Standard Based Global Education
Many of us are being asked to make our content meet Common Core standards. How can we do this AND infuse our lessons with a global perspective? It is not as hard as it may seem. Below I present a few standards that are relevant to my ESOL Reading class. I have modified them to show how they can be more global. At the end of this page I have added a link to a unit I taught that shows how I adapted global education standards into a lesson that also meets Common Core standards.
First Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
2. Currently this standard identifies 7 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Analyze text clues that affect meaning.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding a skill that states
“Analyze parts of a text that are dependent on cultural background knowledge.”
3. A modification I could make in my lesson plans based on this standard is to have students explicitly state points and information in an article that are influenced by the author’s knowledge, values and beliefs. This is a culture-knowledge item listed in Fred Czarra’s Global Education Checklist. (Do students know and understand that members of different cultures view the world in different ways?)
4. My ESOL students recently read an article on Texting and Driving. As a summative assessment, I could ask students to identify cultural assumptions made in the article. The article spoke about a teen-age girl driving and texting. We watched a video of a car full of co-ed passengers with a girl driving. How would this article and video be perceived by a teen-age girl in Saudi Arabia? Is the issue of teenagers texting and driving a major concern in El Salvador. Why or why not?
Second Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper.
2. Currently this standard identifies 8 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Use knowledge of language and its conventions when speaking and writing.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding a skill that states
“Compare language conventions between your first and second language.”
3. A modification I could make in my lesson plans based on this standard is to have students analyze a text for sentence structure and length, the order of parts of speech and the format of paragraphs. This is a culture-knowledge item listed in Fred Czarra’s Global Education Checklist. (Do students know and understand that culture and communication are closely connected?)
4. As a summative assessment, I could have students summarize the video in English and in their first language. We could analyze how the summaries changed based on the language used. Is the length significantly different? Does the organization of the writing change. Does placement of verbs, adjectives or other parts of speech differ? And how do these tangible differences connect to their culture.
Third Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI9 CCR Anchor Standard Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
RI9 Analyze seminal U. S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.
2. Currently this standard identifies 6 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Analyze and explain the historical, cultural, and literary significance of specific seminal U. S. documents.”
“Identify and explain themes and concepts common to specific time periods in American history.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding to the first skill the idea of looking at those same U.S. documents through the perspective of another country. The second skill can take on a global perspective by comparing historical themes and concepts in the rest of the world during these same time periods.
3. I have taught the history of the Amistad to my beginning reading level ESOL students. The story already incorporates the perspective of Spain, England, Sierra Leone and the U.S. One modification I could make in that lesson plan, based on this standard, is to have students discuss and research another country’s involvement in slavery. I think this would give students the concept of a global issue as well as the skill to “analyze and evaluate major events and trends in a culture”.
4. As a summative assessment, I could have students create a historical document that would depict the important issues of a country in that time period. Was their country struggling for independence? Write up a document of independence. Was their country invading or being invaded? They could write a letter that a historical figure might have written during that time period.
First Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
2. Currently this standard identifies 7 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Analyze text clues that affect meaning.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding a skill that states
“Analyze parts of a text that are dependent on cultural background knowledge.”
3. A modification I could make in my lesson plans based on this standard is to have students explicitly state points and information in an article that are influenced by the author’s knowledge, values and beliefs. This is a culture-knowledge item listed in Fred Czarra’s Global Education Checklist. (Do students know and understand that members of different cultures view the world in different ways?)
4. My ESOL students recently read an article on Texting and Driving. As a summative assessment, I could ask students to identify cultural assumptions made in the article. The article spoke about a teen-age girl driving and texting. We watched a video of a car full of co-ed passengers with a girl driving. How would this article and video be perceived by a teen-age girl in Saudi Arabia? Is the issue of teenagers texting and driving a major concern in El Salvador. Why or why not?
Second Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper.
2. Currently this standard identifies 8 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Use knowledge of language and its conventions when speaking and writing.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding a skill that states
“Compare language conventions between your first and second language.”
3. A modification I could make in my lesson plans based on this standard is to have students analyze a text for sentence structure and length, the order of parts of speech and the format of paragraphs. This is a culture-knowledge item listed in Fred Czarra’s Global Education Checklist. (Do students know and understand that culture and communication are closely connected?)
4. As a summative assessment, I could have students summarize the video in English and in their first language. We could analyze how the summaries changed based on the language used. Is the length significantly different? Does the organization of the writing change. Does placement of verbs, adjectives or other parts of speech differ? And how do these tangible differences connect to their culture.
Third Standard Modification
1. This standard comes from the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum / English Language Arts - Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)
RI9 CCR Anchor Standard Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
RI9 Analyze seminal U. S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.
2. Currently this standard identifies 6 Essential Skills and Knowledge, including
“Analyze and explain the historical, cultural, and literary significance of specific seminal U. S. documents.”
“Identify and explain themes and concepts common to specific time periods in American history.”
I would put a global perspective on this standard by adding to the first skill the idea of looking at those same U.S. documents through the perspective of another country. The second skill can take on a global perspective by comparing historical themes and concepts in the rest of the world during these same time periods.
3. I have taught the history of the Amistad to my beginning reading level ESOL students. The story already incorporates the perspective of Spain, England, Sierra Leone and the U.S. One modification I could make in that lesson plan, based on this standard, is to have students discuss and research another country’s involvement in slavery. I think this would give students the concept of a global issue as well as the skill to “analyze and evaluate major events and trends in a culture”.
4. As a summative assessment, I could have students create a historical document that would depict the important issues of a country in that time period. Was their country struggling for independence? Write up a document of independence. Was their country invading or being invaded? They could write a letter that a historical figure might have written during that time period.
All TGC participants were asked to create their own Standards Based Global Education Unit. I chose to use the idea of stereotypes of a whole group of people (in fact of a whole continent - Africa). Using a fabulous website called Africa for Norway, I used video, humor and articles to generate discussion about stereotypes. I also challenged students to understand the concept of satire. Click on the link to the right to see the unit.
|