Running Header: CRT for Team Teach Lesson Plan 1

Culturally Responsive Teaching for Team Teach Lesson Plan

Jesus Espinoza

TEL 311

1 April 2018
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Team Teach Lesson Plan in Phoenix Union High School District

As of writing this, the school I plan on teaching on is North High School, which is part of

the Phoenix Union High School District. Two peers and I came together to create a lesson plan

centered on symbolism. The lesson requires students to both read from John Steinbeck’s The

Chrysanthemums and to write their own brief stories involving symbolism. With this, I want to

explore some techniques and changes I could implement into the lesson plan we created to see

how I can make it more fitting to my desired school/district.

Looking through both district and school-specific data, one of the most notable

characteristics is the high Hispanic population. District data from 2009 shows that out of a

population of 700,904, Hispanics make up 61.6% (or 431,657 people) of the population

(Proximity One DP1 2009). The district themselves reports Hispanics making up 81.7% of the

27,761 students enrolled across all schools (PUHSD). At North High School specifically, in

2014-15 Hispanics made up 78-80% of the total student population, which is about 2,147

students out of 2,667-2,676 total students. There were 111 English language learners, or 4% of

the students enrolled (North High School).

The Chrysanthemums is a work of American literature, so it may not entirely be reflective

of Hispanic student culture, but with 68.4% of the district population being born in the U.S., it is

representative of a majority’s American culture (Proximity One DP2 2009). Even so, not all

students who struggle a bit with the English language may be officially listed as such at North or

other district schools. Out of a population of 287,676 people 5 years old and over, 338,183

people, or 54%, reported speaking a language other than English at home (Proximity DP2 2009).

The district themselves reports 52.4% of students speaking Spanish at home (PUHSD). If any

students struggle comprehending the text due to language issues, they may be better off having
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both a copy of the quotes from the Steinbeck text in the original English and in the language the

student is more fluent in, such as Spanish. I could also consider finding stories by Hispanic

authors who use symbolism in their work and who are appropriate for the high school grades,

like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, and substitute the Steinbeck quotes for quotes

from their stories instead. In general, there are stories from all cultures that utilize symbolism, so

I could just give them a wide variety of story quotes from various cultures to choose from as

opposed to just one story. That way, students also get more options of the types of works they get

to analyze for symbolism. Students would also be exposed to the different ways different

cultures use symbolism in a story and get to implement the techniques into their own writings

that occur later in the lesson.

The lesson plan does not incorporate any technology outside of a PowerPoint that the

teacher (myself) would present towards the beginning of the class, so even if students do not

have access to technology like a smartphone, they should still be able to participate in the lesson.

The only other materials used by students in the lesson are index cards that are provided by the

teacher, copies of quotes from The Chrysanthemums or other stories which the teacher would

also be providing, and paper/pencil to write their own versions of stories incorporating

symbolism. All the activities in the lesson should be economically accessible for most, if not all

students.

Further looking at the writings they would be doing in the second half of the lesson,

students would have more creative freedom once they are assigned the symbol they need to use

in their story. This means that if ELL students do not feel comfortable writing a traditional

narrative, they would very much be allowed to write a story in other formats they are

comfortable with such as a poem, a dialogue piece, or even a graphic story.

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Overall, the lesson plan my team created is very flexible when it comes to cultural

inclusion. When examining student ethnic diversity, the topic of the lesson, symbolism, is

something that can be found across literature from a multitude of cultures. Students could be

provided with those options of they do not comprehend or are not particularly interested in the

quotes from Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums the lesson plan originally uses. Socially, if there are

students who may feel more comfortable reading a story like The Chrysanthemums in the

language they are fluent in or that is used more at home, a translation of the quotes could easily

be found and provided to them along with the English version. Economically, the only materials

that students would need to use during the lesson would be a pencil and paper, and if students do

not have the economic means to have those, the schools in the district do have the capacity to

provide them based on my own time as a student there.

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References

North High School. (2015). North High School Profile/Collegiate Profile. Retrieved from

http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/Page/1414

Phoenix Union High School District. (n.d.). Phoenix Union High School District Profile.

Retrieved from http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/Page/106

Proximity One. (2009). Phoenix Union High School District, AZ (0406330) -- DP1 General

Demographic Characteristics. Retrieved from

http://proximityone.com/acs/dpaz/dp1_0406330.htm

Proximity One. (2009). Phoenix Union High School District, AZ (0406330) -- DP2 Social

Characteristics. Retrieved from http://proximityone.com/acs/dpaz/dp2_0406330.htm