What Happened? The 6th grade class that I am placed in started a unit preparing them for the state standardized test today. Between periods, the main classroom teacher and the special ed teacher discussed at length the scores, progress, and IEPs in relation to the upcoming test. During this conversation they discussed methods of preparation to use depending on each individual students' needs. While the class will be taking the 6th grade level tests, the teachers decided to give some students in the class the preparation booklet for the 5th grade level test. These were students who the teachers indicated were struggling in class and were not on grade level based on pre-tests that they had administered recently. The next period, the teachers had me work through a a test-prep packet with a group of two students who were going to be given the 5th grade level packet (although the in-class assignment was at the 6th grade level). At the end of the assignment, the main classroom teacher handed out the packets and when John, one of the two students I was working with, recieved the packet clearly marked "5th Grade" he turned to the teacher and said "no offense, but ive already done this one before" to which the teacher responded "I guess then no offense, but you're going to get to read it again."

Sarah Moustafa

2/20/13

Reflective Writing 2

Critical Issues in Education

            In Ray McDermott and Hervé Varenne’s paper “Culture as Disability, the two authors discuss the concept of disability and how different cultures define ability and disability. This article focuses mainly on traits that are commonly regarded in society as being disabilities, such as trouble with reading or being deaf, but I have been considering whether being considered “able” can be a disability in and of itself. While this statement may seem like a privileged one to make, further explanation may shed light on my meaning.

            This idea was prompted by a conversation with one of my high school classmates in which we joked that not having to study throughout high school resulted in us being unprepared for college work. Reflecting on this further, however, makes me think that it is not simply a joke to excuse our procrastination. Because I never really had to study, I never learned how to study. Having the skills to succeed in the education system may be a privilege, but the lack of effort I had to put in to my schooling resulted in missing out on important skills and practices that could help me in the outside world.

Ava Cotlowitz

2/16/2013

Response Paper #2

            John Dewey’s publication Experience Education begins by framing how educational theory, in its most extreme terms, is an “opposition between the idea that education is development from within and that it is formation from without.”  As far as schools are concerned, this opposition “takes the form of contrast between traditional and progressive education” (Dewey, 5).  Within traditional education, a “pattern of organization” takes place that continuously transmits to new generations bodies of information and skills that have been worked out in the past.  On the other hand, progressive education is a more dynamic mode of learning, in which individualized experiences shape how one learns and grows through creative activity and democratic arrangements.  Dewey argues that the students who learn under these two types of education generally maintain different behaviors and attitudes.  Students who are educated traditionally may be more docile, receptive, and obedient, while students who are educated progressively may be more outspoken, creative, and autonomous.  Ultimately, these contrasting modes of learning rely heavily on difference of experience and how educative and miseducative experience can either foster or stunt growth of further experience.

Every year the students in Ms. Shomphe’s tenth grade English class read Night by Elie Wiesel.  And every year, this reading is prefaced with a lesson about how everyone has been affected by bullying at some point in their lives.  The point of this lesson is to relate the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust to something within the realm of the students’ experiences.  However, rather than opening the door to a new, more thorough understanding of the text, this lesson has the effect of unintentionally belittling and minimalizing the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust.

The summer following tenth grade I had the opportunity to visit the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland.  It was only there that I was able to begin to grasp the gravity of this tragedy.  Walking through the desolate camp, seeing the crematories, and the “beds” where the prisoners slept illustrated this in a way that a lesson on bullying never could.  Witnessing this first hand allowed me to understand the severity of the situation that Ms. Shomphe had attempted to convey.  However, not every student will have the opportunity to visit a concentration camp or even walk through a Holocaust museum.  How, then, should teachers wishing to incorporate students’ experiences into the classroom approach the teaching of human tragedies well outside the scope of their students’ experiences or even imaginations?

Reflection #2

Freire and Ebonics

Quela Jules

2/20/13

            Two friends came to me outraged last week about a heated discussion regarding the use of Ebonics in the classroom and whether or not it should be fostered, or tolerated in schools. A white male student blatantly said that Standard American English is the only acceptable form of English in the United States. I am not here to say whether I agree or disagree with his stance on the topic, but rather to provide a series of images related to it. What was difficult about hearing the man speak was not the words he was saying, but the position from which he spoke, he was white, privileged, and conservative, and one could infer that his main contact with African American Vernacular comes from Hip Hop, or the words that have somehow made their way into the vocabularies of the young white and privileged. He is speaking as someone who has only had to master one language his whole life and fully understands the privilege in that.

“In every society, there are ways of being locked out. Race, gender, or beauty can serve as the dividing point as easily as being sighted or blind. In every society, it takes many people--- both disablers and their disabled--- to get that job done” (McDermott, 4).

Ray McDermott’s article, “Culture as a Disability” emphasizes interesting and valid points that present society with an alternative meaning behind the word disabled. In various cultures, including American culture, disabled individuals are shunned from everyday interactions. At young ages, disabled people are segregated in educational systems, occupational settings, and home interactions.

“Common sense allows that persons unable to handle a difficult problem can be labeled "disabled" (McDermott, 1).

Many unknowing citizens confuse the term disability with the term inability. Because it may be a challenging task to teach or problem some concept to grasp does not mean there is an inability to learn. Withholding the perception that disabled people are not of value to society is not only negative but it is detrimental to the success of the disabled and the advancement of society as a whole. McDermott’s quote above expresses the limitations society presses upon its citizens and challenges us to fight the oppression in order to establish a free, safe, inclusive, and equal nation.

Allison Zacarias

Education 200

Professor Lesnick

February 20, 2013

Paper 2

The relationship between teaching and learning

 There needs to be a relationship between students and teachers in order for there to exist a correct form of teaching and learning. A person can be labeled as a teacher simply because they have received the training for it but it does not mean that they know or are able to teach and have their students learn. Teaching is a learning experience where different skills are gained through the formation of relationships with students and the ability to learn from them. Freire says the following, “Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning” (31). The way that relationships between students and teachers should form is through the acknowledgement that each person is an individual and should not be seen as a whole or as a generalized group. When teachers learn about and from their students they are able to realize that in order for the students to learn they need to teach their teachers about the way in which they learn.

In Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods, she explores how children grow up and are treated differently because of class, gender, and sometimes race. 

The middle class children all underwent concerted cultivation. Their language was nurtured by their parents. They were taught to shake hands, look people in the eye, and to expect others to bend to their way of thinking. Their parents were always involved in their packed lives, and often had to give up much of their own lives in order to fully cultivate them. Most of their lives were scheduled, and without organized activities, many of them felt lost.

The working class or poor children all were left to natural development. Vocal exchanges are always short and to the point, with little done to encourage the children’s growth in language. Many of them lived in places where they could not look people in the eye, and they were taught to respect what elders said. If a parent said, “Jump,” they are expected to reply with something along the lines of, “How high?”. For many of their parents, it is enough work to make sure they go to school, do homework, and have food in their bellies. Anything extra is extra work and hassle they do not want to deal with. They have much free time, and their creativity allows them to fill that time with games and activities they organize. 

Looking toward my Field Placement with an Eye on Lareau

Annette Lareau analyzes the role of social factors in a child’s upbringing, but the main focus is social class. The crux of her argument is that middle class children have more “cultural capital” as a result of their class and the concerted cultivation method of upbringing that Lareau asserts is a defining feature of a middle class upbringing. As I head into my field placement, I wonder how Lareau’s study will rear its head in my experiences and observations. How present will class distinctions be at the Smith High School? What role will race play and how will the uncertainties that come with the issue of race be addressed by the school? Using Lareau’s lens, how much cultural capital do I think these students are attaining--or not attaining?