Erendira Alatorre

LBS 405
Professor Navarro
September 12, 2018
Reading Reflection #2: Appendix D "All Standards, All Students"

1) How do the NGSS and the framework for K-12 science education better prepare students for
college and careers?

The NGSS and the framework for K-12 science education better prepares students for college
and career by making connections between scientific and engineering practices across various
subjects through disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. NGSS also makes connects
to the CCSS of English language arts, literacy, and mathematics. This in turn will help students
take the most advantage out of their learning processes and learn how to solve various challenges
through the NGSS which prepares them for college and careers. By learning how to solve
challenges students will be ready to solve future challenges in their careers or college education
by making use of their skills gained with the NGSS and the K-12 science education. According
to the reading, connecting the NGSS to students’ communities, and lives will also incorporate
their outside knowledge into the classroom which can help benefit them in their future careers.
For example, a student who has prior knowledge in gardening will understand the basics of
photosynthesis.

2) Describe the challenges teachers face to ensure that the NGSS are accessible to all students

The challenges teachers face to ensure that the NGSS are accessible to all students are creating a
home-school connection for non dominant student groups, valuing and respecting experiences
that students bring from their backgrounds, articulating students’ backgrounds, and offering
sufficient school resources that support student learning. NGSS teachers have to create effective
strategies to include all students regardless of racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, socio economic,
and gender backgrounds. Instead teachers must value students background by using their
linguistic or cultural capital in order to help make connections to their lives and community.
Teachers must also take advantage of students’ cultural and social capital and find ways to use
them to engage students in science. Not only must teachers engage their students but they must
also find ways to incorporate student experiences into the curriculum. Teachers must also find
ways to incorporate the use of technology to aid student learning through the NGSS. This poses
as a challenge because teachers must look for online assignments or activities for students to
complete.

3) What are effective ways that teachers can support non-dominant student groups?

Effective ways teachers can support non-dominant student groups are to become better prepared
educators with professional supports, creating public and private relationships with the students’
community, including students funds of knowledge to the classroom curriculum, creating formal
and informal classroom experiences, and access to digital resources. According to the article the
non-dominant student groups include economically disadvantaged students, students from major
racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, students with “limited English proficiency”,
gender, students in alternative education programs, and gifted and talented students. Each of
these categories of students has their own set of effective ways to support them. I would like to
highlight the strategy of tapping into students’ funds of knowledge to better engage them and
include these forms of capital into curriculum. I believe that by doing this many non-dominant
students will be supported because it truly values their experiences, and includes them
automatically into an inclusive curriculum (NGSS) that they may not have been previously
exposed to.