620Blog#1 – Page 2 – UAS MAT Program ~ 2016 Cohort

CRT in the Music Classroom at Riverbend Elementary

In the music classroom at Riverbend Elementary, I have seen a couple examples of culturally responsive teaching in action. At Riverbend, there is a large Filipino student population, so music class is a place where Filipino culture and customs can be integrated and explored. My host teacher has taught a Filipino tongue twister game called Sagidi Sapopo as a classroom activity for the last couple weeks. This game involves saying a tongue twister while a leader performs rhythms using various types of body percussion and the rest of the group imitates. The game incorporates multiculturalism into the music classroom and teaches a valuable musical skill – canon. A canon is a compositional technique in which a melody or rhythm repeats itself in imitation after a certain duration has passed. So, my host teacher has used a multicultural activity to teach a fundamental musical skill that is present in many cultures.

In a few weeks, my host teacher plans to teach an exploratory unit on Filipino folk dance. Her students will be able to share their expertise and be leaders and teaching assistants during this unit. The class will be learning about Tinikling, a style of traditional dance in which two or more percussionists beat long bamboo poles rhythmically against the ground while dancers step and jump through the poles. When participating in this dance, the Riverbend music students will learn to rhythmize their bodies, develop a sense of inner pulse, and learn to move in time with the music.

Another way that I have seen culturally responsive teaching in the classroom is in the way that my host teacher acknowledges our students’ prior cultural knowledge that they bring with them to the classroom. Many of the music lessons in the Game Plan curriculum, which we use, involve a weekly “moving to the beat” activity. In these activities, students are expected to move their bodies in time with the music, taking a step on each beat, showing where rests are by standing still, and accenting different beats in the music using their bodies. For these activities, my host teacher always asks students to share dance moves from their own popular culture to be incorporated into the activity as a way to express rhythm.

Place- based learning in Petersburg

Petersburg High School incorporates place-based learning education in the classroom through classes like Aquaculture, Marine Biology, Geology & Survey, Wood Shop, and numerous activities that are done in collaboration with the Forest Service and other members of the community. Petersburg is tight-knit community in Southeast Alaska. Tlingit from Kake used Petersburg as a summer fish camp originally before it was founded as a town by Norwegian fishermen. Fishing is very important for the community, and many of the residents rely on fishing as a source of income. The Aquaculture and Marine Biology classes are connected to salmon and their life cycle. Students often go on field trips to the local hatchery to collect data for scientific projects and participate in projects like egg gathers.

In the Geology & Survey class students learn about the minerals that can be found in the area and also about surveying. Students start by surveying with a level and a Philadelphia rod the base of a house and surfaces close to the school. They will go on a field trip to Le Conte glacier, one of the most active glaciers in Southeast Alaska. Le Conte Survey Program is a two year training course where students produce reliable survey data from the Le Conte Glacier. In the first year, students focus on the basics of surveying and mathematics, while the second year, they, and two supervisors, visit the glacier as a group to survey it.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (TMHS)

I think part of teaching Alaska History is helping students recognize that they too, are part of Alaska’s history. The following lesson helps students see the connection between place and culture by examining the students’ background knowledge & experiences here in Juneau, Alaska, then expanding the idea to research the various cultures of Alaska as a whole.

Lesson:
Instructor: Mara Sheakley-Eearly (Chris Won, MAT)
Class: Alaska History
Unit: Geography
EQ: What is the influence of physical features on cultural development?
Lesson: Place & Culture Table
Length of Time: 20min. instruction; Part homework

Draw a table on the White Board with two categories. (Top Row – Place): Global Citizen/Earth -> USA -> Alaska -> Juneau -> TMHS -> Family -> Self. (Bottom Row – Cultural Features).
Have students define what ‘Culture’ means and put up elements of cultural features up on the board (Food, Music, Tradition, etc…)
For every category, have students share what cultural features connect with them. (For example, for Juneau, students might say ‘Fishing’ or ‘Small’)
Have students fill out the rest for homework.

*There is no right or wrong answer. However students define their own lived experiences with the places listed above is valid. Potential for critical thinking of why students gave their responses.

Reflection:
This was a good side-by-side visual way of seeing how where you live might impact how you live and how you define your culture. It was fun and useful to use my personal experience being an “outsider” to really help students understand that where you live affects what you have access to. I asked, for example, if students knew what Lacrosse was, and only a few students knew what it was. I also asked why is it that they could name a good Filipino restaurant in town but not an Afghani restaurant.

Gnome Houses & Place Based Learning

Juneau Community Charter School (JCCS) does a great job of incorporating place-based education into the classroom. In the first week of school, we took students or on a walk through downtown to get them oriented in where we are. The second week of school, we went to Echo Ranch for three days of camping. Students could choose classes like: canoeing, making campfires and cooking on them, knot tying (for boating), trail running, and various other outdoor Alaskan skills. The students’ favorite activity was building “gnome houses” (photo left) out of only natural materials that they found in the forest. About every other week students take either a walking field trip, or go on a hike in gym. One of the most popular exploratory classes is photography, where students have been documenting downtown Juneau through photographs. Another popular exploratory class is working with a naturalist from Discovery Southeast to take field notes on various hikes throughout Juneau.

Another way that JCCS incorporates place-based learning is through the community service focus. JCCS has three different community service courses broken up by grade. The 6th graders plan a menu and prepare a meal for the Glory Hole once a month and use class time to prepare, which means getting donations from families and local businesses. The 7th graders volunteer to help in lower grades in the fall and in the spring they volunteer at Discovery Preschool. The 8th graders design their own community service project that includes working with a mentor for the year.

As far as culturally-responsive teaching, I see some gaps within the curriculum. In Social Studies and Language Arts we have been working on a lesson on reading portraits as biographies, we examined portraits of many diverse historical figures as well as portraits of “regular” people from around the world. I liked the way students had a chance to look at art created by and depicting people from all different cultures. We also have book groups and mine is currently reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. However, in a curriculum that is so project-based and where students get a lot of choice in their learning, many of them do not “choose” to learn about other cultures. I see an many opportunities to incorporate studies specifically on Tlingit culture and the active Tlingit community here in Juneau. When I begin my Social Studies unit on the Civil Rights Movement I plan to show the film Jerry was in about Elizabeth Peratrovich and hopefully invite some guest speakers in to class to speak more about social justice issues here in Juneau. I would also like to take students on trip to the Alaska State Museum and to the Sealaska Heritage Center during our unit on developing biographies of historical figures. I’m also really looking forward to the exploratory class that will take place in the spring with Abel Ryan who is a Tsimshian carver and metal worker. Again though, if students do not choose the certain book group or exploratory class, they could miss various opportunities for more culturally-responsive lessons. I hope to incorporate more culturally-responsive lessons into classes that everyone will take.

X-treme Math and Myths

First: I am a 7th grade Language Arts student teacher and we have been analyzing poetry and taking our time in the revision process. We have not had any type of CRT, but later on we will be discussing a few Raven stories. That won’t be happening for a few more weeks, but I have connected a storyline– beginning, middle, and end– to the metaphor of Mount Jumbo. It was a 4 minute metaphor, but that is one of the few times I could link English to culture or location. I look forward to the Raven stories.

Second: I have been talking with the 7th grade Math teacher and she has a class that is called “X-treme Math.” She has a unit coming up where a Tlingit carver will come in and teach the students the carving process. He will show and explain some of the designs (frog, wolf, bear, eagle, and raven) and their significance. The students will try their hand at creating a story on a skateboard. Honestly, the math is put on the back-burner, but it is an interesting lesson and I am helping brainstorm group sizes, materials, prices, means of finding skateboards, and other details. Hopefully I will be able to sit in on a portion of that class period.

mixed middle school

The beginning of the school year is all about retraining muscle memory and rebuilding music reading schools, but my teacher also uses this time to create a culturally responsive classroom by bringing in diverse music to support the learning. My teacher uses this period of drills and assessments to introduce to students music from different cultures and time periods; we warm up our bow holds with diverse music: lots of Micheal Jackson, Polynesian music, Irish music, etc… As for place based learning, we are working on some concerts throughout the community; Holiday Pops with the Lyric Opera, Culture Night performances, and 8th grade orchestra is performing at the Heritage Festival at Disneyland!!!

I can’t give the school a high score for being culturally responsive; at the beginning of the school year I learned that the Native Culture Group (I am not completely sure of the name) was cut from the school, so there are few language or cultural groups for native students on campus (I did just see a flyer for an after school weaving class, so I can’t say there is absolutely nothing). It is such a shift from the elementary school that I teach at; in elementary school, there are Tlingit phrases and names posted throughout the school, an after school Tlingit dance group, and I hear Tlingit phrases being used over the intercom and by many teachers throughout the school. Unfortunately there is little of that in this middle school.

Big Hearts in the Valley

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In the music room at Glacier Valley Elementary Schools, we have made efforts to have both a place-based and multicultural approach to education.

My host teacher, an energetic and experience music educator, has for many years brought a wide variety of songs from around the world to teach her students. There is a song to teach students the continents of our world, and it acts as a ritual to help the students learn where their newest musical experience is coming from. She has also collected a vast variety of instruments, including hand drums, keyboard percussion, hand-bells, shakers, guiros, violins, guitars, ukuleles, and clever plastic tubes called boom whackers.

We have collaboratively incorporated language arts – breaking down the sounds and syllables of words from a diversity of cultures while learning their meaning. I learned a few activities from Ed Littlefield, a fantastic love-filled musician from Sitka, AK, who has developed curriculum and activities based on Tlingit oral tradition. He taught me a few words in Tlingit, enough that I felt comfortable leading partner activities where we said gunalcheesh and hande I jin when we find and interact with partners. In these activities, students reinforce their learning, or brainstorm ways to hold each other up. In collaboration with Cultural Specialist Hans Chester, I have helped my class learn gaaw a wa, and gaaw a ya to connect us to drums, time, and our hearts while we make music. We have focused on the Southeast Tribal Value of “Hold Each Other Up” in many of our lessons and we have developed it into the norms of our music classroom. We have explored how practice this value musically and socially. I hope activities like these continue to connect us to the living, ancient, and wonderful Tlingit culture.

At the suggestion of fellow MAT Meghan J, we incorporated a brief history lesson into our guitar unit for 4th & 5th grade students. This has given us a chance to teach students about the long, global history of the guitar – learning the origins of the word chordophone, guitar, and the meaning of flamenco.

These examples of guitar heritage give our small classes a global connection to the instrument, and have created valuable opportunities for students to really connect with the instrument. Students of diverse backgrounds have recognized Persian classical musics their grandparents played, or recognized the similarity of the Sanskrit word Chatar to the Sitar of Indian origin.

Global explorations have given us the chance to talk about the culture of music outside of the Western Classical tradition (which, in my opinion, dominates our expectations for the way we teach, experience, and perform most musics in the world today). We have discussed the communal nature of music in Romani culture where children are as important of performers as grandparents. We got to discuss how music, in some societies, is part of every day life and is a joyful celebration to be experienced anywhere, anytime, with anybody.

I hope these extensions are empowering to the students, giving them a stronger desire and connection to the skills they are developing in the music classroom.