An Ongoing Journey to Foster Urban Students' Online “Public Voices”

2018 ◽  
pp. 219-233
Author(s):  
Nick Lawrence ◽  
Joe O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Instructional Support ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Curricular Alignment

Digital participatory media offer urban social studies teachers a unique opportunity to foster students' civic skills and public voice while enhancing their understanding of social justice within a democratic society. This article addresses the continuation of a New York City 8th grade U.S. history teacher's journey to use digital tools to foster his students' collaborative and communication skills and to help them learn social justice oriented content. While doing so, he overcame challenges related to technology integration, curricular alignment, selection of appropriate digital tools, and the need to cultivate his students' online academic norms. In doing so, he confronted Livingston's query about whether the use of technology necessitates a “fundamental transformation in learning infrastructure” and the need “to rethink the relations between pedagogy and society, teacher and pupil, and knowledge and participation” (2012, p. 8). He ended this part of his journey with these new challenges: how to enable his students to become navigators of their learning; ways to align the curriculum with his students' thinking; and, managing a dynamic instructional support system guided by his students' learning. His goal is “to forge a bridge between [his students'] media production and civic engagement' (Kahne, Lee, & Feezell, 2012).

An Ongoing Journey to Foster Urban Students' Online “Public Voices”

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Lawrence ◽  
Joe O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Curricular Alignment ◽  
Selection Of

Digital participatory media offer urban social studies teachers a unique opportunity to foster students' civic skills and public voice while enhancing their understanding of social justice within a democratic society. This article addresses the continuation of a New York City 8th grade U.S. history teacher's journey to use digital tools to foster his students' collaborative and communication skills and to help them learn social justice oriented content. While doing so, he overcame challenges related to technology integration, curricular alignment, selection of appropriate digital tools, and the need to cultivate his students' online academic norms. In doing so, he confronted Livingston's query about whether the use of technology necessitates a “fundamental transformation in learning infrastructure” and the need “to rethink the relations between pedagogy and society, teacher and pupil, and knowledge and participation” (2012, p. 8). He ended this part of his journey with these new challenges: how to enable his students to become navigators of their learning; ways to align the curriculum with his students' thinking; and, managing a dynamic instructional support system guided by his students' learning. His goal is “to forge a bridge between [his students'] media production and civic engagement' (Kahne, Lee, & Feezell, 2012).

Using Online Collaborative Tools to Foster Middle School Students’ “Public Voices”

2012 ◽  
pp. 97-126
Author(s):  
Nick Lawrence ◽  
Joe O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
School Students ◽  
Collaborative Tools ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Curricular Alignment ◽  
Technology Users

Digital participatory media offer urban social studies teachers a unique opportunity to foster students’ civic skills and public voice while enhancing their understanding of social justice within a democratic society. This case study addresses how an 8th grade U.S. history teacher in a New York urban school, when using wikis and online discussion with his students, came to realize that “what [technology] users need in order to take charge of their own online decision making is at best an art and, more often than not, a series of trial-and-error solutions” (Lankes, 2008, p. 103), while operating within two constraints identified by Bull et al (2008): “Teachers have limited models for effective integration of media in their teaching; and, only limited research is available to guide best practice” (p. 2). While using digital collaborative tools enabled students to develop collaborative and communication skills and begin to learn social justice oriented content, the teacher faced challenges related to technology integration, curricular alignment, selection of appropriate digital tools, and fostering online academic norms among students. This chapter focuses on a teacher’s three-year journey from his first day of teaching to his connecting the use of technology to relevant curricular content to promote his students’ use of online public voices for social justice.

Selected Demographic Variables, School Music Participation, and Achievement Test Scores of Urban Middle School Students

2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl W. Kinney
Keyword(s):  
Middle School Students ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
School Students ◽  
Urban Middle School ◽  
Band Students ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Grade Achievement ◽  
Urban Middle School Students

Nontransient 6th- and 8th-grade urban middle school students' achievement test scores were examined before (4th grade) and during (6th or 8th grade) enrollment in a performing ensemble. Ensemble participation (band, choir, none) and subject variables of socioeconomic status (SES) and home environment were considered. Fourth- and 6th-grade achievement tests consisted of Reading, Math, Citizenship and Science; 8th grade included Reading, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts. Analyses indicated significant differences yet small effect sizes for main effects of SES and ensemble participation. Higher SES students scored significantly higher on all subtests except 4th-, 6th-, and 8th-grade reading. Sixth-grade band students scored significantly higher than choir students and nonparticipants on every subtest of 6th- and 4th-grade achievement tests. Eighth-grade band students scored significantly higher than nonparticipants on 4th-grade Reading and Math and every subtest of the 8th-grade achievement test except Social Studies. Similar results for both cohorts suggest that band may attract higher achieving students from the outset and that test score differences remain stable over time.

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