Sunday, March 30, 2014

Literacy with an attitude!

Connections Post

"Literacy With an Attitude" - Finn

This was such a long reading. It took me all day because I kept taking breaks (I can't focus, so I guess that's why too). ANYWAYS, as I was reading I noticed that this post had many connections to previous authors that we have read. In addition, I was connecting bits and pieces to my service learning too. So, it was only right to do a connections post... right?

As most have realized, Finn's biggest connection was to Delpit. When you first began reading his text, he said "But, in fact I was schooling these children, not to take charge of their lives, but to take orders" and "I had work assignments on the board when the students entered the classroom, and so there wasn't a moment when they didn't have anything to do. I didn't say to an errant student, "What are you doing?" I said, "Stop that and get to work." No discussion. No openings for an argument" (4). In both parts, Finn emphasizes the importance of "taking orders" and how important it is to say the word. He says something that Delpit wouldn't want you to say and then corrects it with something she would want you to say. He then goes on to say how great of a teacher he is, so apparently by teaching the same way Delpit would teach, that helps you gain control of your classroom. Another Delpit moment was what Anyon saw in a fifth grade classroom. He said, "the working-class children were learning to follow directions and do mechanical, low-paying work, but at the same time they were learning to resist authority in ways sanctioned by their community. The middle-class children were learning to follow orders and do the mental work that keeps society producing and running smoothly" and "Like the children 
in working-class schools, children in the middle-class school were 
schooled to take orders" (20). Once more, this shows the importance of following directions and following orders. Without this, society wouldn't be able to "run smoothly". 

When Anyon teacher went to go observe the five elementary school classrooms, one part stuck out to me and reminded me of my service learning. He said, "children were required to plan lessons and teach them to the 
class. Among other things, they were evaluated on how well they 
kept control of the class." Recently, my teacher was telling me that they had a faculty meeting and they were going to try something new out. She said that they have to have the children be the teachers and take over the classroom. She wasn't too fond of the idea and didn't think it would go too well, but since it was the new rules, she had to go along with it. Luckily for me, I was there to witness it the first time they did it. Of course my teacher started them off. She did this thing where she would start reading a story, and she would tap on someone's shoulder. Once you have been tapped, you have to start reading out loud WITH who ever else is reading. By the time everyone's shoulder was tapped, the room was loud with voices all reading the same story. It was a good way to teach fluency and they all had to practice not reading too fast or too slow. Once the story was finished, a child had to lead class discussion. They were really nervous and confused. They weren't used to having this power and they kept raising their hands when they didn't have to. On Tuesday, they have to make up their own lesson (like Anyon witnessed) and teach the class. I'm excited and scared to see how this goes...

In multiple parts of this weeks reading, I noticed things that related to the article we read by Bob Herbert. At one point in the text, it says “those at the top have gotten a whole lot richer. Those in the middle are in about the same place economically, and those at the bottom have gotten a whole lot poorer. The question is, do the children of the elite and the middle class and the working class still attend schools like those Anyon described. The answer is, you bet!” (22).  And then Finn says, “when I suggest to my hard-bitten students that poor children are not being as well educated as they could be, they are not amused. They take it as a personal attack from someone who has been living in an ivory tower for the last thirty years, and they resent it-a lot” (8). I couldn't stop thinking of Herbert's article. The schools that are poverty schools usually consist of black and Hispanic children, that's just the way it goes. It's due to the area that they live in, it's not saying that these children are the reason why it's a poverty-written school. But since teachers tend to "avoid such schools", according to Herbert, then they are not getting the best education. So what Finn says is that they're not being as well educated as they could be. I believe that Herbert's article went hand-in-hand with what Finn said. It still breaks my heart that this is the way things are, but hopefully one day we'll be able to change it. If you read this article, you can see that social class doesn't only affect you in elementary school, yet it can affect you in college as well. I thought it fit well :)

My last connection to this piece is relating to what Viv said in class one day. This isn't really a big connection, but it was on page 23 when a student was writing about this new high school in Amherst, New Hampshire. He said, "For example, students had their own smoking section, they called their teachers by their first name, there were no honor level classes, and a lot of material 
taught (from science to English) was done through projects involving the kids to the greatest extent." It reminded me of Viv's service learning in The Met because she mentioned before that the students call their teachers by their first names and she talked about how they learned in different ways and did all of these different projects. 

Even though this week's reading was extremely long, I learned many things from it and was able to connect it to many different things. Not only was I able to connect it to different authors, but I also connected it to my service learning and Viv's. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Brown Vs. Board of Education... CONNECTIONS BLOG

Brown vs Board of Education
Between Barack and a Bad Place - Wise
Separate and Unequal - Bob Herbert

Connections Piece

Last semester, I took a political science class and we briefly went over the "Brown vs Board of Education" act from 1954. Other than that, every thing that I read for this weeks blog - between this webpage, the interview, and the article - was completely new information. Even though they were from different types of media and not by the same person, one could clearly see the connections within them.

The Brown vs Board of Education act was a very huge part in our segregation history. It was a big turning point and was when the "court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land." Countless hours were put in by many different people in order for this law/act to be passed. This shows how compassionate people were about this issue. Although it took quite some time, it made a big difference. 

As I was listening to the interview with Wise, I couldn't help but notice how relative his points were to the issue of racism. A few quotes really caught my attention. Wise constantly brings up Obama and says that racism still exists even though some people think otherwise. At one point, he says "where in order to be a successful person of color, you have to bring it the way Obama brings it" and you "have to be truly exceptionable". This is the sad truth. It's a big change that we have a president that is a person of color and it's a very good thing. Barack Obama is our very first colored person. But then again, he also has had many years of education and many degrees. For example, Obama went to four different
colleges/universities while Bill Clinton only attended two colleges/universities. As you can see, Obama worked harder in order to have his position. If two people were running for president with the same degrees and same amount of years in college, yet one person was white and the other was black, who do you think would be chosen? Do you believe our societies no longer racist, and that they would have an equal opportunity? Probably not. Nearing the end of the interview, they said that "all [of] these events are moving us in the right direction even though it's taking quite a few decades". Yes, we have come a very long way and I think that we could only improve. I don't believe that the issue of racism is gone, but I think we have made many changes and we're doing a lot better than we were fifty years ago.

Just to add to my mind blowing readings/interviews about racism, I read the New York Times article by Bob Herbert. I couldn't help but notice how much this article reminded me of not only Wise's point and the Brown vs Board of Education, but it also reminded me of my serving learning. Herbert says that "educators know that it is very difficult to get consistently good results in schools characterized by high concentrations of poverty. The best teachers tend to avoid such schools" and within these schools, "many black and Hispanic children are enrolled". As one can see, it's not technically the race that causes these schools so have bad grades or education, yet it's the area that they reside in. It just so happens that these certain races are located in these bad areas which is why people relate the two. I find this to be completely a shame because no matter where you live, everyone should be able to get equal education (once again relating to the Brown vs Board of Education). It's especially awful when teachers avoid such schools because it's like they don't care. If they don't care, then the children won't care, and if no one cares then of course that's why these bad grades occur... "If you really want to improve the education of poor children, you have to get them away from learning environments that are smothered by poverty. This is being done in some
places, with impressive results" Herbert states, which is very interesting. As we complete our service learning, most of us have schools which reside in Providence with most of our students being of different races (mostly African American and Hispanic), once again relating both low-poverty with such races. I wonder if we had better schooling systems in Providence if the grades would improve. I know for a fact that my classroom has very lowing testing scores. My teacher was very disheartened because she knows they could get higher scores if they really tried and wanted to. A majority of the children scored below proficient, few very scored above. I'm not even sure if what I'm saying is making sense to what you guys are reading, but I just think that this is crazy. Why do children from a Providence elementary school score lower than students that go to school in a Cranston elementary school? It's not equal and/or fair for these children. If you look at the NECAP Scores for Providence schools, you can clearly see how much of a difference their scores are from an elementary school in Cranston schools (I picked two random schools just to show you).

I really believe that I could relate this last article from the New York Times to our blog post from last week with Westheimer and Kahne. The main point from last weeks blog was the difference between Charity and Change. I still firmly believe that we are in between charity and change. At first it was a charity when we started serving learning, but I think this is a stepping stone towards change. Once we become teachers, we will make a change in these children's lives. I know it. Especially with everything that we know now. Like Wise said, "it's a start, but we have a lot more to do". It's up to us to be the change that we want to see. We are the future and we will make a difference. We have come a long way and if we really want to further the extinction of racism, it's up to us to do so. Racism still does exist, and one can clearly see that by this weeks blog post. We are moving in the right direction and no matter how long it takes we will make sure it will no longer exist. 

We have just seen many different instances of how racism still exists even though we have come a long way. I saw this video on YouTube a few weeks ago from 2009 on another way of racism still existing. Look how awful this was (thankfully it was only an experiment):
Like I said a million times before, we have come a long way with the topic of racism; but it's not gone, it's still existent.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

In the service of what? ARGUMENT.

"In the Service of What?" Kahne and Westheimer


The authors Kahne and Westheimer argues the true meaning of service learning. At least, that's what I got from this topic... In many different points throughout the text, they say that when you do service learning - you're either doing it as a charity type of event or you're doing it as a type of "changing" event. Yet, in most cases, it does have to do with charity.

I guess in most ways, I would agree with both Kahne and Westheimer. Over the years, I have done many hours of volunteer work and student teaching. At first, I used to do it because it was required for my school. When I was in tenth grade, I would have never thought of randomly volunteering somewhere to "make a change", I was too lazy for that and didn't really think too much about it. It was a graduation requirement for school and I knew I had to get it done. After going to two different places, I already met my required amount of volunteer hours and I had not even completed my tenth grade school year. That's where I differ with Kahne and Westheimer's argument. Yes, I agree that "volunteer activities in either their school or community [is] a [requirement to] graduation from high school" (page 5), but some people, like myself, go above and beyond. I continuously volunteered for a variety of events. Of course, most of them had to do with working with children because being a teacher is my long-term goal in life. I volunteered at the East Providence Prevention Coalition for three years in a row to do activities based on Easter themed ideas, I volunteered two years in a row for the Autism Project, I volunteered at an elementary school to help the children do a play, and I did many more different places. Our required amount of volunteer hours had to be 15 hours, but by the time I walked across the stage to graduate from high school, I completed a total of 60 hours. So yes, in a way, I do believe that it is a charity thing to do service learning and most of the time it is required by schools, but sometimes people do it for other reasons. In addition, I interned at a preschool for three years, interned at a inclusive kindergarten classroom at the Trudeau Center, and I also interned at a 1st grade classroom at an elementary school. By doing all of these child-based volunteer hours, as well as all of my internships, I believe that has set a really good foundation for me becoming a teacher. Lastly, as Kahne and Westheimer said on page four, "much of the current discussion regarding service learning emphasizes charity. not change." I believe that service learning does emphasize change. All of us in FNED 346 are doing service learning because its a requirement, but we are going to be teachers and we will make a change. This is one step that is helping us and molding us into become great teachers. We're the future and we will make changes, and it all starts with service learning. 

Considering I was talking about the Autism Project, I was just scrolling through YouTube and found this video. I thought you guys would enjoy it, it's so cute!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

I'm pretty sure my childhood is ruined...

"Unlearning the Myths that bind us" -Christensen


When I first began reading "Unlearning the Myths that bind us" by Linda Christensen, I thought it was super boring. Then I realized it was just the introduction to the article, and I started to really enjoy reading it. This article focuses on how my childhood was nothing but a lie that shaped me into becoming the person that I am today... Within each cartoon, there underlies many hidden messages that are not known right away but if you dig really deep into it-you see how awful these cartoons are. 

The first article that I read was similar to some of the examples that Linda Christensen had from her students… It was analyzing very popular children’s cartoons and showing you the hidden message that lies within.

CRACKED” talks about six cartoons in particular (three of them which I have never heard of, but needless to say I didn’t watch television a lot when I was younger). The three I heard of were probably watched by my fellow classmates. These cartoons include Dora the Explorer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Doug. Within this article, it says how Dora the Explorer does indeed feature a bilingual child. Yet, it promotes the idea of talking to strangers or asking strangers for help. I have never really thought of it this way. Throughout every episode, she always used to ask me (the viewer) where she should go next or what she should do. Regardless, she never did what I said, but she was still looking to me for help. In a weird way, it kind of promotes children to talk to strangers which is the complete opposite of what we should do. I don’t want to ruin the entire article, so feel free to read about the other cartoons that are telling young children bad messages. :)

The second article I was reading was called “Effects of Cartoons on Children”. The first two sections of this article were relative to the article we had to read for this week’s blog post. When I was reading Christensen’s article, it kept mentioning how cartoons are bad and how they teach us things at a young age. When I was reading this article, it talks about how watching television affects young children. C.J. Choma, the person who wrote “Effects of Cartoons on Children” made many valid points. He said that watching television “has become a problem because too many children are watching too much television and the shows that they are watching (even if they are cartoons) have become violent and addictive.  The marketing of cartoons has become overpowering in the United States and so has the subliminal messaging […] Children watch the cartoons on the television and they see material that is not appropriate for their age group”. I thought this was really interesting because it says that cartoons (or T.V. in general) have such a great influence on children that it’s making them become violent. If this is true, and what Christensen said about all of these other bad topics that are in cartoons, what is this doing to children? It obviously is harming them since it persuades them into thinking one way or another. It’s remarkable.

The last article I read talks about Disney itself. It was called the “Top 10 Ways Disney Corrupts Children”. Some of the things that this article includes is the way that Disney promotes being small or a “size 0” which was also mentioned in Christensen’s article. The importance of social class was also included, showing Cinderella. Once again, this was in Christensen’s article. Children and their parents may think of it as a fairytale or just another “princess movie” but in reality it shows how marrying a wealthy man made her escape her bad life and make her happy. Since when is life about being happy because you have money? If you want to see more ways of how Disney corrupts your life, I would suggest looking at the other 8 ways :)

All in all, I'm pretty upset. This weeks blog really affects me and my former love for Disney.