Teaching for Social Justice in the Beginning-Level World Language Classroom

1. Teaching for Social Justice in the Beginning-Level World Language Classroom Gweneth Bruey North Salem High School Salem, Oregon COFLT/WAFLT Fall Conference 2006

2. What Is Teaching For Social Justice? • Incorporation of sociopolitical issues in course content – more than dates and facts • Asking “the big questions” to motivate students to become culturally competent, critical thinkers • Creating a pro-justice, pro-equality classroom environment where students feel intellectually and emotionally safe to explore world issues and topics

3. Why Teach For Social Justice In My Language Class? • Enhanced Cultural Literacy: • “Teachers…will not expect to know and teach everything about a specific society and its culture(s). They will place more emphasis on developing their learners’ and their own awareness of the nature of intercultural interaction, and the skills and competences which allow them to relate to cultural difference.”(Byram & Flemming 1998, p.9) • Motivating students towards higher-ordered thinking and analysis • Preparing students to be advocates for world citizenship

4. Why Teach For Social Justice In My Language Class? • ACTFL Standards: • Communication: Communicate in Languages Other Than English (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) • Cultures: Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures (2.1, 2.2) • Connections: Connect With Other Disciplines and Acquire Information (3.1, 3.2) • Comparisons: Develop Insight Into the Nature of Language and Culture (4.1, 4.2) • Communities: Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home and Around the World (5.1, 5.2)

5. Model expected language and behavior while communicating with all members of the school community. Promote multicultural awareness through examples and classroom décor that represent all races, genders, classes, religions, and ethnicities in the target cultures. How Do I Start? Classroom Design • Establish rules for respectful and non-oppressive communication on the first day. Avoid the use of “they” and overgeneralized statements about any culture or group – especially those that equate a cultural group to a negative adjective. • Create an environment that focuses on classroom community, teamwork, and encouragement .

6. How Do I Start?Guidelines for Practice • Always remember that only we will know what will work in our own classrooms, with our students, in the contexts of our own schools and communities. The importance lies in finding what works for us, and incorporating what we can, when we can. • Educate yourself: read, discuss, ask questions • Ask your students big questions, but don’t have pre-set answers. Present both sides. Scaffold questions and teach students to make their own decisions. • Try something! Start small and work larger. Any exposure to world issues may spark lifelong purpose for our students. If you don’t know what your students are interested in, ask them! If they still don’t know, pick what you are passionate about.

7. How do I find the time to incorporate sociopolitical content and still cover grammar,vocabulary and basic cultural information?

8. Osborn’s Four Thematic Pillars of World Language Education • Identity: • Identity (Who am I? Who are we?) • Affiliation (Who are we? Who are they?) • Conflict, struggle, and discrimination • Socioeconomic class • Social Architecture: • What we believe: ideology • Historical perspectives (dialectic format) • Schools and languages: hidden curricula • Media: entertainment.

9. Osborn’s Four Thematic Pillars of World Language Education • Language Choices • Beyond manners: register and political power relations • Whose culture is whose? Hybridity • Media: journalism and politicians • Who is in control? Hegemony • Activism • Law, rights, resistance, and marginalization

10. Recommended Grammar Points Based On Osborn’s Four Pillars • Identity: • personal pronouns • present tense verbs • direct and indirect objects • adjectives • vocabulary about the students’ everyday worlds (identities): family, friends, self, possessions, and daily life (food, drink, residence, city/region, etc), stating opinions

11. Recommended Grammar Points Based On Osborn’s Four Pillars • Social Architecture: • past tense verbs (historical perspectives, etc), • modal verbs (should, must, can, want, etc) • formal vs. informal speech • passive voice and agency • vocabulary that would help demonstrate the architecture of different societies (school, clothing, health)

12. Recommended Grammar Points Based On Osborn’s Four Pillars • Language choices: • subjunctive and conditional verbs • sociolinguistics of educational language • politeness and etiquette • expression of “realities vs. ‘alternate’ realities” (dialectics) • advanced constructions of thoughts and desires in differing perspectives • writing • reading • speaking • vocabulary that is specific to various sociopolitical topics (environment, government, labor, economics)

13. Recommended Grammar Points Based On Osborn’s Four Pillars • Activism • specifics of composition and speech mechanics • essays • letter writing • debates • transitions and conjunctions • imperative mode and future tense • informative and persuasive structures • literature and advanced authentic texts • vocabulary that is specific tosociopolitical topics

14. Lesson Planning For Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity Guidelines: • Contexualization is the key! • Keep “the bigger picture” as a framework for teaching grammar – go beyond communicative contexts and reach for larger social topics and meanings • Insert activities, lessons, or units as appropriate and possible: remember, something is better than nothing! • Don’t be afraid to diplomatically tackle the big issues from multiple perspectives: your students can handle it.

15. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity By yourself or in a group, please brainstorm ways to teach the following beginning-level language topics in a social justice context:

16. Social Justice Contexts: identity – who am I? who are we? affiliation – who are we? who are they? conflict, struggle, and discrimination socioeconomic class Communicative Contexts: “to be,” adjectives, and family “to have,” numbers, and objects “to go,” “to come,” housing, and the town any other unit you may teach Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity

17. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity “to be,” adjectives, and family • explore each student’s identity and the common pieces between students and individuals in the target cultures (family, self-perception, hobbies, ideals, values, goals) • explore the definition of marriage and social unions in various target cultures • explore the definition of family in various target cultures • read charts, graphs and maps of family distribution in target countries Resources: student reflections, government statistics and maps (web); pictures of various family structures; current legislation and news articles on the given topics

18. Décrivez cette famille :_Dans cette famille, il y a…_____ ________________________________________________________ A votre avis : Est-ce que c’est une famille ? oui / non Pourquoi ? ________________________________________________________

19. 30%- 44% 45% - 55% 56% - 68% 69% - 82% http://atlas.gc.ca/site/francais/maps/peopleandsociety/family/ Familles de couples d'union libre avec enfants à la maison

20. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity Identity project: French 1 (week 7, 4x4 block) • grammar target: usage of subject pronouns, “to be”, adjectives, family vocabulary, regular verbs • sociopolitical target: answers “who am I?” Goals: • Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the subject pronouns, the verb “to be”, adjective use, and new proficiency with regular –er, -ir, and –re verbs to create a product (poster, painting, song, mix cd, powerpoint, movie, etc) that expresses their identity to the class in written and spoken French. • Students will use their proofreading and peer editing skills to create a first and revised second draft of their project.

21. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity • Possible follow-up activities (start to make students reflect on other identities): • Journaling/Student reflection: Does your identity match up with what others think you should be, or what they think you are? Do you feel that you are accepted? Do you feel that all are accepted in our school/town/state/nation/world? • Multi-perspective historical lesson on colonization/de-colonization and the inherent cultural identity crisis for the colonized (simulations, role playing, current events) • Poetry or literature analysis of appropriate literary movements [La Négritude]; basic poetry reading and translation work

22. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity “to have,” numbers, and objects • poverty and social class in the target cultures • governmental and economic structures and varying attitudes towards social welfare • statistics and distribution of the world’s wealth • pictures of different objects from the target cultures: objects’ functions and necessity in different societies Resources: student reflections, cultural artifacts and objects, advertisements and periodicals, governmental statistics and maps (web), simulations, community involvement

23. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity “to go,” “to come,” housing, and the town • dwellings and living conditions in the target cultures • segregation in cities: immigrant boroughs and slums • accessibility to clean water, electricity, and sanitation • the influence of “mega-stores” on culture and society • the immigration debate • cultural differences in shopping and buying (le marché vs. le supermarché) Resources: student reflections, comparative cultural information, current events and news, governmental statistics and maps (web), simulations and role playing, surveying cultural landscapes (community exploration)

24. Lesson Planning for Beginning-level Learners: A Focus On Identity • more ideas: Osborn Table 4.2 (note: see scanned document in separate file on COFLT website folder)

25. A Note On Cultural Lessons • Kubota’s “Four D’s” of a critical approach to teaching culture: • Descriptive rather than prescriptive understandings of culture • Acknowledgement of diversity within culture • A view of culture as dynamic rather than permanent • An exploration of the discursive (deliberate) elements in our construction of cultural selves and others

26. Essential Readings and Resources Osborn, Terry A. Teaching World Languages for Social Justice: A Sourcebook of Principles and Practices. 2006. Articles: Michael Byram, University of Durham, England Rethinking Schools Publications. Rethinking Our Classrooms Volumes 1 and 2: Teaching for Equity and Justice. 2001. hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. 1994. Blaz, Deborah. Bringing the Standards of Foreign Language Learning to Life. 2002. ---- A Collection of Peformance Tasks and Rubrics: Foreign Languages. 2001. more: see full resource list in separate document on COFLT website

27. contact information Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or ideas – I’d love to hear what you are implementing in your classroom. Remember that strength comes in numbers! Support is essential to this kind of work. Gweneth Bruey bruey_gweneth@salkeiz.k12.or.us