A recently published report from think tank Third Way, based in Washington, DC, shows that Hispanic-serving universities provide students more opportunity for economic mobility than other universities in the US.
The report (www.thirdway.org/report/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-rating-higher-ed-by-economic-mobility) attempted to devise a new way to rank universities throughout the country, placing particular emphasis on the economic benefits students gain from attending a given university rather than on factors like the university’s selectivity. Noting that the current mainstream university-ranking methodologies are not effective at truly measuring a university’s quality, the researchers at Third Way developed the Economic Mobility Index.
“Historical prestige tends to outweigh student outcomes in the most popular rankings, resulting in the same highly selective and well-resourced schools getting shuffled around the best colleges lists year after year,” the report reads.
The top ten schools ranked according to their Economic Mobility Index were all Hispanic-serving institutions, meaning that at least 25% of the student body identifies as Hispanic.
“Notably, the schools shown to provide the most economic mobility are all Hispanic-serving institutions located in California, Texas, and New York,” the report reads.
The Economic Mobility Index takes into account several different factors, such as the number of students who receive Pell Grants and the amount of time it takes the average low-income student to recoup from the cost of education after graduation. The highest ranked school on Third Way’s ranking system was California State University–Los Angeles (CSULA).
One factor the researchers considered in their ranking system was the “price-to-earnings premium for low-income students” (PEP). This is determined by calculating the average net price of the university along with the typical earnings a student will receive after graduation and the average salary of a high school graduate, in order to determine roughly how long it will take for students to earn back the cost of attending the university after graduation.
While many large private schools like Duke and Stanford were shown to have a strong PEP, they fell behind in part due to the fact that they do not enroll a particularly large number of low-income students (for example, roughly 13% of Duke’s students receive Pell Grants, while nearly 70% of CSULA’s students do).
“If the primary purpose of postsecondary education is supposed to be to catalyze an increase in economic mobility for students, we need to elevate the schools that are actually succeeding in this goal,” Third Way’s director of education, Nicole Siegel, told NBC News. Andrew Warner
Fiction can take what seem to be ordinary situations and show us how important they can be. This one definitely changed my life for the better. The novel was a baseball story, one of several written by John R. Tunis based on a mythical Brooklyn Dodgers team. The episode I describe and discuss here is from The Keystone Kids (1943).
Spike Russell had just been appointed manager of the team, a very unusual promotion because he was young and still a player. Spike took control immediately and confidently and gave a lecture on impeccability to the entire team. First, some background. As some readers know, when a hitter hits an ordinary ground ball to an infielder, it is highly likely, especially when the players are professional, that the throw will reach the first baseman before the hitter will, and the hitter will be “out.” It is common practice for hitters not to run their fastest on the way to first base when it looks certain that they will not get there before the throw does.
But new manager Spike Russell made sure this would not happen on the Dodgers while he was manager: “I want everyone on this club to run out everything to first, whether they think they can beat the throw or not… You gotta presume the fielder is going to drop the ball… The other day over in Cinci we dropped an important game… ‘cause a pitcher started toward first base on a hard-hit ground ball with his bat in his hand. The shortstop muffed it and threw wild and he’d been safe if he’d hustled. He didn’t hustle and he was out, and we lost the winning run right there when Klein (the next batter) tripled” (Tunis, pp. 145–146).
You get no credit when you run as fast as you can and the throw is perfect, but Spike was telling them that you put the entire team at risk when you don’t “hustle,” when you assume that the throw will be on target and the first baseman will catch the ball.
I discussed this with my personal physician at the time, Seymour Perl, after our regular appointment. Seymour, also an admirer of John R. Tunis, an avid fan of the real-life Dodgers, and a keen student of baseball, saw the meaning immediately and its implication for his profession as a medical doctor. You have a patient with apparently ordinary symptoms of a common disease, you prescribe medication that is uncontroversial, and you expect success. But you have to “hustle” and be prepared for the worst: make sure you got the diagnosis right, make sure there is nothing in the patient’s background that suggests the possibilities of side effects, make sure the patient takes the proper dose, and so on. It seems an ordinary, easy-to-handle ground ball to the shortstop, but the consequences of any error can be serious. You get no credit when the throw is on time and on target, and no credit when you make the ordinary diagnosis and prescribe the right medication. But the consequences of an error, of not hustling, can be profound.
I think about Spike’s sermon every day and think about the potential negative consequences of what seem to be small omissions. In other words, the importance of being impeccable. Spike was talking to me. The insight was brought to life by John R. Tunis in a baseball story in a way that made it clear.
In my life, being impeccable means I do the boring tasks—e.g., make sure I check the mail and pay the bills on time, and not rely on my imperfect memory. In my professional life, it means carefully considering every potential supporting and counterargument to my hypotheses.
I have not been particularly interested in baseball since I was a teenager, but I have read all seven of John R. Tunis’s baseball novels: his first, The Kid from Tompkinsville (Tunis, 1940), was described by one reviewer as “the boys’ Book of Job” (Schiavone, 2004). I read it first when I was about twelve, again in my 20s, again in my 40s, and again, more than 30 years later, eager to discuss it with Seymour Perl.
References Schiavone, M. (2004). “The Presence of John R. Tunis’ The Kid from Tompkinsville in Malamud’s The Natural and Roth’s American Pastoral.” Aethlon XXI, 2, 79–85.
Tunis, J. R. (1940). The Kid from Tompkinsvillle. Harcourt Brace.
Tunis, J. R. (1943). The Keystone Kids. Harcourt Brace.
Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
Puerto Rican Taíno representatives recently attended the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York to call attention to their situation.
“If we’re not getting visibility or any kind of recognition at the national level, we have no choice but to take it outside and try to build that visibility for our people,” said R. Múkaro Agüeibaná Borrero, president of the United Confederation of Taíno People.
The Taíno people are indigenous to the Caribbean and live in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the US Virgin Islands, and more. When Christopher Columbus made landfall in 1492, the Taíno were the first people he met. Today, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the US, which means that it is neither an independent country nor an official state. Puerto Rico has a nonvoting member of Congress and does not have electoral college votes in presidential elections. Because of this colonial relationship, the Taíno have few platforms to make their concerns heard.
International forums like the UNPFII are a rare opportunity to directly engage with officials from the US and other countries—providing space for the Taíno to advocate for policies that will help their communities. “There is a narrative that Taíno people were wiped out,” Borrero said. “So, we have to make statements at the international level, to say ‘wait a minute, we are here.’”
Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation and executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, says that Puerto Rico’s political status presents challenges for the Taíno. “What makes them unique is they are still residents of a colony,” she said. Carmen added that, like the Taíno, most Indigenous peoples around the world also lack state recognition, which makes the UNPFII and other international venues even more important in their fight for rights.
The United Confederation of Taíno People called attention to Taíno language revitalization efforts, which will lead to the publication of the first classic Taíno dictionary and grammar guide later this year. Borrero noted, however, that the International Decade of Indigenous Languages must not overlook Indigenous Caribbean languages and called on the Permanent Forum to give special attention to insular Caribbean Indigenous peoples, including those in both self-governing and nonself-governing territories. In a statement to the forum, Tai Pelli, another representative from the United Confederation of Taíno People, highlighted the environmental and climate crises facing Indigenous peoples in Puerto Rico. Increasingly powerful storms have destroyed homes and driven many from the island, while illegal toxic waste dumping and military waste contamination are also serious issues. On the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, the US military conducted weapons testing for over 60 years, leaving unexploded ordinance and dangerous chemicals behind. “Increasing cancer rates and other noncontagious diseases are a direct result of the environmental injustices our people confront every day,” Pelli said. Pointing to luxury hotels and other development projects on culturally significant sites like the Dry Forest and the Caguana Ceremonial Center, Pelli called on the UN to confront the issue with UNESCO, which oversees some of the sites, and demanded a review of UNESCO’s protected areas mandate and greater transparency. “The wrath of greed and uncontrolled development are beginning to seem as dangerous as the hurricanes, earthquakes, and pandemic that we are still trying to survive,” she said.
“We’re not only raising the visibility of who we are within the US,” she said. “We’re also raising the visibility of our people for other Indigenous peoples so that we could build that solidarity regionally and internationally.”
About 7% of American children are living in deep poverty— that’s more than five million children across the US. The Learning Policy Institute, a research organization based in Palo Alto, California, recently published a report on the plight of children living in deep poverty and how the education system can provide better support to these children. Building School Communities for Students Living in Deep Poverty focuses on developing a framework for schools to become “deep-poverty responsive,” meaning that they’re able to foster a nurturing educational environment for students struggling with the difficulties associated with living in deep poverty.
“Because their needs are often ignored, children living below the poverty line have been called the ‘invisible Americans.’ But, of course, they are not invisible,” the report reads. “In too many instances, policymakers, and society at large, have turned a blind eye to how material hardship results in suffering and loss of opportunity for generations of children.”
The term deep poverty refers to individuals and families who earn 50% of the poverty threshold or less. For a family of four, living in deep poverty means their total annual income is just a little less than $14,000. According to the Learning Policy Institute, deep poverty tends to be most pronounced in Black and Indigenous communities in the US, as a result of centuries of disenfranchisement and oppression.
The report draws on the work of Rich Milner, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University who argues that schools can become “poverty responsive” by following several steps, such as forming partnerships with the local community to provide aid for non-school-related problems. The recent report takes this work a step further, narrowing in on ways schools can support students in deep poverty.
In addition to Milner’s framework for developing poverty-responsive schools, the report proposes that states must provide funding according to the needs of the students in specific locales— regions with high proportions of students living in deep poverty should receive increased funding so that students can access high-quality learning resources that their counterparts in wealthier districts have access to. The report also argues that schools should adopt a “whole child approach to education” in which educators are able to focus on and hone their students’ strengths while also understanding the trauma associated with living in deep poverty.
“Education alone cannot end deep poverty, but it is an essential ingredient in eliminating childhood poverty and transforming lives,” the institute wrote in a brief summary of the report’s findings. “All children, including those who come from deeply poor families, have a right to develop their talents.”
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is not a single course. First, let me explain what STEM stands for. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math. You may also see STEAM, which is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. More STEM opportunities are needed for multilingual learners (MLLs) for several reasons—primarily because students need access to project-based learning with a focus on STEM, and the field needs linguistically diverse professionals.
Regardless of which one you are familiar with, both suffer from low participation of MLLs. Not due to low interest, but low opportunity. They suffer from low enrollment due to a belief on the part of school district leaders and/or the education community policy makers that a high level of English proficiency is a requirement for success. STEM/STEAM is not a course, it is a way of thinking. It is problem solving and creative thinking. Having students simply make a volcano is not STEM. That is a science activity. Having students design a paper airplane that can hold a certain weight of cargo, that can go the furthest, is STEM. It is STEM because the students must draw on previous knowledge in multiple disciplines, design the aircraft, decide which materials are the best, and work as a collaborative group (21st-century skills), use the engineering design process, problem solve, and troubleshoot. That is what makes this STEM/STEAM. All students have this ability to problem solve and think critically, regardless of language level, language spoken, or language proficiency. If the curriculums are intentional in their design of all-inclusive STEM/STEAM programs, all students will be able to participate. If teachers are provided intentional and targeted professional development and supports on teaching STEM/STEAM designed for English learners, all students will be able to participate. Intentionality is the missing link in creating an equitable education for all students. As I write this article, I am in Singapore for 14 days as a Fulbright Scholar. We have spent the first week meeting with their Ministry of Education (MOE) and learning about the history of Singapore, their philosophy, and their culture. Next week, we will visit some of their schools to observe instruction. Excitement is in the air among myself and the other Fulbright participants with whom I am experiencing this journey. If I had to pick just one word that has resonated in what has been described as their instructional approach, it would be intentionality. Singapore’s Ministry of Education is intentional in every aspect of what they do, plan, and execute. To ensure that all students are provided the opportunity to be involved in STEM/STEAM programs, we must also be explicitly intentional with our actions, planning, and execution for all students in every community. We must be intentional in the professional development that districts provide the general education teacher on teaching MLLs and other underrepresented populations; we must be intentional in the supports we give our teachers to ensure the standards-based curriculum is implemented with fidelity; we must be intentional in the resources we select that support the direction of our destination; and we must be intentional in valuing our teachers so they feel safe in taking the risks needed to ensure that equity happens in the classroom. We must remember that we as educators are only here for a season. Our careers are short in relation to the impact we can have on the students we serve. It is our responsibility to support those whom we lead because they will lay the foundation for those who follow.
Digging Deeper: The STEM/STEAM Challenges It is understood that teaching STEM/ STEAM to MLLs can be complex because STEM discourse can be very dense for even the native English speakers. Teachers should understand that a student’s ability to speak English should not be confused with the student’s ability to think scientifically or their cognitive ability. What needs to be at the forefront is understanding and embracing the fact that the science classroom can be particularly beneficial to MLLs because the STEM/STEAM classroom provides opportunities for the students to read, write, listen, and speak in English and their native languages.
Opportunities to think and speak in their home languages can be the most impactful. Allowing students to gain understanding in their home languages helps with the transfer of understanding in the new language—in this case, English. We also cannot undervalue how all students have “funds of knowledge” that can bring richness and new perspectives to the STEM task or challenge assigned. Funds of knowledge are the knowledge and expertise that students and their family members have because of their roles in their families, communities, and cultures. This collaboration creates a sense of belonging, as the students’ contributions to the subject matter are valued for the merit of their ideas, regardless of social status or linguistic accuracy. Students must be allowed opportunities to actively construct their own science understanding and to participate in disciplinary practices regardless of their levels of language proficiency. The STEM classroom is the most natural place for this to occur. For this reason, STEM is not a course, it is a natural opportunity for students to do what they do best—think, be creative, and become valuable members of their classroom environment. STEM is a confidence builder when created with intention to accomplish those goals.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) engage students by using “knowledge-in-use,” where students apply their knowledge for a particular purpose.1 It is important to remember that as MLLs begin learning English, their English will be less sophisticated—but this does not imply that they cannot contribute to the class discussion. Underrepresented populations who have not had the opportunities to engage in this type of setting will also struggle in the beginning with class discussions, but like with MLLs, their sophistication will develop over time. As MLLs and underrepresented populations develop deeper and more sophisticated science understanding, their language will become more sophisticated, too. For this to occur, both populations of students must be provided the opportunity to practice listening, speaking, writing, and reading in a variety of modalities: one to one, small groups, peer grouping, the whole group, speaking with the teacher, and creating reports. Each modality requires a different set of vocabulary terms and level of language sophistication. When working one on one or in small groups, a student can point to words or objects to help explain what they did or are speaking about. This allows for less specificity in word choice. When presenting to the class or writing reports, vocabulary and word choice become more targeted and specific. Keep this in mind when giving assignments to MLLs because their level of language proficiency should guide the tasks and the criteria with which you will grade them.
Why This Matters Unfortunately, most MLLs who live in low-resourced communities have pervasive structural barriers to participating in out-of-school STEM opportunities, such as STEM summer camps, for some of the following reasons:
Inability to pay program registration fees
Lack of prerequisite knowledge
Competitive application processes
Inability to demonstrate a pre-existing interest in science
Poor literacy skills
Lack of transportation
A dearth of accessible opportunities
(Lyon, 2010)
According to Breiseth (2015), “Nearly 60% of [MLLs] nationwide are from low-income families,” which means that many MLLs will not have STEM exposure outside of school. This means that schools become the sole source of these students’ exposure to STEM activities and classes. If schools are not providing these opportunities for students from low-income communities, including MLLs, to partake in STEM/STEAM classes, when will they get exposure?
What Can We Do? We must turn to providing teachers with embedded professional development on topics such as understanding the language acquisition process and critical introspection of teacher beliefs about MLLs and linguistic diversity. According Cooper’s (2020) And Justice for ELs, to create a catalyst for change, school leaders must first confront their own biases and knowledge gaps about minority student populations. If we do not do these things, our education system will continue to imperil MLLs’ academic success, as well as our underrepresented populations’, and emphasize what they cannot do rather than what they already do well, thereby stifling their learning as a result of low expectations (de Haan, 2019).
We need to begin to look at the science curriculum of our youngest of learners, because that is where the STEM pipeline begins. Teachers and school leaders need to reflect on their perception of their students because it impacts their approach to teaching them. Such reflection is necessary before school leaders will be able to create and sustain inclusive school communities for all students, especially MLLs (Cooper, 2020). Districts need to become intentional in their actions, from curriculum, to providing teaching staff with ongoing embedded professional development on how to successfully teach this growing population, to follow-up. It is not how well the curriculum is written, nor just how well it is implemented. It is the how districts build the capacity of their school leaders by establishing a shared vision, build the capacity of student development teams and key personnel by equipping them to plan and implement, and build the capacity of their teachers and specialists by equipping them with the needed resources and professional development. It all begins with a mindset change. When this happens, that well-written curriculum will be implemented with fidelity.
Darlyne de Haan, EdD, is an educator and educational consultant, a former forensic scientist and chemist with more than 20 years of experience in STEM, and a blogger for TESOL International. She is a recipient of and participant in the coveted Fulbright Administrator Program for Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools, a program sponsored by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. A strong advocate for changing the face of STEM to reflect the population, Dr. de Haan is fluent in English and proficient in Spanish and Papiamentu.
“At a moment when Americans are struggling just to get by amid the worst inflation in decades, the Senate is moving forward with a reconciliation framework that excludes any investment to address the largest financial burden facing millions of families: child care. America’s early learning system, which was already failing to meet the needs of families and providers before the pandemic, is currently being propped up by federal relief funding that will soon expire, putting the future of our nation’s child care in jeopardy. Any reconciliation package that comes before Congress for a vote must include significant, sustained funding to prevent the collapse of our child care and early learning system and make quality care options available and affordable for more families.
“For the past two years, there has been clear acknowledgement from lawmakers and voters alike that Congress must invest in building a system of early learning and care that meets the needs of families, young children, and the providers they rely on. President Biden and Democratic Leaders in the House and Senate touted early learning and care as foundational to supporting America’s workforce and in turn, our nation’s economic recovery and long-term success, which was backed up by a proposed transformational investment in child care, pre-K, and Head Start in the Build Back Better Act. It is unimaginable, then, that the Senate would move forward with a package that does not include a single penny to ensure child care is available and accessible in every zip code across the country. Women, in particular, will bear the burden of Congress’s inaction, preventing countless moms from pursuing economic security — let alone economic success.
“Indeed, failure to include child care investments in reconciliation will not only be a missed opportunity to immediately lower costs for families; it pushes the nation’s early learning system closer to a catastrophic funding cliff that will affect America’s entire economy, resulting in higher prices and longer waitlists for families and reduced access to quality care for children, while lower wages push more early educators out of the field. There is no doubt that lawmakers understand that the positive impact of investing in early learning and care would be felt for generations. So too, will the consequences of inaction. As Congressional Leaders turn this framework into a legislative package, they must add back in a meaningful portion of the original child care and early learning funding that was eliminated, and come together through any means possible to provide the substantive investments that are desperately needed.”
Organizations: America Forward, Bank Street Education Center, CareForAllChildren, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Child Care Aware of America, Council for a Strong America (CSA), Early Care and Education Consortium (ECE), Early Learning Ventures (ELV), Educare Learning Network, First Five Years Fund (FFYF), First Focus Campaign for Children, Futures Without Violence, Imaginable Futures, Jumpstart For Young Children, LEGO Systems, Inc., Main Street Alliance (MSA), MomsRising, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Head Start Association (NHSA), National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Save the Children, Save the Children Action Network, Start Early, The Century Foundation, YWCA USA, ZERO TO THREE
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has announced more than $384 million in grant funding for early childhood education, providing more children and families in Pennsylvania with access to high-quality early learning programs through Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program (HSSAP).
“Education investment has been my top priority since I first considered running for this office,” Governor Wolf said. “That priority, commitment, and investment is nowhere more important than in its impact on Pennsylvania’s youngest citizens. Early childhood education makes a vast difference in a child’s path to a bright future and to realizing their full potential.”
The funding, made available through the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), opens up 2,960 new PA Pre-K Counts slots, and the increase for HSSAP will allow grantees to address increased costs to operate.
“Investing in early childhood education and expanding access to high-quality programs like Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program positively impacts families and children across the commonwealth,” said Acting Secretary of Education Eric Hagarty. “Increasing the number of slots available for these programs means more children will have access to the early learning that will benefit them and their families now and throughout their lives.”
This year, more than 37,213 children will receive services through Pre-K Counts and HSSAP. See the full list of grant awardees for Pre-K Counts and HSSAP.
More than $87 million in Head Start Supplemental Assistance Grants was awarded to 41 eligible applicants and will give existing Head Start grantees the opportunity to expand high quality pre-kindergarten Head Start services for eligible children, enrolling additional three- and four-year-old children and expanding full-day and full-year service opportunities for children and families.
The 2022-23 Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts Grant Program awarded more than $297 million in grants to 89 eligible applicants to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten services for age- and income-eligible children.
Governor Wolf’s final enacted budget contained an historic $1.8 billion in funding, including a $79 million increase for early education through Pre-K Counts and Head Start.
The Wolf administration has increased education funding by more than $3.7 billion since 2015, with early childhood increases totaling $254 million over the past eight years.
Over the past two centuries, as the world has benefited from globalization, the US has evolved as a monolingual country. I am currently in my fourteenth year of teaching French, and for me, the goal of language acquisition is to develop communicative, multilingual global citizens. But in many schools, an intensive world language curriculum isn’t available until high school. It was not until my arrival at GEMS World Academy Chicago, with a full international baccalaureate curriculum—from primary grades through high school—that I witnessed the power of world language as a core subject. Beginning language acquisition at the preschool level, maintaining it through 12th grade, and connecting it to real world topics is a brilliant way to teach our students a new language.
Why should we prioritize world language in the US education system? In 2018, almost half of young people in the US were from ethnic minority groups. Generation Z, loosely defined as those born after the year 2000, is set to be the most racially diverse generation in US history1, a figure powered by immigration and biracial relationships. And in 2011, the US Census reported that “the use of a language other than English” at home increased by 148% between 1980 and 2009. Learning world languages2 develops literacy in English, enhances problem-solving, and promotes attentional control and the ability to switch tasks. Most importantly, children are intrinsically better language learners when they’re younger, so early exposure helps them become more proficient and retain more. It can, however, be challenging to engage young learners deeply in foreign language instruction, particularly students who come from English-only households. Sometimes, we need to “trick” students into instruction, and I have found that using visual technology tools works to inspire these digital natives to venture outside their comfort zones.
Ecological Superpowers en Francais Recently, my class had the opportunity to participate in a live Zoom interview with Celine Cousteau, granddaughter of the late Jacques Cousteau and director of Tribes on the Edge, a documentary exploring the importance of indigenous tribes to the future of the Amazon Rainforest. To engage them more deeply with the material, I asked them to use the online comic creation platform, Pixton, to create a comic strip that defined their ecological superpowers en français. They were able to choose from a variety of scenes, personalized, and imaginative character features. Narrative captioning gave students the ability to create storyboards that demonstrated their knowledge of the unit of inquiry as well as their ability to express themselves in written French.
The Literacy Superpowers of Comics Comic books seem like an obvious choice for “pleasure reading.” Following World War II, emerging French comics like Tintin, Lucky Luck, and Asterix and Obelix were created as uplifting distractions in the aftermath of the occupation and liberation of Europe. The aim was to invite families to read together, to imagine other worlds, and to create inspiration for the future.
Comics can be much more than a happy distraction, though. Emerging research3 shows that comics and graphic novels are motivating, support struggling readers, enrich the skills of accomplished readers, and are highly effective at teaching sometimes dull or dry material. Comics can serve as a gateway to other reading and higher literacy, motivating struggling readers and enriching the skills of accomplished readers. The combination of images and the written word provide visual context clues about complex emotions and content. This strong visual aspect helps readers’ imagination anchor expressions by not only putting them in context but making the medium multimodal. Visual details aid memory formation to establish recall, which is the foundation of learning a new language. While processing text and images together leads to better recall and transfer of learning, having students create comics offers practical validation of neurological experiments showing that we process text and images in different areas of the brain, known as the Dual-Coding Theory of Cognition4. These experiments also indicate that pairing an image with text leads to increased memory retention of both. With comics, students not only learn the material faster, they learn it better.
Using Comics to Assess Allowing students to use comics to “show what they know” also provides a useful assessment tool for educators. The work products are authentic, so the students aren’t just regurgitating knowledge, they are internalizing, processing, and remixing the information that allows the teacher to see— in a linear and visual way—whether there are gaps in their thinking or understanding in a way that they would never be able to with an essay or short-answer formative assessment. And while the ability to write well is a critical skill that I do not wish to discount, there are situations where either the ability to write well, or not, obscure whether or not students understood a particular lesson. And comics as an assessment tool go well beyond simple “checks for understanding.” Comics are a great tool for summative assessment as well, giving students the opportunity to explain their grasp of fundamental concepts and ideas, without feeling overwhelmed or hampered by the skill level of their current writing abilities. Language instruction, particularly in earlier grades, can be challenging. I have sometimes struggled to make the learning feel engaging and provide the necessary support to encourage students in their journey to fluency. By leveraging comics as an instructional tool, I have found that students are more excited to learn and that I am able to assess that learning and identify gaps in understanding with greater ease.
On September 1-3, the Florida chapter of the AATSP will host its first annual conference. The theme is “Valuing Our Roots and Building Our Future.”
The conference will feature workshops and sessions as well as prize drawings, a mercado de pulgas (“flea market”), and a gala with banquet dinner. Attendees are encouraged to dress as a famous Hispanic person or in traditional dress.
While Nigerians of Brazilian heritage in Lagos are embracing Portuguese, speakers of the language in Guinea-Bissau say they are being discriminated against, as employers in the country are publishing job vacancies in French and English.
The Brazilian Descendants Association in Lagos (BDA) in conjunction with the Federative Republic of Brazil have launched a Portuguese language class in the capital area of Nigeria.
Mrs. Taiwo Salvador, education research director, BDA, said that the program was to promote the Portuguese language and give youth more international opportunities.
“Anywhere you go and you can speak an additional language, it is a plus for you and gives you privilege to other opportunities. So, the benefit of the language has two phases: establishing it in our community and the benefit of traveling to Brazil for four years to study any discipline with tuition free,” she said.
Mrs. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, wife of the Lagos state governor, who is also a Brazilian descendant from the Carrena family, represented by Mrs. Olumide Ibitoye, described the program as a landmark and historical event. “I am delighted to participate in this landmark and historical event marking the formal launch of the Brazilian Descendants Association of Lagos Portuguese language program supported by the Brazilian government to promote skill and knowledge in our dear state.
“Without any iota of doubt, this program, which is the first of its kind at the grassroots level by the Brazilian government to promote the Portuguese language in the Brazilian quarters of Lagos Island, is laudable and remarkable.
“It is a giant leap forward in advancing the rich cultural and historical ties between Lagos and Brazil. It is a statement of fact that Lagos and Brazil have a lot in common historically; the Brazilians in Nigeria, who are referred to as Agudas, settled in Lagos and created the Brazilian quarters,” she said.
Sanwo-Olu said that the history of Lagos State could not be effectively told without copious reference to the role played by European traders and travelers, who were some of the earlier settlers in the kingdom of Lagos.
She said that, as a result of the geographic location of Lagos on the lagoon, Portuguese merchants gave the island its name, Lagos, while the indigenous population called it Eko.
“It is particularly commendable that the Brazilian Consulate is working to promote appreciation of culture through the use of the Portuguese language among the interested family members of the Brazilian Descendants Association,” she said.
Meanwhile, Africanews reports that in the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau, French and English are taking over. Guinea-Bissau is the only Portuguese-speaking enclave in West Africa, where French and English dominate. Over the years, the popularity of the French language has grown, according to Amiel Carvalho, a resident of the capital, who told Africanews, “I worked in a bank for nine years and I came across that situation. It was all in French. The bank statement is in French. I cannot be Lusophone to then interpret the statement of my bank account, of my money, in French.”
Portuguese is Guinea-Bissau’s official language. But the country is bordered by English-speaking Gambia to the north and French-speaking Guinea and Senegal.
“We are being discriminated against in the labor market in Guinea-Bissau. We are Guineans, and we are having difficulties getting jobs because of this French and English language situation,” said Carvalho.
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