I have some really great, free education for us in this show! The wonderful Jessica Lander is here to share about her book (that I LOVE), Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education. I’m thrilled to tell you that she shares so many ideas from the book in this interview.
You can find this show in your favorite podcast app or listen to it right here:
Listen to “BAP118 Making Americans ft J Lander” on Spreaker.
Jessica is not only the author of this great book, she currently teaches history and civics to recent immigrant students in an urban Massachusetts public high school. Read about the many awards she has won and more about her impressive background right here.
I was honored when Jessica called me a few years ago to get ideas for her research. I was even more excited to see my suggestions appear in her book! In this show, we talk about this and several other innovative ideas that are happening right now. She shares several!
In the show, Jessica explains that school communities must work to nurture a sense of belonging for immigrant-origin students. I couldn’t agree more! So then the eight chapters of the book are organized by the eight essential principles she details on the show. Here is a peek at the chapters so you can see what she is talking about:
Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education
Introduction, Part 1 & 2 from the Table of Contents:
- Introduction: Belonging
- Present: Lowell High School, Massachusetts
- Personal: Robert
- Part 1
- Chapter 1: New Beginnings
- Past: Americanization Movement
- Present: Las Americas, Texas
- Personal: Srey Neth
- Chapter 2: Community
- Past: Settlement House Movement
- Present: Aurora ACTION Zone, Colorado
- Personal: Julian
- Chapter 3: Security
- Past: Meyer v. Nebraska
- Present: Fargo South High, North Dakota
- Personal: Choori
- Chapter 4: Opportunities to Dream
- Past: Mendez v. Westminster
- Present: ENLACE, Massachusetts
- Personal: Safiya
- Chapter 5: Advocates
- Past: LBJ and Education
- Present: Guilford School District, North Carolina
- Personal: Robert
- Chapter 1: New Beginnings
- Part 2
- Chapter 6: Seeing Strengths
- Past: Lau v. Nichols
- Present: International School at Langley Park, Maryland
- Personal: Carla
- Chapter 7: Acceptance
- Past: Plyler v. Doe
- Present: Global Village Project, Georgia
- Personal: Diane
- Chapter 8: Voice
- Past: Bilingual Education
- Chapter 6: Seeing Strengths
- Possible: Reimagining Immigrant Education
- Epilogue: Belonging
- Personal: Robert
I loved listening to her share about the past, the present, and the personal examples from the book. She has really captured what we need to focus on from those three angles.
I also mentioned Dr. Marie Moreno who was mentioned in the book and was the principal of a newcomer center here in Houston, Texas. I am super excited that I suggested Jessica connect with Dr. Moreno when she was doing her research on folks doing interesting, innovative work for recent immigrants.
In case it is helpful, here is a link to my dissertation that I talked about briefly.
And I often talk about Dr. Ilene Winokur when I talk about belonging. She is a great person to follow as well!
Jessica suggests that we find more ways to connect and share. She has given us seven schools/examples, that are so important to know about, but she tells us to go beyond reading this book. The more connected we are, the more we will learn. And the more we can share.
She poses the question: How do we create more communities of practice so we can collaborate? She tells us that this is the work of now.
So please connect with her and with me. We are both passionate about learning and sharing with our online networks. That is at least a start!
Jessica encourages us to support local bookstores. It is also available at bigger book stores and you can click here to see that Amazon has the hard copy and audio versions available. I am listening to it AGAIN because it is just a fantastic education for me and it is such a lovely read. I really appreciate her writing and storytelling.
You can also find the book and more at Jessica’s website: JessicaLander.com
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You can follow her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/jessica_lander
and she also mentioned Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jessicalander9
I appreciate Jessica and this book so much. Big thanks to her again for all the work and everything she puts into the world.
How we can connect:
At the end of the show, I mention how you can register for the ML Summit if you are reading this real-time (Summer 2023). That info is below. HOWEVER, if you see this after July 15, 2023… the sessions should be streaming at the website for free so still go & check it out: www.MLSummit.net
Larry Ferlazzo and I are excited to be Masters of Ceremonies. We are all excited to learn together. Just check out the lineup!
Hope to see you in the Zoom or on Twitter using the #MLSummit hashtag! You can find me here:
THANK YOU again for being a passionate EduHero. I appreciate you so much!
Hugs,
Carol