Number 12 - Yale National Initiative - Yale University

On Common GroundStrengthening Teaching through School-University Partnership

YALE-NEW HAVEN TEACHERS INSTITUTE NUMBER 12, SPRING 2008

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1822-23

By Senator Joseph I. Liebermanr. President, today I am introducing legislation, alongwith my colleague from Connecticut, Mr. Dodd, thatwill strengthen the content and pedagogy knowledge of

our present K-12 teacher workforce and thus ultimately raise stu-dent achievement.

Our proposal would establish eight new Teachers ProfessionalDevelopment Institutes throughout the Nation each year over thenext five years based on the model which has been operating at YaleUniversity for over 30 years. Every Teachers Institute would consistof a partnership between an institution of higher education and thelocal public school system in which a significant proportion of thestudents come from low-income households. These Institutes willstrengthen the present teacher workforce by giving each participantan opportunity to gain more sophisticated content knowledge and achance to develop curriculum units with other colleagues that canbe directly applied in their classrooms. We know that teachers gain

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MBy Representatives Rosa L. DeLauro and Joe Courtney

lmost six years after enacting the No Child Left Behind Act,we have a lot more work to do to fix our failing K-12 edu-cation system. We have made some progress helping par-

ents, teachers, and policy makers identify which groups of studentsare learning and which groups continue to falter. But inflexible imple-mentation and insufficient resources have undermined our goals,while the law's one-size-fits-all approach fails to accurately measureprogress. Today, far too many teachers still do not have the supportthey need to do the best job they can educating our children. At thesame time, even as we know just how essential subject-matter knowl-edge is to teacher quality, very few of the nation's faculties of arts andsciences that specialize in the subjects that form the core curriculumof public schools are involved in preparing K-12 teachers.

We have introduced the "Teachers Professional DevelopmentInstitutes Act," (H. R. 3209) to remedy this problem. Each year overthe next five years, the legislation would establish eight Teachers

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ATeachers Institutes for the Nation

By Thomas R. Whitakerhis number of On Common Groundcharts the further progress of theYale National Initiative in 2006 and

2007. Our double feature, "Institutes for theNation," contains the remarks of SenatorJoseph I. Lieberman as he and SenatorChristopher Dodd introduced to the UnitedStates Senate a Bill "to support the estab-lishment and operation of TeachersProfessional Development Institutes,"along with a statement by RepresentativesRosa L. DeLauro and Joe Courtneydescribing the House Bill they have intro-duced for the same purpose. Bills S. 2212and H.R. 3209 would authorize $30 millionover five years to help establish as many asforty new Institutes. Most immediately, thisfunding would assist in establishingInstitutes in the communities now explor-ing or planning for that possibility:Charlotte, NC; New Castle County, DE;Richmond, VA; Santa Fe, NM; Atlanta,GA; Chicago, IL; and San Francisco, CA.

On our cover, to complement "TeachersInstitutes for the Nation" and also to point,like our other images, toward the impor-tance of a broadly educated citizenry, wehave placed a depiction of the House ofRepresentatives by the nineteenth-centurypainter Samuel F. B. Morse. Many of usmay already know this painter of historicalscenes as the creator of a single-wire tele-graph system and co-inventor of the Morsecode. When he was a student at YaleCollege, earning money by his painting, hehad attended a range of classes that includ-ed religious philosophy as well as mathe-matics, electricity, and the science of hors-es. (Many years later a new residential col-lege at Yale would be named after that stu-dent.) This painting obviously testifies tohis meticulous observation of architecturaldetails. But as the French critic Jean-Philippe Antoine has said, it also presentscommunication as the crucial human activ-ity. The night-scene, with its conversationalgroups, dramatizes the dedication ofCongress to the principles of democracy.The two sources of illumination — the mail

clerks' lamplight in the foreground and thenew Argand chandelier being lit by thedoorkeeper high in the background — sug-gest both democratic industry and techno-logical progress. No grand oratory here, butpeople going about the daily workings ofgovernment.

We follow "Teachers Institutes for theNation" with a piece by Richard Ekman,President of the Council of IndependentColleges. In "Small Colleges as Partnerswith School Systems," he notes that some600 small institutions now graduate 20 per-cent of the new teachers in the nation. Insmall colleges, as he points out, "the insti-tutional ethos already emphasizes teachingeffectiveness and the most popular pedago-gies include direct collaboration betweenstudents and faculty members on researchprojects." It is very likely, he says, "thatnew teachers who graduate from theseinstitutions will have experienced first-hand the results in the classroom of excel-lent role models — faculty members whoare actively engaged in teaching and whoview it as the most important of theirresponsibilities." Why then should suchfaculty members not be more activelyrecruited to lead seminars in new TeachersInstitutes? Partnerships between small col-leges and school systems may be oneimportant way of expanding the League ofTeachers Institutes across the nation.

Teachers, school district personnel, anduniversity faculty members from the com-munities that are already exploring or plan-ning for an Institute, along with othersfrom the Institutes in Pittsburgh, Houston,Philadelphia, and New Haven, gathered atYale this October for the third AnnualConference of the Yale National Initiative.The Conference included a panel ofFellows from the National Seminars of2007, roundtable discussions on theTeachers Institute Approach, reports onexploring or planning a new TeachersInstitute, a session on planning nationalseminars for 2008, and roundtable discus-sions on planning or strengthening aTeachers Institute. It also included smaller

meetings involving City Representatives,the National Steering Committee, theNational University Advisory Council, andthe League Institute Directors. Though wecan't bring our readers a full report on thestimulating conversations elicited by thesemeetings, we do include in our centerfold"Voices from the October Conference," asampling of comments made about theNational Initiative and the distinctive kindof professional development it promotes inrelation to important educational needstoday.

After Richard Ekman's piece, we alsoinclude two sketches of current planning fornew Institutes. Steven H. Godowsky,Superintendent of the New Castle CountyVocational-Technical School District, pro-vides in "Creating a Delaware Institute" astep-by-step account of the process that,from 2004 to the present, has been directedtoward establishing a Teachers Institute thatwould exist not only in his own district butin others as well, and so would "becomeembedded in our Delaware system of pro-fessional development." Leslie Carpenter,Superintendent of the Santa Fe PublicSchool District, then gives us in "Planningfor a Teachers Institute in Santa Fe" a simi-larly detailed account of the process that,from 2005 to the present, has now led to aDeclaration of Intent to Submit a PlanningProposal for the Santa Fe Teachers Institute.We include with her piece one of GeorgiaO'Keeffe's striking abstractions, In thePatio II, which evokes the Santa Fe milieuin a way that leaves our imaginations free toposit a range of unspecified details.

We then turn to a broad sampling of thework done during the last two years byFellows in the national seminars — and intheir classrooms. First of all, we give exam-ples of national seminars and curriculumunits from 2007. In "Leading the Seminaron Renewable Energy," Professor Gary W.Brudvig suggests how that seminar couldmeet a variety of classroom needs. Weinclude with his piece Grant Wood's StoneCity, Iowa, one of his striking Iowa


2 ON COMMON GROUND

On Common Ground: Legislating, Planning, and Teaching

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SPRING 2008 3

Contents

Credits: Front Cover: Samuel F. B. Morse. The House of Representatives. 1822-1823. Oil on canvas, 86 ½" x 130 ¾". Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC MuseumPurchase, Gallery Fund. Page 7: Georgia O'Keeffe. In the Patio, II. 1948. Oil on linen, 17 ¾" x 29 ¾". Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Bequest of Helen Miller Jones,1986. Page 8: Grant Wood. Stone City, Iowa. 1930. Oil on wood panel. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Art Institute of Omaha, 1930 (JAM1930.35.) Page 10:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890.) Pollard Willows and Setting Sun. 1888. Rijksmuseum Kroeller-Mueller, Otterlo, The Netherlands. Photo Credit: Art Resource, NY. Page 12:Lawrence Weiner. Give & Get and Have & Take, The Wrong Gallery Installation. 2005. Edition of 1000 sets of two. Brass stencils. 6 ½" x 2" and 7 " x 2". Page 14: EadweardMuybridge. Jumping, Animal Locomotion. 1887. Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Page 18: Edward Gonzales. Songs For Our Children.2002. EdwardGonzales.com. Page 19: Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California. 1972-76. Photo: Wolfgang Volz. © Christo 1976.Page 20: Jacob Lawrence. Students with Books. 1966. Egg tempera on hardboard, 23 7/8 x 35 7/8". © 2008 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / ArtistsRights Society (ARS) New York. Page 22: Yolanda Lopez. Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe. 1978. Oil pastel on paper, 28" x 32". Collection of the artist. Page 23:Jose de Ribera y Agromanis. [image of the oath of the Virgin of Guadalupe as patron saint of Mexico City]. 1778. Museo de la Basilica de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico. Courtesyof the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Page 25: Isaiah West Taber. Chinese Vegetable Peddler in San Francisco, Cal. Year unknown. Black and whitephotograph. California Historical Society, FN-08620. Page 26: Alfredo Chavero. Lienzo de Tlaxcala. 1892. (Mexico City.) Courtesy of Mary Miller. Page 29: Thomas Eakins. FrankHamilton Cushing. 1895. Oil on canvas 90" x 60". Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma (0126.2315). Back Cover: Currier and Ives publishers. The Capitol in Washington. Yearunknown. Colored print. Photo credit: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, New York.

1 Teachers Institutes for the NationJoseph I. LiebermanRosa L. DeLauro and Joe Courtney

2 Editorial: Legislating, Planning, and TeachingThomas R. Whitaker

5 Small Colleges as Partners with School SystemsRichard Ekman

Planning for New Teachers Institutes6 Creating a Delaware Teachers Institute

Steven H. Godowsky7 Planning for a Teachers Institute in Santa Fe

Leslie Carpenter

Some National Seminars and CurriculumUnits in 2007"Renewable Energy"

8 Leading the Seminar on Renewable EnergyGary W. Brudvig

9 When They Wonder . . .Cherisse Campbell

10 The Power of the SunKatya Danielle Gothie

"Keeping the Meaning in Mathematics: The Craftof Word Problems"

12 Leading the Seminar on the Craft of WordProblemsRoger E. Howe

13 Exploring Word Problems with Singapore BarModelsValerie Schwarz

14 Quadratic Equations in Word Problems StudentsCan Relate ToNancy Rudolph

16 Voices from the Annual Conference

"Latino Cultures and Communities"18 Leading the Seminar on Latino Cultures and

CommunitiesStephen J. Pitti

19 Examining Mexican Immigration through First-Person Points of ViewNicole Marie Schubert

20 Teaching an African American Class aboutLatin American CultureSamuel A. Reed, III

22 Reading Images in Historical ContextSara E. Thomas

Some Curriculum Units from the NationalSeminars of 2006From "Stories around the World in Film," led byDudley Andrew24 Learning to Read Foreign Films

Laura Viviana ZoladzFrom "The Supreme Court in American Political

History," led by Robert A. Burt25 Entering the Chinese-American Experience

Deborah SamuelFrom "Children's Literature, Infancy to Early

Adolescence," led by Paul H. Fry26 Building Cultural Bridges through Literature

Nancy Ann WasserFrom "Native America: Understanding the Past

through Things," led by Mary E. Miller28 Things, Foods, and How We Know

Jennifer B. Esty29 Native American Traditions and Identity in the

Art RoomCristian Antony Koshock

1/8

(continued from page 2)landscapes with boldly geometrized formsand stylized contours. Though Wood's ideal-ized regionalism may have gone out of fash-ion since the early 'thirties, this image ofhuman community amid bountiful farm-lands suggests the continuing availability ofnature's own processes of renewable energy.Cherisse Campbell of New Castle County,in "When They Wonder . . .," then showshow her curriculum unit is arousing freshinterest in the high school subject of chem-istry as it leads toward a study of biodieselfuel. And Danielle Gothie of Santa Fe, in"The Power of the Sun," shows how her cur-riculum unit is engaging elementary stu-dents in the study of solar energy and itspossible uses. With her piece, which empha-sizes the worldwide presenceof that energy, we include thesun-drenched and burgeoningMediterranean landscape ofVincent van Gogh's PollardWillows and Setting Sun.

Professor Roger Howe, in"Leading the Seminar on theCraft of Word Problems," then instructs usin the importance of that craft for the teach-ing of mathematics at any level. Weaccompany his piece with Give & Get andHave & Take, a wittily appropriate verbal-and-visual image by that provocative mas-ter of conceptual art, Lawrence Weiner.Appropriately enough, this image consistsof the stencils that Weiner has provided forthe actualization of the piece in any loca-tion. Indeed, Valerie Schwarz ofRichmond, in "Exploring Word Problemswith Singapore Bar Models," then pro-ceeds to show how visual strategies fromSingapore, where proficiency in mathe-matics greatly exceeds that in our ownschools, may be of use in our elementaryclasses in addition, subtraction, multiplica-tion, and division. And Nancy Rudolph ofNew Castle County, in "QuadraticEquations in Word Problems Students CanRelate To," shows how word problems onprojectile speed that are taken from the eas-ily visualized field of sports can be very

helpful in an algebra class. We accompanyher piece with Eadweard Muybridge'ssequence of "stop-motion" photographs,Jumping. Like Samuel Morse, Muybridgehad both artistic and scientific interests,and his photographic work is an importantantecedent of the motion picture.

Professor Stephen J. Pitti then provides anaccount of his experience in "Leading theSeminar on Latino Cultures andCommunities," stressing the importance ofthat topic at this moment in our national his-tory. With his piece we include Songs forour Children, one of the engaging imagesof school life painted by the New Mexicoartist Edward Gonzales. "I use my art,"Gonzales has said, "as a way to create a bet-ter world for ourselves and our children."

Nicole Schubert of Charlotte, in"Examining Mexican Immigration throughFirst-Person Points of View," then describesseveral ways in which students can bebrought toward an intimate understandingof the process of immigration. With herpiece, as a transparently ironic commentary,we include a photograph of Running Fenceby Christo and Jeanne-Claude. This envi-ronmental work of art, a veiled fence madefrom steel posts and steel cables, runningthrough the California landscape and lead-ing into the sea, was planned in 1973,when, after 17 stateless years, Christobecame a United States citizen. The fencewas completed, after many legal andbureaucratic difficulties, in 1976.

Samuel A. Reed, III, of Philadelphia, in"Teaching an African American Class aboutLatin American Culture," then focuses onsome ways of increasing cultural under-standing within a city in the midst ofdemographic transition. We illustrate hispiece with one of Jacob Lawrence's brilliant

evocations of the educational process,Students with Books — a painting that mayin fact depict the library in the 135th StreetYMCA in New York City that is nowknown as the Schomburg Center forResearch in Black Culture. We concludethis section with a piece by Sara E. Thomasof New Haven, "Reading Images inHistorical Context," that describes a cur-riculum unit in art that is designed also toincrease reading skills as it explores aspectsof cultural history. Because her unit focuseson the challenge provided by artists who"appropriate" or revise a historical image— in effect providing viewers with a dou-ble context for the work — we have hereincluded two pertinent images: the bold andcontroversial Portrait of the Artist as the

Virgin of Guadalupe (1978) bythe Chicano artist YolandaLopez, and the more tradition-al (but also multicultural)Virgen de Guadalupe (1778)by the Mexican artist Joséde Ribera y Argomanis.According to legend, of

course, the Virgin had given the "original"image miraculously in a blanket to theIndian Juan Diego at Tepeyac, near MexicoCity, in 1531. And a Nahuatl (or Aztec)account of this event from the 1560s assertsthat she had announced herself to JuanDiego as "the Mother of all nations that liveon this earth who would love me." It isunderstandable that the modern artist's per-sonal appropriation of this well-knownimage of the Divine Mother should in turnhave become an important image for manyChicanos — having been selected, forexample, for a poster to promote Chicanoscholarship.

Drawing upon selected national semi-nars of 2006, we then trace the furtherdevelopment in the classroom of a rangeof other curriculum units. In "Learning toRead Foreign Films," Laura V. Zoladzfrom New Castle County, who took part inthe seminar "Stories around the World inFilm," led by Dudley Andrew, describes her


4 ON COMMON GROUND

Whitaker: Legislating, Planning, and Teaching

These bills would authorize $30 million tohelp establish up to forty new Institutes.

By Richard Ekmanfter three decades, the keyassumptions that undergird theYale-New Haven Teachers

Institute have been amply validated byexperience. It's now clear that cooperationbetween an institution of higher educationand the schools in its region will lead to ben-efits for both, and the cooperation is likely tobe especially fruitful if it is based on ashared interest in the content of what istaught to students. Indeed, we've learnedthat cooperation that is carried out at a deep-er level than the formal protocols signed bysenior administrators is most likely to havelong-term results, especially cooperationbetween school teachers and college profes-sors. Moreover, the benefits do not flow inonly one direction: the Yale-New HavenTeachers Institute has been able simultane-ously to enhance the effectiveness of teach-ers and to increase students' learning.

The original Institute in New Haven hasspawned offspring in a growing number ofcities. So far, the model has drawn upon theresources of at least one major university ineach city as it works with surroundingschool systems. But in only one Institute, inPittsburgh, have links between the publicschool system been made with a fine liberalarts college, Chatham, in addition to largeuniversities. The results there have beenencouraging.

To leave small colleges out of the equa-tion may be bypassing some importantopportunities. Of the 2,500 four-year col-leges and universities in the U.S., onlysome 600 small and mid-sized colleges anduniversities offer programs primarily forundergraduates that are based on a generaleducation curriculum in the liberal arts.Significantly, fully 80 percent of thesesmaller colleges and universities also oper-ate programs of teacher preparation. Theseare usually heavily subscribed and, alto-gether, graduate 20 percent of the newteachers in the nation. This is a remarkable— even disproportionate — role for these

institutions because they account for only12 percent of the country's undergraduatestudents. In addition, half of these institu-tions offer master's level programs of in-service training for teachers, typically on apart-time basis. In other words, these 600small colleges play a significant role inmeeting the national demand for more andbetter prepared teachers.

The salient features of the Yale-NewHaven Teachers Institute could be incorpo-rated into partnerships between small col-leges and nearby school systems. Often insmall colleges, the institutional ethosalready emphasizes teaching effectivenessand the most popular pedagogies includedirect collaboration between students andfaculty members on research projects. It ishighly likely, therefore, that new teacherswho graduate from these institutions willhave experienced first-hand the results inthe classroom of excellent role models —faculty members who are actively engagedin teaching and who view it as the mostimportant of their responsibilities. Smallcolleges also do well in comparison withother types of colleges and universities infacilitating students' participation in cam-pus activities. As these college studentsbecome teachers, their own students arelikely to emulate those who taught them intheir own classrooms. At the same time, thein-service programs offered by smallerinstitutions span the possibilities fromcourses on teaching methods and manage-ment, to courses in the disciplines of thearts and sciences that deepen teachers'knowledge of their fields and help them toteach those subjects more effectively.

Despite their small size, small collegescould play a very large role in a nationaleffort to expand the use of the Yale-NewHaven model. An important point is that,contrary to the stereotypes, small collegesare located in a wide variety of settings.About one-third are in rural areas; aboutone-third are in metropolitan areas; andone-third are in mid-sized towns. Exceptfor the urban institutions, often the smallcollege is both the major employer and the

main (or even only) source of educationaland cultural enrichment for the community.Relations between the local school systemand the college are, given these circum-stances, necessarily robust and mutuallysupportive. Small scale can make possiblemore flexible and responsive programs thanwould be feasible in larger, more bureau-cratic settings.

A key to these differences in institutionalethos may lie in the ways in which theteacher preparation programs are accredit-ed. Although there is no requirement inmost states that colleges and universities domore than obtain approval from the stategovernment to offer any degree program,increasingly national accreditation isrequired — indeed, it is sought after. Thereare two national accreditors of teacherpreparation programs. The NationalCouncil for the Accreditation of TeacherEducation, which has been in business for avery long time, and the newer TeacherEducation Accreditation Council, whichbegan operations less than a decade ago.While both accreditors will gladly reviewboth large and small institutions, TEAC'sappeal has been particularly strong amongsmall colleges. TEAC's standards minimizethe emphasis on "input" measures (such asthe number of courses offered in a particu-lar subfield) and instead emphasize demon-strable results. Candidate programs must beable to show that the college students whoare being prepared to teach are in fact goodclassroom teachers by the time they gradu-ate. Moreover, when TEAC does measure"inputs," it looks more often at indicators ofmastery of subject-matter by new teachersthan at procedural or methodological fac-tors. TEAC is increasingly of interest tolarge universities, as well as small colleges.The country is well on the way to a dynam-ic balance in which the two leading accred-itors in this field compete and, in effect,keep each other responsive to the needs ofcolleges and universities.

In sum, the circumstances are now highlyfavorable for new efforts to extend the


SPRING 2008 5

Small Colleges as Partners with School Systems

Richard Ekman is President of the Council ofIndependent Colleges.

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By Steven H. Godowskyne of our District teachers learnedearly in 2004 about the YaleNational Initiative through her

involvement in the Rodel Foundation, aprivate non-profit dedicated to significant-ly improving the education of Delawarestudents. Shortly thereafter in the Spring of2004, that teacher, Cary BrandenbergerRiches, and Ray Theilacker, her colleagueat the Howard High School of Technology,were invited to participate in the IntensiveSession of the Yale National Initiative, inPaul Fry's poetry seminar. Both teacherscame away from the experience enthusias-tic, but more importantly, they wereempowered by their expanded contentknowledge and teaching pedagogy. I wasstruck by their level of excitement and thehigh value they placed on their Yale expe-rience. In the year following the seminar,both teachers had their work published onYale's website, and also successfully taughttheir units, which were carefully aligned toDistrict and State curriculum standards. Itwas impressive work.

As superintendent of the New CastleCounty Vocational-Technical SchoolDistrict, I caught their excitement andknew early on that supporting the YaleNational Initiative would result in impor-tant new learning for our participatingteachers, and also could lead to quality pro-fessional development for potentiallymany more. Expanding that opportunityfor other teachers became a priority. In thefall of 2004, Cary and Ray initiated aDistrict conversation on the viability of aDelaware Institute modeled after theirexperience at Yale. These conversationsquickly extended to other New CastleCounty School District leaders. Jim Vivian,Yale director, was most helpful guiding usin this conversation, as he was readilyavailable to respond to our inquiries; infact, he came to Wilmington for our initialdiscussion with the University of Delaware

leaders and has graciously returned since tofurther our work. Ray Theilacker becameour City Representative in 2006 andassumed responsibility for collaboratingdirectly with our Fellows, serving as aschool leader, and advocating for aDelaware Institute. Those early conversa-tions centered on what a Delaware Institutemight offer the teachers and students in ourpublic schools, and how it could serve apopulation beyond the limits of one city,unlike Institutes elsewhere. At that point, itseemed wise as a first step to focus on NewCastle County school districts, with theunderstanding that the ultimate goal is forall 19 of Delaware's school districts to par-ticipate in a statewide initiative. NewCastle County, Delaware, has six schooldistricts, serving approximately 60% of thestate's students.

I approached Dennis Loftus, executivedirector of the University of Delaware'sAcademy of School Leaders (DASL), whoquickly understood the possibilities of anInstitute, and was helpful in arranging for ameeting with University of DelawareProvost Dan Rich and other university offi-cials. Several informal meetings were heldto discuss the Delaware Institute and themechanics necessary to move forward.Additionally, the Yale model was presentedat a Delaware Chief School OfficersAssociation meeting. Shortly thereafter,four of the six New Castle County superin-tendents were able to commit to the plan-ning process, and to support collaborativeefforts to build a partnership with theUniversity of Delaware. This became ourfirst cohort group; together we would senda strong message to the University in oureffort to gain their commitment for aDelaware Institute.

Two additional planning meetings wereheld and progress was made. While obsta-cles were recognized, it was made clear tous that the provost was receptive and felt aDelaware Institute was consistent with theUniversity's long-term plans to createregional teacher professional developmentcenters. The need for quality professional

development had become a high priorityfor the University. Building upon the suc-cess of the Yale National Initiative repre-sents a potentially important component ofthe University's regional center concept.Other important activities were simultane-ously taking place, including on-going dis-cussions with our school district Fellowsabout what a Delaware Institute wouldlook like, and what roles and responsibili-ties they would assume with that goal inmind. We have also identified representa-tives in each of the other three interestedschool districts who serve as part of ourcounty-wide planning committee and asliaisons for their district. This past year,four new Fellows were chosen for our teamof ten to participate in the 2007 summernational seminars. The teachers' excite-ment was redoubled through this furtherinvolvement. We are determined at thispoint to make a concerted effort to bringthe Institute model to more New CastleCounty teachers.

The success of the Yale New Haven part-nership serves as evidence that such a planlocally would benefit our teachers and stu-dents. The Yale model brings two con-stituencies together in a unique partnershipfocused on content expertise and effectivedelivery of instruction. The unique colle-gial structure of institute seminars willstrengthen the academic bonds between theUniversity and school teaching faculties —a union that directly benefits instruction inour schools.

Recently, a plan initiated through ourstate's business roundtable has beenlaunched, called Vision 2015. The plan,although ambitious, was thoroughly devel-oped over an 18-month period to build asustained statewide partnership among allconstituent groups in order to elevate theDelaware public school system to a world-class standard by the year 2015. It is ourhope that the Yale Teachers Institute modelwill become embedded in our Delawaresystem of professional development as oneof the key initiatives on the path to creatingthe best schools for our students.

6 ON COMMON GROUND

Creating a Delaware Teachers Institute

Steven H. Godowsky is Superintendent ofNew Castle County Vocational-TechnicalSchool District in Delaware.

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By Leslie Carpentery introduction to the YaleNational Initiative came byway of a meeting in October

2006 with a group of Institute Fellows,who I am proud to say are Santa Fe PublicSchool teachers. During this discussion,the room was abuzz with a rare enthusiasmand remarkable stimulation. The teachersspoke about pedagogical strategies, colle-gial exchange of ideas, articulation andinterdisciplinary teaching of curriculum,and also provided examples of their YaleInstitute experience in what had been aserious study in their respective fields. Oneof our 6th grade science teachers devel-oped a unit on clean energy — one generalunit on solar energy and the other related todeveloping a solar car. This is especiallyrelevant in New Mexico as we are one ofthe leading states in the development ofsolar resources. This real world, practicaleducation is already helping students con-nect their learning with the informationthey get from television, the media and theinternet. Further, all of the Fellows havereported that their renewed commitmentand enthusiasm has a contagious effect onparents, teachers and students alike. Theymade me believe that the work they per-formed with the Yale National Initiativecould be instrumental not only in helpingteachers gain critical knowledge regardingbest practices in the teaching discipline, butalso in giving SFPS a competitive advan-tage for attracting and retaining a superiorteaching staff. By the meeting's end, theexecutive team determined to delve deeperand thus subsequently began the "Process"for planning to provide a platform for aTeachers Institute to begin a new era forProfessional Development for the Santa FePublic School District.

Both our students and our staff will great-ly benefit from the addition of a TeachersInstitute. Our District is focused on teachingand learning and on preparing every child

with the skills they need to be successful —now and in the future. We are also focusedon improving climate and culture in ourDistrict for our valued employees.

In regards to our valued employees, SFPShas had difficulty in recruiting and retainingquality teachers. This is in part due to therelatively low wages that teachers com-mand in New Mexico. The average home inSanta Fe is approximately $400,000 whilestarting teacher's salaries are in the $30,000range (well below the median New Mexicoincome of $45,000). And in addition tofinancial dissatisfaction, teachers have longcomplained of inadequate professionaldevelopment opportunities in order to qual-ify for advancement through the State'sstringent licensure process.

New Mexico has an established 3-tieredlicensure system. To remain in the teachingprofession, Tier I teachers must move on toa Tier II license within 5 years. However,teachers can remain at Tier II or advance toTier III licensure after 3 years at Level II anda Master's Degree. The minimum salary is$30,000 for Level I — Provisional Teacher,Level III, Professional Teacher's minimumis $40,000 and Level II, Master Teacher is$50,000. Unfortunately, the SFPS Districtdoes not determine teacher's pay scales;however, we believe that a quality profes-

sional development like a Teachers Institutewill go a long way towards providing acompetitive advantage to move teachersthrough the licensure process (and payincreases) as quickly as possible.

Fellows from the Institute will also learninvaluable techniques and strategies forkeeping students and parents engaged inthe learning process. While these innova-tions will be beneficial district wide, theywill have a tremendous impact in specialneeds schools. To date, most of the alumniFellows have been from the District's southside Santa Fe schools where there are typi-cally student populations who have addedbarriers to learning (i.e., lower socioeco-nomic status and high populations of ESLlearners). It is the District's responsibilityto ensure that all students have an equalopportunity, regardless of external barriersto have access to quality teachers andreceive a superior education.

Santa Fe is a historic and diverse com-munity — rich in its cultural heritage andsignificance. The District is working tobuild a framework to strengthen teachingwithin this context, with an aim to prepareteachers to meet the challenges of today'schanging classroom. In this informationage, SFPS teachers need up-to-date,


SPRING 2008 7

Planning for a Teachers Institute in Santa Fe

Leslie Carpenter is Superintendent of theSanta Fe Public Schools in Santa Fe, NewMexico.

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GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, IN THE PATIO, II, 1948

By Gary W. Brudvigith concerns about the impactof our current use of fossilfuels on the environment and

our national energy security, renewableenergy is in the news on a daily basis. Manystudents have seen Al Gore's movie "AnInconvenient Truth" and know that heshared the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 withthe Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange. They may also be familiar withsome of the issues relating to energy use,but most do not know much about the sci-ence that underlies renewable processes forenergy production. The aim of this nationalseminar was to discuss the science relatedto current sources of energy (mostly non-renewable) and potential future sources ofrenewable energy.

We can learn much about sustainableenergy use by studying natural processes.Nature has solved the renewable energyproblem through the process of photosyn-thesis that is carried out by green plants.Plants are amazing chemical factories andprovide a working example of renewablesolar energy utilization. The conversion ofsolar energy into biomass by photosynthe-sis is the source of most of the energyavailable to life on Earth. This includes notonly the on-going production of high-ener-gy organic molecules by plants that sup-ports the food chain, but also the excessproduction of biomass over the Earth'sgeologic history that has been buried in theform of coal, oil and gas. Most of our cur-rent energy comes from burning these fos-sil fuels. However, energy from fossilfuels is non-renewable (at least not in ournon-geological timescale). We need todevelop renewable sources of energy inthe near future. Photosynthesis provides asuccessful example of how solar energycan be converted into fuel. By understand-ing how plants carry out the processes ofsolar energy utilization, we can obtain

some answers to the question of how wecan harvest solar energy by using process-es of artificial photosynthesis.

My own interest in science stems frommy hands-on experiences as a child.Therefore, many demonstrations wereincluded in this seminar — at least onedemonstration, and frequently two or three,in each seminar meeting. These demonstra-tions were chosen so that they couldengage the Fellows and at the same timeillustrate the scientific principles related torenewable energy. The book by DavidWalker entitled Energy, Plants and Manwas used as the primary text for the semi-nar, and a special issue of ScientificAmerican on "Energy's Future BeyondCarbon" (September 2006) served as asupplementary "text." The first week ofthe seminar focused on photosynthesis.The seminar began with a discussion ofhow plants use light to convert carbondioxide and water into sugar and oxygengas. This was followed by discussions onthe nature of light and the fundamental

steps by which light is absorbed by plantsand converted into chemical energy.Demonstrations of the colors in light byusing diffraction glasses and a spectropho-tometer aided these discussions. Plant pig-ments were discussed next, together withdemonstrations on light absorption/emis-sion by pigments extracted from plants andalgae, and on pigment separation by usingpaper chromatography. The process of car-bon fixation was discussed and was "pho-tographically" illustrated by making starchpictures on geranium leaves (although thisdemonstration was not as successful as Ihad hoped because of an insufficient car-bon dioxide supply for the leaves heldbetween glass plates). In the second weekof the seminar, we delved into variousforms of energy, including wind, geother-mal, solar and nuclear. Demonstrationsincluded solar water splitting using elec-tricity produced by a photovoltaic cell, fol-lowed by conversion of the generatedhydrogen and oxygen into electricity thatran a motor by using a fuel cell, and the

8 ON COMMON GROUND

Leading the Seminar on Renewable Energy

Gary W. Brudvig is Professor of Chemistry,Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry atYale University.

W

GRANT WOOD, STONE CITY, IOWA, 1930

operation of a Stirling heat engine. A high-light of the second week was our produc-tion of biodiesel fuel from cooking oil.Working with machinist David Johnsonand glassblower Daryl Smith from the YaleChemistry Department, who constructed atransparent glass apparatus, we observedthe steps in the process of making biodieselfuel, culminating with combustion of thefuel in an oil furnace burner that David setup. The seminar ended with a discussion ofenergy use in the future that includedprogress in development of systems forartificial photosynthesis.

This seminar provided me with an excel-lent opportunity to connect my ownresearch on photosynthesis to the sourcesof energy that currently power our planet,to sources of renewable energy for thefuture, and to the impact of our energy use.I tried to make science the focus, althoughthe discussions frequently involved currentevents and societal issues. I think that theFellows in this seminar gained a greaterunderstanding of the science related toenergy conversion processes, especially inphotosynthesis, and it was rewarding to mewhen they expressed their enthusiasm forthe seminar. At the end of the seminar, theFellows prepared an outstanding collectionof curriculum units that include a numberof excellent activities that will engage thestudents' interest and teach them aboutrenewable energy.

SPRING 2008 9

When They Wonder . . .

Ekman: Small Colleges(continued from page 5)Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute idea toliberal arts colleges. In so doing, the suc-cessful record of small colleges both inpreparing a significant number of newteachers and in deepening the knowledgeand effectiveness of experienced teacherswould be enhanced, and the opportunity forschool teachers in communities that are nothome also to a research university to have anInstitute-like experience will be expanded.

By Cherisse Campbell

Editor's Note: This unit, prepared in thenational seminar on "Renewable Energy"and being taught in the fall of 2007 at avo-tech high school, is entitled"Environmentalists and Chemists Unite: AChemistry Class for our Changing World."It addresses several standards-based cur-riculum components by relating them tothe need for alternative energy sources.The unit's four topics are: "AtomicInventory and Classification of Matter,""Nomenclature and Reactions," "GlobalWarming and Stoichiometry," and "TheEnergy Potential of Biodiesel." It alsoincludes four "Sample Activities" for thestudents to carry out — understanding thecarbon cycle, computing an automobile'sproduction of carbon dioxide, the preparingand testing of biodiesel, and a critical read-ing of an article on soybeans in Paraguay.

hemistry is beautiful, poetic, tragicand triumphant. This is how I seethe subject that I teach, and my

wish is for my students also to be able toexperience the multiple dimensions ofchemistry within the confines of our stan-dards based curriculum. When I was giventhe opportunity to write a unit based on thealternative energy seminar I was excited tobe presented with the time and resourcesnecessary for developing a series ofthoughtful and engaging lessons.

The unit I developed was based on tyingour existing curriculum to current environ-mental issues that would undoubtedly graspmy students' attention long enough for me toteach them some chemistry. For example,most chemistry classes begin with a discus-sion of the elements. Our class was not dif-ferent in content, but it was different inapproach. We brought the elements to life byfocusing our discussion on the elements thatare central in the air, earth and in life.

Although most science teachers take it forgranted, it is amazing to a student the firsttime that they realize that the "same" ironthat is in the earth is the same iron that isessential for their bodies. My students beganto ask "I wonder" questions such as "wheredid the salt in the ocean come from" or "whathappens if we get too much of this element,or not enough of that element." When theybegin to wonder, it is time to teach.

The students continued their investigationwith a reading taken from Primo Levi'sbook, The Periodic Table. In the selectedchapter, Levi traces an atom of carbonthrough the carbon cycle beginning as acomponent of limestone and chronicles itsjourney into the air in the form of carbondioxide, its entry into the living worldthrough the process of photosynthesis, con-tinuing through the body in the form of glu-cose, and ultimately its return to the Earthas a result of the inevitable demise of thehost. Some students struggled with thereading even though they were given pre-reading, during reading, and after readingexercises to support them through the text.However, many students got it. Boy, didthey get it! One student told me that "read-ing this piece changed the way [he] thinksabout carbon". He realized that without it,the world would not be the same and hewould not be alive. These sentiments wereechoed by several other students, and thissort of engagement was such a treat as ateacher (especially considering how muchthey grumbled while working their waythrough the reading). After reading Levi'spiece, the students were then asked to crafta short story of their own where they chron-icled the "life" of another element. The sto-ries were amazing and ranged from talesabout hydrogen's adventures starting at theBig Bang and beyond, to another story thattracked an atom of iron from the groundinto its use as a nail that was ultimatelyresponsible for the crucifixion of JesusChrist. In this young man's story, as the ironatom sat covered in blood, it wept because


C

Cherisse Campbell is a Science Teacher atHodgson Vocational-Technical High School inNew Castle County, Delaware.

By Katya Danielle Gothie

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit wasprepared in the 2007 national seminar ledby Gary Brudvig on "Renewable Energy,"and is being taught during the currentsemester to sixth-grade students in SantaFe. It is designed to incorporate hands-onactivities that will increase their awarenessof solar energy. Lessons deal with the sun'scomposition, its positioning in our solarsystem, its role as the Earth's closest star,the transformation of its energy into variousforms, the current state of the Earth's cli-mate, and the need for renewable energy.The unit may be adapted to other grade-lev-els and other regions of the country.

was very excited when I was accept-ed for this seminar on "RenewableEnergy," because during the 2006

Intensive Session of the Yale NationalInitiative I had attended the film AnInconvenient Truth with the seminar on"Global Warming." I regret that I did notlearn about ecology or environmentalissues until I was out of college, so I amhighly motivated to teach my studentsabout issues such as global warming andrenewable energy. As I was an environ-mental educator prior to becoming a class-room teacher, my personal interest and pro-fessional background in environmentalissues have always driven my science cur-riculum. Many of my science units focuson current environmental topics, which Iintegrate into the public school curriculumalong with the National Science Standards. While I expected that the emphasis of the"Renewable Energy" seminar would beexploring alternative fuels and energy, Iwas surprised to learn that ProfessorBrudvig's research entails studying thechemistry of photosynthesis. As a result ofthis emphasis, I was able to create a broadunit that would ultimately cover many ofthe required standards for my classroom,

by making the theme of my curriculum"The Sun."

With 300+ days of sunshine a year, it iseasy to see why a teacher living and work-ing in Santa Fe, New Mexico would want tofocus on solar energy. Santa Fe has an ele-vation of 7,000 ft (2,132 m), making it thehighest capitol in the United States. Thestate of New Mexico is ranked 5th in theUnited States for total land area, 121,665 sq.mi. (315,194 km2), providing tremendouspotential for generation of solar power.

I am a sixth grade teacher at Agua FriaElementary School in Santa Fe. The popula-tion of the school is close to 600 and hostspre-kindergarten to sixth grade students. Amajority of my students are Hispanic andare from the lower socio-economic tier. Theschool was built in 1936 and sits in a historicvillage on the west side of town. I teach allcore subjects to my students. To keep their

interest I provide science activities that arerelevant to their lives and provide themhands-on opportunities to investigate andexplore the world that surrounds them.

I began my curriculum unit on "ThePower of the Sun" three weeks into theschool year with an introduction to Earthand Space Science. I first assessed my stu-dents' knowledge of the Sun by askingthem to create a K-W-L chart. This is agraphic organizer that begins by findingout what the students "know", then whatthey "want" to learn, and finally what they"have learned" upon the completion of thelesson or unit. The students had variousresponses and most identified the Sun as astar. Many students were able to expandupon that definition and explain that a starwas made up of gas. When discussingobjects in our Solar System it is importantto make analogies that allow students to

10 ON COMMON GROUND

The Power of the Sun

I

Katya Danielle Gothie is a Sixth-gradeTeacher at Agua Fria Elementary School inSanta Fe, New Mexico.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, POLLARD WILLOWS AND SETTING SUN, 1888

visualize the magnitude of these objectsand the relative distance they are from theEarth. So we discussed the life cycle of theSun and identified it as an average star.Then I told them how big it is, 1.4 millionkilometers in diameter. Nothing registeredin their minds until I said that it would take110 Earths strung together to be as long asthe diameter of the Sun. Next, we went outon the playground and lined up side-by-side and began passing the globe down theline. We continued to pass it and fall backin line until we passed it 110 times and thenI said that what we had just done on amodel scale was to demonstrate the diame-ter of the Sun. Although this was not themost scientific method with which to illus-trate the model, the students were able tophysically experience the distance that theyhad passed the globe and therefore had amuch clearer sense of the diameter of theSun. Students like to be physicallyinvolved and when dealing with abstractmeasurements it is important that teacherstry to bring it to a concrete level.

Next we shifted our focus to the compo-sition of the sun. We drew diagrams ofboth the Sun and the Earth and comparedthe different layers of a star and our planet.Using dry erase markers on the board wecolor-coded the four layers of the Earth andsix layers of the Sun in order to illustratetheir different chemical compositions andto demonstrate that the Sun generates heatand light energy and the Earth absorbs andradiates heat and light.

This is only the beginning of our curricu-lum unit; our next focus will be on howheat and light energy affects living organ-isms on the planet. The culminating activ-ity for this unit will be to construct modelsolar cars, and the icing on the cake is thatseveral days into this unit I received a grantfrom Los Alamos National LaboratoryFoundation to fund materials for the con-struction of my students' model cars. Mystudents reacted with a lot of enthusiasmwhen I was awarded the grant from theLANL Foundation. They are excited to bea part of designing their future.

SPRING 2008 11

(continued from page 9)it would never be the same again. I did thesame. I did not weep because of the tragicfate of the iron atom, but for what I had wit-nessed. My student had grown, and as ateacher I had grown.

Working through the lessons found in theunit has not only improved the climate ofour classroom community, but has alsoincreased the level of collaboration withinthe science department at my school. Forexample, I have had the opportunity toshare parts of the unit with other teachers.As a part of our curriculum we teach mix-ture separation techniques. In my unit, Iaddress this topic through a discussion onthe various pigments responsible for thecolors in leaves and how solvents can beused to separate those pigments throughpaper chromatography. Another teacher inmy school performed this separation usingleaves that are found around our schoolcampus. He shared the resulting chro-matograms with me, and how pleased hisstudents had been with this experiment.

In the next few weeks, our class willbegin the global warming component of myunit. I began mentioning this part of the unitto my students early in the semester whenwe were learning about isotopes and therole of carbon-14 in determining the per-centage of atmospheric carbon dioxide thatcame from man-made sources. The discus-sion was very lively and the students arevery excited about the topic and I anticipatereactions similar to what I have experiencedin other parts of the unit.

Crafting and using this unit has allowedme to experience levels of student engage-ment that every teacher longs for. By tyingmy standards based curriculum to timelyenvironmental topics, I have been able toincrease achievement in my class asdemonstrated by higher test grades andimproved homework completion rates ver-sus last year. In addition, the unit serves asa catalyst for additional collaboration with-in my department. I look forward to refin-ing this unit and preparing more engaginglessons in the future.

(continued from page 4)experience in teaching films from Africa,China, Afghanistan, and Iran to students ina World Literature course. Though her cur-riculum unit focuses on the historical influ-ence of earlier art forms on contemporarycinema, her account here emphasizes theneed for students to learn to read the lan-guage of film — indeed, as a kind of visualand aural poetry. Then, in "Entering theChinese-American Experience," DeborahSamuel from Philadelphia, who took part inthe seminar on "The Supreme Court inAmerican Political History," led by RobertA. Burt, tells how she brought the difficulthistory of Chinese immigration into herEnglish class of mainly African Americanstudents in preparation for teaching Boneby Fae Myenne Ng and The Joy Luck Clubby Amy Tan. We illustrate her piece with animage of one of the practices of Chineseworkers — using poles to carry merchan-dise — against which the anti-immigrantordinances in California were directed.

Nancy Ann Wasser, a Fellow from SantaFe in the seminar on "Children's Literature,Infancy to Early Adolescence," led by PaulFry, then offers in "Building CulturalBridges through Literature" a detailed sum-mary of how she is leading her Mexican andHispanic students to understand and appre-ciate their rich literary and cultural heritage.We include with her piece an Aztec picto-graph like those studied in her class. Lienzode Tlaxcala focuses on Hernan Cortes andLa Malinche, his Mayan translator and mis-tress who became "Mother of a new race."In "Things, Foods, and How We Know,"Jennifer B. Esty, a Fellow from New Havenin the seminar on "Native America:Understanding the Past through Things," ledby Mary Miller, reflects appreciatively onthe process of that seminar and describes herown experience in leading a unit that pro-vides a scientific introduction to nutrition ina "wellness" class for teenagers.

Finally, Cristian Antony Koshock, aFellow from Richmond in the same seminar,describes in "Native American Traditions


Whitaker: Legislating,Planning, and Teaching

Campbell:When They Wonder

By Roger E. Howeymbolic notation is an importantsource of power for mathematics.This specialized writing system

compresses large amounts of informationinto compact, easily manipulated form. Forthe knowledgeable user, this notation is aversatile problem solving tool. However,from the educational point of view, thepower does not come for free: teachersmust work hard to help students keep thesymbolism invested with meaning. If a stu-dent cannot interpret and work with thesymbols in meaningful ways, his onlyoption is to try to manipulate them accord-ing to formal rules. Frequently the rulesbecome too complex to cope with, and thestudent completely loses touch with mathe-matics.

Word problems can help students stay intouch. Dealing with a word problem requirestranslating its verbal statements into symbol-ic ones, manipulating the symbols to solveequations, then translating back to answerthe question posed in the problem. Thisprocess requires students to assign meaningto symbols, thereby keeping students tied tomathematics. Thus, word problems shouldnot be thought of as a separate topic in thecurriculum. They have a central role to playin mathematics education. From this point ofview, the avoidance of word problems socommon in our math instruction is a primesymptom of the deficits of mathematics edu-cation in the U.S.

The seminar on The Art and Craft of WordProblems was devoted to remedying thisdeficit, at least in the classrooms of theseminar Fellows. Each Fellow wrote a cur-riculum unit centered around word prob-lems. Word problems are not simply aprominent feature in these units, they aredealt with in a systematic way intended togive students an overall understanding ofhow to approach word problems in the rel-evant subject area. More broadly, the goal isto instill a habit of careful reading and inter-pretation.

George Polya, in his often-cited writingson problem solving, listed four key stepsfor dealing with any problem:

1. Understand the problem.2. Make a plan.3. Carry out the plan.4. Look back.

Of these steps, the first is by far the mostimportant. Students who learn to readmathematics words problems and interpretthem carefully develop skills that will helpthem in all mathematics courses, and farbeyond mathematics.

The most frequently proffered advice forunderstanding word problems is to learnthe vocabulary. Each mathematical opera-tion has a variety of words or phraseswhich invoke it; addition is suggested by"in all," "all together," "sum," "more than,""added to" and so forth. The sound advice

to know the words involved in problemstatements is unfortunately often taken toextremes, resulting in the "key word"approach: decide what operation to per-form by identifying a word associated toone of the operations. However, thisapproach has serious shortcomings. It iseasy to write word problems with a phrasesuch as "more than," or "the sum of," butwhich require subtraction for their solu-tion. There is no substitute for careful read-ing and understanding. Particularly withmultistep problems, ability to read andunderstand and translate into mathematicsis essential, since the proliferation of possi-ble problem types easily outstrips efforts atclassification. Unfortunately, the nationalaversion to word problems severely cur-tails the extent and variety of multistepproblems our students see, thereby limiting

12 ON COMMON GROUND

Leading the Seminar on the Craft of WordProblems

Roger E. Howe is Professor of Mathematics atYale University.

S

LAWRENCE WEINER, GIVE & GET AND HAVE & TAKE, 2005

their experience and ability in applyingmathematics.

The units prepared for this seminar promoteunderstanding word problems, not only oneby one, but through comparison. Becausethey will see and compare a variety of prob-lems, students will get a feel for the kinds ofissues that can arise, and for some possibleresponses. The phrase used in the seminar forthis comparative study was "exploring theproblem territory." As students work on theproblems assembled for these units, theyshould also gain some familiarity with theproblem territory, and, hopefully, will feelsomewhat more at home in it.

The grade levels taught by seminarFellows ranged from primary to highschool. Accordingly, their seminar unitscover a range of topics. Several units at theelementary level made use of a taxonomy,developed by T. Carpenter and other math-ematics educators, that distinguishes tentypes of one-step addition and subtractionproblems. It is desirable that students solveproblems based on all ten types, in order todevelop a robust sense of the meaning andapplications of addition and subtraction. Yetmany students are exposed to only a few ofthe possible types. This impoverishes theirunderstanding of the operations, and beginsa narrowing of their mathematical horizon.It limits their ability to deal with more com-plex word problems, since these may wellincorporate an addition or subtraction sce-nario with which they are not familiar. Theunits developed by the elementary teachersin the seminar will help their studentsdevelop a broad foundation for later work.

From one-step addition and subtractionproblems, the seminar units progressedthrough multistep problems involving anyof the four basic operations, through prob-lems involving percents and proportions, toproblems involving linear equations, eitherone or a system of them, and reached a highpoint in a unit on quadratic equations. Acarefully constructed set of problems canprovide a rounded experience of any topic,and can even reveal aspects of a subject thatmight be hard to get across any other way.

SPRING 2008 13

Exploring Word Problems withSingapore Bar ModelsBy Valerie Schwarz

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit forfourth grade, "Dr. Word Problem —Solving Word Problems with the FourOperations Using Singapore Bar Models,"was written in the 2007 national seminar,"Keeping the Meaning in Mathematics:The Craft of Word Problems." The unitfocuses on the four operations of arith-metic, teaching the students how to repre-sent and solve problems by analyzinggroups or "suites" of problems and learn-ing how to represent them using Singaporebar models. This approach was chosenbecause Singapore leads the world inmathematics achievement, and becausebar models are a visual representation ofwords, which may help children to trans-late from words to mathematical symbols.After learning the four operations and howto represent them using Singapore barmodels, the students proceed to study two-step problems involving the four opera-tions in any combination. In a culminatingactivity, the students put together a collec-tion of word problems that include all fouroperations focused around a theme. Thestudents will write their own word prob-lems and also illustrate their scenarioswith Singapore bar models. The teachersmay find on the interactive Thinking Blockswebsite some helpful strategies for demon-strating to the students how to model theproblems.

articipating in the Yale NationalInitiative has truly been a rollercoaster of emotions. When I first

learned that I was going to attend, I felt theendorphins rushing through my body like Ijust ran a personal best time in a 5K race.Wow! I was going to spend two weeks atYale University. Then in May 2007, I spenta long weekend in New Haven and theexcitement continued to grow. The cama-raderie amongst the teachers was immedi-

ately evident. Educators from across thecountry mingled, discussed teaching expe-riences, and shared a dedication to teachingin urban school districts. During this week-end, I met the Fellows from "The Craft ofWord Problems" seminar and its leader,Roger Howe. This was my first seminarexperience, and it was quite different fromthe classes I had taken during my under-graduate and graduate courses of study.The seminar approach is a collaborativeforum of teachers from various levels.

When I left New Haven in May, I knew Ihad to collect word problems and analyzethem for similarities and differences. I hadwhat I "thought" was a short reading list,since the math seminar certainly would notrequire much reading. An e-mail from theseminar leader arrived and included sever-al books that everyone would be requiredto read in addition to our individual readingselections. As school was winding downfor summer, I decided I better order thesebooks and start reading. For several days, Iarrived home to packages on the doorstep.Then the roller coaster suddenlyapproached a steep hill. Fear and panic setin for weeks as I trudged through bookafter book. I was reading books about mathand word problems; this was not exactly asummer vacation. I was reading about thedifferences between math teachers inChina and in the United States and exam-ining math problems from Singapore andRussia. It was intriguing to think abouthow this new knowledge would soon filterinto my classroom. Soon it was time tohead to Yale for the two-week seminar.

My two weeks at Yale were absolutelyincredible — definitely the best part of theride. Having eleven years of teaching expe-rience and claiming math as my favoritesubject, I felt fairly confident of my skills.However, the beauty of the Yale NationalInitiative is that, like the National BoardCertification experience, it builds confi-dence and challenges your abilities at thesame time. My seminar leader taught theFellows how to analyze, classify, and


P

Valerie Schwarz is a Fourth-grade Teacher atMary Munford Elementary School inRichmond, Virginia.

By Nancy Rudolph

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit,designed for a class in a comprehensivevo-tech high school, where students areheld to the same academic standards as allpublic school students in the state, includesa compilation of word problems aboutquadratic equations that will appeal totoday's teenagers. It begins with a "suite"of problems in projectile motion (whichwill relate easily to various sports) andproceeds into a "suite" of problems ingeometry. The problems are organized inorder of increasing difficulty. As studentsprogress through the problems, their quad-ratic-solving skills should improve andthey should gain a better understanding ofhow each change affects the solutionand/or the choice of solution method.

uring my 2007 summer vacation,I was fortunate enough to partici-pate in a national seminar on

"Word Problems" at Yale University. Ilearned a lot about math and a lot aboutanalyzing sets of word problems. The endproduct of my participation was a curricu-lum unit that I developed to enhance thestudy of quadratic equations. I teach pri-

marily 10th-grade math students at a com-prehensive vocational-technical highschool. It is a "choice" public high schoolthat draws students from any middleschool in the county. As a result, we havestudents from varied backgrounds and abil-ity levels in each class. Our math programuses an integrated approach, so that quad-ratic equations are studied at multiple lev-els. I wrote my curriculum unit with Level3 in mind because this is the math course inwhich students learn algebraic methods forsolving quadratic equations (remember theQuadratic Formula?).

When I was asked to write this pieceabout my experience teaching the unit, Ihadn't taught it yet, and my students willnot be mathematically prepared for thecontent until after the publication date.Fortunately, one of my colleagues willing-ly agreed to swap classes for a few days sothat I could teach the first section of myunit to her class. All of her students are jun-iors and seniors that have completed theLevel 3 math course. It is a more tradition-al algebra course, and, according to mycolleague, they had already evaluated for-mulas for given values of the variables, andsolved for different variables. In otherwords, they had the skills necessary for thelesson I planned to teach.

The first lesson in my unit is about pro-jectile motion. I introduce the Physicsequation for the height of an object at any

time being a function of its initial height,its upward velocity and the force of gravi-ty pulling it back down. The problem set Icompiled uses sports examples, exclusive-ly. With this class, the concepts were sup-posed to be a review of what they learnedlast year. I expected them to recognize theform of a quadratic equation, the shape ofthe graph of the equation and its keypoints, namely the zeroes/roots, line ofsymmetry and vertex. Last year, theylearned how to solve quadratic equationsby factoring and by the QuadraticFormula. They also used the roots to findthe coordinates of the vertex using thesymmetry of quadratic functions. Theseconcepts are part of the breakdown in theproblem set I designed. However, with thetime constraints I had, I opted to ask thestudents to use only the Quadratic Formulato solve these problems.

Well, kids will be kids, and several ofthem didn't work very hard because thiswork "didn't count." However, I was stillable to learn some things that I can usewhen I teach the unit to my classes later inthe semester. First of all, when I intro-duced the formula for projectile motion,h(t) = h0 + v0 t + ½at2, I defined h0 as theinitial height of the object, v0 as its initialupward velocity and a as the force of grav-ity. The value of a is 32 ft/s2 or 9.8m/s2,depending on the units used in the prob-lem. I thought I was simplifying things by

14 ON COMMON GROUND

Quadratic Equations in Word ProblemsStudents Can Relate To

D

Nancy Rudolph is a Mathematics Teacher atthe Hodgson Vocational-Technical HighSchool in New Castle County, Delaware.

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, JUMPING, ANIMAL LOCOMOTION, 1887

telling them that ½a would either be 16ft/s2 or 4.9m/s2 when they substituted intothe formula. But then I saw several stu-dents writing ½ (16) or ½ (4.9). From thisexperience, I will simply state the valuesof a and let the students discover for them-selves that ½a will always simplify to 16ft/s2 or 4.9m/s2. A second thing that Ilearned from this experiment was that thestudents were overwhelmed by the numberof problems I handed them all at once,despite the fact that I told them up frontthat they would be working on them overseveral days. As a result, I will definitelybreak them up for my own classes and useones that apply to the concepts as the con-cepts are taught.

An interesting fact that I observed inwatching students was that they chose tofind solutions using tables and/or graphs ontheir graphing calculators rather than applythe Quadratic Formula. They searchedtables for the maximum height or the timeit took for an object to return to the ground.On the positive side, they had enoughunderstanding of the situation to find solu-tions. On the negative side, they were notapplying, nor practicing the algebraic skillsthey will need if they go on in mathemat-ics. I was able to work with some individ-ual students to illustrate the algebraic meth-ods for reaching the same solutions theyfound graphically, and I believe they bene-fited from the comparative methods.

Overall, the feedback I received fromstudents that worked on the projectilemotion problem set, confirmed that I hadorganized it in a logical manner. Severalstudents stated that they liked the problemsbeing related, all about sports, and basedon the same formula. I look forward tofine-tuning the lesson and teaching it tomy own students. I expect a higher level ofmotivation and success with them. In addi-tion, they will reach the third lesson that Idesigned especially for them: applying theQuadratic Formula in geometric wordproblems related to many of the vocation-al areas in our school.

SPRING 2008 15

Schwarz: Exploring Word Problems withSingapore Bar Models

(continued from page 13)group word problems. He gently guidedthe Fellows to develop their own deeperunderstanding of similarities and subtledifferences between word problems. If acollection of marbles is separated, forexample 5-2=3, the unknown can be thestart (5), the change (2), or the result (3).Students will have the most trouble whenthe start is unknown.

When I returned to Richmond and had tocomplete my unit, I lost some momentum,but as I am beginning to teach my unit andsharing my experience with others, I amreinvigorated for another school year. Onlynow am I realizing that the learningprocess did not end when I finished theunit. It is reallyjust beginning.

After muchresearch, I mademany new dis-coveries aboutteaching wordproblems. I alsobecame awarethat some com-monly taught strategies are not the bestapproaches to use with students. Eager tobecome a better teacher, I decided to exploreSingapore math. Singapore is the top-rank-ing country in the world for math achieve-ment. After reviewing workbooks and text-books from Singapore, I decided to focusmy unit on using Singapore bar models as astrategy for solving word problems. Since amain focus of the fourth-grade curriculum isusing the four basic operations of arithmetic,this strategy could have a major impact onthe learning and understanding of my stu-dents. During one seminar class, RogerHowe had me present some word problemsusing the Singapore bar models. One of themost eye-opening experiences was using thebar models to solve middle and high schoolalgebra problems without writing a singleequation. This discovery captured the atten-tion of all of the Fellows in the seminar.Even though my unit is geared toward ele-

mentary students, the Fellows determinedthat it could be adapted and implemented inmiddle and high school too.

I teach fourth grade in the urban schooldistrict of Richmond, Virginia. I am fortu-nate to teach in a high-achieving school witha diverse population and a large inclusionprogram. During the first week of school, Iexplained to my class that I spent two weeksat Yale studying word problems. After shar-ing the fact, in fourth grade terminology,that Singapore is the best in the world inmath, we located Singapore on the worldmap. As I introduced the basic concept andhad the students depict simple addition sen-tences using strips of construction paper, Iheard the students saying that what they

were doing wasfun. Making earlylearning experi-ences fun is cru-cial. It fosters alove for learningthat will serve thestudents well forthe rest of theirlives.

We have just started to move into morechallenging addition and subtraction prob-lems. Already I have noticed the studentshaving the most success are my visuallearners. One of the greatest challenges Idid not anticipate is the fact that the stu-dents are having a tough time drawing thehorizontal brackets. I will have to addressthis issue as we continue to work withSingapore bar models. As this unit pro-gresses, I am sure that changes will bemade, since that is the nature of teaching.

My two-week seminar with Roger Howe,my seminar group, and everyone involvedwith the Yale National Initiative was with-out a doubt an extremely rewarding learn-ing experience. If reading four math booksand writing a 25-page research-based unitwas so rewarding, I can't wait for this rollercoaster to creep over the top of the hill andplunge into the actual teaching of the unit.The best part of the ride is yet to come.

This strategy could have amajor impact on the learning

and understanding ofmy students

Editor's Note: These statements areexcerpted from reports to the Conferenceby representatives from Break-OutSessions.

KARLENE E. MCGOWAN: We talked inour meeting about how to get these units infront of and in the hands of teachers. Wetalked about the Web site and how the YaleNational Initiative Web site has the unitsthat we have done for National, as well aslinks to the other four League TeachersInstitutes. If you're looking for a unit on atopic such as poetry or genetics orShakespeare or sports — you can do asearch on the Web site for those specificwords instead of having to go through eachof the seminar titles and then say, "Okay,what is this? Is this interesting?" We talkedabout getting the link to the Yale NationalInitiative, as well as for the four localInstitutes, getting a link on the district Website that would take you straight to theInitiative Web site. With districts the size ofHouston, where we have 290 schools, wedon't always have representatives in eachschool to talk about the Institute, so itwould be helpful to get a link onto the dis-trict Web site so that you can go directlyinto the Institute Web site.

The whole purpose of our writing thesecurriculum units is to enhance our ownteaching and that of other teachers. We allcan look at a textbook, or at model lessons,but it's something different to look at a unitthat has been written by a colleague, a

teacher who's in the same boat as you arewith overcrowded classrooms, low-levelstudents, all these things that we all dealwith. We also talked about the reports andevaluations that are on the Web site. Thesereports tell us, look how much better theseteachers are, look how much better thesestudents are learning. These curriculumunits work. They're aligned to the stan-dards, they're not written for the standards,but they're aligned to them, because goodteaching always does that anyway. You canteach anything and still be aligned withwhat you're supposed to be teaching, andthat's what good teachers do.

PETER CONN: In our meeting we talkedabout how to interface effectively, or atleast as non-adversarially as possible withstandards and exams and testing and NoChild Left Behind. That is to say, the worldthat provides the context today for lots ofpublic education, which is one that isincreasingly driven by pre-set curriculumand testing and so forth. This part of ourconversation alternated between anxietyand enthusiasm. The anxiety was broughtabout by the fact that many teachers dofind it to be something of a struggle tooperate as effectively as they would like to,within what are sometimes fairly lockstepregimes. My own view is that it's worthsome serious thought on the part of theNational Institute leadership about thechanges that have affected public educa-tion in the thirty years that the Institute hasbeen in business. Stated summarily, Iwould say that the Institute's core assump-tion is that teachers are the key. And thatdoing everything you can to enable teach-ers, to enhance their experience, to treatthem as professionals, to rely on their com-mitment and idealism and imagination iswhat American education depends on. Theregime of standards and testing is doingeverything it can to make educationteacher-proof. And it seems to me, there-fore, to be fundamentally, in some ways,almost at variance with what we in thisroom, I believe, are all up to.

Our enthusiasm, on the other side of ouranxiety, is when we simply compare expe-riences as instructors and as teacher partic-ipants in the seminars. I've only done one,but others in the room have done many,Karen Goldman's done five or six, I think,Paul Fry from Yale has done quite a fewboth nationally and locally. And that expe-rience has proven for many of us, on allsides of the table, to have been memorableand, in my own case at least, probablytransformative. So we were grateful, all ofus, for that opportunity, and many of uslook forward to doing it again.

KAREN S. GOLDMAN: I want to add onemore comment. When Peter spoke aboutthe current climate of public education andpolicy, and its relations to the Instituteassumptions, I threw out the question,because it's my nature to be contrary andprovocative, whether or not that would sig-nal to us that maybe we need to look at thepolicies and procedures of the Institute andsay, "Hey, is it time to re-think this in lightof the current climate?" And I think you'llbe happy to know that there was a resound-ing negative on that. That what needs tochange is not the policies and proceduresof the Institute, but rather the current cli-mate in education.

THOMAS R. WHITAKER: We also talkedat length about the desired harmonybetween the objective testing demanded ofus by the surrounding society and the kindsof creative learning that may be central to aTeachers Institute. Our anxiety seems toresult from the seeming dissonancesbetween the central thrust of a TeachersInstitute and the demands of objective test-ing. Yesterday, Leslie Carpenter said mem-orably that teaching is a transformationalinitiative. But is teaching to the test a trans-formational initiative? Not usually. At theheart of a Teachers Institute, I suspect, is aprocess of awakening to a potential cre-ativity, a readiness to look freshly at thedata, a willingness to risk an independentexploration. The educational philosopher,

16 ON COMMON GROUND

Voices from the Annual Conference

Karlene E. McGowan is a Reading Teacher atthe Pershing Middle School, Houston; PeterConn is Professor of English at the Universityof Pennsylvania; Karen S. Goldman isAssociate Professor of Spanish and CulturalStudies at Chatham University; Thomas R.Whitaker is Professor Emeritus of English andTheater Studies at Yale University; CathyHammond is Executive Director ofProfessional Development at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; Leslie Carpenter isSuperintendent of the Santa Fe PublicSchools; and Tony J. Marchio isSuperintendent of the Appoquinimink SchoolDistrict.

John Dewey, anticipated Leslie's formula-tion by saying that "genuine learning is areconstruction of experience." Such recon-struction asks us to look hard at who weare, what we have become, and imaginethe possibility of change. It also asks, asRay Theilacker of New Castle County wasimplying yesterday in his remarks, that weunderstand the powers of metaphor, dia-logue, and even playfulness as primaryagents through which we discover andshape our worlds and our lives. The bestcurriculum units that I have read, and I'veread a good many of them, are grounded inthat process for the teacher, and for the stu-dent. From that vantage point, the quantita-tive data that we may have to provide asauthentication of what we are doing maycome to seem just the desirable side effectsof a more complex and profound processof learning.

CATHY HAMMOND: We believe in col-laborative, collegial, and self-directed pro-fessional development for our teachers.And we believe that professional develop-ment should deepen their understanding oftheir content and also fuel their passion forteaching all of the children that they comein contact with, while we are attempting tobuild capacity for teacher leaders and wealso want to promote aspiring leaders.Being in an urban district - each year itbecomes more challenging to keep qualityteachers, to find them, and also to keepquality administrators in our schools. Thatis why our district has been participating inthe Initiative for three years. We've hadteacher participants, and principal partici-pants, and both the Teacher Director andthe Associate Superintendent participate.This is my first opportunity to participateand I'm really excited, because as a districtwe believe that the Yale National Initiativedoes support what we want to do in profes-sional development for our teachers.

LESLIE CARPENTER: We all need to beinvolved and interested in transformation-al initiatives. And as superintendent you

must be investing in transformational ini-tiatives. So I have to be very careful aboutwhat I can invest my time and energy in.This is one of those very, very compellingtransformational initiatives. And I believethat relationships are central to all learningand to all teaching. So when we have aninitiative where teachers learn to be betterteachers, and where they are, in fact, lead-ing this initiative, then we have a veryviable program.

In Santa Fe Public Schools we have twoitems in our Strategic Plan and two only,because I think we can get too complicat-ed. They are to focus on teaching andlearning and to streamline operations insupport of teaching and learning. What thatmeans is, my job as the Superintendent isto remove obstacles so that teachers can doa good job. And to honor the excellentteachers and to know the difference. Youknow when I was a teacher, we used tohave "professional development" and theyjust brought in consultants, I'd always callthem "insultants." Because they did nothonor teachers for what they know andwhat they can do. As someone else hassaid, isn't "professional development"about getting everybody to the auditoriumand telling everybody the same thing? Ithink the Institute is contrary to that modeland it is a refreshing contrariness.

I believe there is absolutely no conflictbetween these kinds of teacher-developedunits and any kind of standards-basedcommitment. I believe that the entirenotion of developing teachers through thistype of seminar approach is trusting teach-ers to be professionals and to understandthat they're going to teach the standard-based curriculum.

In Santa Fe, we have common commit-ments, and that is, every teacher is teachingto the standards, and "standards" does notmean standardization, far from it."Standards" is just another word for agree-ments. This is what we have agreed toteach. And so we have to be careful that wedon't think of them as very restricting andvery standardizing. In our school district,

in addition to that particular commitment,we also have commitments to teach a bal-anced literacy program, to teach a balancedmath program, and that every teacher is awriting teacher. So I think that you can seethat most of the units that would be devel-oped would fit within that larger set ofcommitments.

TONY J. MARCHIO: I would like to justrelay four observations. One, the teachersare very excited and I know teachers aren'teasily fooled. When I see teachers excited,I know that when they go back to theirbuildings that that will be contagious andit will result in gains in student achieve-ment. So I feel the need to promote thisjust from the reaction I've seen from theteachers. Secondly, we do a lot of workwith our teachers, a lot of staff develop-ment, but very seldom do we deal with realcontent. So here's an opportunity to adddepth to our curriculum. So many timeswe're criticized that our curriculum is sobroad that it's almost meaningless, soadding some depth is a tremendous oppor-tunity for us here. Third, about the discus-sion as to whether it fits the standards ornot, or how does it work in with state test-ing — well, I would just say to everyone,just let it go. If we dwell on content, wehave to have enough faith in our teachersto make that work. So when I hear that dis-cussion I'm going to think of CarrieUnderwood singing, "Jesus, take thewheel." And so, teachers take the wheel.You'll work it in and make it work and soI believe that. And the last thing that Iwould like to say is that, as a superinten-dent it is our responsibility to lead change.We talked here about transformationalchange; in our district we've talked aboutsecond-order change. First-order change,which we're usually involved with, is justrearranging the chairs on the deck of theTitanic. But real, meaningful second-orderchange is something that has a profoundimpact on teaching and learning. I see thisas second-order — so I have a responsibil-ity to be a leader in that effort.

SPRING 2008 17

By Stephen J. Pittis migrations have remade themodern world, schools and theirsurrounding communities in the

United States have been challenged andenriched by various processes of"Latinization." These have included, ofcourse, the arrival of large numbers ofimmigrants into newly-heterogeneousclassrooms, pressing demands for Englishas a Second Language teachers, and cross-national friendships forged between youngpeople who hail from countries throughoutthe hemisphere. These changes have shapedthe lives of many of us. As residents of theUnited States, young and old, we common-ly listen to music rooted in Latin Americantraditions, we watch films and prime-timecomedies featuring Latino artists, and wecheer for Major League athletes who begantheir sporting careers abroad. We partici-pate in political debates that rage overimmigration reform proposals, we discussthe building of new walls at the Mexicanborder, we read stories about the roundupsof non-citizens in urban and rural America,and we watch immigrants taking new rolesas voters and members of emerging socialmovements.

The National Fellows who enrolled in the2007 seminar "Latino Cultures andCommunities" spent a great deal of timediscussing these trends, and others. To learnmore about the U.S. and Latin America,both today and in the past, participantsexplored many connections between theUnited States and points south since themid-nineteenth century. We did historicalreadings related to immigration, includingJuan González's accessible and comprehen-sive Harvest of Empire, which proved to bea favorite of many of the Fellows. We readmemoirs to understand how Latino kidshave seen the U.S. educational system, andwe discussed how Puerto Rican teachersand other educators have responded toSpanish-speaking students — in mid-twen-tieth century New York City and in the con-

temporary South. We also spent a great dealof time examining films, paintings, poems,and short stories that explore Latino experi-ences and perspectives. Robert Young'sAlambrista, the movie about Mexicanimmigrants in the 1970s, guided our con-versations about the causes, the challenges,and the human costs of immigration.Fellows read or reread Sandra Cisneros'sHouse on Mango Street, and they shareddifferent perspectives on ways that bookmight be taught to different student groups.The walls of our classroom vibrated nearlyevery day: We listened to Nuyorican salsa,Caribbean mambos, and MexicanAmerican corridos, and we read about thechanging "soundtrack" of Latino communi-ties from coast-to-coast. We gave somethought to artistic movements, to the paint-ings by Chicanas and Chicanos from the1960s forward, as well as to the comics andgraphic novels written for teenagers andadults, most notably those by SouthernCalifornia's Jaime and Gilbert Hernández.

The seminar concluded by looking closelyat the experiences of Central Americanmigrants who have arrived in the U.S. sincethe 1980s, and by exploring recent politicalproposals in the United States regardingnew guest worker programs, borderenforcement efforts, and a Dream Act forundocumented high school graduates.

Fellows brought their own, diverse class-room experiences into seminar discussions,and they spoke with great honesty about thechallenges and trends they have witnessedin their communities. Some had taught inLatino-majority schools, while others hadnever instructed a single Latino student, buteach Fellow developed a unit distinguishedby its approach to curricular standards, anddriven by the particular needs of her or hislocal classroom. Their work impressed medeeply, and I eagerly awaited the fall 2007Conference of the National Initiative inwhich I would learn something more aboutthe seminar's results. At that October


18 ON COMMON GROUND

Leading the Seminar on Latino Cultures andCommunities

EDWARD GONZALES, SONGS FOR OUR CHILDREN, 2002

A

Stephen J. Pitti is Professor of History and ofAmerican Studies at Yale University.

By Nicole Marie Schubert

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit, pre-pared for an eighth-grade language artsclass, is intended to lead students to under-stand a culture that has become increas-ingly important in Charlotte, NC. It uses awide variety of materials — articles, per-sonal narratives, poems, political car-toons, and a docu-drama film — to intro-duce students to first-person accounts ofMexican immigration and help them shapetheir own individual views of this historicalprocess. The article reports on discoveriesmade during the first few weeks of teachingthe unit in the fall semester. The unit isbeing taught in Standard Plus and Honorsclasses. It has all the signs of an interdis-ciplinary adventure but adheres to theNorth Carolina Standard Course of Studyand meets objectives in five of the sixCompetency Goals.

hen I first learned of the YaleNational Initiative during thefall of 2006, I had no idea that

nearly one year later my previously dryunit on non-fiction texts would be invigor-ated and renewed with endless choices ofChicano literature and research — madepossible by my experience at Yale thissummer. My interest in the "LatinoCultures and Communities" seminar led byStephen Pitti this summer was immediate;the topic piqued my interest in severalways. Throughout the past decadeCharlotte has seen a tremendous growth inthe Latino population, so learning aboutthe history of Latinos in the United Statesseemed essential. Teaching in theCharlotte-Mecklenburg School District forthe past five years, I have observed manynegative attitudes towards Latino immi-grants, specifically Mexicans, among mystudents. I saw this seminar as an opportu-nity to develop a unit that could help dispelthose stereotypes. My experience during

the two-week YNI Intensive Session wasby far the most effective, appreciated, andhumbling professional development I haveever attended. Our seminar took us on anemotional journey through history as weexplored Chicano identity, the humanrights of immigrants, as well as our ownself-identity and teaching experiences.

Initially, I had planned on teaching myunit for about four to five weeks (abouthalf of the first quarter), but as the unitbegan to unfold I realized that in order tofulfill all of my objectives in this unit, Ineeded to extend the unit through the entirenine weeks of the first quarter. Since schoolstarted the last week of August, this articlereflects the first three weeks of the unit.Therefore, I can only speak of what hasworked well so far and the obstacles I fearwill arise in the next few weeks.

During the first few weeks of the unit mystudents studied several types of non-fic-tion texts: news article, editorial, politicalcartoon, graphic aids (pie chart, table, map,timeline), and three feature stories. I beganthe unit by first teaching the components ofthe news article, editorial and political car-toon. The warm-up activity for this lessonwas a journal question: What is the purposeof a fence? When is a fence good or bad?

Since all of the texts focused on the topic ofthe 700-mile fence being built on theU.S./Mexico border, students were able tocorrelate their warm-up responses to theiranalysis of Secure Fence Act 2006. Thesetexts created controversy in the classroomwhile students debated how the U.S.should tackle illegal immigration fromMexico. Next, I showed the filmAlambrista, a docu-drama that beautifullycaptures the conflicts so many Mexicanimmigrants face — on both sides of theborder. Students were able to see theextreme poverty plaguing so many immi-grants and could better understand why somany people illegally cross the border towork in the U.S. As the unit progresses,students will compare and contrast themain character of the film to news storiesabout other Mexican immigrants.

My classes also read a series of featurestories, highlighting the lives of three sis-ters originally from Monterrey, Mexico.Each sister's story is representative of themany conflicts faced by both legal and ille-gal Mexican immigrants: fear of beingcaught, social acceptance, assimilation,family resentment, low incomes, identity,and longing for family on either side of the


SPRING 2008 19

Examining Mexican Immigration throughFirst-Person Points of View

W

Nicole Marie Schubert is an English Teacherat Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte,North Carolina. CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE, RUNNING FENCE, SONOMA AND MARIN COUNTIES, CALIFORNIA, 1972-76

By Samuel A. Reed, III

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit, enti-tled "Boricua Morena: Latin-CaribbeanAmerican and African American CulturalConections En Ciudad de Filadelfia," waswritten in a 2007 national seminar led byStephen Pitti on "Latino Cultures andCommunities." The unit draws upon socialstudies, performing arts and literature toshow the interconnections between Latinoand African American cultures. It isintended for middle-grade students (grades6th-8th) at a predominantly African-American school. It involves an inquirythrough which students may learn aboutLatino culture while also learning aboutthemselves. The students will explore andanalyze popular Latin-Caribbean dancemovements, music, poetry, and historicaland current events to appreciate whatPuerto Rican, Dominican, and AfricanAmerican cultures have in common. Therewill be a pen-pal exchange program withsixth- and seventh-grade students in a pre-dominantly Latino school. And studentswill present multi-media renditions of whatthey have learned about the connectionsbetween Latin-Caribbean and AfricanAmerican cultures.

hy teach a predominantlyAfrican American class aboutLatin American culture? My

school, like many schools in Philadelphia,is racially isolated. Consequently, ten-sions exist about meeting the school dis-tricts' expectation of promoting multi-cul-tural studies. Participating in StephenPitti's seminar "Latino Cultures andCommunities," provided me the luxury ofexploring the connections between LatinAmerican and African American cultures.When planning my curriculum unit, Iwanted to avoid superficial investigationof culture. Instead, I strived to make deep-er inquiries about the role language,

migration, and arts play in shaping bothcultures.

I teach 6th-grade literacy and social stud-ies at Beeber Middle School, located in theSchool District of Philadelphia. Beeber'sstudent population is approximately 600.Most of the students come from workingclass families and over 70% of the studentbody qualifies for free or subsidized lunch.The student body is 95% AfricanAmerican and less than 1% percent isCaucasian. In contrast to Beeber's studentpopulation, the school district's CentralEast Region reports a 72% Latino and16% African American student body.However, Beeber does have an emergingimmigrant population of Latino,Caribbean and African students, and agrowing number of Dominican and PuertoRican corner stores have replaced Asianshop owners in the surrounding communi-ty. My curriculum unit was developed toallow exploration of cultural connectionsshared with neighboring Latin-Caribbeanstudents in our district.

After completing my seminar, I returnedto Philadelphia excited about theprospects of teaching this unit. I contactedseveral Latin community arts organiza-

tions, about serving as collaborators andresources. I met with the teacher from theHon. Luís Muñoz Marín School, a pre-dominately Latino school, who will beinvolved in a pen-pal exchange programwith my students. Additionally, I present-ed my curriculum and lesson plans toteachers at the Philadelphia WritingProject's summer institute and for a newTeach for America cohort. The response Ireceived from teachers and Latin artsorganizations validated my curriculum.My topic draws upon social studies con-tent, music, dance, film, and literature toshow the interactions between Latino andAfrican American culture. Through theirinquiry my students will particularlyappreciate what Puerto Rican, Dominicanand African American cultures have incommon.

My unit coincided with the celebrationof Hispanic Heritage in Philadelphia(September 15 – October 15). When Iinformed my students that for social stud-ies we would explore Latino culture tolearn more about our own culture, I couldfeel their excitement. To start our inquiryprocess, my students and I completed a K-W-L graphic organizer to elicit, first stu-

20 ON COMMON GROUND

Teaching an African American Class aboutLatin American Culture

W

Samuel A. Reed, III is an English and SocialStudies Teacher at D. Beeber Middle School inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.

JACOB LAWRENCE, STUDENTS WITH BOOKS, 1966

dents' prior knowledge and illustrate whatthey knew about Puerto Rican andDominican Culture (K), then, what newthings they wanted to learn (W), and aftercompleting the inquiry process studentswill describe what they have learned (L).Many of the students offered that theyknew some base-line facts about PuertoRicans and Dominicans, sharing they hadtheir own flags, they enjoyed baseball andsoccer, and they owned shops in theirneighborhoods. While eliciting students'contributions for our K-W-L chart, I hadto ask clarifying questions. On the issue oflanguage, Jessica (pseudo-name) stated,"They talk different." Instead of movingto the next student, I asked Jessica clari-fying questions. I asked her "what do youmean by they talk different?" She replied,"They talk fast." I noted to Jessica that wehave lots of student in our class that talkfast, "do Puerto Ricans or Dominicansspeak the same as students in this classwho talk fast?" Other students were anx-ious, and wanted to clarify what Jessicameant by "they talk different". After someprodding by her classmates and me,Jessica finally clarified what she meantby saying "they speak different." Jessicasimply said that "Puerto Rican andDominicans speak Spanish." Afterexhausting our discourse about language,Timothy (pseudo-name) eagerly raised hishands to offer what he already knew aboutPuerto Ricans and Dominican cultures.Timothy said, "They face boundaries." Ifound his contribution very provocative.While asking Timothy clarifying ques-tions, he had a difficult time articulatingactually what he meant by "boundaries."He describes some aspect of physicalboundaries and social barriers. However,we eventually came to the conclusion thatboundaries and discrimination were relat-ed experiences of Puerto Ricans andDominicans as well as African Americans.

I believe had I not attended the YaleNational Initiative seminar on LatinoCultures and Communities I would nothave been able to probe for the right clari-

fying questions and gather such rich contri-butions from my sixth-grade students. Byusing a K-W-L chart my students are wellon the way to addressing my curriculumunit's essential question: "What culturalconnections do Puerto Ricans andDominicans have with AfricanAmericans?" I am anticipating the discov-eries my students will uncover through theunit's plans of using pen-pal letters, and afirst-person narrative research project.Through their discoveries, my students willexplore the aesthetics of dance, music,film, poetry and understand how cultureconnects Latin-Caribbean Americans andAfrican Americans. Ultimately my stu-dents should uncover that many Latinosresponses to racism, poverty, and othersocial issues are very similar to theAfrican American experience en ciudad deFiladelfia.

SPRING 2008 21

Schubert: ExaminingMexican Immigration

Pitti: Latino Culturesand Communities(continued from page 18)gathering, each participant reported thattheir Intensive Session work had in factpaid real benefits. Most of the Fellows hadalready taught portions of the units they haddesigned, and they provided detailed andenthusiastic updates about student interestand enthusiasm. Those who had not yetbegun their units made clear that their sum-mer 2007 work had instead led to surprisingnew conversations about teaching with col-leagues and administrators back home, newways of seeing their students and commu-nities, and fresh ideas for additional unitsthat might better engage local kids. Thanksto the energy and wisdom of these teachersfrom New Haven, Charlotte, Philadelphia,New Castle County, Richmond, Houston,and Santa Fe, "Latino Cultures andCommunities" exceeded my wildest expec-tations as a seminar leader, making thesummer 2007 Session one of the highlightsof my professional career.

(continued from page 19)border. I wanted my students to learn aboutthe struggles both legal and illegal immi-grant families face when moving to theU.S. What are their internal and externalconflicts? Describe the fear illegal immi-grants live with. Should they assimilate tothe U.S. culture? Why or why not? Thestudents were really engaged in the featurestories because they read like chapters in abook. The culminating activity for this halfof the unit will be an essay in which theydescribe the internal and external conflictsof a Mexican immigrant, legal or illegal, byciting examples from the film and textsstudied.

Now for the obstacles (or learning expe-riences). While writing my unit my semi-nar leader had one question that remainedconstant throughout the revision process.Will you really have time to cover all ofthis information in the time you have allot-ted yourself? In the excitement of the veryIntensive Session, I honestly believed theanswer was yes — very detailed activitieswere my evidence. Clearly my assumptionwas incorrect and I have realized there isno way I can cover all of the research Iwanted to include in my unit. As a result, Ihave created small group projects for mystudents. Each group will be assigned top-ics to research: Bracero Program,Operation Wetback, Operation Gatekeeper,Manifest Destiny, The Dream Act.Students will use the Internet to completepamphlets on their topic. Next, they willform small groups and use their pamphletto teach each other about their topic.

The changes in my class this year, thoughsmall, are remarkable. While I read an arti-cle aloud I paused at the Spanish words andallowed my Spanish-speaking students toread them — making read-alouds interac-tive. The Spanish-speakers know they arean important asset to the class. Attendingthis seminar and teaching this unit enabledme to foster a stronger classroom connec-tion with my Latino students; the Latinopopulation in my classes this year is thehighest in five years.

By Sara E. Thomas

Editor's Note: This unit, entitled "ContextClues: The Appropriation of Malinche andthe Virgin of Guadalupe," was prepared inStephen Pitti's seminar in 2007 on "LatinoCultures and Communities." It introduceshigh school art students to theprocess of interpreting images intheir artistic and historical con-texts. The unit constitutes the finalproject for an Introduction to Artcourse for ninth- and tenth-gradestudents. Many of these studentshave difficulty with reading and canbenefit from a study of reading andwriting across the disciplines withinthe art curriculum. The approachhere therefore uses art analysis fol-lowed by art creation. Students willanalyze images of the Virgin ofGuadalupe, supporting their inter-pretation with information from theartworks. They will then viewimages of Malinche and focus onthe understanding of context. Thesetwo Mexican icons were selected inorder to ensure that the student pop-ulation, which is one-third Latino,one-third African American, andone-third white, becomes acquaint-ed with artwork by each group.

y students look at art-work with blinders on— How does this piece

of artwork affect me? While theyare wonderful at making art-to-self con-nections, oftentimes their interpretation ofa piece may be incorrect or incompletebecause they are unaware of the context inwhich the artwork was created. They donot take into account the experiences of theartist or the events that were taking placewhile the artist was creating the artwork. Istrive to teach my students that understand-

ing context is extremely important wheninterpreting an image. The unit I wrote dur-ing Professor Pitti's 2007 seminar, entitled"Context Clues: The Appropriation ofMalinche and the Virgin of Guadalupe,"addresses exactly this need. It also pro-vides me enough expertise to discuss

images by Latino artists that I was notfamiliar with before the seminar. This givesmy students more exposure to a variety ofdifferent artists. I wrote this unit initiallyfor my ninth- and tenth-grade Introductionto Art class, but decided to try it out it thisfall with my Advanced Placement class.

I began by showing my students the tra-ditional image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.We discussed whether or not they recog-nized her, and to my pleasure most of thestudents had seen a replica of her some-

where before. When I asked "Where?" theymost commonly answered "at school," "atchurch," "at home," and even "as a tattoo."We discussed whether or not the image wasan icon, and what defines an icon. Ourclass definition of an icon was "an imagethat is easily identifiable to a vast majority

of the population." We discussedhow there are national and interna-tional icons. Once students hadtied the image to their prior knowl-edge, I told them the story of JuanDiego and how the original imageon the cloak came to exist.

Next, I had the students describethe image. They began to becomevery invested in the image, pickingup on a variety of details thatpiqued their curiosity. They beganto ask me questions about theimage. This is where the firstextremely powerful part of work-ing with this image occurred.Students began to do exactly whatI wanted, with very little prompt-ing from me! By the end of classwe had a list of questions about theimage on the board ranging from"Why is she white?" to "What isshe holding?" Once students hadposed all of the questions they hadabout the image, we went to thelibrary to find the answers to theirquestions. Students were research-ing the context of the image all ontheir own! They were no longerassuming that they knew every-

thing about the image and were finally tak-ing an interest in what other influencesthere may have been in creating this art-work. Students found resources easily andbegan to make connections between thesymbols from both the Aztec culture andthe Catholic church. Students even taughtme about the image — that the stars on hercloak had been identified as specific con-stellations, that the black sash around herwaist symbolized pregnancy in Catholicimagery, but also would have been worn by

22 ON COMMON GROUND

Reading Images in Historical Context

Sara E. Thomas is an Art Teacher at the HighSchool in the Community in New Haven,Connecticut.

M YOLANDA LOPEZ, PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE, 1978

Aztec warriors getting ready for battle. Ihave never experienced students becomingso invested in an image on their own, and Ithink actually being able to pose their ownquestions and then research the answerswas an extremely powerful process forboth them and me.

After coming back together asa group to share their research,students were broken into smallgroups and each group wasgiven a different representationof the Virgin of Guadalupe tocompare with the original. Theimages were more modernappropriations of the Virgin ofGuadalupe by Alma Lopez,Ester Hernandez and YolandaLopez. Each group discussedthe similarities and differencesbetween their appropriation andthe original image. Studentsagain asked questions about thenew image they had receivedand again did research. Thisprocess was a bit more difficultsince the images are recent, sothere is less written about them.Students then shared in groupswhat they had learned abouttheir image and we discussedthe idea of appropriation. Wediscussed how using someoneelse's image is legal so long asyou change it, or alter it some-how to become your own.

We then looked at an image byAlacaraz of the Statue of Liberty holding amicrophone and a tape recorder. We brain-stormed together about what the statue ofliberty symbolizes, and then how this depic-tion by Alacaraz changes her as a symbolentirely. This was the second powerful partof this unit. After showing students thisexample they brainstormed symbols thatthey would be interested in appropriating.Every student immediately had two or threephenomenal ideas. I have struggled withhow to teach conceptual art to students since

I started teaching and simply by modelingthis process students did it without my evenhaving to explain it. Each student discussedtheir ideas with me and then chose one oftheir ideas as a concept for their art piece.Students' ideas ranged from the controversyover Slayer lyrics being on trial for alleged-

ly causing fans to commit violent acts, to theidea that anything is beautiful by moderniz-ing Marilyn Monroe.

This unit has exceeded my expectationsin teaching students to learn about the con-text of an image by turning them intoresearchers and getting them invested inartwork. It has also taught them to createconceptual artwork, which is a wonderfuladded surprise. I look forward to seeing theresults this unit has with my Introduction toArt students this spring.

SPRING 2008 23

Whitaker: Legislating,Planning, and Teaching

JOSÉ DE RIBERAYARGOMANIS, VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE, 1778

(continued from page 11)and Identity in the Art Room" how he hasbeen leading young African Americansthrough work with masks and other imagesof identity toward an understanding both ofthe Native American tradition and of them-selves. Here we include Thomas Eakins'portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing, whichoffers a remarkable historical analogy to theprocess that is central to Koshock's class-room strategy: the discovery or creation ofa personal identity through the explorationof a partly alien tradition. Cushing, ananthropologist and collector of Europeandescent, is here portrayed in the garb — andwith the gear — of the Native Americanculture in which he sought to immerse him-self. Indeed, Cushing was himself acceptedinto the Zuñi community.

On our back cover, answering SamuelMorse's painting of the House ofRepresentatives, is another importantnational image: The Capitol in Washingtonby Currier and Ives. This well-known com-pany, headed by Nathaniel Currier andJames Merritt Ives, specialized in publish-ing hand colored lithographic prints thatwere sold inexpensively to the growingAmerican middle class. They becameextraordinarily popular illustrators of ournational life.

And for the Yale National Initiative whatis on the horizon? We look forward withhope for Congressional action on the billsintroduced by Senators Lieberman andDodd and Representatives DeLauro andCourtney. Indeed, we urge our readers tosupport the Teachers Institutes Act — andyou may learn how to do so by logging in athttp://teachers.yale.edu/legislation. We alsoexpect to hear more in the near future fromother cities that participated in the YaleNational Initiative during 2007. Atlanta andRichmond are considering a TeachersInstitute; Chicago is exploring a TeachersInstitute; and in October representatives ofthe San Francisco Unified School Districtcame for the first time to take part in anational meeting.

By Laura Viviana Zoladz

Editor's Note: The curriculum unitdescribed here, entitled "Back to theFuture: How Earlier Art Forms HaveInfluenced Contemporary Cinema inIreland, Iran, and Africa," aims to teachstudents about different cultures throughcinema and about a particular region'scinema through its culture. Along the waystudents will learn about general film-mak-ing techniques and be able to identify themin the films they view. They will compareand contrast thematic and technical ele-ments in films from different cultures. Mostimportantly, they will be able to demon-strate the relations between the artisticheritage of each culture studied and itscontemporary cinema. The curriculum unitis intended for a ninth-grade "heteroge-neous" English class, containing studentsof all academic levels from "special needs"through "advanced."

his past school year, thanks toDudley Andrew's 2006 seminar,"Stories Around the World

Through Film," I introduced my SeniorWorld Literature students to internationalcinema. It wasn't the first time I had tried toexpose students to foreign films, but it wasthe first time I felt these lessons were trulysuccessful. While writing the curriculumunit, I thought long and hard about how toprepare students for watching films thatwere so different from what they customar-ily consumed at the local multiplex or intheir living rooms. I decided it was a mat-ter of communicating to the students, inadvance of viewing, some of what theyshould and should not expect from thesefilms, and then charging the students withlooking for other ways the foreign filmsdiffered from the big-budget Hollywoodfilms they normally watch for entertain-ment. This gave reluctant students some-thing to focus on other than the fact that

they were forced to read subtitles instead ofrelying on flashy special effects and non-stop action to follow the story line. It alsoreinforced the idea that these films do notfollow the same conventions as the filmsthe students are accustomed to, but that ifviewed with a different set of expectationsand an open mind, they can be rewardingand entertaining all the same.

By the end of the course, my class hadwatched movies from Africa, China,Afghanistan, and Iran. They saw whatsome of the people, villages, and towns inthese countries looked like, they got a feelfor the natural landscapes, and they heardFrench, Jula, Mandarin, Pashtu, and Farsispoken by native speakers. They were alsoexposed to at least two distinct styles offilmmaking, one an extension of the oraltradition, and the other a cinematographicextension of the lyric poem blended withmore familiar narrative conventions. Thesounds and images of these films enhancedthe students' enjoyment and understandingof the related literature: Sundjata, an epicof Old Mali; Things Fall Apart, byNigerian author Chinua Achebe; The KiteRunner, by Afghan Khaled Hosseini; andancient Chinese and modern Persian poet-ry by some of these countries' mostbeloved and respected poets.

A significant number of students askedme where they could find more movies likethe ones we watched in class. They saidthey were unable to locate them at theirusual video stores. In their end-of-yearcourse assessments, several other studentssaid the movies were their favorite part ofthe class and they hoped to continue watch-ing foreign films "on their own time." Itook these comments as signs of success,but reading their film analyses proved evenmore rewarding.

After we watched Iranian director MajidMajidi's The Color of Paradise, studentswrote about the ways in which the filmcould be read as a visual and aural poem, giving examples of repetition, sensoryimages, and symbolism and explaining therole these poetic elements play in illumi-

nating different aspects of the charactersand the narrative. One said, "The directorof this film was making an attempt to cap-ture the amazing sights and sounds ofMohammed's world by exploiting andexaggerating them. Every leaf, animal,tree, and river flickered with detail andbeauty. . . [The director] was allowing theviewer to realize how the privilege of sightis unappreciated by everyday people."Another student said:

Mohammed's loss of sight strength-ened his other senses. In one of the firstscenes, Mohammed hears a bird in dis-tress and searches on his hands andknees until he finds the fledgling. Hethen climbs a tree with the bird safelytucked into his pocket, feeling everybranch with his fingers until he reach-es the nest. This shows how keen hissenses are, but also how caring he is. Inone of the final scenes, we see a turtlecaught upside down between two treestumps. This symbol foreshadows thatsomething bad is going to happen: abridge collapses while Mohammedand his father are crossing and [theboy] is swept away by the river. But atthe conclusion, we see a bird fly over-head, and like the saved baby bird inthe beginning of the movie, this bird isa symbol of life and hope, so we knowMohammed will live.

A third student commented on a differentkind of imagery. "The repetition of thefather's reflection in the window, and laterin the mirror," she said, "is a sign that atsome point he will have to look into hissoul or inner self. The repeated imagery ofthe long hallway with all the bunk bedsexpresses emptiness or loneliness, whereasthe lush, green pathways represent freedomand openness to new experiences." And afourth student focused on tactile imageryand the theme of blindness. "In the movie,"she said, "Mohammed was blind, so he hadto use his fingers to see. When he had sou-venirs, he determined who got which byhis touch, and when he worked as a


24 ON COMMON GROUND

Learning to Read Foreign Films

Laura Viviana Zoladz is an English Teacher atPaul M. Hodgson Vocational-Technical HighSchool in Newark, Delaware.

T

By Deborah Samuel

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit, devel-oped in the 2006 seminar led by Robert A.Burt on "The Supreme Court in AmericanPolitical History," is entitled "ChineseImmigration, Exclusion and the Chinese-American Experience." It is designed forhigh-school English students who are pre-dominantly African American. Knowledgeof the history of discrimination against theChinese and changes resulting fromSupreme Court decisions serve as a basisfor understanding two novels: Bone by FaeMyenne Ng, and The Joy Luck Club byAmy Tan.

hen the opportunity to partici-pate in the Yale NationalInitiative presented itself to

me, the obvious choices for an Englishteacher had already been taken. Should Itake on the challenge of studying theSupreme Court? How would I ever connectthe subject matter to my teaching? Then itoccurred to me that there were in fact hun-dreds of works of literature that could beconnected to Supreme Court decisions.

One novel is Bone by Fae Myenne Ng. Itis listed as required reading for eleventhgrade students in the School District ofPhiladelphia. How would my studentsrespond to reading a book about ChineseAmericans? I have heard them make com-ments like: "I went to the Chinese store."When they say this I ask, "Are you sure thepeople were Chinese? Perhaps they wereKorean, or Japanese, or Vietnamese?" Forthem, anyone who appears to be Asian isautomatically Chinese.

My students are predominantly AfricanAmericans. They are acutely aware of themany prejudices that are aimed their way.They also possess some understanding ofthe horrific history of prejudice and discrim-ination toward blacks in this nation. Yet mystudents remain woefully ill informed about

the horrendous acts of injustice that havebeen aimed at people of other ethnic origins.I therefore set out to write a unit that wouldnot only create an interest in reading anassigned novel, but would also change mystudents' attitudes. I wanted my students tounderstand that other groups beyond theirown have suffered horrible injustices anddeserve our empathy.

I began by explaining the conditions ofearly 19th century China — the starvationdue to overcrowding (one author listed1,000 people per square mile), flooding, awar against the British, poor farming meth-ods, crop failures, and more. We looked ata map of Southern China, and I asked,"Where could they go?" Then I explainedthe timing of the gold rush, and the railroadbuilders going to China to find employees.Where would you go if that were you? Iexplained that often one male member ofthe family would go to California, knownas the "Golden Mountain," sending moneyhome to keep the family from starving todeath, and hoping to return in thirty or fortyyears. If you were in that situation, howbad would it have to be for you to give upand return home?

I showed my students a list of ordinancespassed by the legislature of 19th centurySan Francisco:

• The Sidewalk Ordinance of 1870:Those who used poles to carry mer-chandise could not walk on sidewalks.

• The Cubic Air Ordinance of 1871:Each adult required 500 cubic feet ofliving space.

• The Queue Ordinance of 1873: Thosewho chose jail instead of a fine for vio-lating the cubic air ordinance musthave their queue cut off.

• The Laundry Ordinance of 1873:Anyone found carrying laundry withhorse-drawn wagons would have topay for a license.

• The Wooden Laundry Ordinance of1886: Anyone operating a laundry in awooden building must have a license.

I asked, "Who do you think had the cus-tom of carrying merchandise in basketsconnected by a pole?" They easily guessedit was the Chinese. We looked at a politicalcartoon entitled "You Know How it isYourself!" and I let them find a small illus-tration of just such a figure in the back-ground. I reminded my students of how theChinese were here to help their starvingfamilies back home. What would be onelogical way to save money? Wouldn't it beto share living quarters? So at whom doyou think the requirement for 500 cubic


SPRING 2008 25

Entering the Chinese-American Experience

Deborah Samuel is an English Teacher atRobert E. Lamberton School in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.

W ISAIAH WEST TABER, CHINESE VEGETABLE PEDDLER IN SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

By Nancy Ann Wasser

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit for ele-mentary school was written during the2006 seminar led by Paul Fry on"Children's Literature, Infancy to EarlyAdolescence." Ms. Wasser's account hereincludes a detailed summary of the con-tents of the unit.

designed my curriculumunit, "From Aztecs toAztlan: Building Cultural

Bridges Through Literature,"to elicit in my Mexican andHispanic New Mexican stu-dents an awareness and lovefor their rich cultural and liter-ary heritages, to foster theirunderstanding of and apprecia-tion for common roots andshared cultural influences, andto nurture in them seeds ofself-esteem and bring forthsome blossoms. This bilingualSpanish/ English unit encom-passes three historical periods:The Spanish Conquest,Immigration to Aztlan (North),and the Present Day; and itemploys many literary genres.The students were third andfourth graders whose reading skillsspanned levels from pre-kindergarten toseventh grade. Some surprising andserendipitous events transpired while theyjourneyed across these metaphoric bridges.

The unit's first topic — Spain meetsMexico and a new race is born — beganwith the study of Aztec pictographs andtheir meanings. Newly arrived immigrants,who spoke no English, found this a greatway to bypass formal language problems.Using the 20-day Aztec sacred calendar,children adopted a symbol representingone day and practiced drawing it until sat-isfied with their representation. Then,

water, wind, rabbit, lizard and so forthwere strung together, Aztec Codex style, tomake the calendar. Children also construct-ed masks representing their symbols andAztec ceremonial fans. Together we readAztec folktales, creation myths, and storiesof the lives of the main historical charac-ters: Hernan Cortes, Moctezuma and LaMalinche, the Mayan woman who translat-ed for Cortes and by bearing a daughter by

him became Mother of a new race. Finally,students read historical literature based onstories collected by Spanish priests soonafter the Conquest, relating tragic tales ofbattles between the two cultures followingtheir infamous meeting in 1519.

Contrary to my fears, the children provedcapable of digesting these grim tales —perhaps because they were cloaked inmythology and accompanied by colorfulpictographs drawn from Aztec codices.Students devoured these books, and thenswapped them for others, not relinquishingthem until they had voraciously, and oftenpainstakingly, absorbed their contents.Word about these books spread like newsof Frito Pie for lunch, and soon the otherfourth grade class was sharing our litera-

ture while my students taught them how tomake masks and fans.

From these activities sprang a play co-written by students of both classes in theform of poems describing their calendarsymbols. Wearing masks and recitingpoems, they acted out their characters.Parents and students formed an enthusias-tic audience. A Beginning Spanish readerwrote this poem about Eagle:

Yo soy la águilaOrgullosa y fiera.Vivo en nido alto.Cruzando el cieloComo una diosa bellísima.Y también soy grandísima.

Another girl wrote a poemabout Wind:North, South, East, West.I like when the wind blows best.I, Wind, like to whisper to treesAnd I love to play tricks no onesees.Class discussions ranged fromhistorical battles to blood sac-rifices to the new race bornwhen Cortes and Malinche hadchildren. One day a fourth-grade boy came to schoolclutching a thick red notebook.Its contents revealed agenealogical search tracing his

roots back to the Conquest. Moreover, itproclaimed him to be the 23rd greatgrandson of Cortes and the 24th greatgrandson of Moctezuma!

The next topic — You are my cousin,aren't you? — treats the evolution ofSpanish and Mexican people in theSouthwest. We read a bilingual biographyof Cesar Chavez; then students inter-viewed family members and wrote theirbiographies. Again, word of our Aztecs toAztlan project leaked out, and our classwas interviewed by a reporter for aSpanish language newspaper. In turn, stu-dents interviewed her about her life andwork. They were thrilled to read aboutthemselves and see their pictures in thenewspaper.

26 ON COMMON GROUND

Building Cultural Bridges through Literature

ALFREDO CHAVERO, LIENZO DE TLAXCALA, 1892

Nancy Ann Wasser is a Fourth- and Fifth-grade Teacher at Nava Elementary School inSanta Fe, New Mexico.

I

While studying migration and settlementof Spanish descendants from Mexico trav-eling El Camino Real, we visited a "livingmuseum" — a ranch settled in the 17thcentury by these descendants. Pretendingwe had just arrived in a covered wagonafter six months traveling from MexicoCity, the children made soap, carded wool,studied in a one-room school and ate sugarcane. They played with a wooden hoop anda stick and discovered it's not as easy as itlooks to keep that hoop spinning! At theend of the day, tired from our play, wehopped on our school bus-cum-coveredwagon and headed home. Later, childrenwrote lively descriptions of a typical dayliving on a ranch in the 17th Century.

The next topic — New Mexico meetMexico: When I look at you I see me —examines stories of Mexican immigrantexperiences and of Spanish settlers prac-ticing customs and traditions of OldSpain. Many stories treat the protagonists'search for roots in their countries of ori-gin. I could not pry these books awayfrom students who transcended their read-ing mastery levels to uncover plots thatinvolved their literary counterparts.

"My Personal Journey," our final proj-ect, was a book produced by each child,recording his or her own sacred stories,and courageously read aloud. One childrecounted that her mother rushed to theborder when her birth waters broke, butdidn't make it to the bridge, so she wasborn in the United States. "I was almostborn in Mexico," she divulged.

Students gobbled up the literature andactivities in this unit, and I rejoiced toobserve their accelerated growth. Theirawareness of the benefactor behind thiscurricular gift became evident one daywhile we were discussing the discovery ofa new planet. A nine-year-old boy led meto a computer where we searched for arti-cles about it. "Ms. Wasser," he solemnlyentreated, "maybe the next time you go toYale, you could ask the professors overthere about this new planet."

"I'll do it!" I promised.

SPRING 2008 27

Zoladz: Learning toRead Foreign Films

Samuel: Chinese-American Experience

(continued from page 24)carpenter, he differentiated types of woodthrough touch. He also read many of thetextured items he found in the naturalworld as if he were reading Braille. Thetactile imagery made it possible to imaginewhat it would be like to be blind."

While watching Keita: Heritage of theGriot by West African filmmaker DaneKouyate, the students looked for evidenceof the oral tradition in both the content andform of the film. They also kept track, in atwo-column chart, of aspects of the moviethat were associated with tradition and his-tory versus those associated with modernculture and the contemporary world. Afteridentifying dozens of examples of thesebinary oppositions, the students discussedand wrote about how West Africans mightreconcile the two, often conflicting, sidesof their everyday lives. From there we tran-sitioned to Chinua Achebe's Things FallApart, which also deals with cultural clash-es, leaving open the question, "how do wemove forward from here?" The studentsmade personal connections to these themesthrough self-reflective essays addressingtheir own struggles to become independentindividuals. How have they incorporatedthe values and traditions of their familiesand upbringing while forging their way totheir own identities?

Beyond teaching my students to appreci-ate different aesthetic sensibilities, andexposing them to the challenges faced bydeveloping countries, these films may playa humanitarian role in their lives as well. Bygiving students the chance to step inside theshoes of the "other" and see the world froma new perspective, the films create empathyfor people of vastly different cultures, cul-tures that are often misunderstood in theUnited States. From my students' com-ments and writing, I know the films and lit-erature of Afghanistan and Iran, for exam-ple, changed many of their perceptions ofIslam and the Middle East. At this historicaland political juncture, I can think of nomore rewarding outcome for a teacher oftomorrow's voters and leaders.

(continued from page 25)feet of living space was aimed? Again, theyeasily guessed, "The Chinese!"

I explained that legislatures were frustrat-ed because the cubic air ordinance was notworking as they had hoped. When some-one was found in violation, they had beengiven a choice of spending 30 days in jailor paying $50. Which choice do you sup-pose most Chinese immigrants had taken?At this point, the students immediatelyknew that the jail term had been the choice.Next I asked them to look at the famouspolitical cartoon entitled "Pacific Chivalry"from 1869. We discussed the unusual hair-style. I explained that the Chinese emperorrequired of his subjects the style of grow-ing a long braid in the back and shaving thefront of the head. To cut off the braid wouldshow disloyalty. The students understoodthat this queue-cutting ordinance wastherefore entirely punitive and aimed atone group and one group only.

Next we discussed the issue of the wood-en laundry. I explained that of about 300laundries in San Francisco, about 270 weremade of wood. How many of those do yousuppose were owned by the Chinese? All ofthem, my students guessed. Actually, Iexplained, all wooden laundries except onewere owned by the Chinese, and that oneexception was given the needed license. Thedifficulty written into the law providing forthe licenses was that a non-Chinese personhad to be a witness for said license to be pro-vided — a difficult problem for members ofa group who spoke a different language, andwho faced so much discrimination.

At this point, one of my students, a younglady who had studied the Black Panthersand who was my most active student infavor of black rights, asked, "So are yousaying that all groups faced discriminationwhen they came to this country?" I knewthen they had gotten the point! While theremay be exceptions, I explained, you aremostly correct. Many, many groups havestruggled with discrimination once theyarrived here. We were now ready to readour novel about Chinese Americans.

By Jennifer B. Esty

Editor's Note: This unit, written in MaryMiller's seminar in 2006 on "NativeAmerica: Understanding the Past throughThings," is designed for students at aCenter for pregnant teenagers. Its focus isthe study of Native American traditionssurrounding the preparation and con-sumption of food. It models the process ofscientific inquiry as it explores the use ofscience in anthropology, history, andarcheology. The unit also serves to pre-pare students for Hispanic HeritageMonth, and to introduce them to the wayin which information is scientifically col-lected, analyzed, and distributed. (Part ofevery science curriculum as taught inConnecticut must deal with the use andevaluation of information.) After analyz-ing a culture's culinary objects, its typesof foods, and their nutritional content, thestudents will then develop a new diet forthemselves.

t has been a year since I finished mycurriculum unit, "Things, Food, andHow We Know." Since then I have

had the opportunity to teach the unit andto reflect on my experiences of the semi-nar and of teaching the unit. Mary Miller'sseminar was an unforgettable experience.Mary has a way of leading a seminar thatinexorably draws the participants into thesubject. She made complex American cul-tures come alive through her portrayals oftheir stories, their artwork, and reenact-ments of their interactions. Her knowl-edge is vast, and her comprehension of thecultures we discussed seemed to be that ofan inhabitant born into cultures that havebeen largely defunct for hundreds ofyears. She made paintings and photo-graphs come alive with her explanationsof their stories.

Mary, however, wasn't the only one inthe seminar making stories come to life.

She asked the Fellows in the seminar toassist her in her efforts by reenactinginteresting moments in the cultures wewere studying and by sharing our works-in-progress with the seminar. The reenact-ments were a great way to gain an emo-tional connection to what might have beenrather dry material in other hands. Maryalso asked the Fellows to participate byteaching to the seminar some parts of thelessons we were including in our curricu-lum units. This was always interestingbecause the rest of the Fellows were askedto be students of an appropriate age forthe lesson. We got to be kindergarten,music, art, English and History students;we even got to be pregnant teenagers. Notonly was this exercise extremely amusing,but it also allowed all of the Fellows totest bits of their units and get helpful feed-back from other experienced teachers.The Fellows also could see what otherswere doing with the information from theseminar. The feedback from other experi-enced teachers was valuable to me as Iwas writing my unit because it allowedme to make changes to the unit beforeactually teaching it. And I freely admitthat I also borrowed a few ideas fromother teacher's presentations when Itaught my unit. I suspect that I was not theonly one to do so!

The seminar passed all too swiftly.Drafts were submitted and returned withsuggestions, and the final units were thensubmitted. September swiftly followedAugust, and I began teaching my unit onnutrition and diet with another teacher ina special "wellness" class we have for ourstudents. The students began the unit withsome activities designed to encourageinquiry and curiosity, both essential traitsfor budding scientists. The unit continuedwith an introduction to Aztec, Mayan,Inca and Wampanoag culture and foods.This was a particularly popular lessonbecause I brought in some of the foods wediscussed for the students to sample. Aftersampling some of the foods, the studentswere asked to choose a culture that looked

particularly interesting to study. I wassomewhat surprised to find that my stu-dents actually divided themselves intofairly equal sized groups. During a few ofour weekly meetings, the students usedinternet resources and books to collectinformation on the traditional diets of theparticular cultures they chose to study.After collecting information, the studentsput together an ideal meal for their chosenculture. These ideal meals became thebasis for the food at a reception andawards ceremony just beforeThanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving, the students studiedtheir own diets. They created a giant, wall-sized data table to present the informationon their own diets and on the diets of thecultures they studied. I considered my unitto be reasonably successful when I beganto observe my students eating fruit insteadof candy and fresh popcorn instead of pota-to chips. On completing the unit, the stu-dents had tried some new foods and hadgained a new understanding of the basicsof a nutritionally balanced diet.

The students especially enjoyed the partof the unit where they got to practicenutrition by eating — but then, they areteenagers! They also enjoyed the opportu-nity to study cultures that they chose tostudy. And they enjoyed the opportunityto conduct research with their fellow stu-dents. Most significantly, perhaps, the stu-dents enjoyed the opportunity to study asubject — nutrition in this case — in apractical, directly applicable manner.

There are a few changes in the unit thatI will probably make for next year, whichwill shorten the amount of time we spendon it, but this is certainly a unit that Iintend to teach again. The unit set thegroundwork for later projects and presen-tations in the "wellness" class where itwas taught, as well as in later biology andphysical education classes. Most impor-tantly, from the standpoint of "wellness,"it gave the students a chance to explorenew, healthy, tasty, and affordable optionsfor use in their own diets.

28 ON COMMON GROUND

Things, Foods, and How We Know

Jennifer B. Esty is a Science Teacher at PollyT. McCabe Center in New Haven,Connecticut.

I

By Cristian Antony Koshock

Editor's Note: This curriculum unit, alsowritten in the 2006 seminar led by MaryMiller, is designed for art courses in aschool devoted to the education of AfricanAmerican students. It explores the difficultissues of "identity" through celebrating thecultural accounts of the studentsthemselves as well as the artistic tra-ditions of the American Indians. Asthe students survey art and historyand also engage in self-examination,they formulate definitions of "identi-ty" that include reflection on tangibleobjects and recognize the inspirationinforming traditions in each group ofpeople. The four modules of this unit(the first of which is described in thispiece) focus on "Mask," "Vessel,""Cloth," and "Path." Each moduleexplores one aspect of a complex"identity."

lively chain of events hap-pened on the day that Ibegan teaching the curricu-

lum unit that I prepared as a NationalFellow in Mary Miller's seminar on"Native America: Understanding thePast through Things." I was excitedand energized from the experience inNew Haven, from my time spentlearning with the seminar leader, andfrom promoting the Initiative modelfor my school district in early in-serv-ice programs. Back in Richmond,Virginia, it was just after the start ofthe school year, and the climate of theschool was still back-to-school fresh, withnew sneakers making squeaks in the hall-ways and deep creases in the pressed pantsand shirts of the students. It seemed like theperfect time to introduce the unit to my stu-dents.

Part disruption and part defiance, thebehavior of my students in advanced art on

the day in question was, without a doubt,partially fuelled by a sense of familiaritywith me (I had taught most of the group inclasses leading up to this one) and theappearance at lunch, right before my class,of bright red frozen slushies — which hadcuriously side-stepped the wellness foodprogram recently adopted by our district.

My students' unruly behavior meant that anew introduction of the lesson would haveto come, after a refresher of class structureand the treatment of several cases of brainfreeze.

I like to relate this portion of my storywhen I tell about the teaching of the unit, asit acknowledges some challenges that facedme, and also because it indicates the kindsof material needed to hold my students'interest, i.e., topics relative to their own life

experiences, which could translate intocompelling art experiences. I designed myunit as a mixture of Native American tradi-tions and a form of teenage angst, focusingon issues connected to forming one's identi-ty. There are wonderful examples of howNative peoples express identity and associa-tion. I had a good feeling that my students,

predominantly African Americans,would identify with the past and pres-ent circumstances of NativeAmericans. I knew specifically thatsome students could claim heritagefrom Native sources and figured thatthis would make for a fantastic bridgeto the information. I chose to use thesection of my unit, entitled Mask,which focused on how the individualinfluences the characteristics of iden-tity and how these are interpreted ormisinterpreted by others.

In the classes that followed, I waspleased to have students onboard andfocused on the unit. The lesson beganwith a discussion from a writingprompt on the chalkboard: "Relate anincident that you have heard of, orwhich has happened to you, wherethere was a case of racial profiling."Students shared in earnest what theyhad written down. Vocabulary termswere introduced and discussed andeven the dictionary was brought outto correlate definitions from referencesources and slang usage. There camean understanding when students sawthat multiple definitions fuel multipleperspectives.

We followed up with a visual dis-play of images of the American Indian:some Eurocentric, others New World.Students were able to respond to the imagesthrough comparison and connected theaspects of multiple perspectives to theimage of the Indian as they had earlier tothemselves. Examples included paintings,early photographs, product and sports' teamlogos, and video (from the 1971 Anti-Littering campaign, with Iron Eyes Cody).


SPRING 2008 29

Native American Traditions and Identity in theArt Room

Cristian Antony Koshock is an Art Teacher atArmstrong High School in Richmond,Virginia.

A

THOMAS EAKINS, FRANK HAMILTON CUSHING, 1895

(continued from page 29)My students exceeded expectations by

demonstrating an air of helpful and cooper-ative effort during the studio portion of thelesson. Each student submitted to theprocess of having his or her face cast withplaster gauze and, in turn, assisted in thecasting of a classmate's face. The processtook about forty-five minutes to completeindividually and happened over a span oftwo class periods. Proper care of materialsand clean up procedures were covered in ateacher demonstration.

Connected and invested in their projectsthus far, my students continued to work byplanning out the manner by which theirmasks would display indicators of theiridentity. Embellishment of the masks was tobe two-fold: The outside of the mask wassaved for the individual projection of identi-ty and the stereotyping or misconceptions ofothers. The inside of the masks we saved forthe representation of the true self. Colorsand symbols from contemporary and Nativesources, and collaged and three-dimensionalelements would combine to form convinc-ing and personal works of art.

Closure of the lesson came with the pres-entation of masks by students. Hard workand thoughtful inclusion of Native and per-sonal imagery brought about complimentsand encouragement from the audience. Ahush fell during one presenter's turn, as heexplained how his thuggish clothes andJamaican accent belied the scope of hisactual knowledge and feelings — hisimmigration from a war-torn Africannation, his desire for peace for the peopleof Darfur, and his sincere hope to becomea doctor — his solution for the problems hewitnessed. It was clear to all that he had acommand of the lesson's objectives. Itbecame clear to me, also, that it took a cer-tain quality and scope of study and prepa-ration to engage students on this level,which I attribute to my time at Yale, and thecombination of content and intent to form acurriculum unit that had my students in ahush, until the silence was broken: "Man, Iknow you got an A!"

30 ON COMMON GROUND

Carpenter: Planning for a Teachers Institute

(continued from page 7)state-of-the art tools and techniques tochallenge, engage and effectively teach.

For the educational component in thesummer of 2005 and 2006 the district sup-ported nine National Fellows by providingprofessional leave for them to attend theYNI May orientation and the Fall AnnualConference. The Fellows then met with meand the executive team in October 2006.The following two months, the YNI mis-sion was presented to SFPS Board andother administrators.

The SFPS district works collaborativelywith the community of Santa Fe in manyways. With collaboration at the forefront,the College of Santa Fe (CSF) was invitedto participate in this endeavor, andPresident Mark Lombardi answered thecall. This began a series of preliminary dis-cussions between SFPS and CSF. The fif-teen articles delineated in the Articles ofUnderstanding served as the foundation forour planning process. The Declaration ofIntent to Plan was being drafted and in July2007, three CSF faculty and six SFPSTeacher Fellows attended the YNIIntensive Session. In August 2007 theDeclaration was revised, solidified, andsubmitted to Yale.

In September 2007, the Yale NationalInitiative received SFPS district'sDeclaration of Intent to Submit a PlanningApplication. A Santa Fe Teachers InstitutePlanning Committee will be organized bythe City Representative; and will be com-prised of public school teachers selectedfrom former National Fellows to representelementary, middle, and high school teachersinterested in developing and planning a localinstitute. The Superintendent and theDirector of Curriculum and Instruction willserve as the District liaisons to the planningprocess for the Santa Fe Teachers Institute.The higher education institution will be rep-resented on the Planning Committee by itspresident as well as representative(s) from itsfaculty. The Planning Committee will dedi-cate time to the task of identifying a PlanningDirector to recommend to the Yale National

Initiative and outline specific roles and com-mitments of each of the local institute's part-ners: SFPS and the College of Santa Fe.

The next step is to select a planningdirector to recommend to the Yale NationalInitiative, and to outline the specific rolesand commitments of each of the localInstitute's partners. The purpose of thePlanning Phase is to enable a full explo-ration of the partners, major strategies,scope, personnel, and funding of a Santa FeTeachers Institute that conforms to the"Articles of Understanding."

Education is not a race where the prizegoes to the one who finishes first. To helpstudents develop literacy and a lifelonglove of learning we need to respect andstrengthen their individual abilities anddrive to learn. The challenge for teachersand leaders will be difficult, but the satis-faction is worth the effort. The YaleInitiative is designed to be an invitation forthose in education to assume a more activerole in curriculum professional develop-ment. Becoming an effective teacherrequires being totally committed to animportant idea, having unwavering faith inthe process, and understanding and pro-moting the value of positive change.

Santa Fe Public Schools

SFPS district is composed of 27 schoolsites including 20 elementary schools, 4middle schools, 2 comprehensive highschools, a bilingual early childhood center,an alternative high school and 4 charterschools. Additionally, the Santa Fe PublicSchools provides educational services toregistered home school students, and tostudents at the New Mexico School for theDeaf, the Santa Fe County JuvenileDetention Center and the New MexicoGirls Ranch. In total, the District servesapproximately 13,000 students and has1,800 plus employees, 50% of whom havea Masters Degree or higher. The studentpopulation is composed of 67% Hispanic,23% Anglo (Non-Hispanic), 3% AmericanIndian, and 7% other or unidentified.

Koshock: NativeAmerican Traditionsand Identity

(continued from front cover)confidence and enthusiasm when they havea deeper understanding of the subject mat-ter that they teach and this translates intohigher expectations for their students andan increase in student achievement.

The Teachers Professional DevelopmentInstitutes are based on the Yale-NewHaven Teachers Institute model that hasbeen in existence since 1978. For over 25years, the Institute has offered six or seven13-session seminars each year, led by Yalefaculty, on topics that teachers have select-ed to enhance their mastery of the specificsubject area that they teach. The subjectselection process begins with representa-tives from the Institute soliciting ideasfrom teachers throughout the school dis-trict for topics on which teachers feel theyneed to have additional preparation, topicsthat will assist them in preparing materialsthey need for their students, or topics thatwill assist them in addressing the stan-dards that the school district requires. As aconsensus emerges about desired seminarsubjects, the Institute director identifiesuniversity faculty members with theappropriate expertise, interest and desireto lead the seminar. University facultymembers, especially those who have ledInstitute seminars before, may sometimessuggest seminars they would like to lead,and these ideas are circulated by the repre-sentatives as well. The final decisions onwhich seminar topics are offered are ulti-mately made by the teachers who partici-pate. In this way, the offerings aredesigned to respond to what teachersbelieve is needed and useful for boththemselves and their students.

The cooperative nature of the Instituteseminar planning process ensures its suc-cess: Institutes offer seminars and relevantmaterials on topics teachers have identifiedand feel are needed for their own prepara-tion as well as what they know will moti-vate and engage their students. Teachersenthusiastically take part in rigorous semi-

nars they have requested, and as part of theprogram, practice using the materials theyhave obtained and developed. This helpsensure that the experience not only increas-es their preparation in the subjects they areassigned to teach, but also their participa-tion in an Institute seminar gives themimmediate hands-on active learning mate-rials that can be used in the classroom. Inshort, by allowing teachers to determinethe seminar subjects and providing themthe resources to develop relevant curriculafor their classroom and their students, theInstitutes empower teachers. Teachersknow their students best and they knowwhat should be done to improve schoolsand increase student learning. TheTeachers Professional DevelopmentInstitutes promote this philosophy.

From 1999-2002, the Yale-New HavenTeachers Institute promoted a NationalDemonstration Project to create compara-ble Institutes at four diverse sites with largeconcentrations of disadvantaged students.These demonstration projects are locatedin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Houston,Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, andSanta Ana, California.

Follow-up evaluations have earned verypositive results from the teacher partici-pants in the Yale-New Haven Institute, aswell as the four demonstration sites. Thedata strongly support the conclusion thatvirtually all teachers felt substantiallystrengthened in their mastery of contentknowledge and they also developedincreased expectations for what their stu-dents could achieve. In addition, becauseof their involvement in the course selectionand curriculum development process,teacher participants have found these sem-inars to be especially relevant and useful intheir classroom practices. Mr. President, 95percent of all participating teachers report-ed that the seminars were useful. TheseInstitutes have also served to foster teacher

leadership, to develop supportive teachernetworks, to heighten university facultycommitments to improving K-12 publiceducation, and to foster more positive part-nerships between school districts and insti-tutions of higher education.

Many agree that teacher quality is thesingle most important school-related fac-tor in determining student achievement.Effective teacher professional develop-ment programs that focus on subject andpedagogy knowledge are a proven methodfor enhancing the success of a teacher inthe classroom.

Though a K-12 teacher shortage is fore-cast in the near-term and many new teach-ers will be entering our schools, thoseteachers who are presently on the job willdo the majority of teaching in the class-rooms in the very near future. For this rea-son, it is imperative to invest in methodsto strengthen our present teaching work-force. Like many professions, the qualityof our teachers could diminish if their pro-fessional development is neglected.Positive educational achievements occurwhen coursework in a teacher's specificcontent area is combined with pedagogytechniques. This is what the TeachersProfessional Development Institutes Actstrives to accomplish.

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institutehas already proven to be a successfulmodel for teacher professional develop-ment as demonstrated by the high calibercurriculum unit plans that teacher partici-pants have developed and placed on theweb, and by the evaluations that supportthe conclusion that virtually all the teacherparticipants felt substantially strengthenedin their mastery of content knowledge andtheir teaching skills. Our proposal wouldopen this opportunity to many more urbanteachers throughout the nation.

I urge my colleagues to act favorably onthis measure.

SPRING 2008 31

Lieberman: Teachers Institutes for the Nation

Support the Teachers Institutes Act athttp://teachers.yale.edu/legislationJoseph I. Lieberman is United States Senator

from Connecticut.

(continued from front cover)Professional Development Institutesacross the nation to bring together facultymembers from universities or colleges andpublic school teachers from low-incomeschool districts. This program is modeledafter the successful Yale-New HavenTeachers Institute, which for 30 years hasmaintained an intensive and sustained col-laboration between faculty members ofYale University and public school teach-ers. Unlike other teacher preparation mod-els, this program places equal emphasis onteachers increasing their subject knowl-edge and on their developing teachingstrategies that will be effective with theirstudents. Teachers suggest topics theybelieve will enrich their classroom instruc-tion. The university or college facultymembers contribute their subject knowl-edge and expertise, while the school teach-ers contribute their expertise in elementaryand secondary school pedagogy, theirunderstanding of the students they teach,and their grasp of what works in the cru-cible of the classroom. The programrequires that the teachers, with guidancefrom a faculty member, write a curriculumunit to be used in their own classroom andto be shared with others in the same school

and other schools through both print andelectronic publication.

This program has already been replicatedsuccessfully through Teachers Institutes inPittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Houston.Currently seven additional cities in sevenstates Charlotte, NC; Santa Fe, NM; NewCastle County, DE; Atlanta, GA; Richmond,VA; Chicago, IL; and San Francisco, CA areparticipating in work sponsored by the YaleNational Initiative, and actively consideringor planning new Institutes.

If passed, our legislation would authorize$30 million over five years and make fed-eral funding available to as many as 40states in all. With these Institutes, states andschool districts might also learn from theirimmediate experience about more effectiveways to invest federal and local resources instrengthening teaching and learning.

Too often we hear from teachers thattheir professional development opportuni-ties are too narrowly related to the adop-

tion of a specific curriculum or textbook.In a way that respects them as profession-al educators, we must give teachers theopportunity to deepen their knowledge ofthe content they teach and then help themforge a plan to incorporate what they havelearned into their classrooms. This pro-gram, with the help of university or col-lege partners, does just that. Teachers havebeen found to gain confidence in their ownunderstanding of the subject matter andenthusiastically deliver their new curricu-lum to the classroom. Those results trans-late into higher expectations for their stu-dents and higher student achievement.

Expanding this successful programacross the nation will allow even moreteachers the opportunity to gain additionalsophisticated content knowledge and achance to develop a curriculum that can bedirectly applied in their classrooms. Whenwe strengthen teacher training, studentacademic achievement wins.

On Common Ground

Spring 2008Yale-New Haven Teachers InstitutePhone: (203) 432-1080Fax: (203) 432-1084E-mail: [email protected] Wide Web: http://teachers.yale.edu

Executive Editor, James R. VivianChairman, Editorial Board, Thomas R. WhitakerArt Advisor, Jules D. Prown

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute is an edu-cational partnership between Yale University andthe New Haven Public Schools designed tostrengthen teaching and learning in local schoolsand, by example and direct assistance, in schoolsacross the country. In 2004, the Institute announcedthe Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching inpublic schools, a long-term endeavor to establishTeachers Institutes in states throughout the nation.

Yale UniversityYale-New Haven Teachers InstituteP.O. Box 203563New Haven, Connecticut 06520-3563

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Strengthening Teaching throughSchool-University Partnership

DeLauro and Courtney:Teachers Institutes forthe Nation

CURRIER AND IVES PUBLISHERS, THE CAPITOL IN WASHINGTON

Rosa L. DeLauro and Joe Courtney are UnitedStates Representatives from Connecticut.

Number 12 - Yale National Initiative - Yale University

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