LA 5.1—This first learning is based on an editorial Bagley created for the S.L. Tribune a few years ago. The first link gets you and the students to the mat, or you can print them out so they can have them at their tables. You will also need to provide a penny for each student at every table. As you look at the game mat, notice the rules for playing the game. In every learning activity, including this one, you will have students each take a turn after they understand how the game is played. Tails gives them a move of one box, and Heads gives them a move of two boxes. Each time they take a turn, they must flip their coin and move accordingly. Once they move, they have to share with their group the decisions they must make. Note that if you get Heads, the square says ‘flip again’ and they can do it right then, but must stop as soon as they get a Tails. Have everyone take their first turn and make their moves before going on to the second learning activity.
LA 5.2—This activity contains a power point created several years ago by the nurses in Salt Lake School District. I asked them if we could use it in our class, and they said they would love that…so here it is. It’s entitled Trauma-Informed Care. Clarify with the class that while some ELs may have had experiences of trauma, but they are not the only ones to experience trauma in our society. It is poverty, making the decisions in the game they play today, that causes much trauma for our students. There is a note sheet for them to write on as you lead the discussion of the power point and they respond. Once the discussion is completed, below the instructions they will find an article for teachers about how they might experience some trauma working with Title 1 students in Title 1 schools. They should read that and you can lead a discussion on that as well. We teachers need to take care of ourselves. Note that at the end of the activity, it asks them to take their second turn in the game. Allow them to do that.
LA 5.3—This activity needs six groups. Each group will read one of the six articles linked in the activity. You will need to provide large chart paper trees (find the model in the activity linked tree chart) so you can copy the trees on the chart paper. They will also need markers to summarize the article. If you’d rather not draw the tree on the chart paper, then they each need to use their own paper to fill it in. I think the group working together is stronger. I like the tree chart because it’s a good activity they can use in their classes. Students who have read an assignment can make the chart to share with others, so it’s something they can immediately use in their classrooms. In the learning activity, the instructions for what goes where on the tree. Note that it helps them find the big ideas (the branches) and if they don’t have anything that will give more information on the big idea they can’t fill in the leaves at the end of the branch. Each article probably has a different amount of big ideas, so each tree may not have all branches filled. After they have read their article and completed the tree chart, each group presents their article to the class. After that, each person gets another turn at the game prior to the next activity.
LA 5.4—Students will have less time to read another article in their group. Once again, there are six articles, so they can stay in the same group or you can mix them up. Assign each group their article. This time they select a note-taker and help that person get down the important points. After they finish the articles, have a class discussion jointly determine a definition for SEL (social-emotional learning) and to discuss important ideas from their reading. Then make a class list of ideas teachers can use to support students in their classrooms. Then ask them to take another turn on the game.
LA 5.5—You can give them another turn to begin activity 5, or you can let the one they did at the end of activity 4 suffice. I like giving them one more turn so they have each had 5 turns. Have them discuss in their groups how each person survived in the Life on the Edge game. They should notice that it was very difficult to get ahead, and that each month, they had to make decisions that limited their monetary income and put them closer to homelessness. Have them answer the four bulleted questions in the learning activity. Then draw on the board a long line with an arrow point at each end. On the left side, write the word ‘silence’. On the arrow at the right, put the word ‘advocacy’. Explain to students that there are many continuums in our lives: Will I be a vegetarian or eat meat? Will I go to college or not? There is light on one side and darkness at the other end. Ask them where they would put themselves on this continuum you have drawn as far as advocacy goes. Would they put themselves on silence? Somewhere in the middle? Or would they be more to the advocacy end. After this discussion, in which they don’t need to share where they are on the line, have them form equal sized groups to sign up for the advocacy position paper and presentation assignment, due in session 8. Be sure all groups are of equal size as much as possible so all teams have enough people to make it work. I have them sign up on a paper taped to the board so I can keep it and remind them of their group. If someone is absent, then you know where to assign them if needed. Note that below the instructions for this learning activity, there is a list of ideas for advocacy. After they know their groups, they can begin discussing the topic they like or come up with their own until time is up for class.
HW 5.1—This is the usual weekly reflection.
HW 5.2—In this activity, teachers need to write an autobiographical sketch about their childhood, highlighting the socioeconomic class in which they were raised. Then they write answers to questions about that class, and then add information about the socioeconomic class they now identify with, what class-based identities influence their professional practice, and if their class is very different from that of their students, how can they connect with them. They will share these sketches in session 6 to share in small group and turn them in to you.
HW 5.3—Teachers look at a chart in the link in the homework activity. It considers deficit theory, and they need to study the chart as well as answer the questions within the activity. Then they answer questions below the chart and bring it to session 6 for an activity. They turn this in to you after the activity for grading.
HW 5.4—Students go back to the National PTA Standards from earlier in the course. They need to identify one of the standards that they would like to add to their practice with ELs and their families. They write the standard they select and a plan on how they will apply it in their classroom. They bring it to class next week.
HW 5.5—Students need to complete the two major assignments that are due next week—the Family Profile and the Partnership Plan. They will share them in small groups during the next session, so it needs to be totally ready to do this. Heads-up: for listening to others’ family profiles, each listener needs to fill out the census sheet. It is in the link for LA 6.1, and you probably want to print copies and stack them in each group. They will each hear 3, so you’ll need 12 per group of 4.
HW 5.6—As students have formed groups and considered and now consider the topic of their Advocacy Position Paper and Presentation, they hopefully gave assignments in their groups and now they should gather ideas and materials that might be helpful as they meet in session 6 to develop the project ideas and what they each need to do to for session 6 homework.