Blog #5

                When reading the two articles involving Standard English and tracking, I really became aware of the many issues that are presented in the classroom and realized that some type of change needs to be made soon! In the article about Standard English, I could connect with the author on the topic of being put on the spot in the classroom and that uneasy feeling. No student should be made to feel this way and I think it happens more often than not in today’s classroom. The quote “The problem is that every time I pause, I stop the momentum of my thinking. I’m no longer pursuing content, no longer engaged in trying to persuade or entertain or clarify” really summed up the type of reaction students experience when they are constantly corrected about their mistakes made. They lose all focus on the reading material and don’t get the overall purpose of the book, which doesn’t test their comprehension skills. This creates more of an issue for students overall! I think as teachers we really need to think about what we teach in the classroom and analyze whether our students are really engaged in the learning. We have to be able to show them changes they may need to make and where to find them, but at the same time show them that it is okay to be wrong and that we learn from our mistakes. I liked the author’s idea about sharing lessons and how after the students write, they listen to each other’s stories in a read aloud circle so that everyone has a chance to share and learn from each other. I think this activity would be great to incorporate but it would be very important that you have a comfortable classroom environment for it to be successful. I think that it’s great that students can relate to one another and find connections with each other. This helps them grow not only mentally, but socially as well.

                In regards to the article about tracking, I was shocked by a lot of what I read. I knew that tracking existed before but I didn’t know much about it. The first thing that stood out to me was when it talked about how students participate in different educational experiences depending on the social hierarchy within the school. Often the advanced students read things that the low-level students never get to experience. Why do we not expose these lower-level students to these materials and help teach them the skills they need to be able to understand these novels? Another point that stood out strongly to me was when it said “Many of the students who come from remedial or regular classes are bright. But the abilities they bring to class often go unrecognized because they aren’t the skills traditional education has prized”. I think that often these students have skills that teachers are surprised to find. I believe that these students keep what they know hidden because they view themselves as “bad students” or “dumb” because this has been reinforced to them throughout their school years. They often have other strengths, which should be built upon.

                How about the quote “Often the most creative students in my mixed-ability classes are the students who have not succeeded in school…They are risk-takers”. When I read this, I immediately began thinking that the “advanced” students can often learn useful lessons and skills from the low-level students which often time teachers only view it as the other way around. I believe that as a teacher, we should use this variety of learning abilities as a strength to teaching instead of viewing it as a weakness.  The article also discussed about how many view classrooms with low-level students as “rowdy” places, however when the expectations are clear and critical thinking is involved students are not as likely to act out. This made me think about how these students are often bored with grades and the typical schoolwork given. Shouldn’t this aspect ultimately help us to become better teachers by requiring us to change our teaching methods from the ever so common traditional ways and step outside of the established boundaries? Some other things I liked were the fact that she read fewer novels in her classroom because she decided to go more in depth with the novels they read. I really like this idea because students can gain a stronger understanding of a story. It also teaches students the importance of quality over quantity! One thing really stood out to me towards the end however about tracking. It talked about how tracking enables systems of inequality that lead to unequal education. We ultimately want to teach in our classroom the power of diversity and how inequality is wrong, so why are we continuing to use methods in today’s classrooms that promote inequality? Shouldn’t we be modeling what we are truly teaching about? I think that is a message that many educators need to step back and think about.

                I learned a lot about literature circles as well, when I really thought I knew all there was to know about them already. I learned how by using this type of strategy in the classroom, it can help to improve student achievement scores which is a great aspect. Also, they are very useful for all types of learners and they help to increase not only the fun of reading but also help with multicultural awareness, gender equity, and social outlet connections! WOW!

                Another thing I came to realize was how literature circles can be even more powerful without the role sheets being used. I remember doing literature circles in 5^th grade and even at the upper levels with the worksheets. After everyone in the groups read what role sheets they were assigned, the discussion seemed to go dead and we all thought that we were done for the day. I think that by not having role sheets, discussion may be easier to come by and it will seem like more natural “conversation”. Perhaps you could have the students fill out their sheets and then collect them to make sure they were complete while they had their discussions. This way, you could still make sure that the students were prepared for discussion and that they had something to say, yet the actual literature circle wasn’t so much of just reading from papers. It would be more of a conversation setting. Even if you used a different type of assignment as a participation grade, such as journaling, instead of role sheets, but something should be required of students.

                The chapter talked about the eleven key ingredients to literature circles which seemed to be how the literature circles I participated in school seemed to run. It was neat to read over these however and gain an understanding of why each ingredient is seen and how it benefits the students. Just a few of the reasons that I think that literature circles are great to use at any level are that it helps create strong critical thinking skills, encourages risk-taking, helps to focus in on student’s needs better, and shows how diverse groups can work together effectively. All of this can help give students the skills they need to be a better student and learner overall. I couldn’t agree more with the chapter when it explains that balance is the key. I think this is important with any teaching method. Lastly, I really liked the idea of incorporating online book clubs into the classroom. This is awesome because it includes technology that students are very involved with. You could use this as a type of activity to try with students after doing an example of a literature circle in the classroom. They may then begin to see that it is something that can be seen as a fun activity outside of the classroom. I’m not sure how you could manipulate this though for students without access to technology at home? Perhaps you could offer something like an after-school program or something along those lines?

                I think that literature circles are very powerful and also help with the problem of tracking discussed in the articles read about. I think that all teachers and schools should use this type of teaching strategy at some point in their classrooms! I know I can’t wait to incorporate this into my teaching and I hope that it can be as effective as it was for myself when I experienced it in school. In my use of this technique however, I would like to draw away from the worksheet roles and think of new, creative roles or activities for students to get into. Maybe have students create their own type of roles since they often know what things they really enjoy. I have so many different ideas that I would love to put into practice now!