Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Talking Points #10 (Johnson)
What Can We Do?
Becoming Part of the Solution
Allan Johnson
Johnson argues that change does not lie in the present but yet looking at our past and learning from it to help change the future. The things we need to change, issues created by this use of privilege, are ongoing and need to be changed by everyone, not just the group it directly affects.
"To be an effective part of the solution, we have to realize that privilege and oppression are not a thing of the past. It's happening right now. It isn't just a collection fo wounds inflicted long ago that now need to be healed. The wounding goes on as I write these words and as you rea them, and unless people work to change the system that promote it, personal healing by itself cannot be the asnwer. Healing wounds is nor more a silution to the oppression that causes the wounding than military hospitals are a slution to war. Healing is a necessary process, but it isn't enoough."
So this quote pretty much sums up a large portion of what we have discussed this semester. It is the idea behind the Brown article, the South Bronx article, etc. All these authors and articles express how the "band-aid on a bullet wound" solution is NOT effective yet it is still practiced.
"The greatest barrier to change is that dominant groups don't see the trouble as their trouble, which means they don't feel as obliged to do something about it."
This once againsts attests to everything we have talked about. For example, the white race sees no problem with the Brown ruling because in their eyes, they did their part, their "good deed." Its like this huge, cocky attitude that the white race has. Its like they want a pat on their backs for passing Brown, for "lending their time" to "fix" something. Its also like no one else can fix it except whites. Granted, the valididty to this statement is that in a way they are the only ones who can really do something because they control most of the power being the dominante race. As repeptive as this, hopefully with Obama as president more progress can be made in sharing that "privlege" power like it should be.
"If you don't make a point of studying history, it's easy to slide into the belief that things have always been the way we've known them to be. But if you look back a bit further, you find racial oppression has been a feature of human life for only a matter of centuries."
Ok, I have a problem with this. At another point in the article, he emphasized oppression based on other fomrs of culture but the part that bothers me is that he says hundreds of years. I'm sorry, does Johnson not know of the slavery in Egypt? The Jewish culture has been oppressed for thousands and thousands of years. The Islamic beliefs go back to 7th century, which more than emphasizes the oppression of woman. 10th century brings us to Chinese foot binding...hello oppression of women! In a biblical sense, Eve was created from Adam...male dominance!! Lastly, we've got the Russians. These people have been oppresed far too much. You've got the Vikings & the Mongols, both which oppressed the Russians hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I mean, we can ever discuss the Greeks and the Romans, but I'll stop. If we want to generalized, oppression is really when any group of people/civilization takes over another group/civilization, which is pretty much the epitome of history. As long as there have been people, there has been oppression, not just "a few centuries worth." I just honestly think Johnson should stick to privlege and diversity matter and leave the history to historians.
Overall, this article was repetitive. Considering we read the same author in the beginning of the semester, it was deja vu for me. As you can tell by my last quote, I was getting very frustrated with Johnson and his "historical tidbits." Easy read, just frustrating and repetitve.
Here is a "list" of oppression-esque matters.
Becoming Part of the Solution
Allan Johnson
Johnson argues that change does not lie in the present but yet looking at our past and learning from it to help change the future. The things we need to change, issues created by this use of privilege, are ongoing and need to be changed by everyone, not just the group it directly affects.
"To be an effective part of the solution, we have to realize that privilege and oppression are not a thing of the past. It's happening right now. It isn't just a collection fo wounds inflicted long ago that now need to be healed. The wounding goes on as I write these words and as you rea them, and unless people work to change the system that promote it, personal healing by itself cannot be the asnwer. Healing wounds is nor more a silution to the oppression that causes the wounding than military hospitals are a slution to war. Healing is a necessary process, but it isn't enoough."
So this quote pretty much sums up a large portion of what we have discussed this semester. It is the idea behind the Brown article, the South Bronx article, etc. All these authors and articles express how the "band-aid on a bullet wound" solution is NOT effective yet it is still practiced.
"The greatest barrier to change is that dominant groups don't see the trouble as their trouble, which means they don't feel as obliged to do something about it."
This once againsts attests to everything we have talked about. For example, the white race sees no problem with the Brown ruling because in their eyes, they did their part, their "good deed." Its like this huge, cocky attitude that the white race has. Its like they want a pat on their backs for passing Brown, for "lending their time" to "fix" something. Its also like no one else can fix it except whites. Granted, the valididty to this statement is that in a way they are the only ones who can really do something because they control most of the power being the dominante race. As repeptive as this, hopefully with Obama as president more progress can be made in sharing that "privlege" power like it should be.
"If you don't make a point of studying history, it's easy to slide into the belief that things have always been the way we've known them to be. But if you look back a bit further, you find racial oppression has been a feature of human life for only a matter of centuries."
Ok, I have a problem with this. At another point in the article, he emphasized oppression based on other fomrs of culture but the part that bothers me is that he says hundreds of years. I'm sorry, does Johnson not know of the slavery in Egypt? The Jewish culture has been oppressed for thousands and thousands of years. The Islamic beliefs go back to 7th century, which more than emphasizes the oppression of woman. 10th century brings us to Chinese foot binding...hello oppression of women! In a biblical sense, Eve was created from Adam...male dominance!! Lastly, we've got the Russians. These people have been oppresed far too much. You've got the Vikings & the Mongols, both which oppressed the Russians hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I mean, we can ever discuss the Greeks and the Romans, but I'll stop. If we want to generalized, oppression is really when any group of people/civilization takes over another group/civilization, which is pretty much the epitome of history. As long as there have been people, there has been oppression, not just "a few centuries worth." I just honestly think Johnson should stick to privlege and diversity matter and leave the history to historians.
Overall, this article was repetitive. Considering we read the same author in the beginning of the semester, it was deja vu for me. As you can tell by my last quote, I was getting very frustrated with Johnson and his "historical tidbits." Easy read, just frustrating and repetitve.
Here is a "list" of oppression-esque matters.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Talking Points #8 (Kliewer)
Citzenship in School:Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
Christopher Kliewer
Kliewer argues that community should represent real life and therefore encompass all aspects of a community, including children with Down Syndrome. The community "web" needs to include all types of people and exclusion of any people, for whatever reason, is wrong and injust. Also, Kliewer discusses the difficult path that lie in the path of social acceptance and that any and all modicatiosn necessary to create that social acceptance should be taken.
" 'Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break down the abarries for people with disabilities.' "
Even though this was not the author's own words, I still wanted to include it. I read it a few times and I don't know if I just couldn't shake the original thought from my head but I got a negative vibe from this quote. It mainly lies within the first sentence. When I read this, I get the feeling of discrimination, a type of "racism." To me, this sensentece sounds like the revelation of a white Southerner after the Civil Rights movmement. 'Oh, I guess African Americans aren't bad or unequal people.' To me, it sounds like this is the type of realization this sentence brings. I just personally don't like the wording of this sentence and it gives me a negative view of the subject.
" 'It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here--kids, teachers, parents, whoever--it's about all of us working together, playinmg together, being together, and that's what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail.' "
Once again, I know this quote is not Kliewer's own words, but it just stuck out to me so much, I had to include it. I really like this quote. I love the wording and how it is phrased. Disabilitiy aside, this is a great atmosphere to want to be in. However, when the disability aspect is added on, I know it makes me (as a future educator) thrilled that there are people in the worl who think this way. We are taught from the earliest of ages to "not judge a book by its cover" but yet we learn by demonstration. Therefore, when our teacher segregates and therefore labels a students in a classroom, it is merely natural for the students to follow because they do not know any better. It is the like the acitivty we did in class in regards to the Oakes article. We all did the worksheet and responded in manners that we have become accustomed to from our teachers over the past 13 years of pre secondary ed. Therefore hearing this teacher discuss the irrelevnace of any type of label and the collaboration of all involved in that child's life sort of "puts the hope" back in a teaching system that many have lost hope in. Also, I liked the last part with the "setting kids up to fail." More often than not, if someone labels you, especially with a disability, if you do not have a good support sysmte and good slef esteem, you can fall victim to becoming that label, which is the worst. I feel like this woman would strongly advocate for those who would fall into this label black whole and help students not fall in and get lost.
"School citizenship requires that students not be categorized and separated based on presumed defect. The phenomenon of categorization at the expense of indvidual value has been described as a "disability spread" in which we 'extrapolate the characteristics we associate with the notion of disability to the particular individuals we meet. These perceptions are often based on stereotypes and what we think we know about a particular disability. They are expressed in predictable way. For example, 'All people with Down Syndrome are happy.' ' "
I feel like part of this explains my VIPS experiance. There are two children who "have ADD" in the classroom and are therefore separated. I understand that children with attention disabilities are sometimes better suited to be sitting alone but one of the students is literally in the front corner and has to read the board or projector screen on an angle. That doesn't make sense! Regardless, it is wrong to stereotype someone or a group of people. I mean, I fight to not get considered a "typical college teen" because I don't consider myself in that category. And I think its horrible that because of a group of people others who may or may not consider themselves in that group get placed in it as well. But I mean, thats nothing in terms of being stereotyping with disability. Thats just wrong, professionally and as an individual.
Generally speaking, this article was interesting but lengthy, which presents problems in keeping my attention. I liked it however because my concentration is Special Education so this article brought up some thoughts from my Sped 300 class. I tryied to incoporate those ideas in my quotes and felt like I read this article differently because of my background in this course and in my sped course. I feel like if I read this article a few months ago, I might have had a differnet mindset and not have been so in tune with some of the ideas presented.
Christopher Kliewer
Kliewer argues that community should represent real life and therefore encompass all aspects of a community, including children with Down Syndrome. The community "web" needs to include all types of people and exclusion of any people, for whatever reason, is wrong and injust. Also, Kliewer discusses the difficult path that lie in the path of social acceptance and that any and all modicatiosn necessary to create that social acceptance should be taken.
" 'Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break down the abarries for people with disabilities.' "
Even though this was not the author's own words, I still wanted to include it. I read it a few times and I don't know if I just couldn't shake the original thought from my head but I got a negative vibe from this quote. It mainly lies within the first sentence. When I read this, I get the feeling of discrimination, a type of "racism." To me, this sensentece sounds like the revelation of a white Southerner after the Civil Rights movmement. 'Oh, I guess African Americans aren't bad or unequal people.' To me, it sounds like this is the type of realization this sentence brings. I just personally don't like the wording of this sentence and it gives me a negative view of the subject.
" 'It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here--kids, teachers, parents, whoever--it's about all of us working together, playinmg together, being together, and that's what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail.' "
Once again, I know this quote is not Kliewer's own words, but it just stuck out to me so much, I had to include it. I really like this quote. I love the wording and how it is phrased. Disabilitiy aside, this is a great atmosphere to want to be in. However, when the disability aspect is added on, I know it makes me (as a future educator) thrilled that there are people in the worl who think this way. We are taught from the earliest of ages to "not judge a book by its cover" but yet we learn by demonstration. Therefore, when our teacher segregates and therefore labels a students in a classroom, it is merely natural for the students to follow because they do not know any better. It is the like the acitivty we did in class in regards to the Oakes article. We all did the worksheet and responded in manners that we have become accustomed to from our teachers over the past 13 years of pre secondary ed. Therefore hearing this teacher discuss the irrelevnace of any type of label and the collaboration of all involved in that child's life sort of "puts the hope" back in a teaching system that many have lost hope in. Also, I liked the last part with the "setting kids up to fail." More often than not, if someone labels you, especially with a disability, if you do not have a good support sysmte and good slef esteem, you can fall victim to becoming that label, which is the worst. I feel like this woman would strongly advocate for those who would fall into this label black whole and help students not fall in and get lost.
"School citizenship requires that students not be categorized and separated based on presumed defect. The phenomenon of categorization at the expense of indvidual value has been described as a "disability spread" in which we 'extrapolate the characteristics we associate with the notion of disability to the particular individuals we meet. These perceptions are often based on stereotypes and what we think we know about a particular disability. They are expressed in predictable way. For example, 'All people with Down Syndrome are happy.' ' "
I feel like part of this explains my VIPS experiance. There are two children who "have ADD" in the classroom and are therefore separated. I understand that children with attention disabilities are sometimes better suited to be sitting alone but one of the students is literally in the front corner and has to read the board or projector screen on an angle. That doesn't make sense! Regardless, it is wrong to stereotype someone or a group of people. I mean, I fight to not get considered a "typical college teen" because I don't consider myself in that category. And I think its horrible that because of a group of people others who may or may not consider themselves in that group get placed in it as well. But I mean, thats nothing in terms of being stereotyping with disability. Thats just wrong, professionally and as an individual.
Generally speaking, this article was interesting but lengthy, which presents problems in keeping my attention. I liked it however because my concentration is Special Education so this article brought up some thoughts from my Sped 300 class. I tryied to incoporate those ideas in my quotes and felt like I read this article differently because of my background in this course and in my sped course. I feel like if I read this article a few months ago, I might have had a differnet mindset and not have been so in tune with some of the ideas presented.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
School diveristy getting crowded out
I found this article several day ago but I kept forgetting to post about it. Essentially, the article is discussing how schools in New York are becoming "less diverse" because more white families are sending their kids to public school. It is inferred (or at least I thought it was) that more white families send their children to non public schools while families of other cultures sned their kids to public school more than non public school.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/10/26/2008-10-26_school_diversity_getting_crowded_out.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/10/26/2008-10-26_school_diversity_getting_crowded_out.html
Monday, November 10, 2008
Talking Points #7 (Lawrence)
"One more river to cross"--Recognizing the real injury in Brown:
A prerequisite to shaping new remedies
Charles Lawrence
Lawrence argues that Brown did not eliminate racial issues but merely started the fire. Lawrence also discusses how unless there is a major movement, the country will never be fully remedied and therefore, will not be able to be a whole nation.
"There would be no final victory in their lifetimes. Each step forwards was just that, a step. There would always be 'one more river to cross'."
This quote stuck out to me for two reasons. The first is that when i was younger, I was a literal thinker. So, when I first learned about the Civil Rights movement in elementary school, I legit thought that "equality" came about and was settled by the 1970s. I thought that just because it was set, it would happen. Obviously, these are the ideas of a naive and unexperiance mind. I soon learned otherwisde, via more education about the Civil Rights movement and the African American struggle for equality (among other groups of difference) as well as in my own life. The second way that this quote stuck out to me has nothing to do with the main context it is used in but rather my own life. It just seems that this describes my homework situation. I live with roomates who "finish" homework. Like literally, they have nothing to do (or so they say). Yet, I sit there and even if I finish homework that is due for that week, I could start some and get a crack at next weeks. And then once I am done school, the way the world is going I feel like I am never going to be "done." I know, teaching is a lifelong process you learn from but I mean like done with tests and training and schooling. I just, I am person who likes to cross things off and I hate it when I just for once want an empty to do list.
"Many black schools that exsisted within the segregated school systems of the South were in fact superior to their white counterparts. It is ironic that most of these schools achieved their excellence as a direct result of the discrimination inherent in a sergreated scoeity , in that the best black professional were foreced in teaching by their virtual exclusions from other fields."
This stuck out to me because in 99% of my research and knowledge of this case, I have never heard this side played. I then did a littld digging and after finding the high school listed in the endnote (Dunbar high school, located in Washington D.C.) and here is what I found. It was the first high school for African Americans students ( I do not know if it meant in America or in DC) and is a very good school overall. Now, here is my problem. I dont really consider DC in the South. Now, that is my opinion so I researched a little to make sure my inclinations were correct and it really isnt in the "South." It is bordering below the Mason-Dixon line, so that is a confirmation in literal terms and during the civil war, if I am not mistaken, DC was considered part of the North. I mean, Abraham Lincoln was president...considering it was under his rule that the slaves in America were granted freedom, it doesnt make much sense to have Washington be confederate. Also, the states did not want a capital of their nation being in Southern territory! To me, the "South" is Tenesse, Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisana and I would even settle for Virginia (parts of it anyway) But to me, this is pushing it. Give me an example of a school in any one of those states and I would be shocked.
"But the Supreme Court has refused to recognize that segregation will not die a natural death."
I feel like this sums up a point that relates to my first quote. Im sure that there are people in the country who think that segregation or racial inequality is not a problem. Like, Im sure those girls on My Super Sweet 16 dont think about those type of issues. But for the author to make such a claim that the Supeme Court of the United States feels and thinks this way is a powerful statement. I am by no means saying I do not agree with her; in all aspects one almost has to. Its just honestly terrifying when you think about it. I mean, if the Supreme Court cannot realize this, what hope does that provide for us? These are the people who make decisions on life altering cases. And I mean life altering for everyone in the United States (abortion, Miranda rights, disproving separate but equal, etc.). Its just...scary. Its like when you hear about corruption in major corporations or rigged elections. Its just not comforting.
Overall, this article was not hard for me to read in terms of the actual content. The writing was a bit wordy and some sentences had to be reread. However, I have done quite a bit of extensive research on the Brown case. In high school, Thurgood Marshall was the focus of an extensive research paper and in my Political Science course first semester, we had to do boook reports/research papers on books on Supreme Court cases. Coincidently, I had to read Simple Justice by Richard Kluger (which is a hefty 880 page book I do not recommend) so I pretty much know the ins and outs of the case through all this research and then through learning about in history classes, political science classes and government & law classes. On a side note, I wonder what Lawrence would think of Obama's win of President elect. I wonder if he would consider this a "step" in the right direction of affirming what Brown got rolling.
Oh, and an apology now if any part of my history explanation of my reasoning of DC is unclear or in anyway inaccurate. My history is a bit rusty and its actually harder to find a clear answer online than I thought it would be.
A prerequisite to shaping new remedies
Charles Lawrence
Lawrence argues that Brown did not eliminate racial issues but merely started the fire. Lawrence also discusses how unless there is a major movement, the country will never be fully remedied and therefore, will not be able to be a whole nation.
"There would be no final victory in their lifetimes. Each step forwards was just that, a step. There would always be 'one more river to cross'."
This quote stuck out to me for two reasons. The first is that when i was younger, I was a literal thinker. So, when I first learned about the Civil Rights movement in elementary school, I legit thought that "equality" came about and was settled by the 1970s. I thought that just because it was set, it would happen. Obviously, these are the ideas of a naive and unexperiance mind. I soon learned otherwisde, via more education about the Civil Rights movement and the African American struggle for equality (among other groups of difference) as well as in my own life. The second way that this quote stuck out to me has nothing to do with the main context it is used in but rather my own life. It just seems that this describes my homework situation. I live with roomates who "finish" homework. Like literally, they have nothing to do (or so they say). Yet, I sit there and even if I finish homework that is due for that week, I could start some and get a crack at next weeks. And then once I am done school, the way the world is going I feel like I am never going to be "done." I know, teaching is a lifelong process you learn from but I mean like done with tests and training and schooling. I just, I am person who likes to cross things off and I hate it when I just for once want an empty to do list.
"Many black schools that exsisted within the segregated school systems of the South were in fact superior to their white counterparts. It is ironic that most of these schools achieved their excellence as a direct result of the discrimination inherent in a sergreated scoeity , in that the best black professional were foreced in teaching by their virtual exclusions from other fields."
This stuck out to me because in 99% of my research and knowledge of this case, I have never heard this side played. I then did a littld digging and after finding the high school listed in the endnote (Dunbar high school, located in Washington D.C.) and here is what I found. It was the first high school for African Americans students ( I do not know if it meant in America or in DC) and is a very good school overall. Now, here is my problem. I dont really consider DC in the South. Now, that is my opinion so I researched a little to make sure my inclinations were correct and it really isnt in the "South." It is bordering below the Mason-Dixon line, so that is a confirmation in literal terms and during the civil war, if I am not mistaken, DC was considered part of the North. I mean, Abraham Lincoln was president...considering it was under his rule that the slaves in America were granted freedom, it doesnt make much sense to have Washington be confederate. Also, the states did not want a capital of their nation being in Southern territory! To me, the "South" is Tenesse, Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisana and I would even settle for Virginia (parts of it anyway) But to me, this is pushing it. Give me an example of a school in any one of those states and I would be shocked.
"But the Supreme Court has refused to recognize that segregation will not die a natural death."
I feel like this sums up a point that relates to my first quote. Im sure that there are people in the country who think that segregation or racial inequality is not a problem. Like, Im sure those girls on My Super Sweet 16 dont think about those type of issues. But for the author to make such a claim that the Supeme Court of the United States feels and thinks this way is a powerful statement. I am by no means saying I do not agree with her; in all aspects one almost has to. Its just honestly terrifying when you think about it. I mean, if the Supreme Court cannot realize this, what hope does that provide for us? These are the people who make decisions on life altering cases. And I mean life altering for everyone in the United States (abortion, Miranda rights, disproving separate but equal, etc.). Its just...scary. Its like when you hear about corruption in major corporations or rigged elections. Its just not comforting.
Overall, this article was not hard for me to read in terms of the actual content. The writing was a bit wordy and some sentences had to be reread. However, I have done quite a bit of extensive research on the Brown case. In high school, Thurgood Marshall was the focus of an extensive research paper and in my Political Science course first semester, we had to do boook reports/research papers on books on Supreme Court cases. Coincidently, I had to read Simple Justice by Richard Kluger (which is a hefty 880 page book I do not recommend) so I pretty much know the ins and outs of the case through all this research and then through learning about in history classes, political science classes and government & law classes. On a side note, I wonder what Lawrence would think of Obama's win of President elect. I wonder if he would consider this a "step" in the right direction of affirming what Brown got rolling.
Oh, and an apology now if any part of my history explanation of my reasoning of DC is unclear or in anyway inaccurate. My history is a bit rusty and its actually harder to find a clear answer online than I thought it would be.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Talking Points #6 (Oakes)
Tracking:Why schools need to take another route
Jeannie Oakes
Oakes argues that tracking in schools is not a "good route." She states that a diffent path must be followed, which involved heterogenous classrooms which would mix high & low ability students together. She also states that unless teachers are willing to take the time and make the effort, this method will fail and tracking will resume, which results in wide gaps between students in all aspect of life.
"...tracking leads to substantial differences in the day-to-day learning experiances students have at school. Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups bave access to far richer schooling experiences than otber students. This finding helps explain, at least in part, why it is that tracking sometimes seems to "work" for highability students and not for others."
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of my junior high experiance. At my junior high, we had a "team" system, which meant that kids were split up into all different teams, each having about 90 students. (making 2 teams of 7th graders and 2 of 8th graders) Within the teams, there were "high ability" classrooms. I was in these classrooms, and like the kids with me, 95% of us moved on to comprise most of the populations in the upper level (honors, AP) courses in high school. We are also a majority of the students who went on to colleges/universities or other options with a "plan." In other words, what the Oakes states happens, happened. I am by no means trying to say we were "better" than other studens or that we are better than them now. There are students who were non honors kids who are doing great after high school just like I am sure there are honors kids who are not doing great after high school. Regardless, this happened to me. And when I went through it, I thought nothing of it. Most of my "best friends" weren't in my classes and it was never an issue. But now that I look back on it, I can totally understand where the author is coming from.
"
students in high-ability English classes were more likely to be taught classic and modem literature, provided instruction in expository writing and library researcb, and expected to leam vocabulary that would eventually boost their scores on college entrance exams-,In these classes, critical thinking and problem-solving skills seemed to emerge
from the high quality ofthe course ce tent. Few low-ability classes, on 1 other hand, were taugbt these topics a skills. Students in the latter class learned basic reading skills taug mostly by workbooks, kits, and eo" to-read stories. Learning tasksconsist most often of memorizing and repe ing answers back to the teacher. Sin so much of importance was omitt from their curriculum, students in the low-ability classes were likely to ha
little contact with the knowledge a. skills that would allow them to rna into higher classes or to be success' if they got there."
This was my senior year English class. For senior year, the options were either AP or college prep, no honors. I chose not to take AP because the teacher who was going to be teaching I had had in 9th grae and she would constantly giving me failing or nearly failing grades on essays, telling me I could not write at all and providing no insight as to how I could fix my "problems." So, I was put in a college prep class. Essentially, it was an interesting group of people. I treated the class as I normally would for the first few weeks...and then I realized I was about 150 pages ahead of everyone in my class. Now, I do not mean to sound cocky but these are the kind of kids who just didnt try and more importantly, didnt care. SO i relaxed a bit.I mean, my teacher realized where I was and didnt even make me read the final book because he figured it was pointless. When final presentations came around, I literally had a fellow student tell me it was the best thing he had ever heard...I wrote it in 15 minutes while watching TV. Like, I had a test on the movie Braveheart! This was the type of class it was, totally laid back. I felt like this quote fit my experiance to a T...and I wish I didnt because its setting you up for failure then and later in your life. (If I came across as cocky, I really didnt mean to but I didnt know how else to explain this class).
"
First, lessons will probably be most successful if they require active learning tasks rather than passive ones, and if they have students working together rather than alone. "
I agree and disagree, with reasoning. My psych class in high school was often group based...and I learned nothing. Its probably why I hated the class because I would have to go home and re-teach myself. My teacher would give us topics in groups and we would have to learn them, summarize and present to the class. What bothered me was that different people think different things are important and more importantly to me was that my teahcer thinks different things are important. If the group thought they summarized the section, and my teacher just smiled and didnt add anything, you might think it was summarized and you may study off of that...but what if they didnt and the teahcer expects you to teach yourself the info anyway? If that is the case, what is the point of group work? On the flop side, group work is great when each person has something to bring, like going over math homework or a collaborative SL paper. You can pick up new tricks or learn new things to apply to your life. I just, I dont think group work is a successful way to have students of different speeds in a classroom be successful, when it is presented in the example I gave.
Overall, the article was an easy read. It reminded me a lot of my high school classes, especially English and Hisotry ( a little bit of Psych). It was interesting to look back at them this way. I had thought about it while in high school so it wasnt a huge shock. It doesnt seem "as bad" when it is you in the situation and I know in my school district, it probably wasnt a huge problem because there isnt much diversity ( in every aspect of the word). I feel like the last column on the last page also summed up what I was trying to say with my first quote. Overall, I thought it was an interesting article that got to the point, kept my attention and providen succint ideas.
Jeannie Oakes
Oakes argues that tracking in schools is not a "good route." She states that a diffent path must be followed, which involved heterogenous classrooms which would mix high & low ability students together. She also states that unless teachers are willing to take the time and make the effort, this method will fail and tracking will resume, which results in wide gaps between students in all aspect of life.
"...tracking leads to substantial differences in the day-to-day learning experiances students have at school. Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups bave access to far richer schooling experiences than otber students. This finding helps explain, at least in part, why it is that tracking sometimes seems to "work" for highability students and not for others."
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of my junior high experiance. At my junior high, we had a "team" system, which meant that kids were split up into all different teams, each having about 90 students. (making 2 teams of 7th graders and 2 of 8th graders) Within the teams, there were "high ability" classrooms. I was in these classrooms, and like the kids with me, 95% of us moved on to comprise most of the populations in the upper level (honors, AP) courses in high school. We are also a majority of the students who went on to colleges/universities or other options with a "plan." In other words, what the Oakes states happens, happened. I am by no means trying to say we were "better" than other studens or that we are better than them now. There are students who were non honors kids who are doing great after high school just like I am sure there are honors kids who are not doing great after high school. Regardless, this happened to me. And when I went through it, I thought nothing of it. Most of my "best friends" weren't in my classes and it was never an issue. But now that I look back on it, I can totally understand where the author is coming from.
"
students in high-ability English classes were more likely to be taught classic and modem literature, provided instruction in expository writing and library researcb, and expected to leam vocabulary that would eventually boost their scores on college entrance exams-,In these classes, critical thinking and problem-solving skills seemed to emerge
from the high quality ofthe course ce tent. Few low-ability classes, on 1 other hand, were taugbt these topics a skills. Students in the latter class learned basic reading skills taug mostly by workbooks, kits, and eo" to-read stories. Learning tasksconsist most often of memorizing and repe ing answers back to the teacher. Sin so much of importance was omitt from their curriculum, students in the low-ability classes were likely to ha
little contact with the knowledge a. skills that would allow them to rna into higher classes or to be success' if they got there."
This was my senior year English class. For senior year, the options were either AP or college prep, no honors. I chose not to take AP because the teacher who was going to be teaching I had had in 9th grae and she would constantly giving me failing or nearly failing grades on essays, telling me I could not write at all and providing no insight as to how I could fix my "problems." So, I was put in a college prep class. Essentially, it was an interesting group of people. I treated the class as I normally would for the first few weeks...and then I realized I was about 150 pages ahead of everyone in my class. Now, I do not mean to sound cocky but these are the kind of kids who just didnt try and more importantly, didnt care. SO i relaxed a bit.I mean, my teacher realized where I was and didnt even make me read the final book because he figured it was pointless. When final presentations came around, I literally had a fellow student tell me it was the best thing he had ever heard...I wrote it in 15 minutes while watching TV. Like, I had a test on the movie Braveheart! This was the type of class it was, totally laid back. I felt like this quote fit my experiance to a T...and I wish I didnt because its setting you up for failure then and later in your life. (If I came across as cocky, I really didnt mean to but I didnt know how else to explain this class).
"
First, lessons will probably be most successful if they require active learning tasks rather than passive ones, and if they have students working together rather than alone. "
I agree and disagree, with reasoning. My psych class in high school was often group based...and I learned nothing. Its probably why I hated the class because I would have to go home and re-teach myself. My teacher would give us topics in groups and we would have to learn them, summarize and present to the class. What bothered me was that different people think different things are important and more importantly to me was that my teahcer thinks different things are important. If the group thought they summarized the section, and my teacher just smiled and didnt add anything, you might think it was summarized and you may study off of that...but what if they didnt and the teahcer expects you to teach yourself the info anyway? If that is the case, what is the point of group work? On the flop side, group work is great when each person has something to bring, like going over math homework or a collaborative SL paper. You can pick up new tricks or learn new things to apply to your life. I just, I dont think group work is a successful way to have students of different speeds in a classroom be successful, when it is presented in the example I gave.
Overall, the article was an easy read. It reminded me a lot of my high school classes, especially English and Hisotry ( a little bit of Psych). It was interesting to look back at them this way. I had thought about it while in high school so it wasnt a huge shock. It doesnt seem "as bad" when it is you in the situation and I know in my school district, it probably wasnt a huge problem because there isnt much diversity ( in every aspect of the word). I feel like the last column on the last page also summed up what I was trying to say with my first quote. Overall, I thought it was an interesting article that got to the point, kept my attention and providen succint ideas.
Monday, October 27, 2008
"Talking Points #5 (Kahne/Westheimer)
In the Service of what?
The Politics of Service Learning
Joseph Kahne & Joel Westheimer
Kahne/Westheimer argues that even though SL projects are great experiances and should be supported, there are criteria that should be fulfilled. They say that these programs should have their unerlying goals brought to the surface as well as making them widely available and allowing students to pick their own projects.
"His [Mr. Johnson] high school seniors were not asked to articulate an understadning of the conditions and contexts that might have contributed to the loss of a family's home or to a pregnant mother's decision to turn to crack cocaine. Ms. Adam's students, by contrast, began yheir work with a systematic and criticial analysis of the caused of homlessness an of the strategies employed to prevents it."
I thought it was interesting that the younger students look at the facts that sort of "shaped" the people they saw first hand and that the older students did not. I would think that these roles would have been reversed; not because the seventh graders are incapable but because many often think the younger grades might not "understand" or "be ready" to learn about the real world. Granted, telling a 12 year old the woes of crack cocaine and what they do to an unborn child can be life changing but isn't that the point. If something changes your life, you are going to remember it and therefore, they may keep it more in mind once they face tougher issues or drugs themselves as they get older. Or, if they are already experiencing that, it might help them make the right decision. I did find it odd however that the older students did not discuss the causes. As an educator, why wouldn't you want your students to understand where the information is coming from?
"...--students haves the opportunitities to experiance what David Hornbeck, fromer Maryland state superintendent, referred to as 'the joy of reaching out to others.' For example, many stuents left Mr. Johnson's project aware of the contributions that they could make toward helping others..."
I felt that this quote summed up my SL experiances. Granted, I may not agree with my teacher's methods but that dos not mean I have to suffer. I have worked with one boy a little bit each week and its great to help him and hear him read a word confidently that he couldn't read when he came to school that day. I mean, its why I wanted to become a teacher.
"For example, a music director at a middle school we studies wanted her surburban, upper-middle class students to perform at a nearby elementary school in a poor neighborhood. Some of the middle school parents objects, saying they they were concerned for their children's safety. In a written evaluation, the students said that they had imagined 'horrifying children running around on a dirty campus.' "
I felt like this quote was similar to my initial reaction. I didn't have my parents objecting and I didn't think I was going to see horrifying children but I knew my SL school was going to be different from my elementary school. But I knew it was going to be different in terms of the divsersity, which meant the children would just be different from myself and most of the kids I went to school with. I didn't think it was going to be this "jungle" of students who were crazy. The school itself looks old and not in the best condition so I figured the classrooms would look the same but I knew it wasn't all physical apperances that matter but the teaching that goes on in those rooms.
Overall, I didn't mind read this article. It was a bit lengthy but an easy read so I could read it pretty quickly and still felt like I understood it. I also thought it was interesting to see the differnces in SL projects and those are reflected in the quotes I selected.
The Politics of Service Learning
Joseph Kahne & Joel Westheimer
Kahne/Westheimer argues that even though SL projects are great experiances and should be supported, there are criteria that should be fulfilled. They say that these programs should have their unerlying goals brought to the surface as well as making them widely available and allowing students to pick their own projects.
"His [Mr. Johnson] high school seniors were not asked to articulate an understadning of the conditions and contexts that might have contributed to the loss of a family's home or to a pregnant mother's decision to turn to crack cocaine. Ms. Adam's students, by contrast, began yheir work with a systematic and criticial analysis of the caused of homlessness an of the strategies employed to prevents it."
I thought it was interesting that the younger students look at the facts that sort of "shaped" the people they saw first hand and that the older students did not. I would think that these roles would have been reversed; not because the seventh graders are incapable but because many often think the younger grades might not "understand" or "be ready" to learn about the real world. Granted, telling a 12 year old the woes of crack cocaine and what they do to an unborn child can be life changing but isn't that the point. If something changes your life, you are going to remember it and therefore, they may keep it more in mind once they face tougher issues or drugs themselves as they get older. Or, if they are already experiencing that, it might help them make the right decision. I did find it odd however that the older students did not discuss the causes. As an educator, why wouldn't you want your students to understand where the information is coming from?
"...--students haves the opportunitities to experiance what David Hornbeck, fromer Maryland state superintendent, referred to as 'the joy of reaching out to others.' For example, many stuents left Mr. Johnson's project aware of the contributions that they could make toward helping others..."
I felt that this quote summed up my SL experiances. Granted, I may not agree with my teacher's methods but that dos not mean I have to suffer. I have worked with one boy a little bit each week and its great to help him and hear him read a word confidently that he couldn't read when he came to school that day. I mean, its why I wanted to become a teacher.
"For example, a music director at a middle school we studies wanted her surburban, upper-middle class students to perform at a nearby elementary school in a poor neighborhood. Some of the middle school parents objects, saying they they were concerned for their children's safety. In a written evaluation, the students said that they had imagined 'horrifying children running around on a dirty campus.' "
I felt like this quote was similar to my initial reaction. I didn't have my parents objecting and I didn't think I was going to see horrifying children but I knew my SL school was going to be different from my elementary school. But I knew it was going to be different in terms of the divsersity, which meant the children would just be different from myself and most of the kids I went to school with. I didn't think it was going to be this "jungle" of students who were crazy. The school itself looks old and not in the best condition so I figured the classrooms would look the same but I knew it wasn't all physical apperances that matter but the teaching that goes on in those rooms.
Overall, I didn't mind read this article. It was a bit lengthy but an easy read so I could read it pretty quickly and still felt like I understood it. I also thought it was interesting to see the differnces in SL projects and those are reflected in the quotes I selected.
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