Mind the Gap: Session 2

• Chapter 1: In recounting her journey through many educational reforms, Diane Ravitch makes a number of provocative statements. Choose two, quote them, and personally respond

"That meant , in the words of a book by James.C.Scott that I later read and admired, I began "seeing like a state", looking at schools and teachers and students from an altitude of 20,000 feet and seeing them as objects to be moved around by big ideas and great plans."

 It seems to me that politicians and policymakers have all along the history of education looked for a magic pill or tried to fix education from the highest levels of government. Even though it is sometimes important to see the bigger picture, change happens only if we start at the grass roots level. The dangers of "seeing like a state" is that the teachers, students and parents might end up unhappy. This was evident in Chapter 4 with what happened in San Diego.  There usually ends up being a disconnect between the higher levels of government and the soldiers in the front lines namely, the teachers, principals and students. They just end up being a pawn or a number and have to follow the change that has been dictated upon them. "Seeing like a state" can work if there is a connection between all the levels. If decisions are made after talking to the teachers, principals and students on what works and what doesn't then things can move forward. If the people at the bottom are willing to work with those at the top change can happen. Positive change is hard to come by if the people who are eventually going to be responsible for the change are disgruntled and unhappy.

" I do claim, however, that we must preserve American public education, because it is so intimately connected to our concepts of citizenship and democracy and to the promise of American life."

I could not agree with this statement by Ravitch more. Public education stands for free and quality education for all. It is one of the most important pillars of democracy. In order for a society to be progressive it is very important that all of its citizens be educated. It is only through the public school system that the poor and the under privileged have a chance at education. Earlier I mentioned about change happening at the grass roots level.  Providing a quality education to the lower socio economic sections of society and seeing change happen there is what will make a difference in the education system. This in turn will lead to children becoming productive members of their community and valuable participants in a democracy. So I agree with Ravitch that American public education needs to be preserved at all costs.        

• Chapter 2: On page 16, Ravitch gives a brief definition of a well educated person. How would you characterize a well educated person? What should any well educated person know in today's world?

A well educated person has a well rounded knowledge base on topics that are relevant not just in his society but world wide. This knowledge does not happen overnight but is built on a well- rounded education at home and in school. He is able to think independently, contribute to society and be able to respect the rights and opinions of others. In today's world it is very important for a well-educated person to be  cognizant of not just his physical surroundings and his own country but of the world around him. A well rounded person is able to participate in the democratic process and is able to give back to society in some way.

• Thinking about the class discussion on the book, what stands out for you? What would you have liked to say that you did not say.

Thinking about the class discussion on the book, I feel what stands out to me is the different ways politicians and policy makers have tried to "fix" education. In some cases it has been done to the districts that were performing well as in San Diego where there was no need to fix what was not broken. Education is something that is constantly evolving and changing as everyone is trying to find the best possible way to do things that will yield the best results. But change instead of happening from the top level and going down to the bottom should start at the grass roots level and should go upwards. Change needs to happen in classrooms with quality instructors but is there just one way to teach that will work for all classrooms and districts across the country? My best guess is no, as there are a lot of variables. The students, their background, the socio economic population of the schools, the funding in the districts are only some of the things that have a direct impact on education in the classroom. Different schools and districts have different needs and one reform or 'fix" that worked in one area might not work in another.

• Choose one gap that you listed from your subject area and identify 3 resources: a website, an article, and a book that can help you fill that gap. List these and discuss what you learned from one of these.

One of the gaps I have is teaching decoding and word analysis effectively in the primary grades students. Most of my experience is in the intermediate level, so I don't feel so confident in teaching this in the primary grades where teaching effective decoding strategies is crucial. This becomes more important when working with The English language learners.
A great website I found to help me with this is called www.readingrockets.org. This has extensive information on how to teach decoding and build fluency for teachers and parents. It tells us how to detect struggling readers early and describes the many ways available to test for fluency and word recognition skills. It also has links to other valuable websites and lists of reading books at different levels that I found useful. After browsing this website I learned that it is crucial to detect struggling readers early as the older they get the harder it gets to build fluency. The earlier the problems are caught and addressed the better it is. So for older reader who would come into my class with decoding issues the first thing to do would be to target the problem whether it is sound alphabet recognition or a weak vocabulary. After the problem is identified, there should be explicit instruction in the problem area. 

Two other resources that I have identified are:- The Cafe Book: Engaging Students in Daily Literary Assessment and Instruction. By Boushey and Moser and an article called Fluency Training in the ESL Classroom: An Experimental Study of Fluency Development and Proceduralization by Vrije, Nel de Jong Perfetti, Charles A. Nel de Jong, Charles A. Perfetti.

• Your annotations of resources are meant to be both scholarly and brief. In the blog, discuss in detail why/how any two of these articles were useful to your topic/questions.

As my focus is on the EL student, both my articles had to deal with how to work with EL student. One article was more of a report on how a low socio economic and low performing school district improved its performance by involving the immigrant families and educating them. The other article was very relevent as it talked about the importance of scaffolding EL students with the right questions. it gave many examples of the different ways that teachers can scaffold their El students through a question and answer session leading them to improve in their learning.

Blogs I have responded to.....

Carolyn Cadle : carriecadleMAIT.blogspot.com

Lauren Rowe: laurenrowe10.blogspot.com

Josie Kirkland: josiekirkland.blogspot.com