Alfie Kohn

The Trouble with Rubrics

“[Rubrics] do nothing to address the terrible reality of students who have been led to focus on getting A’s rather than on making sense of ideas”(1).

According to Kohn rubrics justify and legitimize grades, while narrowing judgment criteria of student work.  Rubrics are a means to assign a grade as determined by how the student’s work compares to guidelines.

“Studies have shown that too much attention to the quality of one’s performance is associated with more superficial thinking, less interest in whatever one is doing, less perseverance in the face of failure, and a tendency to attribute outcome to innate ability and other factors thought to be beyond one’s control.”

Superficial thinking: Students focus on doing what the teacher wants, rather than thinking about the subject at hand.  I have seen students go through more trouble to search and copy an answer from the internet, than was needed to come up with an answer on their own.  They are often driven by the desire to get it “right.”  They avoid taking risks because the “is this what the teacher is looking for?” concerns hinder creativity and individual expression.  They are working for the teacher, looking to give us what we are looking for, rather than what they have.

Less interest in what they are doing:  The significance problem.  The significance many students find in school is grades.   Grades determine success in schools.  Passing classes, achieving proficiency, graduating, earning honors and scholarships, even eligibility for sports and activities are directly connected to grades, so students find significance in this number.  If only students asked meaningful questions about what we are studying as frequently as they ask what their grade is. “Students whose attention is relentlessly focused on how well they are doing often become less engaged in what they are doing” (3). 

Less perseverance in the face of failure and a tendency to attribute outcome to innate ability and other factors thought to be beyond one’s control: Grades label students as successful or failures, and make them feel as if they belong to one of these groups.   I think of Issac licking the spoons and throwing the blocks here.  When we narrow criteria and label students with F’s we are setting standards that appear to be beyond their reach.  Too often students become discouraged and less willing to try when their efforts are not valued by the grader.

In his last paragraph Kohn challenges us to consider the reasons we went into teaching and design assessments that reflects these goals.    “Neither we nor our assessment strategies can be simultaneously devoted to helping all students improve and sorting them into winners and losers”(4).  Maja Wilson, author of Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Instruction links the creation of rubrics to helping universities sort those prospective students into the “good ones” and the “bad ones.”  She refers to rubrics as templates that we try to fit student work into.   

Schools today have created a culture where the discovery, exploration and connections are funneled through testing and labeled with grade.  When rubrics, or grades are used to measure how well a student’s performance meets a set of prescribed standards, those who don’t fit the mold are sorted into the “loser category”.   Instead of allowing students to construct meaning themselves, we design the house and hand over the blueprint to follow.  Why don’t we provide them with the foundation and see what they can build.

What He Is, Not What He Isn't

Christopher Kliewer's "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome"

"...actual educational arenas where all students are welcomed, no voice is silenced, and children come to realize their own self-worth through the unconditional acceptance." 

 "All students" means all students; those who look different, who learn differently, who communicate differently, who behave differently.  Education is not a privilege; it is a right afforded to all children.  Week after week I find myself noting in the margin of each reading: is this just good teaching?  I've come to realize the answer is yes.  However, education is often organized so these "good teaching" methods are geared mostly to dominant culture.  "Society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines" limiting diversity and maintaining the status quo.  In Shayne Robbins's description of three students in her class with down syndrome, she said, "it would be hard to say ,'This is how you should teach kids with down syndrome. They are not at all alike" (85). My response: What group of kids is alike? What group has a definitive way they should be taught?  They are all individuals. 

"no voice is silenced" 
 I am reminded of Delpit’s "people are experts on their own lives." Shayne Robbins was ability to create a community experience and in essence a voice, for Anne and Isaac "beginning with the simple act of listening" (78).  Anne and Isaac had something to say, but unfortunately, like many other students who don't fit the "rigid, linear" expectations, people didn't hear them.  Hearing these students allowed Shayne to create better opportunities for them to find their voice and participate in the community.

"Children come to realize their own self-worth through the unconditional acceptance."
Think of the significance problem that existed for John in North Hollywood. Once he was "'accepted for what he is, not what he isn't" he was able to focus on "what he can do, instead of being told what he can’t do."

My father's cousin has down syndrome.  When he was young, his parents were told his future was dim.  His parents refused to accept this.  When schools seemed to have the same expectations, his parents found after school programs that allowed him to interact and learn with other students.  He celebrated his 50th birthday last year.  He is a manager for a family business and is one of the most caring individuals I have ever met.  Thankfully, his parents didn't accept the prognosis of those who could not see "past his chromosomal anomaly to his humanity" (86).


School Success VS Community Success...In this corner School Success weighing in at "test scores and AYP status" and in this corner Community success weighing in at "problem solving, self-worth, and relationship building."

"...reliance on a narrow interpretation of mathematical and linguistic characteristics when defining school citizenship in no way captures the multiplicity of knowledges valued in a wider community."

Gardner poses that schools must realign their values to more closely match those needed to participate in society.  Current models of education base intelligence and success on those who can pass the tests,  not necessarily those who have the capacity to think critically and solve  problems.  hmm...too much weight placed on test scores?

Reconceptualizing
 Vygotsky's suggest the "idea of defect emerges from culturally devalued sets of the relationships that a child has with his or her surroundings" (82).  If a student constructs relationships with his or her surroundings in a manner that does not match the accepted norm, the defect label comes out.   The defect label often leads to isolated environments which encumber the development of higher functions. "...Altering the culture of disability requires that a child be recognized as an active learner, thinker, and problem solver, but this cannot occur apart from relationships that allow for such engagement" (83).

Language and Power

Excerpts fromTongue Tied by Richard Rodriguez and Virginia Collier

Virginia Collier's emphasis on the importance of balancing respecting and affirming home culture and language with teaching Standard English echoes Delpit. “ I suggest tht students must be taught the codes they need to participate fully in the mainstream of American life…while also being helped to acknowledge their own “expertness...” (Delpit 45).  "Aria" exemplifies the idea.  Rodriquez stresses the “necessity of assimilation” while showing the detriment of devaluing his native language.  “…While one suffers diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality”(39).  Standard English is a tool- it allows participation in the culture of power, but it should not be used to replace a student’s first language or dialect. 

Spanish was not valued or affirmed in school for Rodriguez “I would have been happy about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds” (38).  Rodriguez had to give up one language for the other.  Collier not only warns us of the dangers of this, but provides guidelines to overt putting students in the same situation that Rodriguez was in.

What Can We Do…

“However idyllic the original vision of teaching may be, the reality is that in the complicated
school world of proposals and government superplans there are things that can be done” (223). 

Teachers have a lot working against them.  In every issue we have discussed in class this struggle has been embedded in the solutions.  We often feel powerless and unsupported.  Collier acknowledges the obstacles and reminds teachers that “[we] have the chance to interact daily with live, growing, thinking, maturing human beings, and the time is special, despite the complications of managing a bureaucratized, overcrowded classroom of overtested, underchallenged students” (22).  Collier suggests teaching English-language learners following the stated guidelines can “eliminate boredom, raise awareness, and make language teaching as well as learning as culturally relevant as possible for students…enrich[ing] the life of the student, but also that of the teacher” (235). 

Keeping It Real: Code Switching

Code switching is not restricted to ELL.  People use different languages for different purposes and in different situations.  The cultural straddlers in Keeping It Real  “subscribed to formulas of success determined by dominant or elite groups…[while also] leaning on [black cultural capital] to procure legitimacy among their racial peers, to signal their own allegiance to their backgrounds and heritages…” (Carter 63).     Carter explains, as Delpit did, that different vernaculars are part of one’s cultural identity.   The same principles apply when switching between different languages. 

This video connects code switching to many of the things we have discussed in class: advantages of participating in the culture of power, cultural identity, and maintenance of the status.

Promising Practices

The workshop I attended, “Readers Who Shop 'til They Drop” was geared  towards elementary school teachers, but in the discussion of how to set-up your first and second grade classroom libraries a few connections to secondary education were made.  The workshop focused on helping students choose the right books.  It emphasized the idea that in order to get students to grow as readers, they must read the right books. .

 Books that are too easy will ensure readers stay stuck in their reading level.  Books that are too difficult will cause frustration and create disdain towards reading.  Interest level is also important to entice students to want to read.  Applying this knowledge to classroom libraries and teaching students to select texts that are “just right” for their individual needs can develop life-long readers.   By the time students get to high school they have usually decided how they feel about reading--but it is not too late to change their minds.

Book choice is still very important in the upper grades.  A reluctant reader is not going to make it through a book that is too difficult or one that they have no interest in.  In these second grade classrooms displayed books grab readers’ attention.  In high school classrooms this could work too, but actually placing a book in a student’s hands might be more effective for the student who has already written off books.  Peer recommendations also work well.  Setting up a time during your class or designating a place where students can review and recommend books to other students will convince some students to give a book a try. 

I always recommend books for the students sitting who have SSR in my room, but if I reorganze my library so it is easier to find a book of interest,  and display different titles students in my other classes might be more apt to pick one up.  Anything thing that increasses students' interested in reading is worth the effort.

Teen Empowerment

 The teen empowerment presentation reinforced many of the ideas we have discussed in class.  The group made an important point: there is a connection between feeling powerless and the increased risk of engaging in dysfunctional behavior.   One of the student speakers, Jamal, said, “[If you feel powerless] you are going to do what you need to do to get power,” even if those things are dangerous, illegal or self-destructive.   This reminds me, as many of the readings have, we have to look at why students are behaving the way they are.  If we understand where they are coming from, and what they are working against, we can begin to make a difference for that student.

More from teen empowerment:

Meyer: Gendered Harassment

How far have we come?

The Help by, Kathryn Stocket is a story about extraordinary women in the 1960s South who come together and risk everything to partake in a secret writing project  that opposes society’s rules and social norms.

Charlotte Phelan: I read the other day about how some girls get un...unbalanced. Start thinking these... unnatural thoughts. Are you..? Do you uh...find men attractive? Are you havin' unnatural thoughts about girls or women?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Oh, my God!
Charlotte Phelan: Because this article says there's a cure. A special root tea!
[angry Skeeter gets and walks away]

 More importantly, where are we going?

The chart  Meyer refers to on page 6 summarizes the formula of external influences merging with internal influences to output a reaction. 

Meyer says identifying the barriers from teachers' perspectives is important so more effective intervention programs can be put in place to support teachers' efforts.  But are those policies only as effective as the culture of the school and community?  "The social norms do not emerge in a vacuum, but are often a reflection of the community...Teachers are more inclined to act in ways that reflected shared norms and values of other teachers than in ways defined in school policy" (15-16).

 Don't Ask Don't Tell was only recently repealed. Gay marriage is not legal in the majority of states.  We are living in a world where many people do not recognize homosexual relationships as deserving of the same rights as heterosexual relationships.  Teachers who are trying to oppose gendered harassment are fighting prevalent external forces.  What message are children getting when prior to September a man in the military couldn't identity himself as a homosexual without punishment?  Some barriers Meyer mentions include the inconsistency of all teachers to address these issues, the lack of support from administration, and community values.  In a country a where potential presidential candidate avows, "We believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage, and I applaud those legislators in New Hampshire who are working to defend marriage as an institution between one man and one woman, realizing that children need to be raised in a loving home by a mother and a father,"   we must recognize we will not always be supported in our efforts.  "...studies have shown that sexual and homophobic harassment are accepted parts of school culture where faculty and staff rarely or never intervene" (1).  This is unacceptable. The repeal of Don't ask, Don't Tell and the increasing acceptance of gay marriage suggest we are in the process of change, moving past archaic ideas of gender roles and sexuality and the schools must set the tone for equity for all people.



The "experience with discrimination and marginalization that made [several teachers] particularly sensitive to these issues in school.  The challenge with this finding is how to raise the awareness of educators who have not personally felt the impacts of discrimination or exclusion from dominant culture" (17).

Educating those not personally affected by discrimination on the harassment LGBT students face can help to create an awareness of the harmful impacts of this behavior and the destruction that occurs when educators allow it to continue.

 "2009 National School Climate Survey: Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT Students Experience Harassment in School" from the GLSEN website reported:

• 84.6% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed, and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
• 63.7% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed,  27.2% reported being physically harassed and 12.5% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their gender expression.
• Nearly two-thirds (61.1%) of students reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation, and more than a third (39.9%) felt unsafe because of their gender expression.
• 29.1% of LGBT students missed a class at least once and 30.0% missed at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns
• The reported grade point average of students who were more frequently harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression was almost half a grade lower than for students who were less often harassed (2.7 vs. 3.1).
• Increased levels of victimization were related to increased levels of depression and anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem.

REEEEMIXXX

Michael Wesch "Anti-Teaching"

Is this going to count for a grade?

School’s relevance for students has become grades.  That is what they connect to their lives. They need a certain grade to move on, to get into the school or program they want, or to get a dollar from their grandparents.  Whatever the motivation, most students care far more about what grade they get than how much they learn.  In a world where a school is failing if everyone can’t earn a certain score on a standardized test, this is not surprising.  Even as a teacher I have to ask the horrible question: “What do they need to know for the test?”

All students are cut out for learning.

I have to agree with the "often heard lament, 'some student simply aren’t cut out for school'”(5).   It is my agreement with the statement that confirms my ideas that the system is broken.  We need to find a way to make schools something that doesn’t cut out kids.  

 Do most students see the value of education?  Why do we expect them to?  I remember saying I wish I was already working when I was in college, because the education classes would have had so much more relevance to me.  I was interested in education.   I cared about doing well, and learning something-but I still did not see the value and practical application of a lot of what I was doing in school until I had the experience of teaching.  I find a much stronger connection and interest in all of the work I have done at the graduate level than I did as an undergrad because I have the context for it now.  Part of education’s significance to the world around us is preparing students to become contributors to society.  School should introduce students to variety of subjects so they can explore them and discover what they are interested in and what they are good at.  It should also teach students how to think and multi-task and manage time.  It is unfortunate that in a world where even people with a solid education are struggling to find jobs, this is not enough to make students find meaning and significance in their education; but the fact of the matter is it isn’t.   “Meaning and significance are assured only when our learning fits in with a grand narrative that motivates and guides us” (6).  --I was a good student.  I went to class, I challenged myself with honors and AP courses, and I got straight As, not because I found meaning and significance in my education, but because my parents did.   We have explored the disadvantages those outside the culture of power face in today’s educational system, and here is another.   Since today’s model of education measures success in grades and places its relevance 12-15 years into the future, students, who do not come from a culture where education is seen as powerful  or as a means to create opportunity and improve life, will not  trust in its significance.  Many of these students are “cut-out” of schools.

  The larger problem with example of my experience is that since the meaning and significance of education was not mine, all I connected to was grades.  These were how I communicated to my parents that I was respecting the meaning and significance they found in education.   Everything we have read so far points to the obvious notion that education is designed for students from the culture of power and cyclically reproduces the gap between the these students and those outside it.  With the significance problem that Wesch points to, even the racially and economically privilege cannot escape unscathed. 
      I was cut out for school, but just because I knew how to get As doesn’t necessarily mean I learned anything.  I did in many classes, but there were plenty of others that I “beat the system.”  I went to my Animal Science class of 500 students 3 times: the first day, the exam review day, and the final exam day.  I got an A.  

A Vision of Schools Today  -“After I graduate I will probably have a job that doesn’t exist today.”

We are preparing students for a future that doesn’t exist yet, to face and solve problems that we can only hope to anticipate.  We must reach them; they are far too important.  

The students are giving us signs. They are reading 8 books and not opening the rest of them.  They are writing 42 pages, but they are viewing 2300 websites and composing 500 emails.  Maybe the student who isn't interested in reading a chapter, will explore a website. 

       My students never look at a dictionary. I alert them to their location, I even bring them to their desks, and sometimes open them to the right page, but they are resistant-sometimes it seems they would rather not discover what the word means than have to look in an ancient book.  This year I made all my student who had smart phones download a free dictionary app.  They are using these dictionaries all the time-some of them even get a word-of-the-day that they incorporate into their daily speech.

My point is not to replace the teacher with an i-phone app, or throw away all the books, but maybe we need to capture their interest with a website so they want to read the book.  Furthermore, students maybe able to text undetected under their desks, and bypass the block on facebook on any computer in the school, but most of them do not know how to really use technology to further their understanding of the world around them.  If we can teach them how to use technology in this way and grab their interest while doing so...2 angry birds with one technology stone?  

This networked student explores the learning opportunities the 21st century has to offer and explains how the teacher helped him get there...

   

The world is changing and we are educating our students in system that has not.  We must find ways to merge the what with the how and the why.   “When students recognize their own importance in helping to shape the future of this increasingly global, interconnected society, the significance problem fades away” (2).  We have to help them realize the value of education in their own lives, and we have to deliver the content through interactive methods that engage them and teach them to communicate with others, access technology and think critically and globally.  It goes back to what Finn said, it is our job to make the students “want what teachers has” (105).  We have digital learners in our classroom, we can just throw paper and pencils at them.

Ian Jukes argues today's kids are "screenagers...the first generation that has actually grown up with a mouse in their hands along with an assumption that that the images on the screen are supposed to be manipulated and interacted with - that screens aren’t just for passive consumption."  He suggests they are actually wired differently and prefer getting information quickly, and need immediate gratification and instant rewards among other things. 

Maybe it is time to stop measuring student learning with grades and test scores so we can compete globally, and focus on educating students so they can contribute globally.

 

Carter's Keepin' It Real

"...children can't achieve unless we... eradicate the slander that a black youth with a book is acting white." Obama, Democratice National Convention 2004

Carter resonated with the other authors we've read in class, but I saw a particular connection to Finn.  Carter makes the point that "educators must recognize the values of different students' cultural repertoires and the impressions that students get from the appearance racialized form of tracking."  Finn spoke of the different types of education that students receive: domesticating education and empowering education.   Carter's examination of the contrast between upper level academic classes encourageing  students to be assertiveand critical  and the low-track classes encouraging conformity, passivity, and defiance mirrors Finn's ditinction.  Rayisha explains “you got to have a teacher that inspires you, that lifts your spirit up, makes you want to get up and go to school” (71).  Maybe she is talking about a teacher who provides students with 'literacy with an attitude.'  Finn talked about Paulo Freire who started an adult literacy program for the illiterate poor in Brazil.  He believed all literacy programs would fail as long as the students saw literacy as part of an outside culture.  He discovered his students equated learning to read and write as part of the identity of an alien culture.  They saw very little possibility for change in their lives, and "if they thought about it" they would see "any effort they put into adopting the culture of the rich would be vain since they would not be accepted among the rich [...and] the only result would be that they would become aleinated from their own people" (Finn 156).  These ideas are reflected in many of the noncompliant believers' explanations.    Freire decide the only way to be successful would be to teach his students that culture is made and thus it can be changed, and show them the literte are powerful  and they were not.  The cultural mainstreamers and cultural straddlers seemed to understand this.


 Carter tells us acknowledging  and affirming the multiple capitals that come through our school's doors each day can increase the students’of the nondominant culture attachment to the school.  This attachment piece is really important. “For many African American students, nondominant, or more specifically ‘black’ culture capital matters because it signifies in-group allegiance and preserves a sense of belonging” (41).   Students develop boundaries for these groups and guard them to preserve their distinctiveness.    “How race links to culture allows the holders of capital to limit access to outsiders” (56), and this is true of social groups as well.  I thought of Molly Brown in the movie Titanic.  Molly and her ‘new money’ tried desperately to fit in, but her confusion over which fork was the salad fork distinguished her as someone who was “acting rich” and thus she was snubbed by those who were "authentically" upper class.  Season 4 of The Wire (an amazing show about the many angles of the Baltimore drug scene) examines the schools.  This season connects to so many of the topics we have discussed in class, but after reading about Carter’s idea of cultural boundaries  I thought of a specific episode where an educator took four of the most at risk students in the school to a fine dining restaurant as a reward for academic achievement.  The students were excited about this adventure, but it proved to be an uncomfortable experience for all of them.  They did not possess the culture capital and know “the rules” of fine dining.

Making Room

Gerri August's Making Room for One Another

"But what if the purpose of schooling in a democratic society is not simply to transmit and reproduce the knowledge and culture of the present order but to evaluate social an political practices according to principles of democratic ideals and, further to equip students to become active agents in the transformation of society"(2)?  Sounds like "literacy with an attitude."
Finn pointed out that all teaching is political,and it is the controversial nature, not the political nature, of topics that make teachers fret. Confirming this August suggests "the political nature of teaching ...reveasl itself in the wake of cognitive and affective consequences of exclusion" (2).   Being in a classroom each day lends itself to many of these "teachable moments" that August examines.  --On Friday I was reviewing the school's activities and clubs list with my advisory students, when one male student voiced some interest in a dance activity, a female student said , "A boy on a dance team?  That is so weird."  When I questioned her about this, and mentioned the prevalence of males in dancing, she said, "Well, like hip-hop is okay for boys, but ballet?  That is different.  It is just weird!"  -- I could help but think of this situation when Zeke danced like a ballet dance in front of his class.  Now maybe the students were laughing simply because their teacher looked silly dancing-but none of the boys initially danced this way, and the girls did.  This changed the next time.  As I continued to discuss the "weirdness" with this student I realized convincing her to assess her opinion would be more complicated than having a male do a few pirouettes for her.

       While these conversations might look a bit different in elementary school than they do in high school one thing remains the same, "social safety offer[s] a platform for [verbal campaigning] (137).  Even students as young as those in Zeke's classroom recognize the insecurities of difference and the safety of belonging to the culture of power.  August calls for "Dynamic dialogicality, the interweaving of underrepresented or unrepresented voices in emergent talk and activity, proved a powerful tool for building a democratic classroom in which students exercised agency in the context of multiple, even competing, perspectives" (166).


Silence and good intentions keep showing up...

SILENCE: Cody, the boy who exists outside the culture of power, is silenced.  Although Zeke's dialogical approaches in the classroom have helped Cody voice his discomfort in many situations, he is still silenced about one aspect of his life.  In this case it is not because people are refusing to listen, but because even as a young kindergartener Cody had already figured out that difference is a source of ridicule and rejection.  The classroom, his education, is, and needs to be, working to reverse this silence.  His voice, like the silenced voices of those not in the culture of power that Delpit mentions, need to be a part of the discussion.


GOOD INTENTIONS: "[Johnson] explained that democratic life requires more than good intentions" (144).  When we let these teachable moments pass us by it is usually because of the "real time, real distractions, and real pressures" (174) we are faced with as teachers.  This idea of good intentions has been raised in previous articles, all suggesting that good intention simply aren't enough.  We must lead students in the direction we want the world to head in.  August credits Zeke with "forging these paths...that might help our democracy reach for the stars" (144).

Much like educators can't settle for good intentions, we can't let our students do this either.  This study made me think of the recent campaigns to end the use of the r-word and the efforts against the use of "gay" as an insult or admission of disapproval.  

Many times when I have discussed these campaigns with students, I am met with their good intentions excuse:  "But I am not trying to be mean when I say it" or "I would never say it around a gay person" or my personal fav, "I know a gay person, so I can say it."  I respond to the first one is much the same way Zeke addresses Derek's pajama comment-- you my not mean to be unkind, you may not have even known you are being unkind, but now you do.  The latter excuses lead to a discussion much like the one that took place when Shiloh created her own version of Chinese and a student suggested it was not okay because someone in the class "may be that country" (151).   The conversations get a bit more sophisticated as students age, the content may be more complex, and sometimes the monological thinking may have been strengthened over the course of the student's 15 or so years prior to being in a high school classroom, but fostering dialogicality, taking advantage of emergent opportunities, as well as creating ones, to help students understand the impact of their decisions and encouraging them to evaluate them to "move in the direction of democratic practice" is relevant across grade levels.

I remember hearing frustration from some parents when my high school started offering breakfast to students each morning.  I heard my friend's father say, "The school is really ensuring that parents don't have to do anything anymore!  Why are we making it so easy for parents to evade their responsibilities?" We acknowledge the community's, and specifically the parent's role, in the success of school children, and we recognize that there is an absence of this role in many districts.  When is it the school's job to take on some of the so called "parental roles"?   Last week we talked a lot about the extent to which our school are educating students with the skills to compete in the global economy.  The skills that are measured by standardized tests; the ones that deem schools performing or under performing.  But what is the school's role in character education?  To what extent does our current system align with Nodding's recommendation that "educators [should] strive to 'encourage the growth of competent, caring, loving and lovable people''(5)?  Should it?  At what point does it become the school's role to impose moral education?

                  "Caring relations also provide the best foundation for moral education. Teachers show students how to care, engage them in dialogue about moral life, supervise their practice in caring, and confirm them in developing their best selves...What we learn in the daily reciprocity of caring goes far deeper than test results."

                                                     Nodding- Caring in Education 

“Teachers count a lot. But reality counts too” (7).

Who's bashing Teachers and Public Schools, and What Can We Do About It?  -Stan Karp While listening to Stan Karp’s speech I was reminded of my margin note while reading Finn’s line “I’ve taught in public school in every level from elementary school through graduate school and no principal or chair or supervisor ever asked me whether what I was teaching on a particular day was in the curriculum.” –My annotation ‘Well Finn, things have changed!’   The problem is the people who are asking have little experience in education.  Is there a silenced dialogue in education?  Are the people who are in the classroom and involved in education not part of the discussion?  Of course bad teachers exist.  Is there a profession that is exempt from the occasional underachiever?   The reality is not all teachers are bad, and bad teaching is not the only obstacle hindering achievement.   Accountability is important. Schools and teachers need to respond effectively when the school is not serving the students in their community.  Karp reflects on his experience and says “parents are the key to creating that pressure.”  In my experiences I would have to agree with him.  The students’ who have parents pressuring the school to meet the need of their student usually get response “Finding ways to promote a kind of collaborative tension and partners, hip between these groups is one of the keys to school improvement” (6).   We had a conversation in class on Tuesday about the parent who doesn’t know how to dress for parent-teacher conferences so she stays home.  Could community outreach or PD surrounding increasing parental involvement be a better solution than making test scores carry more weight?   Finding ways to bridge this gap might lend itself to closing achievement gaps as well.  “There is no evidence that the test score gaps you read about constantly in the papers is linked to bad teaching, and there is overwhelming evidence that they closely reflect the inequalities of race, class, and opportunity that follows students to school.” (6).    NCLB is a little like the first question on the teaching tolerance survey.  It looks at all students with blinders on.  It screams Delpit’s first typical best intended statement: I want the same thing for every child, and as Johnson, Delpit, Kozal and Finn have repeatedly told us, this doesn’t work. THE TESTS-“If we spend as much on protecting children from poverty as we are willing to spend on testing children and evaluating teachers, we can reduce the problem considerably.’’ Stephen Krashen (6). Karp compares spending money on more tests to supplying thermometers in a malaria outbreak.     Rather than creating more instruments to measure achievement, the money would be better spent on solving the problems causing underachievement.  Accountability is necessary, but it needs to be real.  Test-based accountability is detrimental to the teaching profession and the education schools are providing, and according to Karp, it is ineffective “There is no research that shows paying teachers to raise test score improves…any of the positive school outcomes that policy makers say they seek.” (7). Fair test.org suggests placing too much value on standardized test scores and misusing the data inevitably leads to corruption.  …  “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor. . . when test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways.” Campbell’s Law, 1976 A few of their ideas: A focus on the subjects tested deemphasizes untested subjects and skills.    The subjects that are tested are valuable, but when schools and their curriculum hone in on tested material, or “teach to the test,” other subjects get left behind.    Students who do not perform well on these tests are labeled underachieving.  This devalues the students who are excelling in auto, tech courses, history, art and other subject where success is not measured by a test score.      Furthermore, any important skills or effective uses of class time that get pushed to the back burner to make time for test material are cheapened. Focusing on students most likely to make the jump from failing to passing neglects the rest. Hmmm…it leaves some children behind? There are subtler ways of cheating than erasing answers. The fact that the veracity of these tests must be questioned attests to the hefty weight they are on the shoulders of schools and teachers across the country.  Numerous indicators question their validity.  The same teachers receive inconsistent results when assessed by scores on two different standardized tests.  Bruce Baker condemns the accuracy of annual test because often lower income kids don’t learn as much in the summer as kids with higher incomes, thus testing once a year fallacious.                "The basic assumptions of these testing systems are at odds with the way real schools actually work and bending school practices because of them could negatively affect everything from the way students are assigned to classes, to the willingness of teachers to work with high needs populations to the collaborative professional nature that good schools depend on for their success”(8). Karp end his speech with a message that encapsulates what I was feeling following the Finn article, “In short, we don’t only need to fix our schools, we need to fix our democracy.”

The Enormous Struggle.

"When working class children get empowering education you get literacy with an attitude" (xi).

Patrick Finn classifies the education in this country into empowering education and domesticating education--the first leading to positions of power and authority and the latter being the type of education that makes someone "productive and dependable, but not troublesome." (ix).  The working class receives domesticating education, thus perpetuating this social set up, which convinces people it is natural. Since working class children do not get "literacy with an attitude" they do not threaten the current social set up.

 Finn echoes Delpit in many ways.  He points out the maintenance of the status quo that our educational system fosters, "But the working class does not get powerful literacy, and powerful literacy is necessary for the struggle." (xi).  Delpit's assertion that some students come to school with more of the accoutrements of the culture of power than others is reiterated when Finn  explains the students in gentry schools are not empowered by their teachers, "they are already powerful."  He also places the responsibility of initiating the change on the culture of power, as Delpit did, he says the cycle exists "because the people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are." 

Finn suggests "educating working class children in their own self-interest", which matches Delpit's argument that education must involve teaching students "the codes to participate in fully in mainstream of American life...within the context of meaningful communicative endeavors" (45). Finn talks about motivating these students to want to learn by connecting curriculum to their lives.  Both Delpit and Finn agree that education needs to be connected to the lives and experiences of the students-the way it already is for those in the culture of power.

"Get ready for the 'enormous struggle'"



 In a study of  five differenct elementary schools one major difference noted between the schools delievering an empowering eduation versus those giving students a domesticating education was the amount of responsibility and freedom given to the students.   The lack of this freedom both academically and behaviorally contributed to the working class children learning to follow directions and resist authority.  

 Finn introduces Freire's idea of dialogue vs. debate.  This is a discussion I have had with my classes about how to communicate with each other.   A fellow English teacher gave me this document that further explains the difference. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yaXw0lH3KNHjNicLS6DgqN3Qzf5IC9jTLTunu6h5DQ0/edit?authkey=CJP01rAB&hl=en_US&authkey=CJP01rAB#

 While I think it is a necessary and important distinction to make, and I completely disagree with the teacher who said, "Do it my way or it's wrong" (10) I question allowing students too much "equal dialogue" in collaborative teaching.  It is important to empower students to have a voice, and teach them to be effective communicators, but spending chunks of class time negotiating the teacher's need to deliver instruction and the students' need for a rest might not be the best use of time.  I know he uses this example in a game played by students in role of the teacher to practice dialogue, and he acknowledges teachers have objectives and cannot simply adhere to students' requests- my problem is not with Finn, I actually don't have a problem at all, but the article paints a lovely picture: Students get tired and this effects how they work.  So they engage in a respectful, equal dialogue where they voice their opinion, reflect on it, remain open to discussion, and negotiate an agreement.  I do not believe this would happen in my classroom without a lot of practice.  (I am writing this after spending last period on Friday dealing with two students who decided to fight each other in the 2 minutes they were in my classroom before the bell even rang!) I am not suggesting that these values and skills are natural and that students cannot learn to be these negotiators, but I do feel it will be an "enormous struggle".   Furthermore, some students do not always possess the maturity to make good decisions, so negotiating with them is not always be the best option.     I think at this point I'm just rambling-maybe venting a little too.

"Teachers are supposed to teach, not blame children for what they don't know how to do." When "resistance is the dominant theme, don't expect this to be easy." (175).  I don't expect it to be easy.  This resistance is not something they learned last week; it has been building for years.    The resistance, when it rears its ugly head--in the many forms it will take--is a challenge to deal with in the classroom, and it will be a challenge to turn it around.  But I think we can all attest to the fact teaching the students who are not motivated to learn is the biggest challenge of all.

One last note...

 I thought of Finn mentioning the “excuse” of this not fitting into the curriculum, and Kelly's comparison between the "silenced dialogue" and teachers when I read Obama's speech on Friday.  "We’re going to let states, schools and teachers come up with innovative ways to give our children the skills they need to compete for the jobs of the future." 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/23/remarks-president-no-child-left-behind-flexibility

It is late now- at least staying up this late let me see the Red Sox finally win a game.

Lisa Delpit's The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

Delpit qualifies those who are most skillful at educating black and poor children as those who “understand the need for both approaches [‘skills’ and ‘process’], the need to help students establish their own voices, and to coach those voices to produce notes that will be clearly heard in a larger society.” I would argue this is more good teaching, than good teaching of black and poor children.   I felt this way about many things in this article.  Delpit suggest we need to ensure “that each classroom incorporates strategies appropriate for all children in its confines.”  As educators, we need to take in to account all students’ differing backgrounds, as well as learning abilities, personal situations and other aspects that determine what they need in the classroom.   

While I feel some of the article refers to good teaching practices for all students, Delpit does raise some interesting points about cultural difference.  We should consider that “some children come to school with more accoutrements of the culture of power…some with less.”(29).   Those that have not yet “internalized the culture of power” need to be explicitly taught it.  We cannot expect students who are not part of the “culture of power” to simply figure it out.  

Students bring their own expertise in different areas. “To deny student their own expert knowledge is to disempower them”(33).   Appreciating these in the classroom helps students feel connected to their own lives, and helps them appreciate their differences.  Martha Demietieff uses the contrast between eating at a picnic and a formal diner to mirror the contrast between the students informal/Heritage English and formal English.  This suggests there is a place for both, and doesn’t dismiss one as not as important or as correct as the other.

I am reminded of an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will claims he would be doing well in history if they studied any black history.  He felt the curriculum drove the “view of the world presented” (24) and it had nothing to do with him.  In search for the clip I came across the end of the episode.  Will and Carlton came from different homes with different cultures, thus they have differing perspectives and areas of expert knowledge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StY05g5Abrw

 I agree that the parents of these students and educators who share their culture must be allowed into the conversation.  Delpit calls on those with the most power to take the most responsibility in initiating this conversation.  Much like Johnson, she explains the importance of a conscious awareness of privilege and a lack of this will “ensure that the power status quo remains the same” (39).   Both Johnson and Delpit acknowledge that there is a need to recognize our own lens if we are to engagein  the dialogue to work towards the solution.  Delpit asserts “we must keep the perspective that people are experts on their own lives”- but she includes many black teachers’ conclusion that “many of the ‘progressive’ educational strategies imposed by liberals upon black and poor children could only be based on a desire to ensure that liberals’ children get sole access to the dwindling pool of American jobs” and that their good intentions are merely delusions of their true motives.  This came under the larger discussion that I want the same thing for everyone else’s students as I want for mine means I want the same schooling.  Is it possible that this statement refers to the desire for all students to have an education that meets their needs, and teaches them to appreciate their own culture, while also giving them the tools they need to be successful in their lives?  Delpit later states “Both sides need to be able to listen”(46).

Priviledge, Power, and Difference

Johnson's account of his struggle to discuss race and gender with his African American female friend reminds me that often people do treat these topics as too "risky" to discuss and rather let them fester in the background of every encounter.  His feelings give way to the defensive reaction he says paralyzes the work towards a solution.  Even though he acknowledges that he did nothing wrong, he understands "the reality of her having to face racism and sexism everyday is connected to the reality that [he doesn't]"(9) . 

Johnson  claims that people are not naturally afraid of the differences in others.   "If we feel afraid  it isn't what we don't know, it is what we think we do know.  The problem is our ideas about what we don't know...And how we think about such things isn't something we're born with.We learn to do it like we learn to tie our shoes, talk, and just about everything else."(17). 

How we think about such things develops from our upbringing and experiences. It becomes easy to forget that not everyone views the world through our lens.  Similarly, we may be viewed differently than others of different races, genders, and classes.  Johnson refers to Shakespeare in Love as an example of how one can be afforded these privileges just by appearing to belong to the group that has been afforded them.  This indicates the privileges not only have nothing to do with who we are as individuals, but also the power lies in those who are perceiving us, not in ourselves.  We must then be aware of how we view others.

Being the tenth anniversary of 9/11 I thought of a presentation  I attended at URI on the first anniversary.  Ten speakers who were personally affected by the attacks had volunteered to speak. The first nine speakers included firefighters, survivors, and relatives of people who lost their lives that day.  The tenth speaker was a young Muslim girl who lost her Aunt in the attacks. After 9/11 she was viciously bullied in school.  Her family owned a small store that was frequently vandalized and then set on fire.  She and her family were forced to move from the home she was born in.  The people who attacked this family were not afraid of what they didn't know-they were afraid of what they thought they knew.  This girl was not treated based on who she was, but rather on how others perceived her.  Sometimes we needed to stop and clean our lenses.

 When Johnson talks of the "trouble" we are in he says it has the potential to ruin entire generations.
Adil Ibrahim in 9/11 Ten Years Later; Growing up Muslim in America says "I think, in some aspects, things have gotten worse since, and in some aspects, they've gotten better. People are more aware of the religion of Islam, and some people are more aware of what the Middle East is, and the differences between the regions and the people there. ... People have become more knowledgeable. But, at the same time, people have become more angry, people's relatives and sons and daughters have died in the war, so there's a hatred there, and I understand that. We need to educate people even more." 
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1670551/september-9-11-muslim-in-america.jhtml

Johnson asserts a lack of awareness is a "paralysis that perpetuates the trouble"(vii).  This reiterates the importance of recognizing our own perspective and biases that Peter McLaren insisted we face.  In addition, I think it is our job as educators to make students aware of their own as well.

Welcome to my SED552 Blog!

 My name is Kristen. I began my 6th year teaching English at Attleboro High School today--seems like just yesterday I started.  I will be teaching two sections of English II, and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to spend the third section of the day co-teaching an honors level humanities course.  The history teacher I work with is amazing.  We have a lot of fun with the course, and the collaborative setting has been a great experience.

 I will begin my second year as an adjunct instructor at Johnson and Wales University tomorrow.  This trimester I am teaching an ESL advanced reading class.  Teaching this population has allowed me to meet many students from different parts of the world.

Although teaching high school, pursuing my Master's degree and moonlighting as an adjunct instructor keep me quite busy, I try to fit a few softball and soccer games on my nights off.