ALC Newsletter - 12/14/2015 (Plain Text Version)
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In this issue: |
PERMACULTURE AS PEDAGOGY: SUSTAINABLE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE ESL/SIFE CLASSROOM
Introduction Nature is most abundant on the edge. The interface between two or more ecosystems, organisms, or cultures is often where the most valuable, diverse, and productive elements of a system emerge. Like the diversity of a healthy ecosystem, diverse educational communities are more resilient, socially efficient, and sustainable. In the face of global environmental and economic challenges, we as ESL educators have the opportunity to facilitate the interpretation of scientific knowledge for diverse communities of international stakeholders. By teaching language through context and applying permaculture design to curriculum design, we can facilitate the exchange of ecological wisdom in an international context. The Context The International High School at Lafayette The International High School at Lafayette (IHSL) is a public school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, USA that serves 350 late-entry English language learners (ELLs) speaking 50 different languages. The Internationals Model of ESL Education focuses on language development through context, heterogeneous grouping, project-based learning, and autonomous decision making. Learn more about IHSL by watching the documentary “I Learn America” (Dissard & Peng, 2013). What Is Permaculture? Permaculture is a creative design process that mimics patterns in nature in order to create self-regulating systems. Originally developed in the 1970s by Australian biologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and Japanese agronomist Masanobu Fukuoka, permaculture is a versatile design approach that has since extended to fields as broad as engineering, urban planning, economics, and now curriculum design (“What is permaculture?” n.d. ) Permaculture Design and the SIFE Victory Garden Curriculum Students are like flowers. Each one is unique, each one is beautiful, and it takes nurturing and patience to help them grow. Sometimes, when you plant a seed, it is hard to imagine how big or how beautifully it can grow. From 2010–2012, I was privileged to direct IHSL’s SIFE program, a class where at-risk students could receive nurturing support to grow to their fullest potential. Despite differences in education, status, and abilities, my students are resilient transplants. They bring with them incredible strengths, stories, and experiences that enriched and enlightened our classroom every day. How can educators bring together so many different young people, and assure that every single person is included and engaged in challenging, meaningful learning? How can SIFE students be served with limited space and resources? The permaculture adage goes, “The problem is the solution.” All it takes is a little outside-the-box and outside-the-classroom ingenuity. Engaging Everyone: The Victory Garden Every person, no matter where they come from, has a connection to food. This universal human experience was a starting point for students to communicate about the role of food, plants, and agriculture in their different cultural backgrounds. They then connected personal experiences to the larger social economic context of food distribution, hunger, and malnutrition in the world. By analyzing evidence from scientific and news articles, students wrote analytical essays exploring how they could provide healthy, fresh, and economical food solutions within their communities. After writing about food access, the students became eager to act. We wanted to build a garden—but like most public high schools in NYC, we lacked outdoor space. After putting calls through various channels, Dag Hammerskjold Elementary (P.S. 254) in Sheepshead Bay informed us that they wanted an educational garden, but lacked the resources to maintain one. Thus began an incredible partnership between P.S. 254 and IHSL. Ms. Lisa Solo and Ms. Louise Atsaves are two incredible teachers who taught us about the Victory Garden, an existing garden space with a rich history spanning back to World War II. They collaborated with us tirelessly to bring the garden back to life. Eleventh-grade student Abdoul Akanje, then interning with documentary filmmaker Jean-Michel Dissard, created a beautiful 8-minute video that depicts our garden work. It depicts how to effectively engage SIFE students to use math, science, and English to help their community in a meaningful way. Participatory Publishing The Victory Garden Project culminated in a work day where my 9th- and 10th-grade SIFE students taught PS 254’s first-grade students about horticulture. Concurrent with weekly garden sessions were daily readings regarding evolutionary biology, chemistry, and ecology. While learning about plant adaptations, students began writing “Tree of Life” memoirs. Students wrote a series of memoirs about their “roots,” their “stems of support” their “branching out” experiences, and their “blossoming” experiences. Students then published a book of memoirs titled “Growing Experiences.” ESL students need a studio, a stage, and an audience to make their class work meaningful. We celebrated and released our “Growing Experiences” book at our student-organized Café Night. Students worked in committees to organize the event from the ground up. Students read their books to their families and friends over fresh food from our garden and food from our different countries. The sense of pride that these often marginalized students had in their accomplishments was tangible. My SIFE students were heroes that day. For weeks afterwards, students carried their “Growing Experiences” books with them, eager to read each other’s memoirs during sustained silent reading or free time. As a final project, students wrote an analytical essay with one important requirement: They needed to use each other’s stories as evidence. (See Table 1 for a participatory publishing curriculum design template.) This worked incredibly well. Students were motivated to read about their peers. These texts were self-differentiated in terms of length and lexile levels. Finally, if the reader needed clarification, he or she could simply interview the author. Table 1. Participatory Publishing Curriculum Design Template for the “Growing Experiences: Victory Garden Curriculum”
Permaculture Design and Curriculum Design When working with SIFE students, it is important to make the community the curriculum. Academic achievement can often be a distant concept for students who have experienced interruptions in their formal education. Simultaneously, SIFE students offer a rich array of experiences and skills that can be exchanged and validated in the ESL classroom. The practical application of literacy and numeracy skills for authentic, observable, and social projects creates a point of entry for SIFE/ELLs that makes academia relevant to their lives. In Table 2, please find a chart of how permaculture design principles made the Victory Garden curriculum possible. These principles are based on the writings of David Holmgren and Bill Mollison (Permacultureprinciples.com n.d.) :
Conclusion The biggest tree can grow from the tiniest seed. SIFE and ELLs are capable of accomplishing great things for themselves and their communities. As demonstrated, permaculture as a pedagogical approach can be a valuable tool in the multicultural classroom. More research and experimentation must be done to transcend the disciplines of linguistics, ecology, and pedagogy. Our society needs international solutions to the global challenges we face. Every single one of our students deserves to be at the forefront of this discussion. References New York Department of Education. (n.d.). Educator resources: SIFE. Retrieved from http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/ELL/EducatorResources/SIFE.htm Dissard, J. -M. (Director/Producer), & Peng, G. (Director/Producer). (2013). I learn America [Motion picture]. United States. Permacultureprinciples.com (n.d.). What is permaculture? Retrieved from http://permacultureprinciples.com/ What is permaculture? (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from
Christina Zawerucha is a teacher, farmer, and social entrepreneur who specializes in developing sustainability literacy programs in an international context. Focused on working with immigrant populations, refugees and ELLs, Christina has developed participatory curricula with public, nonprofit, and higher education institutions in Brooklyn, Pennsylvania, Ecuador, Ukraine, and now Ethiopia. Christina works as an ESL instructor at the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia, and as a permaculture specialist for GreenPath food in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Learn more at www.permaculture4peace.org. |
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