TALKING POINTS #2: "Why Can't She Remember That?" by Terry Meier..............Alexandra Sullivan

          The first quote that I found interesting concerned all three children that Meier's refers to in the beginning of the article. The author says, "All three are alert to nuances of other people's verbal and non-verbal behaviors and are able to adjust their own language in response, skillfully employing subtle intonation and prosodic features to convoy their intended meanings." I like how the author used different children of the same age, 3 and showed how they react differently to social situations depending on their culture. This is a great example of how children learn and behave on different levels. For instance, the latino girl turns her reaction into a playful joke, the white english-speaking girl repeats a nursery rhyme her mother read to her, and the young african-american boy recites a rap off the top of his head. All three social reactions proved very different, but they were effective! 
          The second quote that caught my eye concerned the importance that our society places on book knowledge. "Book knowledge becomes, in essence, part of these children's sense of identity in the world," explains the author. Children that don't have books read to them or don't experience books a culturally important, start off behind in our educational society. What is the difference between a book and a verbal story, which the latino girl tells? They both can teach lessons, they both can create excitement, they both can teach children about things which they do not understand. The main difference is the ability to read and comprehend the words in english text.
          The third quote that I actually found helpful was, "By no means do I underestimate the very real constraints under which many teachers have to operate...Whatever efforts teachers can make to create spaces for extended discussion about literature will be richly rewarded as children begin to forge deep connections to books." This was very interesting to me because she goes on to explain how reading to children in the classroom helps bring up conversations and it helps the children to open up to the teacher. It helps them to talk about topics that they might not normally talk about with a teacher. I find myself that when I read to kids, books really do help them to open up because they relate their own lives to the stories.
          I liked that this article concerned a topic, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual children and books, which many people would not normally consider an important aspect to bridge differences in classrooms. She is able to broaden the children's learning by reading to them, which is an important aspect of the democratic educational system, and uses books to connect with children that didn't grow up with an importance on reading. The article in my opinion, does not correlate with other articles because it explains a teacher using a traditional way to incorporate many different types of children that have different educational backgrounds. I wonder though if she took her research and studied children in higher grades like 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on. All in all, I appreciated the teachers different outlook on teaching multi-ethnic and multi-lingual children

Talking Point #1: Jonathan Kozol, "Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation" Alexandra Sullivan

          I found this article to be a great example concerning our class discussions about S.C.W.A.A.M.P and  Lisa Delpit's article about American's ability to remain unaware of issues. The first quote that really struck me, Kozol placed in the first paragraph. "When you enter the train, you are in the seventh richest congressional district in the nation. When you leave, you are in the poorest." This quote really hit me as the reader and it made me think about segregation. To be honest, I was oblivious to the fact that segregation still exists in our society today. In my eyes I understood that we are still unequal and in many ways suppressed, but modern segregation did not cross my mind.
          The second quote that really caught my attention was by the seven year old, Cliffie. He says, "I saw a boy shot in the head right over there." The he says a moment later according to the author in an unaffected tone, "Would you like a chocolate chip cookie?' This little boys statement and his reaction concerning the incident, show how he has been socially conditioned. Violence and murder are common in the ghetto and people become used to seeing these horrible acts often. Cliffie was born into a place that he probably can never leave and he is conditioned to the horror there, which remains unchanged. If others do not see it, they do not have to be responsible for it.
          The last quote I found interesting was Cozol's report on the feelings of Lawrence Mead, a political science professor at New York University. The professor said, "If poor people behaved rationally, they would seldom be poor for long in the first place." This quote in my opinion, comes from an ignorant , unexperienced man. He looks at the situation that many poor people are in and figures they can help themselves out of it. What he does not consider is the fact that poor education and lack of money keeps many from entering college. Many people go to work at poor paying jobs to help their families, who are in desperate need. Others become involved in drugs because it is a quick source of cash or they become addicted because drugs are so rampant in ghettos. The list goes on and on including healthcare issues, living arrangements, etc.
          How can these people make changes for the better when there is so much holding them down? The article was eye-opening because it gave direct accounts of people living in these conditions. It also explains some factors that affect their lives directly and place them in a never-ending cycle. I appreciated this article more than others that we have read because it gave me great new insight on an issue that I know of, but little about. I really liked how the author approached the issue and how well he affected me as a reader!

09/16/10

I found some great links concerning teaching methods, diversity, and ideas to use in the classroom. Some of the sites like INSIDE THE SCHOOL offer training, reports, and other articles that can be useful to teachers. The teaching diversity website offers great lists of resource sites to help teachers learn more about teaching children of different races and disabilities in classrooms. This was my favorite site because it offered such a wide variety of resources. :) The links are at the bottom of my page.

My name is Alexandra and I am currently a RIC student. My major at school is History and Secondary Education.  am taking FNED 346 so I can get into the Feinstein School of Education and I hope to one day be a high school History teacher. When I am not in school I work at Tito's Cantina and in my free time I like to go out with friends. I am 23 years old. :)

FNED 346-11: Welcome to the FNED 346 Blogging Adventure

This is my first blog, I hope it works right...pretty cool :)