John’s Blog

I’ve always said it’s not what you say, but how you say it.  A teacher could have the greatest lesson plan full of relevant content and ideas, however it could fail miserably depending on how the information is delivered and what activities are chosen to engage students with the material.  Really, engagement is key.  It’s just like how the teacher’s personality and passion for the material is what gets me interested, not the merely the material itself.  The activities we choose are crucial and we must offer a great variety of them as to never become repetative or boring.  Presentation is everything.  It’s just like how when we go to a gourmet restaurant, our appreciation for the food is hightened by its attractive appearance.

It is in this logic that I find the engagement activities we’ve studied this week to be so essential.  We must invite our students to think critically about our material and writing is not the only way to construct meaning; it can also be done visually.  For visual learners, diagraming such as mapping or clustering build up understanding in a way that writing cannot.  Such diagraming works in a very similar way compared to writing because writing is all about making connections between ideas and therefore developing meaning and diagraming is the exact same thing, just in a different form.  Drawing and illustrating are also useful activities because they allow a student to convey their feelings in a less structured, abstract way.  Drawing activities should be included in the cirriculum because they allow students a break from the sometimes difficult task of making specific connects between many related ideas.  It is a different way of achieving understanding and drawings can be compared so the class as a whole can gain an understanding of the variety of class perspectives. 

Chapter 10 really confirmed the feelings I have been developing about assessment.  Too often teachers design tests that intimidate students and do not add to the student’s knowledge in a constructive way.  As Daniels, Zemelman, and Steineke argue, tests should just be another part of the learning process, which help students further develop their thoughts and understanding of class concepts.  When possible, tests should be designed so that students can respond in their own unique way in order to display their understanding of the material.  Tests must not make students fearful, but confident that they’ve mastered the material.

 Tests must also be designed so that they only cover that material which was gone over and explained in class.  Teachers should accomodate students by letting them know what will be on the test and helping them prepare for how they can be most successful.  A great way to do this would be to give an example test/quiz at the beginning of the year, which will not be graded, but will allow students to get a feel for what to expect and for the teacher to explain what kinds of answers they expect.  This way there are no surprises.  There should never be anything tricky about tests.  After all, we want every student to succeed.

At the same time though, tests do need to be challenging and push students to reach their potential in the understanding of the material.  Therefore tests should have questions that are analytical in nature, allowing student to think critically about the material and apply it to broader concepts or ideas.  Student’s ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate material must be measured.  A written test taken in class isn’t the only way to do this however.  Teachers can give take-home tests, assign research papers, or assess learning through oral presentations.  The bottom line is there are many ways to assess learning besides a traditional timed test or quiz and teachers need to use a variety of assessments in order to accomodate all learners.

I’ve always believed that the ability to read is the foundation for all other learning.  It always seemed to me that the more one read and was exposed to language, the more they would think critically and independently.  Being exposed to and thinking critically about literature, be it textual, visual, auditory, or digital, is what exercises the mind and gives the thinker a foundation for further, more complicated thought.  Ultimately, exposure is what allows for higher level learning.

With that in mind, I believe that the techniques and strategies to aid struggling readers laid out by Daniels and Zemelman and the 50 strategies book are essential knowledge for all educators.  Teachers must be careful not to discount the central role that reading has on their students’ learning.  This is especially important for those educators who plan on working in high needs schools because students’ reading levels are often 5 grades lower than where they should be.  True, there are struggling readers everywhere, but the greatest concentration exists in the high needs schools, making these techniques invaluable to teachers in these environments. 

Teachers cannot expect a student to tackle problems or discuss ideas appropriately at their grade level unless their reading level is up to par, which means teachers must teach their content while using strategies that will allow for students to improve their reading skills.  I believe that is what this class is all about: the idea that students cannot learn without being literate in a variety of ways and that we as educators have a responsibility to focus not only on our content, but developing our students’ literacy.  One cannot happen without the other.  Learning cannot occur unless the learner’s mind is preapred to comprehend the questions it is being asked.  Literacy is our ability to comprehend. 

The amount of free resources available to teachers online is unbelievable.  The webquest activity introduced me to so many valuable websites that I will undoubtably utilize when seeking to incorporate multimedia and other outside information into lessons.  I never knew such sites existed that provided so much free support to teachers.  Poets.org contained a wide array of material that could be used within lessons and also a great deal of inspiration and ideas for lesson and unit plans.  I found myself reading many of the lesson plans and thinking of ways to revise and personalize them to fit my style of teaching.  I could see myself doing this as a teacher and the more resources you have available to you, the more creative you can be.  Knowing that all these resources exist gives teachers what they need to engage the students in the material instead of just lecturing in a way that encourages passive listening and memorization.  These internet resources include videos, pictures, audio files, podcasts, and other forms of interactive media that excite students and supplement texts which if overused can turn students off from the material.

Today’s teachers need to be more creative and more interactive, which is why resources like these are so valuable.  The promote innovative lessons and give ideas that encourage teachers to constantly reevaluate their cirriculum and add fresh new material to their existing lessons.  Teachers should never get too settled in their teaching style and always look for new ways to engage a class with non-textual material.  These internet resources are also great for students to utilize.  The Internet Public Library, for instance, is a great way for students to do research right from their computer and different sites can be recommended for students when they are doing a project on certain subjects.  Essentially, the internet provides teachers with a huge bank of information and resources they can draw from to spice up their lessons and present their material in an engaging manner.  These free resources should be taken advantage of whenever possible.   

I was truly amazed by the diversity and quality of the presentations during this year’s Four Freedom’s week. I’ve attended these conference events for the last three years now and I can say that this year was by far the best. It was my second time viewing the July 64′ video, but it shocked me just as much the second time as the first. I’ve always been amazed by how little has changed from racial issues in Rochester in the 1960′s to those of today. The only change is that more whites have fled from the city, making the black population even more isolated. Now drugs and gangs affect the lifestyle of urban residents, there are even less jobs, and the buildings are even more dilapidated. I found myself thinking about how ironic it was that the black uprising of July of 1964 did the opposite of what it intended to do. Instead of pulling people’s attention to the plight of the struggling black community and forcing them to realize and correct the injustices they were suffering, I feel that the riot only increased white people’s stereotypes and fear of blacks, causing them to flee to the suburbs and abandon these people in their poor condition. It’s unbelievable how a civilized society can ignore its history and turn it’s back to such a huge racial divide with the intention of living comfortably away from such unpleasentries. I find it sad that these issues are not taught in schools because current events are just as important as events that occurred in American history 250 years ago. How can we expect our children, tomorrow’s leaders, to work towards solving these problems if we pretend that the problem doesn’t exist or if we downplay it. The problem of the color-line is still the most pressing issue in America today and we must acknowledge it and take steps to remedy it.

As for the School Without Walls students’ utopian concepts, I really enjoyed viewing the murals, but I don’t think a lot of thought was put into creating a society that was truly functional. Most of them neglected crucial issues that need to be considered in any society such as, how is justice ensured and what kind of laws are necessary. It seemed as if most of the students just drew their fantasy world that consisted of only those few things that bring them enjoyment, but their did not seem to be much in depth thought about their society at a more functional level. I did like the mural of the two worlds, good and evil. There seemed to be some thought about how people would be disciplined for crimes and it even suggested some great philosophical theories that everyone consists of a balence between good and evil and that we are constantly drifting between both worlds.

The NY Times article I chose to read and reflect on is called “Bad Behavior is Not Dooming, Studies on Pupils Say.” It argues that new research is disproving beliefs long held by teachers and pyschologists that students who enter school with behavioral problems are doomed to academic failure. Two new studies show that this fear is exaggerated. The first concluded that kindergarteners who begin with disciplinary issues end up doing just as well as their peers academically. The second study demonstrated that students with attention deficit disorder only suffer from a delay in brain development, not from a flaw that prohibts them from learning. These findings could possibly change the way parents and teachers manage and discipline misbehaving children. Taking these finding into consideration, I believe I’ll have to be careful to pre-judge students who misbehave as less interested in academics. It is important not to let your assignment grading be influenced by the fustrations you may have with a student in the classroom. If a student behaves in a non-acceptable way, it is important to take the opportunity to work with the student and educate them about the affects of their behavior instead of instinctively lashing out at them or lowering their grade. Of course repeated unacceptable behavior with have to be met with some sort of punishment.

The New York times article I chose to read was titled “50 New York Schools Fail Under New Rating System.” It explains how this new system was developed to gauge student improvement and achievement across the city’s 1,400 schools. Every school assigned a letter grade, A-F, based on several factors. Fifty-five percent of the grade was based on the improvement of students on state standardized tests, thirty percent of the grade was based on student achievement on state tests, and fifteen percent was based on the school’s environment, which was measured by attendance statistics and parent, teacher, and student surveys. The results proved to be very controversial, as many schools that were typically thought of as higher performing where rated with B’s, C’s, and even D’s and F’s. It may be problematic to hold schools with consistent records of excellence to these standards because such a larger percentage of the grade is based on student improvement. If students are consistently performing excellently, the school’s grade is likely to be low. Some of those schools that were not as well regarded scored better than expected because they were smaller schools where individual students recieved more individual attention as opposed to larger, more reputable schools.

I think this system of rating is an excellent alternative to the No Child Left Behind guidelines that mainly emphasize student’s performance on standardized tests. Taking this alone into account does not paint a complete picture of the effectiveness of a school or of the knowledge students actually possess. All it really does is demonstrates how well students can take a test. This new model emphasizes overall student achievement and takes student and parent feedback into consideration to reflect the type of environment that exists at each school. The result of this revolutionary survey are statistics which give a more dynamic and wholistic view of the nation’s largest school system. I think it’s a great method that should be held up a step in the right direction away from the narrow-minded, black and white educational policies of the Bush Administration.

This type of information is absolutely necessary in order to fairly assess our schools and hold administrators and teachers accountable. Most important of the two are administrators, however, because they are being paid outrageous sums of money in order to ensure quality educational programs for all children and ultimately, the difference between a failing school and a school focused on achievement and excellence is largely dependent upon the administrators. It is their responsibility to develop ways to tackle the educational issues of their schools and guide teachers to ensure quality instruction. Sure, every school has different complex issues they need to tackle based on their student population, but it’s up to the administrators to develop plans to confront and handle these issues. The No Child Left Behind Act recognized this and sought to remedy it, however, it is a miserable failure because the criteria it takes into account to judge schools is not dynamic enough. This new system provides a new method for evaluating school’s achievement and progress. It is a better tool for us to ensure excellence in all the nation’s schools.

I found Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man to be a very satisfying read that gets right at the heart of what it means to teach.  McCourt does not sugarcoat anything, but presents his experiences as a teacher in a raw language and vivid dialogue that paints a very real picture about the struggles teachers are up against in the classroom.  McCourt also fuses his personal life with the classroom cirriculum in an attempt to make the material more real and to relate to his students that he’s a person too and the stuff learned in the classroom can be applied to real life. His stories about Ireland and working at the docks would keep students entertained and also help him develop a personal connection with the students, many of which know people who work at the docks. 

This reading made me think about how necessary it is to be personable as a teacher and let students get to know you as a human being, not just Mr. X.  This is necessary, because in order for your students to respect you and learn from you, they have to have the sense that they know you.  A teacher cannot just be one who fills a students head with knowledge, but instead a person that shares their passions and interest with the students However, one has to be careful not to cross any boundries and share personal stories to such an extreme degree that nothing productive is done in class.  This was an issue that McCourt had when an irrate mother approached him at an Open House parent night and accused him of only telling stories and not teaching her son enough content.  After this incident, McCourt decided to find a balance and use real life stories to teach effective lessons.

I found the podcast to be very good, because I am a big fan of Jonathon Kozol and firmly believe in his stance on the No Child Left Behind bill.  I agree that to have such rigorous testing standards only makes students learn for the sake of the test and ultimately creates unimaginative, passive learners that do not understand learning is for their own personal fulfillment and enrichment, but instead view education as a series of hoops one must jump through to get a degree, which will therefore increase the likelihood of making more money.  Also, as a teacher, I realize that I will not have complete inependence and autonomy in the classroom because NCLB basically says what I material I will have to cover in order to prepare my students for the text.  The example Brown gives about how students no longer desired to learn after taking the state test, demonstrates the students’ perception that learning is only for a test and material can be forgotten afterwards.

 The New York Times article I chose to read this week was titled, “In Some Schools, Ipods are Required Listening.”  It is about a the New Jersey’s Union City School district which plans to give out over 300 Ipods in some of Jersey’s poorest schools to help bilinguel students with limited English improve their language skills.  The plan is to let students sing along with popular song in English, which would allow them to learn English in a fun and unconconventional way.  I think this is a great way to utilize technology and believe it appeals to students in ways that other mediums cannot, mainly because they love Ipods and such an assignment would feel more like play than work.  Teachers need to take a hint from this article and think of other innovative ways that modern technology can be used to get students engaged in the materials.

So how can teachers spice up their classroom and really get their students to engage with the class material?  In Chapters 4 & 7, Daniels and Zemelman tell us that in order to “kick it up another notch, ” teachers must carefully pepper the cirriculum with a variety of material from assorted genres.  Teacher should try to include shorter reads when possible and give students choice over material rather than just assigning one strightforward assignment.  I really like both of these suggestions because I personally have found that I always leanr more from shorter, meaningful reads, than trying to get through an agonizing 500 pages of Charles Dickens.  When you have to read something long, the message is lost because it is such a burden to read.  If we want to encourage reading, it has to be enjoyable, meaningful, and written at a level where our students can understand it.  It makes no sense to try to teach struggling readers Moby Dick because it’s an American Classic.  If reading ability of a class is low, the teacher must utilize materials that are written for that level and still contain meaning.  One cannot give a struggling class a difficult read with the expectation that they will rise to the challenge and learn from it, what will really happen is their love for reading will be destroyed, they will hate you for giving them such difficult material, and they will learn nothing. 

 The notion of social support within a classroom is also extremely important.  Students without such an environment are proven to learn three times less and I’m assuming most will live out their lives with a negative view of school and education.  Those who do get social support, from their teachers and peers, are the ones who will succeed.  Therefore, an atmosphere where everyone feels supported is necessary and implies that cultivating an environment rich with student support is key.  To do this, I plan to be very personable with my students and to treat them not only as learners, but as individuals.  I will reach out to the students and attempt to know them in a deeper way than by their names and work.  If true connections are made between the teacher and students, the classroom environment will further develop into a place of social support.  If students have great teacher support, great students support will naturally follow.

The New York Times article I read this week was titled “Clinton raises $27 million in 3rd Quarter,” which took a look at how Senator Clinton topped all her democratic rivals to rake in the most donations.  This article is perosnally interesting because I’m an Obama supporter and am constantly checking to see how he is doing in respect to the other candidates.  But that aside, it’s an interesting article to read becasue it reveals several things about the innerworkings of our political system.  This article would be very valuable in a social studies or economics classroom to paint a clearer picture of how modern day politics are functioning.  I know that when I took these courses, outside material was never introduced and I was always stuck reading the textbook and not really grasping the material.  Articles like this could have given me insight into and interest in politics that a textbook could generate. 

Everytime I read a textbook, I can guarentee one thing: I don’t remember anything a week after reading.  As I think back to subjects where I did nothing but read the text and get tested like science, global and U.S. history, and economics, I can now say that I remember absolutely nothing about what I supposedly learned from those classes.  Daniels and Zemelman put it in best in Chapter six when they say, “to remember ideas, leaners must act upon them…You can have students move their noses above any number of pages, left to right, top to bottom, but that is neither teaching nor learning.”  This is exactly right because it was those subjects in high school that forced me to engage and act upon the material that actually taught me things I still remember.  English and Math for example both forced you to engage with the material.  Also, with these subjects, there was no textbook readings.  It was mainly demonstration/discussion and then practicing the strategies that went along with each discourse.  Such engagement is why I believe I still possess many of the skills and knowledge I learned in those classes many years ago. 

 I also heartily agree with Daniels and Zemelman’s argument in Chapter three that the authoritative tone imposed by textbooks kills students creativity and ability to engage with the subject matter.  I never considered this before, but it is obvious that students will take ownership over an idea and learn something when they have the opportunity to make that idea their own.  Working mainly from a textbook does not give students that opportunity and encourages disengagement with the material.  If we are going to foster our student’s natural creativity, we must pose controversial questions and give them a wide variety of supplimental readings to provide different perspectives on issues and spur original thoughts on the content.  Teaching textbook content alone is furthermore a bad idea because it doesn’t allow the students to stop and reflect on how the content relates to current events and things happening in their everyday lives.  Students will always continually ask, “How does this stuff relate to the real world?”  Effective educators must work to tie textbook content into contemporary articles and real life situations.

Looking at the New York Times article I chose for this week, titled “Indian Outsourcing Comes Full Circle,” I realize that this would be a fantastic supplimental material for an economics or U.S. government class.  This article discusses how American college graduates are turning down jobs from top American technology companies such as Google, and instead going to India for a training program which will prepare them to work for an Indian company in newly developed American back offices.  The bottom line is that India is now in a position to outsource outsourcing.  This current trend has a huge effect on the way we understand our ever expanding global marketplace and this article would be a great way to segway into a lesson on such topics.     

In an attempt to converge this weeks reading assignments into one coherant thought, I would say that literacy is all-encompassing and that every aspect of our life relates to our growing stock of knowledge that impacts our literacy.  As future teachers, we cannot limit our view of literacy to the comprehension of western cannon or how well our students can write; but, rather, literacy must be understood as being made up of all the social and cultural elements of a person’s life.  These elements all relate to literacy because they influence one’s ability to express themselves and interpret the world. 

The text titled Literacy and Education asks, “what if, instead of assuming that our students are not engaging with literacy outside of school, we bring our students’ literacy practices into the classroom?  What would happen then?”  It further goes on to give an example of how lyrics from an Eminem song, which is widely popular with adolescents but not considered to have any academic value, could be examined when discussing poetry.  The students become engaged in the material because them are already interested in it and they feel it relates to them as opposed to making sense out of a poem by Walt Whitman.  The question raised here is why don’t we consider pop culture and everything that would not qualify as hard academic material to be useless and disconnected from the classroom.  With this typical mentality, two worlds are created for students when they are really living within one.  A good teacher is one who merges the social and cultural elements of the students with the content of the class.

The other two articles, “Phonics, Whole Processes Determine Reading Speed” and “There’s Reading…and then There’s Reading” both advocate for a similar approach to encourage effective reading.  Multiple pedagogical strategies must be utilized to improve reading ability and comprehension.  One can best teach children to read by focusing on phonics, holistic word recognition, and whole language approaches.  There is not one method that works better over the others, but instread all three approaches combined leads to a deeper understanding of how to read, comprehend, and write.

For my New York Times article, I chose “An Indispensable Irritant to Iran and Its Foes.”  It’s an article which introduced me to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, who is the central person in nuclear negotiations between all countries.  Currently, he is working closely with Iran to ensure that their nuclear capabilities are being developed appropriately.  He is a very interesting middle man harboring an enormous amount of knowledge and power.  Reading and understanding this article in relation to the U.S.’s current situtation with Iran is important so that we develop a sense of the complex workings of government and the nature of the nuclear threat.  This is an article that could easily be linked and compared to piles of literature including works such as Frankenstein and 1984.