The ethnographic narrative is a mixture of my journey to education as well as my experience as a first-year teacher. Working in an underserved area in Southern California provided me the opportunity to reach students with similar backgrounds as my own. Being Mexican-American, I pride myself in giving back to my community, and this ethnography provided me that avenue to reach countless students with similar stories to mine.
The three focus students you will see were my primary focus; however, data is collected from over 120 7th-grade students-- the majority of which are Latino. All of my classroom assignments and exit tickets are posted on Google Classroom which allows me to collect data on my students progress on a daily basis. For their unit assessments and other major assessments, students use illuminate.com which allows me to track which Common Core State Standards they are mastering and what standards they need more assistance on.
The one significant challenge I encountered was the culture and beliefs of the charter school I was at. First, the charter school has adopted a pre-designed curriculum that does not allow for much creativity for the teacher. They have also lowered the standards for traditional grades which will be discussed later in the prompt. The school itself does not encourage teachers to freely teach; instead, it programs teachers to teach their way without accounting for the needs of individual students.
","abstract_html":"<p>The ethnographic narrative is a mixture of my journey to education as well as my experience as a first-year teacher. Working in an underserved area in Southern California provided me the opportunity to reach students with similar backgrounds as my own. Being Mexican-American, I pride myself in giving back to my community, and this ethnography provided me that avenue to reach countless students with similar stories to mine.</p> <p>The three focus students you will see were my primary focus; however, data is collected from over 120 7th-grade students-- the majority of which are Latino. All of my classroom assignments and exit tickets are posted on Google Classroom which allows me to collect data on my students progress on a daily basis. For their unit assessments and other major assessments, students use illuminate.com which allows me to track which Common Core State Standards they are mastering and what standards they need more assistance on.</p> <p>The one significant challenge I encountered was the culture and beliefs of the charter school I was at. First, the charter school has adopted a pre-designed curriculum that does not allow for much creativity for the teacher. They have also lowered the standards for traditional grades which will be discussed later in the prompt. The school itself does not encourage teachers to freely teach; instead, it programs teachers to teach their way without accounting for the needs of individual students.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Davaloz, Davon A"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Education, MA","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"School of Educational Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Caitlin King","Katherine Cooke","Andre Chen-Feng"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:28Z","subjects":["English","Teacher","Education","Los Santos","Social Justice","Students","Higher Education and Teaching","Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching","Prison Education and Reentry","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/121","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Caitlin King","Katherine Cooke","Andre Chen-Feng"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Davaloz, Davon A"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-07-13T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Educational Studies","Health Promotion and Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Education, MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["English","Teacher","Education","Los Santos","Social Justice","Students","Higher Education and Teaching","Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching","Prison Education and Reentry","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/121"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The ethnographic narrative is a mixture of my journey to education as well as my experience as a first-year teacher. Working in an underserved area in Southern California provided me the opportunity to reach students with similar backgrounds as my own. Being Mexican-American, I pride myself in giving back to my community, and this ethnography provided me that avenue to reach countless students with similar stories to mine.
The three focus students you will see were my primary focus; however, data is collected from over 120 7th-grade students-- the majority of which are Latino. All of my classroom assignments and exit tickets are posted on Google Classroom which allows me to collect data on my students progress on a daily basis. For their unit assessments and other major assessments, students use illuminate.com which allows me to track which Common Core State Standards they are mastering and what standards they need more assistance on.
The one significant challenge I encountered was the culture and beliefs of the charter school I was at. First, the charter school has adopted a pre-designed curriculum that does not allow for much creativity for the teacher. They have also lowered the standards for traditional grades which will be discussed later in the prompt. The school itself does not encourage teachers to freely teach; instead, it programs teachers to teach their way without accounting for the needs of individual students.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["First Year Teaching, and it Began in Los Santos"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Caitlin King","Katherine Cooke","Andre Chen-Feng"],"dc:creator":["Davaloz, Davon A"],"dc:date.available":["2019-07-13T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The ethnographic narrative is a mixture of my journey to education as well as my experience as a first-year teacher. Working in an underserved area in Southern California provided me the opportunity to reach students with similar backgrounds as my own. Being Mexican-American, I pride myself in giving back to my community, and this ethnography provided me that avenue to reach countless students with similar stories to mine.
The three focus students you will see were my primary focus; however, data is collected from over 120 7th-grade students-- the majority of which are Latino. All of my classroom assignments and exit tickets are posted on Google Classroom which allows me to collect data on my students progress on a daily basis. For their unit assessments and other major assessments, students use illuminate.com which allows me to track which Common Core State Standards they are mastering and what standards they need more assistance on.
The one significant challenge I encountered was the culture and beliefs of the charter school I was at. First, the charter school has adopted a pre-designed curriculum that does not allow for much creativity for the teacher. They have also lowered the standards for traditional grades which will be discussed later in the prompt. The school itself does not encourage teachers to freely teach; instead, it programs teachers to teach their way without accounting for the needs of individual students.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/121"],"dc:subject":["English","Teacher","Education","Los Santos","Social Justice","Students","Higher Education and Teaching","Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching","Prison Education and Reentry","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"],"dc:title":["First Year Teaching, and it Began in Los Santos"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Educational Studies","Health Promotion and Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Education, MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:28Z"}