Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin

Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS

Part One: Check It Out! Template A

Currency: Advocating on Behalf of Our CLD Students
Scenario:
Your team has been working in the same public school system for the past twelve years.
Your team has recently taken multiple courses to learn about appropriate methodology,
assessment tools, and linguistics as they apply to CLD students. You have acquired a
great deal of knowledge about CLD students and the importance of knowing their
biographies (i.e., sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive backgrounds).
You recently found out that the school boundaries are going to be shifted, which will
increase the CLD student population in your school by 80%. Currently, your CLD
student population is less than 20%. The community has reacted very negatively to this
news and has demanded that the school board hold an emergency meeting to discuss this
situation. Your colleagues within the school also are very concerned about this drastic
change in demographics, as many of them have not received the depth of professional
development that your team has when it comes to meeting the educational needs of CLD
students.
Your team has decided to prepare a presentation for the school board that will address
the concerns that have been raised by the community and by your colleagues. This
presentation will be based on the Advocacy Framework, which includes: currency,
defensibility, and futurity.
For the first section of your presentation, your team will use examples that
demonstrate ways that CLD students and families Funds of Knowledge can be assets
to the school environment. Specifically, your team will use research as well as
examples based on both of the CLD students Funds of Knowledge tables that your
team created in CEC #3, Part Three: Try It Out!

For this part of the exercise, each team member should identify one research-based
article or source of information from the Internet, an online educational journal, and/ or
textbook from which information can be gathered to demonstrate how CLD students and
families can enrich the school/community environment.
In addition to resources that your team may already have available, we recommend
visiting the following websites. Please list the sources that you used at the end of your
presentation.
http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/
http://www.sdkrashen.com/
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCrawford/
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/resabout/programs/5_native.html
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/resabout/culture/3_diversity.html
Using your research, complete the bullet points below to present your arguments to
the school board. Since your final presentation will be in the form of a PowerPoint,
this information can be copied and pasted into PowerPoint slides.
Slide #1: Benefits of Bilingual Education/Bilingualism
o Bilingual education is a form of brain training-a mental work out that fine-tunes the
mind.
o Studies have shown an association with grey matter density in our brain and increased
intellect, especially in areas of language, memory, and attention; studies using brain
imaging showed that a bilingual brain has denser grey matter compared with
monolingual participants.
o Bilingual education builds up better skill sets with improved cognitive skills, better
literacy skills, increased environmental awareness, and developing outside-the-box
thinking necessary for sharp problem solving and innovation.
o Bilingual education builds up global mindfulness, allows learners the opportunity to
become bi-cultural and globalization ready, truly understanding the values and society
of more than one culture.
Slide #2: Benefits of Incorporating CLD Students Funds of Knowledge
*Reminder: Use specific examples from both CLD students Funds of Knowledge tables
that your team created in CEC #3, Part 3: Try It Out!
o The cultural traditions/practices/knowledge of CLS students could be valuable assets
in the classroom and contribute to the scope and depth of knowledge shared by all
students in the classroom. It validates their personal beliefs and allows for authentic
and meaningful discussions and learning.
o The professions/vocations/specialized skills of students family members could serve
as a boost to students motivation of learning in the classroom.
o Understanding each others traditions and beliefs, gaining understanding, tolerance,
and acceptance, inevitably leads to a risk-free, open mind, and positive learning
environment in the classroom.
o Higher Education is pushed in the US. Learning about other options may fuel
discussions, allow for more tolerance and reaching another level of global
competence. Comparing those differences are great for in-class discussions - and once
again - promote acceptance and respect.
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS
Slide #3: Diversity as an Asset to the School and the Community
o Diverse, inclusive communities are ideal for nurturing creativity and innovation.
o Children exposed to diverse cultures in the classroom learn to understand different
point of view which is an important part of education.
o People from a number of different cultural backgrounds will think in different ways.
Their world views comes with a wide variety of solutions that people of a single
culture would never have considered.
o Diversity help sharp problem solving abilities; its like thinking out of the box. We
need a society of creative problem solvers.
Slide #4: Reference:
o Benson, J. (2013, October 4). Bilingual education: Why gutting it hurts us all.
Retrieved March 22, 2015, from http://voxxi.com/2013/10/04/bilingual-educationwhy-gutting-it-hurts-us-all/
o Enright, K. A. (2012). Making it matter: relevant instruction for new mainstream
students. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48(2), 67-71.
o Enright, K. A. (2011). Language and literacy for a new mainstream. American
Educational Research journal 48(1), 80-118.
o Moll, L. G. (1994). Mediating knowledge between homes and classrooms. In
Literacy: Interdisciplinary conversations, ed. D. Keller-Gohen, 385-410. Gresskill,
NJ: Hampton Press.

Part Two: Talk It Out! Template A

Defensibility: Articulating an Inclusive Approach to Instruction
Scenario:
Your team has been working in the same public school system for the past twelve years.
Your team has recently taken multiple courses to learn about appropriate methodology,
assessment tools, and linguistics as they apply to CLD students. You have acquired a
great deal of knowledge about CLD students and the importance of knowing their
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS
biographies (i.e., sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive backgrounds)
You recently found out that the school boundaries are going to be shifted, which will
increase the CLD student population in your school by 50%. The community has reacted
very negatively to this news and has demanded that the school board hold an emergency
meeting to discuss this situation. Your colleagues within the school also are very
concerned about this drastic change in demographics, as many of them have not received
the depth of professional development that your team has when it comes to meeting the
educational needs of CLD students.
For this section of your presentation to the school board, your team will focus on the
defensibility component of the Advocacy Framework. Please use examples that
demonstrate defensibility of practice by focusing on the inclusive nature of instruction.
To create the slides below, your team should draw upon past learnings, classroom
experience/ practice, and any other available materials that you would like to
incorporate.

Slide #1: Effective Instructional Strategies for the Inclusion of CLD Students within the
Grade-Level Classroom.
o To make instruction relevant, then, the instruction has to be meaningful and engaging
to a broad range of students. An engaging activity doesn't necessarily result in
learning academic content, however. For instruction to be truly meaningful, it has to
prepare students for the demands of the world beyond school as well as be
developmentally appropriate.
o Connections between curricular content and students' out-of-school lives must be
more immediate in terms of their current lived experiences or an explicit pathway to
aspirations that they have defined for themselves.
o Connect instruction to children and young people as they are; connect content and
instruction to children and young people as they want to be; connect instruction with
a dynamic demanding world.
o New strategies require maintaining rigor, but increasing flexibility in how
standards are met in each classroom. If instructor can demonstrates how the same
curricular content will be covered in more flexible student-centered ways, then
there should be a process to allow for this. These approaches allow teachers to design
instruction that is more responsive to the assessed needs, backgrounds, and
interests of their particular students.
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS
o Likewise, standardized benchmark assignments might retain the same standard
grading rubrics, but with more flexibility about when teachers assign them, or how
teachers incorporate additional criteria to embed more connections to students' home
lives, imagined communities, or real-world work contexts and demands.
Slide #2: The Benefits for ALL Students When CLD Students Funds of Knowledge Are
Included in Grade-Level Instruction.
o CLD students provide different point of view in classroom discussion.
o CLD students process valuable knowledge of other cultures in the world which could
benefit other students in the class.
o The profession, vocations and specialized skills of CLD students and their family
members could be a great source and topics for sharing in class discussion so as to
broaden the knowledge scope of the students in class. These discussions could also
provide direct and solid real-life relevance on the given curriculum.
o CLD students increase the diversity in classroom through exchange of experiences
from other cultures, beliefs and values.
Slide #3: Beyond the Classroom: The Positive Effects of Diversity on the School and
Community.
o Diversity and multicultural instruction program would help students learn sentiments
and skills that will be needed in a plural democracy.
o Socializing with someone of a different racial group or discussing racial issues
contributes to the students academic development, satisfaction with college, level of
cultural awareness, and commitment to promoting racial understanding.
o Having a diverse student body is associated with other attributes of the institutional
climate: stronger commitment to multiculturalism, a greater faculty emphasis on
racial and gender issues in their research and in the classroom, and more frequent
student involvement in cultural awareness workshops and ethnic studies courses.
o These same environmental characteristics have also been shown to have positive
impacts on student retention, overall college satisfaction, college GPA, intellectual
self-confidence, and social self-confidence.
o Ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity creates a rich American tapestry that enriches us
all.
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS
Slide #4: Optional If you choose to complete this slide, you may select your own
heading.
o
o
o
o

CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS

Part Three: Try It Out! Template A

Futurity: Stepping Outside the Box
Scenario:
Your team has been working in the same public school system for the past twelve years.
Your team has recently taken multiple courses to learn about appropriate methodology,
assessment tools, and linguistics as they apply to CLD students. You have acquired a
great deal of knowledge about CLD students and the importance of knowing their
biographies (i.e., sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive backgrounds).
You recently found out that the school boundaries are going to be shifted, which will
increase the CLD student population in your school by 50%. The community has reacted
very negatively to this news and has demanded that the school board hold an emergency
meeting to discuss this situation. Your colleagues within the school also are very
concerned about this drastic change in demographics, as many of them have not received
the depth of professional development that your team has when it comes to meeting the
educational needs of CLD students.
For this section of your presentation, your team will focus on the futurity component
of the Advocacy Framework. As teacher-advocates for CLD students, you will employ
concepts that you have learned about as a team in order to present convincing
arguments that will encourage action on behalf of the school board.

Slide #1: Recommendations for the Board regarding programming (emphasize the
need to make informed decisions regarding program selection and the need
to promote cross-language transfer of knowledge [linguistic and academic]
from L1 to L2).
o Provide professional preparation and development in the area of culture, language,
and diversity.
o Recruit and support educators who are trained in languages other than English.
o Develop and provide alternative, creative strategies to promote all childrens
participation and learning.
o Preservice education, licensure, and ongoing professional development can help close
the current cultural gap between many educators and the students they serve.
CIMA 2009

Advocacy: An Educators Call to Action

Team Leaders Name: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin
Team Members: Cong-Kai (Kyle) Jin, Daniela Thrasher
Site: Monterey, CA; Junction City, KS

Slide #2: Enhancing and Supplementing the Curriculum to Meet CLD Students
Learning Needs.
o Ensure that children remain cognitively, linguistically, and emotionally connected to
their home language and culture.
o Encourage home language and literacy development, knowing that this contributes to
childrens ability to acquire English language proficiency.
o Provide children with many ways of showing what they know and can do.
o Help develop essential concepts in the childrens first language and within cultural
that they understand.
Slide #3: Ongoing Professional Development to Equip Teachers to Meet CLD
Students Needs.
o Valuing diversity.
o Being culturally self-aware.
o Understanding the dynamics of cultural interactions.
o Institutionalizing cultural knowledge and adapting to diversity.
Slide #4: Optional If you choose to complete this slide, you may select your own
heading.
o

CIMA 2009