Looking at Schultz's pedagogy in his book Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lesson from an Urban Classroom in comparison to Martin Haberman's description of The Pedagogy of Poverty, we see something very different. Looking at Schultz's pedagogy at Carr Academy, we rarely see the teaching acts that constitute the core functions of urban teaching: giving information, asking questions, reviewing tests, giving tests, and the rest of the menu of urban teaching. What we see is the opposite; we see good teaching: "Whenever students are involved with issues they regard as vital concerns, good teaching is going on." After listed major problems in need of fixing in their school, the students in Schultz' class came to the conclusion that they need a new school--a curriculum was created on students' needs--good teaching was going on.
As Haberman tells us in his list of good of teaching, "Whenever students are actively involved, it is likely that good teaching is going on." To get a new school, the fifth graders created a website, survey, petition, and short-film. These students were actively involved in finding a solution to a problem that needs to be solved. Schultz breaks the mold of the core functions of urban teaching while elicit compliance with the system.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Introducting Spectacular Things
I started reading Schultz's Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons form an Urban Classroom a week ago. I wanted to complete the reading assignments as fast as I could, so I can work on my IQ project--I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. That didn't happen--my stone killed no bird. I stopped reading the book after the first two chapters because I had more important things to take care like working on my IQ project which I did not work on. So, yesterday, I started reread Schultz's book.
I must confess, going back a week ago, at first I didn't find the book interesting or "spectacular." I don't know why. Things took a turn for the better, I started getting the "juice" of the book. Clearly, what the students in Room 405 were doing were not solving a textbook problem. They were doing spectacular things; things that haven't done in my decade and a half of education. These fifth graders in Carr Academy were learning math, reading, writing, social studies, and other things on a curriculum based on one thing--getting a new school. I don't know how Schultz did it. Nonetheless, Schultz was able to mold all the above content while these fifth grades in Room 405 fought for what their Board of Education had promised them six years ago--a new school.
The fifth graders in Room 405 went to a school that had no lunchroom or a gym. As the children tell us in their 'pizza thing' that they had to eat in the hallway and they had to use a gym across the street for physical education and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, their classroom which supposes to be a learning environment had no AC or heat. Their restrooms were fiflty and smelly; they had leaky sinks; they were no soap or paper towels;and no bargage cans in the restrooms, as they tell us in their 'pizza thing.' Man, reading their descriptions of their school, I thought those fifth graders were describing inside my good, old, high school. However, looking back and started to think, I realized my school wasn't that better in comparison to Carr Academy. These kids had it worst than me. That's all I have for now. I'll return with more about Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons form an Urban Classroom.
I must confess, going back a week ago, at first I didn't find the book interesting or "spectacular." I don't know why. Things took a turn for the better, I started getting the "juice" of the book. Clearly, what the students in Room 405 were doing were not solving a textbook problem. They were doing spectacular things; things that haven't done in my decade and a half of education. These fifth graders in Carr Academy were learning math, reading, writing, social studies, and other things on a curriculum based on one thing--getting a new school. I don't know how Schultz did it. Nonetheless, Schultz was able to mold all the above content while these fifth grades in Room 405 fought for what their Board of Education had promised them six years ago--a new school.
The fifth graders in Room 405 went to a school that had no lunchroom or a gym. As the children tell us in their 'pizza thing' that they had to eat in the hallway and they had to use a gym across the street for physical education and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, their classroom which supposes to be a learning environment had no AC or heat. Their restrooms were fiflty and smelly; they had leaky sinks; they were no soap or paper towels;and no bargage cans in the restrooms, as they tell us in their 'pizza thing.' Man, reading their descriptions of their school, I thought those fifth graders were describing inside my good, old, high school. However, looking back and started to think, I realized my school wasn't that better in comparison to Carr Academy. These kids had it worst than me. That's all I have for now. I'll return with more about Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons form an Urban Classroom.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Annotated Bibliography
Rodriguez, A.J. (1998, December). Strategies for counter-resistance: Toward sociotransformative constructivism and learning to teach science for diversity and for understanding. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(6), 589-622.
The above article is the fifth entry article in my annotated bibliography for my inquiry project. This article looks at how science is taught by science teachers. The author believes, as he tells us in the article, that there need to be “an alternative orientation to teaching and learning science that takes into account how social, historical, and institutional contexts influence learning and access to learning in schools” (Rodriguez, 1998, 590). Basically, the author is arguing that there need to be a transformative instruction to teach diverse students science. Hence, as he explains in his article, we need to “to teach for understanding and diversities that implement more culturally inclusive, socially relevant pedagogical strategies and more intellectually meaningful pedagogical strategies” (ibid.). This article suggests what teaching needs is a progressive instruction that links multicultural and social institutions that are seen in urban schools in science instruction. In an attempt, the author suggests a sociatransformative constructivist as the vehicle to link learning for understanding and diversities in urban schools. By using this orientation, as the author explains, “helps teachers learn to teach for diversities and understanding” (589). One problem with the article, and most studies that I have read, is the article does not provide empirical evidences or guidance about how the proposed changes can be implemented in the classroom. As a matter of fact, the author critiques such flaw in his article. As he explains in the article, “The result of the project reported here address lack of empirical evidence in the multicultural/learning-to-teach literature” (593). Looking ahead at my inquiry project, I believe I will have the same problem the author faces in the article: lack of empirical evidence for the paper because constructivism pedagogy lacks information that systematically gathers and exposes to a variety of methodology checks. As of right now, i don't know how I'll tackle or discuss such issue in my paper.
The above article is the fifth entry article in my annotated bibliography for my inquiry project. This article looks at how science is taught by science teachers. The author believes, as he tells us in the article, that there need to be “an alternative orientation to teaching and learning science that takes into account how social, historical, and institutional contexts influence learning and access to learning in schools” (Rodriguez, 1998, 590). Basically, the author is arguing that there need to be a transformative instruction to teach diverse students science. Hence, as he explains in his article, we need to “to teach for understanding and diversities that implement more culturally inclusive, socially relevant pedagogical strategies and more intellectually meaningful pedagogical strategies” (ibid.). This article suggests what teaching needs is a progressive instruction that links multicultural and social institutions that are seen in urban schools in science instruction. In an attempt, the author suggests a sociatransformative constructivist as the vehicle to link learning for understanding and diversities in urban schools. By using this orientation, as the author explains, “helps teachers learn to teach for diversities and understanding” (589). One problem with the article, and most studies that I have read, is the article does not provide empirical evidences or guidance about how the proposed changes can be implemented in the classroom. As a matter of fact, the author critiques such flaw in his article. As he explains in the article, “The result of the project reported here address lack of empirical evidence in the multicultural/learning-to-teach literature” (593). Looking ahead at my inquiry project, I believe I will have the same problem the author faces in the article: lack of empirical evidence for the paper because constructivism pedagogy lacks information that systematically gathers and exposes to a variety of methodology checks. As of right now, i don't know how I'll tackle or discuss such issue in my paper.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Transformative Instruction: A Case for Constructivism Pedagogy in Learning Biological Science in Urban Schools
As of right, until I'm told that I need to make change on the title, this will be the title of my inquiry project. The thesis, as of right now, of the paper: there need to be a transformative instruction in teaching biological science in urban high schools. Science teachers might need to shift their practices of biological science instruction to better meet the needs of their ethnically diverse students in urban schools. Science contents, in urban schools, like biological science are taught by science teachers in two types of resistances: resistance to ideological change and resistance to pedagogical change (Rodriguez, 1998, 589). Follow the leader, classrooms have diversified, science instruction needs to follow suit. Second, since science contents will become part of high-stake testings, as a result, it is important to find ways to teach science contents like biological science to urban students. Third, the paper asserts that there is an achievement gap in science in urban schools and the standard that is placed on urban students will do no good because, as Gale Seiler (2001) explains in her article Reversing the “standard” direction: Science emerging from the lives of African American students, "such approach fails to address the roles of cultural and social [institutions] play in the lives of urban students" (1000). As a result, we need to find ways to tailor biological science curriculum to the needs and interests of urban students. Furthermore, we need to find mechanisms to diminish the disparities that are seen in biological science curriculum in urban schools. I suggest the use of constructivism pedagogy as an approach to teach biological science in urban schools because: (1) this form of pedagody, as Patchen & Cox-Perton (2008) explains, "provides a means of increacing marginalized students' access to science and technological fields" (994); (2) it, as Lee et. al (2008) puts it, "contributes the emerging knowledge base on science and English language and literacy with English Language Learner (ELL) students" (733). Oh yeah, I will need to do a case study of a classroom teacher to investigate whether and how constructivism pedagody can be used as a tool to teach meaningful biological science to urban high school students.
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