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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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  Informational Text Reading Selection Lesson Plan Template for Elementary and Middle School Teachers In this template, you can create a one-period lesson plan in literacy and/or English/Language Arts for any informational reading selection. Simply choose a reading selection from the materials section of the lesson plan template below and apply it to each lesson plan template step. Standards:  Grade 2  Grade 3   Grade 4 Grade 5  Objectives/Learning Targets:  Grade 4 Learning Targets Informational Text Materials:  You can use a wide variety of reading materials for this template from websites to ebooks to textbooks. The following is a list of Internet informational reading selections for grades 2-5.  All grades  free  (sign-up). Current news articles from major publications/organizations   http://newsela.com  All grades  free  for a month then  $  at  http://www.readinga-z.com/commoncore/information...
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Relating Critical Theory to Classroom Content Areas

Relating critical theory to critical thinking can focus on classroom activities. With so many different cultures living in California, teachers and administrators drive student engagement by relating many content areas to a variety of cultures' " funds of knowledge "  1. The need to forego identity thinking as described by Theodor Adorno (placing people in groups or categories with predetermined roles) in order to give opportunities to others who are not in the dominant culture. The unit about creating firebreaks in fire-prone areas of California taught us the importance of indigenous cultures active in scientific processes. Conventional thinking might conclude that firefighters developed these methods. Teaching students who assisted in the development scientific processes helps students to understand that the dominant culture is not responsible for all of the ideas used in technology. Our example from Week One proves that methods of creating firebreaks were first develop...
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How to understand, treat and deal with the construct of Whiteness and White Privilege

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is outlawing topics of discussion that he believes would make white people uncomfortable in schools and public institutions. These topics include those associated with past struggles for racial equality and social justice. The governor is leading a xenophobic movement that misses the point about anti-racist education by ignoring the effects of "white fragility," which is a researched theory about the psychological effects that occur when dominant ethno-racial groups of people learn about historical and current events that have wrecked havoc among the oppressed.  Medical News Today explains that: "White fragility refers to feelings of discomfort a   white person experiences   when they witness discussions around racial inequality and injustice." The behaviors and feelings associated with ignorance about social justice among white people are likely to promote racism.   Discussions about race help white people get past their fears and gui...
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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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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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