Literacy with an Attitude

Literacy with an Attitude by: Patrick Finn

Talking Points #9

Reflection:

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.