Random Post #1

Getting to a very busy time in the semester. Can't wait til this is all done and I can stop worrying! To add to my business, I went to my service learning this morning. I saw some interesting connections with some of the recent readings that we had gone over in the last couple weeks. When I got into the class in the morning the teacher was doing a great activity with the students that sort of challenged the ideas of Jean Anyon. She talked about that in lower/ working class schools like the one I'm doing my service learning in the sort of education being given is very structured and formatted around rules. She stated that in these schools there wasn't much creative expression and thought encouraged for the students.

However, the teacher was doing an activity in which she was reading a chapter of a book to her kids. After she read the chapter, she asked the students to answer a few questions, but they weren't clear cut right or wrong questions. She asked the students things like, "What do you think about the characters, and what do you think they are feeling" or "What do you think will happen next?" By asking these questions and not simple stuff like "what is the setting" etc, the teacher is valuing the critical thought and the students' opinion. This challenges the ideas of Anyon of the lower class classrooms. When I am a teacher, I would like to do activities like the ones my teacher were doing, ones that create curiosity and develop critical thought with my students.