Annotated Transcript
Fall 2023
Addressing Trauma in Practice
SWRK 7860 - Laura Vega
This course helped me to understand what trauma is and the effects that it can have on students' brains. I was able to gain insight into how to be a trauma-informed educator and how to coordinate with other stakeholders in order to meet students’ needs. While this course does not connect as obviously to my focus on developing more expansive curriculum, it caused me to value the social-emotional aspect of classroom discourse, as it can be a protective factor for students experiencing trauma. Key Texts: "Trauma and recovery: the aftermath of violence ; from domestic abuse to political terror" by Judith Herman "Addressing Trauma in Urban Schools: Examining the Evolution and Encouraging Revolution" by Joseph Feldman
School and Society in America
EDUC 5490 - Kathy Hall
School and Society was useful for understanding the context of the educational issues that we face today. Though the idea was certainly present in other courses, this class taught me that problems in education neither start nor end with the education system itself, but instead with the society within which schools are situated. This greatly shaped the approach for my portfolio, as it encouraged me to focus on what individual teachers can do to quickly effect change while we advocate for larger, system-level changes beyond education itself. Key Texts: "Progressive dystopia: abolition, antiblackness, and schooling in San Francisco" by Savannah Shange "Fugitive Practices: Learning in a Settler Colony" by Leigh Patel
Diversity and Social Justice in American K-12 Education
EDUC 5134 - Edward Brockenbrough
This course was critical in developing my understanding of critical theory and using that lens to evaluate the American education system. However, the most powerful parts of the course were the practical tips for teaching through a lens of social justice, especially when it comes to working with historically marginalized students. As a white woman going on to teach in a school of predominantly students of color, Vincent Basile's piece, "Decriminalizing practices: disrupting punitive-based racial oppression of boys of color inelementary school classrooms" and Casey, Lozenski, and McManimon’s article, “From neoliberal policy to neoliberal pedagogy: Racializing and historicizing classroom management” provided essential background and restorative practices for working with students of color. In addition, we discussed the potential of classroom discourse as a tool for critical pedagogy. Seeing as critical theory sees many intersecting sides of problems, discussion can be used to explore those many sides and make their relationships more salient. Key Texts: "Decriminalizing practices: disrupting punitive-based racial oppression of boys of color inelementary school classrooms" by Vincent Basile “From neoliberal policy to neoliberal pedagogy: Racializing and historicizing classroom management” by Casey, Lozenski, and McManimon
American Education Reforms: History, Policy, and Practice
EDUC 5780 - Jonathan Zimmerman
Education Reforms was invaluable in understanding the context of American education and how we got to where we are today. Learning the history of issues like standardized testing, content wars, and pedagogy has given me far more insight into our present day issues with narrowed curriculum. This greater background knowledge, specifically around pedagogical backlash and de-professionalization of teaching, spurred me to focus on professionalizing curricular choices that teachers have the agency to make. Key Texts: "The One Best System: a History of American Urban Education" by David Tyack "The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind" by Justin Driver
Master's Seminar in Education, Culture, and Society
EDUC 6490 - Leigh Llewelyn Graham
The fall semester seminar introduced the purpose of the portfolio and the different components of the website. Developing my personal statement, reflective essay, and beginnings of a conceptual framework caused me to think more about how I needed to narrow my focus. I entered the program with a variety of lofty ideas in mind, but through writing and discussing with my fellow cohort members, I was able to identify that I wanted to focus on pragmatic moves for teachers to expand their curriculum.
Spring 2024
The Community Action and Social Change 2023-2024 cohort
Master's Seminar in Education, Culture, and Society
EDUC 6490 - Leigh Llewelyn Graham
The spring semester of the master's seminar helped me to continue to refine my conceptual framework and recommendations. By speaking with peers, I was able to work through my many ideas and distill them into what is now my portfolio website.
Qualitative Methods: Principles and Techniques
EDUC 6460 - Linda Pheng
Although not the intended learning objective of the class, Qualitative Methods drove home the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL). Essentially, the course was one big project, wherein the students were qualitative researchers and needed to go through the different steps of research and develop a report. Admittedly, I came into the class unenthusiastically-- I had no interest in becoming a researcher and was taking the course because it was required. However, I found that with an authentic role, problem, personal connection, product, and impact, I became very invested. After noting this shift in personal engagement, I decided to look more into PBL as a recommendation for my portfolio. Key Texts: "Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design" by Cresswell and Poth "Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach" by Joseph Maxwell
Classroom Discourse
EDUC 6910 - Sigal Ben Porath and Abby Reisman
Classroom Discourse was an essential class for putting together both my conceptual framework and my recommendations. I came into the class already knowing that I valued discussion for its ability to support students' development of critical thinking skills. However, the resources in the class gave me more reasons to appreciate it, which are outlined in my conceptual framework. Through analyzing videos of various classroom discussions at different age levels, I was able to better conceptualize what makes high quality discourse and how to support it. Key Texts: "Discussion in social studies: is it worth the trouble?"" by Diana Hess "Guiding Principles for Fostering Productive Disciplinary Engagement: Explaining an Emergent Argument in a Community of Learners Classroom" by Engle and Conant “Broaching the subject: Developing law-based principles for teacher free speech in the classroom.” by Maxwell, McDonough, and Waddington "Teaching racial history: Curriculum enactment in discretionary spaces" by Reisman and Jay
Expanding Civics Opportunities for Youth
EDUC 7772 - Rand Quinn
As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, Expanding Civics Opportunities for Youth enabled my classmates and I to work with two 6th grade classes at a local K-8 public school. We used student input and concerns to create a 5 lesson project-based learning (PBL) unit. The students were concerned about the insufficient amount of recess materials and activities available to them. Using the PBL unit framework, we developed the plan that students would explore civic deliberation and action. To do this, they would take on the role of community organizers vying for greater recess options, make personal connections by sharing their own wants for recess, and work to produce speeches to address the school administration in service of their needs and the needs of their fellow schoolmates. In doing so, they would learn how to self-advocate and organize to achieve structural change. This course helped me to practice implementing a PBL unit with fidelity and to witness the beginnings of its impacts. Key Texts: "Preparing Teachers for Project-Based Teaching" by Grossman, Pupik Dean, Kavanaugh, and Herrmann "Civic Education in the Elementary Grades: Promoting Student Engagement in an Era of Accountability" by Mitra and Serrierre
Education and the American Metropolis
EDUC 5443- Andrea Kane
This course zeroed in on housing policies and internal migration as ways to understand present-day educational disparities in American metropolitan areas. Though not the central focus of the class, the case studies in the class readings caused me to consider what kinds of primary sources I could use to engage students in studying local history. For the final project, I had the chance to visit the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and look through 19th century documents to learn more about the history of Kensington, Philadelphia. I will be teaching in Kensington starting in the fall of 2024, so it was valuable to be connected to so many resources about local history. Key Texts: "The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein "The Warmth of Other Suns" By Isabelle Wilkerson