Talking Point #6

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route
By: Jeannie Oakes


Premise:
- Grouped
- Ability
- Individual needs
- Stereotyped
- "less-able"
- Minority
- Tracking
- Hight-ability
- Instruction
- Teaching
- Learning
- Interact
- Enviornment
- Differences
- Working together

Argument:
- I think that Oakes makes two different arguments
1. "Students need not be held back from ideas because of skill differences; rather they can acquire skills as they become ready" (180).
2. Unless teachers take the time to experiment with changes in the organization of classroom practices, alternatives to tracking are not likely to be effective.

Evidence:
- When students are seperated by skill difference the students with low abilities don't get all the extra help they need and the students with the highest ability get all the attention so that they exceed the curriculum above and beyond.
- Students should be able to be in charge of evaluating themselves because that way they will grow more skills by trying to figure things out for themselves without just being told what to do.
- Oakes says that the kind of organizational changes that need to be made will help to promote high quality learning for all students.

Comments:
- I thought that the article was very interesting. I liked it because it was very easy to read and to comprehend. I also liked that it was short and got right to the point. I don't really agree with the idea of splitting children up by their abilities. I think that it is unfair to everyone and that some children's feelings could be hurt by that. For example in my SL school the students that I work with know that they are woking with me because they are behind the rest of the class. They think they are woking with me because everyone else is smarter than they are. Children do understand when they are being seperated by their abilitites and I think that they would get a much better experience when they work with other children of all different abilities.

Talking Point #5

In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning
By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Premise:
-Service Learning
-Community
-Tutoring
-Learning
-Relationships
-Social
-Homelessness
-Ways to help
-Change
-Charity
-Moral development
-Political
-Intellectual

Argument:
-Kahne and Westheimer argue that teachers, policy makers and academicians who take the idea service learning seriously need to come together and get on the same page.

Evidence:
- The two examples of service learning projects are and example. There is a difference betweeen charity and change and because of that some children miss out due to the different projects that are assigned.
-Because teachers are not on the same page about educating children about service learning the children that went to the school to play music were scared and not happy to be helping.
-Most of the time children are volunteering for charity, such as the boy who made care packages for the homeless. This boy in particular didn't even talk to any of the homeless people he was trying to help. He served but, he didn't learn.

Comments:
- I think that a main part of service is learning from it. If your just serving because it's something that you have to do you may not get much out of it. Personally I LOVE my service learning project. It is something that I would love to do even if it wasn't required. It has really given me a chance to learn about a community that I didn't know much about before. I feel like children need to be educated and encouraged to help out in different communitites so that they aren't afaraid of what they don't know, like the music teachers students were.

Talking Point #4

Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us
By: Linda Christensen

Premise:
-"secret education"
-manipulation
-power
-accepted knowledge
-cartoons
-media
-advertising
-generalizations-
stereotypes
-race
-sex
-social class

Argument:
- Christensen argues that, "Our society's culture industry colonizes [children's] minds and teaches them how to act, live and dream." Through child media, domination can be seen in the categories of sex, class and race.

Evidence:
-It is very common that people of color play no or little role in many child films.
-One of Christensen's students discusses the show "Duck Tales" as a specific example showing that when children watch this show all they will think is that money is the most important thing in life.
-Some of Christensen's students noted that after analyzing some cartoons they realized that the underlying messages in these cartoons effected they way they thought while they were growing up.

Comments:
- I thought this article was very interesting. It was really easy to read because it wasn't very long and not as easy to get lost in. I also think it was easy to read because it has to do with cartoons. It was interesting to read the ways that different cartoons or movies affect our society. One part of the article that I really enjoyed was where the students explained the project they did on the different cartoons. You see these cartoons on television everyday but, you never really think about the message they are sending until you stop to analyze them. I was shocked to see that when I thought about some of my favorite cartoons growing up I realized they didn't imply the best things about sex and race. I would like to know more about the way that cartoons and child films impact their viewers.