorance on the part of an educator. Things that are happening all over this country are the result of the past never being resolved. It needs to be pointed out and discussed. Ladson-Billings talks about the killing of Michael Brown and to let students choose topics, “bringing students to investigate the problems that affect them” to set “their social justice agendas.” How many more unjust murders have there been since Michael Brown? Every minority student is aware of how easily that can be them–all have had “the talk” at some point.

Another point is how Ladson-Billing speaks about Education debt, and instead of calling it an achievement Gap, we have failed. Segregation is alive and well in the public school systems. One thing my white privilege kept me from ever realizing is how minority students are the ones who have to sacrifice and bend: to have to travel across town in the buses–how they lose out of being part of the full experience of the school sometimes because of it. Education isn't just about the classroom learning experience; the whole experience: the social experience, sports, and clubs and all.

The Permission to Fail Piece also by Billings I loved the example of the teacher Mr. Carter, out in California. How he figured out a way to teach his students to expand their writing even though they didn't want to write–didn't like to write. They were writing without even realizing it because when someone connects to something and approaches a project in a creative way that students connect with, giving them equity in their work, you will get better results. I may not be able to pay down the education debt that they are owed, but at least I can teach in a way that gives them a little equity back.

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In Kraft’s Stakeholders and Inclusion article, I found that a great deal of collaboration between stakeholders (art teachers, special education teachers, and parents) is crucial for the creating, developing and implementing of an inclusive art class for all learners. Due to the art class being a popular placement in general education for students with alter-abilities, art educators may be called upon to participate in multiple IEP teams. I personally see art as a language that has the potential to actively engage all participants in this case especially those with profound disabilities.  I think it’s a very positive thing when the stakeholder’s come together for the sake of the disabled and abled students.  I was disappointed to see that many of the art teachers’ colleagues didn’t view them as regular education teachers because they teach art.  Not only do the art educator have stacks of IEP’s that accumulate to a high degree in the inclusive art class but they have to have knowledge of each students’ special education modifications. In the end it’s the art educator who is ultimately responsible for student learning in his or her class. I found Michelle’s outlook on how she might adjust the environment or change the ways in which she has the class discuss and consider art to be very positive.  She was able to identify the barriers of participation as environmental rather than as inherent within the student and his or her disability.

In the Biklen and Burke article a four-year-old boy with autism is introduced.  Due to his disability some very important questions are posed.  “Would he become an active participant in school life as a teenager?” “How would his peers receive him?” “Would teachers in his future grades have ways of involving him in the academic curricula?” With children classified as autistic, it’s not uncommon to link early expressive difficulties to a presumption of incompetence. Schools are often the sites where labeling of students with autism and other disabilities most often occurs. In the interviews between Biklen and Burke, it’s clear that Burke has had an extremely difficult time with his handicap in school and he has a desire to be loved and loved for his autism. He has had a lot of complications communicating through a facilitator who promptly cues his body to get to his communication device. Even though his speed of typing is much faster now, it still takes an enormous amount of time in order to type a response to a question. I found it to be particularly upsetting that once diagnosed with a disability, the student is then pushed aside and put into special classes or special schools on the assumption and not proof, that he or she cannot benefit from the same academic instruction enjoyed by non-disabled peers.

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In "Presuming Competence" professor Douglas Biklen interviews his co-author, Jamie Burke, a high-schooler with autism. Biklen has known and observed Burke since Pre-K. Their dialogue illuminates the article's main argument: the importance of presuming competence - a positive, asset-based outlook - of children with special needs. As Biklen explains, for autistic children, early expressive difficulties are often interpreted as a lack of cognitive ability/competence.
And it is in schools where labels are attached to these misconceptions. A teacher who instead adopts an anti-ableist, competence-based outlook, assumes that even if she cannot understand/communicate with her autistic student, there is a rationale for the child's behavior. And this doesn't have to be a guessing game, either. As Burke makes clear in the interview, the teacher can ask, seek advice, and, most importantly, let the child speak for himself in whatever form that takes.
Burke makes the case for an integrated classroom. Biklen challenges him, saying some may point out that all the sensory issues Burke describes support the argument for needing a separate special ed classroom. But Burke is adamant: "segregation equals a distinction of lesser ability"; and therapy/accommodations can be integrated into a normal classroom to great effect.
I thought Burke's comments on the role of teachers were really powerful. His comment, "teachers must realize that their dreams are not ours" really stressed for me just how important it is to teach from a place of empathy and humility (p. 169). Teachers need to deeply understand their students and feel great responsibility for creating an environment that will accommodate their needs. Accommodations were one of the main focuses of the  "Stakeholders and Inclusion" article. As the authors explain, art classes are common placements for students with disabilities, and so, an art teacher - one of many stakeholders - can expect to be called upon to accommodate many IEPs. At the same time, there is often a major disconnect between IEP accommodations and the reality/uniqueness of the art classroom. Therefore it is imperative an art teacher be in open communication with special needs teachers, co-plan curriculum, and also be able to articulate the benefits of art class for the special needs student. Similar to adopting an outlook of "presumed competence," the teacher should also adopt an "ecological perspective" of the art classroom, where focus is placed on the external factors/atmosphere affecting a special needs student's ability to learn, rather than inherent deficiencies in the student.

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Presuming Competence  - reading response 

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Presuming Competence  - reading response 

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This article is an interesting dialogue between a professor and a student. Belkin met Burke when he was only four years old, and proceeded to study and film him through all his school-age years. Belkin interviewed Burke in H.S. before he was about to go to college.

Burke has autism and through great effort managed to be well educated and greatly helped occupational therapists. Some of the treatments were listening to therapy with classical music, movable brain image, NET (neuro-emotional theory), kinesiology, and learning how to type in class when speaking was too difficult for him.

They also discuss an ideal learning situation we’re someone like Burke can feel comfortable to learn in a good environment with the support of teachers and peers. Some examples of an ideal learning environment for an autistic student are: teachers who love the subject they are teaching, being in an environment with little distractions, and still being integrated with the other students. Burke doesn’t believe that special education students should be segregated and says “teachers need to become as a conductor and guide me through the many places I may get lost.” (p. 172)

Inclusive teaching is successful when there is a clear dialogue between the teacher who understands the needs of the student. Normalcy is a construct and can be shifted to accommodate special needs students. School reform will happen once the ideas of normalcy/difference are discussed and “essential to the creation of democratic schooling.” (p. 173)

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Presuming Competance - Seze’s reading response 

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Presuming Competance - Seze’s reading response 

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This article is an interesting dialogue between a professor and a student. Belkin met Burke when he was only four years old, and proceeded to study and film him through all his school-age years. Blekin interviewed Burke in H.S. before he was about to go to college.

Burke has autism and through great effort managed to be well educated and greatly helped occupational therapist. Some of the treatments were listening therapy with classical music, movable movable brain image, NET (neuro emotional theory), Kinesiology, and learning how to type in class when speaking was too difficult for him.

They also discuss an ideal learning situation we’re someone like Burke can feel comfortable to learn in a good environment with the support of teachers and peers. Some examples of an ideal learning environment for an autistic student are: teachers who love the subject they are teaching, being in an environment with little distractions, and still being integrated with the other students. Burke doesn’t believe that special education students should be segregated, and says “teachers need to become as a conductor, and guide me through the many places I may get lost.” (p. 172)

Inclusive teaching is successful when there is a clear dialogue between the teacher who understands the needs of the student. Normalcy is a construct, and can be shifted to accommodate special needs students. School reform will happen once the ideas of normalcy/difference are discussed and “essential to the creation of democratic schooling.” (p. 173)

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In “Cartography of Eugenics and Special Education” Smith explores the origins of ‘normality,’ Eugenics, and the manifestations of both in society today. Eugenics is a pseudo-science created in the late 19th century by Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton; and was widely accepted by the politicians, scientists, writers and intellectuals of the time. It is not an objective science, but rather a set of ideologies based in racist, classist, sexist, and ableist beliefs. Eugenicists “sought to rely on scientific rhetoric and discourse to legitimize” their claims (Smith, p. 420).

‘Normality’ is a concept that emerged out of eugenics and statistical analysis. Like eugenics, normality/abnormality is a social construct built on certain ideologies. It prescribes a societal norm: white, able-bodied, middle class, Standard English, men. Importantly, those in the ‘Normal’ group don’t see the border that separates them from marginalized groups — just a reflection of themselves in society. Those outside are labeled as ‘Other.’ For example, white people do not need to think about race because whiteness is ‘default’ in our society. Whiteness may only be ‘discovered’ through unpacking privilege and applying a critical lens to how one may benefits from systems of white supremacy.

In “The Myth of the Normal Curve” Dudley-Marling & Gurn introduce the “normal curve,” a mathematical concept developed in the early 18th century by Abraham de Moivre. De Moivre believed that “most phenomena in nature, including human behavior [can] distribute normally” (p. 9) The norm is the middle of the curve and everything else is a deviation. (Extended to education, this distribution would mean that students tend to cluster around ‘averages'). Eugenicists classified human intelligence based on where people fell on the curve. Those at the far ends were brilliant and exceptional; others weak or unintelligent. However, the normal curve applies only to truly random events (ex. roll of dice). Human behavior is not a matter of probability and is not random. As Dudley-Marling & Gurn remind us, human behavior is influenced heavily by social, cultural and economic factors (p. 15).

I am reminded of gifted & talented programs and AP’s in schools. What does it mean to set aside special programs and high level classes for certain students over others? Intelligence, for one, is not something that can merely be measured by standardized tests and grading. I also think of Delpit’s discussion of AAVE and how so much of our perception of what intelligence looks and sounds like is inherently racist and problematic. To then create programs and policies around those ideas is to systematically exclude certain students and privilege others.

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In Phil Smith’s Cartographies of Eugenics and Special Education article, it’s stated that the work of eugenics is ultimately to ensure that there’s a normative, cultural landscape where people who are labeled as “different” are in some way inferior.   The ideology of eugenics was widely taken up in Europe, particularly in Nazi Germany. The Nazi Holocaust was talked about in this article as privileging groups of people based on preconceived notions of race, sex, class and disability. There was a program in place called the T-4 project.  This was a program that killed people with disabilities. Not only did they kill the disabled but they went on to sterilizing several thousands of people with disabilities. The Nazi perspective during the Holocaust was to sort out those who are different and letting only those who they considered to be “normal” remain.  I see this as trying to arrange genetic properties in order to ensure that people were what they expected them to be.

In Disability Justifies Exclusion of Minority Students by Reid and Knight, I saw that even in a K-16 setting, students were categorized based on race, class, gender and disabilities.  Disability is defined as oppression based on ableism.  Ableism is the notion that it’s better to be “normal” than be disabled.  Just like with eugenics in Nazi Germany, disability studies challenge the idea of “normalcy.”  By “othering” disabled people, you’re essentially framing them as “outsiders.” Mitchell and Snyder explained that our society considers the “normal” to be whiteness, middle class or higher, ability of mind and body etc.  The ideology of “normal” creates systems or disadvantages for minority students.  I was shocked and horrified to learn that students of color were often marked as disabled and it only continues the segregation under this label.  From the ableist perspective, disability is considered a personal condition to correct or cure. I do believe these to be social constructions and I have hope that these offensive labels will only change over time and across cultures.

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Week 6 - Sept 30  History and Current Context of Special Needs Education Key  

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Week 6 - Sept 30  History and Current Context of Special Needs Education Key  

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Eugenics is a pseudoscience that created decades and decades of racist sexist, classist, ableist ideas that still exist today. It has been a powerful modernist tool to classify culture and segregate not other nationalities. All at the service of Neil liberal capitalism whose influence continues today. And “eugenics continues to create taxonomies of human difference that serve the needs of a western neo-liberal capitalist culture” (Smith, 419)

I was surprised to see that when Eugenics was introduced, many intellectuals, artists, scientists, writers of the time believed in it. The aftermath of it sent shockwaves through society causing mass sterilization of people with disabilities from low or working class is Rachel minor minorities and culminating in World War II with the Nazi concentration camps that “murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, and other social group states believed were polluting the human breeding stock” (Smith, 421)

Because of eugenics we now have IQ tests, and it is these IQ tests that classify and categorize students into their own special classes and limit their interaction with the other students. Until recently this is how schools functioned, sadly the segregation between the children with disabilities and without wasn’t the best learning environment for everyone.

Which brings us to the “normal curve” which grossly misrepresented human intelligence and is a poor model for conceptualizing how we think and behave. It doesn’t make sense to judge all of humanity with a “statistical norm.”

I believe that the idea of “the average” man or woman is completely subjective. The spectrum of the “normal curve” has “the exceptional” on the other side is “the normal.” In the middle is “the mean” which represents both differences and similarities, sharing traits and behaviors within categorical groupings.

Standardized test scores have often been used to create a general consensus of intelligence levels and students. However not everyone is good at standardized test-taking, and therefore it isn’t always the best way to test a student’s ability to absorb and remember information.

As a child, I remember hating standardized tests even though I was constantly reading books and making art. I’m thankful that today there is more awareness on other ways of judging a student’s ability and intelligence, and thus helping them work with their specific disabilities.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmMcqRiym-g

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Bilingual Program: Academic Content in Two Languages

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US Schools Try New Bilingual Education Method

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As discussed in the Macdonald essay, teachers are increasingly challenged with trying to provide adequate learning for ELs. It is through scaffolding that in speaking, listening, reading, and writing that they help students learn in a supportive environment. There are the same learning expectations, and instructions are given for assignments, for monolingual students as there is for bilingual students.

An example of an art class was used. The same assignment and materials were assigned to the bilingual and monolingual English third graders and the teacher only spoke English and had no formal ESL training. All the students remained engaged and actively participated. Once they bilingual students were exposed to new vocabulary or ideas they quickly absorbed it. Scaffolding is not a new tool in the language learning classroom, whether it is used consciously or subconsciously by a teacher. I agree that the intuitiveness of scaffolding will help the students improve their linguistic abilities.

I also read chapter 7 in “Show, tell, build: Twenty key instructional tools and techniques for educating English learners” (Nutta, 2020).  Through cooperative learning and academic discussion, students from different proficiency levels work together to understand more complex concepts and diverse perspectives. These purposeful conversations based on their grade levels and academic standards, help the learners talk and understand by communicating with each other. Also with team building activities the ELs share ideas and practice their writing skills. These group and pair cooperative learning activities have been incredibly successful.

Chapter 3 begins “Models and manipulatives are physical objects that represent a system concept or thing and are natural elements when communicating new information during science, mathematic, history and literature lessons.” (Nutta, 37) This especially beneficial for ELs who may more easily learn the significance of the topic through an object than by a text this is more difficult for them to understand.

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Ohio Partnership for Excellence in Paraprofessional Preparation

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Himmel’s essay is an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners. Here are some examples of what a teacher can do to help their English learners. Students and teachers can work together in content and language objective lessons, to create a more effective learning environment for English learners.
Chapter 4  of  Reading, Writing, & learning in ESL offers guidance on how to teach English learners and the beginning and intermediate levels. Children are encouraged to partake in challenging activities to help them further understand their new comprehension of English. Teachers may understand a student’s ability to use language for scientific discovery and problem-solving and informational functions.
In addition to the basic activities of the school day, students can practice their use of the English language with instructional events that are circle time journal time literature study circles process writing projects theme studies, and other lesson sequences. (Peregoy, S., & Boyle, p. 142)
In addition to these activities and also daily conversations with students and teachers, the English learner benefits from podcasts and vodcasts. Performing arts projects like theater, poetry recitals, show and tell, dubbing a tv show, Choral reading, wordless book stories, telling jokes, and singing songs also enrich the English learners. Oral language skills are also developed in social studies, science, and cognitive processing of math concepts. Everything is taught through the medium of language, it is an open pathway to the content.
Comprehension, fluency vocabulary pronunciation, and grammar are assessed in the student oral language observation matrix also known as SOLOM. Each of these elements can be added up to determine a general index of a student’s oral language proficiency.
Chapter 5  focuses on emergent literacy: English learners beginning to read and write. In a Spanish two-way immersion kindergarten they interacted with stories poems please imaginary setups like a post office restaurant grocery store drew and wrote in their journals
“The kindergarten children just described were demonstrating early literacy development in an emergent literary environment.” (Peregoy, S., & Boyle, p. 173) There are two viewpoints on beginning reading and writing development: reading readiness and emergent literacy. (Peregoy, S., & Boyle, p.178)
Here are some teaching recommendations for emergent literacy: All children bring literacy knowledge to school even though they have various skill levels. Immerse children through their experiences and conversational play activities improve their communication skills.
Children experiment with the visual forms of written language which eventually helps them learn how to spell. They first start out with invented or temporary spelling and work on phonics through their own writing, therefore working out sound-symbol correspondences.
A child’s early literacy can be greatly influenced by the amount of reading materials that are readily available at home. Daily reading routines, Family storytelling Storytelling rituals, visual cues on the walls, access to lots of books, create a literary rich classroom and home environment. Ideally “the heart of beginning literary instruction is reading aloud to children and sharing the wonder and magic in reading and writing for ourselves and others. “ (Peregoy, S., & Boyle, p. 216)

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LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES:
This article gave great examples and insight on how to incorporate language objectives into your curriculum. Although the examples given were in Common Core subjects, I was able to think about my studio core and how I can implement language objectives into an art classroom environment, or being able to co-plan lessons with another teacher, like Mr. Lewis and Mr. Zhang, to not only help students but also learn more about the expectations of other curriculums. I am excited to use these methods in my teaching and will look for ways to incorporate them into lesson plans surrounding my studio core. Additionally, I am curious how to best adjust lesson plans based on each class. However, Himmel mentions in the article that your lessons do not need to change lessons based on proficiency levels, but that the language objectives should be obtainable for all students.

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Tay Cha Language Demands, Supports and Scaffolds reading responses 

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Response to Himmel's Language Objectives

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Response to Himmel's Language Objectives

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I enjoyed this article for its specific examples given especially the break down of Content Area Standard, Content Objective, and Language Objective. I would like to see how these practices are implemented in the art classroom. It's exciting to think of these  lessons could look like that include the objectives outlined. Of course, art has the unique advantage of being universal and in that sense can only add to the students opportunity for confident exploration of their emerging language skills. That being said it is important to take every opportunity to challenge students in all areas of study. I believe this will  be accomplished through the development of art specific vocabulary words to their repertoire, practices that use these words to enhance their work, art history lessons featuring an inclusive set of artists, and collaborating with their classmates to critiquing one another's work. The goal of a teacher should always be too add to the students ability to think critically and problem solve. I look forward to ways I can implement these languages objectives into my future classroom.

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Reading Response Week 4- apologies for bulldog in background 

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Reading Response Week 4- apologies for bulldog in background 

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Reading Response Week 4- apologies for bulldog in background 