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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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DEI Understanding: Enhancing Learning for Every Student

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DEI by Matthew Bamberg Diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI is studying protests and so much more.  In days past, I looked forward to playing the harp of all people being created equal . I meandered around the classroom, giving each student equal consideration to their talents.  To be sure, each student was an individual in my mind — a heart and soul worthy of respect. In my desk-to-desk wondering, I was well aware of their cultural background, as the history of each of them was considered when planning, administering, and assessing lessons. From the signing of the Declaration of Independence by a group of Caucasian men with long white hair to the enunciations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s carefully recited speeches, I lamented the freedom, individuality, pomp, and circumstance of peaceful power shifts, and the paradox of resistance and division from social media.  Celebrations of a nation of one, where each culture served up recipes of food, dance, and smiles, along with th...
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Mastering Context Clues: Helping Any Reader Discover the Meaning of Unknown Words

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  This abode found on a sidewalk is a cute house.       Authors like to assist   emerging readers. What they do is give hints to what a complex word is, or help the reader determine the meaning of a word.   An author will chose to help by one or more of the following ways:         ·      Definition: An author sometimes give the definition in his or her own words that corresponds to one of the meanings of the words.   For instance: Donald Trump lugubrious tactics for getting attention is ignored by many people because he tells lies that are often ridiculous and makes some people sad for the state of American politics.     ·      Inference--The author gives the reader reasoning about the word after it's mentioned.   For instance: A Wifi signal has become ubiquitous in so many coffee shops that customers are surprised when they don...
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Philosophical Pondering--Aligning Common Core Standards to Critically Thinking about Election 2024

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                                Rodin’s “The Thinker” Photo by Matthew Bamberg For most Western philosophers, deep questioning is vital for comprehending many aspects of various communication.  The Election 2024 season can be aligned to Common Core ELA standards by implementing the following standards:  RI.6-12.1: Have students analyze primary sources such as candidate speeches, policy proposals, and news articles to support their analysis with textual evidence. RI.6-12.8: Evaluate arguments in candidates’ speeches, including the validity of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. An example of one of the most important issues today is climate change. The following standard relates to how Election 2024 can relate to the science of global warming. RI.6-12.8: Evaluate arguments in candidates...
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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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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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What's the Future of Climate Change under Trump? Five Important Links

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News Links to Trump Climate Change Plan Trump's achievements in safeguarding the environment are not monumental.  Courts defeating trump's anti-climate initiatives. Private sector clean energy industry execs plan on working with Trump to continue developing clean energy sources as costs decline.  Chris Wright, Trump's pick for Secretary of Energy has said "there  there is no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy." Majorities in Congress might not support Trump’s desired changes.
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