Sunday, November 13, 2011

Talking Points # 8 Quotes

1. "Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route" by Jeannie Oakes. 

2. Quotes

Pg 1. "Higher- ability students are expected to spend more time doing homework, their teachers tend to be more enthusiastic, to make instructions clearer, and to use strong criticism or ridicule less frequently than teachers of
 low ability classes." It's interesting that we praise 'higher-ability' students for their work, but we 'pick' on the 'lower-ability' classes for their lack of knowledge, it just doesn't seem fair to me. 

Pg 2.
"These differences in learning opportunities point to fundamental and ironic school inequities. Students who need more time to learn appear to get less; those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers." How are students supposed to do their best when their needs aren't being met? If a student has test anxiety and they are focusing on everything other than their test, then they wont be able to one; finish on time, or two; put all the effort and attention into the exam, therefore not doing as well as they could have, if they had the proper accommodations. We need to put the students best interest first, that's the only way to help them improve.

Pg 3. "Unless students are similar in learning 'speed,' such a curriculum raises horrendous problems of pacing. Some students are ready to race ahead, but other lag behind. Enrichment for the quicker students often becomes make-work; reteaching becomes a chore; being retaught can be humiliating for the slower students...
When curriculum is organized around the central themes of a subject area rather than around disconnected topics and skills, all students stand the greatest chance of enhancing their intellectual development." It's not about how quickly we understand something, its about students ACTUALLY understanding it, and that the students can actually learn something.

Schools really need to take another route in learning the best teaching techniques, because no two students are the same, everyone learns differently,and at a different pace. I really agree with the author when she says that "students need not be held back from ideas because of skill differences; rather they can acquire skills as they become ready." All students need is a chance, a chance to show their abilities to learn.

2 comments:

  1. i really like what you had to say about praising

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  2. I agree-everyone is different, everyone learns differently. It's not fair if we teach everything one way. For example, in my math 143 class today, we learned a different way to add and multiply. Surprisingly, it's actually much easier to me to do it the new way, and one of the students in my class said she's going to try to teach her students that. Variety is always good (:

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