Defining Topics of Study for Urban Learners

1
Defining Topics of Study for Urban Learners

• Elementary Module 2a

2
Successful Urban Teachers

• Research literature on urban teaching and
  learning suggests that, though all teachers have
  individual styles and strengths, successful urban
  teachers may share similar characteristics.
  Review the following slides to identify some of
  those characteristics.

3
Successful urban teachers

• Reflect on their own practices and their
  students needs
• Are proactive in meeting student needs before
  those needs affect learning (Liston Zeichner,
  1996)

4
Successful urban teachers

• Are familiar with the history of their school and
  communities
• Are aware of the political factors that influence
  students, families, and the school itself (Anyon,
  1997)

5
Successful urban teachers

• Understand how to tie curricula to student
  interests and backgrounds (Delpit, 1995)
• Are able to build opportunities for contextual
  teaching and learning into classroom activities
  (Sears Hersh, 1999)

6
Successful urban teachers

• Are aware of the attitudes, strategies, and
  structures that have been effective in other
  urban classrooms (Alder, 2000 Knapp, et al,
  1995 Haberman, 1995)

7
Successful urban teachers

• Have spent meaningful time in urban schools and
  communities (Powell, Zehm, and Garcia, 1996)

8
Your pre-service studies are your opportunity to
begin building some of the characteristics that
are associated with successful urban teaching.
During your field experiences, you will be
spending time in urban classrooms, with urban
teachers and learners. Use this time wisely!
9
When you begin your field experience

• Ask the school principal to tell you about the
  history of the school
• When was it founded?
• Where in the city do the students live?
• Which teachers have been there longest?
• How has the school changed over time?
• Visit the resource file for Module 2 to listen to
  a principals discussion of his schools history.

10
When you begin your field experience

• Talk to the PTA president or other parent
  volunteers about parents and family involvement
  in the school
• About childrens activities outside of school
• Visit the resource file for Module 2 to listen to
  a PTA president talk about parent involvement and
  childrens activities outside of school.

11
When you begin your field experience

• Talk to experienced teachers about their teaching
  methods
• The ways they guide childrens behavior
• Their interactions with the families of their
  students
• How they tie curriculum to childrens interests
  while still following the state standards
• Visit the resource file for Module 2 to listen to
  a classroom teacher talk about teaching methods.

12
Most importantly, spend time with students, in
class, on the playground, at lunch

• Listen to them talk about their favorite
  activities in and out of school
• Ask about their favorite subjects and favorite
  topics within those subjects
• Ask what they want to be when they grow up
• Ask them to describe activities they are good at
• Visit the resource file for Module 2 to listen to
  elementary students talk about what they want to
  be when they grow up.

13
How Can You Use the Information You Gather?

• Be familiar with your states standards of
  instruction. Can you find connections between
  the childrens interests and activities and the
  standards? For example, how might you use
  childrens interest in basketball to tie into
  math standards?
• (Think about measuring the distance of free
  throws, calculating the percentage of successful
  shots, researching team names, exploring
  three-dimensional shapes, and adding each
  players points during a game or season!)

14
How Can You Use the Information You Gather?

• As you learn about the history of the school, are
  their opportunities for children to engage in
  research and reporting?
• (Think about interviewing retired principals or
  teachers and graduates of the school, organizing
  the information, and presenting it at a school
  assembly!)

15
How Can You Use the Information You Gather?

• As you talk to experienced teachers, think about
  how they describe their teaching. Are there
  strategies they feel are more successful for
  presenting information to students? How do they
  organize small group work? Consider how you
  might begin your teaching activities by building
  on what you learn from their experience.

16
Find Out More About Urban Teaching and Learning
by Checking Out these Resources

• On-Line Resources
• Strategies for Improving the Educational Outcomes
  of Latinas http//eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/digests
  /dig167.html
• Family Diversity in Urban Schools
  http//www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed434188.
  html
• Building on Urban Learners Experiences
  http//web3.infotrac.galegro.../purlrcl_ITOF_0_A1
  9416276dyn34ar_fmt?sw_aepviva_vc
• Teaching Them All http//www.ascd.org/readingroom/
  edupdate/2000/june00/12.html

• Books to Read
• Howard, G. R. (1999). We cant teach what we
  dont know. New York Teachers College Press.
• Haberman, M. (1995). Star teachers of children in
  poverty. West Lafayette, IN Kappa Delta Pi.
• Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San
  Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Bullough, R. V. (2001). Uncertain lives Children
  of promise, teachers of hope. New York Teachers
  College Press.