TE 823: Learning Communities and EquityFall Semester (2008)

Kyle Greenwalt328 Erickson Hall

517-353-0824 (office)612-817-2818 (cell)greenwlt@msu.edu

Office Hours: 10:15 – 12:15 Mondays, and by appointment

If our education is to have any meaning for life, it must pass through [a] complete transformation . . . To do this means to make each one of our schools an embryonic

community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history, and science. When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with

the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guaranty of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious.

John Dewey (1896)

Course Description and Objectives

The official description of this course as given in the MSU catalogue is quite concise: Cooperative grouping and heterogeneous learning teams. Impact of learning communities on equity and on school curricula. As such, it opens up a rather large area of study.

It implies, on the one hand, that our course must take time investigating the manner in which student learning can be organized across and through social differences. That is, then, the course focuses on a multicultural instructional techniques.

On the other hand, the course implies that group learning is not, in and of itself, an end: for group learning is a means to a broader end, an end which I would call, following John Dewey, the goal of democratic living. Our course description measures the worth of our democratic living in the term “equity.” Unlike the

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phrase “equality of access,” which was the central reform undertaken in the Civil Rights era, equity has become the new reform agenda for schooling in the post-industrial era. It implies that it is not enough for all students to be treated similarly. For all children should, if our institutions are held accountable, be able to achieve largely similar life outcomes (as full members in multiple, interacting groups). This is the logic of No Child Left Behind. But it is also the logic behind other reform agendas as well.

A commitment to equity, then, implies that we are renewing the democratic promise of American schooling. The way in which students learn about, and start to practice, the art of pluralist, democratic living is among the most essential things which a school might teach. It is a preeminent curricular goal. So in addition to instructional techniques, our course will examine the explicit and implicit curriculum of democracy which our schools currently both do and do not teach.

Beyond the curriculum and instruction of pluralistic democracy, our course will take up several other topics which are relevant to the topic at hand: the achievement gap, tracking, and bi-lingual education—to name only a few. We will start the course with readings which introduce us to research that illuminates key theoretical constructs (cultural deprivation theory, cultural capital theory, cultural mismatch theory) and we will end the course by looking at research on instructional techniques, both broadly speaking and the in the various disciplines.

Finally, you should note that this course was constructed with practicing teachers in mind. However, it is my hope that any interested member of our society would find this course helpful for thinking about the challenges of multicultural, democratic education and schooling in contemporary US and global contexts.

Angel System

All course readings will be placed on Angel. You will also upload your work onto the Angel system. Indeed, as this is an online course, Angel will be the central mechanism (along with email) through which we communicate and learn. To reach the Angel cite, please go to https://angel.msu.edu. Log into the system using your MSU NetID. You should see listed TE 823 as one of your “My Angel Courses.” All readings and folders for paper uploads will be under the section, “lessons.” Please examine the other sections for announcements, copies of the syllabus, useful links, etc.

Please note that in order to make this course and our Angel site more collaborative,

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each student will have full editing rights to the Angel site. I do this so that you may make announcements to your colleagues, upload and download work, etc.

Organization of the Course

We are used to courses that have a weekly rhythm. It seems natural that we should think about each week we attend a course as something “new.” However, organizing a course in this way has certain drawbacks. Among the biggest drawback, in my experience, is that we tend to move too fast, not spending enough time connecting our own thoughts and experiences to the readings. This course, since it is using an online delivery system, will attempt to remedy this problem by setting us on a two-week cycle for our learning. In doing this, I am attempting to take your own writing more seriously—to elevate students’ texts to the same level as texts written by professional researchers in the academy.

During Week A, each student will be asked to read approximately 50 pages of text and to construct a text in response to the issues raised in the readings (an “editorial”—see below). During Week B, each student is responsible for reading all editorials posted by the students in the class, and for constructing an academic text that specifically responds to the editorial of another student in class (an “academic review”—see below). At the end of every week b, after having read all editorials and academic reviews, I will create a podcast which will summarize my thoughts on our work as a class over the past two weeks. This will allow me to comment on the substance and coherence of the class’s work.

Therefore, your assignments will be due in the following fashion:

During Week A: Read assigned texts.Write and post an editorial that responds to the assigned texts.

During Week B: Read all student editorials.Write and post an academic review of another student’s editorial. You should also email this person your review.

All work done over the course of the week will be due on the Angel system by Sunday evening, 8:00 pm (EST).

Summary of Assignments

Discussion Forums.

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Each week, I will post a question on an Angel forum (forums located under “lessons” on Angel) for threaded discussion. All students are expected to participate in this activity. The questions will generally relate to your opinions and will allow us, hopefully, to get to know one another better.

Editorials.You will write 7 editorials over the course of the semester. These are to be posted in the appropriate box on Angel by Sunday evening, 8:00 pm (EST). The editorials should be approximately 2 pages (double spaced, 12 point font, one inch margins). I call this assignment as editorial because I expect you to write about your own personal and professional views, experiences, and values—using a relatively personal and informal voice. An editorial is meant to inform, but even more so, it is meant to persuade. Therefore, based upon the assigned readings and with the possible help of the guiding question for each week, I ask that you construct a persuasive text for your peers in the class (and if you blog, for your blogging audience too perhaps). You can also think about these texts as if you were a newspaper columnist or television commentator—that is the spirit in which I would like you to write. You should feel free to take some risks in these texts, and to experiment with different ways of getting your point across.

Academic Reviews.Because different genres of text serve different purposes, I am also asking you to write in a mode that is considered more academic. Each student will write 7 academic reviews over the course of the semester. These are to be posted in the appropriate box on Angel by Sunday evening, 8:00 pm (EST). The academic reviews should be approximately 3 pages (double spaced, 12 point font, one inch margins). When you write an academic review, you will be addressing it to the editorials of one of your classmates. Imagine that the editorial board of a professional journal, such as Phi Delta Kappan, English Journal or Mathematics Teacher, asks you to review an editorial for publication. In order to do so, you will have to know some of the research which speaks to the topic which the editorial addresses (that is, your review should make substantial use of the readings from week a). You will want to correct what you see as misunderstandings or mischaracterizations. You will also want to help the editorialist write in a way that is clearer and more persuasive. Therefore, your academic reviews should be in the form of a letter, respectfully addressed to your colleague, which helps them improve their editorial.

You may address your academic review to any student in the class whose writing you find interesting, provocative, infuriating, etc. Again, I ask that your reviews be

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kept to constructive criticism. You may disagree, but you should do so in a way that helps the writer make their own point—not yours. I ask that you respond no more than twice to any individual student’s editorials.

Term Paper.Near the end of the semester, there will be a formal paper due (8-10 pages in length). I will have this paper graded and returned to you before finals week, so that, should you choose, you may revise it. More information about expectations and grading for this paper will be given early in the semester.

The substance of this assignment will require that you do additional reading about one of the topics discussed in class. The paper you write can either take the form of a review of the literature, or, if you choose, as a proposal for school/curricular/instructional reform which you could submit to your departmental chair, school board or administrative team.

Because there is less reading assigned during Week B of every topic, I suggest that you use that time to do the additional reading this assignment will call for.

Assessment of Student Performance

As course instructor, my goal will be to provide you with useful and meaningful feedback on your thinking. This feedback will happen through two vehicles: the bi-weekly podcast and an individualized, substantive response to your term paper. The term paper will be returned to you in time that you may make revisions to it (if you so choose), and thereby improve your grade. The criteria for the term paper will be made explicit through a rubric and a task description.

Generally speaking, here is what I will be looking for in all of your written assignments.

1. Is there evidence that you were wholly engaged in the work (exploring the concepts, applying what you are learning to your practice, treating issues in a critical manner)?

2. Is there evidence that you communicated your arguments and critiques in a clear and cogent manner?

Student grades will therefore be allocated as follows:

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Term Paper: 50% of course gradeStudent Participation: 50% of course grade

Student participation is defined as uploading your work on time, active participation in discussion forums, and creating editorials and academic reviews which demonstrate effort, creativity, and critical insight. Students whose weekly writing I consider poor or below expectations will be contacted by me individually and given an explanation of the problem as well as suggestions for remedying it. Continued poor writing will result in a lowering of the student participation grade (I will again contact you if I take this step).

Course Outline

Week 1a (August 25 – August 31)Title: Overcoming Cultural Deprivation TheoryGuiding Question: How can we explain the achievement gap in education?

Readings: Douglas Foley, “Reconceptualizing Ethnicity and Educational Achievement”John Ogbu, “Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning”R.P. McDermott, “The Explanation of Minority School Failure, Again”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 1b (September 1 – 7)Title: Overcoming Cultural Deprivation TheoryGuiding Question: How can we explain the achievement gap in education?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 2a (September 8 – 14)Title: Another Type of Wealth: Cultural CapitalGuiding Question: Are schools middle-class institutions?

Readings:

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Annette Lareau & Erin McNamara Horvat, “Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion: Race, Class and Cultural Capital in Family-School Relationships”

Catherine Compton-Lilly, “The Complexities of Reading Capital in Two Puerto-Rican Families”

Pierre Bourdieu & Jean-Claude Passeron, “Pedagogic Work”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 2b (September 15 – 21)Title: Another Type of Wealth: Cultural CapitalGuiding Question: Are schools middle-class institutions?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 3a (September 22 – 28)Title: Culturally-Relevant Teaching Guiding Question: How do we teach across difference?

Readings: Gloria Ladson-Billings, “Does Culture Matter?” Cherry A. McGee Banks & James Banks, “Equity Pedagogy: An Essential

Component of Multicultural Education”Guadalupe Valdés, “Teaching English at Garden Middle School”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 3b (September 29 – October 5)Title: Culturally-Relevant Teaching Guiding Question: How do we teach across difference?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

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Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 4a (October 6 – 12)Title: TrackingGuiding Question: Should our schools be detracked? If so, how?

Readings: Jeannie Oakes, “Unlocking the Tradition”Amy Stuart Wells & Irene Serna, “The Politics of Culture: Understanding Local

Political Resistance to Detracking in Racially Mixed Schools”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 4b (October 13 – October 19)Title: TrackingGuiding Question: Should our schools be detracked? If so, how?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 5a (October 20 – 26)Title: Unpacking the Notion of a Learning CommunityGuiding Question: Is group learning the answer?Readings: Robert Felner et al, “Creating Small Learning Communites”Wolff-Michael Roth & Yew Jin Lee, “Contradictions in Theorizing and

Implementing Communities in Education”Robert Cooper & Robert Slavin, “Cooperative Learning: An Instructional Strategy

to Improve Intergroup Relations”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 5b (October 27 – November 2)Title: Unpacking the Notion of a Learning Community

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Guiding Question: Is group learning the answer?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 6a (November 3 – 9)Title: Democratic Teaching in Math and the SciencesGuiding Question: What role do mathematics and the sciences have in promoting democratic citizenship?

Readings: Eric Gutstein, “Social justice, equity, and mathematics education”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

Week 6b (November 10 – 16)Title: Democratic Teaching in Math and the SciencesGuiding Question: What role do mathematics and the sciences have in promoting democratic citizenship?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 7a (November 17 – 23)Title: Freedom of Expression in the ClassroomGuiding Question: Can classrooms truly become democratic?

Readings: Walter Parker, “Learning to Lead Discussions”Timothy Lensmire, “Writing Workshop as Carnival”

Task: Write an editorial that deals with some issue brought up by the readings.

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Week 7b (November 24 – 30)Title: Freedom of Expression in the ClassroomGuiding Question: Can classrooms truly become democratic?

Readings: Student editorials posted on Angel

Task: Write an academic review of another student’s editorial

Week 8 (December 1 - 5)Coda: Why is integrated learning so powerful?

Readings: Vivian Paley, White Teacher (Chapters 18 & 19)

Task:Write a final note to your classmates, reflecting on the course and Paley’s thoughts (Please upload this text to Angel at your convenience).

Note also that students should submit their Term Papers to instructor by 8 pm (EST) on December 3. Students who submit their papers by this time will have their papers returned no later than noon (EST) of December 8. This will allow students up to a week to perform revisions, should they wish.

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