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What Happened to Ebonics?

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Turmoil in 1980s Oakland Leads to Continued Definitive Conclusions about Language’s Impact on Education in the 2020s by Matthew Bamberg Photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash The Ebonics debate has often been misunderstood. It refers to the dialect of AAVE (African American Vernacular English). This type of language is prevalent in the Black community and has also spread into popular culture through lyrics in rap music and similar genres. I be workin’ Yes, I be workin’ on this article. This can be defined as: I’ve been working on this article for a while, although not necessarily at this very moment. I begin here because using AAVE helps readers understand the importance of training teachers to use it in our classrooms. Before getting into the meat and potatoes of the point, AAVE is an important dialect and, therefore, should be treated with the utmost respect, especially when dealing with it as a teacher. Slavery was Brutal The history of AAVE in the United States began in the 17th and 18t...
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Close Reading Updated Procedure for Including Cognates

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  Updated Procedure for Including Cognates in Close Reading Courtesy of Stoneybrook University Introduction:  Introduce title and author (if available) of passage. Discuss what you know about the topic, including identifying it as narration, description, argument, poetry, play, subject area and so on. Relate topic to prior reading and set purpose for reading new selection.  1. Teacher  reads selection  aloud while students follow along (engagement).  A list of websites with reading selections is included at the end of this lesson plan. 2. Teacher elicits from students what they think is the first characteristic (length, difficulty, tone, genre, purpose) they note about the passage. Write the words on the white board or note pad under document camera. ( I do ; we do; you do method) 3. Have students indicate the words they aren't familiar with (circle, highlight, etc...) Look up word in online or table dictionary and discuss with students, associating it with...
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What can you do with a masters in education?

As a masters in education (creative arts education) at SFSU (San Francisco State University),  I've been able to create this online education blog for graduate students majoring in a wide variety of online education disciplines from multicultural education to English Language Learning.  Please feel free to add your ideas to assist online education students. Links are especially needed for resources in critical thinking and English language learners.  With my masters in education, I've been able to be a professor at UAGC, National University and the University of Phoenix, as well as having 12 how-to photography books published including the book, "Digital Art Photography for Dummies."
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Critical Thinking and Social Justice Issues--Please Respond

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Educators and trainers can follow steps to deepen critical thinking throughout lessons using Bloom's Taxonomy . Critical thinking and social justice go hand-in-hand in education. Here's a simple way to create a social justice critical thinking lesson based upon an event in history and relating it to a topic today.    Critical Thinking Steps based upon Bloom's Taxonomy: Remember Interpret and Summarize Analysis Apply Knowledge Evaluation Consider a topic to which you can apply the above deepening critical thinking process.  For example: Remember: Recall everything you know about social justice and women's rights. Read/Summarize: Read and summarize an article/book about social justice in order to define one appropriate issue connected to a history curriculum and to students' prior knowledge, For example:  Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote . Apply Knowledge: Students will select an  issue about social justice/women's rights .  Analysis: Arrange stud...
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Climate Change Neglect in Education

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Much of the curriculum in schools is silent on climate change, as the New York Times reports. The article about addressing the issue in education, especially middle school,  states that there are more articles online that misinform about the topic than cover it accurately.  Teaching students to search for reliable information on the topic should look for search terms in Google that will lead them to accurate scientific information. While the article states the importance of teaching this topic to the next generation, it sidesteps how teachers can find accurate information about climate change. Students, parents and teachers can investigate the reputable information about the topic with one simple set of search parameters on Google. The keywords are as follows: NOAA climate change site:.gov It's a travesty that The Times' goals don't include informing people about NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in its article about climate change. The article mentions...
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Critical Thinking Lesson Plan and Assessment Links for a Variety of Subjects and Grade Levels

What could be better for educators and homeschooling parents than a prefessional paper that lists links that you can find reputable links for lesson plans and other resources for critical thinking and critical thinking assessment without pop-up ads. In the paper, the descriptions and links are detailed in a variety of subject areas (Bowers, n.d.).  For example in the   Edsitement website   there are thorough lesson plans, teacher's guides and media with a wide assortment of topics from   history   and   language arts   to   music . Many other non-profit and governmental agencies provide free available resources such as the aforementioned one, each offering information and links about critical thinking and assessment for grades K-12.    Bowers, N. (n.d.). Instructional support for the teaching of critical thinking: Looking beyond the red brick walls.   https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.559.4296&rep=rep1...
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Assisting immigrant Students to Overcome Isolation

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  Recently immigrated students can feel isolated, so that teachers can implement using cooperative groups combined with  social emotional learning  in the classroom. Before initiating any group work, teachers are encouraged to teach the guidelines for group work .   Keeping students working with the same group of people for a period of time will help them to overcome isolation. Also, teachers should provide a lot of structure and establish daily routines, so that students know what is expected of them.  Resources for Recently Immigrated Students There is immigration curriculum at https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc/research/immigrant-stories/toolkits    Book and Teaching Unit for Spanish Speaking Immigrants in Elementary School Book: Muñoz Ryan, P. (2000). Esperanza Rising . New York: Scholastic. Unit: Unit for Esperanza Rising .  
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University Courses Associated with Critical Race Theory

  Many politicians are not educators. If they were they would be aware of conscientization : The action or process of making others aware of political and social conditions, especially as a precursor to challenging inequalities of treatment or opportunity; the fact of being aware of these conditions. University courses that teach about conscientization are directly related to the idea of critical race theory and are vital for new teachers to understand at-risk students, students from lower socioeconomic classes of all races and English Language Learners. These students are often the focus of teacher-training university courses.    Many courses that include conscientization and critical race theory reasoning are threatened to be canceled, along with any associated books that mention justice for all. In some states politicians promote fear that they will offend many parents because they present injustices throughout history toward oppressed and disadvan...
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Parents and teachers can read books to elementary and middle schoolers

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 Parents and teachers can read books about math to elementary and middle schoolers.  Here are two great lists of math-related stories that parents and teachers can read with students. There's a an elementary grade literature book list for STEM subjects at https://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/teachers/5th-grade/literature-list/ Middle school math fiction books  are at  https://www.tarleton.edu/team/documents/Middle_School_Mathematics_Books.pdf https://www.tarleton.edu/team/documents/Middle_School_Mathematics_Books.pdf
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Critical Thinking and the Creation of New Ideas

Critical thinking is a vital part of the education process. Engaging students in the development of critical thinking skills can lead to analysis and synthesis, leading to the creation of new ideas for goods and services that ultimately will benefit the citizens of all countries. Consider that critical thinking occurs when students' affective filters (anxiety levels) are low. They will be lower when they are talking with one another than talking in front of the class, responding to teacher questioning.  Another point is to have students use critical thinking when researching by using higher thinking skills of analysis and synthesis, such as investigating a topic from multiple perspectives by using a variety of sources. When I wrote nonfiction books about photography, I would do just that. Here's how: When I read through an article, I would write questions I'd have about material in the article that weren't answered in it.  Then I'd research an a...
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Critical Race Theory Information-- Paulo Freire and Power in Relationships

Paulo Freire coined the term banking information in order to express a lesson being taught by the teacher with students being passive recipients of knowledge. He advocated for collaborative learning, so that students interact with each other and the teacher. If you research the differences between teaching by banking information where the teacher has most of the power and teaching using collaborative learning by student interaction, you'll discover that the latter is more democratic, which is the value Freire emphasized in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed  ("Paulo Freire," n.d.). Freire used concepts such as vertical teaching and horizontal teaching to define the relationships between two types of instruction, and he equates each to the power the relationship has. Vertical Teaching teacher ↓ student Horizontal Teaching teacher ↔ student Power in relationships is an important concept in education. Critical Race Theory is concerned with people who are oppressed bec...
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Culturally Responsive Teaching Study is Awarded Nearly $400,000

  There are organizations interested in supporting research by and for practitioners on processes, projects, initiatives or aspects of practice that they are involved in.  One good one is  The Institute of Educational Sciences  offers grants for educators to initiate educational programs and studies such as producing curriculum for teacher professional development programs.  There is an interesting amount of money to develop a professional development program focusing on  culturally responsive teaching  (CRT). See  https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=3254 The Institute of Educational Sciences offers grants for educators to initiate educational programs and studies such as producing curriculum for teacher professional development programs.  The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has established  14 programs of research (topics) under its Education Research Grants Program.
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Assessment and Rubrics

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Utah Education Network Instructionally sound assessment requires more than implementing meaningful tasks and standards. Teachers must develop the capacity to analyze student work, as well as the leadership ability to train students to do this analysis. The Rubistar website with you where you can create your own rubrics. An assessment is an appraisal of the learner developed by the teacher observing a student and his or her work. An effective lesson plan should contain several opportunities for assessment throughout the plan. It can consist of pretests for determining what students already know, questioning intermittently throughout a lesson and quizzes. An evaluation is static and represented by a grade, a rank, or a score, that a student earns. Assessment is more dynamic, with reflective observation, whereas evaluation is static.   Formative assessments that monitor progress are given more frequently than summative assessments (or evaluation), which usually occur at the end o...
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STEM Wildfire Education Necessity

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  California Wildfires Are Getting Worse. Why Schools Must Teach Fire Survival Now From science to social-emotional learning, a comprehensive approach is needed to safeguard communities from natural and man-made hazards Wildfire in the Inland Empire of Southern California as seen from the desert. Photo by Matthew Bamberg Communities in California and elsewhere have shown remarkable resilience in uniting to cope and heal after a wildfire. Yet wildfires will remain a critical challenge, especially during droughts. The future doesn’t have to mirror the past. To ensure a safer tomorrow, California’s education system must prioritize wildfire preparedness and mitigation as a core part of its curriculum. A New Interdisciplinary Wildfire Curriculum The current model of isolating academic disciplines is inadequate for preparing students to face the uncertain world shaped by climate change. A significant curriculum overhaul is urgently needed to equip students with the skills and knowledge t...
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Social Emotional Skills and Holistic Education

Holistic education focuses on students identity in order for them to become good  community members by teachers instituting appropriate  moral, social, emotional, psychological and academic goals for functioning as a productive member of society.  As a teacher, you have to consider what's going on in students' lives order to teach the students coping skills to deal with challenging situations. Holistic education can really help students who are falling behind. Creating engaging lessons that reach all students is the primary focus of planning for instruction in most schools.  You can combine this inclusion with extensive education in all areas. "All students will learn the skills they need to succeed across all domains, including social, cognitive and academic" (Schwartz as cited in Volk, 2013, para. 5). Students perform better academically when teachers address the social emotional needs of students Socio-emotional skills are for school, work and life. They inc...
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Writing a Personal Essay

Writing a personal essay doesn't have to be hard. One would think that the most important part of a personal essay would be writing a draft. This isn't so. While it is important, there are other parts of the writing process that are just as important for writing a focused "A" paper. One of the first tasks you do before you write the rough draft is to have a topic that is appropriate for a personal essay. As you may recall, a personal essay should be written in first person, usually about an account of an event, a story about a person, a travelogue of a place or  an illustration of an object (in words) that is or was special to you. Well, does that mean you should write about your mom, your childbirth (if you're a woman) or your vacation? Any of these topics are a good choice for a personal essay. Recall that the writing process: 1. Brainstorming--Create your topic. Narrow it down. 2. Outlining--Yes, this is necessary! 3. Drafting--Writing your draft f...
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