Equity Portfolio, Part B: My Artifacts
Artifact One: Getting to Know My Students
Why is this important?
- Ethic of Caring: "When teachers convey personal interest in students, students are more likely to reciprocate, adopt community-minded attitudes, and demonstrate sympathy when others misbehave" (Oakes, p. 286).
- Learning Styles: "Learning styles are the cognitive, affective, and behavioral ways that individuals perceive, interact with, and respond to learning situations" (Gay, p. 206).
- Antiracism: "Most standard documents make recommendations for an imagined "average" or general student population that leaves out or marginalizes the range of learners who populate U.S. public school classrooms" (Oakes, p. 156).
Hypothetical Student Profiles
| Mike Garcia, 11th grade | Jenny Ruiz, 10th grade | Christian Herrara, 9th grade | Ashley Sanchez, 11th grade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds of Knowledge | Fluent in Spanish, volunteers at a kids' performing arts program, helps younger sibling with homework. | Takes care of grandparents on weekends, plays piano and violin, good at baking. | Does grocery shopping and other errands for family, in a rock band with cousin, helps father with contracting business. | Has lived in Mexico and Texas, enjoys horsebackriding, mother is a radiologist. |
| Academic Experiences | This is the student's fifth school since 7th grade. Low scores on last year's standardized test, despite working hard. | Skipped kindergarten and is a year younger than most classmates. Missed much school last year because entire family got COVID-19. | Often suspended during junior high because of behavioral issues. Previously went to a school where teachers often yelled. | Parents pressure student to get A's. Often feels depressed around standardized testing season. |
| Strengths | Organized, self-motivated, not afraid to ask questions. | Patient, highly interested in school, reads at high academic level. | Works well in groups, assertive, critical of rules and authority. | Good at test-taking and forming study habits, learns new material quickly. |
| Learning Needs | Multiplication and division tables not fluent. "Expanding" English Learner with limited academic vocabulary. | Reluctant to ask questions out of fear of looking stupid, espcially in mathematics class. | Finds mathematics difficult and uninteresting, has trouble paying attention for long periods. | Dislikes group work and often gets impatient with peers. |
Activity: Showcase Your Study Place
I would like to learn more about my students' home environment, and what obligations and and factors may influence their academic performance. This will give me a better perspective on what completing homework is like for my students. It would also give me information about what circumstances and factors influence my students' attitudes towards school. For this activity, I would like my students to use Pizapp to create a portrait of what their study space looks like. They can use their own photos, Google images, stickers, gifs, emojis, and memes to create this. They can include pictures about the furnishings, the room decor, what subject they are studying, snacks, other people who may be in the room, and anything else they want to include. This is how I made mine:
The Result:
Activity: Google Form(s)
Additionally, mathematics can be a very emotionally burdensome subject for many students, since it is important for college admissions and standardized testing. I want to know how I can best support them. During the first week of class, I will have all my students fill out this Google form. This survey will also help me gather information about my students that might not be apparent in the previous activity, such as communication styles.
Since my class will most likely be 1/5 English Leaners, I plan to send them an additional survey. I would make sure that the fact that my English Learners are getting an additional survey is not obvious to the rest of the class. This survey would allow me to differentiate instruction and address my English Learners' specific needs.
