Sunday, June 22, 2008
It's your blog
Friends. For Wednesday's class, finish Nieto and Bode's text and provide some of your thoughts on at least one take-away from the text--that is, what is something they have challenged you to try in the upcoming school year (could be curricular, could be methodological, could be philosophical, etc.) Give as much detail as possible, connecting the text to your plans.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Student Achievement
After reading Chapters 8 & 9 of Nieto/Bode, discuss one of the explanations of student failure (deficit theory, social reproduction, cultural incompatibility, cultural ecological theory, etc.) that stood out to you as a best argument for explaining students lack of success in school (and a 1000 point bonus if you can figure out which one I think explains it best :). Next, and more hopeful, describe one of the avenues that Nieto and Bode mention in either Chapter 8 or 9 that you think might best be traversed toward improving student achievement.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Structural factors in schools: Keeping "track"
As we move from race to class, we continue to examine how a structure of injustice forms. One of the ways to secure the structure is through particular practices in schools and in the educational process. For the most part, we (myself included) remain unconscious to the role we play within this structure. In our own process, then, of crafting new lenses and coming to a more critical consciousness, it will be important to explore some of the structural factors impinging on the lives of children in our schools in order to become the liberatory agents that Sleeter and others call for. One issue to take up is tracking.
In a previous edition to Affirming Diversity, Nieto outlined a rather famous study by John Goodlad and lamented, “Goodlad found that first- or second-grade children who are tracked by teacher’ judgments of reading and math ability or by testing are likely to remain in that track for the duration of their schooling. He also found that children of color and poor children in general are predominately at the lowest track levels and that they advance more slowly, develop problems of lower self-esteem, and have higher drop-out rates” (Nieto, 2ED., pg. 70). We might think also about Ray Rist's study in Chapter 4 regarding the kindergarten teacher who essentially had her children tracked by the 8th day of class.
My experience with tracking dates back to second grade. I transferred from a public school to a Catholic school and was placed in 2B (there was also a 2A and a 2C). I was placed in the middle track because they really weren't sure where to put me based on my public school experience. For whatever reason, my 2B teacher, Mrs. Berninger, saw fit that I should move to 3A the next year with two of my other 2B classmates. In the third grade, we could remain in 3A (and this went for all the students) if we could memorize our multiplication tables as quickly as our teacher, Mrs. Hood, thought necessary. Several kids did not make the cut and moved down to 3B. No one moved up from 3B, much less 3C. In fact, for the rest of my grade school experience, no one else ever moved up to the "A" track, solidified by how quickly one learned their multiplication tables (a very low-level of thinking ability, memorization, according to Bloom). This was an all-white, middle class school--students whose fate were sealed by perceived intelligence related to memorization. Now, enter Goodlad, Nieto, and Rist and factor in race and class. What we know is that some students are tracked by social factors, not silly little multiplication memorization--fates sealed at an early age based on the color of their skin or the neighborhood in which they grew up.
First, talk about your evolving understanding of the issue of tracking based on your reading of Chapter 5. While I advocated for the elimination of tracking at the school where I taught, based on a research study I completed which clearly demonstrated poorer students got tracked lower, my movement (not surprisingly) did not enjoy much support. Although I continue to work toward this from the outside looking in (at a structural level), I also believe there are more short term, individual, and pedagogical decisions that can be attended to given the inertia of this issue and the fact that it looks to be here to stay for a bit. In other words, since tracking is a current reality, and the revolution to eliminate it will be slow to come, what are some pedagogical decisions you can make as a teacher that may assuage some of the negative, long-term effects of tracking.
In a previous edition to Affirming Diversity, Nieto outlined a rather famous study by John Goodlad and lamented, “Goodlad found that first- or second-grade children who are tracked by teacher’ judgments of reading and math ability or by testing are likely to remain in that track for the duration of their schooling. He also found that children of color and poor children in general are predominately at the lowest track levels and that they advance more slowly, develop problems of lower self-esteem, and have higher drop-out rates” (Nieto, 2ED., pg. 70). We might think also about Ray Rist's study in Chapter 4 regarding the kindergarten teacher who essentially had her children tracked by the 8th day of class.
My experience with tracking dates back to second grade. I transferred from a public school to a Catholic school and was placed in 2B (there was also a 2A and a 2C). I was placed in the middle track because they really weren't sure where to put me based on my public school experience. For whatever reason, my 2B teacher, Mrs. Berninger, saw fit that I should move to 3A the next year with two of my other 2B classmates. In the third grade, we could remain in 3A (and this went for all the students) if we could memorize our multiplication tables as quickly as our teacher, Mrs. Hood, thought necessary. Several kids did not make the cut and moved down to 3B. No one moved up from 3B, much less 3C. In fact, for the rest of my grade school experience, no one else ever moved up to the "A" track, solidified by how quickly one learned their multiplication tables (a very low-level of thinking ability, memorization, according to Bloom). This was an all-white, middle class school--students whose fate were sealed by perceived intelligence related to memorization. Now, enter Goodlad, Nieto, and Rist and factor in race and class. What we know is that some students are tracked by social factors, not silly little multiplication memorization--fates sealed at an early age based on the color of their skin or the neighborhood in which they grew up.
First, talk about your evolving understanding of the issue of tracking based on your reading of Chapter 5. While I advocated for the elimination of tracking at the school where I taught, based on a research study I completed which clearly demonstrated poorer students got tracked lower, my movement (not surprisingly) did not enjoy much support. Although I continue to work toward this from the outside looking in (at a structural level), I also believe there are more short term, individual, and pedagogical decisions that can be attended to given the inertia of this issue and the fact that it looks to be here to stay for a bit. In other words, since tracking is a current reality, and the revolution to eliminate it will be slow to come, what are some pedagogical decisions you can make as a teacher that may assuage some of the negative, long-term effects of tracking.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Racism, Discrimination, and Expectations of Students' Achievement
For Monday, we're reading Chapter 4 of Nieto and Bode and Renner's chapter on the use of Cincinnati's Freedom Center for a more emancipatory praxis.
By Sunday, 6-15 at noon, please post a blog response to one of these readings. Responses should be 1-2 paragraphs in length and should (1) outline/summarize the point/issue that stood out to you, (2) talk about whether you agree, disagree, or might nuance the point/issue based on your experience or other readings, and (3) provide some follow-up questions for us to consider as a class.
Topics/points/issues you might tackle (but don't need to if other issues stick out):
By Sunday, 6-15 at noon, please post a blog response to one of these readings. Responses should be 1-2 paragraphs in length and should (1) outline/summarize the point/issue that stood out to you, (2) talk about whether you agree, disagree, or might nuance the point/issue based on your experience or other readings, and (3) provide some follow-up questions for us to consider as a class.
Topics/points/issues you might tackle (but don't need to if other issues stick out):
- how did you understand/experience Nieto and Bode's discussion of institutional vs. individual forms of racism and discrimination?
- how does your experience of racism and discrimination in schools connect with or differ from Nieto and Bode's?
- what kinds of service experiences have your students been involved with and how have they connected with or differed from my critical conceptualization of service learning?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Welcome summer 2008 class!
Please post below just to let me know that you were able to access the blog. See you Wednesday.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
community, praxis and courage
For our last post, I would like for you to discuss one element of what you read in either Chapter 11 or Renner and Brown's treatise on a hopeful curriculum. Explain first how you understand the element that stood out to you, then describe how it either (a) helps illuminate some of your experience at VOA or (b) how it may inform your classroom in the fall. You should also provide a second post, responding to one of your colleague's comments. So, two parts: (1) put yourself out there with a post of your own and (2) respond to one of your colleagues.
In sum, Chapter 11 of Nieto provides some nuggets of what we can do if we choose to take a multicultural approach in our classrooms. Examining the purpose of the chapter, Nieto offers, "[It] is based on the assumptions that teachers need to work together, as well as with students and their families to develop approaches that affirm their students and one another. It assumes as well that the ultimate responsibility for developing meaningful cooperative relationships rests with teachers, with the support of administrators" (p. 396). So, Nieto is telling us there is no need to take this all on ourselves; more than likely, we cannot. Instead, the key is building collaborative relationships and taking a problem-posing approach in the classroom that privileges process over product. Hopefully, you found one or two of the "What can you do?" boxes informative, suggesting possibilities for your own school/classroom. I also very much appreciate the way Nieto concludes, really letting us know the stakes: "Multicultural education is a moral and ethical issue. The current conditions in our world call for critical thinkers who can face and resolve complex issues--problems such as war, ethnic polarization, poverty, famine, contamination of our natural resources, and rampant racism--in senstive and ethical ways" (p. 418).
This concluding thought provides as good as any jumping off point to connect to our piece on a "hopeful curriculum." A couple of years ago, I was asked by The Journal of Curriculum Theorizing to offer a piece on what I saw as the future of cultural studies as it applied to pedagogy. Working with my friend and mentor, Milton Brown, we set out to theorize about what we had been doing together in practice in the classroom for a number of years. Beginning with the problem in mind, that of Globalization, we wanted to show that cultural studies and post-colonial theory really do have a place in thinking about more socially-just possibilities. In our own practice, then, borrowing from these theoretical traditions, we've always begun with a place of community. The injustice that is foisted upon us by such forces as corporate globalization is made easier and more intense because of the profound breakdown of community we see at all levels: in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in government, in our cities, in our nation, and in our world. Somehow, education needs to be wrested back to some fundamental foundation of learning how to live, love, and work together. We do this by expanding our lens on the world around us, deepening our consciousness such that we can read and interpret the texts around us more critically and operation in the world more authentically. As well, we need to begin to develop a language of hope and social justice, such that we are not attempting to "use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house." Finally, we need heavy doses of courage if we are to activate a more radical/revolutionary pedagogy that helps build the collaborative relationships (toward substantive and ameliorative change) to which Nieto refers. At the center of this struggle, though, we must find hope. Without it, the struggle ahead will seem to long and arduous. I can already tell you this class has provided me a great deal of hope. It's been one of the better teaching and learning experiences I've had at Bellarmine--and anyone who knows me knows I don't throw that around loosely. :)
In sum, Chapter 11 of Nieto provides some nuggets of what we can do if we choose to take a multicultural approach in our classrooms. Examining the purpose of the chapter, Nieto offers, "[It] is based on the assumptions that teachers need to work together, as well as with students and their families to develop approaches that affirm their students and one another. It assumes as well that the ultimate responsibility for developing meaningful cooperative relationships rests with teachers, with the support of administrators" (p. 396). So, Nieto is telling us there is no need to take this all on ourselves; more than likely, we cannot. Instead, the key is building collaborative relationships and taking a problem-posing approach in the classroom that privileges process over product. Hopefully, you found one or two of the "What can you do?" boxes informative, suggesting possibilities for your own school/classroom. I also very much appreciate the way Nieto concludes, really letting us know the stakes: "Multicultural education is a moral and ethical issue. The current conditions in our world call for critical thinkers who can face and resolve complex issues--problems such as war, ethnic polarization, poverty, famine, contamination of our natural resources, and rampant racism--in senstive and ethical ways" (p. 418).
This concluding thought provides as good as any jumping off point to connect to our piece on a "hopeful curriculum." A couple of years ago, I was asked by The Journal of Curriculum Theorizing to offer a piece on what I saw as the future of cultural studies as it applied to pedagogy. Working with my friend and mentor, Milton Brown, we set out to theorize about what we had been doing together in practice in the classroom for a number of years. Beginning with the problem in mind, that of Globalization, we wanted to show that cultural studies and post-colonial theory really do have a place in thinking about more socially-just possibilities. In our own practice, then, borrowing from these theoretical traditions, we've always begun with a place of community. The injustice that is foisted upon us by such forces as corporate globalization is made easier and more intense because of the profound breakdown of community we see at all levels: in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in government, in our cities, in our nation, and in our world. Somehow, education needs to be wrested back to some fundamental foundation of learning how to live, love, and work together. We do this by expanding our lens on the world around us, deepening our consciousness such that we can read and interpret the texts around us more critically and operation in the world more authentically. As well, we need to begin to develop a language of hope and social justice, such that we are not attempting to "use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house." Finally, we need heavy doses of courage if we are to activate a more radical/revolutionary pedagogy that helps build the collaborative relationships (toward substantive and ameliorative change) to which Nieto refers. At the center of this struggle, though, we must find hope. Without it, the struggle ahead will seem to long and arduous. I can already tell you this class has provided me a great deal of hope. It's been one of the better teaching and learning experiences I've had at Bellarmine--and anyone who knows me knows I don't throw that around loosely. :)
Monday, July 9, 2007
Life Skills; Self Care
The packet that Casey passed along to me related to Self Care had a couple of exercises in it and some advice on how to be aware of and release stress. A pretty basic guide for being alert to stress in one's life. Undoubtedly, being homeless is one of the more stressful situations anyone might face, so keeping folks focused on the signs of and how to relieve it might be beneficial.
One exercise the packet discusses is a breathing exercise. As well, the packet talks about the benefits of laughter and the (possible) consequences of chronic stress (e.g., depression, heart disease, obesity, ulcers, etc.)
It provides some short term ways to deal with stress: take a walk, take a breath, take a mental break, and/or reframe your situation
Longer term regular ways to deal with stress include: deep breathing exercises, positive self-talk, physical activity, writing/journaling, art, meditation, puzzles, music, and spending time with friends.
Pretty basic stuff, obviously. I'll make you a copy of the packet so you'll have it.
As I've already mentioned, I've really been impressed with the way you have engaged this class. What I have seen you do is come together as a community of colleagues, sensitively and respectfully engage the residents and staff at VOA toward developing a project that has everyone's blessing, critically wrestling with the readings and responding on the blog, and digging in to the work (cleaning, painting, etc.) when the time came. You have already begun to embody the real possibility of a more critical service learning and should be really happy with your work so far.
One exercise the packet discusses is a breathing exercise. As well, the packet talks about the benefits of laughter and the (possible) consequences of chronic stress (e.g., depression, heart disease, obesity, ulcers, etc.)
It provides some short term ways to deal with stress: take a walk, take a breath, take a mental break, and/or reframe your situation
Longer term regular ways to deal with stress include: deep breathing exercises, positive self-talk, physical activity, writing/journaling, art, meditation, puzzles, music, and spending time with friends.
Pretty basic stuff, obviously. I'll make you a copy of the packet so you'll have it.
As I've already mentioned, I've really been impressed with the way you have engaged this class. What I have seen you do is come together as a community of colleagues, sensitively and respectfully engage the residents and staff at VOA toward developing a project that has everyone's blessing, critically wrestling with the readings and responding on the blog, and digging in to the work (cleaning, painting, etc.) when the time came. You have already begun to embody the real possibility of a more critical service learning and should be really happy with your work so far.
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