Wednesday, March 30, 2011
NCTE Series Response #1
The first few pages and chapters of the book have yet to offer us anything of real substance, but the writing assignment about Tan's "Five Writing Tips" is worth some attention. The authors explain that they gave their Advanced Placement and Creative Writing classes a final exam that required students to discuss Tan's "Five Writing Tips" and their own writing processes. Interesting to note that they never mentioned giving an exam focused on such a personal response to their regular English 10 or English 11 classes. How often do teachers give special privileges to advanced students? Where else do we see this outside of school? What do you think?
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I really cannot answer the question “How often do teachers give special privileges to advanced students?”, but I can say that I remember my one friend in high school who was in AP English doing outside the box activities in her classes where in my classes we were doing the same boring things preparing for whatever test or regents we had that year. I think that often advanced students are in advanced classes because they want to be, and this allows teachers to go straight for different activities without having to weed out the students that don’t want to participate. Either way, I think that reflecting on your writing process and being introduced to writing strategies can only positively affect students by making them aware of their planning, constructing, and communicating abilities and what they may need to work on. I think that out of school, often people who are literate in terms of Gee (not just being able to read and write) often get further because they are able to communicate and navigate within their domains. Tim, we discussed this in Collin’s class last semester-how being able to write and understand the skills that you have, can not only get you out of trouble, but help you get to where you want to be.
ReplyDeleteI think that special priveleges are constantly given to students in advanced English classes. The main reason I think that this occurs is because teachers expect more from them than the regular English student, which to me is quite absurd. Somehow, being in an advanced English classroom automatically equals better students who are willing to share their personal experiences as opposed to the regular English students who need "desperate help" to try to stay afloat. In my experience, advanced students are not always the best to have as students because some of them definitely have a somewhat condescending arrogance towards other students and they seem more about getting the right answer rather than working towards actually solving the problem. Also, I find some advanced English students to be a bit drab at times....
ReplyDeleteI have to get you the article we read in 517 about school systems. Believe it or not, many schools are designed to produce students of a certain type, and we constantly give privilege to students who are already experiencing success and achievement. I think we have to consider how much education this students actually need. Who needs effective educators the most? Students in AP classes in affluent districts, or students in the lowest performing districts? Why is that advanced students are the only ones that are given opportunities to think outside the box. While student teaching, I was given the chance to teach 2 sections of English 10; one was a regular Regents section, the other was English 10 Honors. I decided to have my students create video poems. Guess who was allowed to do the video and who wasn't? My CT felt that the regular English 10 class wouldn't be able to handle using video cameras. Instead of at least giving them a chance to try it, she just guessed that they couldn't do it. That assumption just drives me nuts. I mean, come on, at least give them a chance!
ReplyDeleteTim, I think that your CT thinking that English 10 students wouldn't be able to handle a video camera but AP English students would is absolutely absurd! I actually laughed when I read that because it just does not make sense! I think teachers like that who make an assumption and don't allow students the chance to prove them wrong, hinder the ability for these students to grow and develop. Ick.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of treatment of advanced classes, I think to some extent a lot of students in any advanced class get special privileges and the teachers tend to trust them more because they are in higher-level classes. The reason I took AP classes( I didn’t take AP English but senior year CIS) in high school was to get college credit, I enjoyed the classes don’t get me wrong but getting the college credit and passing the tests were the important part. In my high school, the 11th honors class is known to be one of the hardest and most challenging classes and I took it and with the teacher I had it was perhaps still of the most challenging classes I have encountered because the teacher was constantly pushing and arguing with us about our ideas and thoughts. The students in the AP English didn’t do anything exciting except and read and prepare for the AP exam. I think, in general, teachers will always consciously and subconsciously have their favorite students or classes but I think it is important to consider who is getting left out when this favoritism happens.
ReplyDeleteTim, that is a great point you bring up about the article from 517, since I have been subbing and form observations the idea of school as a factory and the kinds of functional literacy schools are producing is becoming more and more clear to me. In the high school I observed for the research class last semester I was in the library with the students and on one of the tables I saw “Top 500 Highest Paying Jobs without a College Education” on the table. Why would ANY school not promote education? I then think of the kind of classroom it was and the lack of student voice and I couldn’t help but feel sad and that these kids were getting the best that they could be getting.
Also, on a side note, I remember my honors and AP teachers always complaining about things that their ‘regular’ classes did and I guess I never thought too much of it because hey it wasn’t me so why should I worry but now thinking about it, it is very discerning that teachers would have such a negative viewpoint of ‘regular’ classes. I believe that students (for the most part) meet up to the standards that the teacher gives. If the teacher pushes students to think critically then students will arise to the challenge but if there is no push or encouragement, the students are doing what Fecho says, complying with their teacher.
Hi Guys,
ReplyDeleteHere is a long complied list of what we talked about at our meeting.
Narrative
Lesson Plan
30 Minutes
Human Connections
How are we connected by beliefs?
Lost of human connection through voice
Can there be invisible strength
What is the idea of voice ?
Voice of cultural identity
How do we have these human connections when cultures are different?
How do we connect through different connections
Human connections through adversity
Better life for daughters
Intepersonal
Connections between interpersonal relationships-why were they so disconnected?
How/Why do people form interpersonal relationships
How do we form interpersonal relationships/connections
How do our
List of connections-how do we form
Gender/Family connections/generational cross cultural
Voice/social/ discussion of word connection spiritual connection
Which connections are stronger then others-different degrees-
Play mahjong game
Main Points: Rosenblatt’s reader response, Gustavson, define connections differently
Three comparisons of personal, book and Langston Hughes
Connect on twitter-21st century connections social networking
Writing Prompt-Experience
Questions: Select a person that you have a strong emotional connection with and share an experience that you had with them? Did this experience strengthen or weaken your connection with this person?
Break into small groups-assign groups
Poem
Passage
Make own group story Synposis through main points of individual stories. 4 Sentence story-each sentence from each individual. 160 character story twitter
Langston Hughes poem Mother to Son
Playing roles the students understand.
Telling their own stories.
Issues of cultural identity
“They wanted us to have American circumstances and Chinese character”(2).
Find own voice
“She refuses what she calls the ‘burden’ of representing a particular culture and warns against ‘balkanizing literature’ “(17).
List of Poems:
The Pomegranate by Eavan Boland
The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove
Little Girl, My Stringbean by Linda Pastan
Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
The Writer by Richard Wilbur
A Prayer for My daughter by WB Yeats
Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden
My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke
A Story and The Gift by Li-Young Lee
Themes in the Story:
Good Intentions and Bad Luck
Obedience and Rebellion
Loss and Gain
Ignorance and Knowledge
Idea of a balance sheet
Dialectical Journal
Ecphrastic Response- Keats and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Song of Solomon
Interrupted Reading-break a passage up into parts-see individual language and how it relates to the bigger picture
Graphic organizers-Venn Diagram of two characters
Close Reading in Context (page 98-100 in JLC Book).
Opposite of Fate-Another book by Amy Tan
Group Presentations on individual characters or chapters
Mother’s Stories/Daughters’ Stories: Pairing
Traditional Chinese Poetry
The Mahjong Game
Connections to the Students’ Own Cultural Heritage
Gender Bias
Clips from the Movie-Not for high schoolers
Use clip for contextual analysis
Literary Criticism
The Ending?
Issues of identity –Assimilation
Concept of Intergenerational Differences-Texts for pairing
King Lear, Death of a Salesman, To Kill a Mockingbird
Small town American Experience w/Immigrant Experience-Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The House On Mango Street-similar structure of vignettes
Tan’s Mother Tongue as comparison for language
Lullaby Leslie Marmon Silko
How to Tame a Wild Tongue Gloria Anzaldua