Content Objectives

Community can be defined as, “a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society” according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary. The people within a community can change over time. The theme of this work is the changing over time of the community at Frankford High School in Philadelphia and the implications for the staff and students at the school. So, a multidimensional approach will be implemented to build an energetic school community of both students and teachers by significantly increasing their engagement in various educational activities to build a community including all students from around the world.

Frankford High School is one of fifty-six high schools found in the Philadelphia School District.  “The current building opened in 1916 with the stadium addition following in 1922 (Frankford 6). According to the Staff Handbook, “Several staff members are Frankford alums and provide a valuable link between Frankford’s storied past and its promising future”. The population of students when the school started in 1916 was drastically different from the current student population. In 1916, the high school was a predominately white institution. More recently, the population of English Language Learners has shifted from 2014 to the current day. In 2014, English Language Learners comprised 12% of the student population while in 2024 the number of English Language Learners had jumped to 25% (English).

There are deep connections to this topic of “Building A Community” because both of my grandparents were Irish undocumented immigrants coming from County Mayo, Ireland through the port of Philadelphia rather than Ellis Island. My grandmother cooked for the Wanamaker family while my grandfather was employed by Midvale Steel, living in the general neighborhood of Frankford High School for many years before moving to Bucks County. Since my grandparents started from nothing like so many of my students and their families, I feel a strong bond to the work that I do at Frankford High School. The students in my school could easily have been my parents, aunts and uncles.

For five years, I was a full-time classroom teacher for brand new students in our country mostly from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Although my grandparents sailed on a ship, many of my students traveled by air. Then, five years later I noticed an increase in the number of students from Guatemala and the Northern Triangle of Central America in my classroom (Musalo 1). Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras generally are the countries when using the term Northern Triangle (Musalo 1). Some of these students travel by boat and on foot to get to our school. One of our students traveled through fourteen countries to get to our school. Students continue to arrive on an almost daily basis from a wide variety of countries and continents including South America and Africa. The changing population of students requires us to examine how we may change our practices to best serve the needs of new demographics at the school. There are about eight hundred students at the school with about one hundred and seventy-five students speaking Spanish as a first language. There are some other students that are Spanish heritage speakers but attend school usually where English is the primary language.  Perhaps some of these and other students may connect with the somewhat new terminology of “LatinX.”

Back in the day, the term would have been Hispanic when referencing students from Mexico or Puerto Rico. The term Hispanic came about in the early 1900’s, but it was problematic because it defined Hispanic “as Puerto Rican, Cuban-American, Mexican-American, and persons elsewhere in Central and South America” (Villanueva Alarcón 1). Many people listed in this definition did not agree with it (Villanueva Alarcón 1). As a result, a different term was developed to decrease criticism and issues related to the term Hispanic.

With the use of Latinx as a new term that could describe many Frankford High School students, it is important to not only understand what the term means but also to consider what it means for students to be identified as Latinx in this school. Historically, “The most common way to refer to individuals of Latin American roots who reside in the United States has been “Latino” (Villanueva Alarcón 1).

“LatinX” replaces the traditional gender-specific terms “Latino” (masculine) and “Latina” (feminine) with a gender-neutral option, making it more inclusive of individuals who identify as non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid, or transgender (Scharrón-del Río 1). The diversity of the Latin American community realizes that gender is not strictly binary and using the term “LatinX” hopes to respect all gender identities (Villanueva Alarcón 1). Many English-speaking countries utilize the term “LatinX” especially in the United States (Murillo et al., 4). Some individuals in the Latin American community do not accept this new “LatinX” term. The terms “Latine,” “Latin@” or “Latino/a,” are used by some, while others find fault with “LatinX” for being imposed from outside the community or for its departure from traditional Spanish grammar rules (Murillo et al., 5).  Overall, “LatinX” represents an ongoing conversation within the Latin American community and beyond about language, identity, and inclusivity. The term “LatinX” for this work will relate to all students that speak Spanish but include both Haitians and Brazilian students, as their populations are also increasing at this school. In most of the Hispanic communities including Hatians and Brazilian students would be controversial if not impossible but our students have formed a strong bond together at school. .

“What caused this shift in student demographics?” is an integral question as a basis for my research. The overall goal of the research is to bring the community of Frankford High School together, including students and staff with a sense of unity as one yet appreciating and advocating for the rich history and cultural identity of all students. Researching the reasons for the shift in student populations from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti can yield several specific tangible benefits.

Over the past thirteen years, the student population of English Language Learners has grown. My first year included about one hundred and twelve English Language Learner students from about seven countries speaking five languages while currently at my school there are two hundred and seventy-five English Language Learners speaking over nineteen languages from twenty-two different countries. Understanding the past will influence both the present and future of my school community. A more inclusive environment will be created by studying migration patterns of students and by increasing students’ and staff’s understanding of the changing circumstances and reasons why people migrate.

Immigration movements have changed over the years that impact the student population and community at the school. There has been a demographic shift, transitioning from predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican students to an increase in both Central American and Brazilian populations at Frankford High School. The shift in demographics is illustrated in the table below for the state of Pennsylvania. The state of Pennsylvania almost doubled in foreign born residents from these countries between the years of 2010 and 2018. The countries listed below represent populations of students at my school in Table 1-1. Not only is there an increase in the Northern Triangle of Central America countries but also the number of students from Haiti, Brazil, and Syria. The increase in the number of students in my school directly mirrors the increase of foreign residents in the state of Pennsylvania.

Table 1: Change in birthplace of Pennsylvania residents from Migration History for individual states 1850-2018

Students who have migrated from Puerto Rico to Philadelphia have the shared immigrant experience of leaving their homes, but they also often stay connected to Puerto Rico through travel. In addition to economics, because Puerto Rico is a United States territory, there are no documentation, passport, or visa issues with coming back and forth. The ability for students to travel back and forth from Puerto Rico further explains the increase of students (Migrating 1). Although students can be Migrating to a New Land, they are actually leaving their home in Puerto Rico. People can constantly return to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s Operation Bootstrap impacted the number of Puerto Rican people coming to the United States and even Philadelphia. At one time in Puerto Rico there weren’t enough jobs from the Sugar Economy so people were encouraged to go to the United States for employment (Migrating 1). The trend of coming to the United States for jobs continues with Puerto Rico. Migration was a part of Operation Bootstrap. Conversely, Puerto Rico is viewed as a tax haven for some companies starting with Operation Bootstrap and continuing to this day. Most recently, Act 22 gave special tax benefits to United States citizens (López-Zambrana).

When speaking about Central America, it is challenging to speak about only one country or only one region for migration such as Guatemala. Volcanoes and hurricanes are two reasons some people from these countries may flee to the United States. Transnational businesses were created between the United States and many countries from this area. Unfortunately, the United States played a role in this as they continuously supported civil wars in this area.  The MS 13 gang started in Los Angeles but quickly moved to many other Central American countries (Bruneau et al 29). So, some people move or send their children to the United States to flee from gang violence. Many students from the Northern Triangle and Central America have been arriving to our school. Deep poverty and lack of economic opportunity, especially in Guatemala, is a major driver of migration for many of our students, who are working here to send money home so that their parents and younger siblings can afford food, shelter, and other basic living necessities.

The population of Philadelphia has also been impacted by similar expanding immigration trends. In the 1990’s and 2000’s there was a major surge of immigrants in the city of Philadelphia. There was an influx of younger immigrants thus increasing the population of English Language Learners in the Philadelphia School District as evidenced by the larger number of students from other countries. Many of these students do not graduate from high school due to many factors such as being employed in service jobs and agricultural work to support not only themselves but their families in their home countries. (New residents 1)

In 2006, many people rallied for immigration rights across the United Sates , including Philadelphia (Bloemraad, I. et all).  According to a Logroño article, “It’s been 15 years since those historic immigration reform protests and Philadelphia’s Latino communities are bigger than ever. The United States Census Bureau estimates that over 60 million U.S. residents are Latino — that’s 18.5% of the country’s population. Of those 60 million, nearly a quarter of a million live in Philadelphia — 15.2% of the city’s population. These communities have blossomed along SEPTA’s route 47 bus line, from the growing Mexican community in South Philadelphia to the large Puerto Rican and Dominican community in el Norte, and Central Americans scattered throughout both areas”. A look at the population before and after the pandemic shows an expansion of the immigrant population in Philadelphia. Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Multi-Racial residents moving to Philadelphia have increased while the number of white and Asian residents has decreased (New residents 1). The lower income household brackets have grown since the pandemic while median income households have declined between 2018 and 2021 (New residents 1). Most notable is the increase in Brazilian people during the pandemic when most methods of travel ceased to exist (New residents 1). This pandemic increase in the number of Brazilians in Philadelphia coincides with the increase in population of Brazilian students at our school. All of these statistics support the growth of English Language Learners in our school.

There has been a demographic shift transitioning from predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican students to a larger number of Central American and Brazilian populations at Frankford High School. Students have strong ties to their home countries so a goal would be to share information about their home countries to depict similarities and differences among students. Many students have a parent in their home country. Others may have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins still living in their home countries. A few students arrived in our country at such an early age they do not remember their home countries while others arrive almost an adult with vivid memories and being homesick. Students at our school leave for weeks at a time during December and summer months to return to their home countries, specifically Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic as air fare is more reasonable. Students are also not required to be in school at that time.  Other students from the Northern Triangle are unable to return home due to financial constraints. They also cannot go home because they do not have the right visas, green cards, to get back into this country. So, if they leave they will need to repeat the journey on foot all over again. Many of our students from these areas will probably go a decade or more without seeing their parents, siblings, and grandparents, since they cannot travel out of the United States while they wait for their asylum cases to be processed. Students from the Northern Triangle and South America tend to work full time jobs and send money home on a regular basis. Holidays such as celebrating Three Kings illustrate strong roots to their home country. Students naturally tend to befriend other students from their home country for out of school activities and even eating in the lunch room as there is a specific level of comfort and a bond that forms from being from the same country.

Why has there been this demographic shift? Since the early 1900’s Puerto Ricans have been coming to the United States ((Logroño). Currently, Philadelphia has the second largest Puerto Rican population after New York City (Logroño). Similar to European immigrants, many Puerto Ricans went to the United States for employment (Whalen). Many worked in factories (Logroño). The ability to go back and forth between Puerto Rico and the United States explains the transient nature of so many students in my high school.

The second biggest Latino group in Philadelphia are the people from the Dominican Republic (Logroño). Many Dominicans also come to the United States for work. For example, many Dominicans own their own businesses (Logroño). Again, this mimics the population at my school. As recently as 2011 there were strong rivalries between the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities within our school. Since that time the mostly Puerto Rican communities seem to have integrated the Dominican population into the same community.

Poverty, violence, and lack of opportunities are three common themes from students in our school that leave Guatemala and other Central and South American countries recently (Pierce). Students are attempting to escape a life of poverty by coming to the United States. Most of our students from Guatemala want to learn English but don’t come to the United States with the primary goal of obtaining an education. Their primary goal is to make money to support their families in Guatemala and to support themselves here. According to Musalo, “In the early summer months of 2014, an increasing number of Central American children alone and with their parents began arriving at the US-Mexico border in search of safety and protection.” This could be another reason for an increase in Northern Triangle students. Constantly changing immigration policy recently led to an increase in numbers of people crossing the border and thus impacting a surge in enrollment in schools (Musalo).

Although about 176 of our current English Language Learners speak Spanish that attend our high school, the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month seems to be lacking or actually non-existent for almost my entire time at the school. This is a problem. The month-long event happens right at the start of school and teachers are burdened with new federal and state mandates, and curriculum. The first six years at the school there was not even a mention of Hispanic Heritage Month. Two significant positive events to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month in the last seven years stand out in my mind. The first included reading aloud a few lines about a Hispanic individual during announcements. The second was an entertaining show exemplifying Hispanic culture and dance but very few English Language Learners were invited to attend. I am hoping through this work, to set a foundation and basis for not only celebrating National Hispanic Month but building a bridge to connect all LatinX students to feel empowered throughout the year and not just during one month. An additional ideal situation would be to add onto the ideas presented here to encapsulate the entire school year rather than just thirty days.

“How can the staff and other students at my high school accept and grow together to build a better and more accepting community of our growing English Language Learner student population?” is another important question to answer as the demographics at the school have changed. The core content of the unit would be a “Celebration of Culture” at the end of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage week started in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson (Cuellar 1). President Ronald Reagin changed the week to a 30-day celebration that began on September 15th and ended on October 15th (Cuellar 1). September 15th is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua according to Cuellar. “Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18 “(Cuellar 1). It would be nice to celebrate different independence days during this month in honor of our students

To organize this Celebration of Culture, our school community must ask and answer several critical questions. Where are the students in our school from? What are some of the traditions and customs of each country? How do people dress in that country? These questions would merely scratch the surface but the answers provided would form a solid foundation for creating a schoolwide “Celebration of Culture” event.

Although our school is over 30% English Language Learners, many of our students may relate to the term LatinX. Students’ personal histories are inexplicably intertwined with the term LatinX. First, there is the importance of the term LatinX then there is an entire academic field relating to the term LatinX.

My plan for this unit is not only educating students but also the staff in the building. Although many of our staff members have been in our building for many years, they may not understand the shift in population and demographics of our school and the implications of this shift  for how they do their jobs. When our school community engages in the conversation about LatinX while celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, culminating in a Celebration of Culture, we can highlight various countries represented in our schools, build community, and ultimately have a positive impact on teachers’ practices and students’ lives.

Why build community? Education has changed so much especially as a direct result of the recent pandemic. The implications of the pandemic can still be felt not only by students but also teachers. According to Igleseas et al, “in different learning contexts, whether formal or informal, there are relationships based on collaboration and shared work, which involve mutual trust and goal consensus”. In essence, this shared work of celebrating student’s cultures will benefit the entire school community. Although the student population has changed so many of our staff members do not realize how these changes have transformed the school culture. Others do not know how to adjust their teaching in response to the changing demographic. Finally, still others may in part be resentful and/or uncomfortable with the changing population. The school can do better to serve our students. The “Celebration of Culture” is one way to build community. The background knowledge students bring to school each day and even student’s ability to work in groups or on an individual basis can be impacted by cultural differences (Moll 139). All members of the school community should be aware of these differences so they can be viewed as an asset rather than a deficit.

Schoolwide Event Description

The “Celebration of Culture” will be a one-day event held at the end of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The goal is for each school to use the following information and adjust and change as needed to fit the needs of their school community. A committee of students, administrators, and teachers will coordinate the event. Teachers can sign up for certain classes to attend this event or even a special schedule for certain classes to attend during specific time periods can be established.  The event will hopefully be outside. A back-up location plan for our event, the gym, will also be in place in case of inclement weather. Each student attending will receive a paper Passport so it can be marked off with a marker, a sticker or even a stamp as the students move from station to station to note the learning from different stations. Using a heavier cardstock type paper would be the ideal for the passport but at times this is a novelty and not the norm in many public schools.

Table 2: Celebration of Cultures topics

This fall will be the second year of our school having a Newcomer Learning Academy (NLA) in our building. This is only the second type of program in the whole Philadelphia School District due to the growing number of English Language Learners.

“The Newcomer Learning Academy (NLA) provides an accelerated course of study that builds social and academic English for students ages 14 – 21 who recently arrived to the United States. In addition, we recognize that the students are adjusting to living in a new community culture, norms, and language. Therefore, the NLA assists students in becoming acclimated to U.S. secondary school expectations while appreciating the experiences, perspectives, and background knowledge each student brings to the community.

The program is designed to meet the needs of high school students new to the U.S. and demonstrate beginning levels of English language proficiency (i.e., 1.0-1.9). Through courses that embed literacy and language learning with content instruction in mathematics, science, and social studies, students develop English language and literacy skills while acquiring content-area skills and knowledge. With appropriate and sufficient scaffolds and support, students are expected to learn standards-based content and actively participate in their learning. For students with interruptions or gaps in formal education SLIFEs (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) additional support is provided through specialized coursework in literacy.”

It is an honor that our school has been selected to have this program in our building. Students in the Newcomer Learning Academy and other English as a Second Language classes are an asset to our school and will create “Cultural Workshops” in their history and English courses in order to educate other students in our school about their home countries. Some ideas for the Cultural Workshops may be food, games, traditions, songs, fashion trends and locating the country on a world map. Students can use a variety of modalities including video, audio, literature, and computer graphics to analyze and compare information obtained in order to share with the rest of the student body. Students will be able to research about their home country in order to share information with other students during the culminating event “Celebration of Culture.”  This “project” that is developed independently by each class really depends on the classes’ English levels. Students in our Newcomer Learning Academy will have a different ability than students that have been living and learning English in the United States for a number of years. There will be a wide variety of projects and depth depending on the English level. Each country represented will have their own “station” or table with information.

The art and music departments at our school will have a critical role in the “Celebration of Cultures.”  Art teachers in the building will focus on artwork from countries that represent our students. Some of this art work will be on display the day of the event and within the school on a bulletin board.  Music from around the world will be illustrated by both the music department and DJ. Our school is lucky enough to have an extensive music education program including a band, drumline, guitar, and orchestra to name a few options. In coordination with both music teachers, music will be performed from around the world with a focus on countries that represent our students. The English Language Learners are well represented in our music program and have performed a wide range of music from their countries of origin during both Winter and Spring concerts and musicals in the past. The DJ will be provided an international playlist created by students to enjoy the day of the event. Hoping the DJ will be able to locate the music suggested by the students. A booth will be set up for students to learn a language from other students. There are over twenty languages spoken at our school so it would be ideal for students to volunteer to briefly teach other students some simple salutations and greetings at a language booth. Some students may want to expand on this idea.

Our school currently works closely with La Puerta Abierta and EL Concilio community organizations. Invitations will be sent to a wide variety of other organizations to set up tables in order to provide resources and information for our students.  Culture events and resource fairs are part of the work provided by Community Schools so the planning committee will work in conjunction with Community Schools coordinators to expand resources for our students. Students, families, and communities are supported through the work of Community Schools to change the entire school community (Hine). “Community Schools are a partnership among the City of Philadelphia, the School District of Philadelphia, and school communities to remove barriers to learning and support the success of each student. The long-term goal of Community Schools is to ensure that every student graduates college- and career-ready, and that communities are healthy, safe, hopeful, and supportive” (“Community Schools | Programs and Initiatives”). Language programs, cultural integration programs and academic support services can be utilized by students new to the country if resources can be allocated. “To create truly child- and family-centered institutions that embody the community development approach, community schools must develop equitable organizational structures in both physical and social ways, with formal and informal structures (Sanders et al). “The “Celebration of Culture” would be an example of an informal structure to benefit all students while the bulletin boards, advisory slides, and video interviews would be a more formal structure.

The teachers and staff at the school can better understand and support diverse students if background information and experiences of students from these countries are shared. Teacher’s expectations for their students’ academic success will increase. “For example, if teachers form expectations for their entire class or school population (i.e., group-level teacher expectations), they may try to engage more students in learning activities and put more effort into teaching for all students” (Brault et al). A sense of community can be created by building relationships with teachers, and conversely teachers building community with students (Trespalacios et al). Understanding the changing population of students can help teachers to comprehend barriers and to assist all students in having an equal access to learning.

Another goal for the project would be to archive the material from the bulletin boards, advisory slides, and student video interviews. One idea would be to laminate the materials so fading does not happen. Another idea would be for the “Celebration of Culture” to be videoed throughout the event. Material can be stored with the English Language Learner department materials for reference. Each year it would be ideal for the “Celebration of Culture” to grow and materials from other years can be utilized to document this growth process. Finding storage space is a challenge for our building at the moment because most of our building is under renovation dealing with an asbestos issue. Additional ways to archive the material are still be researched such as digital archive may be the best at this point in time.

The following are strategies to be completed during National Hispanic Heritage Month in order to build community with the culminating activity being the final schoolwide event of “Celebration of Culture.” The bulletin boards will be in place at the start of the school year while the advisory slides will be published weekly during National Hispanic Heritage Month. The ideal is that each school would personalize the slides to fit their very own demographic as it may be different than one provided here. A variety of teaching strategies will be utilized in this unit Building a Community: A Celebration of Culture and Hispanic Heritage. The overall teaching strategy would be to address the entire school community through schoolwide activities.

The information in the three charts below serve as basic objectives that individual schools can elaborate on and decide on the level of school engagement for their students. The following examples are based off of a high school sample but could easily be adapted to any K-12 grade level in education.

Chart 1: What does it mean to be LatinX?

Chart 1 provides the background knowledge for both students and teachers. Teachers will create the advisory slides with information for our school. Students will be guided through a series of questions to reflect on their own identity to determine if they can relate and connect to the term LatinX. An online sorting activity will be embedded in the slides to increase student engagement during the advisory to sort countries typically connected to LatinX. The bulletin board will represent a variety of countries that can be included in the LatinX community. The bulletin board will be visible and thought provoking for students to consider as they walk by each day.

Chart 2:  How has the population of our school changed over time?

Chart 2 encompasses advisory slides, bulletin boards, and student video interviews. A definition of LatinX will be provided in advisory slides during week one of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Students will compare and contrast the locations where students that attended Frankford High School attended in the past to current day students. Data will be provided by the Philadelphia School District student information system in the advisory slides. Newcomer Learning Academy and English as a Second Language teachers will seek volunteers from students who would like to be interviewed about their heritage. A few staff members will also be asked to answer questions. The video will be engaging for students as they recognize their peers and staff members in the building.

Chart 3:  How can I be involved in the “Celebration of Culture?”

Chart 3 illustrates the “Celebration of Culture” and how it will be student led. Through different classes and student groups, students will self select their involvement in this special day. On-line signup sheets will be available for both students and staff to avoid repetition. Students will think of games to be played relating to their countries during this event. Students could research or even dress up like the famous LatinX people they learned about during this month. Artwork created relating to LatinX culture can be on display during the “Celebration of Culture.”

The first lesson would be a bulletin board on each floor of the building. Students will be greeted as they return to school to colorful bulletin board displays representing the LatinX community. One bulletin board would contain student created artwork with an explanation of the country represented and artwork. Another bulletin board will contain student created posters about scientists in STEM. A third bulletin board would contain a map of the world identifying the countries for students in our school. This would hopefully peak the interest of students.

The second lesson would be original student interviews to be played on social media, on the school television station, and in classrooms specifically during advisory. Advisory is a short homeroom type of class that meets each day. Our school has a visual arts teacher that has high tech equipment who has agreed to video the students. Students new to our country and even English as a Second Language learners who have been here a while will answer basic questions in both English and their native language such as “I love being Hispanic/Latinx because….My Latinx/Hispanic heritage has shaped me into the person I am today because….and “The best thing about my culture is….” This is a starting point for the students. More fluent in English students can expand on these topics in English while newcomer students can speak in their native language. School staff that were not born in our country are also invited to be taped to share with the school. These staff members will serve as positive role models for the entire student body. The goal is for the entire school community to not only watch but to learn about their fellow classmates. Perhaps students or teachers born in the United States that only speak English may feel uncomfortable if a student speaks in their language. This uncomfortable feeling may spark conversation and understanding of someone else’s perspective.

The third lesson will be Advisory Slides shared with each Advisory in the school. Each week a different topic will be shared in the Advisory Slides in order to educate the students. The first week students will be provided definitions of the meaning of the term LatinX as it pertains to our school. The second week will learn about the number of students in the school that the term LatinX applies to. Students will be able to identify countries their classmates come from during the third week.

The final lesson will be a “Celebration of Culture” schoolwide event at the end of Hispanic History Month. It will be the culminating school wide event to bring together information learned during National Hispanic Heritage Month. There will be a number of stations set up on the football field or in the school gym if the weather is inclement. A committee will be established from the leadership team to coordinate setup and break down, coordinate food donations and community organizations to set up information booths. The Newcomer Learning Academy teachers will assist students who want to volunteer with traditional dress and dance performances. A global fashion show will take place with students in traditional dress. Several dance performances will take place by students in our LatinX afterschool group. The art teachers will set up a photo booth and art display. Student-created Cultural Workshops will take place where students can learn about different countries’ traditions, crafts, art forms, and games from different cultures. English Language Learners will provide information about their native countries through in class projects developed by individual students. Students can listen to and practice different languages spoken within the school community in a language exchange booth. A concert will take place with our choir, band, and drum line illustrating sample music from different cultures.

Table 3: Bulletin Boards

Table 4: Video Student Interviews

Table 5: Advisory Slides

Table 6: Celebration of Culture

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Musalo, Karen, and Eunice Lee. “Seeking a rational approach to a regional refugee crisis: lessons from the summer 2014 ‘surge’ of Central American women and children at the US-Mexico border.” Journal on Migration and Human Security, vol. 5, no. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 137+. Gale Academic OneFile,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491612879/AONE?u=temple_main&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=cc9f be63. Accessed 31 May 2024.

Newcomer Learning Academy. Handbook. 2023. PDF.

New Residents in Philadelphia – Part 1.” Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, 27 June 2023, www.economyleague.org/resources/new-residents-philadelphia-part-1.

Philadelphia City School District – U.S. News Education, www.usnews.com/education/k12/pennsylvania/districts/philadelphia-city-sd-101796. Accessed 4 June 2024.

Pierce, Sarah. “Unaccompanied Child Migrants in U.S. Communities, Immigration Court, and Schools.” Migrationpolicy.Org, 11 Jan. 2016, www.migrationpolicy.org/research/unaccompanied-child-migrants-us-communities-immigration court-and-schools.

Sanders, M., Galindo, C., & DeTablan, D. (2019). Leadership for collaboration: Exploring how community school coordinators advance the goals of full-service community schools. Children & Schools, 41(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdz006

Scharrón-del Río, M. R., & Aja, A. A. (2020). Latinx: Inclusive language as liberation praxis. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 8(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000140

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Trespalacios, Jesús, et al. “Community and Connectedness in Online Higher Education: A Scoping Review of the Literature.” Distance Education, vol. 42, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1869524.

Villanueva Alarcón, Idalis, Mejia, Joel Alejandro, Mejia, Janice, and Revelo, Renata. Latiné, Latinx, Latina, Latino, or Hispanic: Problematizing terms often used in engineering education. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10357965. Journal of Engineering Education . Web. doi:10.1002/jee.20486.

Whalen Carmen Teresa. From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican workers and postwar economies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press; 2001. [Google Scholar]

Annotated bibliography

Hispanic and Latino Scientists  This information can be used for bulletin boards.

Map of the World Map to be used on bulletin boards.  Students’ countries can be marked.

passport Each student attending will receive a paper passport so it can be marked off with a marker, sticker or even stamp as the students move from station to station to note the learning from different stations.

Video Interview Questions Suggestions for student interview questions

Standards for English Language Development, July 2017

Standard 1: English language learners communicate in English for SOCIAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL purposes within the school setting.

Standard 2: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.

Standard 5: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social Studies.