Session 2: Committing to Equitable Teaching Practices
35 minutes
discussion-based
Purpose
This session serves as a place for participants to make a commitment to equity before the school year is over, and just before heading into preparations for the AP test (if their students are taking it). Participants are asked to reflect on their own personal values as they relate to equitable CS education, and use them to build a commitment that they’re excited to work toward. This commitment will be revisited in AYW #4.
Objectives
- Participants can describe the commitment they will pursue in support of equity in CS, and the strategies they will use to support that commitment.
- Participants can define the support they will need to pursue that commitment.
- Participants can identify the measurement(s) they will use to track progress toward the commitment
Supplies & Prep
Room Setup:
- None
Facilitator Supplies:
Participant Materials:
- Journal (Should bring with them)
- Pen/pencil
Agenda
Identifying Our Values (16 minutes)
Making a Commitment (18 minutes)
Wrap Up (1 minute)
Facilitation Guide
Identifying Our Values (16 minutes)
Facilitator Tip
The slides for this session include an overview of the equity work done so far this year. If you’ve adapted any of the context, you may need to update the slide to reflect what your group actually did.
(3 minutes) Set Context
Remarks
💷 So far this year, we’ve worked to evolve our understanding of equity as it relates to CS education. To get to this point, we’ve done a lot of work with identity, context, responsibility, and barriers and opportunities.
Since this is our second-to-last Academic Year Workshop together, we’re going to make a commitment to equity in our own classrooms that we can revisit during our last workshop as a community. Making a commitment isn’t the last step of the equity cycle, it’s just one of the steps that will help sustain your work in CS.
💷 Display PL Equity Framework with “Making a Commitment” highlighted. Note all of the steps that have led to participants engaging thoughtfully with the process, and that the work is ongoing this year and future years.
Remarks
We’ll be making sure our commitments are anchored in our values to make each one personal. These values are separate from Code.org’s Professional Learning or Curriculum values - these are the values that guide our own thoughts and actions.
Each of our values have been informed by our own lived experiences. We may have a strong sense of injustice after having been treated unfairly for one of our visible identity markers our whole life. Or perhaps you grew up in a community with inaccessible spaces, and now you’re interested in making your classroom accessible to students of all abilities. Whether or not we realize it, we bring these identities and experiences with us into the classroom.
Facilitator Tip
When preparing a personal example, it may be useful to use a concrete experience or scenario to anchor the personal value.
For example, “When I was first starting out with teaching, I had an administrator who led the best professional development sessions, and it all came down to making us feel heard and included in discussions. Now, when I facilitate, I try as much as possible to call on a variety of people so that everyone knows that their voice is important.”
Facilitator shares an example of a personal value that is important to their teaching or facilitation practice and how it manifests.
(13 minutes) Identifying Our Values
Remarks
In order to make a commitment to equity later on in this session, let’s take a moment to clarify our personal values, specifically as they relate to equitable education.
💷 Introduce the personal values activity:
- Choose three personal values from the list on the next slide (or perhaps values that aren’t on the list!) that most resonate with you and the equitable teaching practices you’re growing as a CS educator.
- Create three webs with a central bubble to hold these values. Around the central bubble, create bubbles branching out.
- Within each outside bubble, jot down a word or phrase that would be evidence of this value in your classroom.
- 💷 For example, if you chose gender inclusivity, you might draw a connected bubble that says, “Hang posters with people of all genders represented” or “Challenge stereotypes of what is a “masculine” or “feminine” App
- Lab project in conversations with students to encourage them to pursue their interests”
(8 minutes) Independent Work Time
Participants create their own web in their journals. This time can be used independently or in small groups to help generate ideas.
(4 minutes) 💷 Partner Share Out:
- Share with a partner which of your values is most important to you and the evidence of the value in your classroom.
- Why is this value most important to you?
Making a Commitment (18 minutes)
(3 minutes) Introduce the Task
Remarks
Now that we’ve clarified our own personal values, we can use this as the foundation for creating a commitment to equity that we’re genuinely animated to pursue. This commitment may change and evolve over time as you grow as a CS educator.
Facilitator Tip
This activity has been adapted from University of Houston’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion “This is My House” activity.
💷 Introduce the house metaphor for making a commitment to equity:
- The foundation of the house is the value that you’d like to base your commitment on.
- The roof is the commitment that you’ll make. This is a statement that is actionable and can be evaluated using quantitative or qualitative data.
- The walls are:
- The support that you’ll need - either resources or other people - to work toward your commitment and
- The measurements to track progress so that you can be accountable to your commitment
Remarks
When we talk about measurements, we’re not explicitly talking about test scores. That’s just one aspect of the long laundry list of qualitative and quantitative data that can help you track your progress. Tying these measurements back to the value you’ve identified can help you move away from traditional ideas of “measurements”.
💷 Review the example house in the slideshow. If you would like to customize the slide with the example commitment to make this more personal to your own values, please feel free to make a copy of the slide and adjust.
(10 minutes) 💷 Make a Commitment
Give participants 10 minutes to make their own commitment by choosing a slide from the slide deck and filling it out. These commitments will be revisited during AYW #4, so make sure to save the link to the slide deck for future reference.
Remind participants that the commitment should be rooted in access, diversity, and inclusion in CS, as well as measurable by qualitative or quantitative data.
(5 minutes) Share Out
Allow participants to share out their commitments to equitable CS education whole group. Use this time to celebrate participants’ growth in and commitment to equity.
Wrap Up (1 minute)
Remarks
Thank you for taking the time to re-engage with the equity framework! When we root our commitments in our own personal values as they relate to CS education, we’ll be more likely to be inspired to achieve them.
We will be checking in during the next Academic Year Workshop to see how we’ve grown toward our commitment.