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Leveraging students’community and family

funds of knowledge

Christine SleeterNovember 19, 2015

• “The students will need to be motivated. The parents don’t care about their children’s success.” (Zygmunt-Fillwalk, et al., 2010)

• “I’ve heard it said that these children are disrespectful, and their effort for education is almost nothing.” (Zygmunt-Fillwalk, et al., 2010)

• “I thought that Seaside (a poor community) was a terrible place, and I did not like it when I was sent there.” (reflection, one of my students)

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Have you heard or thought. . .

Resource-poor is not necessarily Knowledge-poor

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For your students to be ready for university, what do they need most work in

academically, now?

I enjoy teaching but I didn’t find it fun. I did not find anything fun about it, it was all about paper and pencil, paper and pencil, and I knew the kids were getting bored. I was getting bored myself, because I’m used to more interactive and engaging activities.

Rethinking a culture of remediation

Juanita, 2nd grade4

Rethinking a culture of remediation

Juanita, 2nd grade

I want kids to be exposed to publishing. Publishing is our main goal in this classroom. . . . I thought, what skill is mostly needed in middle school or in high school? Talking to teachers who are in those grade levels, they said, oh, word processing . . . . We start playing with the computer, then Microsoft Word. Then we use the Internet, then we use scanning, then we download, we do research.

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From Remediation to Students as Researchers and Authors

• Biography of someone you admire• Interview with someone• Autobiography• Research paper about topic of choice• Fiction story

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Funds of knowledge refers to: “the historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being.” (2001, p. 133).

“Our analysis of funds of knowledge represents a positive (and, we argue, realistic) view of households as containing ample cultural and cognitive resources with great potential utility for classroom instruction. . . This view of households, we should mention, contrasts sharply with prevailing views of working class families as disorganized socially and deficient intellectually.” (1992, p. 134)Moll, Amanti, Neff & González

Household Funds of Knowledge

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Science Literacy

Math Social studies, history, geography

Health, PE Arts

Household Funds of Knowledge

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ScienceCrop planting, animal management, hunting, tracking animals, soil and irrigation, fixing mechanical things, etc.

LiteracyBible study, family stories, print advertisements and notices, family letters, etc.

MathRenting, selling, loans, managing income, shopping for best values, budgeting money, etc.

Social studies, history, geographyLocal mapping, local history, building codes, where immigrant relatives came from, immigration routes, etc.

Health, PEHerbal medicine, first aid procedures, games, childcare, etc.

ArtsFolk music, carpentry and other woodworking, textile design, masonry, etc.

Luis Moll, Funds of Knowledge

Household Funds of Knowledge

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Community Cultural Wealth

Tara Yosso

Math in a Cultural Context (http://www.uaf.edu/mcc/)

Lipka, J.et al. (2005a). Math in a Cultural Context: Two case studies of a successful culturally-based math project. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 36 (4), 367-385.

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Science Literacy

Math Social studies, history, geography

Health, PE Arts

Funds of Knowledge in Students’ Lives

Social Capital Navigational Capital Linguistic Capital Aspirational Capital

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Cross-cultural community-based learning

• Learn how to learn from students’ community, partly in order to learn to build collaborative relationships with adults there

• Serve as volunteer in community organization, using guided learning experiences and reflection that aims to disrupt deficit theorizing, link to work of educators

“Community Assets”Select five adults from a community that is culturally different from yours, or from the neighborhood of a school in which you are doing a field placement. Tell them that you are learning to teach, and have been encouraged to get to know the community being served by the school. With their permission, ask questions such as the following:

• What do you see as the main assets of this community?• What are people in this community especially good at doing?• Describe how you would like to see the community ten years

from now.• What assets can help the community reach this vision?• What barriers will the community face in working toward this

vision? What is being done about those barriers?• How can the school serve the community most effectively?

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“Neighborhood Walk”Spend some time walking around the neighborhood, observing and listening. If possible, have a child or youth give you a tour. Pay attention to things such as geometric shapes in building designs, kinds of plant life and rocks that are present, kinds of stores that are present, styles of music played, kinds of games children play, and so forth. Then make a list of things in the neighborhood you can build upon, as examples or lessons, to help teach what you are being certified to teach to children from this neighborhood.  Try to identify at least twelve things you can draw on from the students' neighborhood experience, to help them understand concepts in your subject area better.

What you saw Related academic concept Ideas for curriculum 1.

2.

3.

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How to get floor

Listening behavior

# people can talk at once

Volume, style of speech

Silences

Proxemics

Use of body language

How adults discipline kids

What you Observed Your Culture

“Interpersonal Communication Style”

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“Community Resources” Find out who local residents of the community see as their leaders and/or spokespeople. Be sure you get the residents' perspectives, rather than outsiders' perspectives. Make a map of the community. Find out what churches and organizations people in the neighborhood affiliate with, including both formal organizations (such as NAACP) and informal organizations (such as a group of parents that meets periodically). Identify media (newsletters, newspapers) that serve the neighborhood. Ask about items such as church bulletins, Black or Hispanic newspapers, and community center newsletters, as well as radio stations, magazines, etc. that people in the neighborhood "tune in" to. Below are interview questions that you can use to guide this part of your investigation. 1. Who do members of your community see as their leaders?2. What churches or other religious organizations do community members attend?3. Are there any particular organizations community members belong to?4. What community centers or organizations serve the community?5. Are there any particular newspapers or newsletters that people in the community

like to read? Magazines?6. What radio stations do community members prefer to listen to? What TV stations

do community members tend to watch?

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"The Arts" Find out as much as you can about theater, music, or other artistic groups in the local community. Some sources for finding out this information include the city newspaper, local community newspapers, and asking local adults or kids. Start to fill a box or computer file with newspaper clippings, announcements, and programs for events. Over the semester, try to attend as many as you can, and have them as varied as possible. For example, you might attend a bilingual theater production, a concert that features a classical Mexican guitarist, and an art exhibit that features work of refugee artists. Also, ask around to find out whether there are any magazines, websites, or other materials that relate to art of the group you are learning about. If you are preparing to be a teacher, look for ways to connect these artistic productions with your curriculum. You may need students' help in thinking about possible connections.

Fears and Stereotypes Challenged

• “The students will need to be motivated. The parents don’t care about their children’s success.”

• “I’ve heard it said that these children are disrespectful, and their effort for education is almost nothing.”

• “Obviously, it is extremely clear that I have to get to know the community when considering a teaching job. Where the children are coming from has an enormous impact on how they learn and behave, and think about their education in general. Without an understanding of the students’ world outside the classroom, it would be impossible to teach them successfully.”

19Zygmunt-Fillwalk, et al., 2010

Before After

Fears and Stereotypes Challenged

• “I thought that Seaside (a poor community) was a terrible place, and I did not like it when I was sent there.”

• “Now I see Seaside as a community in which the people help each other. There are many adults who give a lot to the children. The children taught me much more than I taught them! I hope to continue working as a volunteer in that community.”

20Reflection, one of my students

Before After

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“Another way I try to get the students more involved is to put the content in a familiar context. . . .In one lesson, I was teaching about main ideas and supporting details. I was explaining that passages on the proficiency test aren’t the only things that have main ideas and supporting details. . . . We talked about movies and books they enjoy and how every one has a main idea and supporting details. We talked about their favorite songs and examined them to find a main idea and details. I played a song by Destiny’s Child (one of my students’ favorite groups) . . . .When I began to ask them about the main ideas and details found in this song, I swear every hand in the class was raised and waving!”

Learning to Teach the Community’s Children Better

Seidl, 2007

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How does the agriculture of Monterey County affect the lives of students and their

families?

Unit about Community Theme

Sleeter & Cornbleth, Eds. Teaching with Vision, Teachers College Press, Ch. 5

Kathy, 1st grade

“Agriculture directly affects the lives of my students. Out of my twenty students, most have at least one parent who is employed in agriculture or an agriculture-related industry such as vegetable packing. The parents’ income and work schedules are determined by the crops and the large companies which grow them.”

Kathy wants the children to learn more about their parents’ work, not to become agricultural workers themselves, but to respect the work their parents do.

“Most of the parents don’t want their kids to grow up to be farm workers, . . . that’s why they want their children to get more education.”

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“The conflict between what agriculture has become in this country and what it can be is at the heart of why I think that it is important to teach this unit, particularly in an area like ours where so many of my students’ parents work in agriculture, yet so few can be farmers. . . .In the late 50s, my uncle decided that he could no longer make a living from farming [the] land, and no one has tried to make a living from it since.”

Monterey County Agriculture

Social studies

Language arts

Music

Science

Math• Small farming vs.

agribusiness• Labor organizing• Dust Bowl refugees

• Farming and local history vocabulary

• Fiction, non-fiction• Writing across curriculum

Labor organizing songs

Observe and record changes in beans as they grow

• Graphing• More than/ less

than

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Apio Flores La lechuga La alcachofa Las fresas El brocoli En casa Otros trabajos

Diana Jose M

Maria

Amalia

Rudy

Diego

Juan

Cesar

Diana V

Veronica

Patricia

Gilberto

Felix

Sandra

Maricela

Carmen

Fernanda

Humberto

Amaya Carlos

Esteban

Juana

Ruben

Jose A

Ricardo

Jesus

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Julie, 5th grade

Unit: Immigration

Interviews with family members, then “Found Poem”

Unit: Immigration

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They Thought it Would Be Like HeavenWe saw America on T.V.

I thought I'd be rich.My rights were taken away.

Expected to visit Disneyland, Expected to surf every day.

Hoped my job would be stable.Her husband was in the U.S.

Danger and hunger on my journeyGot a permit to arrive, needed a visa.

People talked strangely - wanted to learn English.I came with the Braceros.

I didn't have friends, didn't like it hereSeeing green, pretty mountains

More freedom, a better lifeFrom Mexico, from India, from Vietnam, from the

Philippines.My family, a family, our family.

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Eight stations, 1 hr per dayStudents each had folder structuring work

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Reading Center

Writing Center

Computer Center

Social Studies Center

Award-winning veteran writing teacher

Kitty, Middle School Language Arts

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Pantoum

Line 1, line 2, line 3, line 4

Line 5 repeats line 2

Line 6 new

Line 7 repeats line 4

Line 8 new

Line 9 repeats 6

Etc. (line 10 new; 11 repeats 8; 12 is new; 13 repeats 1, 14 repeats 10, 15 repeats 12; 15 repeats 3.)

Many students afraid of writing

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Student editorial board

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What is one thing you can do in the next two weeks to learn more about

the funds of knowledge or “community cultural wealth” of your students?

Resource-poor is not necessarily Knowledge-poor