Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

Rationale for your topics work toward Enduring Understandings (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006) A. How is your topic central to one or more disciplines [and how does it meet mandates]? My unit integrates English literature, American history, reading and writing literacy as well as social studies, music and art. Music and Art are taught outside of the classroom and as not to overwhelm students with too much and as not to take away from other subject matters, for the purpose of time constraints, I have narrowed down the focus and thus my take over to the literacy reading and writing component of my students day. My main goal for my unit is to give students an opportunity to think critically about the education in which they are partaking in. This is done by introducing them to the less commonly taught topic of the Harlem Renaissance where they are introduced to game-changers and prominent individuals. These individuals not only deeply impacted art, poetry, Black literature and music as we know it today but also set the stage and laid the foundation for others to come ahead of them. My unit will be aligned with both Pennsylvania State Standards and the Common Core. As I stated before I will be responsible for all learning during my 2 week take over but my unit will be incorporated and integrated in the literacy reading and writing section of the day. With that, through the Harlem Renaissance, I focus on helping students demonstrate comprehension and understanding before reading, during reading, and after reading on grade level texts through strategies such as retelling, summarizing, note taking, connecting to prior knowledge, extending ideas from text, and non-linguistic representations. This is one of the PA language arts grade 5 assessment anchors and pretty much encapsulates my entire unit. I plan to cultivate critical thinking skills by engaging students in interesting subject matter coupled by explicitly introducing them to problem solving strategies.

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

My unit aligns fully with numerous PA language arts and social studies grade 5 assessment anchors as well as the Common Core Standards for reading grade 5. I plan to differentiate instruction as needed however all students will be introduced to on grade level texts and literature. Not only does my unit completely meet mandates and is central to more than one discipline it also follows a school of thought that I truly believe in, which is that professed by Ken Osborne. An education in which students are privy, one where students feel responsible for and care about, one that goes beyond state mandates and gets to the core, the meat, of what there is to learn; a cultivation of the love for the arts and of history; what was and what is. Ken Osborne states, Education can easily be neglected in the quest to fulfill other, often important, mandates. Indeed, the whole process of what should be education can be too easily obstructed by the organizational and institutional imperatives of school (Education and Schooling: A Relationship That Can Never Be Taken For Granted p.21). As we move into an age of mandates and teacher, student and administrative accountability within the public school system it becomes increasingly important to not forget the purpose of ones learning and schooling; schooling must and should line up with what goes on in students community and neighborhood. There needs to be a practicality and pragmatism associated with ones learning.

B. Why would your topic be interesting? 1) To your students? Students are readily exposed time and time again throughout their elementary and middle school years to the Civil Rights Movement. It is already integrated into the schools curriculum and is a subject matter that is expected to be covered at some point during elementary and definitely multiple times by time the student has entered their ninth grade year. One might even say it is a staple in ones elementary education. This repeated exposure ensures that students are
2

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

familiar with popular figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but however leaves much to be desired in other topics of social movements and cultural revolutions; for instance, little is taught about the Harlem Renaissance or Pan-African movement and thus the people who were apart of such social movements are forgotten or not introduced to students until they themselves are able to speak in the process of their personal class selection; for many this does not occur until their college years; leaving a deficit in ones education and a yearning for something more. While the Civil Rights Movement encapsulates the struggle for equality among African Americans in the US during the 50s and 60s the Harlem Renaissance by contrast is a celebration of ones heritage and culture and deviates from the timeless message that African American were mainly slaves through history, freed in 1865 and then struggled for rights and to be heard with little contribution to much else. During my unit the students will get the opportunity to engage with music, paintings, new read aloud books that are geared toward them. The people we will be learning about will look like them. Furthermore, students will make connections between jazz forms and modern day music. Students will hopefully revel in the opportunity to get a chance to compare and contrast jazz, blues, rap and hip hop and be stimulated by being given a unique opportunity to create their own drawings, paintings and music. These projects will serve as a way to cognitively assess what the students understand or are still have challenges with. Projects serve an important function in learning within the classroom and beyond, which is one of the many goals of my unit; for students to learn skills and subject matter that will be pertinent outside the classroom as well as within it. As Howard Gardner states, Most students in the United States, in the course of their scholastic career, take hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of tests. In the process, they develop skilloften to a highly
3

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

calibrated degreein an exercise that will essentially become useless immediately after their last day in school. In contrast, when one examines life outside of school, projects are ubiquitous (Projects during the Elementary Years p.115-6). It might be exciting for students to see art and music play such a big role in their daily learning. 2) To you as a teacher? Current trends indicate that, by 2020, the percentage of teachers of color will fall to an alltime low of 5 percent of the total teacher force, while the percentage of students of color in the system will likely exceed 50 percent (Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color). This startling statistic is one I have read and analyzed time and time again during my year at Penn GSE. As a future teacher of color it is important for me to partake in an educational system that seems to be failing students of color over and over. Frequently I find myself wondering how can I make a difference in a school system where, In urban and rural schools nationwide, as many of half of all African-American, Latino, and Native American students do not graduate high school in four years (Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color)? Through my unit on the Harlem Renaissance I hope to begin to become a part of the solution and help students of color continue their success in learning and actively aid those who are currently succeeding. Through my unit I hope to tap into what I believe education should be centered ona passion for learning and a curriculum that reflects those who are taking part; a curriculum that begins to marry the two thoughts of academic rigor and cultural understanding. My hope is to engage students in what they are learning and once I have their engagement lay the pathway for them to continue to stay engaged in school.

C. How is this topic accessible to students? 1) In terms of resources available?

4

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

Throughout my unit students will be engaged in, shown and presented information through a myriad of mediums. Students will be introduced to paintings refracted by a projector, music by various musicians from the jazz and blues genres as well as several read alouds that are geared toward elementary to upper elementary aged students. Students will be provided with everything they need sans a pencil and paper (in rare cases they will be supplied this as well). In addition to the different mediums in which I present information on the Harlem Renaissance to the students, the class will also be engaging in the shared reading of a text. As a class students will begin and finish reading When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Brian Selznick. This will be one of the first times this year that students have engaged in reading a single book as a class. This book in particular is geared toward reluctant readers as well as presents much needed educational information about the time frame of the Harlem Renaissance. It is my hope that these resources will be developmentally appropriate for my fifth grade class as well as engender student interest in the material presented. 2) In terms of developmental appropriateness? Much of what I have gathered for my unit is geared toward upper elementary aged students. My fifth grade class poses unique challenges that I have taken into account. First, many of my 5th graders read and write on a 2nd and 3rd grade level. Second, most or about two-thirds of them are 12 years old, meaning that even though many of them cannot read and write on grade level, many have begun higher levels of thought processes. Third, coupled with their academic challenges (IEPs) many are also plagued with individual education plans for emotional disturbance or other social challenges. These factors have been taken into account and I have curtailed my lesson plans around our limitations as a class. Furthermore, I have also taken into account the numerous pull-outs for special education services and English as a Second
5

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

language services. I have made sure that much of our learning takes place with explicit direct instruction sessions, followed by a guided instruction and then group work. Depending on students confidence with the material I will allow students to work independently. The topic of the Harlem Renaissance, I feel, is not too challenging nor a subject matter that is below them. I believe it to be an important historical event that they should be exposed to. The many weeks I have spent observing and teaching them has led me to believe that not only are these group of students ready to engage in higher levels of cognitive preparedness, but they are also capable of engaging in stimulating and thought-provoking conversations. In many cases, what my students lack in traditional scholastic training (literacyreading and writing) they certainly make up for in verbose oral conversations. As we begin to explore the Harlem Renaissance as a class, I will keep in mind my audience in which I speak and their prior knowledge with the subject matter. Student behavior and engagement will let me know when I am losing them or when I am off base.

D. How does this topic provide opportunities for multiple connections? As stated earlier, for my Term IV project I have decided to create and center a unit on the cultural revolution of the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century. I currently student-teach at the Henry C. Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia. My placement is in an under resourced and majority composed special education fifth grade class where many of my students are several years below their grade level in reading and writing. In addition, about two-thirds of my class are approximately 2 years older than usual for fifth grade students; giving me a class of fifth graders who read at a third grade level but who are around 12 years of age. I have decided to create a unit on the Harlem Renaissance partly for selfish reasons. It is my deep desire to cultivate an understanding, a liking, a critical engagement, and a passion for Black history
6

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

among students of color. In my current environment at Lea, I began to see the deficit, in which the students possessed in many areas but particularly in the area of their own history; their peoples narrative in this country throughout time. I even saw the education in which they lacked when it came to modern day influential people of color. The likes of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Cornel West were unknown to them, let alone past influential figures such as Marcus Garvey, Ella Fitzgerald and even Malcolm X. When I say the education in which they lacked I do not mean an education in the traditional sense of what it means to be schooled in a subject matter; where rote memorization is ubiquitous, worksheets are handed out to keep the minds of students occupied and where there exists a mismatch in the utility of what the student is learning and what is expected of them beyond the four walled structure of the school. Rather by this education or rather, in order to differentiate, schooling, I mean to assert the popular idea presented by John Dewey. Dewey states,

We are apt to look at the school from an individualistic standpoint, as something between teacher and pupil, or between teacher and parent. That which interests us most is naturally the progress made by the individual childhis normal physical development, his advance in ability to read, write, and figure.it is from such standards as these that we judge the work of schoolYet the range of the outlook needs to be enlarged (The School and Social Progress p. 3). Within my unit, I hope to begin laying the foundations of critical thinking. Once established they can use it as a lens to critically analyzes much of what they are taught and given both in their scholastic career and within their homes, families and communities. It is important for students of color to recognize where they came from and thus properly becoming prepared for the journey in which they must take, not only for themselves but for their community as well; as Dewey stated, All that society has accomplished for itself is put, through the agency of the school, at the disposal of its future members (p. 3). Therefore, learning for students of color not

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

only becomes a necessity but also becomes an act of social justice. I realize that within the scope of 2 weeks I cannot possibly remedy what I believe to be a gap in students of color education; however I can begin to lay the building blocks for those students who wish to continue their education beyond what is just given to them.

Rationale for Term IV

Hodge

Works Cited: 1. Dewey, J. (1990). The School and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1990). Chapter 1 The school and social progress 2. Osborne, K. (2008). Education and Schooling: A Relationship That Can Never Be Taken For Granted. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(1), 21-41. 3. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Woodrow WilsonRockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color. http://www.woodrow.org/teaching-fellowships/wwrbf/ 2013. 4. Gardner, Howard. Chapter 7: Projects during the Elementary Years. Libro-2-projects (2). Pdf.