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The background for this padlet features art by Hannah Rothstein, whose series focuses on recentering classic art pieces around the foundational importance of immigrants in America. Without immigrants, this country would not be the beautiful melting pot of languages it exists as today!

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Immigrants are to America what atoms are to everything. They are the building blocks. The essential elements. From the Pilgrims to the Poles, the 16th century Spanish to the 1960s Hispanic, today's America would not exist without immigrants.

We the People, a series of six watercolors, points to the inherent importance of immigrants, regardless of race, religion, or refugee status. Placing minority immigrants into famous American paintings, the series reminds us that those most maligned in today's immigration debates are no different than the pioneers and Puritans who came before them. They too seek peace, freedom, and the chance to carve out a better life.

Of course, individuals still need to be vetted with an eye on security. But blanket blockades, inhumanely organized detention, and discrimination are not useful. Not only do they ignore the fact that those once considered "different"-the, the, and more- have become key to the fabric and fame of America, but they tarnish Washington's golden vision for our nation:

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respected Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions..." -George Washington.

It's when we heed Washington's words that our country grows stronger, richer, and more vibrant. It's how we have the corner stores where we buy our milk, the food that fills our supermarkets , and the innovations that give our country glory. And it's how all of us, save for Native Americans, came to be here on this soil, breathing this air, and living in this place we call home.

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We the People - Artwork about immigration - Hannah Rothstein

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We the People is a series of 6 watercolor paintings focused on the theme of U.S. immigration. Each artwork reinterprets a famous work of American art, placing minority immigrants and refugees into each image. This immigration-focused art project was created by internet viral artist Hannah Rothstein,

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Leo Lier, in his book The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective (2004), defines Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as "a general approach to the human sciences whose goal it is 'to explicate the relationships between mental functioning‚ on the one hand‚ and the cultural‚ institutional‚ and historical situations in which this functioning occurs‚ on the other'." In simpler terms, it's about exploring the connections between our minds and the world around us.

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SCT is largely rooted in Vygotsky's theory of sociocultural development. Applied to SCT, Vygotsky emphasizes that learning occurs through social interactions and our intelligence is shaped by the culture and society we live in. The central concept is that interacting with others is essential for developing our thinking. According to Vygotsky, we first learn by interacting with people, and then we take what we’ve learned and make it part of our own thinking. While this may seem intuitive, previous psychologists believed that in studying people, we must look at them as individuals and not external factors. Today it is more popularly understood that social and cultural factors in our lives greatly shape our learning and character

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Illustration of how the ZPD helps to optimize student learning 

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The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was a key component to Vygotsky's sociocultural development theory.

The Zone of Proximal Development is defined as "the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." This concept argues that students need guidance and assistance to best learn. This can be provided through work with teachers and/or peers.

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Collaborative Learning:

Collaborative learning allows students to work together as they learn and understand new academic concepts, adding a social component to a students education. Students can help and learn from their peers, developing their learning in a way they could not otherwise do by themselves

Scaffolding:

"Scaffolding involves both the structural and procedural supports that guide and enable learners to work within their

ZPD so that they may develop their full, yet unrealized, potential," (Billings and Walqui, 2017) Scaffolding activities such as Think-Pair-Share and collaborative mind maps.

Culturally Responsive Teaching:

Incorporating students’ cultural backgrounds into the curriculum, such as including diverse perspectives in literature selections or using examples that are relevant to students’ lives. The Persuasion Across Time and Space Instructional Unit we explored in Module 4 is an excellent example of this.

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In their essay Language and the Common Core State Standards, Leo van Lier and Aída Walqui argue that focusing on language learning as a form of human action is more beneficial to students' language comprehension: "In a classroom context, an action-based perspective means that ELs engage in meaningful activities (projects, presentations, investigations) that engage their interest and that encourage language growth through perception, interaction, planning, research, discussion, and co- construction of academic products of various kinds. During such action-based work, language development occurs when it is carefully scaffolded by the teacher, as well as by the students working together."

By incorporating sociocultural theory into language learning, language as action creates a deep a more meaningful form of language learning as opposed to formal and functional theories. Understanding that language is deeply intertwined with every facet of a students' life experience is central to creating a curriculum that effectively serves emergent billingal students.

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In this activity, students are given the freedom to research aspects of culture which is home to the language that they are learning. For Emergent Bilingual's learning English, they might pick a moment in an American history to research. Their project ay be a slideshow, video, or short essay, where they are given time to translate their findings into the language they are learning. This way they are given time to actively use a progressing language for learning while connecting it to aspects of culture.

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Letter Writing Activity (Anthony DeFazio)

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Letter Writing Activity (Anthony DeFazio)

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In Language and the Common Core State Standards, the authors discuss a method of Language as Action taught by Anthony DeFazio. In this unit, students write five letters about language. During the writing of their first letter, they work collaboratively and have discussions on each others arguments/conjectures about language. In this activity students communicative actions, without needing a perfect understanding of any certain language. They learn about the importance of language instead of just the language itself!

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In this activity, students write interview questions for one another, are paired to a student to interview using their questions, and are then asked to write a short reflection about what they learned about their interviewee.

Social: this activity allows students to be guided and supported by one another as they learn language together. When they have questions or concerns, they are encouraged to turn to their partner first to problem solve. This satisfies the ZPD.

Cultural: Within this activity, the teacher may assign a general theme to student questions. For example "write questions that help you learn about your partners home life/background" or "see if you can learn about your partners hobbies and interests." This promotes students' sharing cultural aspects and experiences with one another, creating an enriching use of language in the classroom.

Action: Because students are primarily guided by one another, they have agency in their practice of language, and in doing so have experience with language within their environment (as opposed to being taught in a way that doesn't reference their environment at all). This way, language is used in a way that is an "inseparable part of all human action."

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This is an excellent video dissecting the history of Vygotsky and SCT more in depth.

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Dr. Cynthia Lundgren emphasizes how students naturally take interest in learning language for the purpose of being social. She remind teachers to leverage this existing interest to teach and asses language.

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Dr. Cynthia Lundgren: Social vs. academic language for ELLs

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https://www.tesol.org/media/y5mj4cdr/changes-in-standards-professional-paper-26-march-2014.pdf

https://ul.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/resource/2021-12/04-Van%20Lier%20Walqui%20Language%20and%20CCSS%20FINAL.pdf

https://ul.stanford.edu/resource/persuasion-across-time-and-space-instructional-unit

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-7912-5#affiliations

http://www.ceebl.manchester.ac.uk/events/archive/aligningcollaborativelearning/Vygotsky.pdf

https://www.wested.org/resources/zone-of-proximal-development/#:~:text=The%20Zone%20of%20Proximal%20Development,collaboration%20with%20more%20capable%20peers.