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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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Vary Learning Experiences for ELLs to Pass English Language Proficiency Test

What kind of information should you know to become adept at administering Common Core to your students? A good place to start is with ELLs (English Language Learners). Consider the example of the group of students who aren't acquiring the language quickly enough (be aware, though, that it takes about seven years to become FEP, or Fluent English Proficient). The Common Core Modules, which train California educators in using Common Core states that in order for students to pass the CELDT (an English language proficiency test in California)  in greater numbers, they must be exposed to "literacy rich school environments where students are offered a variety of language experiences." How is an educator going to provide these experiences? Check out these lesson plan suggestions from Sacramento State University Education Lesson Plans for K-12 Teachers . The activities are varied, offering a variety of language experiences for all students.
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Common Core Nonfiction--Hurricanes, Tornados and Tropical Storms

As you might have heard the emphasis of common core is nonfiction, that is the standards address the fact that students will be reading more nonfiction titles than fiction ones. A popular and relevant nonfiction topic would be hurricanes and tornadoes--popular because the topic is one that generates a high interest level among students and relevant because of the increased activity of these storms in the United States. The conversation is bound to come up whether you are covering them in the curriculum or not. A lesson about these storms is a must. The first consideration you will want to keep in mind is why these two types of storms are paired together. When students learn about hurricanes and tornadoes at the same time, they get the opportunity to compare and contrast these two types of tumultuous weather events that subtly contrast each other at the same time as having many characteristics in common. From there, students will have the opportunity to write a compare/contrast e...
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Free Common Core Standards App

Technology is now a part of the Common Core. An app has just been released that let's you search for standards by keywords you type into a search box. The Common Core Standards app is free from the iTunes store- a must-have for teachers, students and parents. The app also searches for standards in Spanish and other languages.
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Common Core Standards for Multicultural Literacy

The Common Core Standards for Multicultural Literacy encourage teachers to cover the following: World literature Comparing web resources to print for a multicultural topic Write an analysis of complex ideas dealing with multiculturalism Write succinctly Develop and organize writing appropriate to task, audience and purpose Use technology to publish writing projects Plan, revise, edit and rewrite works or develop another technique suitable new media Could this mean learn how to write informally for websites such as engadget.com? Conduct research projects to prove a hypothesis Synthesize many works, coming up with new idea(s) ...and more at Multicultural Literacy--Common Core Standards
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Literacy in the Content Areas

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According to the Hunt Institute, the problem with eduction is that many students are unsuccessful in reading and comprehending books, documents, texts, websites and other media in the content areas upon high school graduation. Without literacy in the content areas, the supply of professionals in this area will dwindle because the education system is not meeting the needs of students who want to enter the field. Therefore the standards in these areas--science and social studies, for example--do not merely teach students how to find and cite information, but, instead, to be able to read the media to understand and analyze what it does and doesn't say. The standards were not only developed by educators, but also by professionals in the content area fields, so that they reflect the need for students to be literate in science and social studies and other technical subjects.  In the video below, David Coleman, gives an example of building knowledge through reading and writing a do...
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Common Core Standards and Multicultural Education

Here in California, where I am located, you'll find that multicultural education is an important factor when planning curriculum. This is true for other states also. One good link for addressing the Common Core Standards when assigning a country report is at https://sites.google.com/site/multiculturalliteracy/ There is a twist to this project as students not only study the country in this project, but also a poet in the country. You can assign a country report and add the one or more of the following topics for students to integrate into that report to address the Common Core Standards for the country report assignment . 1. a politican 2. a poet (as in the link) 3. a novelist 4. a muralist (great for Mexico and Latin America) 5. a painter 6. a business 7. a photographer 8. a journalist 9. a teacher 10. a doctor
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Anchor Standards for Language

Anchor standards are the same for kindergarten to twelfth grade, each providing student knowledge to move into the future by providing a realistic approach to education, building upon each year's goals and objectives for reading , writing , speaking/listening and language . The standards are tools to stimulate and build upon prior knowledge about a subject and relate it to the real world. They're relevant to every grade level. The standards for each grade level relate directly to the Anchor Standards for consistency and focus in student learning of the academic subject matter. Anchor Standards for Language
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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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