Literacy With an Attitude (Finn, 1999)


Image result for schools and obedience


 Talking Points
  • Students in working class schools were not held to high standards (mechanical and routine) by teachers; seen as lazy; not challenged just because they were from working class families; Knowledge not connected to the lives and experiences of students.
    • Working class school – dominant theme --> resistance
  • Students middle class schools, knowledge was not connected to the students' lives and experiences.  Students have some decision making, some figuring; The work rarely called for creativity.
    • Middle class school – dominant theme --> possibility
  • Students in affluent professional schools, creativity and personal development were important goals; a lot of current events; Open to discovery; School knowledge as having relevance to life’s problems.
    • Affluent professional school – dominant theme --> individualism with minor theme of humanitarianism
  • Students in executive elite schools, knowledge was academic, intellectual, and rigorous.  Reasoning and problem solving were important. Little questioning of the status quo; more autonomy.
    • Executive elite school – dominant theme --> excellence; preparation for being the best.
  • "Anyon's study supports the findings of earlier observers that in American schools children of managers and Owners are rewarded for initiative and assertiveness, while children of the working-class are rewarded for docility and obedience and punished for initiative and assertiveness" (Finn, 1999, p. 20).
  • Peterson – connections built between the topics and the students’ lives and the broader world around them; relating to life; models social responsibility; small group problem solving and community circles to build mutual respect, communication, group decision making, and cooperation.

 Argument Statement

 The author argues that teachers need to be allies with their working class students in order for them to gain and use the knowledge and literacy skills that can help them make gains in social justice and equality.  Schools/teachers are enabling the status quo and in order to be a part of working class students gain more power, curriculum and methods needs to be:
Image result for schools and obedience
  • grounded in the lives of students
  • critical; designed to enable students to ask critical questions
  • activist
  • rigorous
  • participatory and experimental
  • hopeful, kind, and visionary, and
  • powerful literacy and school discourse are taught explicitly

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Other People's Children (Delpit, 2006)

Image
Talking Points People of color feel silenced when it comes to their opinions and  experiences  about educating children.  White people nod and listen, but don’t actually hear. People of color do end up just stopping talking because they don’t feel like what they are saying is being valued. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquired power easier   Explicit telling of “rules” of the culture is much easier for someone not in the culture of power, to learn the rules. Immersion is a difficult way to learn. Students need a mixture of direct (structured) instruction (academic and behavioral expectations) as well as  time  where they are allowed to show their own expert knowledge Argument Statement “Students must be  taught  the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American life, not by being force to attend to hollow, inane, and ...
Read more

Project Proposal

Color Insight vs. Color Blindness I plan to teach a small group of my colleagues about power privilege and difference in American culture, including in schools.  I also plan to teach them how color insight is the better version of color blindness.   I think because we teach such a diverse group of students it is very important for our teachers to understand that seeing our students’ color needs to be a priority in order to validate their life experiences. We as teachers also need to be aware of how privilege exists and teach our students about it in order to work towards dismantling it. I plan to create a power point presentation that uses the readings of Johnson (2001) and Armstrong and Wildman (2013) to teach these concepts.
Read more

Color Insight not Colorblindness & Black Lives Matter (too)

Image
In Armstrong and Wildman’s 2013 article  Colorblindness is the New Racism, the authors argue that colorblindness is an ineffective way to view the issues of race in the United States.  The term colorblindness works for Whites because their race is the assumptive norm.  I understand how the term colorblindness on the surface might seem to some Whites like a positive thing; that they are colorblind meaning they don’t see race and they see everyone as humans and believe that everyone should be treated equally. However, saying you are ‘colorblind’ just enforces the privilege that Whites have, not having to think about race. “The failure to acknowledge racial reality in the United States reinforces and solidifies existing racial inequality and white privilege. So seeing race for Whites must mean more than merely noticing whiteness; Whites need to learn about its accompanying privilege” (Armstrong & Wildman, 2013, p. 67). Armstrong and Wildman (2013)...
Read more