In the article we read this week we learned about our educational system, and can we develop our students into critical thinkers? I agree with a lot of the points this article makes we need to ask the students to question their experience. They need to tell us how they learned about something. It isn't good for students just to regurgitate information, and then spill it out on a test. They will never learn that way because once they do that they will just forget about everything that they have learned. Students need to challenge their education, and make sure they are actually learning something. Their teachers have a big part to do with this if they aren't doing their job these students will never get the education they need. In our FNED class we are learning to think critically every time we participate in class. Whenever Dr. Bogad asks us, "Was that your opinion, his opinion, or both?" She is making us think, and she won't just give us notes and expect us to memorize them because that won't do anything for us. The exercise we did in class with the worksheet, and the extremely easy questions is a good example of this I think because that worksheet was so simple that we should've been offended. That is why we crumpled it up, and threw it on the ground afterwards. We were just pretty much copying and pasting from that article and writing it on a piece of paper. We weren't learning anything. She was trying to make that point clear to us, and that's not how we should learn or teach students in the future since we are all going to become teachers.
I definitely think this article connects to the article we read on tracking by Jeannie Oakes. I think it connects because some students won't get the same education as other students because they are placed in classrooms based on their ability. They will get the type of learning where they will just have to memorize things, and take notes from a teacher lecturing. They won't get the same education as some of the higher level students. That is why tracking can be very controversial. From this article I also learned that students need to not just learn from the classroom. They need to learn from outside the classroom, and bring their own way of learning to the classroom. All students have different ways of learning, and it is the teachers job to make sure that the student gets to use their own way of learning, and not just the same thing every class. By doing the same typical thing taking notes and memorizing them, and then regurgitating them onto a piece of paper for a test, and then forgetting about it all. No one can ever learn from that.
My placement teacher at Roger Williams Middle School does a great job with her students in my opinion. I think that because she is not that typical teacher who just has students memorize everything from her notes. She wants them to become critical thinkers. So, on most math tests, quizzes, worksheets, etc... she has them do math problems, and she has them explain everything that they do in a couple of sentences. This makes them try to have an understanding of what they are doing, and so they can explain it to the teacher. I like this method because most math teachers wouldn't have them write explanations they would just have them do the math problems, and they would either get it right or wrong. I am definitely going to incorporate this method into my class, so I know they students will have the knowledge of what they are doing, and so they will be able to explain it in words, and that will help them become critical thinkers. This may be tough for students because math is a tough subject for students to become critical thinkers.
Again from this article I learned that students education needs to be taken beyond the classroom. From our Promising Practices Event I learned from Dr. Dana Fusco's Keynote Address that after school activities can be very important in youth development. This connects to this article in my opinion because doing after school activities takes learning beyond the classroom, and it is a fun more hands-on way that students can learn. Its great to have after school programs at all schools. I worked in an after school program before its called PASA which stands for Providence After School Alliance. It is a great program to get students involved with many different things. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article I learned a lot about how students need to be critical thinkers, and it has to do with the teachers. "Whether teachers deviate from the official syllabus, teachers make numerous decisions- themes, texts, tests, seating arrangements, rules for speaking, grading systems, learning process, and so on." This was an important quote I thought from our article. From these choices teachers make it shows how things can be defined as critical or uncritical. Again teaching needs to go beyond the classroom, and there are many factors that go into making sure students become critical thinkers. That website I put there talks about critical thinking for higher education, and I found it very interesting. There are different workshops, and courses you can look at that can help you in the future! Here is a video of a man Dr. Richard Paul who talks about critical thinking.
Comments: I know that I have not become a critical thinker throughout most of my high school and college experience so far. This is the first class that I actually feel like I am. High school never prepared me for this I feel. I always had to take notes, and memorize everything. In college I am still doing this. Professors just lecture, and we just take notes as quickly as we can. I don't learn from that! It is very hard for me to learn from a professor who just stands there and talks for the whole two hours. At least in this class we are getting involved and actually learning something. A lot of professors I have taken don't care about our education they make as easy as possible. But, we don't learn anything. We should feel offended by this because we want to make sure we get the educations we need since we are going to become teachers. It is OK to have a very easy class once in a while, who doesn't like easy once in a while? When it comes down to it we want to learn everything we can especially if you are becoming a teacher in a designated area like math, English, science... etc. That's why I always try to get good professors for math classes that I know I can learn well from. At this point I know my way of learning, and I like how I figure things out and problem solve. I am learning to become a good critical thinker and that is all I can ask for. What does everyone think about some of the professors at RIC that are so easy that we don't learn anything? Do you think it is good or bad? How can we change this? Comment and let me know what you think!
For my Pol 201 class my group and I had to read an article by Martin Luther King Jr. The article was called, "Martin Luther King, Where do We Go From Here?" It was a speech given by MLK JR. that was about African Americans, and how poorly they were treated. It also talked a lot about racism, and how the African American was often left behind. They thought that because they overcame slavery there was no more racism anymore, but there still is. So, my part in my group was to connect this document and how it related to today's current events. Immediately the first thing I thought of was the video that we watched about the book "Between Barack and a Hard Place" by Tim Wise. I could relate the speech by MLK Jr. to current events today because people think that just because we have a black president today that there is no more racism. this isn't true there is still racism today, but there is a different kind. Barack Obama is a well educated man, and African Americans will think that they have to be just as smart as him to accomplish something. Those African Americans will be judged, and treated poorly if they don't have the same amount of knowledge that Barack Obama has. This shows that today even with our first black president we still have racism, and African Americans can still be treated poorly even though we know it is wrong. I also related it to how Tim Wise talked about racism 1.0 and racism 2.0. We have overcome racism 1.0, but now we have to put an end to this new kind of racism also known as racism 2.0. I think it is really cool how we can be learning things that are completely different in other classes, but we can still find connections between them. Here is the link to the speech that MLK JR. gave if you are interested in reading it.
This video shows excerpts from MLK Jr's speech check it out!
Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome by: Christopher Kliewer
Talking Points #10
Reflection:
At the beginning of Kliewer's article we heard about Mia Peterson's story, and how she had to take special education classes pretty much all her life. When she wanted to be in other classes that actually interested her, and it upset her. I can make a connection to the article we read about Finn last week because the kids in Chicago were put into classes based on their test scores, and some did not like it. It isn't fair for kids whether they have down syndrome or whether they should be placed in higher level classes who actually want to get an education. I really feel for Mia if she wants to be in different classes why shouldn't she be. She shouldn't be treated differently from any other students just because she has down syndrome! I think Mia's story is great because after finishing school in segregated placements she went back to take classes that were denied from her at first. This story alone proves that people with down syndrome can do anything anyone else can do.
In this article they talk about how people with down syndrome should not be judged, and I like/agree with that. These students may have down syndrome, but just because of that they shouldn't be judged. Just like everyone else in the world shouldn't be judged. What I learned from the Promising Practices event is that we need to create safe spaces for; not only lgbt students; but for students with down syndrome too! When Kliewer talked about Schooling and Democracy in the article he mentioned something that Douglas Biklen outlined. He said that schools act as cultural sorting machines. I completely agree with that they will place kids in classes based on their ability, gender, ethnicity, and race. I think this is wrong how they just throw kids in classes based on those types of cultural things. They should be placed where they think they should be, and where students want to be. Students need to be placed in classes that interest them. This is why I feel like everything before college was not interesting at all because in high school we never really had the choice of what classes to take. Now, in college we have our major and what we want to learn, and we can take the classes of our choosing. We still have to take gen eds too, but college is definitely a step up from high school in my opinion.
My favorite part of the article comes when he talks about Shayne Robbin's classroom. In their school they didn't place students based on their abilities or whether they have down syndrom or not. In each class they had about 10-16 students of multiple ages and ability levels. In her class she had had 6 students identified as disabled, and the other ten were identified as not disabled. This is a great school I think because students with a disability or down syndrome should not be placed into special classes because it has been proved that they can do just as well as any other student. I think all schools should be like this in the world. I don't think it would effect anyone from what they need to learn. I think what Shayne did with her classroom is inspirational because having a mix of students is not the easiest task, but she gave focus on each child in the class and gave goals for each child. Especially, with her student Isaac and his love for reading. Issac's love of reading and his capacity to decipher printed language was an important bridge in the community, and Shayne helped him through that. Proving that classes with mixes of students can work, and each student can get the individual attention they need and still achieve the goals they set out to do.
I also like the part when Gardner notes about mathematics, and math teachers. Gardner through his research has come up with seven valued patterns that are very important in my opinion. These seven patterns would help students with their problem solving. According to gardner, 5 out of these 7 patterns are neglected in our schools. I think if they were implemented students would do so much better, and they could learn to problem solve a lot better. My placement teacher is trying to implement a similar kind of thing in her classroom. She tells the students to struggle that is the only way to problem solve, and I agree I think it helps. If these students don't stuggle at all they will never learn, and I think that is an important concept for all teachers to learn.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article, and I think that students with down syndrome shouldn't be treated any differently than anyone else. The stories in this article are very inspirational, and it goes to show you that anything can happen whether you have down syndrome or not! I found this article online that talks about school placement's for students with Down Syndrome and I think it is very interesting. Also, the video below shows how people with down syndrome can do anything they put their mind to, and what they are proud of, and what they accomplished.
Comments: In my comments this week I want to know what you guys think about students with down syndrome. Do you think that students should be placed in non special education classes? Do you think they should have the choice to be in the classrooms they desire? I think they should. They can accomplish anything anyone else could. I think some of these stories are really inspirational. This article can be very helpful for anyone I think who wants to accomplish something. You can do anything you put your mind to!
On Saturday, November 3rd I attended the Promising Practices Conference at RIC for the first time. At first, I wasn't looking forward to attending this conference, but when the day was over I actually really enjoyed myself and learned a lot throughout the day. The first part of the conference; after the opening remarks; was the Keynote Address given by Dr. Dana Fusco. Some of the things that I learned from Dana Fusco's Keynote Address was mostly about youth development. Which is what most of the conference had to do with in the first place. Since I am going to become a teacher this is a very important topic for me to learn about. The first thing that I learned about was simply what is youth development? Youth development is a combination of maturation and learning both biological and behavioral. Thriving is very important in youth development. Child and youth programs can provide a healthy ecology for thriving, and so can classrooms. There were 8 characteristics that she taught us about that students, and teachers should follow. The first was Physical and Psychological safety. You as a teacher have to make sure that the students are safe, and that they feel safe. Second, make sure there is the appropriate structure. Third, Support for Efficacy and Mattering. What that means is that you have to make sure that each student matters. You have to make them matter! Fourth, make sure there is opportunities for skill building. Fifth, you have to grow supportive relationships. Sixth, give the students opportunities to belong. Seventh, include positive social norms. Lastly, the integration of family, school, and community efforts. That is the most important characteristic in youth development because you have to make sure that everyone is involved not just the students and the teachers. The parents and the community are a big part of youth development as well. That was my favorite part of Dr. Dana Fusco's Keynote Address because I really learned a lot about youth development in a different way. One of the next things that I learned in Dr. Fusco's address that I thought was very important was about how school sometimes isn't enough. This part of the address taught us how after school programs and activities really help children. Some of the reasons why it helps is because it helps the children build relationships with other students or teachers. It also helps because it involves a lot of hands on activities, and children have more fun while learning doing hands on activities in my opinion. Another thing you could do is culminate events that celebrate the student's accomplishments. I think this ties in again with making the students matter from one of the eight characteristics that we learned about. I think that because the more we have kids to have wonderful ideas it helps them feel good about themselves. According to Dr. Fusco, that is very important, and I agree with her making children feel good about themselves is very important in youth development. Before this address I have never heard about the Urban Youth Collaborative. The Urban Youth Collaborative is a student-led coalition that unites low-income students of color across New York. I thought it was very interesting to hear about that as well. Overall, I learned a lot about Youth Development from Dr. Dana Fusco's Keynote Address, and I thought she presented it very well. There is this website that I found that helped me explain the meaning of youth development. Here is a video that I thought was very interesting about the Urban Youth Collaborative, and how they hold a silent rally to protest the lack of student voice.
After the keynote address was over we were sent off to the two workshops that we signed up for. The first workshop that I attended was called "If You're Safe and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." This workshop was taught by Dr. Gerri August who is also an FNED professor here at RIC. I would know because I actually signed up for her FNED class a while back, but I ended up dropping out of it. Anyways, the first thing that we learned about was Safe Spaces. We had to discuss in our groups what we thought the definition of a Safe Space was. As a class we came up with that a Safe Space is a judgement free zone, and a place where you can be yourself. I was in a group with Genesis, Kaela, and Vanessa, and we told Dr. August about how we learned about SCWAAMP, and we thought it tied in with the idea of Safe Spaces. The actual definition of safe space is that safe spaces provide physical, social, and psychological freedom for all youth. Youth need more than physical security they also need a sense of belonging, a settled confidence that their contributions are valued. I think this compares with Dr. Dana Fusco's keynote address about youth development because all youth need to feel like they belong, and I also agree with that. Any student that acknowledges themselves as a member of LGBT should always feel like they belong, and they should have a safe place where they can go, and not feel like they are being judged. For those of you that don't know or don't remember LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders. This connects to what we did in class first because of SCWAAMP, and second when we watched the video It's Elementary. I think that connects because it is the first video that shows how students are taught about Gay's and Lesbian's. It teaches them about the stereotypes, and learn interesting things about the LGBT community. It teaches them to not bully, and help create safe spaces for them as well. It was a great video, and it definitely connects to what we learned during this workshop. We also learned about climate control, and no its not what you think. There was an "equation" that she gave us that I thought was very interesting. The equation was Designed Measures+Dynamic Responses= A respectful and Inclusive Climate. We learned that designed measures are: policies, physical environment, and professional development. We also learned that dynamic responses are: interventions, invitations, and inclusive language. There was a quote that Dr. August gave us that said, "Policies offer structure within which a human rights violation can be remedied." What this is trying to say is that they are NEVER NEUTRAL!
The last thing that we learned about was the enumerated anti-bullying laws. We learned about the no promo homo laws and laws that prohibit enumeration. There are many states that have the no promo homo laws. If you are wondering what the no promo homo laws are I found an article off GLSEN that explains it very well, and it helped me understand it as well. Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop about safe spaces, and I really learned a lot. It was a little bit boring, but overall I really enjoyed attending this workshop. I found this toolkit that teaches you about creating safe spaces with a lot of click-ables, you should check it out.
The second workshop that I attended was called, "Preventing Transgender Bullying Before Children are 6, 7, or 8 by using Transgender Friendly Picture Books." The woman who taught this workshop was Elizabeth Rowell. She had to be the most energetic, adorable woman I have ever met. She made this workshop so interesting, and with her energy and enthusiasm she kept our attention throughout the whole time, and plus it was a very interesting topic. You could tell she was very enthusiastic about this topic especially through the way that she presented it. In this workshop we learned about how children are physically bullied because they do not play with toys that are meant for their gender. Also, transgender boys are more frequently bullied. For example, a 4 year old boy was pushed off of playground equipment because he was playing with a barbie doll. Another thing that I learned was that gender nonconforming students are more likely to be called names, be made fun of, be ignored, be excluded, and are bullied at least once during school. In LGBT the "T" is usually left out, and the T stands for transgendered. You can stop the bullying by working with young children through anti-bullying activities because transgender bullying starts when they are that young. We need to stick up for those students who are being bullied! Most transgender adults knew prior to six years old that they were in the wrong body. Dr. Rowell used the story of Call me Kade to describe that experience. Call me Kade is about a girl named Kade Collins who is a female to male transgendered person. This video shows the story of Kade, and it is really very interesting you should watch it.
You probably are thinking why should we think about young children and the transgender experience? We should think about it because it is part of them! It is part of their families, their school experience, and our society. 1% of the population is transgendered. Each gender variant child is different. Books can be very important for a transgendered child. Books can be like mirrors because they are powerful. A well selected book can be powerful for helping young children understand themselves and others. Some of the books she told us about had a specific transgender audience. The books that she told us about that were focused for transgender girls were: 10,000 Dresses and Be Who You Are. Some books that focused on Transgender Boys were: Backwards Day and When Kathy is Keith. Also, here are a few other books that were brought up during the workshop: Jesse's Dream Skirt, My Princess Boy, and All I Want to be is Me. Those are just some of the books that she mentioned there are many more. If you are interested in reading them there are a lot at the RIC library. Now, you are probably wondering using these pictures what can you do with these picture books. She told us many things you could do while using these books, you could have discussions, role playing, and get them hooked on helping others. Which also is anti-bias which means recognize and accept their differences. What I learned from this conference I can connect to the article we read called, "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" by Peggy Orenstein. I connect it to that article because it talked about how if children were allowed to choose what toys they could play with they would choose toys that were meant for the opposite sex. There is nothing wrong about that kids should be able to play with whatever they want, and they shouldn't feel any different because of that. There was also the story in the article of a bias father who refused to buy his son a tutu, but he got his daughter a set of hot wheels. There should be no bias between you're children. If your son wants a tutu let him have a tutu. Like I said earlier kids know prior to the age of six that they are in the wrong body. I thought that connected because a part of the workshop we learned about anti-bias. Here is an article that I found about a transgendered child that I thought was very interesting that ties in with this workshop. Overall, I really enjoyed this workshop because I learned a lot about transgendered children, and how to teach students about it in a fun way using picture books. The professor that gave this presentation really did a great job which made it even more enjoyable. It was definitely my favorite workshop of the day.
The last part of the conference was our lunch and "unconference." During the "unconference" Dr. Bogad's ALLIED group gave a presentation. They talked about what Cultural Competency was, and how to be a culturally competent youth worker. There are ten characteristics that they talked about that showed how to be a culturally competent youth worker. The first thing was to know yourself. The second was learn about others. Third, you need to see the individual. Fourth, Don't assume! The first thing that comes to my mind when you assume is that you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me." Fifth, diversity day is not enough. Sixth, use culturally relevant examples. Seventh, don't ask the youth to divest of their cultural practices. I can connect this point to code-switching which we learned about in the article we read called, "Teaching Multilingual Children" by Virginia Collier. Code-switching is the switching between two or more languages in the context of a single conversation. Code-switching by students should be accepted, and not penalized. Which is what the speaker from ALLIED was trying to say in my opinion. You could also compare Rodriguez to this point they were trying to make because you shouldn't try to take a student away from their first language to learn the public language. The eighth characteristic is to ask for learn and preferred names. If a student wants to be called something other than their real name they should do it. In our FNED class we did the name-tags, so we would be called by what we wanted. Also, most professors at RIC for the most part ask what your preferred name is, and they make note of it which is a good thing. Ninth, you have to create safe spaces. I learned about safe spaces from my first workshop. Lastly, you must be humble! Here is another article that I found that talks about cultural competence in youth development that had to do with the presentation that ALLIED gave. I thought the ALLIED group gave a great presentation, and I learned a lot from it. The last part of the conference, and the second part of the unconference we heard a few guest speakers, and we had a few prompts given to us at each of our tables to look at and discuss with each other. That was my least favorite part of the day because I didn't find it helpful or informative of what we did during the day. When some members from our class went up to the microphone to speak I thought that was pretty cool, and when we just had discussions as a whole cafeteria I thought that went better, and it was more fun. From this conference I learned that this event has to do a lot with what we learned in FNED. First, we learned about youth development, and that is something very important that we have to learn since most of us are going to be teachers. Second, I learned a lot about safe spaces, the LGBT community, and Transgender children that also has to do with our class because we learned that its not ok to judge people that are different. We should make them feel welcome, and we used the GLSEN website, and the video It's Elementary to help us do that. Lastly, we learned what it was like to be a culturally competent youth worker. Which has a big part to do with our class because of our Service Learning project, and the school that we tutor in. So, that will help us when we return to our placement school for the last few times. We also had our cultural competency paper which helped me have a little understanding of this topic as well. Overall, I really enjoyed attending the Promising Practices Conference; I didn't think I would at first; but I really had a good time with the whole class, and I look forward to going again next year!
Finn was part of a very big Irish family that included eight other brothers and sisters. Between his father and his brothers Finn was the only one not to become a plumber. He was the only one that graduated high school and eventually went on to a teaching school to become a teacher.
His first teaching job was in a black neighborhood in the south side of Chicago teaching eigth graders. At that school their classes got divided by their reading levels from highest scores to lowest scores. This reminds me of my service learning placement at the middle school that I tutor at. The students are placed in certain math classes based on their math NECAP scores. Low scorers are placed in Trans-Math, middle scorers are placed in Core Math and V-Math, and higher scorers are placed in Algebra. That is definitely comparable to the way they split up the reading classrooms that Finn taught in at his school. Here is an interesting article that I found that shows what a teacher can encounter with different levels of academic ability in a classroom.
The way Finn ran his classes seems almost exactly like how my placement teacher, Mrs Terry teachers her class. He said, "I had work assignments on the board when the students entered the classroom, and so there wasn't a moment when they didn't have anything to do." My placement teacher also does the same thing. She has a board called the "Do Now" board, so when the children walk into the classroom the first thing they have to do is look up at the do now board, and do the problem or problems that are written on it. She also does that so there is never a moment when the students are doing nothing there is always something that they could be working on just like Finn does in his class. I think a thing like the "do now board" is a great thing to have in the classroom, and more teachers should implement that into their classrooms as well. That part of the article was definitely my favorite part of the article because it showed me what it was like to be a teacher in a tough area. It also showed me how you can make an impact on students.
Comments:
Finn's strategies are very similar to my placement teacher's strategies. So, I have definitely have learned a lot between my placement teacher, and from Finn in this article. I think with the right teachers and the right motivation lower-class schools can be just as good as upper-class schools. With a teacher like Finn there is definitely a chance for it to go in the right direction. Lastly, I think that is a good thing that students are placed in classes with students of similar ability, so that a teacher can adjust, and go at the same pace for the whole classroom. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article, and I learned a lot from it.
Between Barack and a Hard Place by: Tim Wise
Separate and Unequal by: Bob Hebert
Talking Points #8
Connections:
Brown vs. Board of Education happened on May 5, 1954 when the Supreme court declared state laws saying that separte schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. Separate educational facilities are unequal according to Bob Hebert. This came to an end by the fearless efforts of lawyers, community activists, parents, and students. Now, we think that racism has come to an end, but according to Tim Wise racism has not come to an end. Wise says that we beat out racism 1.0 which is like "old school" racism, but we have to be on the lookout for racism 2.0.
Connection to Kozol
I found a connection between Wise and Kozol. In Kozol we talked about the metaphor "a bandaid on a broken leg." I see the same connection when I watched to video about between Barack and a Hard Place. In Kozol, they were giving out condoms and clean needles to the residents of Mott Haven, and that is like putting a bandaid on a broken leg. It is implying that people can still have sex, and they won't spread disease. There is the chance that the disease could spread anyways, so that wasn't the answer. I'm relating it to Wise because everyone thinks that just because Obama was elected President that racism will come to an end completely and that's not true. Obama is very well educated, and is a very smart man. So, all black people think that they have to have the same level of knowledge as him. This concerns wise because now there can be racism of African Americans who excel in knowledge and those who don't. This is like a bandaid on a broken leg because it has created a new kind of racism because Obama is so intelligent, so the world sees that everyone else must have to be intelligent too. Wise wants to show that a normal person whether they are well educated or not have the same opportunities to do great things like Barack Obama. Connection to Johnson I also see a connection to Johnson because Wise talks about how white people can be very oblivious. Whites are in denial about the problem of racism. When asked 63% of white people would say there is no problem with racism towards black people today. I'm relating this to Johnson because he talked about "the luxury of obliviousness." He said that white people are rarely aware of the privileges that they have. White people are unaware of the privileges they have they don't have to deal with this type of racism. White people are in denial of the problem, and they think there is no instances of racism in the world today and that is because they are unaware of the privileges that they have. When clearly there is still racism! According to Wise, 6 out of 10 white people said black people are less intelligent, more agressive, less hardworking, and less patriotic. Also, 75% of white people thought black people want to live on welfare, so they don't have to work. I think using the same examples this could also be connected to Delpitusing the same examples. Delpit says, those with power are frequently least aware or least willing to acknowledge its existence. White people aren't going to admit or state if they think there is still racism today. A lot of them think there is no problem, and that is because they are just in denial, according to Wise. There is definitely a connection to both Johnson and Delpit in the video of Tim Wise "Between Barack and a Hard Place." Here is an article I found that I thought tied in with how white people can be oblivious to racism.
Comments: I'm curious has anyone seen any instances of racism today? At school? At work?...etc. Or do you think everyone is oblivous to it too? Anyways in my comments I wanted to bring up the article by Bob Herbert. He says that it is difficult for students to have good results in school with high poverty. I think we know that from our service learning. We can also see how there is high levels of poverty in our schools too. According to his article and research, lower class students do better academically if they are placed in schools with middle class peers, and are just in an overall better enviroment. Do you think that would work if we put the students we work with in a different school that has little or no showing of poverty? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
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