Welcome! We will be moving around a bunch today. I recommend, therefore, that you put your bags and unneeded items somewhere out of the way (on the side ledge, in a corner), and just keep w/you what you need to participate in class today (notebook, readings, pen). Please sit with the other students who read the same GROUP B (Holt, Stern, Canada) reading as you did.

AGENDA Discuss readings in small and whole groups – Group B small group discussions: insight + question – Group A small group discussions: insight + question – Whole group discussion BREAK “Rubber meets the road”: Application – Student case study – Lesson plan design

Framing Questions: What is the “hidden curriculum” and how does it function in schools, classrooms, and even individual teacher- student interactions? How do students’ experiences outside the school—at home, on the street, in their communities, watching TV and using other media—influence their lives and learning in school? How can teachers effectively make use of students’ extracurricular knowledge and experience, turning them into positive classroom resources? To share at end of discussion: 1 insight + 1 question

Insights: Standardized tests are set up to favor a certain kind of cultural capital and penalize others. Standardized testing success/failure may be a measure of dominant vs. non-dominant cultural capital. Possible response: Validate students’ cultures; teach students code-switching; expose students to dominant culture. (Stern) It’s important to be aware of how fear of failure can function in the classroom both positively and negatively. (Holt) Questions: In what ways can we use diverse students’ experiences to validate their identities and promote important skills such as critical analysis? What type of teacher is most fit to teach in an urban environment? Are there essential skills and/or background experiences? If so, can these be learned/taught and how? What is the role of the school or district in providing these learning opportunities for teachers? How can we set up our class so that students aren’t crippled by fear? More broadly, how can we take students’ social and emotional state and development into account in designing lessons and class?

Switch! Group A: Atwell Freire Haberman Kohl Schultz Note: Group A discussion groups may also bring in Cushman and Levinson readings

Framing Questions: What is the “hidden curriculum” and how does it function in schools, classrooms, and even individual teacher-student interactions? How do students’ experiences outside the school—at home, on the street, in their communities, watching TV and using other media—influence their lives and learning in school? How can teachers effectively make use of students’ extracurricular knowledge and experience, turning them into positive classroom resources? In what ways can we use diverse students’ experiences to validate their identities and promote important skills such as critical analysis? What type of teacher is most fit to teach in an urban environment? Are there essential skills and/or background experiences? If so, can these be learned/taught and how? What is the role of the school or district in providing these learning opportunities for teachers? How can we set up our class so that students aren’t crippled by fear? More broadly, how can we take students’ social and emotional state and development into account in designing lessons and class? To share at end of discussion: 1 insight + 1 question

Insights and Questions: Ts should take advantage of the messiness of middle school and take it as an opportunity: allow students to be social beings through workshop model How can we structure this messiness in a way that’s productive and holds students accountable? Relation of domination between Ts and Ss: Ts tell students what to think, Ss don’t have voice or power. Q: How can one have a dialogue-driven classroom while teaching/conforming to standards? If dialogue-driven teaching means teaching according to students’ backgrounds, how is this compatible w/preset content standards? Pedagogy of poverty as banking model vs. good pedagogy (inquiry-driven, active) By not including the communal action aspect of history, we take away power and efficacy from young people. Collective action  sense of community strength and personal efficacy w/in community. How can we teach collective action + individual agency? Insights and Questions: Students may want to maintain pedagogy of poverty because it gives them some measure of control and predictability and they can be more passive and less accountable. Q: What would draw students to a model of good teaching that demands active engagement and accountability? How can we convince students to abandon their commitment to the pedagogy of poverty? Q: How do we balance teaching what’s meaningful and relevant to students in urban neighborhoods with teaching “less relevant” content that students from dominant cultures and suburbs are learning? How do we manage/ judge this trade-off? Can one weave traditional content into “relevant” pedagogies and projects?

Learning Goals for Lesson Plan: WHII.22 Summarize the consequences of Soviet communism to (H, E) A. the establishment of a one-party dictatorship under Lenin B. the suffering in the Soviet Union caused by Stalin’s policies of collectivization of agriculture and breakneck industrialization C. the destruction of individual rights and the use of mass terror against the population D. the Soviet Union’s emergence as an industrial power

Closure: What is one take- away you have from today’s class?