http://dustinmorley.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/a-sweet-escape/

http://dibbleje.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/mccain-response-to-sex-education/

http://coachk97.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/trying-to-fix-the-drop-out-rate-in-michigan/

http://letsgetquiet.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/eslefl-institute/

http://greenje.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/can-the-kindle-be-used-in-a-classroom/

http://bostonk.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/school-for-breakfast/

http://diezwiebel.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/nummer-zwei/

http://angelalang6.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/unnoticeable/

http://hubbardj87.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/online-reading-illiteracy-in-schools/

I Think I can thank much of that to the RSS feeds and google reader.  Its generally difficult to get a variety of sources on a chosen topic, but browsing the feeds of the google reader it became very easy for me to get a  different viewpoints on related or interweaving issues.  I love the thing. Ill definitly keep it going because it is an amazing way to stay current and get insight into what is going on within education and that is an important thing for future teachers to be aware of.  The semester went so quick.  At the beginning I had no idea what RSS was but now I would feel comfortable using it or a blog within a classroom.  This is probably the biggest recomendation I could give RSS.

- Adam Kennedy

“personalizing learning means, in practical terms, focusing in a more structured way on each child’s learning in order to enhance progress, achievement and participation”. It added that it had the “potential to transform education”.

Baker Argues that personalized learning, despite its grand ideas, was less a distinct principle and more a uniting ideal that teachers followed.  “Personalize” the learning for each student.  It sounds pretty good.  The problem is that instead of being put into practice this idea couldn’t find footing.  It was difficult to define ways that teaching could be personalized for each student.  Teachers were asked to follow a principle that was difficult for them to gauge progress. Now Baker states politicians are calling for a end to this type of education.  Baker states:

“Indeed, the government itself has seemed to be in two minds about all this. Ministers are, on the one hand, encouraging teachers to innovate and use curriculum flexibility to teach as they think best for each pupil.  Meanwhile, they are pressing for constant, linear movement towards ever higher test and exam scores, attempting to fit all children and schools into national targets.”

This type of double sided education bothers me.  The government asks too much of educators without giving them tools to do what they ask.  They want the curriculum to be flexible and creative but at the same time push to teach towards achieving higher test and exam scores.  Its very difficult to do both and educators are placed in difficult positions.  The idea of Personalized Learning sounds great because it means individual attention for each student, but in reality that is impossible for what the government wants.  They need “standardized” tests so students can be measured to see progress and growth.  Pushing teachers to “personalize” their teaching for each student while at the same time preparing their class for classes that asses “standards” is a difficult double standard that teachers all over are trying to deal with.

Original Article:

Mike Baker

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7741943.stm

“In the 80th Texas Legislature, the state required any district that offers K-12 instruction must offer an enrichment curriculum that includes “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.” The offering, however, does not have to be a stand-alone course but may be incorporated into existing English or social studies courses.”

Im not sure how i feel about this.  The Bible, as well as other religious texts, have a incredible amount of value to both history and English classes.  Including the writings and religious history from the bible, if done appropriately, could work.  The Bible is literature and if a teacher can seperate the religious relevance from the text and make it simply a very important piece of historic literature then I believe it can be used within the classroom.  However, this is a very thin line and it makes more sense to offer it as an ellective class for students who are interested in the subject can take.  Alabama school boards are researching textbooks that deal with the bible.  These books connect the bible to literature, history, and art.  In Dana Beyerle’s article Dueling Bibles Study Books Approved, Not Used she quotes a local principal who sates:

“It makes some people nervous to think the public schools may actually get into teaching the Bible. . . . Although we live in a state where the Christian influence is strong, we’d have to make sure we teach the Bible as literature and not otherwise,” he said.

Its interesting that these districts have the opportunity to create religion classes, they have not really felt any great desire to do so.  School districts have no desire to accumulate any more negative or controversial publicitiy and creating a class or intigraiton process based on the Bible would be very controversial.  As a future teacher, I would welcome the opportunity to teach portions of religious texts as documents of historical importance for English or History classes.  Ideally, teachers and educators would be able to keep personal belief seperate from these teachings.  Unfortunately, this can be a very difficult thing to do.  However, effective use of religious texts could be another way to draw students into their work.  Religion is a topic in which everyone has delicate feelings about and this can be controversial.  However, these feelings can inspire students to explore, interprete and analyze topics at a deeper level than they have done before.  Passionate interest or opinions on a subject, like many have with religion, are a inroad to student interest and motivation that is often overlooked.

Let it be Done

Dueling Bibles Study Books Approved

“one of the problems was that the country’s examination system only evaluates students’ knowledge of information and not the critical thinking skills they’ll need to excel in an increasingly competitive working environment.”

Vietnam is struggling to catch up with education in a increasingly competitive environment for jobs.  They are having trouble achieving a effective balance between quantifiable testing and critical thinking.  To the government, giving students an education geared towards the economic system they will work in is the key role of education.  Another example of this process can be seen in Botswana.  Here they are also struggling to decide in which direction their educational practices should go.  An article from Mmegi Online states:

“Traditional universities have always been assessed on their research, teaching and service. In the future, a key aspect of this community service will include income-earning activities. This third pillar could be called “enterprise”.

Botswana is no longer happy with educators being good teachers and members of the community.  They want quantifiable quality. They want publishing, enterprising individuals who desire economic and academic success.  The competative spirit is seen in both Vietnam and Botswana are characteristic of the change many educational systems are having around the world.  It is starting to become less about creating a well rounded individual, and more about manufacturing people who fit the criteria necessary to have success within the worldwide economy.  The balance between the two is dellicate and teachers and educators must try and strike a balance to have quality education.

Botswana Article on Education

Vietnam article, Educators Slam Teaching Methodology

My last post was on the controversy that English education is causing in Australia. It started to get me thinking about how an “English” education is approached in other countries. Then I discovered this article, written by Gwynne Dyer, titled The Unstoppable Rise of the English Language. Dyer writes about how Rwanda is forgoing French language education within the classroom and now opting for complete English immersion. This touches on a couple fascinating issues. One is that the Rwandan government is expelling a colonist language. In essence, this is the language of the oppressor, those who colonized their land, and much more recently, those who were partly responsible for the massacre of the Tutsi’s by the Hutus. Dyer states:

When the Hutu regime began murdering the minority Tutsis in industrial quantities in 1994, France did not abandon it. The French president at the time, Francois Mitterrand, is alleged to have remarked that “in such countries, genocide is not too important…”And a principal reason that France overlooked its Rwandan ally’s ghastly behaviour was that the Tutsi-led opposition in exile mostly spoke English, because its members had found refuge in English-speaking Uganda.

The English speaking government has begun to remove all touches of French influence and they have finally removed the language itself. This would have been impossible had French been the primary conversational language but it wasn’t, and as English was becoming the language of business and politics there was no room for French. Dyer writes:

. . . But can an African country just switch from one European language to another like that? It can if, like Rwanda, it only uses one language domestically. Almost all Rwandans, whether Hutu or Tutsi, speak Kinyarwanda, so they have no need for a lingua franca to communicate among themselves. Only those going into higher education or working with foreigners need any other language at all – which is why only eight per cent of Rwandans speak fluent French after all this time.

This is especially interesting to me because the school systems do not teach their most widespread language, instead opting for English, the language of world economics and politics. It is interesting for me to think about how the spread and control of language can have an influence on culture. I know that authors such as Chinua Achebe and Tsitsi Dangerembga have struggled with the choice of writing in their native African language or that of English. These colonial languages are those of the oppressor and are one of the most lasting marks of the colonial enterprise in Africa. It also seems to create a great divide between those who can and cannot speak English because without it, you cannot succeed in high levels of business. The legacy of imperialism within Africa can vividly be seen in language. There is a delicate balance of cultures in Africa and it makes me worry that by embracing the English language whole-heartedly they may be neglecting the great traditions in literature that occur in their native language.

Gwynne Dyer

Dailygleaner.com

Oct 20th, 2008

Article Link

Something very interesting is happening in Australia. Educators are debating how to most effectively revise their national English curriculum. Australian English curriculum is currently centered around the idea of critical literacy, but this may soon change. Many are pushing for modifications in English curriculum, and the topic has received a lot of attention in the Australian media. It is a complex issue, and a variety of experts have weighed in and given their opinion on what the new curriculum should look like. Luke Slattery, in his article Free Literary Criticism of Old Theories, written for the Australian, states the problem:

“They fear, with some justification, that the new national English curriculum framework to be hammered out by committee chairman Peter Freebody is fated to become a branch of communications and cultural studies heavily inflected with critical literacy, a sociological model”

This is an interesting debate, as many of the ideas we have been discussing in class lately reappear as topics of debate within this article. I love critical pedagogy and would have thought that teachers at the university level would support it whole-heartedly because it teaches students to think. This is not so. The article includes the opinion of Will Christie from Sydney Universities, who states:

“”Like my colleagues, I have specific concerns about the development of English as a school subject – I am anxious that literature, the literary text and historical literary culture remain central to the discipline, and with it the rhetorical, grammatical, aesthetic and ethical training encouraged by detailed and responsive literary analysis”

Christie and others like him are worried that the gap growing between university and high school English is too large – and the students are going to suffer because of it.  They say it simply does not prepare them well for a college style educaiton. Christie and Slattery are basically arguing against critical theory, as Slattery puts it:

“Scholars such as Christie want to see more sensitive attention given to grammar and literature in the English classroom and less to a prescriptive, political deconstruction of the media”

The article’s focus is that central English ideals are being ignored in favor of studying literature through a critical lens that focuses on issues political, social, and religious. Important skills like poetic analysis and basic mastery of reading and writing are being tossed aside because educators have embraced critical literacy. They wonder how a student can dissect a text when they do not have a full grasp of the language itself. The article continues on to argue that critical literacy does not develop a love of literature.  By focusing only on negative side of critical literacy, however, the author is wrongly assuming that traits of bad teaching are hallmarks of critical literacy. Many faults are found with critical literature when, in fact, most of these should be attributed to the teacher, rather than the philosophy. The critical philosophy is sound when applied in moderation. Furthermore, they do not talk about any of the positives of critical literature. Teaching critically develops in students the ability to interpret and deconstruct their world and the social and political rules that govern it. It deciphers the myths that influence their lives. These are positive outcomes that the author overlooks. What these authors should be focusing on is that they perhaps need a better balance between critical literature and normal English teaching methods. Any educator who conforms solely to one school of thought is neglecting other valuable ways of educating their students, and a blind adherence to critical literacy, or any other method of instruction, is no exception.

Free Literary Criticism of Old Theories

Luke Slattery

Oct 15, 2008

Article Link

“It wasn’t until a young Hispanic student in my English class asked me why we never read books about him that I found myself stymied.  You see, I teach literature. And literature is what you remember: Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Greek mythology, the Classics. We read poetry by the greats and novels by the masters – great works of imagery and powerful messages of love and struggle and strength. And this student complains that we don’t read about him”

Colson hits the problem right on the head.  Too often works designated as the “canon” becomes blindly accepted in english curriculum throughout the world.  We dont take into account the relevancy of such literature to the students.  English curriculum does not exist in a vaccum, and to treat it like it does would be doing a disservice to the students, their interests, and their diverse backgrounds.  The canon does an incredible job of ignoring women and non-European writers.  Colson discovers that this perceptive student has pushed her to question what she teaches as she realizes even she- an African American – is not represented within her own class curriculum.  Educators of the past were incredibly sure that reading Yeats was a necessary part of a well rounded English curriculum.  We have become so dependent on these “classics” for so long that we have failed to realize that the public school systems, and the world in general, are becoming increasingly multicultural places.  Don’t get me wrong, these classics still have value but they cannot be taught in a cultural and social vaccuum.  Colston writes:

“I truly attempt to make an effort to include all students in my exploration of literature. We learn from one another by studying one another.  The questions that are asked and answered in literature are the perfect places to begin our journey in understanding our brothers and sisters who share this planet.”

To me it is difficult to push students in areas like literary analysis when what they uncover will have nothing to do with their everyday lives. Students want to receive the “payoff” when they finish a reading.  They want to see a reflection of themselves, and their lives in their classwork.  For example, when a student with a Latin American background finds that every thing we read in class is from Europe or America, what does that say to that student?  That his or her cultural heritage is less important? That it hasn’t produced anything  worth reading?  These are messages we should be aware of.  Lets never underestimate the power of being able to “relate” to a work of literature.  Students are very aware of their differences and instead of ignoring them, we should be embracing them.  Approaching culture like this and working to apply it within the classroom can be a controversial topic.  Students often come from very different backgrounds and topics like race, sex, and religion can become combustible within a classroom environment.  However, as we have discussed in class, learning to understand what makes us alike as humans, and accepting our differences, will help us to truly understand and value each other as human beings.  When a classroom is taught with an emphasis on the individuals within it, it helps create a community that respects and learns from each other.

Monica Colson: I Want to See Me

Dallas News

Oct 16, 2008

full article

As a natural followup to my previous post on making poetry and literature more interesting within the classroom, ive decided to address the use of hip-hop as a teaching device.  The above excerpt was taken from a article about a teacher named Alan Sitomer entitled Yo, Hamlet written by Debra Lau Whelan.  First let me state that the idea of using hip-hop or “culturally relevant” material is not a particularly new idea, although it remains a fairly controversial topic with teachers.  Some see it as a great learning tool while others feel it doesn’t really belong in schools.    This technique has become increasingly popular amongst teachers who are searching for ways to keep their students interested.   Alan Sitomer gives his opinion on teaching hip-hop in the classroom:“I believe in validating students and their interests,” he explains. “If you diminish their interests, you diminish them-and then you’ll never reach them.”

Sitomer has had great success with creating parallels between his students interests and the curriculum that he teaches.  Jamal Cooks agrees with Sitomer in his article Writing for Something: Essays, Raps, and Writing Preferences. Cooks writes:

“If we refuse to meet students at their learning point, many students may lose their confidence in writing and interest in learning.  the end result is adolescents who have the potential to illustrate their knowledge of subject area-content but have been turned off by the learning process.”

This quote is significant because Cooks puts it well when he states that we should “meet students at their learning point” I think this is a great way to view the learning process.  To me it seems wrong that students should only learn in the way and method that the teacher deems appropriate.   By not teaching to students interests and passions educators are basically marginalizing the very topics that should be used as learning tools.  We are forcing them to come to us.  At the very least, we should meet them halfway between education and their interests.  However, it takes a talented and motivated teacher to juggle student interests with  approved curriculum.  Classes like these can very easily become disconnected from what your trying to teach.  There is always the possibility that students could simply focus on the the rap, tv show or song lyric and ignore the rest.  The parallels must be highlighted to create a link between what they know and what they are learning.  Cook says:

“If educators can move students to the point of respecting the parallels in nonacademic writing and academic writing-specifically raps, essays, and expository texts-then we will improve the teaching and learning of writing in urban schools”

Cook shows how his students have trouble writing essays with acceptable voice, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusions.  However, when Cook asks his students to write raps he often gets very highly developed pieces of work that show a advanced understanding of voice and structure.  Students have highly developed passions and interests, it is wrong for educators to assume these interests cannot be applied to the classroom. The challenge for educators is to get students to see the parallels between topics they love, like hip-hop, with lessons taught in schools, like the writing process or Shakespeare.

- Adam

Jamal Cooks. Writing for Something: Essays, Raps, and Writing Preferences. The English Journal, Vol. 94, No. 1, Re-Forming Writing Instruction (Sep., 2004), pp. 72-76

Debra Lau Whelan Yo, Hamlet!. School Library Journal, 03628930, Jun2007, Vol. 53, Issue 6

This seems to me an excellent way to define poetry.  It is an idea that I think we miss out on when teaching it. In pushing students to learn form and analytical tools we take the emotion out of the work.  Poetry is a response to reality, it is the imagination pushing back against reality.  When we do not discuss the context in which it is written we remove the power behind the poetry and make it droll, lifeless and hard to relate to.  William Wordsworth is simply not going to capture students interest if it is not portrayed to them that he wrote about universal feelings like love, hate, desire, or envy, there will be no interest.  Parini states:

Even the popular poets. . . lived on the edge of the social whirl, not quite respectable. . . Poets have an unruly streak in them, and have not been the most welcome guests at the table of society.  Teachers and professors have long considered poetry a useful part of the curriculum, and one of the last places where poetry remains a central part of the culture is the classroom.  To a degree, poets have been  “domesticated” by the academic village.

I think our educational system certainly values poetry in its curriculum.  But, like Parini,  I also agree with the idea that our educators have “domesticated’ poetry.  In doing this we have done it a great disservice.  Poets have always lived on the outskirts of cultural acceptability.  Poets like Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, and John Berryman, all were derided and dismissed by society.  People burned copies of Ginsberg’s Howl.  Students have expectations that their school assigned literature and poetry will be boring.  When we remove it from its context we only confirm what they think.  Instead of dealing with poetic islands we should bring up the controversies, the love afairs, the revolutionist dogma.  We should talk about the weird sexual longings of Shakespeare in his sonnets.  We should tell our students that Lord Byron was a wild partier and famously considered “mad, bad and dangerous to know.”  It is facts and stories like these that will draw students in and help them become more interested in the discussions on form and meaning that are to come.

-Adam

Jay Parini. Why Poetry Matters. Chronicle of Higher Education; 6/27/2008, Vol. 54 Issue 42, pB16-B17, 2