Diversity Through 21st-Century Teaching and Learning

When teachers are aware of diversity in the classroom and are culturally responsive, while incorporating 21st Century Skills into everyday curriculum, it creates a more effective and supporting learning environment for all students

  In the Educating Diverse Students in the 21st Century chapter of the course textbook, Brown and Burnaford (2014) present information about the role of diversity in the classroom and 21st Century Skills. For example, in the article by Kozol (2012), the discussion centers on the issue of the US movement to privatize K-12 education which Kozol notes “that this disingenuous approach [may] distract from the public responsibility to ensure high quality education for all children” (p. 6). Kozol’s point is significant as the issue of schools of choice movement sweeps across the United States and how it affects Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and 21st Century Skills in schools where the demographics may be skewed to have higher academic gains than other non-charter schools. In the article by Gay (2003), she points out that “… multicultural education is more essential than ever, given the increasing number of immigrants from non-European countries” (p. 17). Furthermore, Gay argues that “…this approach is necessary to ensure that all students are prepared for academic success, and for participation in a democratic and pluralistic society” (p.17). Finally, in the article by Reardon (2013), societal inequalities between race and income levels are discussed.

Writing Rituals – An Overview  While this course focuses in on CCSS and 21st Century Skills, the writing process cannot be ignored! For this reason, in Week One information regarding writing rituals is included. Once the skill of the learned few, writing is now recognized as a part of a basic education in the United States. The close connection between writing and reading (writers need readers) makes writing an even more valuable skill. Additionally, in an online classroom where much of the communication is textual, reading and writing are key academic skills to hone for success, which you have no doubt noticed throughout the MAED Program! There are many similarities in the process used by individuals to write, but there are infinite nuances within these similarities. Humans are creatures of habit and among these habits are our rituals. In its broadest sense, a ritual is a set pattern of default behavior that people turn to, often unconsciously, in key situations. The ritual is often first developed by noting and observing others, and then it is individually modified to suit individual needs. What is informative about rituals is they are very ingrained in our behavior and disrupting the ritual can disrupt our actions and even diminish the meaning of the ritual. This is true in many types of rituals, including writing.  Writing Rituals—Environment, Time, and Behavior Observationally speaking, writing rituals can take many forms, but according to one study, there appear to be three key elements in creating a writing ritual (O’Shaughnessy, McDonald, Maher, & Dobie, 2002). They are environment, time, and behavior.

Environment includes, but is not limited to, where a writer writes, clean or cluttered, music or no music, pencils/pens/computers, etc. This set of environmental factors matter—if they are right, the writer can work productively. If not, the environment serves as a distracter. When considering time, many serious writers have a set time each day to conduct their writing. This is often early or late in the day, but can really be any time that works for the individual writer. Churchill, for example, who made his living in part as a free-lance journalist, did much of his writing late in the evening. What is (nearly) certain about this is that the time of day that writing is done is very important, and seldom deviated from. Regarding behavior, O’Shaughnessy, McDonald, and Dobie (2002) noted that “The behaviors of the writers we surveyed can be described as rehearsed (as opposed to spontaneous), repetitious, and seemingly unrelated to the work at hand” (para. 15). These are, additionally, highly idiosyncratic, and set additional conditions so that the writer can write. Application of Writing Rituals to Our Work As a practical matter, we benefit from thinking about our own writing rituals and how they help (or hinder) our ability write productively. If we need background noise to be able to be productive, then we need to organize our environment to include such noise. And if we need the latest computer technology to write well, then we need to set about obtaining one. The bottom line, particularly as it concerns your work as graduate students, is to be able to organize things in the way that you can be the most productive and effective – this becomes your writing ritual and following it can lead to success.

Week One Assessments Overview In Week One, we review the Framework for 21st Century Learning by redesigning an activity that represents 21st Century Learning through incorporation of Student Outcomes and Support Systems. Additionally, we explore and use the Pathbrite ePortfolio system. Refer to the rubrics in the course to understand how you will be evaluated for assignments and discussions. In the assignment rubrics, notice there are specific criterion and performances listed ranging from distinguished to nonperformance. Your goal is to achieve the distinguished level of performance for each criterion. Use the rubrics for assignments in conjunction with the instructions on the week homepage to ensure you have both completed the assignment thoroughly and done so at a distinguished level. For discussions, refer to the rubric for discussions taking note of the expectations for quality of your responses. If you have questions about the discussion rubric for this course, contact your instructor right away! Discussion: Post Your Introduction In this discussion, we begin to build our initial classroom community together. Although many of you may be acquainted from prior courses, this course is our unique opportunity to learn together around the topics of this course! Through interactions with your class peers and the instructor in each course, you have opportunities to learn from a unique group of individuals with vast and varied levels of background expertise in the field of education. Take full advantage of these opportunities and get to know your peers and instructors as much as possible to promote more meaningful interactions during the course and beyond! In the discussion you will create your Pathbrite Portfolio.  For the Post Your Introduction discussion, you will sign up for a Pathbrite account for use as an ePortfolio throughout this course. The ePortfolio will be used in this course for all assignments and some discussion postings. You may have already created the ePortfolio in Pathbrite for a prior course. Contact your instructor with questions about how to repurpose your existing Pathbrite portfolio for the EDU695 Capstone requirements.  Discussion: Diversity Through 21st Century Teaching and Learning  In this discussion, you explore the concept of supporting diversity through 21st Century Teaching and Learning. This discussion supports you in completing the Week One Assignment, which focuses on Student Outcomes and Support Systems in relation to diversity. Consider all aspects of 21st Century Teaching and Learning for this discussion and how they can be applied to diverse learners. For example; if you had learners who were in a gifted program how could you differentiate instruction to ensure critical thinking and problem solving were incorporated at higher levels of cognition? Keep in mind that higher level thinking does not mean having more work or even difficult work incorporated into the lesson. Instead, student tasks and assessments should include cognitive processes with rigor and complexity. Depth of Knowledge (Webb, 1997) and Bloom’s Taxonomy(1956, 2001) both support an alignment between expected level of cognition and the expectation demanded by standards, curricular activities and assessment tasks to determine mastery (Hess, Carlock, Jones, & Walkup, 2009). Assignment: Supporting Diversity Through 21st Century Teaching and Learning  This assignment re-introduces you to the framework of 21st Century Skills. Each week you will redesign an activity and reflect upon the challenges associated with the redesign and development. Consider in this assignment how the components you have chosen to incorporate from 21st Century Student Outcomes: Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes, Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media, and Technology Skills, and Life and Career Skills can be reflected in the lesson plan or teaching unit redesign. Think about how the use of 21st Century skills are a foundation for higher order thinking skills, discuss how you can ensure students achieve more in depth learning from a lesson which is above and beyond rote memory and based on the foundations provided in the 21st Century skills each student needs to know.