LLSS 315*
Educating Linguistically Diverse Students
SPRING 2009 | Section 450 | 3cr. hrs. | Rm#: UC-221
Thursdays
Instructor, Dr. Frances Vitali
505.566.3480 (unm)
| 505.324.0894 (home) | 505.330.1536 (cell)
Office: #233
Office Hours: One hour before and
after class or by appointment
Email: fvitali@unm.edu | Webpage <http://fvitali.tripod.com/elds09/>
Course Blog
at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315
Class Collection Webpages at http://fvitali.tripod.com/315sp09.html
_______________________________________________________________
“The stories we tell not only explain things to
others, they explain them to ourselves.”
(Donald Norman)
___________________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
This course familiarizes students with history,
theory, practice, culture, politics of second language pedagogy and orality and literacy.
Students will gain an understanding of effective teaching methods and
cultural sensitivity for working with linguistically diverse students,
realizing that language and culture are synonymous.
Rationale: Most classrooms are comprised of uniquely diverse
learners on all levels, including linguistically and culturally. As educators,
we must learn to be flexible in our thinking, teaching and learning to address,
respect, celebrate, and support the richness and complexity of the children we
teach.
Instructional
Strategies: Students and instructor will engage in the following ongoing
collegial learning interactions: reflective writing, reciprocal learning,
reflection/communication blog, authentic learning,
practicum experiences, individual conferences, and cooperative and
collaborative activities/projects, Literature Circles, Chautauqua.
Responsibilities (see entry-level Language Arts
competencies expanded below)
- Integrate the New Mexico
State Competencies for Entry-Level Language Arts Teachers into course
content.
- Be professional at all
times – in class and in the field. A. 1(a), 3; B. 2,4; C. 2(c), 4(g)
- Be receptive to feedback,
being reflective while participating in an academic learning community. E.
1(a)(c), 2(b)
- Engage
in collaborating and entering into professional learning opportunities
with educators, students, parents, administrators, support staff working
with linguistically diverse children. D. 3; F. 2(c)(iv)
- Conduct and present
assignments and projects with professional dispositions and ethical manner
sufficiently prepared. G. 1(a),
2(b)(c), 3(a)
- Practicum experience
requires you to exhibit dispositions and professionalism of an educator.
- Take ownership of learning, remembering
that learning is fun, self-directed motivated by your natural curiosity
and enthusiasm. The quality of your learning experiences will transfer to
the students you eventually teach.
Textbook–Available at SJC
Bookstore
Zainuddin, et.al.
(2007). Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages in K-12 Mainstream Classrooms.
Other Materials:
Online COURSE BLOG at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315
Class Collection Webpages at http://fvitali.tripod.com/315sp09.html
Additional Articles may be provided by instructor and
students.
Select and secure (via online at
Amazon or other bookstore) ONE of the following books for
- Mazer, Anne
(ed.).
- Carlson, Lori Marie (ed.).
Moccasin Thunder: American Indian
Stories for Today, edited by (HarperCollins, 2005). An anthology collection
of short stories about contemporary Native American teenagers.
- Gallo, Donald (ed). Join In: Multiethnic Stories, Anthology of contemporary
teens from ethnic backgrounds share their stories of living in
- King, Laurie. Hear My Voice: A Multicultural Anthology of Literature from the
Additional
Materials/Resources
Supplemental
Sources:
·
NCREL Educating Teachers for Diversity
(http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/presrvce/pe300.htm)
·
PRIME TIME (http://www.infoway.org/kids/primeTime/primeTime.asp)
·
·
Office of English Language Acquisition (http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/)
·
IRA NCTE Read/Write/Think/Lessons (http://www.readwritethink.org/)
·
FREE
John Steinbeck
Chautauqua on 27 February – 7pm SJC Little Theater For information call
599-8771 or 334-9325
·
NM Endowment for the Humanities (NMEH) (http://www.nmhum.org/)
·
NMEH Chautauqua Characters http://nmhum.org/home/
·
Veteran
History Project: The War by Ken
Burns (http://loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html)
·
Veteran
History Project Interview Kit (http://www.loc.gov/vets/kit.html)
·
Prospective
Guests: Jon Brinkerhoff on March 5 from 5-8pm | Tryphenia
Peele-Eady on March 19 5-8pm, Gayle Barfoot & FMS Bilingual Education Department | Kathy Hurst from San Juan Media Services,
Blanding
·
ENLACE
at
Course Learning Invitations and Expectations (Assignments,
projects, activities)
- Read course blog regularly as a
communication tool and post reflections when assigned at
https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315
- Read your email
regularly for course updates, reminders and communication in between
sessions.
- Post reflections on
our class blog page at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315 as needed.
- Collaborate (practicum) with
students at Apache Elementary School,
will provide an authentic setting in which to put theory and practice
together as we learn from the children more about ourselves personally and
as professionals. Our Oral History Family Chautauqua will be the
collaborative lens in which we will pursue our learning this semester. We will record our teaching
plans and reflections weekly on our webpages.
- Create your own Chautauqua character from your own family to perform for 4th graders at
Apache will prepare us for our storytelling coaching roles.
- Chronicle our weekly learning and events as we each take turns
as the class scribe. See Weekly Schedule and Post on course blog page at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315.
- Present Chapter
Presentations with a partner. Our course text will serve as a resource for strategies, theories, cultural
understanding and practical applications to prepare you for taking the
TESOL endorsement exam and/or teaching in diverse learning settings. See Rubric Checklist.
- Selected anthologies provide us with other cultural contexts to talk
about in a relaxed, social atmosphere.
- Plan community Field Trips in an effort to
understand our communities. We will each
share a community find where
you will be responsible for making arrangements for our class visit.
- Invited guests to our classroom will augment our learning
experience: Kathy Hurst from San Juan Media in
- Webpages are intended as media to house your learning and other
intellectual property throughout the semester. Since it is your webpage,
you own the material and content, and thus, empowers
you as the author. Your webpage becomes documentation, scrapbook, if you
will, of your learning over time this semester. It remains your property
even after the completion of our course time together. See Class webpages at http://fvitali.tripod.com/315sp09.html
- Midterm and Final Reflections about your learning experiences midway
and at the end of our course is a means to help clarify and summarize for
yourself what you know and a way to share improvements for me, your course
instructor.
Evaluation
Midterm
and final individual conferences will be held.
(INCOMPLETE
GRADES WILL BE CONSIDERED, ONLY IN EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES.)
|
A |
Exemplary completion
of all Learning Invitations with
adherence to all timelines. Evidence of significant development across the
five dimensions of learning. |
|
B |
Satisfactory
completion of all Learning Invitations.
Evidence of acceptable development across the five dimensions of
learning. |
Attendance Policy
Attendance is required for
each class session. Arrive on time to allow classes to begin (and end) at their
scheduled times. Attendance is a crucial
and considered your professional responsibility. Communication with instructor via email,
phone or in person is considered proper professional and respectful etiquette.
Lateness and leaving early are considered serious interferences with your
progress in this class. Thus, you should come to all classes well prepared to
assume an active and thoughtful role in the scheduled activities by having read
all required readings and completed all class assignments. Attending all
classes is for your benefit to fully experience and appreciate the world of
children's literature. And further more, we will miss you and your
contributions during our time together.
Please rearrange work and
appointment schedules so that you can attend each session.
If you are absent more than two times this
semester, you can be dropped from the course.
“The reporting of absences does not relieve the
student of responsibility for missed assignment, exams, etc. The student is required to take the
initiative in arranging to make up missed work, and it is expected that faculty
will cooperate with the student in reasonable arrangements in this regard” (UNM
Pathfinder).
It is responsible and respectful to contact
instructor or leave message with Dawn in the UNM office if you are going to be
late or absent from class. It is also your responsibility to check in with the
instructor and consult with a class peer after the missed class for all makes
up work.
Silence cell phones out of
respect for all learners.
We will observe
European etiquette of cell phone use (including texting).
Cell phones should be turned off during class to avoid disrupting the flow of communication & learning for
colleagues. Please take care of phone calls before or after class. If you are
expecting a necessary call during seminar, please inform instructor before
session.
Peter Post of the Emily Post Institute and author of The Etiquette Advantage in Business highlights the tenets of good cell phone etiquette in public
settings:
- If your cell
may be bothersome to those around you, do not use it
- Put your cell
on vibrate or turn it off as a courtesy to others
- If you are
expecting a critical phone call, inform instructor prior to seminar
- If your cell
phone does go off, quickly open and close it.
- Above all, in
encouraging an optimum learning environment we all contribute to being
considerate, respectful and honest of ourselves and others.
Source: Wollman,
D. (2008). Expert: cell phone etiquette
101. Retrieved August 14, 2008. Available at
http://blog.laptopmag.com/expert-cell-phone-etiquette-101
___________________________________________________________________________________
Accommodation Statement
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a
federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights
protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation
requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning
environment that provides for a reasonable accommodation of their disabilities.
If you have a disability requiring accommodation, please contact the instructor
as soon as possible to make arrangements.
Plagiarism Statement
Plagiarism is the presentation as original work by a
writer of ideas, words, or thoughts belonging to someone else. You must provide
a reference not indicating the source of any specific words borrowed from
another source. Any project containing incidents of plagiarism will receive no
credit or grade. Plagiarism is a serious offense in any college course and can
lead to failure in that course or expulsion from UNM.
Accreditation Information
The
LLSS 315 SPRING 2009
Tentative
Course Schedule
JANUARY
Introduction: I Am From Poem, Culture (Customs, Beliefs,
Language)
FIC Field Trip Reflections post to blog
at https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315
Course TEXT: PART I Multicultural Issues
(chapters 1-8) - Chapter presentation by
Vocabulary: negative cultural
diversity, stereotype, sociotyping, assimilation,
acculturation, deep & surface culture, ethnocentrism, high-involvement,
high-considerateness, low-context, high-context cultures, field-dependent,
field-independent learners, RECONCEPTUALIST
DOWNLOAD Course Syllabus from https://unm-farmington.tripod.com/315
(Jan. 29) SJC SMART LAB Computer Lab-Set up webpage sections & Email your
tripod webpage URL to me at fvitali@unm.edu
Create webpages to maintain throughout semester as your
intellectual property
Family Chautauqua
Collaboration Project Overview
See Resource: Creating
Family Timelines (http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=870)
Webpage
entries: I AM FROM poem
Weekly
Scribe
FEBRUARY
Weekly Scribe
Book Talks
& Readings (begin Feb. 5)
Literature
Circles-Harvey Daniels
Community Field Trips
Webpage
entries: Chautauqua family character story due Feb. 12-
videotape
PRACTICUM: Apache Chautauqua reflections/planning
Community Field Trip: ENLACE
at
MARCH
Weekly Scribe
Book Talks
& Readings
Chapter Presentations
October 12 Midterm Conferences (complete your written
five dimensions midterm summary and evaluation and post to your webpage)
Webpage
entries: Apache Chautauqua reflections/
PRACTICUM: Apache Chautauqua reflections/planning & Storytelling
Group Conferences
GUESTS:
Jon Brinkerhoff- March 5, 5-7:30pm - How Brains Learn & Teaching Strategies
Tryphenia Peele-Eady
– March 19 , 5-7:30pm
- Diversity issues
APRIL/May
Weekly Scribe
Book Talks
& Readings
Community
Field Trips
GUEST: April
16, 5-7:30pm Renee Mathis-Autism presentation
Chautauqua Family Project:
Dress Rehearsal – April 23 videotaping at 8:15am
Dress Rehearsal – April 30 videotaping at 8:15am |
Video editing workshop 1-3 at SJC computer lab
CHAUTAUQUA Performance for invited parents & family – May
7, 6-8pm
Final Conferences (April 30- complete your
written five dimensions final summary and evaluation and post to your webpage)
Webpage
entries: Scribe, Apache
Chautauqua reflections
Final
Exam, optional, as needed (May 16)
Course Strands and Dimensions of Learning
as correlated with UNM
Conceptual Framework (Understanding, Practice, Professional
Identity)
Means of interpreting and assessing
student achievement will involve Course
Strands and Dimensions of Learning.
Course Strands
1. communication 2. research/content 3.
technology, and
4. collaboration
components describing
your development as readers, writers, storytellers and users of technology.
Five Dimensions of Learning
1. Confidence and
Confidence and independence in your own reading, writing, and thinking
abilities. We see growth and development when learners' confidence and
independence become coordinated with their actual abilities and skills, content
knowledge, use of experience, and reflectiveness
about their own learning. The overconfident student learns to ask for help when
facing an obstacle; the shy student begins to trust her own abilities and
begins to work alone at times, or to insist on presenting her own point of view
in discussion. In both cases, students develop along the dimension of
confidence and independence.
2. Skills and Strategies (Practice)
Specific skills and strategies involved in composing and communicating
effectively, from concept to organization to polishing grammar and correctness,
and including technological skills for computer communication and adherence to
APA style. Skills and strategies represent the "know-how" aspect of
learning. When we speak of "performance" or "mastery," we
generally mean that learners have developed skills and strategies to function
successfully in certain situations. In this course, it will be communicating as
practicum educators in wrapping your own ideas and questions around what educating linguistically diverse children means and how as professionals
we can meet their diverse needs of the students with whom you are working.
3. Knowledge Content (Understanding)
Knowledge content refer to the "content" knowledge you gained about this
course, your experiences, and communication technologies for expression.
Knowledge and understanding is the most familiar dimension, focusing on the
"know-what" aspect of learning. What do I know about this content and
how can I extend my learning on different levels? What have I learned about
nurturing diverse learners?
4. Use of Prior and Emerging Experience (Understanding)
The use of prior and emerging experience involves the ability to draw on your
own experience and connect it to your work. A crucial but often unrecognized
dimension of learning is the ability to make use of prior experience as well as
emerging experience in new situations. It is necessary to observe learners over
a period of time while they engage in a variety of activities in order to
account for the development of this important capability, which is at the heart
of creative thinking and its application. In focusing, reflecting and designing
our own research proposal and agenda, our prior experience might be tapped to
help scaffold new understandings, or consider how ongoing experience shapes the
content knowledge or skills and strategies we are developing.
5. Critical Reflection (Understanding, Practice, Professional
Identity)
Reflection refers to your developing awareness of our own learning process, as
well as more analytical approaches to reading, writing, and communication. When
we speak of reflection as a crucial component of learning, we are not using the
term in its commonsense meaning of reverie or abstract introspection. We are
referring to the development of your ability to step back and consider a
situation critically and analytically, with growing insight into your own
learning processes as a kind of metacognition. Have I
explored my own personal biases and prejudices, aware of cultural stereotypes
and cultural and linguistic sensitivities?
It is important that you are made aware of the course strands
and the five dimensions of learning because the ownership of your learning in
relation to this course content is a focus of your assessment and evaluation. This
evaluative process provides a framework with which you can evaluate your own
growth. As learners, you are measuring your own learning given the strands and
dimensions, considering them in relation to your prior learning. In assessing
your progress, you will provide a midterm and final reflection which will be
posted on your webpage. See Guideline below:
LLSS 315/593 EVALUATION & ASSESSMENT GUIDELINE
PROVIDE WRITTEN MIDTERM & FINAL
SUMMARIES AND EVALUATIONS at Individual CONFERENCES as well as downloading to
your webpage.
______________________________________________________________
Due
March 12 – post to your webpage
Midterm Summary
Summary interpretation of
observations and evidence in terms of the five dimensions of learning.
Five dimensions of
learning:
- confidence and independence
- knowledge content
- skills and strategies
- use of prior and emerging experience
- reflectiveness (critical awareness)
Midterm
evaluation
- Estimated evaluation in terms of grade
- Suggestions for your own further development
during remainder of semester
- Suggestions for class activities or for the
professor to better support learning
________________________________________________
Due April 30 – post
to your webpage
Final Summary
Summary
interpretation of observations and evidence covering the whole semester in
terms of the four major strands of work and the five dimensions of learning. Be
sure to connect your interpretations with specific examples included in the
observations and samples of work.
Five dimensions of
learning:
- confidence and independence
- knowledge content
- skills and strategies
- use of prior and emerging experience
- reflectiveness (critical awareness)
Final
evaluation
- Reflections on semester's learning experience
- Any suggestions for the professor for future
classes
- Estimated evaluation in terms of grade
