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Social Justice in the Classroom

So this is a topic that is not so easily answered and is definitely not a black and white subject, I hope that statement is received as intended. Social justice is a hot topic in all aspects of our society in the present day and is not just a unique situation to the educational system. I found an article, as mentioned below in references, but I also wanted to ask my mentor teacher the same question that our class was being prompted with. So I asked the question and the first response I got was a heavy sigh and a kind of “wow” look followed by the statement that that is not a very easy question to answer and it is also very point of view. For instance, my experiences with social justice (as a White native born American) are going to be different than an immigrant from Mexico. Or different than that a black male American or different than that of a white female American. The term bends and flexes depending on your own background and your own experiences. That is just one level of the que...
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Critical Pedagogy in the Urban Classroom

This article was very informational to me, especially as someone who would not be considered culturally as an "other" when the text was discussing canonical writings and how to present them to our students. I liked how the article pointed out that multicultural experiences can be pulled from almost all literature if you lead the students to read between the lines or read in the background of what the writing says. The pedagogical practices section of the article provided some insight to me that I feel like I could use in my classroom one day. I plan to teach in a rural area, but some rural areas can be just as diverse as the urban schools that are depicted in this article. Not to mention that there is a definite divide between the rural school experience and the urban school experience. The ideas in this section could potentially be used for either and for anyone if the content is tailored to the target audience. I think the idea of pairing books with a film is an excellent...
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Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

First off, I appreciate how simplistic this article is. I personally feel that you do not need to be an educator to understand what the article is saying. This data could be read and analyzed by anyone that doesn't even have prior knowledge of the education system. Of course not everyone will understand everything being described in this article but it does a good job of making the information digestible to any reader. As educators in training we are going to be able to read between the lines more than a person without educational knowledge but I feel that this article has value for anyone that decides to take the time to read it. The most surprising thing that I found in this article was a one sentence fact that the article in fact put the writing in bold font and underlined it to drive home the point it was trying to make. The article states that high quality formative assessment and feedback has positively impacted standardized test scores ranging between .4 and .7. The text t...
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Assignment Template - California's Common Core State Standards

I found this text to be very informational and helpful. I have saved a copy for myself for future reference. The way that the article presents an effective organization for helping students to read better is easy to follow and practical. From the fifth page of this article I was hooked into the information it was providing me. I really appreciated how the CCSS for ELA/Literacy were including in the margins to help guide what the text was explaining to the reader. This is becoming more and more essential information to be familiar with as I continue down my academic career towards graduation and certification. Another aspect of this article that I found interesting (and probably helpful for my teaching career) was the various strategies that were provided in the appendixes. One of my favorite, as they all have their own potential values, was the section on pre-reading, reading and post-reading strategies (appendix C). Not only was this section organized very well by the authors, but t...
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Discussion as a Way of Teaching

The very first section of Brookefield's article grabbed my attention when he was discussing why conversations fail. I also just decided to leave the word "conversation" since I used it incorrectly in the context of this article. Brookefield first begins with making the distinction between a conversation and a discussion, which is important to understand while continuing through the article. Some of the reasons why DISCUSSIONS fail seem to be obvious, but other points that he made I had not even thought of before. I had not really considered the point he labels as "rewards system askew." I have a general idea of what this means but I will be bringing this point up during the class discussion to get more clarification and depth on this specific reason why discussions fail. I also liked section 15 in this article which is about the critical incident questionnaire. I know this is not as interesting as some of the other techniques, but it does cut straight to the p...
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