Social Justice Action Plan
Social Justice and Equity Action Plan Write-Up
Name the issue:
There are many EL students in lower grades that feed into our grades (High Tech Elementary, to High Tech Middle, and into High Tech High). In order to reduce the number of EL students at the Middle and High School, we will work on bettering the students at the schools that feed into the Middle School and High School.
Think/reflect critically:
Who is my audience?
Our audience includes the greater community as a whole, as well as the High Tech community (all three schools on the campus site). The presentation of the products will occur multiple times. There will be a preliminary presentation to the fourth graders, during school hours, where the lesson that the High Tech High students have created will be “test driven” for the fourth graders. While the HTH students then have time to tweak their ideas and products in order to improve both their delivery of the lesson, as well as the products they have created, the 7th graders (High Tech Middle School students) will be assisting in any way they can. Originally, this will be taking some time to read with the fourth graders and helping them with lower level decoding and reading comprehension by asking the fourth graders questions while they are reading with them.
The High School students will then present their products and lesson in an SLC, which is a student led conference. The SLC presentation is delivered to parents, peers, Middle School students that are assisting and members of the community and is considered their final assessment. During the SLC the High School students will be given feedback from all of the people present at the conference. They will be given an opportunity to further tweak their products, and tune their lesson before actually giving the lesson to the fourth graders. At this point, if the High Schoolers would like to delegate any smaller tasks to the Middle School, they will be able to do so. The High Schoolers may also have some time to “dry-run” their lessons with the seventh graders before offering it to the fourth graders again.
So the audience for this action plan will be the students and faculty of High Tech High, fourth graders at High Tech Elementary, and members of the community at large. My focus, is on my students, and their ability to help the fourth grade students with basic decoding and reading comprehension skills by reading with them and asking them questions, and effectively assist the high schoolers in preparing products and teaching their content to a diverse group of students, which includes EL, SpEd, High Achievers, and the general population students in the fourth grade. While the products created, and the lesson designed will be used for many years to come to assist fourth grade teachers in teaching a science lesson based on watersheds, the seventh graders could spend a small portion of their year helping both the High School and Elementary school by assisting the fourth grade with reading skills and the High Schoolers with preparing their products and lessons, if need be, in the coming years.
Is my action Doable?
As long as times and schedules can be synchronized between the High School, the seventh grade students, and elementary school, I don’t think there should be many obstacles to succeeding in this.
What are some challenges I foresee with implementing my plan?
The biggest challenge I foresee may be getting the seventh graders to work with both high school and elementary. Since the Middle School is its own community it might be difficult for some of them to step outside and willingly work with other groups. Since many of them have already experienced the elementary, i don’t think they will have much of an issue adjusting to reading with the fourth graders, but it might be a bit more challenging working with the High School students. However, the entire High Tech campus is fully inclusive, and so the students must understand how to help all sorts of students to know how to effectively and efficiently read and comprehend what they are reading, including english learners. Also, working with others in other grades also builds the soft skills of being collaborative workers.
What are some of the potential rewards?
The most obvious, is that the number of English Learners that will eventually enroll in High Tech Middle and subsequently High Tech High will be lessened. The EL students at the elementary school will be able to learn more content based material in their primary language while also learning how to read better in their second language which will help to serve them as they progress through the grades. This will keep the EL students from falling behind in their science content, better understand content disseminated in English, and hopefully help to bridge the achievement gap.
Write action plan: My students will mainly be offering support for the High Tech High school group creating bilingual lessons on watersheds for the fourth graders that feeds into both High Tech Middle and High Tech High. While the High Schoolers will be creating their lessons, my seventh graders will be partially helping the fourth graders with reading. There will be time set aside on certain days for the fourth graders and the seventh grade students to meet in groups. Each seventh grader will have 1-3 fourth grade students, depending on how many there are that will be participating. They will help them read fourth grade level literature (or whatever is recommended for the CELDT level of the EL student). While the seventh graders will read, the fourth graders will also be reading as well. A list of questions will be given to the seventh graders to ask the fourth graders after they finish a section to check for comprehension of the reading, and they will help to guide the fourth graders to the answers if they need it. They will also help in teaching fourth graders about basic decoding (understanding a word that they don’t understand by using the context of the passage). This will be very basic, but will help set the stage for decoding larger and more complicated words later in schooling (the seventh graders have already been given lessons on context clues, so this offers them the opportunity to teach what they were taught). After each reading session, the class will have a period of reflection where we share our successes and challenges to help make things better for the next time. If they need more training in context clues, for example, I can arrange for that lesson. Another facet to what the seventh graders will be doing is assisting the High School students in what they are doing. If they have something that needs doing, but they can delegate to the seventh grade to free up more time to do more pressing things with their lesson, the seventh graders will help in that capacity. If they just need a test audience for their lessons before giving them to the fourth graders, the seventh graders can help in that capacity as well. While the main purpose is to help the fourth graders be more grade ready as they feed into the Middle School, then High School, there is also a sense of community outside the specific school sites. All of these students are High Tech students and by crossing grade lines and cooperating with each other, it helps to also build a strong sense of community between the schools as well as even build relationships.
Reflect:
How does my Action Plan fulfill TPE 15?
TPE 15 deals with identifying and addressing an issue having to do with social justice and inequities. It outlines that where there are inequities, we as teachers must strive to ensure equal outcomes for diverse students. One inequity that needs to be addressed is that of English Language Learners (EL). While this issue is being somewhat addressed, the quality of the learning received by English Language Learners seems to be sorely lacking. Since the school site that we are at has feeder schools on the same campus, the other Teacher Candidate and I have decided to try to address this issue so the the ELL issue will be less of an issue in future years. The quality of their education needs to be just as fulfilling as Native English speakers. While the other Teacher Candidate has his own focus on this issue, my students will be mainly concerned with helping the fourth grade ELL students to learn how to read better. In doing so, the seventh grade students will be helping the fourth graders with reading comprehension skills as well as learning general English writing. As I have taught my students about context clues, so they will teach the fourth graders how to decode certain words (though at a lesser level). By addressing the ELL issue early on it will do two things: first, it will alert the students to be more aware of inequities like this, and second, it will help them to realize that they can help and even build relationships with those they assist. By creating this sense of community, it helps diverse students realize that they do have others that will help them and want them to succeed. This will increase the likelihood of students being reclassified by the time that they reach High School (or maybe even Middle School). This will also lessen the Achievement Gap and put more students on more equal footing throughout their schooling and their lives. This Action Plan will provide high quality content to a more diverse group, lessening the achievement gap and empowering more students.
There are many EL students in lower grades that feed into our grades (High Tech Elementary, to High Tech Middle, and into High Tech High). In order to reduce the number of EL students at the Middle and High School, we will work on bettering the students at the schools that feed into the Middle School and High School.
Think/reflect critically:
Who is my audience?
Our audience includes the greater community as a whole, as well as the High Tech community (all three schools on the campus site). The presentation of the products will occur multiple times. There will be a preliminary presentation to the fourth graders, during school hours, where the lesson that the High Tech High students have created will be “test driven” for the fourth graders. While the HTH students then have time to tweak their ideas and products in order to improve both their delivery of the lesson, as well as the products they have created, the 7th graders (High Tech Middle School students) will be assisting in any way they can. Originally, this will be taking some time to read with the fourth graders and helping them with lower level decoding and reading comprehension by asking the fourth graders questions while they are reading with them.
The High School students will then present their products and lesson in an SLC, which is a student led conference. The SLC presentation is delivered to parents, peers, Middle School students that are assisting and members of the community and is considered their final assessment. During the SLC the High School students will be given feedback from all of the people present at the conference. They will be given an opportunity to further tweak their products, and tune their lesson before actually giving the lesson to the fourth graders. At this point, if the High Schoolers would like to delegate any smaller tasks to the Middle School, they will be able to do so. The High Schoolers may also have some time to “dry-run” their lessons with the seventh graders before offering it to the fourth graders again.
So the audience for this action plan will be the students and faculty of High Tech High, fourth graders at High Tech Elementary, and members of the community at large. My focus, is on my students, and their ability to help the fourth grade students with basic decoding and reading comprehension skills by reading with them and asking them questions, and effectively assist the high schoolers in preparing products and teaching their content to a diverse group of students, which includes EL, SpEd, High Achievers, and the general population students in the fourth grade. While the products created, and the lesson designed will be used for many years to come to assist fourth grade teachers in teaching a science lesson based on watersheds, the seventh graders could spend a small portion of their year helping both the High School and Elementary school by assisting the fourth grade with reading skills and the High Schoolers with preparing their products and lessons, if need be, in the coming years.
Is my action Doable?
As long as times and schedules can be synchronized between the High School, the seventh grade students, and elementary school, I don’t think there should be many obstacles to succeeding in this.
What are some challenges I foresee with implementing my plan?
The biggest challenge I foresee may be getting the seventh graders to work with both high school and elementary. Since the Middle School is its own community it might be difficult for some of them to step outside and willingly work with other groups. Since many of them have already experienced the elementary, i don’t think they will have much of an issue adjusting to reading with the fourth graders, but it might be a bit more challenging working with the High School students. However, the entire High Tech campus is fully inclusive, and so the students must understand how to help all sorts of students to know how to effectively and efficiently read and comprehend what they are reading, including english learners. Also, working with others in other grades also builds the soft skills of being collaborative workers.
What are some of the potential rewards?
The most obvious, is that the number of English Learners that will eventually enroll in High Tech Middle and subsequently High Tech High will be lessened. The EL students at the elementary school will be able to learn more content based material in their primary language while also learning how to read better in their second language which will help to serve them as they progress through the grades. This will keep the EL students from falling behind in their science content, better understand content disseminated in English, and hopefully help to bridge the achievement gap.
Write action plan: My students will mainly be offering support for the High Tech High school group creating bilingual lessons on watersheds for the fourth graders that feeds into both High Tech Middle and High Tech High. While the High Schoolers will be creating their lessons, my seventh graders will be partially helping the fourth graders with reading. There will be time set aside on certain days for the fourth graders and the seventh grade students to meet in groups. Each seventh grader will have 1-3 fourth grade students, depending on how many there are that will be participating. They will help them read fourth grade level literature (or whatever is recommended for the CELDT level of the EL student). While the seventh graders will read, the fourth graders will also be reading as well. A list of questions will be given to the seventh graders to ask the fourth graders after they finish a section to check for comprehension of the reading, and they will help to guide the fourth graders to the answers if they need it. They will also help in teaching fourth graders about basic decoding (understanding a word that they don’t understand by using the context of the passage). This will be very basic, but will help set the stage for decoding larger and more complicated words later in schooling (the seventh graders have already been given lessons on context clues, so this offers them the opportunity to teach what they were taught). After each reading session, the class will have a period of reflection where we share our successes and challenges to help make things better for the next time. If they need more training in context clues, for example, I can arrange for that lesson. Another facet to what the seventh graders will be doing is assisting the High School students in what they are doing. If they have something that needs doing, but they can delegate to the seventh grade to free up more time to do more pressing things with their lesson, the seventh graders will help in that capacity. If they just need a test audience for their lessons before giving them to the fourth graders, the seventh graders can help in that capacity as well. While the main purpose is to help the fourth graders be more grade ready as they feed into the Middle School, then High School, there is also a sense of community outside the specific school sites. All of these students are High Tech students and by crossing grade lines and cooperating with each other, it helps to also build a strong sense of community between the schools as well as even build relationships.
Reflect:
How does my Action Plan fulfill TPE 15?
TPE 15 deals with identifying and addressing an issue having to do with social justice and inequities. It outlines that where there are inequities, we as teachers must strive to ensure equal outcomes for diverse students. One inequity that needs to be addressed is that of English Language Learners (EL). While this issue is being somewhat addressed, the quality of the learning received by English Language Learners seems to be sorely lacking. Since the school site that we are at has feeder schools on the same campus, the other Teacher Candidate and I have decided to try to address this issue so the the ELL issue will be less of an issue in future years. The quality of their education needs to be just as fulfilling as Native English speakers. While the other Teacher Candidate has his own focus on this issue, my students will be mainly concerned with helping the fourth grade ELL students to learn how to read better. In doing so, the seventh grade students will be helping the fourth graders with reading comprehension skills as well as learning general English writing. As I have taught my students about context clues, so they will teach the fourth graders how to decode certain words (though at a lesser level). By addressing the ELL issue early on it will do two things: first, it will alert the students to be more aware of inequities like this, and second, it will help them to realize that they can help and even build relationships with those they assist. By creating this sense of community, it helps diverse students realize that they do have others that will help them and want them to succeed. This will increase the likelihood of students being reclassified by the time that they reach High School (or maybe even Middle School). This will also lessen the Achievement Gap and put more students on more equal footing throughout their schooling and their lives. This Action Plan will provide high quality content to a more diverse group, lessening the achievement gap and empowering more students.