Problem Statement: 

Gentrification is a trending topic these days, changing not only the face of many urban landscapes, but the faces that inhabit them. Cities are in a constant state of evolution, as old ethnic enclaves once filled with European immigrant families changed demographically with ‘white flights’ of the 1950’s and ‘60’s now become the new hipster neighborhood with high dollar real estate. Philadelphia, a city of ethnic enclaves, has been no exception to this constant evolution of movement to, from, and within the city over many generations. Currently, these kinds of changes are visibly evident in the areas of Kensington and in the area surrounding Italian Market in South Philadelphia, where high priced new construction is once again changing the face of neighborhoods, and the faces of children in the neighborhood’s schools. The unit I have created puts the focus on a more in depth look at the changes over time in the Latinx community of Philadelphia, to include a specific focus on the demographic data from, and its subsequent effects on, South Philadelphia High School and Kensington High School(s).

Among the current Kensington generations are my students. Kensington Health Sciences Academy is one of three public neighborhood high schools serving this area and is the only community school – part of a group of schools that have a special partnership with the city that serve as a link to provide services to the community. I teach Spanish as a Heritage Language classes that are designed to help students build on the language of their community. In my classroom, Kensington students learn to expand their abilities using some of the languages of Kensington: Spanish, English, and Spanglish. Most are able to understand spoken Spanish, speak Spanish to some degree, and have varying levels of literacy in what is for many their first language. My particular students are either Native Speakers who have recently arrived in the US and speak little English, are proficient due to a migration and/or continued use of Spanish in their home and communities, or are Kensington Natives for whom English has become the dominant language. Because of the range of language proficiency in the classes I teach, I use my class to develop literacy skills through relevant topics, and using materials primarily in Spanish. In an effort to support school and district initiatives that work towards skills needed for critical thinking and evidence-based writing, I curate small units of instruction around a five-class subtopic, as part of a quarterly, or eight-week, unit of study of a broader idea or question. Last school year I created a unit based on a statue of Don Quixote that has long been visible in the community, as a way to spark awareness of representation, gentrification, and civic engagement. During that unit students briefly studied the history of this immediate area over the course of the past 400 years, and were particularly interested in who previously inhabited the places where they now live.

Based on the students’ previous attention to the lessons on the history of the greater Kensington area, I have created an eight-week, stand-alone unit that focuses on literacy skills and uses the brain-based strategy of cyclic tasks to ensure student success. The unit of study adheres to the Gholdy Muhammed (Muhammad and Love 2020) framework for culturally, historically, and equitably responsive curricula in order to break old paradigms regarding the abilities of multilingual students from marginalized neighborhoods, as well as to help students better be able to identify and evaluate the forces at work in their communities, and how those forces affect their schools. Ultimately, I will ask students to use their understanding of these changes to propose recommendations for the school district to meet the educational needs of the evolving Latinx population of the city for future generations.

Hopefully the unit will be used by other educators inside and outside of Philadelphia as “social justice through acompañamiento”, to “accompany structural and lasting changes in our learning communities and beyond” (García Peña 511). It is my sincere desire that those students, as well as mine, will become knowledgeable about the past in order to understand the present, and empowered to make change in the future.

The Past, Present, and Future of Latinx Studies 

The course’s objectives, as stated in the syllabus include an examination of Latinx literature, music, and pop culture in order to offer a historical and theoretical framework through which to consider the continually evolving Latinx presence in the United States. The syllabus specifically mentions the effects of the United States’ involvement in Latin America as crucial to the understanding of Latinx communities inside of the United States official borders, as well.

Latinx is a broad term, considering the breadth of the Spanish speaking diaspora, and one that attempts to describe communities as diverse as they are numerous. Through readings on all aspects of identity, identities, and in their intersections, I have a better understanding of the impossibility of narrowing down a “Latinx identity”, if such a thing even exists as a monolith.  As Gloria Anzaldúa writes in “La Prieta”, “The mixture of bloods and affinities, rather than confusing or unbalancing me, has forced me to achieve a kind of equilibrium. Both cultures deny me a place in their universe. Between them and among others, I build my own universe, El Mundo Zurdo. I belong to myself and not to any one people” (209). The idea of a single Latinx identity, or even the use of the term Latinx, would require agreement from people so diverse culturally, that the term becomes almost irrelevant to the people to whom it is applied, and becomes probably more useful for non-Latinx people in who it describes, and who it doesn’t describe. However, as in Patricia Engel’s essay “On naming ourselves: or, When I was a spic” (2017), it is evident that the term Latinx becomes relevant in order to encompass the very group that defies a label because of their diversity, diversity within that diversity, and a physical space to call their own or to feel at home.

The content of the readings has been very relevant for my teaching practice. Themes of colorism, Afro Latinidad/identidad, forced separation, immigration trauma, as well as the significance of language maintenance/loss, all contribute to the layers of Latinx identity, and more specifically, have provided insight into possible experiences of the very students I teach every day. These conceptual understandings, as limited as they are due to time constraints and the wide range of possible topics, useful readings, and other materials for this class, have been helpful in the planning and preparation of the units of study included in this document, and more importantly, to gain a better cultural understanding of the people in the communities where I work and live, and the students I serve.

As a teacher of Heritage and Native Speaker students, I see the issues of language maintenance and language loss every day. As in Julia Alvarez’ “La Gringuita”(1999) and Janel Pineda’s “How English Came To Me” (2020), I see the reflection of my students who become immersed in English and lose proficiency in their primary language. The devaluation of primary or home languages by students and their families often occurs as English as a pathway to success is strongly encouraged (or enforced) in schools. Without recognition that the decision to prioritize one language over another is not only harmful and unjust, it is also untrue. Recent work in the study of Heritage Language Instruction shows that “… US Latino children largely benefit from learning to read in their heritage language through additional learning opportunities, such as attending Spanish heritage language school programs. This finding adds to the growing body of literature (Arredondo, Rosado, and Satterfield 2016; Tijunelis, Satterfield, and Benkí 2013) advocating for the benefits of heritage language education in learning to read in the heritage language, as well as the overall academic success and socio-cultural well-being of immigrant children” (Kremin et al.203). It is my sincere hope that through my classes, my students’ language does not have to become, as Pineda puts it, a

“…faint      memory

the words of a younger      braver     self” (21)

“If I sound conflicted, it is because I am.” (Engel 196) Although Engel’s essay was about “naming ourselves” and the use of Latinx, the root of this selection and so many more over the course of the seminar was about the evolution of a collective identity attached to individuals. The development of identity is a highly personal lifetime process. With the wide-ranging perspectives of diverse Latinx national, cultural, and subcultural identities and wide-ranging experiences, ultimately, there is a need to acknowledge conflict around this ever-evolving identity and all it attempts to encompass. There is conflict, as well, in the terminology that seeks to be inclusive of all of it.

Identity – both individual and collective – ultimately is what frames the unit I have designed. Students have the opportunity to discover how the ever-changing demographics of communities reflect Latinx labels and identity/ies in the present, as well as how they have been considered in the past. The goal is to use the knowledge of history and the experiences of the present to imagine the spectrum of Latinx identities of the future, as well as the communities they will create for themselves.

Research

In preparation to create and teach this unit I researched demographic data sets for the schools being studied, and for the city in general. As expected based on U.S. Census data, the overall, city-wide trend is that the city is becoming more and more Latinx, mainly due to migrations from Latin America. Also visible in the school district data is the increasing rates of needs for English as a New Language classes, in general, and particularly in specific catchments for schools, as well as changing demographics for school district data that show increasing numbers of Latinx students. This data is readily available from about 2014, but earlier data is not accessible if it exists. For earlier data sets, the information can only come from the U.S. Census data for the zip codes being examined, and inferences can be made regarding how this might affect the school level demographics.

From the Victor Vazquez-Hernandez’s “The Development of Pan-Latino Philadelphia” 1892-1945 and Kathryn Wilson’s “Building El Barrio:  Latinos Transform Postwar Philadelphia”, information I have long held to be true based on anecdotal evidence is proven factual – there has been a historic Latinx presence in Philadelphia, although the countries of origin have changed for reasons related to economics and political change. These readings have been adapted and translated in order to be used as source materials or reading material for several of the cycles of learning, as both the work of Wilson and Vazquez-Hernandez contain very interesting information about the ways in which communities developed organized societies for mutual aid that eventually developed into (partially) government funded social service agencies that still exist in the city today, and that would be easily recognized by students. This link between past and present will make for interesting conversations around the legacies of prior migrations and what their experiences mean for more recent arrivals, patterns of migration and assimilations, as well as some quick ‘research and present’ type of assignments, specifically using adapted readings and the Philadelphia Historical Society’s website dedicated to Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican history.

Finally, and as a result of preparing a presentation of my unit in progress, I stumbled across an article regarding research currently being done by Temple University PhD candidate Daniel Guarín on the demographic shifts in the exact neighborhoods that are the focus of my unit. The most current information comes from articles published May 6 and May 14, 2024, which mention the research of the language(s) of signage in the two zones focused on by my unit, and what these changes in signage language may represent. The articles are current, local, and at a more accessible reading level for my students, making the ideas clear and comprehensible for classroom use. Communication with Mr.Guarín is pending, but a visit by him to our classroom for a conversation about his research and our unit topic is an option I would presumptuously like to explore. Optional, in the event that a classroom visit is not possible, are a virtual visit, a video interview by students, a video message recorded by Mr. Guarín, or some other form of communication which does not require an in-person, physical visit to the classroom.

There were few obstacles in researching the sources of information for my topic and lessons. It is likely that the biggest hurdle will be only the making and/or adapting of the information and materials in a way that makes them accessible to students, as it will require translation, as well modifying the readings in order to make the kind of succinct readings that are informationally dense needed for the purposes of my lessons.

Content Objectives

By the end of this unit, I want students to have thought critically around the concepts of heritage, history, power/empowerment, and education in their own neighborhood, and to finally make a prediction. Ultimately, students will look beyond the superficial and question what they see in their environment, and how this has shaped their community’s ideas of past, present, and future.

Some crucial pieces of the unit are: 1. Reading to understand, and 2. Researching the history of the neighborhoods and our city, 3. Informal presentations of research results, and 4. The recognition of cycles and patterns of migrations within the city, region, and country. All of these are skills necessary for preparation for college and career, but more importantly, for specific enduring understandings about the society in which we live and how it shapes our reality, in order to empower students to effect change in the future.

Essential Questions:

1. What are the forces that spark changes in communities?
2. How should communities respond to changes?
3. How will the future of Philadelphia/Philadelphians look?

Big Ideas:

1. Migrations
2. Gentrification
3. Evolution/Change
4. Racism/Ethnocentrism
5. Language Racialization
6. Mutual Aid

Enduring Understandings:

1.  Communities evolve demographically over time.
2. Migration patterns are cyclical and change over time.

Knowledge and Skills:

1. Mapping and observation of current neighborhoods.
2. Guided research into the history of the two neighborhoods studied. Consideration of the historical perspectives of the broader public on the neighborhoods studied.
3. Informal presentation skills to present research findings in a meeting-like situation.
4. Basic reading, comprehension, and interpretation of demographic graphs and data.
5. Consideration of the historical perspectives of the broader public on the neighborhoods studied.
6. Literacy skills, including: determining relevant and crucial themes and patterns in readings, determination and development of key vocabulary, annotation of readings and images, conversation/debate surrounding a reading’s topic, style, and content, use of text features in order to better comprehend and negotiate meaning and messages of a text.

Assessment

Formative assessment of daily progress and skills development in class through participation in class discussions and activities is part of the ongoing continuous process of the class. Summative assessment of the students’ understandings, abilities, and use of the material will be based on evidence-based conclusions in each five-class cycle and the evidence-based presentation of predictions for the future of the Latinx communities in Philadelphia.

All unit planning for these classes begins with topic ideas from my students, usually reported to me through conversations and/or quarterly class surveys in an effort to make units that are not only relevant and useful, but that will capture and hold student interest over the eight-week course of a standard, grading quarter-based unit. Every unit I create and teach centers around brain-based principles intended to help students successfully access content objectives using two main frameworks for planning units that are pedagogically sound and culturally responsive to my specific students, while taking into account the specific directives of the school district and state.

In this case, the topic idea grew out of a previous unit in which students had several brief lessons focusing on the specific history of the areas that are now the neighborhoods that fall within the school’s catchment. Students showed unique interest in the primary source materials talking about specific landmarks in the neighborhood, as well some multimedia about the city’s indigenous and African American history, in general, as well as specific interest in the website from the Historical Society of Philadelphia dedicated to the city’s Latinx communities over time.

Based on these observations and the general enthusiasm for the background and primary source readings, and the content of the TIP course for which this unit is being written, the topic began to become fleshed out into discovering resources and activities that support student growth.

Because the ultimate goal of my classes is to grow language skills that students already have, much of what I do centers around strengthening literacy skills using Spanish language readings (when possible) and a cycle of activities that support the reading and are repeated tasks, but use new content. Ultimately, students learn to focus on the content because the task is not the focus. The activities, by and large, are literacy skills-based activities that students can use in other content areas, such as translanguaging, annotating, vocabulary work, and evidence-based writing. The cycle also promotes a facilitator role for the teacher, while the focus is on learning through the tasks and activities, with little direct instruction but heavy on guided practice. This follows a brain-based framework that coincides with the ideals set forth by Kaufmann et.al. in that the cycles help students become more motivated as they engage “their innate search for meaning, their capacity to recognize and master essential patterns, conscious and unconscious processing” and acknowledge their developmental steps and shifts.” (53-54)

Another framework used in creating units, or in reworking every unit I teach, is the equity framework for culturally responsive teaching proposed by Muhammed & Love in Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (2020). For each eight-week unit I begin with deciding the ways in which what I am planning can fit into the framework, or ways in which I can work the frameworks’ ideals into my plans. Much of this is similar to the Understanding By Design model that asks for big questions and essential understandings, but requires a culturally knowledgeable and responsive lens. These elements are also used in my lesson planning, as they are school level/district level requirements asked for in the 5 class unit plan. Using a table with each Historically Responsive Literacy (Muhammed & Love) ideal and the evidence from the unit plans is at the beginning the unit plan:

The unit will begin with the present day and by asking about who students believe to be the Latinx community of our school and in the school’s catchment. Student perception of the community as an introduction to the unit will yield interesting discussions about who students see every day around them, as well as who they don’t notice. In expanding out from their own communities to other familiar communities, students can compare and contrast perceived populations as well as reflecting on why we hold these perceptions.

Using a unit note catcher for a pre-reading strategy by conducting research and collecting data through a short virtual field trip, students collect data on businesses, parks, schools, etc. in two areas of the city: the Kensington High School Multiplex (there are three High Schools that serve Kensington as neighborhood schools) and the area around South Philadelphia High School. These materials are designed to suit my specific needs and coordinate with the readings and activities for the classes – and are English and Spanish, allowing students to respond in the language(s) they choose. These materials are perfect to start the unit and end the unit as they work as a note catcher for initial data collection, followed by further note taking on the readings and graphs, for conclusions to be drawn by the students each step of the way, and finally, ending with a prediction for the future of these neighborhoods based on historical data trends in the form of a presentation. All of this is encompassed in the unit’s materials for each cycle, and some literature-based discussion of the city’s history in general, as well. These will also include some quotes from several sources about the Latinx history of the city, from Victor Vazquez-Hernandez and Kathryn Wilson, as well as the Philadelphia Historical Society and The Philadelphia Bulletin and the Inquirer.

One important pedagogical tool, in my opinion, is the strategic use of conversation. Starting from opening and closing class with a good, open-ended question that asks students to draw evidence/experience-based conclusions, to facilitating conversations around content knowledge, to using questioning as a way to spark interest or creativity, and even turn and talk type activities that require students to engage in conversation with each other, this simple classroom activity can provide for meaningful content acquisition on the part of the student. Using this model from the seminar that is the source of this unit, and the content knowledge and readings from the seminar, as well, classroom activities will provide for some flexibility in order to accommodate classroom conversation around the specific topic for each of the cycles of instruction in my unit.

The lesson plans for the reading of the articles and book excerpts, as well as for the non-fiction pieces of the unit, will follow a process I have developed to help students practice skills and develop stamina with the end goal of a more robust literacy practice that can be used across content areas and further expanded for use as the student continues their academic trajectory. The process includes determining background information, identification of key vocabulary words and some practice with making meaning from unknown vocabulary words, multiple exposures to text, annotation, comprehension practice, and analysis of the themes. These units will begin with the perceptions of current neighborhoods and a mapping activity, as well as a look at recent census data and school demographics, and any pertinent news articles relevant to the change happening within these communities. In each cycle students will examine the materials for a specific time period, working backwards from the present.

The last cycle will be used to make some predictions about what the future will look like for these neighborhoods based on trending data, to include graphs and materials based on the predictions. Students are asked to decide: 1. What will the Kensington area look like in the future, based on current and historical demographic trends, 2. How will their predictions specifically affect the Kensington High School Multiplex?  3. How could the current and past inhabitants likely be remembered and honored, if at all?

State and District Standards

These lessons and activities all support the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (2015) for ‘foreign’ language instruction. Although it is not a foreign language to my students, these are the required standards for instruction in my class according to the School District of Philadelphia. The ACTFL standards supported by my unit, along with the unit parts supported by each, are as follows: Under the standard of Interpretive Communication, all, or almost all, of what the student receives in the class is in Spanish. This includes class materials, conversations, and instruction.  In order to meet the standard of Presentational Communication, students will present their predictions based on evidence from their materials from class, and through the creation of new graphs and data representations, as well as visual representations supporting their predictions. In order to meet the standard Making Connections, the unit covers local geography and history through the research into the two schools in Philadelphia and their surrounding communities. Basic literacy skills are reinforced through the reading process of annotation, comprehension, and analysis. Civics is a running theme through the unit of study in general, and the demographics and history, in particular. In order to meet the standard of Acquiring Information and Diverse Perspectives, students conduct research into the communities in, and the Latinx history of, Philadelphia, that require students to ‘acquire and evaluate perspectives.’ My ultimate hope is that, through his unit of study, that young people do not remain, as Smith (2006) writes in Uses of Heritage, “passive receptors of the authorized meaning of (their) heritage”, but can construct a sense of heritage and history “that is both more inclusive of alternate discourses” that “acquire or engage with a sense of history”. Through the students’ imagining of the future, they will also be considering other perspectives of their own work. And lastly, to meet the standard of Cultural Comparisons, through the imagining of a future Philadelphia, students will be gaining new insights into their own community and the cultures in it, reflecting on their history and their impact, now and in the future.

Observations/Perceptions, Conversation, Mapping Activity:

The opening activity to the unit will be a conversation regarding observations and perceptions of the Latinx community in the United States, in the region, in Philadelphia, and in the general Kensington area where the school serves. Opening a unit asking for student thought and perspectives is a technique that helps me to achieve student buy-in as students are eager to share their perspectives and experiences, and even their opinions. Referencing the conversation and perspectives throughout the units helps students see how their perspectives and ideas frame their thinking, and invites them to understand that confirming or changing an idea based on new evidence/knowledge is ultimately the goal. Thoughts and ideas resulting from the conversations can be recorded in a note catcher document that can be used for recording responses to the materials in class. This document allows for students to participate in conversations, or just observe, make notes and collect ‘data’, and record their initial thoughts on the topic prior to any exposure to the background information or data.

Included will be a mapping activity using Google Earth and Google Maps to virtually visit the neighborhoods. The materials include spaces and instructions for recording data from any businesses, parks, schools, murals, plaques or signs, a map of the area, and other images.  They can also record any thoughts and feelings on the actual images, and a reflection on who is not represented, as well as any thoughts on how it might represent a power dynamic also present in society, either now or in the past.

This will open the students up to a conversation about neighborhoods in general, and this one in particular. Using teacher made documents we can discuss and/or use other resources such as readings and videos to learn more about specific features students might want to learn more about. It is during these lessons students will come to have a deeper understanding of as well as political and societal values represented. I am hoping that this sparks a deeper conversation on those topics prior to focusing on the specific data and that we can return to those ideas throughout the units.

The flow of the eight-week unit, made up of four, two-week mini units, could be arranged in many ways. Chronologically, from the past seems the most intuitive start for the flow of lessons, but in making the unit and lesson plans, starting from student observations and lived experiences seems as though it might be a better jumping-off point in order to grab students’ attention and earn student buy-in.

Lessons and Activities

The opening day of the broader unit will be spent on the virtual field trips, and the conversations. Students also will express opinions on what they’ve recorded about the neighborhoods, and how that might be symbolic of a broader feeling of representation, or lack of representation. On day two students will make meaning from key vocabulary words used to talk about demographics and data. They begin to reflect on their ideas of communities, what they are in general, and reflect on how neighborhoods reflect (or not) the people who live within them. During these conversations, an effort is made to encourage students to think about how a neighborhood can represent the past and the present (and the future) at the same time, in preparation for the culminating activity in which they imagine the future of the physical community and the Latinx community. Some initial headlines about the area around the school and the area of South Philadelphia in the form of a collage will be examined for what they are saying about the current community and who lives there. On day three students begin to examine current demographics from the census data and school district data. This can be added to the note catcher as a source for student research. These materials will be translated for student use in a Spanish classroom. I anticipate some discussion of the literacy strategies needed to read a graph, and a summary of what the data says.

On days four and five I intend to scaffold student thought into a flowchart or timeline beginning in the present, this will include student summaries of data and headlines. The flow chart will continue through the units as they research the past. On these days students will be asked to compare the neighborhoods using evidence from their readings, as well as to offer an opinion on what each neighborhood might be lacking to better meet the needs of the community based on the demographics.

The table below breaks down the general, five class session cycle of study, to include the introduction to the topic, the cycle of flow or procedure for 80-90 minute classes, and a quick assessment on day five. This cycle is repeated, although with a different or unique quick assessment task for each cycle. For classes that meet on an A/B day cycle, each cycle would last two weeks. The materials could be broken down and used for shorter classes that meet every day, as well, however I design for use in my block schedule classes of 81 minutes that meet every other day.

Materials Needed

The included lessons do not require any particular materials beyond what is provided:  readings, etc. If a teacher chooses and has access to a large projection screen in order to work with students in this way on group annotations of readings, or to show multimedia presentations, that is an option. I have the following resources available and will use them in implementing the lessons, however, individual teachers should determine what the methods and tools better suited to the students they teach are in order to make the lessons more useful.

Included in this document are:

• Links to sources of the materials used in designing readings and materials for the lessons of all four cycles. Teachers can and should adapt these to their students’ needs. This can be in modifying readings to make them more accessible, or finding the relevant data sets and historical documents for cities outside of Philadelphia.
• Lesson plan cycles for the opening and closing cycles (two of four cycles needed for an eight-week unit). Teachers can and should use either my own repeating cycle of activities for each lesson for all four cycles, or again, adapt what is provided in this document to better meet their own style of teaching and always to meet the learning needs of their particular group of students. Each set, or cycle, of five classes has a link to a folder containing the readings and other materials. These are view-only, and I invite teachers to make a copy and adapt them as needed.

As part of the procedures for classroom activities within the lesson plans, some other materials may be needed. For example, in order to introduce key vocabulary and concepts in my classes, I use an exercise in which I dictate the words out loud to students and they write them on white boards, then check against my spelling in order to reinforce phonetics in Spanish, as well as to point out that bilingualism often presents some cross-language transfer when it comes to writing. This activity would require a white board, dry erase markers, and erasers. At the end of the activity, students are presented with a list of key vocabulary words and use dictionaries to look up the definitions, as well as to negotiate the best definition relevant to our topic of study. This activity requires the use of actual dictionaries, or chromebooks or laptops with wifi access in order to look up the definitions. Many of the activities used in the lesson plans require students to draw, and students may choose to use colored pencils, markers, or crayons. This requires the addition of these utensils to the materials list.

Lastly, I invite anyone who is interested in and/or uses these ideas or materials to reach out with any feedback, or for further collaboration.

Alvarez, Julia. “La Gringuita: On Losing a Native Language”.  Something to Declare: Essays. New York: Penguin, 1999. Pages 61-73.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “La Prieta”.  This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.  Fourth edition.  Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Pages 198-209.

Engel, Patricia. “On naming ourselves: or, When I was a spic”. Cultural Dynamics. UK: Sage, 2017. Pages 193-201.

García Peña, Lorgia. “Bridging Activism and Teaching in Latinx Studies.” Critical Dialogues in Latinx Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. Pages 504-515.

Guarín, Daniel. “I Analyzed 3,356 Signs to See How Language Use Is Changing in Three Latino Neighborhoods in Philly.” The Conversation, May 6, 2024. http://theconversation.com/i-analyzed-3-356-signs-to-see-how-language-use-is-changing-in-three-latino-neighborhoods-in-philly-227428.

Kaufman, Eric, J. Robinson, Kimberly Bellah, Cindy Akers, Penny Haase Wittler, and Lynn Martindale. “Engaging Students with Brain-Based Learning,” January 1, 2008. Pages 50-55.

Kremin, Lena V., Maria M. Arredondo, Lucy Shih-Ju Hsu, Teresa Satterfield, and Ioulia Kovelman. “The Effects of Spanish Heritage Language Literacy on English Reading for Spanish–English Bilingual Children in the US.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 22, no. 2 (February 17, 2019): 192–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1239692.

Muhammad, Gholdy, and Bettina L. Love. Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2020.

The National Standards Collaborative Board. (2015). World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. 4th ed. Alexandria, VA: Author. https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/publications/standards/World-ReadinessStandardsforLearningLanguages.pdf

Pineda, Janel.  “How English Came to Me”.  Lineage of Rain. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2020.

The Puerto Rican Philly Experience · Home/INICIO · HSP Exhibits, https://omeka.hsp.org/s/puertoricanphillyexperience/page/homeinicio.

Smith, L. Uses of Heritage (1st ed.) (pp44-84). Routledge, 2006. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203602263

Vazquez-Hernandez, Victor. “Pan-Latino Enclaves in Philadelphia and the Formation of the Puerto Rican Community.” In Global Philadelphia, edited by Ayumi Takenaka and Mary Johnson Osirim, 77–95. Immigrant Communities Old and New. Temple University Press, 2010. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bt655.8.

Wilson, Kathryn E. “Building El Barrio: Latinos Transform Postwar Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Legacies 3, no. 2 (2003): 17–21.

Annotated Bibliography

Cruz, David, and Sabrina Vourvoulias. 200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia: A Photographic Record of the Community. Philadelphia, PA: Al Día News Media, 2012. Print.

• Many students are visual learners, and this book will certainly spark some interesting Philadelphia’s Latinx history. It will be used as a classroom resource and not as an instructional tool.

“Enrollment-Public.” Accessed April 20, 2024. https://dashboards.philasd.org/extensions/enrollment-public/index.html#/trends.

• This is one of the data sources for some of the graphs included in the lesson plans. Use of updated graphs for use in future lessons and/or creation of units in other cities.

Guarin, Daniel. “I Analyzed 3,356 Signs to See How Language Use Is Changing in Three Latino Neighborhoods in Philly.” The Conversation, May 6, 2024. http://theconversation.com/i-analyzed-3-356-signs-to-see-how-language-use-is-changing-in-three-latino-neighborhoods-in-philly-227428.

• The reading included with the lesson plans for Cycle 1, the introductory plans for the unit, is an adaptation and translation of this article.

“Philadelphia City, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania – Census Bureau Profile.” Accessed February 22, 2024. https://data.census.gov/profile/Philadelphia_city,_Philadelphia_County,_Pennsylvania?g=060XX00US4210160000.

• This is one of the data sources for some of the graphs included in the lesson plans. Use of updated graphs for use in future lessons.  These graphs contain demographic data pertaining to the School District of Philadelphia. For use in other cities, similar data should be obtained.

“Latino Philadelphia at a Glance,” n.d. https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/latinophiladelphiaataglance.pdf

• This one pager is a useful tool for students to peruse throughout the unit.

Muhammad, Gholdy, and Bettina L. Love. Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2020.

• Included in this document is the table used for each eight-week unit I create in order to ensure that my unit adheres to the Muhammed and Love framework for culturally responsive and equitable experiences through my topics, materials, and instruction.

The Puerto Rican Philly Experience · Home/INICIO · HSP Exhibits, https://omeka.hsp.org/s/puertoricanphillyexperience/page/homeinicio.

• The website of the Philadelphia Historical Society that focuses on the contributions of the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia is a wealth of information in a multimedia format that students can explore at their leisure, or as part of research for specific classroom tasks.

Vazquez-Hernandez, Victor. “Pan-Latino Enclaves in Philadelphia and the Formation of the Puerto Rican Community.” In Global Philadelphia, edited by Ayumi Takenaka and Mary Johnson Osirim, 77–95. Immigrant Communities Old and New. Temple University Press, 2010. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bt655.8.

WHYY. “Pew State of the City: Immigrants Make up the Largest Percentage of Philly’s Population since the 1940s, Report Finds.” Accessed June 5, 2024. https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-immigrants-pew-state-city/.

• The reading included with the lesson plans for Cycle 4, the unit warp-up, is an adaptation and translation of this article.

WHYY. “The Italian Market Replaces the Golden Block as Home of Hispanic Culture in Philly.” Accessed May 22, 2024. https://whyy.org/articles/linguistic-study-south-philadelphia-immigrants-italian-market-signs/

• The reading included with the lesson plans for Cycle 4, the unit wrap-up, is an adaptation and translation of this article.

The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages World Languages Readiness Standards as applied in this unit of study:

Lesson Plans: