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last.updated 3.12.06

 

Demographics and Diversity

Purpose

As teachers most of us will be working with students in a single classroom that represent multiple demographic populations, especially if you choose to teach in the Hampton Roads area. Because of this diversity, an effective teacher has to discover strategies for responding to state and local standards while also creating pedagogies that acknowledge the different backgrounds with language and language arts education that the students bring with them. In this class we will discuss strategies for this negotiation process, as well as how to create pedagogical opportunities from this diversity.

Before Class

  • Read Hinton [BB]
  • Read Hagemann [English Journal, 90.4]
  • Read Lyman & Figgins [BB]
  • Read Kubota & Ward [English Journal, 89.6]
  • Submit PAB Messages entry #4 in the body of an email through Blackboard by the beginning of class
  • English 555: Submit Research for the Workshop as a hard copy at the beginning of class.

Discussion–Readings

  • What issues, concerns, or questions did these readings raise for you as a future language arts teacher?
  • As a class, we will define the concepts from the following articles:
    • black feminist literary theory–Hinton
    • gatekeeping–Lyman & Higgins
    • pedagogy of overt comparison–Hagemann
    • World Englishes–Kubota & Ward

Activity–Developing Pedagogy

In four groups, address the following prompts:

  • What role do the differences in demographics, student populations, and language play in teaching language arts?
  • Each group will be assigned a concept from the board. Think of different activities or assignments you might implement in your language arts classes to respond to this concept as an issue of race, gender, and class differences. You may want to approach this by asking each other: how do the assignments and activities for the unitwe are developing for the class respond to this concept and these issues?

Record your responses. WeÕll save twenty-five minutes for debriefing and discussion.

Presentations–Group 2

We will be the audience for teaching demonstrations from Group 1 (Lisa, Natasha, and Terry).