Educ 541

Reading Response #1: Identify research based instructional strategies you can use in your ITU.
    In my ITU I plan to use research that educates me on the specific challenges facing student groups in my classroom and at my school site.  By educating myself, I can find resources that will allow me to provide a fair an equitable education for all of my students.  My main focus would be on the achievement gap for each group in my classroom.  I have the ability to create an inviting and safe classroom for students of all cultural, socio-economic and sexual backgrounds.  I can do this by setting classroom expectations that require my students to use respectful and person first language.  This provides a place for students to feel comfortable and be able to focus on their learning.
    As a teacher, in my lessons, I can find material that students can relate to.  I can find authors that have similar backgrounds or experiences for students to read rather than just reading about “dead white guys.”  Also introducing students to their community and being active in the community will help give everyone an education that they can invest in because they all live in the community.  Finding common interests and topics that interest students is a powerful way for students to find connections and look past their differences.  

Reading Response #2: Activities 7.1&7.2

    In our unit of study our most important source is going to be student questions.  Our theme is family and we want our students to research and benefit from the unit in a personal way.  To do this, we are relying on student interest and inquiries to focus the ITU.  On top of student curiosity, we will also be using the Internet and some classroom literature to connect the students to other curriculum.  

Familly>history>culture>genes>different>marriages>future family

    Our group brainstormed themes and then went around and had each person talk about how they could incorporate the theme into their classroom curriculum.  We were all excited and had a lot of ideas for family so that was the theme we decided on.  Because of our disciplines, we will each focus on a different aspect of family in our classrooms but focus on the same essential questions and objectives.

Essential Questions:

1. What do I already know about my family?

2. How did my family come to America?

3. Is my culture integrated into my daily life?

4. Do I want to raise my kids to be aware of where they came from and be proud of their culture?

5. What do I want to learn about my family?

Reading Response #3

>> Hard copy list

Reading Response #4

I am confident in my organizational and planning skills to I would be good at contributing the unit calendar, unit overview of activities, standards and objectives and rationale.  I also have a strong background in educating others on social justice and equity so I would be able to contribute a lot of knowledge and experience to that aspect of the ITU.  I am good at looking at the big picture and timing things out so I believe I would be good at these parts of the ITU.  I would not feel confident in the technology portion of the ITU, especially creative technology.  I am creative in my thinking and with markers and paper, but on the computer I tend to get confused and frustrated when I try to get creative digitally.  

Reading Response #5

Our theme is family.  Our group is mad up of Chemistry, History and English teachers.  We will each focus on a different aspect of family, culture, background and genes, because of our disciplines.  In the English classroom I am going to have students look into their personal family background as well as cultural background.  Individually I will have students interview parents and grandparents if possible about how their family came to America.  They will do some individual research on their own family as well as their family’s culture.  They will then creatively represent their family’s journey and background with a poem, song, collage etc... to show what they learned they will also accompany the creative piece with a reflective paper.  Then, they will break into groups and choose one culture to study more in depth.  Students will interview people of all different age groups, visit cultural stores and celebrations and make a video about that culture.  They will then present those to the class and it will also be accompanied by a reflective paper on what they learned as well as how they worked as a group.

Reading Response #6
    >> in progress