Double Entry Journal #11

When the author says "Learning doesn't work well when learners are forced to check their bodies at the school room door like guns in the old West," he's basically saying that children learn better when their bodies are involved and the lesson is treated more as a cultural process.  People understand more and understand better when they can relate to what it is that is being taught.  The author also states that the best way to gain a large vocabulary is not to just read a lot, but by experiencing the "worlds" in which the words they are learning refer to.  A word is given a specific meaning when the person learning the word "plays the games" the word is used in.  Basically, they learn specific meanings by experiencing the word.

According to the author, the work of childhood is play.  To a degree, I agree with this.  Part of being a child is, well, being a child.  That is, getting to have fun and play.  However, childhood cannot only be about this. There is a great deal of learning and educating that must take place during childhood.  Granted, children can always learn by playing, and that is probably how they learn most effectively.  One thing cannot be solely concentrated on, however.  Children still need to go to school and to become educated.

Many of the manuals and directions that come with video games are very technical and difficult to read.  The author argues that these are easier to read once someone has experience with the game.  I have to say that I agree with this statement.  I have found from experience that sometimes reading the manuals that accompany the games are confusing and don't always make sense, but once I've played the game a little, it becomes more clear.  Knowing the literal or general meaning of words does not lead to strong reading skills.  It is the context in which the words are taking and an understanding of this that would lead to strong reading skills.  This makes good learning.

I think that if children learn best by relating the information they learn in school to real-life situations, then they need to learn the information in that context.  Peer to peer interactions are also important for children.  When they talk with their peers, they are more critical in their thinking.  They are more reflective of their thoughts.  They also get another perspective on the world and new and different ways of how to view the world.  Because children learn better by interacting with their peers, I think that I would probably apply this by doing group-based activities, so that they will be able to interact more often with their peers.

High Quality Assessment Blog Posting

Formal assessment is a multitude of formal and informal assessment procedures.  It can take many forms, but it always emphasizes quality of student work over quantity, giving guidance over grades, avoids comparing students, emphasizes understanding rather than just presenting information, encourages multiple iterations of the assessment cycle, and provides feedback that engenders motivation and leads to improvement.  One of the best practices in formative assessment is providing feedback, which is a research-based strategy.  Formative assessment would be used to gather feedback to guide improvement, such as when a teacher makes constructive comments on a paper the student has turned in.  A summative assessment is used to evaluate success or proficiency, such as a students final grade on a test.

Double Entry Journal #10

At home, children are exposed to a variety of different forms of language.  Things that parents do, such as telling stories and playing games with their children, ultimately effect them when they reach school.  Children learn the more academic and literary way of speaking, which is essentially by "storytelling".  Another is that, many video games use complex language and vocabulary that is often above their grade level.  The children develop the skills they need in order to play the game and become excited about reading and learning in relation to the game.  These children develop a love of reading and gain more extensive vocabularies.

Leona tells stories in the way that much African American storytelling is done.  She groups her speech into stanzas and uses a lot of repetition and parallelism.  Leona's specialized form of language is not accepted in school because the teacher's are expecting a story that is more step-by-step, not poetic in nature.  It is not what is expected or deemed "proper" for someone her age, and so she is discouraged from telling stories in the way in which she was taught.

Snow et al. (1998) concluded that students living in poverty end up falling behind despite their initial reading skill.  The recommendations then made suggest increasing these children's initial reading skill level through "early phonetic awareness" and "overt instruction on decoding".  These two reports contradict each other because if children in poverty fall behind others no matter their initial reading skill, then increasing their initial reading skill will not help the problem.

Racism and power is one thing that can also make or break a good reader.  If children perceive a school and/or teacher as hostile, they will not identify with them.  The same can be said if their home identities are oppressed.  If this happens, they will not feel they are valued or belong and will not do as well as they are capable of.  Children can fail to identify with the "ways with words" that is taught in school if it seems distant, irrelevant, or frightening.  Also, the varieties of language offered by technologies (the internet, video games, and texting) are more appealing and interesting to them than those they are exposed to in school.

Double Entry Journal #9

The strange fact about learning to read is that poverty and learning to read are linked.  This fact is strange because poor children are not "less good" at reading than children from a higher socioeconomic status.  All children can learn a complicated system located in a video game, but not all children learn what is taught in school.  School manages to transform children who are good at learning things like Pokemon into children who are not good learners because they use the instructional method of instruction, which is not the best way for children to learn.  Traditionalists say that reading should be taught in a "sequential, skills-based" approach, or that it should be taught in an instructional way.  Progressive educators, on the other hand, lean more towards "meaning-making".  They say that people "learn to read best when they pick up the skills as part of attempting to give meaning to written texts".  The author of this book argues that reading is too new to be a natural process, unlike learning to speak a language.  A natural process is something that is innate, and it is something that everyone succeeds well at.  An instructional process, on the other hand, only a small number of people succeed well at and far more succeed less well.  These contrast with a cultural process, which only a few really master and excel at, but everyone else who needs the skills learns them "well enough".  Humans learn best through a cultural process, however, reading in school is taught through an instructional process.

According the the author of the book, the cause for the "fourth-grade slump" is caused because children learn to read, but the fail to read to learn.  They cannot take information away from what it is that they are reading, which causes a backwards slide.  A better predictor of reading success than phonic awareness is "early language ability".  "Early language ability" is the ability to recall and comprehend sentences and stories, and the ability to engage in extended, connected verbal interactions on a single topic.  This ability is developed by family, community, and school language environment where children interact intensely with adults and more advanced peers.  The traditionalist approach to teaching children how to read fails because it teaches children to read academic language, which is not what they hear at home.  The parents of poor children, in some ways, are to blame for their children's inexperience with specialized varieties of language before they come to school.  The only exposure children have to language and reading before coming to school is what they gain at home, and if they do not get the proper foundation at home, they fail to succeed when they do reach school.  I had no trouble reading this text.

Double Entry Journal #8

1.  The main challenge being addressed in this book is the tension that is felt by those that feel that "academic and school-based forms of language and thinking that some people find alienating".  This has to do with the type of language that is being used.  Some people enjoy technical language, while others do not.

2.  What the author means by the phrase "ways with words" is that there are different ways in which words can be used.  This is the way in which language is used and that there are other ways besides those that are academic.

3.  The core argument being made by the author of this book is that "people learn new ways with words, in or out of school, only when they find the worlds to which these words apply compelling".

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7.  I agree with the author that learning academic language is not sufficient for success in modern society to an extent.  I think it's important to not be too academic.  Someone who is can often be marked off as arrogant or superior in the minds of the mass in society, and they can possibly be rejected by society.  On the other hand, not having some knowledge of academic language can have the opposite effect.  I think it's important to have some sort of balance.

8.  

Struggling Student Interview

Do you enjoy school?

"Yes."

What kind of student are you?

"I do my homework, but I really don't like to."

What do you do for fun outside of school?

"On the computer I like to read this web comic called Home-stark but I like to [also] go outside and play with my friends."

How would your classmates describe you?

"I think they like me.  I've matured since last year."

What do you and your friends do together?

"Me and [friend's name] like to draw and talk and get on get on people's nerves.  And my friend at home, we like to kick the ball and play basketball and stuff."

Tell me a good memory you have about school.

"I remember once in kindergarten, I was so smart they wanted to put me in third grade, but my dad wouldn't let them, obviously."

Tell me a bad memory you have about school.

"In fourth and second grade, my teacher called all of us ignorant."

Tell me about a favorite teacher you had in the past.

"In first grade I had [teacher's name].  I liked her."

So you would say she's a "good" teacher?

"Yeah"

What makes her a good teacher?

"She was funny.  She never gave us homework, even if we had a little bit of work left. We forgot to bring snack, and she had a trash bag full of gummies and crackers and stuff and gave them to us."

What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you?

"I like to be called Solix."


From what I've observed of this student, she is very quiet and she doesn't often volunteer to answer questions or do problems.  My teacher starts off every lesson with select students coming up to the board and doing latitude and longitude problems.  In the time that I've been in this classroom, she has never once gone up to the board to do a problem.  She seems very excited about school, though.  I can't understand why she would be struggling, and had my teacher not told me that she was, I never would have pinned her as one.  There are several other students within this class and the others that I observe that would seem more likely to me.  Today they took a quiz on latitude and longitude, and she had no trouble finishing it around the same time as the other students did.  She even had time to sit and draw on the back of her test.  She seems to me that she is very smart, so I have to wonder what might be happening that is causing her to struggle.  I feel she is a good student and that she tries.  Perhaps she simply needs to apply herself more, but I honestly don't know.

Double Entry Journal #7

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?

One challenge of inquiry-based approaches to learning are that teachers don't understand the complexity of this approach.  When they do not have this understanding, the project they are doing is more likely to come apart of become unsuccessful.  Chances are, the instructor has not provided "proper scaffolding, assessment, and redirection" which leads to the failure of the project.  Another challenge to inquiry-based learning is that often times the students lack sufficient prior knowledge.  Sometimes students also have insufficient support and modeling from their teacher.  Teachers must learn how to incorporate and deal with the responsibilities and implementations that come with inquiry-based learning.  One such example of this is time management and classroom management.  Lastly, teachers must design lessons in inquiry-based projects that meet a variety of criteria, which is often difficult for them.

Double Entry Journal #6

1.  The "dominant paradigm" that is starting to show signs of wear is the instructional model that the teach and textbook are the main source for knowledge.  This model uses lecturing, discussion, and reading as the method for the delivery of knowledge.  Teachers are now moving towards methods that are more project and performance-based and changing their roles.

2.  Project-based learning supports student learning better than traditional approaches because students complete complex tasks that typically result in a realistic product, event, or presentation.  One benefit of project-based learning is an increase in the ability to define problems, as shown by research completed by Gallagher, Stepien, and Rosenthal.  Another benefit is that students experience a growth in their ability to support their reasoning with clear arguments, which was determined by research completed by Stepien,
Gallagher, and Workman.  A third benefit, concluded by Moore, Sherwood, Bateman, Bransford, and Goldman's research, is that students have an enhanced ability to plan.

3.  Problem-based learning supports learning better than traditional approaches because students are instructed to solve problems that are realistic and have multiple solutions.  Benefits of this type of instruction are that students become more flexible problem-solvers, they learn to apply the knowledge they have, and are better able to generate accurate hypotheses and coherent explanations.  These benefits are supported by the research done by Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche, and Gijbels.

4.  Learning by Design supports learning better than traditional approaches because children are asked to apply their knowledge and create something.  Research done by Fortus showed that students involved in this type of instruction showed strong evidence  of progress in learning concepts, learned to apply key concepts in design work, and had a more positive affect on motivation and the students sense of ownership over what they created.

5.  In each of these approaches, the students are asked to produce different types of products.  Also, the mechanisms in which the students reach this goal differ.  The way in which students must apply the knowledge that they have also differs.  Though very similar, these three approaches are distinctly different and accomplish different goals.

6.  I feel the most important benefit to learning that is common across all three types of inquiry-based learning approaches is that students gain a better understanding of what they are trying to learn.  The purpose of instruction is to teach the students, and if that is not accomplished, then that method of instruction is useless.  The goal of an educator is to pass on knowledge to their students, and though learning a great deal of skills is important, a greater understanding of concepts is the most important.

Double Journal Entry #5

"But around a good leader there are no thick walls to crash through, and habits of mutual respect, rising on reverence, can flourish."

To me, this feels like a very powerful statement, and set the tone for what the rest of the article had to say.  If the person, such as a teacher, who is in charge listens and respects those that are under his or her care, then the environment created is one that is respectful and can get things accomplished.  Someone who does apply the principles of reverence is someone we would consider a good leader, and that gives what they have to offer more validity.

1.  Reverent listening involves the components of knowledge, modeling, respect, transcendence, and humility.  Reverent teaching supports the idea of culturally responsive teaching because it works from the perspective that the children have valuable knowledge.  Reverent listening helps create a respectful community within the classroom that values each individual student and what they have to offer to what is being taught.

2.  I have no example from my schooling experience to explain the meaning of this quote.  I was very formulate to have never a teacher within my experience that would single out a student and humiliate them.  My teachers my not have always respected their students, but they never crossed the line where they became bullies.

3.

4.  Yes, I believe I did have a teacher who exhibited traits of a reverent teacher.  This teacher always seemed to have a mutual respect for her students.  She was always positive and encouraging of the students that she taught.  Feeling respected and valued by a teacher made me feel important and as if I had something to offer.  She was encouraging, and that always made me feel as if I could accomplish anything.

Where I'm From Reflection

Language, literacy, and power have a direct relationship with each other.  Those who have the power are the ones who set the standard.  In America, those who speak Standard English hold the power, and anything else is considered inferior.  Those who plan to teach in Appalachia need to understand this relationship because the people who live here do not speak Standard English, for the most part, at least.  Appalachia has it's own dialect, and it is very much a part of who and what we are.  It is important that teachers in the Appalachia region understand the presence of this dialect and incorporate it into their teaching strategy.  "I believe that if we claim to allow equal opportunity to all children in our schools then we must" (Purcell-Gates, 2002).  I think this quote rings true.  Every child deserves the best possible education that they can get, and sometimes this does not occur for children in Appalachia or other children who do not speak the standard form of English.  This is because those teachers buy into the stereotypes of a certain group of people a develop an attitude that is culturally deficit.  A way to overcome this would be for the teacher to get to know their students and where they come from.  Luis Moll encourages teachers to "involve students as thoughtful learners in socially meaningful tasks" (Moll).  He wanted for teachers to learn to understand their students and then to apply what they learned about them and create instruction that became meaningful to those students.  By doing this, the teachers not only gain a better understanding of their students, but also manage to overcome biases and attitudes that negatively affect their students.  When they overcome these culturally deficit attitudes, teachers begin to give their students more of an equal-opportunity education.

Teachers and schools contribute to poor literacy instruction when they have a culturally deficit prospective as opposed to one that is culturally different.  Those that view the world through a lens that is culturally deficit feel that some groups of people, such as those from Appalachia are "intelligently inferior" to the group that holds the power.  By holding this belief, schools and teachers are setting the students up for failure because they believe that they are incapable of learning.  However, if a teacher holds a perspective that is culturally different, they understand that different groups of people are different, but that this does not make them incapable of learning.  Marginalized and immigrant populations have the ability to "succeed despite their having cultural differences from the educational system" (Bolima).  Just because a certain group is different does not mean that they are deficit.  A strategy that can help students who speak non-standard English is to allow them to use their form of speech when speaking and writing, and incorporating Standard English instruction in this.  By crossing over the two forms of language, the students stand a better chance of understanding the lesson being taught to them and will succeed.  They will also feel less judged and more as if they are valued.  If a teacher accepts the way they speak, the children will feel more of an urge to speak out, as opposed to when they are constantly being corrected because they don't speak the way that is considered "standard".  If teachers “work from the premise that teaching students about the structural differences and similarities of the languages would help them “code-switch” or move back and forth between the variants of the dialect of their place and Standard English” (Epstein, 2011).  Believing in the students’ abilities in speech can help to give them confidence that they might otherwise not get, and will encourage them to learn.  “Writers often talk in order to rehearse the language and content that will go into what they write, and conversation often provide an impetus or occasion for writing” (National Council of Teachers).  Students will write how they speak, and giving them the opportunity to use their language, and to build from that, will also help them when it comes to their writing and “code switching”.  Teachers who realize that these students have cultural capital and funds of knowledge, and use this to their advantage, will have better success with their students.

The Where I'm From project contributes to culturally responsive teaching in a number of ways.  Firstly, it helps to teach students to know and praise their own and each others' cultural heritages.  This project highlights where each person is from.  The videos and poems are shared among the class, and this helps everyone to gain a better understanding of their peers' background.  This also encourages students to share their varied perspectives and experiences and create a supportive environment where this can occur.  The students, having gained a better understanding of their peers, can find similarities between themselves and their peers that they might not have realized were there before.  It helps to create a community in the classroom and create a sort of unity.  This project also encourages students to know and listen to each other, which is important when trying to build a community within the classroom.  This project also uses a wide variety of instructional strategies.  It incorporates things that are visual as well as auditory, and the students are creating something, which makes the project very hands on.  This project legitimizes the cultural heritage of the students and gives it validity in the classroom.  When teaching, I plan to implement culturally responsive teaching by giving the students a chance to choose some of the subjects and activities that are done in the classroom.  By doing this, I hope to create more of an interest in what the students are learning.  If students are interested, then they will become more engaged.  By giving the students a say in their instruction, they also feel as if their opinion is valued.  Feeling valued, and as if they have something to offer, will also increase their excitement and interest in learning.

Double Entry Journal #4

1.  One thing I learned about teaching and literacy development is that the students being taught did improve their language skills and knowledge of Standard English when they were taught in their home dialect.  By not telling the students that their dialect was wrong, and allowing them to make connections between the two, they came to understand the language better.  The second thing I learned was that teachers often mirror their teaching of literacy after the way they were taught.  Because the students they taught feared judgement, they did not excel when it came to writing.  Lastly, teaching the kids Standard English based on their home dialects helped them when it came to "code switching".  This form of instruction gave them a better knowledge of both forms of the language and better prepared them to switch back and forth between the two forms.

2.  One example of how the strategies for literacy instruction presented in the article reflect Culturally Responsive Teaching is that they build bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experience.  The students were able to establish a relationship between their dialect at home and the Standard English that they were taught in school, making it mean more to them.  Another example of this is that these methods acknowledged the legitimacy of the cultural heritages as worthy content to be taught in the formal curriculum. The student's home dialect was respected in the classroom and not viewed as "wrong" or "incorrect" which made them feel respected.

3.  I can not recall a time when my literacy instruction reflected Culturally Responsive Teaching.  That does not necessarily mean that I never participated in such, but simply that I do not remember.  I cannot say, however, that my literacy instruction ever went against Culturally Responsive Teaching.  There are many times throughout school that I participated in small groups when doing assignments.  I do not recall ever involving this, though, in my literacy instruction.

Where I'm From Digital Story

Where I'm From

I am from buckwheat cakes and strawberry jam, from homemade apple butter and fried bread.

I am from the second and third house on the left, from quiet summer nights and days full of winter snow.

I am from horse shows in the summer and baby goats in the spring,  a garden full of rhubarb and green beans, potatoes and sweet corn.

I am from the unyielding and compassionate Holyfields, who always give everything they have, and from a father I never got to know.

I am from Christmas dinners and Easter Sundays, and trail rides to the river as soon as it got warm.

From a family who never turned their back on someone in need, and who showed me that hard work can get you anywhere.

I am from lazy, restful Sundays and people who believed that faith was not measured by your church attendance, but by your actions alone.

I'm from large, home-cooked meals and days baking cookies with Mom and Grandma.

From my cousins and I singing to the Spice Girls in my grandmother's kitchen and the strength of my mother, who had to courage to walk away.  From a grandfather who's life was saved, and then so soon taken away.

I am from Pap's home videos and shoe boxes full of photos; a lifetime of priceless memories.

Double Entry Journal #3

1.  In elementary school, reading instruction is more focused on the process of learning to read.  Because of this, students don't really learn the skills to read for information, ideas, and concepts, which are needed for success in secondary school.

2.  Reading test scores are best at creating a sense of crisis among the population in relation to literacy.  If they tests reach the conclusion that many of the children within the population are illiterate, then the parents in that population become concerned.

3.  None of these literacy myths really surprised me.  These myths were all things that were discussed in my Reading in the Content Areas class.  Back then, though, the thing that most surprised me was that literacy was not only related to reading.  I never realized that literacy could be associated with math or some other area.

4.  When it comes to reading in the content areas, you have to teach the students how to read the content.  As a teacher, you cannot expect them to know how simply because they can read.  For example, in Social Studies, you teach the students to search for facts, ideas, and concepts.  A way that you can guide this teaching is by using study guides that go along with the text.

5.  I think that my knowledge of technology literacy was one that was not often acknowledged within school.  I don't think that teachers from where I came from understand knowledge of technology is it's own literacy and that it can be used to assist with teaching.

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8.  When valuable student literacies are not acknowledged as valuable in school, students become resistant to school learning.  They begin to refuse to read or write in school, which impacts their learning as well as their self-esteem.

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10.  Throughout several of my high school Social Studies classes I had teachers who attempted to make me and the rest of my class think critically.  They often encouraged us to come to our own conclusions on something that we were reading or learning.

11.  I can't really remember a time when multicultural literacy was ever addressed.  I come from an area where there is not a whole lot of cultural and ethnic differences.  It's not a problem in those classrooms.  Almost all of the students are from the area, and generations of their family have lived there as well.

12.


Resources:

Bolima, D. (n.d.). Contexts for understanding: educational learning theories. Retrieved from http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/new_page_5.htm

Double Entry Journal #2

"I believe that if we claim to allow equal access to educational opportunity to all children in our schools then we must."

I chose this quote from the reading because I think it’s rather powerful, and that it makes an excellent point.  If the school is going to make the statement that they allow equal education to every student within the system, then that is exactly what they need to do.  Those within the school system should not place one child above another simply because they think that one will do better.  It is unfair.  If one student does not have the exact same opportunities as another, then of course they won’t succeed.  If they are not given every chance at success, then they are not receiving the free and appropriate public education that they are obligated to have.

1.  Literary knowledge is that which children obtain in reading, writing, and the printed language before they enter into school.  These concepts are not taught to them formally, but by witnessing adults within their lives read and write.  One example of print literacy knowledge is when a young child tries to write.  This child understands the concept, but because he or she lacks formal education, they cannot actually write something coherent.  An example of non print literacy would be a similar child who understands reading as someone reading aloud to them.  It is a concept that they know well, but a similar concept, such as silent reading, may not be.

2.  If an educator has some sort of bias against a certain group of people, such as those that are poor, then he or she may buy into the stereotypes that go along with them.  In this case, she would believe that because a child is poor, that they're family must be uneducated.  She would also believe that because that child lacks experience in something, such as reading and writing, that they are deficit and are set up for failure.  If the teacher does not believe the child can succeed from the beginning, then the child will do just that:  fail.

3.  Schools and teachers contribute to poor literacy in instruction in schools because they set the child up for failure.  Stereotypes can prevent the school system from taking a child and/or their family seriously.  Those in charge simply expect failure from their student, and when they do fail it comes as no surprise.  It is because they did nothing to help this child, however, that they failed in the first place.  If the teacher or others do not make an effort to assist the child, then the child cannot possibly succeed.

4.  Those that are considered a minority in an area are often held in disdain by those that are the majority or hold the power.  It is often believed that those in this minority are uneducated or that they cannot learn as well as those in power.  These people that are marginalized don't get offered the same educational opportunities because they are expected to fail, and because they do not receive the same educational opportunities that others might because of their language or social class, they meet the expectations set out for them.

5.  The language one speaks is often connected with their class.  If a child speaks a different language or speaks with an accent or different dialect, then the educators will automatically categorize the child.  Usually the child is defined then by their social class, which leads to the same biases and misconceptions that are associated with what that person believes about a certain socioeconomic situation.

6.  The first thing schools and teachers can do to improve literacy instruction is to act on the belief that "children of poverty are learners, have been learning since birth, are ready to learn at anytime, and will learn."  This will help to set the child up for success, not failure, and give them all an equal educational opportunity.  The second thing that can be done is that children, and furthermore their parents, will use the appropriate oral language to fit the social context they find themselves in if they are knowledgeable in it.  They must also understand that this applied to writing as well.

7.  I dislike the term "Proper English".  What is deemed "proper" by one group of people is not always so with another.  Language can be very diverse and it varies between groups.  Labeling one group's use of language proper automatically deems the other's improper.  It sets the system up to be even more separate, and to marginalize those groups who are not considered proper even more.

"If a television network proposed a ''real life'' show treating poor African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians, Asians or Jews as curiosities, they, and all Americans of good will, would be justifiably outraged."

I chose this quote from the reading because I find it to be quite accurate.  I think that if such a thing were to happen, a show that exploited and mocked the likes of groups such as African Americans or Jews, that there would be greater outrage in the nation.  When you hear something about groups that are stereotyped and discriminated against, those that are found in Appalachia are never mentioned, yet they are the most stereotyped out of most of the mentioned groups.  I don’t feel like many realize this, or that they’ve bought into such stereotypes so much that they actually believe them to be accurate.  It’s exploitive and wrong, and sadly, very few people even care.

Resources:

Purcell Gates, V. (2002). As soon as she opened her mouth. In L. Delpit & J.K Dowdy (Eds.), In The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language culture and power.

O'Brien, J. (2003, May 10). Tall tales of appalachia. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html

Sacco, B. D. (Artist). (n.d.). United states stereotypes map tells it like it is. [Print Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.incrediblethings.com/art-design/us-states-stereotypes-map-tells-it-like-it-is/

Double Entry Blog #1

Inclusive Education can be defined as educating students with diverse needs.  Inclusive Education is meant to benefit those students that have exceedingly complicated and diverse learning needs.  Such students that would be included under Inclusive Education would those that have ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic differences.  Inclusive Education would also include those students with special needs and disabilities.  Students that are included in this type of education are those that have a potential social benefit, who can benefit in their linguistic development, and whom the student could benefit from other students as role models.

 An Inclusive School is one that emphasizes learning for all students.  These schools work towards the goal of meeting the "unique and diverse educational needs of all students".  One characteristic of an Inclusive school is a Sense of Community. This means that every child is respected and are encouraged to learn and meet goals as much as possible.  Another characteristic of an Inclusive School is the encouragement of Students as Partners.  Students are encouraged to be a part of the school's community and to participate.  Such ways this is accomplished are through peer mediators, peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, cooperative learning, and buddy systems.  If accomplished, students become more responsible and effective, and assist in the process of inclusion.

I really like this picture to demonstrate Inclusive Education.  It shows children of all shapes, sizes, colors, and circumstances coming together.  I feel like this most accurately reflects the characteristic of a Sense of Community, in which the children are coming together.  It could also reflect the concept of Students as Partners, in which students help other feel included in the community at school.


Resources:

Inos, R. H., & Quigley, M. A. (n.d.). Research review for inclusive practices. Retrieved from http://www.prel.org/products/Products/Inclusive-practices.htm

 

Wedman, K. (Artist). (2012). Inclusive education- hope, dignity, and purpose in learning. [Print Graphic]. Retrieved from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKH3i-EoOBIAhKXe188g2e5b9NQKGd14cygWBC3vNaosG-_gqxn06hYcmOWy-J7dcyIQqExIuREpQUrM5t2Z1kGuThqW8YqdNtfE6OlgMnT1JoeGkUPVa1B9eXbpGwqNuvFNKWz2pfY2o/s1600/inclusion139032.gif