Mind the Gap: Session 2

For our second class meeting, we began reading The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch. So far I am enjoying the book and learning a lot about the history of educational reform. In chapter 1, Ravitch makes a number of provocative statements. Here are two that stood out to me:

• "In my writings, I have consistently warned that, in education, there are no shortcuts, no utopias, and no silver bullets" (Ravitch 3).

  

  "School reformers sometimes resemble the characters in Dr. Seuss's Solla Sollew, who are always searching for that mythical land 'where they never have troubles, at least very few'" (Ravitch 3).

• I really liked what she says here about chasing rainbows and quick fixes. I think this is even more important to consider in our current society, where information is only an iPhone away. We are all guilty of confusing having information with being educated, and even very smart people are easily fooled into thinking the former is the latter. Someone might sound smart on a topic because they just read the wikipedia entry on it, but can that person think critically about the information in the wikipedia page? Can he analyze the quality of the data and have an informed discussion? As teachers, it is our responsibility to teach our students to do this, and to teach them not to take short cuts. But then again, if we are being given "quick fix" strategies to improve out students' test scores, it becomes more and more difficult to stay true to education for the sake of education.

• "We must be sure they are prepared for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship in a complex society. We must take care that out teachers are well-educated, not just well trained" (Ravitch 14).
• This also goes along with what I was saying above about being educated. It's not just about making sure students understand the symbolism in Lord of the Flies or that they can properly use the Pythagorean Theorem; it's about teaching them to be productive and worthwhile citizens. And that starts with having well-educated teachers who believe in the importance of a well-educated society. We can not expect more of our youth if we do not demonstrate what a "good citizen" is and instill its importance in school. This then raises the question "what is a good citizen," which is extremely difficult to answer, and not something everyone would agree on, so I'll save my commentary on that for another time.

In chapter 2, Ravitch expands on some of these ideas when she gives a description of a "well-educated" person. I loved her description, especially when she said, "Knowledge and skills are both important, as is learning to think, debate, and question" (Ravitch 16). Being educated is simply about learning how to think (see David Foster Wallace's This is Water speech in last week's blog). This means being able to absorb information from many different mediums; process the information; form  opinions; support opinions by drawing directly from the primary source, as well as other outside sources and personal experiences; communicate these opinions coherently and concisely in a respectful and open-minded manner; and finally, listen to others who may have different opinions and recognize the value in peoples' differences. Not an easy task, but one that we should all strive for every day.

Overall I found the class discussion of these chapters to be productive. I appreciated everyone's thoughts on determining teacher salaries, and think this is a really interesting issue that we could probably talk about all class period if we had the time. I made a quick comment about teacher evaluations and I would have liked to have talked more about how evaluations go at other schools and districts. I think the evaluation process at San Ramon is flawed and would have liked to share more of my experience and hear from my classmates about their own.

After our discussion of Ravitch, we moved on to brainstorming about gaps in our subject area. Jessica and I agreed that two main areas we could work on as high school English teachers are grammar and informational texts, especially "US seminal documents" as listed in the Common Core Standards. Here are some resources I found to help me with my knowledge of informational texts:

• Here is a website called "100 Milestone Documents," which is a list of 100 important documents in American history, and a link to each.
• I also found an article about how although common core is a set of standards, it is not necessarily a curriculum. I thought this article was really interesting and relevant because there is so much buzz around common core and teaching non-fiction texts, but there isn't a lot of talk about what texts to teach. How do I know which informational texts are going to be best for my students? Are these texts going to be provided for me, or do I need to find them myself? And if I need to find them myself, when am I going to find time to do that? Don't get me wrong, I like common core and am excited about the new direction, but I think this article brings up a good point. The blog teaching to the core has a nice beginning breakdown of what texts will be required.
• This is a book that was recommended to me by our school librarian. She thinks that text sets are going to be a big part of common core, and that they are a great way to incorporate informational texts in a relevant and meaningful way.
• I also found this powerpoint document on how to teach this standard in both English and History classes. Made and presented by two veteran high school English teachers, it has some good pedagogical ideas on how to incorporate these texts into the classroom.

Here are two additional resources I have included in my content wiki that have been helpful in deepening my subject matter knowledge:

• What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
• NOTE: This book is not really about dogs, but here's a picture of my puppy Kona just for fun.
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• This is a great resource for non-fiction articles and to discuss types of writing. Every single article in the book is full of detailed, well-researched information and it is presented in a straightforward way that high school students can understand. He is the author of several best selling books and is well regarded for his poignant and interesting research.
• These articles could lead to more research on a particular topic, both for me and my students. I could have my students read and annotate an article, and then perhaps have them write one of their own in Gladwell's style. They could also be used as part of a text set to group non-fiction, fiction, and other sources together in a meaningful way.
• I would definitely seek Gladwell out for more articles and books.
• I highly suggest reading some of his work (his book Outliers is fantastic), if not for school then just for pleasure. He is engaging and everyone can learn something from his writing.

• 40 Model Essays: A Portable Anthology by Jane Aaron
• This is a great resource on different types of writing. Not only does it have sample essays, it also talks about the process for writing each type. This book could be used both as a content resource for teachers and students.
• The last section is Argument and Persuasion writing, both of which are very important as we move forward with Common Core.
• It really helps explain the key points for each style of writing.
• As I read the sample essays, I find myself looking up the authors to learn more about them. I think these could also lead to creating text sets. Perhaps I'll even find a fiction essay to go with one of Gladwell's essays!

I wrote comments to Mary Buckley, Anne Garvey, and Tara Smallman.