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Megan Sumner EDEC 344 Lesson Plan one October 9, 2013

Topic: What is Ebonics? Background to the lesson: To teach this lesson you will need to know the history of Ebonics yourself. There are many controversies between linguists on where Ebonics came from and how Ebonics came to be. In order to teach a lesson, you must first know all the different theories on how Ebonics came to be. Teachers can learn about the origin of Ebonics by reading the article What is Ebonics? African American English by John R. Rickford. Also, another great article to get quick and easy back ground information on Ebonics is by reading the article Ebonics: Q&A by Johanna Rubba. It would also be important to do research on the History of Africans throughout the years. By having this knowledge teachers can better teach about Ebonics! There are many arguments between linguists about whether or not African American Vernacular English is an actual language. It would be helpful for teachers to know about the different sides. Since AAVE (African American Vernacular English) is an actual language, teachers need to have reasons to support why AAVE is a language when teaching about Ebonics in their classroom. Teachers can read about these things in Rickford and Rickford Spoken Soul Chapter eight. The Oakland School Board passed a resolution in 1996 that recognized Ebonics, commonly referred to as African American Vernacular Language, as a language. This resolution also passed the decision to use African American Language in Oakland schools when teaching Standardized English. This is a huge part of what Ebonics is and teacher needs to familiarize theirs elves with this resolution before teaching a lesson on Ebonics. Teachers can learn about this resolution by simply reading the Oakland School Board Resolution. The term Ebonics was coined by a man of the name Robert Williams in 1973. He came up with this term to get rid of the negative words used for African American Language, such as Nonstandard Negro English and to show where the language came from, which is from the African in the slave trade. Teachers can learn about Robert William and how the term Ebonics came to be in the article by John Baugh called American Varieties: African American English. Ebonics has many rules just like any other language. Teachers need to be familiar with the rules and how they differ from standardized English. I feel that it was also be very beneficial in the classroom when working with African American children. By knowing these rules teachers can act as a support system and teach students how to code switch when needed. Almost every article about Ebonics covers code switching at some point in it because it is such a big deal today in our society. One text that teachers could read to familiarize their selves with the rules of Ebonics is called Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English by Rickford and Rickford.

Concepts to be taught: 1.) I want my children to know that Ebonics is a real language just like French, and Spanish, and other Languages. - Ebonics is a language with history and rules just like any other language. 2.) I want my children to know that AAL (African American Language) is called by many different names, such as AAL, AAVL (African American Vernacular English), and Black Speech, but many years ago some people called it Ebonics. 3.) I want the children to know that the term Ebonics was coined by Robert Williams in 1973 to stop the use of the negative connotations of terms like Non Standard Negro English, to give a name to African Americans language, and to acknowledge the results of the slave trade. -I want the children to know about the Transatlantic Slave trade. 4.) I want the children to know about the Ebonics Controversy. - I want the children to know about the Oakland School Board Resolution -I want the children to know what the term Resolution means. -I want the children to know that the Oakland, California school board passed a resolution recognizing Ebonics as a real language and allowing it to be used in the classroom. 5.) I want the children to know that there are many ideas about where African American Language came from. -I want the children to know that one of the ideas about Ebonics and where it came from is that many people can see similarities between some aspects of AAL and languages from Sierra Leone and other parts of West Africa. -I want the children to know that some people believe that Ebonics came from the West African language spoken by the people in Nigeria and Ghana. -I want the children to know that some people believe that Ebonics came from the Americas. They believed when Africans were taken in to slavery and were sent, to America, they picked it up from the European indentured servants they interacted with. Rationale:

Americas schools are becoming more and more diverse and as the diversity of the students increase and change our teaching should also change. African American children have been taught more and more by teachers with no or little knowledge of African American Language or how to teach its history and the skill of bilingual code-switching and as a result, children are not being as well served in schools as they might be. African American students enrolled in schools have greatly increased over the last few years. Teachers need to be able to teach these children! This is why it is so important to talk about Ebonics because in society African American language is not valued. In schools childrens home languages need to be valued. When teachers truly believe that we all have a language and that all of our languages are valuable, not only will

teaching change for the better, so will learning (NCTE, 2011, p. 4). When students home language is devalued this effects their academic success. In Whose Standard? Teaching Standard English it says, When more attention is paid to the way something is written or said than to what is said, students words and thoughts become devalued. Students learn to be silent, to give as few words as possible for teacher criticism (Christensen, 2002, p. 174). Students need to understand that Ebonics (AAL) is a real language because Erin Smith and Karen Crozier tells us that Ebonics is not Black English, it is a real language just like any other language ( Smith & Crozier, 1998). Also, in the book, Spoken Soul it tells us that just like any other language AAL has rules, such as Pronunciation, grammar, and capitalization (Rickford & Rickford, 1996). Children need to learn that AAL is a real language because as mentioned in the text, The Skin that we Speak, many African Americans are scared to speak in their home language because of all the negative connotations that society associates African American Language with (Delpit & Dowdy, 2008). In Delpits story, in chapter two she says So, when my childs language reflects that of some of her peers, I feel the eyes of the the other negatively assessing her intelligence, her competence, her potential, and yes, even her moral fiber (Delpit, 2008, p. 38). Teachers need to teach that AAL is a real language so African American students will not be afraid to speak in their home language and that all students will stop thinking that Standardized English is the superior language. Boutte and Johnston state, There is an extensive knowledge base that acknowledges AAL as a rule-governed language system with distinct patterns and complexities. AAL is not broken English or slang (Boutte and Johnston, 2013, p. 136). African American students need to learn the history behind their language, by knowing the history of their language they can take pride in it. Christensen says that we need to teach in a way that makes our students lives and language unique and what better way to do that than teaching about AAL history (Christensen, 2002). Children need to learn that its ok to use their language in the classroom, but at the same time they need to learn Standardized English. Children also need to learn about Code Switching. Christensen says, It is the teachers job to teach a student Standard English language, but at the same time to allow them to keep their home language and make it important in the classroom. Children need to learn the importance of knowing both languages. Christensen says, Preserving the language skills and cultural knowledge of heritage language students while they become fully proficient in English is an important education priority in an increasingly global marketplace (Christensen, 2002, p. 160). South Carolina State Standards: Social Studies Standards: Social Studies 2-4.1 Recognize the basic elements that make up a cultural region in the United States, including language, beliefs, customs, art, and literature. Social Studies 2-4.2 Compare the historic and cultural traditions of various regions in the United States and recognize the ways that these elements have been and continue to be passed across generations. Social Studies 2-4.3 Recognize the cultural contributions of Native American tribal groups, African Americans, and immigrant groups. Social Studies2-4.4 Recall stories and songs that reflect the cultural history of various regions in the United States, including stories of

regional folk figures, Native American legends, and African American folktales. Social Studies 2-1.5 Identify on a map or globe the location of his or her local community, state, nation, and continent. Materials: o Honey Baby Sugar Child Childrens book by Alice Faye o Code Switching prezi PowerPoint o Origin of Ebonics prezi PowerPoint o One sheet of computer paper for each child o Color pencils, Markers, crayons o Pencil for each student o Picture of each student o Camera o Glue o Stapler o Computer/ Smart board for presentations o Picture of Robert Williams Procedures: 1.) The students will sit on the meeting rug and the teacher will sit in the rocking chair facing her students. 2.) The teacher will start the lesson by reading the book Honey Baby Sugar Child by Alice Faye Duncan to the class. 3.) The teacher will say, Ok everyone while I am reading this book pay very close attention to how the characters talk! 4.) The teacher will read through the book, showing the students each of the illustrations. 5.) While going through the story the teacher will stop at a few different places in the book to point out language in the book and talk to them about how great the use of words is. 6.) When the teacher is done reading the book, she will say, Ok class you all are going to hear the story again, but this time we are going to listen to the audio tape of it. Make sure to pay very close attention to how the characters talk! 7.) When the audio tape has ended the teacher will say, Ok, boys and girls how did you like that book? (allow wait time and time for responses)..I love this book, you know why? I love this book because the characters are speaking in African American Language. Does anyone feel like they talk like the characters do in this book do? The teacher allows for discussion time, making sure the children are relating their own language to the African American Language used in the book. 8.) The teacher will set the book down. 9.) The teacher says, Boys and girls did you know that African American Language is a real language just like any other language! Can anyone raise their hand and tell me

the name of another time of language. Teacher picks on students to tell her what they think. The teacher will make sure that they cover a broad range of different languages, so each student will be able to relate to at least one of them. 10.) The teacher will say, Yes! So, African American Language is a language just like Spanish, Chinese, and all other types of language! Every language has rules, like grammar rules, punctuation rules, and capitalization! Most of my students know these rules from our writing lessons, if not we are beginning to learn them. African American Language has rules too, just like any other language, its no different. Isnt that awesome boys and girl!? 11.) The teacher will say, Another cool thing to know about African American Language is that is has many different names! Some of the different names for African American Language are African American Vernacular English and Black English. African American Language was even around a long time ago, but back then they called it Ebonics. 12.) The teacher will say, A famous African American man named Robert Williams made up the name of Ebonics. Teacher shows the students the picture of Robert Williams and lets them pass it around. 13.) The teacher will say, Does anyone have any ideas of maybe why he thought he should come up for a name for African American Language? Teacher allows for wait and time for responses. The teacher will say, Great ideas class! Everyone is really using their thinking caps today! Robert Williams made up this name for African American Language because he wanted to give a name to the language of African Americans! Also, some people would call African Americans Language not so nice things and many people even thought of this language as a bad way of talking in English. That was not true at all though, so Robert Williams came up with the name Ebonics to get rid of all those other names that were not so nice. Robert Williams also wanted to show that African American Language is what came out of the Transatlantic Slave trade and in order to do that African Americans Language needed a name! 14.) The teacher will say, Ok class I just mentioned a time in history called the Transatlantic Slave trade, can anyone tell me what happened during this time? Teacher allows wait time and time for responses. The teacher will say, The Transatlantic Slave trade was a time in history when Europeans wanted more people to work for them so they could expand their Empire. The Europeans could not handle deal with the weather there and were all getting sick from terrible diseases, but the Africans were used to this type of working conditions and were not bothered by the weather or diseases. The Africans were taken from their home in Africa and brought to the New World to work as slaves. It was a terrible time in our history. 15.) The teacher will say, All of these things led up to Robert Williams coming up with a name for African American language and after all that some people still did

not believe it was a real language. But guess what? Almost 20 years ago, long before you all were born, there was this huge fuss about African American Language, which we now know was called Ebonics back then. This fuss took place in the state of California, which is way across the country from here. People still didn't think it was a real language, they thought that teachers actually wanted to teach every child African American Language in the classroom. This was not what wanted to do at all; they wanted to use childrens African American Language to help teach students learn Standardized English. Standardized English is just a fancy word for the kind of English that is in the English language that is thought of as normal, it is the kind of English we all have to learn while in school. But Standardized English is not better than AAL or any other language. But in this big fuss, all the schools wanted to do was teach children, like you, that AAL is a language and how to code switch between that language and Standardized English just like some people can translate from Spanish to English. 16.) The teacher will say, After all the arguing was over in California, the schools finally made a decision. The schools decided to allow AAL in schools and to recognize AAL as a real language! How Awesome is that!? This was called the Oakland School Board Resolution. A resolution is basically a decision that the entire group talks about and agrees on and their decision is their resolution. A very important group of people who know a lot about language, which were called the American Linguistic society, also said that African American Language is not bad English or slang, it is a real language and that people who speak it and who speak it and who speak standardized English too are bilingual which means they speak both languages. 17.) The teacher will say, Ok girls and boys does everyone remember me talki ng about the word code switching and saying it is like when someone can translate from Spanish to English, well the kind of code switching we are talking about today is when you can translate from AAL (Ebonics) to Standardized English. So, everyone in here has a chance to speak two languages. Is that not such a great gift?! 18.) The teacher will say, I know for a lot of you the term Code Switching is still probably a little bit confusing, so we are going to look at some examples! 19.) The teacher sets up her Code Switching prezi power point. The teacher will read the title of the power point to introduce it to the class. The teacher will put up the first example and read both the AAL and Standardized English way of saying each sentence. She will point out the differences in the two languages. The teacher will go on to the next example and do the same thing. 20.) On the third example, after she has read both the sentences, the teacher will ask the class, Which one of these sentences are written in Standardized English and which one is in AAL? The teacher will allow wait time and time for response. The teacher will make sure the students know which one is written in what language before moving on.

The teacher will read out the important things to remember on the last slide. The teacher will close the presentation. 21.) The teacher wills say, Ok boys and girls now that you know what AAL/ Ebonics is and what it looks like I bet you are wondering where it came from! 22.) The teacher will set up the Ebonics Origin prezi presentation. 23.) The teacher will say, So today we have learned that AAL is a real language and that it has rules just like any other language, but it also has to have come from somewhere just like any other language. But you know what? People have different ideas about where it came from so we are still not positive where exactly it started, but thats ok because we have a lot of ideas about where it could have! 24.) The teacher introduces the prezi power point to the students. 25.) The teacher shows the students the first slide, which is the map of the world with arrows pointing to the three different ideas on where AAL, could have come from. 26.) The teacher says, There are three different ideas about where AAL came from British English in America (the teacher points to America), another is from West African Language in Ghana and Nigeria in Africa (The teacher points to these two countries, and the last one is from the Creole language in the Caribbean (Sierra Leone) in Africa. 27.) The teacher goes to the next slide and says, The idea that AAL came from the Creole Language in the Caribbean/ Sierra Leone is one that is believed to have the most evidence behind it. They believed that AAL was shaped by Creole speaking slaves that were imported from the Caribbean during the transatlantic slave trade. Creole English is now known as Gullah and is spoken in Sierra Leone and all along the coast till this day! 28.) The teacher shows the students a picture of Sierra Leone and does a brief overview again of what happened during the transatlantic slave trade. 29.) The teacher shows a map of the transatlantic slave trade on her slide. The teacher says, Some people believe that AAL came from the Americas. They believe when the Africans were taken in to slavery and were shipped to America, they picked up the language from the European indentured servants that they interacted with. 30.) The teacher goes to the next slide and says, Some people believed that AAL came from Western African Language in Nigeria and Ghana. They believe this language was spoken by the people in Nigeria and Ghana during the slave trade. 31.) The teacher will say, Ok class now that we have learned all about Ebonics we are going to make a book that is written in three different languages. The Three languages are going to be Standardized English, African American Language, and Creole! We are going to have so much fun creating this book! 32.) The teacher say, When everyone returns to their desk I will give you each a blank sheet of white paper, I want you to write one sentence about yourself that you would like everyone to read about in our book. Now I know many of you write in

Standardized English and some in AAL, so write your sentence in whatever language you feel most comfortable in! Then we are going to take everyones sentence and translate it in to Creole and either standardized English or AAL, which ever language you did not write your sentence in. After we do that I am going to allow everyone to glue the picture I took of each of yall to your part of the book. Then I want you to draw an illustration to go along with your sentence. After everyone has finished their part of the book we are going to put everyones pages together and make our class book! Then later on in the week I will make a copy so you all can have your very one Creole book too! 33.) The teacher hands out all the materials and the student begin to create their page of the book, when the student is done writing her sentence the teacher uses a translator to convert the sentence in to the two other languages. The teacher does this for all of the students sentences. When the students are done the teacher will put the book together and read it aloud for the class. Within the week the teacher will make a copy of the book for each of her students. Professional Resources: http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/timeline/ o John Baugh, Ebonics Timeline http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-ebonics-african-american-english o John R. Rickford, What is Ebonics? http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ o Eastern Michigan University, AAVE: African American Vernacular English http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html o Center for Applied Linguistics, Dialects http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res1.html o Original Oaklands Resolution http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/EbonicsExamples.html o John R. Rickford, Ebonics notes and Discussion http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-53683052/ebonics-is-not-black-english o Smith and Crozier, Ebonics is not Black English http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/Ebonics.html o Rubba, Ebonics Q & A Lisa Deplit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, The skin that we speak Rickford & Rickford, Spoken Soul Chapters 6, 7, & 8 Boutte and Johnston, Billiteracy Whitney, Five Easy Pieces Childrens Resources:

o Duncan, Alice Faye Honey Baby Sugar Child. 2005. o Code Switching Prezi Presentation o Origin of Ebonics Prezi Presentation o Creole book when finished o A picture of Robert Williams Attachments: 1.) Code Switching from Standardized English to AAL Examples Presentation (You should be able to copy and paste the link below in to the search bar and the presentation come up). http://prezi.com/5g601cbhsysz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy 2.) Where did Ebonics come from presentation (Click on the link below as you did for the link above) http://prezi.com/hnpu0mx6iolr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

3.) Robert Williams picture to show the class