DREAM Act 3

The White House blog now has two new posts advocating for the DREAM Act, one from Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano and the other from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Dr. Clifford L. Stanley.

Push In Support - Post 3: Shared Vision

As I mentioned on Sunday, it did not take the TOSA and I long to realize that we were on the same page about push-in vs. pull-out support, so our conversations shifted to the ideal scenario, as well as a rationale. The following is some of our main discussion points that reflect our literacy beliefs.

• The TOSA would provide push-in support in a team teaching scenario. It was essential that if we were going to be doing push-in, it could not be that she was simply teaching the "pull-out" students in an isolated fashion within my classroom. Rather than having a separate curriculum for students who needed additional support, we would work together to differentiate teaching points based on our state standards. 
• It was essential to work as a team. Students needed to view us as both being their teachers, not that I was the teacher for all students, while she was only the teacher for those who had not met their reading benchmarks. She could lead some of the focus lessons/whole class instruction, and it would also be important that she interacted with all students. 
• If she was going to provide English instruction on Spanish weeks to target students, it would negate the hard work we were doing to intentionally blur the lines between "met" and "exceed" students from those who had not yet met. We decided to advocate that by close collaboration on English weeks, we would be doing more good than we had last year every week with pull-out. 
• Just because students have met standardized reading assessments does not mean that they would not benefit from additional scaffolding/support in order to continually develop a higher level of engagement and analysis with texts. Having a push-in model would give us the flexibility to truly consider the full picture rather than an arbitrary single data source. We can use our professional judgement to balance the level of support that each student needs as well as working towards goals for each student.
• The groups would need to be flexible. Just because students have not met their reading assessment does not mean that they have the same needs in order to improve as readers. Therefore, at times students would be grouped by need, while at others, they would be grouped by interest. It was up to us to do a lot of intentional planning behind the scenes to make sure that we were providing sufficient support to students without drawing attention to groups of students.

Now we are three school weeks away from the half way point in the year. We have continued to try, reflect, and refine. We have goals in place for continual improvement. Thursday I will give an update on how it has been going and what we have been learning. 

The DREAM Act 2

Saturday I posted about the DREAM Act and why I think it is essential and could have a positive impact for many students. I have been pleased to see the support for the Act coming from the White House blog, which is currently doing a series on the Act. If you would like to hear more why the it would be beneficial, I recommend you seeing the posts from Secretary of Education - Arne Duncan, Secretary of Labor - Hilda Solis, and Secretary of Commerce - Gary Locke.

I am also impressed with the students who have been working hard to raise awareness for the cause through marches and hunger strikes. It takes a lot of courage to draw attention to oneself knowing others will criticize you. Yet, these students are working not only for their own futures, but also for others who would benefit from the Act.

Here's to hoping for a good outcome in the Senate this week!

Push-In vs. Pull-Out

For this first post in my push-in support series, I will talk about how one of my colleagues and I ended up trying push-in support this year.

Over the summer I talked to various people for advice on how to best set up the time anticipated that I would have alloted for language arts this year. One of my main concerns was how to best accommodate that some students would inevitably be pulled out for additional reading support. Time and again, people said one powerful word - why? As I was explaining about our failed attempt at push in last year, as well as the challenges of alternating between English and Spanish each week when the push-in support was English only, I had a nagging feeling that it was not good enough to just accept that pull-out was the way it had to be.

Throughout the summer I was thinking through what would work since the year before we had a failed attempt at push-in, as well as why it was important to fight for it and make it work. Before I even got a chance to approach my director and the TOSA who provides additional support, the TOSA contacted me. She was taking courses for her Master's in literacy over the summer and was doing some reflecting of her own and wanted to meet with me.

Our philosophies aligned. We reflected over successes, as well as areas where we could improve in order to provide our students with the best possible literacy opportunities. While she created some excellent learning opportunities for students in previous years, we worried about the negative impact of the stigma of pull-out instruction, as well as the message that some of the policies/procedures with pull-out instruction sent to students. Most importantly, we worried about the over-emphasis on meeting state reading assessments over a genuine love of reading. Albeit unintentional and against the literacy philosophy at the school, it was apparent that many students perceived it this way. We were also worried about the disconnect between mainstream and pull-out.

Tomorrow I will share our vision that came out of our meeting in order to make positive changes in the new school year, walking out the door of the coffee shop with a bounce in our step knowing that we were moving in a direction that would closely align to our literacy beliefs.

The DREAM Act

I have been hearing about The DREAM Act since I was an undergraduate, and I always get excited about it potentially passing. Now, more than ever, it seems like it might finally become reality. Last week the House of Representatives passed the DREAM Act, and now it is up to the Senate. From what I have heard, this is a crucial time because if it does not pass now, it is unlikely to pass anytime in the near future. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote a post on the White House blog emphasizing the importance of the Act, and there have also been press releases about it (here and here).

As a teacher I am inspired by students every day - their drive, their dedication, and their dreams. Yet, I know that for some students all over the United States, their opportunities will be limited upon graduation because of their status as undocumented immigrants. Many who find themselves in this scenario were too young to be able to make the decision to come to the United States, yet as adults they have to deal with the consequences.

After dedicating my career to helping all of my students realize their potential and set high goals for themselves and watching students give their best effort, it is frustrating and disheartening to see them having eventual obstacles to becoming productive, contributing members of society. As a professional, I have also seen the injustice first hand with a classmates in college whose family poured all of their energy  into supporting their child through college without any federal help, only to realize that she would not be able to utilize her degree upon graduation. She had so much to offer, and sadly, she is not alone...

Secretary Duncan explained the situation well at the end of his post:

The students of the DREAM Act are some of the country’s best and brightest.  They were raised and educated in America.  They are valedictorians, star athletes, community leaders, and are active in their faith.  They text and go to the mall.  They are Americans in every sense of the word.  They have deep roots here and are loyal to the country that has been the only home they’ve known.  They are our future pediatricians, teachers, and engineers — if we give them a chance.  They are exactly the type of young people America should be embracing.

But, unlike their classmates, DREAM Act students are in a bind.  It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents.  But thousands of young people find themselves in that position.  We can’t let them continue to live unfulfilled lives of fear and squandered hopes.  We need to act before we lose this generation.  It’s who we are as Americans, at our best.  The time is now.

President Obama's comment in one of the press releases also describes the importance:

The DREAM Act corrects one of the most egregious flaws of a badly broken immigration system. A flaw that forces children who have grown up in America, who speak English, who have excelled in our communities as academics, athletes, or volunteers to put their lives and talent on hold at a great cost to themselves and our nation.

I also congratulate the House for moving past the tired sound bites and false debates that have pushed immigration rhetoric into the extremes for far too long. The DREAM Act is not amnesty; it’s about accountability, and about tapping into a pool of talent we’ve already invested in. The DREAM Act is a piece of a larger debate that is needed to restore responsibility and accountability to our broken immigration system broadly.  My administration will continue to do everything we can to move forward on immigration reform; today’s House vote is an important step in this vital effort.

I urge those who are in favor of the DREAM Act to take the time to contact senators in this crucial time for the Act. For those who have not heard much about it, you have the opportunity to make a big difference for numerous students by seeking out information about the Act and taking action to support it if you find it aligns with your philosophy as an educator and sense of social justice.

Push-In Support Series

Last Monday was my official last meeting of fall semester for my Ed.D. classes. Now I will have a little bit of extra time for about a month. With the break approaching it is a great time to relax, reflect, and post about some topics that have been on my mind this fall.

This week I will be doing a series of posts about push in support. Here is what I have planned:

Sunday - Introduction to push-in vs. pull-out

Tuesday - Shared Vision

Thursday - Progress

Saturday - Short Term Goals

Classroom Blog Post Link

Lately I have not been able to read all of the notifications of EC Ning links that show up in my email inbox, but I could not resist the one titled, Three Reasons I Love Class Blogs. It ended up being a link to a blog post. I recommend it to others who are interested in weaving blogs into the classroom.