CSTP 2: Creating & Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning
Student Work Samples
I. Home-School-Community Project
2.2 Creating physical or virtual learning environments that promote student learning, reflect diversity, and encourage constructive and productive interactions
among students
The nineteen kindergarten students in Room 29 at Olivewood Elementary School in National City have impressed and inspired me more than I ever expected. Each student brings to the classroom a unique set of skills, a rich cultural background, a defined personality, a curiosity for the world around them, and a contagious enthusiasm that create an exciting community of young learners. Throughout my time as a student teacher, I have been inspired by my students to draw upon their prior knowledge and incorporate aspects of their home, community, and culture into the classroom effectively. Furthermore, there is an extensive amount of research that has found that by bridging students’ home life and school life, we can raise student academic achievement. One of the theories that led to the development of my project was the idea that “children can learn about family heritage at the same time they are improving their literacy skills” (Stuczynski et al, 2012). I created my project so that written and oral production are central aspects through which students have the opportunity to learn more about their family heritage simultaneously.
I chose to implement this project with small groups of three students to allow for more depth and support for each student. Eventually by the end of my time student teaching, every student in the class will have completed this project and had the chance to participate. I designed my project so that it intentionally incorporates parental participation and collaboration with their children at home and then transfers that into the classroom setting. Valdes (2006) states that it is important to forge relationships between families and teachers in their children’s schools. I have made it part of my goal of the creation of this project to not only get to know the student on a deeper level, but also get to know their parents on a deeper level and start forming a positive relationship. For the first step of my project, I sent home a survey with four sentence frames in Spanish that asked the following: what the child wants to be when they grow up, a cultural or family tradition, where their family is from, and the child’s favorite thing to do on the weekends. I asked the parents (in person) to discuss each question with their child and write a short response transcribing their conversation and what the student said. The next day during reading centers time, I worked with these students for thirty minutes and we created a colorful paper wheel with their photograph in the middle and four quadrants. In each quadrant, the children drew pictures that illustrated what they talked to their parents about the night before: a picture of what they want to be when they grow up, a picture of a cultural or family tradition, a picture of the flag of their origin country, and a picture of their favorite thing to do on the weekends. I designed it this way so that there are specific parts of the wheel that reflect their family and where they come from but there are also parts of the wheel that reflect who they are and who they want to be as individuals.
My purpose for including the students’ parents in a hands-on, direct way was supported by research that states that “by encouraging and providing opportunities for meaningful family involvement, teachers play a critical role in bridging home and school” (Stuczynski et al, 2012). From working in this classroom over the past few months, I have learned that the majority of the students’ parents are incredibly involved and active in the classroom and willing to participate. Because of this, I wanted to provide them with a meaningful way to collaborate with their child in the creation of this project. Furthermore, researchers have found that the most powerful form of parental involvement occurs when parents are actively engaged with their children in ways that enhance learning (Thorkildsen & Stein, 1998). I also learned that this group of families has beautiful traditions and strong cultural ties to Mexico. In fact, every single family’s country of origin is Mexico- the vast majority from Tijuana and a few from Oaxaca, Guadalajara, and Mexico City. As I have gotten to know these parents and have shown a keen interest in learning more about them, they have really enjoyed sharing Mexican traditions, holidays, recipes, and family celebrations that are special to their families. This knowledge led to the development of my project in which the parents and students collaborate to create a final product that symbolizes these rich cultural traditions.
En el proceso de este proyecto, aprendí muchas cosas de mis estudiantes, las familias de mi estudiantes, la comunidad escolar, y el contexto de la cultura. Primero, aprendí la importancia para establecer una relación positiva entre la maestra y los padres. Aprendí que una maestra tiene que conocer sus estudiantes antes de se puede enseñarles efectivamente. A conocer sus estudiantes profundamente, debe saber quiénes son, sus habilidades únicas, de dónde vienen, sus diversos intereses, cómo piensan y qué quieren ser, su dinámica familiar, y su cultura. Es un proceso donde los roles se invierten- el profesor se convierte en el estudiante. Además, es muy importante ser explícito en la búsqueda activa de esta información. Por esta razón, he aprendido muchas cosas acerca de mis estudiantes que nunca habría sabido de otra manera. Me di cuenta que nunca se puede asumir nada. Más bien, debo ser explícito si quiera conocer mis estudiantes y sus familias.
Más específicamente, me enteré que todos mis estudiantes tienen fuertes lazos culturales y familiares a México. La gran mayoría de mis alumnos nacieron aquí en National City, pero hay algunos que nacieron en México y recientemente se mudó aquí. Igualmente, muchos de ellos van a menudo a Tijuana por fines de semanas, días festivos, o reuniones familiares. Principalmente, esto hecho tiene un gran impacto en la formación de la identidad del estudiante. Por otra parte, he notado que todos las familias hablan solamente español en la casa. Pienso que esto es bueno, ya que garantiza que los estudiantes siempre mantendrá su capacidad de hablar español. Pero igual, podría tener potenciales efectos negativos cuando los niños están aprendiendo inglés.
Hay un estereotipo de que los padres de nivel socioeconómico bajo no participan en la educación de sus hijos porque no valoran la educación. En mi caso, encontré todo lo contrario. Los padres de sala 29 siempre participan y ayudan en actividades con sus hijos en clase. ¡Es el sueño de un maestro! Sin embargo, he notado que las madres son siempre los presentes en el salón. Los padres son invisibles adentro del salón. Este es un rol de género que existe en muchas culturas y es muy común en este grupo de estudiantes y familias. De todos modos, me encanta el alto nivel de participación de los padres y su voluntad de ayudar. Puedo ver los beneficios en el aprendizaje de los niños. Por lo tanto, este proyecto ayudó y informó mi practica de maestra bilingüe ahora en Olivewood y en el futuro también. Me enseñó la importancia para formar una relación con los padres de mis estudiantes y crear oportunidades para que puedan participar. Igualmente, el proceso de este proyecto me mostró como podemos cerrar la brecha entre la casa y la escuela.
1) The demographics of Olivewood Elementary (transitional bilingual school) are:
Hispanic or Latino: 90.7%
White: 2.7%
African-American: 1.4%
Filipino: 1.1%
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged: 100%
English Language Learners: 69.5%
Students with Disabilities: 9.3%
Additionally, I found that as of 2007, 19.5% of National City residents have incomes listed below the poverty level which is 7% above the California state average.
2) Olivewood is located in the heart of National City. Here are the demographics of the school’s community, National City, from the US Census Bureau 2010:
Hispanic or Latino: 63%
White: 35%
African-American: 5.59%
Asian: 18.3%
American Indian: 1.1%
Foreign born persons: 43%
Speaks language other than English at home: 74%
High school graduates (of persons 25 yrs +): 61%
Bachelor’s Degree or higher (of persons 25 yrs+): 12.6%
I found it incredibly interesting that over 50% of National City residents are Mexican-American. I also found that “in San Diego County, immigration is no longer the main source of population growth of the Hispanic/Latino community. The last census reports the largest source of Hispanic/Latino population growth was natality (US Census Bureau, 2007) suggesting a growing but stable Hispanic/Latino population.” This information is from the “Study of Latinos” at http://www.cscc.unc.edu/hchs/SanDiego.php
3) National City is the second oldest city in San Diego County. The demographics of National City have definitely changed over time. The data shows how the Hispanic population has increased from 1980-2010 while the white population has steadily decreased in that time period. More specifically, here is the data I retrieved from www.nationalcityca.gov :
White population Hispanic population
1980 40.4% 38.4%
1990 26% 49.6%
2000 14.1% 59.1%
2010 10% 63%
4) The program options available for linguistically diverse students at Olivewood are found in the school’s transitional bilingual education model. In a transitional bilingual program, the main focus is transitioning English language learners to a mainstream English only classroom by fourth grade (Wright, 2010). In my kindergarten class, instruction is 90% in Spanish and 10% in English; English instruction gradually increases each year until the students are fully immersed in English only classrooms by fourth grade.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reflection: I believe this project is a great example of how incorporating families into the curriculum can enhance student learning and overall classroom environment. By studying the community of your school and engaging family members of your students, I believe that you are promoting and maintaining an effective environment for student learning.
2.2 Creating physical or virtual learning environments that promote student learning, reflect diversity, and encourage constructive and productive interactions
among students
The nineteen kindergarten students in Room 29 at Olivewood Elementary School in National City have impressed and inspired me more than I ever expected. Each student brings to the classroom a unique set of skills, a rich cultural background, a defined personality, a curiosity for the world around them, and a contagious enthusiasm that create an exciting community of young learners. Throughout my time as a student teacher, I have been inspired by my students to draw upon their prior knowledge and incorporate aspects of their home, community, and culture into the classroom effectively. Furthermore, there is an extensive amount of research that has found that by bridging students’ home life and school life, we can raise student academic achievement. One of the theories that led to the development of my project was the idea that “children can learn about family heritage at the same time they are improving their literacy skills” (Stuczynski et al, 2012). I created my project so that written and oral production are central aspects through which students have the opportunity to learn more about their family heritage simultaneously.
I chose to implement this project with small groups of three students to allow for more depth and support for each student. Eventually by the end of my time student teaching, every student in the class will have completed this project and had the chance to participate. I designed my project so that it intentionally incorporates parental participation and collaboration with their children at home and then transfers that into the classroom setting. Valdes (2006) states that it is important to forge relationships between families and teachers in their children’s schools. I have made it part of my goal of the creation of this project to not only get to know the student on a deeper level, but also get to know their parents on a deeper level and start forming a positive relationship. For the first step of my project, I sent home a survey with four sentence frames in Spanish that asked the following: what the child wants to be when they grow up, a cultural or family tradition, where their family is from, and the child’s favorite thing to do on the weekends. I asked the parents (in person) to discuss each question with their child and write a short response transcribing their conversation and what the student said. The next day during reading centers time, I worked with these students for thirty minutes and we created a colorful paper wheel with their photograph in the middle and four quadrants. In each quadrant, the children drew pictures that illustrated what they talked to their parents about the night before: a picture of what they want to be when they grow up, a picture of a cultural or family tradition, a picture of the flag of their origin country, and a picture of their favorite thing to do on the weekends. I designed it this way so that there are specific parts of the wheel that reflect their family and where they come from but there are also parts of the wheel that reflect who they are and who they want to be as individuals.
My purpose for including the students’ parents in a hands-on, direct way was supported by research that states that “by encouraging and providing opportunities for meaningful family involvement, teachers play a critical role in bridging home and school” (Stuczynski et al, 2012). From working in this classroom over the past few months, I have learned that the majority of the students’ parents are incredibly involved and active in the classroom and willing to participate. Because of this, I wanted to provide them with a meaningful way to collaborate with their child in the creation of this project. Furthermore, researchers have found that the most powerful form of parental involvement occurs when parents are actively engaged with their children in ways that enhance learning (Thorkildsen & Stein, 1998). I also learned that this group of families has beautiful traditions and strong cultural ties to Mexico. In fact, every single family’s country of origin is Mexico- the vast majority from Tijuana and a few from Oaxaca, Guadalajara, and Mexico City. As I have gotten to know these parents and have shown a keen interest in learning more about them, they have really enjoyed sharing Mexican traditions, holidays, recipes, and family celebrations that are special to their families. This knowledge led to the development of my project in which the parents and students collaborate to create a final product that symbolizes these rich cultural traditions.
En el proceso de este proyecto, aprendí muchas cosas de mis estudiantes, las familias de mi estudiantes, la comunidad escolar, y el contexto de la cultura. Primero, aprendí la importancia para establecer una relación positiva entre la maestra y los padres. Aprendí que una maestra tiene que conocer sus estudiantes antes de se puede enseñarles efectivamente. A conocer sus estudiantes profundamente, debe saber quiénes son, sus habilidades únicas, de dónde vienen, sus diversos intereses, cómo piensan y qué quieren ser, su dinámica familiar, y su cultura. Es un proceso donde los roles se invierten- el profesor se convierte en el estudiante. Además, es muy importante ser explícito en la búsqueda activa de esta información. Por esta razón, he aprendido muchas cosas acerca de mis estudiantes que nunca habría sabido de otra manera. Me di cuenta que nunca se puede asumir nada. Más bien, debo ser explícito si quiera conocer mis estudiantes y sus familias.
Más específicamente, me enteré que todos mis estudiantes tienen fuertes lazos culturales y familiares a México. La gran mayoría de mis alumnos nacieron aquí en National City, pero hay algunos que nacieron en México y recientemente se mudó aquí. Igualmente, muchos de ellos van a menudo a Tijuana por fines de semanas, días festivos, o reuniones familiares. Principalmente, esto hecho tiene un gran impacto en la formación de la identidad del estudiante. Por otra parte, he notado que todos las familias hablan solamente español en la casa. Pienso que esto es bueno, ya que garantiza que los estudiantes siempre mantendrá su capacidad de hablar español. Pero igual, podría tener potenciales efectos negativos cuando los niños están aprendiendo inglés.
Hay un estereotipo de que los padres de nivel socioeconómico bajo no participan en la educación de sus hijos porque no valoran la educación. En mi caso, encontré todo lo contrario. Los padres de sala 29 siempre participan y ayudan en actividades con sus hijos en clase. ¡Es el sueño de un maestro! Sin embargo, he notado que las madres son siempre los presentes en el salón. Los padres son invisibles adentro del salón. Este es un rol de género que existe en muchas culturas y es muy común en este grupo de estudiantes y familias. De todos modos, me encanta el alto nivel de participación de los padres y su voluntad de ayudar. Puedo ver los beneficios en el aprendizaje de los niños. Por lo tanto, este proyecto ayudó y informó mi practica de maestra bilingüe ahora en Olivewood y en el futuro también. Me enseñó la importancia para formar una relación con los padres de mis estudiantes y crear oportunidades para que puedan participar. Igualmente, el proceso de este proyecto me mostró como podemos cerrar la brecha entre la casa y la escuela.
1) The demographics of Olivewood Elementary (transitional bilingual school) are:
Hispanic or Latino: 90.7%
White: 2.7%
African-American: 1.4%
Filipino: 1.1%
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged: 100%
English Language Learners: 69.5%
Students with Disabilities: 9.3%
Additionally, I found that as of 2007, 19.5% of National City residents have incomes listed below the poverty level which is 7% above the California state average.
2) Olivewood is located in the heart of National City. Here are the demographics of the school’s community, National City, from the US Census Bureau 2010:
Hispanic or Latino: 63%
White: 35%
African-American: 5.59%
Asian: 18.3%
American Indian: 1.1%
Foreign born persons: 43%
Speaks language other than English at home: 74%
High school graduates (of persons 25 yrs +): 61%
Bachelor’s Degree or higher (of persons 25 yrs+): 12.6%
I found it incredibly interesting that over 50% of National City residents are Mexican-American. I also found that “in San Diego County, immigration is no longer the main source of population growth of the Hispanic/Latino community. The last census reports the largest source of Hispanic/Latino population growth was natality (US Census Bureau, 2007) suggesting a growing but stable Hispanic/Latino population.” This information is from the “Study of Latinos” at http://www.cscc.unc.edu/hchs/SanDiego.php
3) National City is the second oldest city in San Diego County. The demographics of National City have definitely changed over time. The data shows how the Hispanic population has increased from 1980-2010 while the white population has steadily decreased in that time period. More specifically, here is the data I retrieved from www.nationalcityca.gov :
White population Hispanic population
1980 40.4% 38.4%
1990 26% 49.6%
2000 14.1% 59.1%
2010 10% 63%
4) The program options available for linguistically diverse students at Olivewood are found in the school’s transitional bilingual education model. In a transitional bilingual program, the main focus is transitioning English language learners to a mainstream English only classroom by fourth grade (Wright, 2010). In my kindergarten class, instruction is 90% in Spanish and 10% in English; English instruction gradually increases each year until the students are fully immersed in English only classrooms by fourth grade.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reflection: I believe this project is a great example of how incorporating families into the curriculum can enhance student learning and overall classroom environment. By studying the community of your school and engaging family members of your students, I believe that you are promoting and maintaining an effective environment for student learning.