Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to form a community of mutual respect and understanding, where each and every voice is not just heard but acknowledge, and learning is interactive and effective.

“It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as subjects of the transformation”. Paulo Freire was the last author we studied and I believe he summed up the whole course with this one quote. It is critical that teachers create an environment that is creative and comfortable. This is a word we have not really used. A level of comfort must be allowed in order for all of these ideals to take place. Teachers must be comfortable with their students, students must be comfortable with the teacher and with each other. How does this happen? How do we provide a ‘comfortable’ classroom for our students? We listen and acknowledge what they are saying. We include them in their learning process not simply lecture at them. Our classrooms should be fun, interesting and creative. They should cater to each students learning style and respect where they come from and what they bring to enhance everyone’s learning.

Delpit, Baker, Purcell-Gates, all talked about the diversity in our vocabulary, written expression and attitudes toward school. Diversity is what makes up our world. In order for our students to function literately in our world diversity must take a role. We must celebrate differences and learn from them. Not only will students learn about different cultures but perhaps a bit of tolerance. Including these differences in our lessons gives students ownership and respect. This in turn will foster learning...doesn’t sound too hard to me! Each of the authors we studied talks about incorporating some aspect of the student into our curriculum.

I do not prepare children for tests, just for life. Lynn Astarita Gatto

Lynn Gatto makes me want to go back to fourth grade. I have a visual picture of Ms. Frizzle in my head. A teacher who wears dresses covered with dinosaurs or butterflies, wears matching earrings and hats, decorates the room from top to bottom to coincide with the theme of the week, and takes her class on exciting (sometimes scary) field trips that no other class could imagine. Perhaps I will Google Lynn Gatto when I am finished with this to see what she really looks like! I do not think that I am too far off though. Her explanation of how she grabs her students attention, reels them in, and has them begging for more is quite impressive. No wonder she has won umpteen awards and her colleagues don’t talk to her! The idea that when teachers take a test-centered approach, their students view literacy not as a process, but as something to test (Nystrand, 1997) is quite powerful and, perhaps, the underlying reason for her views. Gatto is, in my opinion, right on the target when she discusses how mass produced literacy programs are not productive. Authentic and meaningful learning practices are not found in basal readers (Gatto, 2007). They do not know that she has 14 African American, 4 Caucasian and a few ELL students in her class. They do not know what interests and motivates them, what spelling words they need to concentrate on or how they learn. Their teacher does, and it is their job to integrate subjects and motivate his/her students so they WANT to learn. I really believe this is the key...MOTIVATION! I see it with my students and at home with my daughter. When they want to do something, it gets done and usually well. But, for those areas where motivation is lacking, ouch!

Paulo Freire’s essay compares two types of education. He refers to them as: banking and problem-solving. Both terms are important not just because of what occurs in the classroom, but because they also they also incorporate the context, purpose, and effects of education. Most students would consider lecture halls, where facts are given and students are expected to memorize and return those facts as “banking”. “Problem-Solving” education could be described as: discussions are introduced, creativity is involved and opinions are shared. Gatto clearly follows the latter and I am guessing most of her colleagues are “banking”.

Gatto states that she is preparing her students for life not simply to take tests. Freire sees the world as the “process of becoming” where students are part of that process. He believes that the dialogue between the teacher and students, as well as, students with each other, allows people to develop fully. That communication takes into account the relationship people have not only with each other, but with the world around them. This dialogue leads to further exploration and allows for change. Gatto clearly incorporates this into her lessons.

As a future history teacher I love the idea of guiding my students using interactive and creative techniques, but I think I will wait until I am tenured!

“Quality Education as a Constitutional Right.” Dr. Moses

This week I watched a PBS show about The Algebra Project which was started by Robert Moses. Moses’ basis is so central to what we have been learning in this class the last several weeks. He states that:
1.) American children are entitled to free public education, from
kindergarten through twelfth grade
2.) All children can learn
3.) All children deserve the best education they can receive

His project has a ‘learning by doing’ premise which is generated by having the students tutor their peer and begin looking at their world more critically. He was a central figure in the Civil Rights movement as a young man and understands what it means to have to fight for your rights. As we are aware, getting resources to poor and minority students will happen only when the communities (and students) demand it. A central vein of the Project is to get the students to demand their own education. The message to students has to be very clear. You might not want to go to college now but you have to prepare yourself for when you are ready to go. Students are made aware that the fastest growing jobs in their generation require at least a bachelors degree. The Information Age is requiring students to be versed in advanced mathematics, this is the future of our students. I found this web site about The Algebra Project that has some excellent information:

http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2001/sites/moses/ap/principles-page2.htm

I also watched the Rachel Marrow Show about the Tea Party Movement and literacy. Again, I am going to sound like I do not have a compassionate bone in my body but...I just don’t get the comparison. Rachel Morrow is talking about literacy tests from the 1960’s and how they were skewed so blacks could not vote, I get that. That is a historical fact that, as a nation we should be ashamed of. But, how she compares that to the fact that in this country now we have many people who are voting and have no idea of our countries history and do not speak English...I don’t get it. There is no comparison. In the 1960’s black people were victims of discrimination, but they could read and write. Granted the questions on the ‘literacy test’ were absurd and no one could answer them, but at least they could read them. I have stated many times that I was not born here, my parents became citizens only after they mastered the language and understood the culture. I am not sure where I stand and ethically this is a hard call, but as a history teacher, I firmly believe that you need to understand where you came from in order to move forward. Perhaps a literacy test is not necessary, can we give a history test instead?

A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. George Santayana

What is really fair and how do we provide this to all people? I do not believe that we can put a dollar sign on fairness. Sameness, on the other had is a different story. I want the same as you! That is easy to understand, but when you put them together fairness as sameness, it is hard to explain. This is because not all children are the same, no two students learn the same way, so providing them the "same" things is not always "fair".

Our readings this week all touched upon the idea of providing a level playing ground for all students. This came to us in many different ways. Ladson-Billings wants us to push our students using creative methods that they can relate to. Jackson and Cooper define literacy to include “[fostering] engagement of behaviors vital to adolescents... [incorporating] authentic literacy—literacy relevant to students... and [recognizing] the critical role of a student’s frame of reference in literacy development” (248). They suggest using High-Interest, High-Level remediation programming with At-Risk OSSLT Writers. The Abbott School District believes that if they have more money they will provide a better education to their students. I do not believe this to be true.

These are great ideas, for the students that they target. That does not mean that they are great ideas for all students.

If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within fifty years all forms of life would flourish. Jonas Salk

      My wife is fascinated with this class and finds everyone’s blogs to be fantastic and entertaining. I read them once or twice and she browses when she has time.   We usually have depth discussions regarding the information.  This is great for me, as the student, since we are not able to chat about the material in class.  This week was very different, she was angry and sad and had a lot to say.  My wife, went to a small, all girl, Catholic High School and small, Catholic college.  Her educational life was much different than mine and it has effected her teaching.  Let me tell you why. 
    When she was in high school, having 36 girls in her entire graduating class, she had to make her own cheerleading outfit, costume, whatever you call it.  This project became a class, there were NO exams, NO papers to write, NO Child Left Behind.  She simply had to follow the directions and make her outfit.  Of course there were guidelines: it had to fit, the process had to be followed correctly,  there were time constraints and...wait for it....she had FUN!  Not only that, my wife can sew anything.  She internalized the lessons and learned a skill for life.  Isn’t that what our job should be?  Not to teach our students so they retain information for enough weeks to pass a test.  What is the point of that?   In Delpit’s chapter No Kinda Sense the Hair Braiding lesson followed this same vain.  Find something that the students can relate to and build up on it.
    This weeks readings focused on assessment.  It was the video of Ken Robinson that affected me the most.  His discussion of how our schools are squashing the creativity of students was dead on.  He believes that creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.  Luna would agree with this.  She tells us that the education system is failing so many children because they are not in the “mainstream”.  Our education system must educate the whole being.  We must understand that intelligence is unique to each person.  There are so many people who need to move, doodle, even hum,  in order to think.  I am one of those people. 
    Robinson brings up a great point. That children are not frightened of being wrong...”if you are not prepared to be wrong you will never be original”.  As adults we have lost this capacity.  We are afraid to be wrong, we are taught not to be wrong.  Assessments are a perfect example of this.    We are again, teaching to the test.  We are educating people out of their creativity, and so many students learn most effectively through the arts.  “Highly talented people think they are not smart because what they are good at is not valued”.  How sad is that?  
    We have shifted the way our system works since NCLB.  We no longer teach our students we assess them.  We are not taking the time to hear them.  We need to talk about life and what interests them, how else are they going to respond to us?  studetns see us as talking heads that spew out facts and expect them to be thrown back at us.  The story of Renata a high school teacher was touching.  I could relate to how she felt.  Constantly telling her class “we need to know this” for the test is wrong in so many ways.  We want our students to love learning, but if we do not love teaching they will know, and it will affect them.
      I began by saying that my wife's schooling has effected her teaching.  I would have loved to be in her class.  She incorporates fun where ever possible, and when time allows.  She was sad telling me that the "time" for fun has been seriously decreased and she can see the strain on her second graders little faces.  She told me she is bringing ice pops tomorrow...she wants to have some fun!

“Pass the damn test”!

“One of the greatest mistakes is to judge a policy on its intentions rather than its results.”

-Milton Friedman

            “Yeah, but you still ain’t said why my progress wasn’t adequate”(Beers, pg 2).  The idea of neoliberalism does not allow for this student to be excited about his own progress because he did not “pass the damn test”(Beers, pg 3).  To the outside world, the idea of just hiring a company to come in and “fix” any and all education problems makes sense.   But to those of us on the front lines of education this is a ridiculous idea that cannot work.  And it has nothing to do with revising textbooks or providing new reading materials, its simply because students are children who need to be reached in more ways than one.  Big business does not get this, and in reality, they don’t want to.  If they “got” it, their materials would “fix” an issue and that would be the end of them. 

            Neoliberalism’s main agenda is to privatize the education sector.  This way for-profit companies can make lots of money while quietly wishing that students fail the next state test. Guess what happens then?  These for-profit companies will be called back in to reassess the “problems” and provide another expensive program that should help the students “pass the damn test”! 

             The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, also known as “NCLB” is a US federal law that was originally proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001.  The intent of NCLB is that all children will meet state academic achievement standards to reach their full potential through improved programs. In 2003, author Jack Huberman argued that the NCLB was specifically designed to make schools fail in order to clear the road for voucher and charter schools. Charter schools are neoliberalism’s logical conclusion for education, where schools would become for-profit institutions (Trammel 2005). During the Bush administration, government actively pushed for voucher programs and charter schools.             

            Wanna know what I think would help students “pass the damn test”?  Let the teachers teach the way they know how, allow the students to learn at their own pace, stop placing stress and time demands on a population that is already close to breaking.  And maybe, just maybe, ask the teachers and students what they think will help in the classroom, because Big Business really has no idea.

‘Full literacy’ - the disposition to engage appropriately with texts of different types in order to empower action, thinking, and feeling in the context of purposeful social activity (Wells, 1990)

     As teachers, it is important for us to understand what all of our students do with their literacy skills.  How do they process the information, communicate while working alone, and how do they work within a group.  Our children are growing up in a much different world then we did.  The need to communicate in a variety of different environments is increasing. They are growing up in “globalized, networked, culturally diverse world. Increasingly, we encounter knowledge in multiple forms - in print, in images, in video, in combinations of forms in digital contexts - and are asked to represent our knowledge in an equally complex manner (Kerr,  MLP).”  And then we add the burden of not understanding the language this is all being taught in.  Haneda helps us to understand why connecting the home, school and community is so important. 

            Haneda explains how several different ethnic groups incorporate literacy practices.  Latino families often engage in the kitchen, or living room with the whole family involved (pg. 338).   Chinese or Korean parents, expose their children to cultural enrichment classes so they do not lose their identity.  They often attend academic programs to help them succeed in school.  Often religious classes are included in their week.  In both of these cultures a substantial network of support is available to help the students outside of school.  Haneda believes this to be critical for the children to become literate.  She also talks about the idea of ‘boundary crossing’ and how it increases learning at school.  Boundary crossing is to “deliberately” blur or cross the home-school boundary. Teachers should understand their students’ lives outside of the classroom in order to help them fully express themselves in it.  We must also understand that the students’ interests and purposes need to become the central theme for the development of literacy curriculum.