I do not think that my blog would be complete without the addition of my niece, Avery.She is the little love of my life!Avery is why I do what I do...I want her to grow up in a world that is righteous and just. Relayed to me by my sister, please enjoy the wisdom of a four-year old!
Avery is lying on the floor.I ask, “What are you doing?”She says, “Dreaming of my life.”I respond with, “Oh yeah, what are your dreams about?”Avery says, “I am dreaming in my heart, I have such a fun heart!”The stuff she says…it really makes me wonder what goes on in her little brain!
We are working on cutting and writing with Avery.She was just talking to herself when I hear her say, “Ok, I am doing my homework.I am a grown-up because I can use safety scissors!!”
Watching some news on 9/11 and Avery asked what happened.I explained it.Amazing to hear it from a 4-year old—she went into the kitchen and said, “Daddy, before I was born, bad guys bonked a plane into buildings and that is why you and Uncle Johnny protect us.That is what happened."Ten years ago, I sent my husband and my brother to war, and now I am explaining this day to my child…we will never forget.
I am going to admit that I struggled with Dr. August’s Making Room for One Another.Unfortunately, I had to miss the class discussion, so I am left with outstanding questions in regards to the implementation of dynamic and designed dialogicality.In an attempt to receive further input, I am going to present my thoughts—please work with the digression into children’s trade books and a personal definition of dialogicality!Any feedback is welcomed!Please help me to ‘unpack’ excerpts from Dr. August’s dissertation!
Here is what I understand:
While reading Dr. August’s first chapter and the mention of Alice and Wonderland, my mind wondered to a children’s book, Tacky the Penguin.Please bear with me!Tacky is an odd bird who marches to the beat of his own drummer. Tacky the penguin does not fit in with his sleek and graceful companions, but his odd behavior comes in handy when hunters come with maps and traps. He is something of an eccentric, which would not be a problem if all the other penguins were not such conformists. Tacky’s individuality saves the day! Yes, this is a children’s story…with a very grown-up message.Do you know a Tacky?Have you ever been a Tacky?Who is Tacky in your classroom?
Here is what I understand:
Introduced in Chapter One: Equal Opportunity Adventure of Making Room for One Another (2009), Dr. Gerri August elucidates,
Each day school age children enact a familiar motif from the world of children’s literature.They leave home, have an adventure, and return home.The adventure, of course, is school…Most come ready to share their stories, eager to make connections.Some children narrate their family experiences with abandon, painting their stories with broad brush strokes and vivid colors; others offer up only tentative sketches, smudged with erasures.All children, however, return home from the adventure changed in some way. (1)
Thus, what is the factor that implements the change?August would argue that it is dynamic and designed dialogicality—different voices, styles, and ideas expressing a plurality of judgments in different ways.Reflected in Zeke Lerner’s kindergarten class (ZK) at Horton School, every child has a story or a discursive pattern.Highlighted in “circle time” students are “encouraged to share accounts of celebrations, traditions, vacations, and other notable family experiences” (1).Observed by Dr. August, some students fare better than other during circle time.“Children whose discourse patterns, [their ‘dialogic’ stories], match those of the dominant culture, for example, seem to enjoy longer turns and more meaningful interaction with the teacher” (1).But, what about the Tacky in the classroom or the figurative ‘odd bird’ (not by choice!) who does not adhere to the dominant culture?In the ZK, it is Cody, a Cambodian child who was adopted by lesbian parents.For Cody, these ‘dialogic’ stories are maintained by socially imprinted voices and logics that are ‘dialogic’ to one another, yet remain unfinished.To put it colloquially, between the lines of our story is the stuff we fill in, are expected to fill in, and we do so in our own way. Despite being a kindergartner, Cody recognizes his ‘differences,’ and hesitantly shares his story with the ZK.
Here is the disconnect:
How does Zeke do what he does?How does Zeke promote dialogicality rather than monologicality in order to create a more democratic classroom?How does dynamic dialogicality transcend a teachable moment?How is dynamic dialogicality applicable to a secondary classroom?Is it more or less present in a secondary classroom?
•Best attempt yet at providing equality of educational opportunity for LEP students through an educational process that validates and develops both languages.
•Two-way models may serve as a vehicle for positively impacting educational and social change and potentially narrow the achievement gap between non-LEP and LEP students.
Which model seems the most effective???
I am going with the Two-Way Enrichment Education model!Please view the link to another of Collier’s articles: http://njrp.tamu.edu/2004/PDFs/Collier.pdf. The Two-Way Enrichment Education model wins! Thus, in order to usurp the paradigm, the most competent bicultural language program must be utilized.Educated in Switzerland, I can confidently assert that bicultural education in Europe is education.Being a polyglot is revered, not frowned upon.We live in a nation of linguists (doesn’t that term sound better than English Language Learners?), so how have our policymakers missed the boat? Why is there “the incongruity—the clash of two worlds” (Rodriguez, 35)? Why is there such a disconnect between the cultures represented in the schools and our educational system? The maintenance of the status quo and the proliferation of power might be the answer.
There are the obvious words or phrases that are forbidden from use in the classroom; however, I include three phrases on my list of ‘bad words.’They are:
1.That is ghetto.
2.That is retarded.
3.That is gay.
Why you may ask?Each utterance belies an offensive implication.Words can hurt; words can damage; words can harm.As English teacher, I feel obligated to educate my students on the etymology of the aforementioned colloquialisms.
1610s, "part of a city to which Jews were restricted," especially in Italy, from It. ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," various theories of its origin include: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); a clipped word from Egitto "Egypt," from L. Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or It. borghetto "small section of a town" (dim. of borgo, of Germanic origin, see borough). Extended by 1899 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups (especially blacks in U.S. cities). As an adjective by 1903 (modern slang usage from 1999). Ghetto-blaster "large, portable stereo" is from 1982.
late 15c., from Fr. retarder (13c.), from L. retardare.The noun is recorded from 1788 in the sense "retardation, delay;" from 1970 in offensive meaning "retarded person," originally Amer.Eng., with accent on first syllable.
late 14c., "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;" also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from O.Fr. gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert" (12c.; cf. O.Sp. gayo, Port. gaio, It. gajo, probably French loan-words). Ultimate origin disputed; perhaps from Frankish *gahi (cf. O.H.G. wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. Meaning "stately and beautiful; splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chaucer:
But in oure bed he was so fressh and gay
Whan that he wolde han my bele chose.
Slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.) begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense:
After discharge A.Z. lived for some time at home. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup. He always wished others would make advances to him. ["Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniques," 1947, p.240]
The association with (male) homosexuality likely got a boost from the term gay cat, used as far back as 1893 in Amer.Eng. for "young hobo," one who is new on the road, also one who sometimes does jobs.
"A Gay Cat," said he, "is a loafing laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wages and vagabonds about hunting for another 'pick and shovel' job. Do you want to know where they got their monica (nickname) 'Gay Cat'? See, Kid, cats sneak about and scratch immediately after chumming with you and then get gay (fresh). That's why we call them 'Gay Cats'." [Leon Ray Livingston ("America's Most Celebrated Tramp"), "Life and Adventures of A-no. 1," 1910]
Quoting a tramp named Frenchy, who might not have known the origin. Gay cats were severely and cruelly abused by "real" tramps and bums, who considered them "an inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum -- as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts" [Prof. John J. McCook, "Tramps," in "The Public Treatment of Pauperism," 1893], but some accounts report certain older tramps would dominate a gay cat and employ him as a sort of slave. In "Sociology and Social Research" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay cat" phenomenon notes, "Homosexual practices are more common than rare in this group," and gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Scottish variant of gay).
The "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S. female impersonator Will S. Hays, but the word evidently was not popularly felt in this sense by wider society until the 1950s at the earliest.
"Gay" (or "gai") is now widely used in French, Dutch, Danish, Japanese, Swedish, and Catalan with the same sense as the English. It is coming into use in Germany and among the English-speaking upper classes of many cosmopolitan areas in other countries. [John Boswell, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality," 1980]
Gay as a noun meaning "a (usually male) homosexual" is attested from 1971; in M.E. it meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight," also "something gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c.1400).
Historically, my classroom is silent.No words are uttered, and the students stare back at me with a look of “REALLY?”Yes, my eyes read REALLY.
Interestingly enough, I have always done the introductory lesson as an extension of my personal beliefs of equity and tolerance; however, I was unclear of the ‘why’ behind my pedagogical choice.After reading Meyer’s “Gendered Harassment in Secondary Schools,” I can unite my beliefs to my practice with theoretical support.According to Meyer,
The problem of sexual and homophobic sexual harassment in schools has been the subject of scholarly investigation since the early 1990’s when two concurrent bodies of research emerged that began examining the phenomena of sexual harassment.More recently, the gendered and sexualized aspects of some bullying behaviors has been explored… [t]hese studies have shown that sexual and homophobic harassment are accepted parts of school culture where faculty and staff rarely or never intervene to stop this harassment.Students report that teachers stand by and allow biased and hurtful behaviors go unchallenged. (1)
Why would a teacher stand by and allow this type of behavior?Isn’t it our responsibility to maintain a safe classroom environment that is based upon mutual respect for all?This may seem like a call to action, but as teachers, we must lend a voice to homophobic harassment and harassment for gender non-conformity in our classroom.
Please view the following videos:
Remember, words can hurt; words can damage; words can harm.
Upon reading Alfie Kohn and his ruminations on assessment, I immediately thought of the film, Dead Poets Society.An English teacher, played by Robin Williams, compels his students to read aloud from the preface of their anthology.According to the foreword, works of literature can be evaluated by graphing two qualities—significance and implementation.Midway through the reading, Mr. Williams’ character tells his students to rip out the offending pages.Art should not be so mechanically reduced!
Thus, how is the movie’s warning applicable today?Driven by state testing and standards, teachers are being pulled toward prompt-and-rubric teaching that bypasses the human act of composing and the human gesture of response.Please refer to the following article, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2000/09/13/02newkirk.h20.html.According to Newkirk’s article, through the use of rubrics, teachers are providing their students with a more precise and analytic reasons for the evaluations they receive.However, is that truly the case?
Alfie Kohn would adamantly respond with NO!Disparaged by a “tool [that] promotes[s] standardization” (2), Kohn offers the following criticisms of rubrics:
1.“Just as standardizing assessment for teachers may compromise the quality of teaching, so standardizing assessment for learners may compromise the learning” (3).
2.“…Students, presumably grown accustomed to rubrics in other classrooms, now seemed unable to function unless every required item is spelled out for them in a grid and assigned a point value…they do not have confidence in their thinking or writing skills and seem unwilling to really take risks” (3).
3.“Studies have shown that too much attention to the quality of one’s performance is associated with more superficial thinking, less interest in whatever one is doing, less perseverance in the face of failure, and a tendency to attribute the outcome to innate ability and other factors thought to be beyond one’s control” (3).
Rubrics fail to reveal the narrative, moment-by-moment process of evaluation.Their formal and categorical ratings disprove the work of the reader; moreover, rubrics fail to provide a demonstration of the reading process that can later be internalized by the writer. (Criticism 1) The very authoritative language and format of rubrics, their pretense to objectivity, hides the act of writing or reading. (Criticism 2)The key qualities of good writing (organization, detail, and a central problem) are represented as something the writing has—rather than something the writing does. (Criticism 3)
With the present utilization of rubrics, what is left to evaluate in student writing?Has writing been so mechanically reduced?Outlined by Kohn, Maja Wilson argues assessment is “stripped of the complexity that breathes life into good writing… [and] we need to look to the piece of writing itself to suggest its own evaluative criteria—a truly radical and provocative suggestion” (4).So, was Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society “radical and provocative” or was he on point?
Imagine that it is 1967 and you are back in the second grade—the same grade as your child now.Like your child, you are a whiz at Math, but you struggle mightily when reading a story or writing a simple sentence.
Unlike your child, though, you would not have had the benefit of any special education services.In 1967, if you were attending a public school, such services did not exist for children who today would be identified with a learning disability.You would have likely struggled through a difficult education experience, struggling to advance to the next grade.
How has history of special education in our schools changed?
Chronology of Federal Legislation:
1969Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act mandates support services for students with learning disabilities
1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act officially recognized “specific learning disability” (SLD) as a category eligible for special education funding and service.
Later renamed, the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), a specific learning disability was define as “…a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.” (Code of Federal Regulations 300.7 (c)(10))
2004Reauthorization of IDEA which is officially known as the discrepancy model.It measures the discrepancy between a child’s academic performance and his/her intellectual ability.A significant discrepancy typically indicates a LD.
Overview of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504:
American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
Type/Purpose:A civil rights law to prohibit discrimination solely on the basis of disability in employment, public services, and accommodations.
Who is Protected? Any individual with a disability who: (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities; or (2) has a record of such an impairment; or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment.
Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
Type/Purpose:An education act to provide federal financial assistance to state and local education agencies to guarantee special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities.
Who is Protected?Children ages 3-21 who are determined by a multidisciplinary team to be eligible within one or more 13 specific categories of disability and who need special education and related services.Categories include autism, deafness, deaf-blindness, hearing impairments, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairments.
Responsibility to Provide a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)?Yes.A FAPE is defined to mean special education and related services.Special education means “specifically designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the needs of the child with a disability…”States are required to ensure the provision of “full educational opportunity” to all children with disabilities.
IDEA requires the development of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) document with specific content, and a required number of specific participants at an IEP meeting.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Type/Purpose:A civil rights law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in programs and activities, public and private that receive federal financial assistance.
Who is Protected?Any person who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, (2) has a record of such impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such impairment.Major life activities include walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, working, caring for oneself, and performing manual tasks.
Responsibility to Provide a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)?Yes.An “appropriate” education means an education comparable to that provided to students without disabilities.This may be defined as regular or special education services.
Section 504 does require development of a plan, although this written document is not mandated.The Individualized Education Program (IEP) of IDEA may be used for the Section 504 written plan.
So, I pose the question:
Is inclusion the only schooling that is socially just?
"Least restrictive environment" means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers.
Who has influenced the aforementioned changes?
John Dewey
Education and democracy are intimately connected.
Dewey polarizes two extremes of education—traditional and progressive education.The term, “progressive education” has been used to describe ideas and practices that aim to make schools more effective agencies of a democratic society.Although there are numerous differences of style and emphasis among progressive educators, they share the conviction that democracy means active participation by all citizens in social, political and economic decisions that will affect their lives.
The education of engaged citizens involves two essential elements: (1) Respect for diversity, meaning that each individual should be recognized for his or her own abilities, interests, ideas, needs, and cultural identity, (2) the development of critical, socially engaged intelligence, which enables individuals to understand and participate effectively in the affairs of their community in a collaborative effort to achieve a common good.
Key Words:community, dialogue, building social capital, conscientization
Equipped with the historical context of special education and backed by theory, how are you going to live out Kliewer's argument of inclusion in schooling and in our greater society?
According to Collier, “On first hearing about bilingual education, everyone immediately wants to know the method of teaching…A bilingual teacher learns how to become a teacher first of all…Differences, however, are created by the two major variables of language and culture.How the two languages are used in the classroom is one aspect of methodology…To oversimplify, there are three major models in actual practice in the United States today: transitional, maintenance, two-way enrichment.As in all education, politics and ideology are expressed by the selection of a given model” (228).
Is anyone else bothered by Collier’s assertion?Is it true that “as in all education, politics and ideology are expressed by the selection of a given model?Thus, through the examination of each methodology, I plan to ‘unpack’ the contention by reviewing the system for categorizing various theoretical models of bicultural education.Noting, a paradigm is presented for examining the congruence between the theoretical model, teachers' beliefs and actual classroom practices to determine the effectiveness of a bicultural language program. Recent political and policy initiatives have brought about dramatic shifts in policies for educating language minority children and bilingual education programs in the United States. Please view the video on the Bilingual Education Act.
These policy shifts stem from struggles over social dominance among cultural and ethnic groups within the larger society. The ideology of cultural and linguistic assimilation and the relative power and status of speakers of different world languages among mainstream, immigrant and minority populations have spawned conflicting social and political agendas that play themselves out in the public schools. So, maybe Collier was not that far off?
•The goal is to prepare students to enter mainstream English classrooms (a transition usually completed within two or three years) by providing a portion of instruction in children's native language to help them keep up in school subjects, while they study English in programs designed for second-language learners.
•The bulk of federal Title VII grants must support this approach, requiring only that someamount of native language and culture be used.
•TBE refers to a range of approaches from stressing native-language development to nothing more than the translation services of bilingual aides.
•Studies have shown that English is the medium of instruction from 72 to 92 percent of the time in TBE programs.
•TBE is referred to as a compensatory model meaning it is compensating for students' needs or as subtractive bilingualism attempting to replace a child's native tongue with English as quickly as possible.
•TBE is associated with low level of proficiency in both languages and underachievement in school.
Maintenance or developmental bilingual education:
•The goal is to preserve and enhance students' skills in the mother tongue while they acquire a second language.
•Maintenance bilingual education is considered an enrichment model, adding to students' linguistic abilities or additive bilingualism, continuing the development in both languages.
My experience at Rhode Island College’s Promising Practices was so rewarding!
During the Morning Session, I attended a workshop on social justice that included two presentations.The first presentation was facilitated by Marcus McWilliams, a RIC graduate who teaches for English for Action.As explained by McWilliams, English for Action is an organization that focuses on the education of minority students who struggle in traditionalized schools.The program places a large emphasis on the perpetuation of social equity and justice through the examination of the Civil Rights.During the presentation, McWilliams highlighted the responsibility of teachers to differentiate between the traditional narrative and the historical narrative; thus, focusing on the Truths (stressing the capital “T”) of racism, prejudice, and the pursuit of collective righteousness.In order to reach the audience of pre-service and practicing educators, McWilliams challenged the attendees with an informal, multiple-choice assessment on civil rights with the hope of dispelling common misconceptions of our history.The following two questions resonated with me; thus, disputing my preconceived notions of the established historical accounts that is propagated in our schools’ textbooks.Prior to scrolling down, I ask that you reflect upon and formulate a response to the prompts.I provide my initial response and McWilliams’s elucidation.
1. Who was Rosa Parks?
My initial response:Rosa Parks was an African-American woman who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the city bus.
McWilliams’s elaboration:The arrest of Rosa Parks was not an isolated incident, but a strategic protest to racial segregation.After the arrest of Parks, the black people of Montgomery and sympathizers of other races organized and promoted a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days.
2.Where was the KKK the most influential during the Civil Rights Movement?
My initial response:Unsure of the correct answer, I assumed that the KKK was most active in the Southern states such as Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia.
Following McWilliams’s lecture, a second workshop continued the discussion of social justice.Entitled Slammin’ for Social Justice:Teachers and Students Talk Back, the seminar was lead by secondary teachers from Pilgrim High School, Bishop Connolly High School (my alma mater), and Resiliency Preparatory School, and focused on the art of slam poetry as a form of self-expression.The message of the second workshop lends a voice to McWilliams’s message—it was a wonderfully active tie-in!Each teacher read a poem that he or she composed in response to questions on social justice.One poem was comedic; one poem was dismal; one poem was uplifting.Nevertheless, I was most struck by a poem read by a junior at the Resiliency Preparatory School in Fall River, an alternative high school for students who are labeled as delinquents.Backed with a courage and maturity that was beyond his years, the student eloquently defined the term of resiliency.He proffered the message that he was judged, tried, and convicted by his peers, and subsequently felt like an outcast.His ruminations proved to be so touching…I become teary!It was his English teacher, Diane Long, who ‘saved’ this student and gave him a voice—a creative voice that is assertive and filled with self-conviction!It was a wonderful moment to witness!
So inspired by the message of social consciousness provided during the workshops of Promising Practices, I leave you with two writing prompts that may begin a dialogue with your students:“I once was…, now I am…” or “They say…, I say…” Usurp the traditional narrative and allow your students to explore.
On Saturday evening, I went to the play, Clybourne Park, at Trinity. It was AMAZING! It addresses racism, both implicit and explicit (a nice tie in to SED 552!). It is running until November 20. The play is a must see!
On my classroom door, I have a poster that contains a quote from Socrates that reads“Wisdom Begins in Wonder.”
Yet, are students asking “good” questions and really thinking?Are students being involved, inquistive, and engaged in learning?Unfortunately, the harsh reality is no!According to stastics gathered and presented by Wesch, “On average, our survey sample of 131 students reported reading less than half of the assigned readings, and further perceived only 26 percent of the readings to be relevant to their lives” (5).Why, you may ask?Well, Wesch asserts that the lack of student engagement is “the problem of significance itself” (5).If students do not see the relevance of the material presented in the class, they are not inclined to join in the didactic process.The lack of involvement leads to disillusionment in school, and the denial of learning or “the hallmark of humanity” (5).Wesch solidifies his allegation in the following video clip entitled, “A Vision of Students Today,
Furthermore, as teachers, we pride ourselves in being lifelong learners—curious and hungry for knowledge.Why do we not expect the same of our students?After all, “we are all cut out for learning.It is what makes us human” (5).Hitherto, driven by “adminstrative questions” (5) rather than inquiry-based investigation “education has become a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than an important and meaningful exploration of the world in which we live and co-create” (5).As an educator, I scoff at the idea that the profession that I have dedicated myself to is looked at as “a relatively meaningless game” by students.I do not place blame on the students, but echo Wesch, “[a]s teachers we have created and continue to maintain an education system” (5).So, how do we rectify the situation?
Wesch returns to “the problem of signficiance itself.”Education must MEAN something to the students!Thus, despite the brevity of the article, Wesch elucidates the concept of “anti-teaching” (5) – a learning environment in which “the students…[are] fully engaged, talking to one another, grappling with interesting questions, and exploring any and all resources to find answers, and more importantly, more questions” (6).Thus, the proliferation of asking “good” questions never ceases!The following video explains Project-Based Learning, another example that ties into Wesch’s goal to highlight the significance of a lesson to students.
As a novice teacher, I am tentative! I am having difficulty forseeing the implementation. Has anyone tried something similar in their classroom?Any advice on how to instruct such a subversive lesson that reaches the success level of Wesch? Please send along resources! Any feedback is welcome!
Here is the disconnect:
During the Morning Session, I attended a workshop on social justice that included two presentations. The first presentation was facilitated by Marcus McWilliams, a RIC graduate who teaches for English for Action. As explained by McWilliams, English for Action is an organization that focuses on the education of minority students who struggle in traditionalized schools. The program places a large emphasis on the perpetuation of social equity and justice through the examination of the Civil Rights. During the presentation, McWilliams highlighted the responsibility of teachers to differentiate between the traditional narrative and the historical narrative; thus, focusing on the Truths (stressing the capital “T”) of racism, prejudice, and the pursuit of collective righteousness. In order to reach the audience of pre-service and practicing educators, McWilliams challenged the attendees with an informal, multiple-choice assessment on civil rights with the hope of dispelling common misconceptions of our history. The following two questions resonated with me; thus, disputing my preconceived notions of the established historical accounts that is propagated in our schools’ textbooks. Prior to scrolling down, I ask that you reflect upon and formulate a response to the prompts. I provide my initial response and McWilliams’s elucidation.
