Advocating for

Students and Families

in Marginalized
Populations

TLSC 210
This module focuses on informing teacher
candidates about the diverse educational policies
enacted that aim to ensure that students of diverse
backgrounds; culture, language, ability, etc. are
working together under one coexisting building to
earn the same educational opportunities. Students
learn the history of our countries unequal, racial
laws within the educational system and are
encouraged to build upon their prior knowledge
when thinking about ways to ensure all students in
their classroom feel welcomed, safe, and respected.
Following students focus on the continuous
changing English Language Learner policies.
Students read and reflect on the changing Bilingual
learner policies over the years and grow to ensure
that non-native English speakers are being cared for
equally in their classroom and being provided a
never-ending amount of resources and support from
adults and their peers. Importantly, this module aims
to reflect the idea that students do not need to be
separated based on any difference they may carry. In
fact, it is more beneficial for students to be around a
diverse group to better their knowledge and
understanding.
Types of policies:
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
Students created their own flyer about an
educational policy of their choice that works to
inform parents and students.
As a future educator, it is our job to ensure that we are
staying up to date with the local, national and
international educational policies because we never for
sure will know when one of the policies can personally
affect our student(s). Whether positively or negatively,
we need to ensure that we are constantly adapting our
students' learning that will promote and follow the
policy rules. More so, we are obligated to inform our
students' parents and guardians of changing policies
that could bring positive change or harmful
disturbances to their child’s learning. This especially
goes for complicated and uneasily understandable
policies involving bilingual students and students with
special needs. If teachers see that a policy is not
correctly representing or proving the necessary support
it intends for students, teachers can use the information
gathered under the policy laws to prove that their needs
to be changed. Teachers are the ones who are first
handedly experiencing how the policies are affecting
their school system and classroom curriculum. For this,
they are the ones who can group together and prove
that the policies in place are good or bad for their
students and other students.

TLSC 210
This module focuses on directing future
teachers to use alternative forms of
“discipline” to reconstruct a student's behavior.
States implementing a culturally Candidates are given a chance to choose from a
responsive education under the ESSA
plan ray of diverse student backgrounds in order to
build case studies on how they can positively
manage the student ‘s behavior in the
classroom. The case studies include students of
diverse races and ethnicities having learning
disabilities, language barriers, or can simply be
range from a diverse students a child trying to
challenge their teacher and peers in the
classroom. Looking through these case studies
with a critical mind, candidates are actively
engaging themselves into the life of a teacher
trying to alter a student(s) behavior using ways
that would encourage them to try to understand
Students created their own FBA’s about a student a student's behavior as more than they are a
with diverse learning needs to gain experience child acting. In this module students are
advocating for alternative behavior strategies. thinking about a child’s social, emotional,
behavioral, cultural, and linguistic abilities to
be used in the classroom to better their
behavior and learning process. It’s less of how
TLSC 222 a student can be better for the educator but
more od how the educator can better
This module focuses on having students promote themselves and the classroom environment for
equity in the classroom by being able to produce a the student.
diverse group of activities and other instructional
materials and goals in order to improve and promote
better learning for students. In this module, students
were given case studies about bilingual students and
directed to provide reading, writing, listening, and
speaking instructional activities that will lead the
student to improve in their assessments and English
skills. Candidates are encouraged to think critically
and used resources to produce resources and learning
activities that will positively assist the bilingual
learner and the entire classroom to be fun and open.
This module promotes for bilingual learners and
English as first language students to work in unison
to form bonds that will help them further their Students created their own data reflection
learners. It is the teacher's responsibility to use a document about a bilingual learner student(s) that
child's background information to the fullest to encouraged candidates to use a variety of
ensure they are being represented in the classroom instructional goals and strategies to promote
and to their peers for an inclusive environment. equity in the classroom while ensure their ELL
student is being provided resources to support
Teachers have the power to influence the way students think of their
their learning.
peers. They have the power to produce inclusive learning activities
that encourage student with diverse learning needs and personal
backgrounds to work together and learn from each other, rather than
always relying on their educator. A physical
representation of diversity in a classroom goes
beyond helping students feel welcomed to each
other but provides a sense of home and security
while they are learning. When a student is
comfortable in their classroom and around
their peers it improves their learning intake of
information and could potentially make the process
easier on the teacher. A subject that could be
considered hard, taught in a way that uses bilingual or
special needs prior knowledge or personal life can Percentages of
suddenly be a learning curve for the educator than the ELL in public
student(s). Students help teachers rethink common curriculum and schools fall of
think of how they could be reinvented and changed to fit the roles of 2017
their current students individually rather than aiming to enforce
information as a whole group. Diverse students remind
educators that each student is different and may need
additional resources to help them be aligned with their peers.

Why be a teacher advocate:

There are many key characteristics of teachers that engage with policies to advocate for students, understand students’ backgrounds and
abilities, and use knowledge of policy and practice to provide effective instruction and advocate for students. Some are accepting to new
ideas and constant change of resources and activities, seeing students as individuals than as a whole group; teachers need to recognize that
each student is different and learns in variety of way. They need to be prepared to teach a student(s) with different instructional activities,
so they do not feel left out or behind than their peers. Teachers need to allow time for students to give them feedback or express how they
are feeling about the class, peers, curriculum, etc. This is only to ensure that they are being well cared for when they are not in the
classroom. For instance, in a case study done, a student was overusing the classroom study room to be alone and as an excuse to not work
with her peers because her peers would bully her for being too smart. Normally, an educator would not notice a student being bullied by
their peers. For this, we suggested for the educator to implement more team builders for the entire class and we suggested for the educator
to show how the student being smart is not a bad thing like hosting tutoring sessions for her to have friends with other students who may
feel the same. Rely less on the student being at fault for their behavior and try to see it to bring the classroom closer.