Introduction
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn”
Ignacio Estrada
A focus on results rather than means: By emphasizing required achievements, the standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgement and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the standards (2015, Common Core State Standards Initiative). Thus, having a distribution of literacy and informational passages embedded in the reading framework allows for shared responsibility for students’ literacy development. This unit will include a mixture of literary and informational text to teach students about different cultures in Chicago’s neighborhoods where they live. This unit directly addresses the last line of the statement that teachers are free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgement and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out by the standards.
This unit is designed for 3rd grade students, but could be adapted for other grade level students in grades 4th-8th. The school where the unit will be implemented is located in the inner city of Chicago in the Englewood Gresham area, one of Chicago Public Schools hardest communities. The school has 92% of low income students and 10% special education. The population is 99% Black and 1% Hispanic. The school is considered underutilized having an enrollment of 325, but should have an enrollment of at least 540 students. The school’s performance over time in reading, math, and science has been improving in small steady increments of progress, with fluctuating mobility rate trends.
The issue that needs to be addressed within my school is the reading gaps in all grade levels. This is a special problem with students in grades 3rd-8th where standardized testing determines how the school’s annual yearly progress is calculated, our school has been on probation for over 14 years. This is my 6th year there having taught 6th grade for three years, and also 4th, 5th, and 3rd. I have endured the heavy lifting of trying to pull students up to grade level in both reading and math, but reading is the lowest. Although I have produced great gains it’s still not enough for the work that needs to be done throughout the school.
The development of this unit seeks to address the academic achievement gaps within my grade level through a cultural unit of study. The unit will encompass the use of literature and informational text at different reading levels, styles of print, text features, and comprehension levels. Through the use of these two forms of writing students will receive a wealth of knowledge and experiences with learning about the two cultures of study being the Chinese and Mexican culture. By implementing unit based instruction that is of interest, hands-on, and engaging students will be able to make progress with their reading and comprehension abilities, as well as learn about the cultures that surround them in their neighborhood in order to become welcoming and understanding of diversity among cultures. I envision that this unit of study can be a paradigm for teaching culture in other Chicago classrooms and beyond, a method to help all other teachers in different places across the country.
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