PD: Latinx History is Black History

This webinar was very interesting.  It talked about what it is to be Latina or Latino or as mentioned by the webinar Latinx: it refers to both male or female. The main take away I got from this webinar is that even though Black History is celebrated in February and Hispanic Heritage month is in September "Latinx history IS Black History.

The webinar talked about when transporting African slaves to North America more than half of them ended up in Latin America, thus making Latin America Black. Latinos have a lot of layers so much so that they cannot be simply  White or Black that is where the term Afro-Latinx came from because as the webinar mentions Latinos are indeed Black, but they are way more than just Black they are Caribbean and South American making them Afro-Latino.  This compound word is a way to pay tribute to both. 

Th webinar shared a poem written by Elizabeth Acevedo called "Afro-Latina".  I loved this poem it talks about all the struggles of being an Afro-Latina girl living in the United States.  I would love to someday teach this poem to my future students.  This poems would be perfect for discusses identity and social justice issues.  The link to the poem is here https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/afrolatina.  I highly recommend checking it out. 

PD: Student Mental Health Matters

This webinar was very interesting.  I learned in the webinar that school psychologist are over ratio and so cannot really give each student the help they truly need.  At times the ratio may be 1:700 or 1:800!  First I thought it would be about all students mental health which is a very important topic in itself,  but it turns out to be that this webinar focuses on the mental health of the African American students.  According to the webinar they are at a higher risk for mental health issues than non black students.  The webinar provided us with the proper steps to take when we think a student is struggling with mental health: which is to get them help from a school psychologist or school counselor. 

Some of the most common mental health issues in students are anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal ideas, ADHD, and eating disorders.  In addition these may overlap with any other preexisting physical disorders or substance abuse.  There are signs to look for in our students that may hint if they have a mental health issue and if so we as teachers must get them the help needed.  The webinar mentioned school is the first place that will do the first step in helping a student with mental health issues.  Some of those hallmarks and things to keep an eye for are, anxiety, depression, hard time sleeping or falling asleep, over eating or not eating enough, not socializing with friends, and finally not being able to concentrate.  If we see a students presenting any of these we must get them proper help because we as teachers are not tired to help the students with these issues.  

Experiencing racial discrimination is also associated with depressive symptoms.  We the teachers must be on the lookout when we are giving lessons not to make racial comments and also to be sensitive about the material and the information we are providing in class so that we don't make our African American students feels uncomfortable.  For example, during a lesson on slavery we must be sensitive to whom it may affect more than we think.

I learned a lot during this webinar and I really enjoyed how the webinar focused on the mental health of our African American students.  It really stood out to me that the lessons on African American history can be very triggering and so we must be very aware of that and get our students the help they need. Perhaps before a very emotional lesson I as the teacher can have students fill out a trigger form where I can learn what type of information may be too much for them. Then I can be prepared to help my students on order ways.  For example, change my lesson for the better, send the student to the psychologist, talk to the student and find out how I can help.

PD: Teaching Digital Literacy

 Before listening to this webinar I was expecting to learn about real news and fake news in the way as what websites have real information and which are just without proof. I figured we would learn about ways to teach out students how to tell which news it real and which is fake but this webinar did not really talk about that.  It mostly focused on the fact that any fake news can become real news if the students are exposed to it enough.  For example, the webinar mentioned that repetition makes it more likely for the student to agree with it: whether its real or fake.  If the student hears it or reads it enough times the news WILL become real! 

Another thing that I found super interesting from the webinar was that when we search for information online we are not really given back what we are looking for.  Instead, we are given back information based on a algorithm which means we are given information based on computational propaganda, manipulation of search results, and highly automated accounts. It blew my mind to learn this!  

According to the the webinar, this delivery of fake information will cause students harm.  It may cause an increase of hate and hate crimes, cycles of disengagement, information inequality, and a increase  vulnerability to conspiracy theories.  Which was another topic covered in the webinar.  It was mentioned that people who are not educated properly on how to look for information on the internet are more likely to fall into conspiracy theories because our brains are automatically wired to find connections where there really aren't any.

According to the webinar, the best way to teach our students about internet information is to give them the tools to recognize and decode bias, make thinking transparent, and teaching our students to recognize opinion laundering as a base skill.  I really enjoyed this webinar it was very informative and now I know that alongside teaching my students how to find real and fake news I also have to teach them how to fins bias and decode it.    

PD: Painting A Just Picture Art and Activism

The webinar, "Painting A Just Picture", talked about how we as a English Language Arts teacher can use pictures in the classroom to enhance our teaching.  They began the webinar with a series of pictures and asked the people attending to type real quick in the chat what they know about the picture.  Many people wrote about how it made them feel, the time period they believed the pictured belonged to or just the literal things presented in the picture.

In the webinar we were introduced to "text graffiti"and how it can be used in the classroom to engage students in a particular lesson and "activate prior knowledge and make predictions".  Jon, from the webinar says, "It is called text graffiti. It’s an effective way to engage a group of students in talking about a text, image, or work of art while keeping the discussion anchored to that text or image".  Jon says the teacher can put the picture she wants the students to discuss on a blank poster board and have the students write around the picture things they notice or reflections.  For example, the students can write about the historical content of the picture or how it connects to the text being read in class. Jon also said this can even be done with multiple pictures at the same time by making stations. 

After listening to the webinar this is something I want to try in my future classroom someday.  I love how students can analyze a picture or work of art just like they would a text.  I like how I can do a interdisciplinary lesson with the art teacher and include art work that made during a specific ti e period I want to teach about or a particular point in history that relates to the text being read in school.  I like how this is a wonderful way to include our visual learners and a way to make the lesson fun and engaging. 

PD: Trauma Responsive Education

The professional development podcast I have listened  to today is "Trauma Responsive Education".  It had a lot of really good and informative information about how to identity trauma in students or "red flags" as mentioned in the podcast.  We then learned the steps we should take when we see the red flags.  For example,  when we see a red flag we should ask the student directly, how we can help and then we should set up a meeting with a school social worker or another member of the school that works with the community.  This was interesting to me because I know schools have social workers and psychologist but I in a way forgot that they are able to help you identify the red flags in students and help find solutions.

One major red flag I want to talk about is ISOLATION. This podcast was given when we were in the middle of the COVID lock down and so students were mandated to take online classes.   The podcast talked about paying close attention to those students with the cameras off because this is a way students are isolating.  They may never turn their cameras on and may not be very vocal during class.  The podcast says to be on the look out for any background yelling that may indicate the student is not in a safe place to learn.

Next, the podcast talked about students isolating in the classroom.  The podcast states this can look different and not always the same.  For example, students wearing hoodies in class are wanting to hide and now that they are required to wear a mask the teacher can only see a little bit of their faces.  Seeing students hiding away in this way may be a indication of depression from the isolation online learning from COVID may have caused. So according to the video this is a major red flag that teachers must be on the look out for.  The podcast also stated to not be afraid  to directly ask the student whats going on: in a more friendly way.  Like, how can I help you?  Then a meeting should be made with a school social worker who can help get to the bottom of the isolation and help the student however they need. 

In conclusion, teachers may be the first ones to notice something is wrong with our students and we should get them the help they need.  We should not ignore it and pretend that it will get better on its own because it will not.  All students are different and deal with trauma in different ways so it is important to pay close attention to them all and learn their baselines so that when something is happening you as the teacher can notice the red flag early on and find help for the student.  The podcast mentioned that no that student are going back to school after online learning it is important to include social emotional support into our lessons instead of jumping straight into academics and the curriculum. Which I think would be of great benefit to both the students and the teacher. 

ALP for "The Crucible" Act 1

ALP: The Crucible Act 1

Objective: 

• Students will be able to identify at least five important adjectives from their character and list the on

            the poster board.

• Students will be able to paraphrase one important quote about the character and one important

            quote said by the character.

 CCSS:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3: Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and

            explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

Activity: (1 hour)

Step 1:  

Do Now: Journal Prompt (5 mins)

•  How important is one’s reputation?  What can you tell about a person based on his/her reputation?  Write about your reputation in school, at home, and in your community. 

• Students will take 5 minutes to think about this question and answer it in their journals.

• Teachers will encourage students to share.  There will be a brief discussion based on the

                        journal prompt responses.

Step 2: 

Introduction: Essential Question ( 3 mins)

• Is personal integrity more important than survival?

• Brief class discussion based on this question.

Step 3: 

Activity Part 1: Character Poster Board (15 mins)

• Teacher will explain the activity.

• Students will be divided into groups of 3.

• Groups will be given a major character from the play’s act 1.

• Groups will then draw a picture on a poster board of the character based on the

                        description of the play.  

• In the same poster board groups will write down 

• Adjectives which relate to this character.

• Concept/theme related to the character. 

• What is said about this character from another character's perspective.

• Important quote your character says.

Step 4: 

Activity Part 2: Gallery Walk (10 mins)

• Teacher will then tape the posters throughout the room.

• Students will walk around looking at all the posters.

• Teacher will explain to the students to choose a character and fill out the worksheet. 

• Teacher will pass out a worksheet to each student with the questions

• Which character did you choose?

• Is this character a positive character in the story? Negative? Both? Why? Use

                        evidence from the text!

• Make a prediction: Based on your response above will this character evolve by the end of

                        the story? Why or why?

Step 5: 

Class Discussion: (15 mins)

• There will be a class discussion based on the characters in act 1 using  the PNBW or UDBW

            worksheet.

• This class discussion and activity will prepare the students to read the rest of the play. 

Step 6: 

Assessment: Exit Ticket (10 mins)

• Students will choose one of the bullets below and write a brief answer. Students will also state if

            the relationship between these two characters is positive, negative, both, and why?

• What are the sources of antagonism between:

• Parris and the others

• Proctor and Putnam

• Proctor and Parris

• Elizabeth and Abigail

Step 7:

Collect all worksheets: (2 mins)

Rationale:

With this lesson my goal is to introduce the up,down,both,why methods to my students.  In this case I

have used positive, negative, both,why instead, but the idea is still the same.  I begin my lesson by having

a quick write about reputation and what you can tell about a person based on their reputation.  This

question is relevant because reputation is a huge part of the play The Crucible and so this question will

get them thinking about actions and consequences. 

Following I am doing a group activity with the students where they will analyze a character assigned to them by the teacher.  The students will draw a picture based on the description of the play.  This will allow for the students to put a face to the name.  In addition the groups will have a worksheet where they will analyze the character by finding evidence from the text. In this activity the students are practicing their social skills and at the same time they are practicing another discipline (art) as well as ELA by completing the worksheet.

Next the students will do a gallery walk where they will look at the posters of their classmates and read the character information written.  The students will then have to make a prediction whether  the characters are positive, negative, both, and why.  By doing this the students are having to read closely to the text, determine if the descriptive words are positive or negative, base those descriptive words on their actions and then decide if that character is positive, negative, or both.  The students must then tell me why they believe that and show me evidence from the text.  

By using the Up, Down, Both, Why or as in my lesson, positive, negative, both, why approach I hope to get my students thinking about the characters in the play; are the readers supposed to see this character as a positive one, negative, both?  Tell me why. I think this is a good way for students to gather evidence from the text to support their idea. Did the author do a good job representing that character?  What would you change? After having read the book do you still agree with your decision? Would you change it? Why? 

This activity will teach the students about characterization, close readings, and supporting evidence as well as public speaking, working in groups, and critically thinking.