I chose this article because I am interested in culture diversity within the classroom. Milwaukee, Wisconsin is experiencing a tremendous amount of culture diversity. The school leaders wanted to help the African-American students reconnect to school through designing a curriculum around African-American values and culture pride. This curriculum was developed across the disciplines and involved changing the classroom times to the block while the rest of the school stayed in the traditional 45 minute class periods.
They started with the arts to set a common ground in the beginning of the unit. This helped set the stage for both the students and teachers. The students were allowed to work on their projects in the different classes which as a result created a connection across the curriculum. The teachers worked as a collaborative group to achieve the intended goals of the unit.
When this unit was being developed, none of the teachers felt knowledgeable about the Harlem Renaissance which they based their core curriculum around. Each teacher studied and applied their research into their content area. Then the teachers met weekly and shared what they had learned. The integration of the curriculum emerged from the study sessions.
At the end of the unit, the students created a Harlem Renaissance Fair that was open for the entire school. They taught the other students what they had learned and shared their excitement through visual displays and mini discussions at the fair. The students' progress in all the academic areas soared because of the united effort across the discipline areas. The districts grade level writing assessments jumped from on 39 percent at the sixth passing to 87 percent in the eighth grade.
1) How connected did the African-American students feel to their culture
before this unit?
2) How did this project work with the eighth grade students who were
still enrolled in the seventh grade classes? Were they allowed to participate
in this project, because the rest of the school stayed on the 45 minute
class periods?
3) Did the entire eighth grade participate?
4) How realistic is it to see teachers working across disciplines and
in such depth and be willing to coordinate their teaching efforts?
5) How soon did the teaching staff begin to see the students take ownership
to their education? Did the ownership continue with these students, or
did they fall back into study habits they had established prior?
Wanda Reynolds