"Mind the Gap:" Session 2

"Mind the Gap:" Session 2

1.  “We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning lively.  We must ensure that students gain the knowledge they need to understand political debates, scientific phenomena, and the world they live in.  We must be sure they are prepared for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship in a complex society.  We must take care that our teachers are well educated, not just well trained.  We must be sure that our schools have the authority to maintain both standards of learning and standards of behavior. “ (14)

I agree with Ravitch that our students need more than a surface education.  As teachers we should be trained and educated to teach our students to not just look for the right or wrong answer in order to do well on a test, but we should be preparing them for the world beyond school.  Because our society is so complex we want to prepare our students be able to participate and make decisions based on their educational knowledge.  We want our schools to create opportunity for our students to learn through creativity and self-discovery.  We need our schools to be able to help the students become critical thinkers that are not just trying to get the answers correct on a test.    Because there has been a lack of self-discovery and critical thinking in schools, the students have a hard time doing this when asked.  Lost of students are timid to share their opinions or questions in fear of getting things wrong.  We need to work with our students at a young age that their opinions about a topic and their insights are valid and worthwhile, and that having conversations in which they share their opinions and thoughts can lead them to a deeper understanding of the material. 

“They think they can fix education by applying the principles of business, organization, management, law, ad marketing and by developing a good data-collection system that provides the information necessary to incentivize the workforce-principals, teachers, and students with the appropriate rewards and sanctions.” (11)

The idea of incentives and sanctions only create a stigma around the educational system.  Every school and student deserves the right to be successful, and punishing schools for not being successful is not helping them become successful, it is making it harder.  There is not one right way to fix the problems in schools and giving sanctions to schools that do not do well on standardized tests, just perpetuates this gap between the schools that seem to be successful and the school that seem to be drowning. This also creates a poor relationship between schools and policy makers.  Instead of working together schools feel they are not supported and only punished for not producing the results that are demanded.  Money and support need to be given to the schools that are struggling.  They need this money to focus on curriculum development, after school tutoring programs, staff development, and time and resources for intervention for our students.  Instead of trying to get rid of the schools that are struggling, we should be helping them develop and thrive.  We should all be responsible for all of the students and all the schools. 

2.  “A well-educated person has a well furnished mind, shaped by reading and thinking about history, science, literature, art, and politics.  The well educated person learned how to explain ideas and listen respectfully to others.”

I agree with Ravich’s definition of a well-educated person.  I believe that a well-educated person is able to look at multiple sides of an issue and to be able to understand both sides without necessarily agreeing with them.  A well-educated person is a lifelong learner.  The world is always changing and there are new exciting things to be learned every day.  Like Ravitch said, a well-educated person should be able to hold a conversation with someone about current events, history, science, literature, the arts, and politics.  They should also be able to express their ideas and opinions in writing.  A well-educated person is also able to take their ideas and opinions and incorporate them into a collective team effort to create solutions to problems.

3.  One interesting point that Ravich brought up was that there is no one quick fix for the education system.  Accountability, standards, testing, school choice, sanctions and rewards, alone are not the answer.  The education system is very complex and there isn’t one set way to fix the problems.  Different schools have different issues and everyone needs to have an open mind when figuring out the ways to fix them.  I believe that the Nation at Risk has an outline that most educators believe in.  They wanted to strengthen the curriculum for all students, which set clear and reasonable high school graduation requirement, which demonstrated the student’s readiness for the world outside of high school.  A Nation at Risk recommended that there should be clear and appropriate college entrance requirements, that textbooks and tests should be improved, students should spend more time on schools work, higher requirements for teachers, and increased teacher compensation.  These recommendations from A Nation at Risk are reasonable, but people have different ideas about how to go about following these recommendations.  As well educated people, their needs to be conversations about how to improve education by working to come up with a plan that meshes different ideas together.  Not one idea or solution alone is going to solve the problem, and people need to be willing to see that in their own plan and be willing to change it in order to better the education system.  I think that people get convinced that their way of reform is the only way things are going to get better, and instead of focusing on the schools, people focus more on proving their point and solution and disproving others.  Finding the solution to school reform should not be a competition, but a collaborative endeavor to improve our schools and help our students become successful members of society. 

4.  One area in English that I need to learn more about is grammar and then teaching grammar.  I have found many websites that are beneficial in learning more about grammar and gives you techniques to teach it.  One website it the Guide to Grammar and Writing.  This website give you tips and lessons on sentence parts, punctuation, paragraph construction, help in writing essays and research papers, and different teacher resources.  The power points were very helpful in breaking down the different parts of speech and all the exceptions that go along with it.  I also learned more about diagraming sentences.  I have never been good at diagraming sentences and this website gave a great over view and examples of different types of diagraming.  Another website I found helpful was Grammar Girl.  I looked up the difference between “I” and “Me”.  I learned about how people commonly make mistakes between these two and gives great examples to explain the difference.  I think this website is great for brushing up on grammar, and you can also hear her explain common grammar misconception on her podcast. 

Website: Guide to Grammar and Writing and Grammar Girl

Book: Teaching and Learning Grammar by: Jeremy Harmer

Article: Re-thinking grammar: the impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ metalinguistic understanding.

5.  One article that I thought was useful in learning about student motivation to read was: What teachers can learn about reading motivation through conversations with children. This article discussed the different motivators of students and based its data on actual conversations with students.  Some of the factors that motivated children were the knowledge gained by reading, whether the students had a choice in the text, if the book had something to do with their personal interests, if a friend recommended the book, or if the book was given to them by a teacher or a family member.  This is helpful to know when talking about motivation because it shows that the same things are not going to motivate every student.  This is important when coming up with lessons plans.  Differentiating instruction is important when planning lessons, because you need to make sure you your lesson address all the different types of learners, but I see now that it is also important to address the different motivations of the students and to try to incorporate them into the lesson.  This study was done on elementary school children, and I would like to see if these motivations change, as the children get older.  I have not seen yet a lot of research done with high school students and their motivation to read.  This study was helpful in learning how readers start out and how that can impact their future lives as readers.

Another article that was useful in learning about student motivation was the article: Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why some Middle Schoolers Just Say No.  This was helpful because it focused on why a lot of middle school students do not like to read. Most of the students who said they did not enjoy reading also reported their parents did not enjoy reading as well.  This article discusses that according to this research there are four types of readers.  There area avid readers, dormant readers, uncommitted readers, unmotivated readers, and unskilled readers.  This article was helpful in learning about why some students have grown up not enjoying reading, which would then help teachers figure out ways to hopefully remedy this.  This study was done with middle school students, and I would like to see if the reasons change when the students get to high school.  

Responded to:

Erin Bindley
Taylor Francheschi
Kristen Harper