Zoe Ehrenberg Convergence Chart
Penn Alexander
Standards
-PAS follows the PA Common Core Standards for
ELA.The ELA standards I will be covering are
listed in my curriculum table.
-PAS uses Investigations for their math
curriculum; Investigations is a common core
aligned curriculum. Because of PAS's adherence to
Investigations, I will not be changing the math
curriculum at all as part of my integrative unit.
-My classroom mentor does not abide by any
particular standards for Science or Social Studies.
-For my own purposes, I will use the National
Academy of Sciences K-12 Framework for Science
Standards to guide my science lesson design.
Who?
-20 Kindergarteners at PAS
-All of the students are far beyond where most
Kindergarteners are academically at an average
Philadelphia public school
-Many bilingual students; only about 4 ESL
students
-2 students with IEPS
-1 new student who just transferred from Lea and
took the spot of a student who left to move to
China
-Multicultural classroom; 9 white students and
students who are Asian, Indian, and Hispanic and
more; wealth of cultural diversity
-Acceptance based on a lottery system
-Obviously strong support from Penn. I have heard
at least 5 students in my class talking about having
parents who work either at Penn or Drexel.
-West Philadelphia, but to some extent a
"Penntrified" glimpse of West Philadelphia and not
an accurate representation of who has historically
lived there
-Active HSA
February 3, 2018
Curriculum Materials
-Investigations curriculum for math
-Lucky Calkins Reading and Writing program
-Have to maintain writing curriculum, math
curriculum, and guided reading.
-A collection of books I have selected for read
alouds and shared reading. See annotated
bilbliography.
-1950's advertisements for toys and dolls; 2018
advertisements for toys and dolls
-Non-fiction books about habitat
Educational Philosophy and Beliefs
-My educational philosophy is very much about serving the
whole child. I think that being able to genuinely move a
student up academically necessitates understanding her or
him in their own context, building relationships with them,
and creating meaningful, engaging and relevant curriculum
for them. My teaching style is rooted in high expectations
and radical care for my students.
-I believe in being thoughtful, intentional and authentic as
an educator. I believe in being transparent and culturally
responsive. In this unit, I intend to create rich curriculum
that is designed to develop important academic skills.
Teaching Methods
-Hands on experience with science: exploring the
"habitat" outside of PAS, doing research on
habitats, and creating dioramas
-"Research" project with each students working on
studying different habitats
-"Research" project comparing and contrasting
1950's toy and doll advertisements to 2018 toy and
doll advertisements
-Exposure to various different read alouds that
celebrate difference and feature atypical
protagonists
-Author study: looking at Ezra Jack Keats's work
and seeing how Peter's character changes over time:
using text evidence
-Collaborating on partner/ small group work
-Whole group intentional read alouds
Theories of Learning and Teaching
-Vygotsky's emphasis on scaffolding
-Chris Emdin's approach of high expectations and
allowing students the opportunities to be experts
-Gloria Ladson-Billing's understanding of culturally
responsive pedagogy
-Ali Michael's work about how race plays out in the
classroom; being particularly careful of my own
positionality as a white educator in a classroom of
multicultural students
-Kohn's understanding that the alternative to
discipline is relationship building
-Martin Haberman's work on the pedagogy of
poverty vs. good teaching; focusing on work that is
meaningful and has students directly involved in
knowledge-building and applying ideas of justice