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Design Process
My Learners and Their Needs:
I teach at a school with 86% Native Spanish speakers. These students are well-versed in conversational Spanish and have fluent speaking skills. That being said, their literacy skills do not match that of their speaking capabilities. To improve upon these areas of growth, then, my class must focus on the development of reading and writing skills. Problem and Questions to Solve it: The problem is that the thematic topics provided in the traditional curriculum are not very relevant nor engaging for my Native Spanish speaking students (the vast majority of my students), thus I wanted to try something new to better engage them and improve their growth and academic performance. I developed the following research questions to guide this process: 1) How does altering class content to include more culturally relevant material change student participation in the classroom? 2) How does altering class content to include more culturally relevant material change student connection to the classroom? 3) How will altering the curriculum to include more culturally relevant content affect student achievement? Data Collected + Methodology: In order to collect data for the above research questions, I designed three different units employing the methods of culturally relevant curriculum. Unit 1: Latin American Dictatorships and Immigration Unit 2: Student Movements of the 60's and 70's in Latin America and the US Unit 3: Social Commentary in Music Please see my Lesson Plans Page to dive into a sample lesson from each unit. During each unit, I collected data on student engagement via observations in participation (cold calls vs. voluntary responses, & work completion) as well as surveys to capture information regarding student connection to the classroom. For research question #3, I obtained data on assessment scores and overall class performance using their grades in Aeries. This research thus required the analysis of both quantitative data (employing methods of percentile and quartile data analysis) and qualitative data (content analysis). Upon analyzing the data via these mixed methods after each cycle, I made appropriate alterations to the units in accordance with the Action Research model, and identified trends in the data to determine any statistically significant conclusions to be drawn. 
My Logo:
The colors of my logo represent the safe space I have worked hard to create in my classroom. My goal is that when you look at this logo you feel a sense of peace and connection. The design itself shows my students connected over a rainbow arch. The students alternate dark and light to represent the diversity in the classroom, and the rainbow represents joy and of course an inclusive environment for my LGBTQ+ students. Lastly, the words "Cultura Conecta" mean "Culture Connects." I chose to put this in Spanish due to my job as a world language teacher, but I also love that this term happens to be a cognate as well, and so can be easily understood my English-only speakers as well. To me, the idea that "culture connects" rings so true in the classroom. It is through culturally relevant pedagogy - getting to know my students' cultures, sharing about my own, creating spaces for students to learn about each other and identify similarities and differences in perspectives and practices - this is where the magic happened. It is in this environment that I am able to create a truly connected classroom community where students feel safe and supported not only by me but by each other. |
Research
Support and Next Steps
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