So here's an article that hits on two of the topics we've talked about in class simultaneously:
Students' freedom of expression, and equality of gender in schools.
http://www.ocala.com/article/20090331/ARTICLES/903311011
The gist of the article is that a boy at a high school in Florida dressed for school in a girls' V-neck t-shirt and girls' jeans. The administrators sent him home... not in discipline, but for disruption of the school. The school's policy states that students must dress "in keeping with their gender," but students protest that the masculine clothing worn by some women (specifically lesbians were mentioned) passes without concern.
It's a double standard in that case. I suppose there is something more outrageous in our society about feminine men than there is about masculine women--but that's just not fair. This kid's clothing wasn't revealing or outlandish except for the fact that the person wearing it was a boy... and if you check out the picture on the article, he LOOKS like a girl... granted, not a supermodel or anything, but if these administrators didn't know him and passed him on the street, they'd have been none the wiser. This is not a "drag queen" or anything... just a feminine boy in girls' clothing.
I wish this school would have been more tolerant of this student's freedom of expression. According to the article, past rulings have been in favor of transgender students dressing as the gender they feel they were meant to be (i.e. the opposite of their biological sex), with the argument being that "exposing children to diversity at an early age serves the important social goals of increasing their ability to tolerate such differences and teaching them respect for everyone’s unique personal experience in that ‘Brave New World’ out there.” I agree 100% with that argument. This society cannot shelter kids from the variety of people in the world forever, and cross-dressing is by no means physically harmful to anyone (other than perhaps the risk to the dressing student of being beaten up for being "queer" by intolerant, ignorant bullies).
If the kid feels like girl, let him dress like one. Let's teach the next generation to be more tolerant of the differences among us as people so murders like Gwen Araujo's and Matthew Shephard's are minimized.
~amanda~
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Reading Analysis- Wolff (Article 51-Curren)
As teachers, we will be faced with the reality of "grading" each and every day. Grades seem to be the most important thing students focus on while in school. Although they may be interested in what they are studying in class, they become extremely concerned about what their final grade is at the end of the semester or year. I found it hard to accept that students are considered "failures" because they can master their major but not other core classes. Granted, I do believe that students need to have a well rounded education, therefore they need to put forth the time and effort to successfully pass the other subjects. But if a student does not do well in other classes, that does not automatically make him a failure. On the other hand, a student who does the bare minimum in his/her classes and slips through to graduation is considered "successful" is not acceptable to me. Although they may have graduated and received the diploma, they may not have taken everything they learned with them after they left the classroom.
Wolff did a good job breaking down grading into 3 separate categories: criticism, evaluation, and ranking. It can be hard to be criticized sometimes. Nobody really likes to hear someone tell them they are wrong. If it's constructive criticism, the student should take this advice for their advantage and learn from it. As a graduate student, I always like when my teachers leave comments on my papers to let me know what I've done well and what I need to improve on. When a teacher just marks something wrong and doesn't leave any comments, I have no way of knowing what I did wrong and how to improve it for my papers in the future.
Evaluation is the next category. Wolff defines it as the measuring of a product or performance against an independent and objective standard of excellence. Throughout our current graduate classes, our teachers have given us a grading rubric before each project or paper. This is very helpful for me because it shows exactly how the teacher will be evaluating me. To know in advance what the teacher expects out of a student can help them perform to the best of their ability. I know when I'm working on a paper I read through the rubric to make sure I have covered every part in order to earn the highest grade possible.
The third category is ranking, which is defined as the grading activity which produces the greatest anxiety and provokes the most opposition. I remember playing sports in high school and it was always a big deal to find out what "string" you were on. In basketball, of course everyone wanted to be on "first string" in order to be able to play the most. This was also a way to be recognized as one of the best players on the team. Wolff made a good point when he said that ranking held some potential problems. In a class of twenty students, the difference between the first and the last may be so small that it taxes the ability of the teacher to distinguish among their performances. I remember in high school, the class that graduated one year ahead of me had three Salutatorians. Everybody found it amazing that 3 people had the same exact GPA at the end of their senior year. This made me wonder what the difference was between the Salutatorians GPA and the Valedictorian GPA?
I enjoyed reading this article by Wolff and appreciated the fact that he broke down grading into three categories. I find it important as a teacher to consider many different factors when grading my students. I know that some scores may be black and white, but I think it is important to consider each student when assessing and evaluating them.
Wolff did a good job breaking down grading into 3 separate categories: criticism, evaluation, and ranking. It can be hard to be criticized sometimes. Nobody really likes to hear someone tell them they are wrong. If it's constructive criticism, the student should take this advice for their advantage and learn from it. As a graduate student, I always like when my teachers leave comments on my papers to let me know what I've done well and what I need to improve on. When a teacher just marks something wrong and doesn't leave any comments, I have no way of knowing what I did wrong and how to improve it for my papers in the future.
Evaluation is the next category. Wolff defines it as the measuring of a product or performance against an independent and objective standard of excellence. Throughout our current graduate classes, our teachers have given us a grading rubric before each project or paper. This is very helpful for me because it shows exactly how the teacher will be evaluating me. To know in advance what the teacher expects out of a student can help them perform to the best of their ability. I know when I'm working on a paper I read through the rubric to make sure I have covered every part in order to earn the highest grade possible.
The third category is ranking, which is defined as the grading activity which produces the greatest anxiety and provokes the most opposition. I remember playing sports in high school and it was always a big deal to find out what "string" you were on. In basketball, of course everyone wanted to be on "first string" in order to be able to play the most. This was also a way to be recognized as one of the best players on the team. Wolff made a good point when he said that ranking held some potential problems. In a class of twenty students, the difference between the first and the last may be so small that it taxes the ability of the teacher to distinguish among their performances. I remember in high school, the class that graduated one year ahead of me had three Salutatorians. Everybody found it amazing that 3 people had the same exact GPA at the end of their senior year. This made me wonder what the difference was between the Salutatorians GPA and the Valedictorian GPA?
I enjoyed reading this article by Wolff and appreciated the fact that he broke down grading into three categories. I find it important as a teacher to consider many different factors when grading my students. I know that some scores may be black and white, but I think it is important to consider each student when assessing and evaluating them.
Reading Analysis- Wolff
The idea of grades has always been a source of controversy in academic settings. Some believe that a grade does not truly tell what a student has learned, but on the other hand it would be difficult to evaluate without some degree of grading. I liked the way Wolff broke down grading into criticism,evaluation, and ranking. He defined criticism as "the analysis of a product or performance for the purpose of identifying and correcting its faults and reinforcing its excellences." He explained the importance of criticism for the learner. I agreed with his thoughts on this, especially when he said "Painful as criticism is, even from those one loves best or respects most, there is no other way to learn." Constructive criticism is the best way to learn from ones mistakes. I belive that teachers who do not just mark a problem wrong, but include an explanation, are the teachers who are trying to help there students improve their work.
The next part was evaluation. Although I realize this is necessary in most cases, I also think it sometimes reward those who do not try but still succeed, over those who are hard workers, but do not always get it completely right. For example, I always made excellent grades in high school and was a member of almost every club and activity at my high school. Even though I did well in`school, I did not do that great on the SAT. I had a friend who did not make great grades and was not involved. She never really asserted herself or tried very hard in school. She made an unbelievable score on her SAT. We both got into the University of Georgia or senior years. She got in because of one good grade on a test, and barely got in because of one bad grade on a test. I understand that schools have so many applicants to weed out in the acceptance process, but in my mind that type of evaluation does not seem 100% fair.
The last part he talk about is ranking. Wolff talks about the problems in this method. He uses the example of a class that has twenty students. Two students may be ranked very closely together, but in reality their performance levels can be so close it is hard to distinguish between them, or so enormous that there is no way their rankings should be so close.
I enjoyed reading this article and liked the way Wolff broke down the different parts of grading. Although it is hard to be an advocate for grades, I do understand that some sort of grading is necessary. It motivates many to work harder and try to achieve more. I also hate that a hard worker can be seen as a failure if they do not make an exceptional grade. I think it is very important to not be cut and dry with grading, but take several things into consideration before giving a grade.
The next part was evaluation. Although I realize this is necessary in most cases, I also think it sometimes reward those who do not try but still succeed, over those who are hard workers, but do not always get it completely right. For example, I always made excellent grades in high school and was a member of almost every club and activity at my high school. Even though I did well in`school, I did not do that great on the SAT. I had a friend who did not make great grades and was not involved. She never really asserted herself or tried very hard in school. She made an unbelievable score on her SAT. We both got into the University of Georgia or senior years. She got in because of one good grade on a test, and barely got in because of one bad grade on a test. I understand that schools have so many applicants to weed out in the acceptance process, but in my mind that type of evaluation does not seem 100% fair.
The last part he talk about is ranking. Wolff talks about the problems in this method. He uses the example of a class that has twenty students. Two students may be ranked very closely together, but in reality their performance levels can be so close it is hard to distinguish between them, or so enormous that there is no way their rankings should be so close.
I enjoyed reading this article and liked the way Wolff broke down the different parts of grading. Although it is hard to be an advocate for grades, I do understand that some sort of grading is necessary. It motivates many to work harder and try to achieve more. I also hate that a hard worker can be seen as a failure if they do not make an exceptional grade. I think it is very important to not be cut and dry with grading, but take several things into consideration before giving a grade.
Success in Education
Wolff describes the process of grading as somewhat of a necessary evil. He states that all American students define themselves in a world or grades where some see grades as harassment and other see them as an incentive or as a reward for their competitiveness. Some students develop great anxiety over their grades and others seem to relish in their accomplishments and their attainments. Another negative that Wolff describes is that teachers whose job it is to assess and grade students are often confused on why they give grades at all.
This reading really made me wonder why grades are needed at all if there are so many negative consequences. Wolff goes on to explain that there are 3 specific kinds of grading; criticism, evaluation and ranking. Criticism is basically the analysis of something that identifies faults and re-enforces the positive attributes of a work product. Evaluation is the act of assigning a grade to something such as pass, fail or A, B, C, D or F. These marks express the teacher's judgement of the student's work. One flaw with this is that specific performance may not be able to be pin pointed exactly on a linear scale. There may be a huge gap in excellence of performance between A and B but only a marginal gap between a B and high C. Another thing is that it may be difficult to grade or assess a piece of work past a certain level of technical skill because style, interpretation, or finesse may be considered more of a matter of taste. The third type of grading is ranking. Ranking produces the greatest amount of anxiety with students and also is at the center of the most opposition. One problem with this system is that this ordinal ranking does not really show how much better one student is over another. You may have a group of twenty students and all of them may be separated by less than a point. I know that our Valedictorian and Salutatorian were separated by thousandths of a point.
The difference between evaluation and ranking is that evaluation establishes a relationship between each student and an objective scale of measurement. The performances of students do not affect one another and it's possible for every person to rank high on the scale or to fail. One way that evaluations are done by teachers are on a bell curve. Using this method of evaluation, the grade levels are assigned after the students have been evaluated. A problem with this method is that it provides no clue to the level of performance signified by a particular grade. Typically teachers want a large number of low and high passes and smaller number of failing grades.
Criticism, evaluation and ranking all serve entirely distinct functions in the process and institutions of education. Criticism is at the heart of education and Wolff describes it as the only way to learn. One must learn to put all of oneself into their work and submit the result to criticism. He also explains that some educational rebels believe that subjective feeling is the criterion of success in education. What counts is what the student feels about his own work or performance. These rebels believe that other's criticism is harmful and may shape a child based on what the teacher wants. Wolff states that there is some truth in these rebels beliefs because this criticism leads to education being repressive and learning is rote memorization and creativity's are quieted. However, Wolff also states that these students who are never subjected to criticism who enjoy a free environment where expression is welcome, also never learn to deal with criticism.
Wolff says that the task of grading undergraduate students is irrelevant to education and sometimes harmful. The debate is that some students who excel in their major area are committed students but who fail at other studies may not pass or qualify for professional studies where a student who has only average performance across the board may be accepted at a professional school. In my opinion, I feel that this goes against what a professional is. I believe that the school would prefer the student who has a genuine commitment to a single field over a student who may have merely met degree requirements.
Wolff also explains that ranking performs a function which is neither professional or educational. The purpose of ranking is to facilitate the allocation of resources. Since there is not unlimited money for scholarships, ranking students solves this problem. Another problem that ranking solves is when the demand for a spot in a particular school is greater than the supply. The highest ranked receive these resources or awards or positions in these schools. Wolff also goes on to explain that ranking serves no other intellectual, cultural, social, spiritual, psychological or educational purpose. When students go out into the world, the top positions are awarded to those that were able to get in to the most desirable schools and who graduated at the top of their class. Wolff asks, "Are those places (schools) so desirable or is the endless competition a struggle for illusionary rewards?" He then states that the rewards are very real and they are for those who make it to the top. The "desired" colleges really do offer better education,the students are brighter, the faculty is more exciting and the physical surroundings are more pleasant. In the American education system, to the victor goes the spoils. I don't believe that there will be a way to remove the process of evaluation and ranking from education as long as there are colleges that offer better education or even as long as some professional positions offer better pay. As long as there is wealth, power and status to compete for in American society, I believe ranking and evaluation will continue to have a place in our education system.
This reading really made me wonder why grades are needed at all if there are so many negative consequences. Wolff goes on to explain that there are 3 specific kinds of grading; criticism, evaluation and ranking. Criticism is basically the analysis of something that identifies faults and re-enforces the positive attributes of a work product. Evaluation is the act of assigning a grade to something such as pass, fail or A, B, C, D or F. These marks express the teacher's judgement of the student's work. One flaw with this is that specific performance may not be able to be pin pointed exactly on a linear scale. There may be a huge gap in excellence of performance between A and B but only a marginal gap between a B and high C. Another thing is that it may be difficult to grade or assess a piece of work past a certain level of technical skill because style, interpretation, or finesse may be considered more of a matter of taste. The third type of grading is ranking. Ranking produces the greatest amount of anxiety with students and also is at the center of the most opposition. One problem with this system is that this ordinal ranking does not really show how much better one student is over another. You may have a group of twenty students and all of them may be separated by less than a point. I know that our Valedictorian and Salutatorian were separated by thousandths of a point.
The difference between evaluation and ranking is that evaluation establishes a relationship between each student and an objective scale of measurement. The performances of students do not affect one another and it's possible for every person to rank high on the scale or to fail. One way that evaluations are done by teachers are on a bell curve. Using this method of evaluation, the grade levels are assigned after the students have been evaluated. A problem with this method is that it provides no clue to the level of performance signified by a particular grade. Typically teachers want a large number of low and high passes and smaller number of failing grades.
Criticism, evaluation and ranking all serve entirely distinct functions in the process and institutions of education. Criticism is at the heart of education and Wolff describes it as the only way to learn. One must learn to put all of oneself into their work and submit the result to criticism. He also explains that some educational rebels believe that subjective feeling is the criterion of success in education. What counts is what the student feels about his own work or performance. These rebels believe that other's criticism is harmful and may shape a child based on what the teacher wants. Wolff states that there is some truth in these rebels beliefs because this criticism leads to education being repressive and learning is rote memorization and creativity's are quieted. However, Wolff also states that these students who are never subjected to criticism who enjoy a free environment where expression is welcome, also never learn to deal with criticism.
Wolff says that the task of grading undergraduate students is irrelevant to education and sometimes harmful. The debate is that some students who excel in their major area are committed students but who fail at other studies may not pass or qualify for professional studies where a student who has only average performance across the board may be accepted at a professional school. In my opinion, I feel that this goes against what a professional is. I believe that the school would prefer the student who has a genuine commitment to a single field over a student who may have merely met degree requirements.
Wolff also explains that ranking performs a function which is neither professional or educational. The purpose of ranking is to facilitate the allocation of resources. Since there is not unlimited money for scholarships, ranking students solves this problem. Another problem that ranking solves is when the demand for a spot in a particular school is greater than the supply. The highest ranked receive these resources or awards or positions in these schools. Wolff also goes on to explain that ranking serves no other intellectual, cultural, social, spiritual, psychological or educational purpose. When students go out into the world, the top positions are awarded to those that were able to get in to the most desirable schools and who graduated at the top of their class. Wolff asks, "Are those places (schools) so desirable or is the endless competition a struggle for illusionary rewards?" He then states that the rewards are very real and they are for those who make it to the top. The "desired" colleges really do offer better education,the students are brighter, the faculty is more exciting and the physical surroundings are more pleasant. In the American education system, to the victor goes the spoils. I don't believe that there will be a way to remove the process of evaluation and ranking from education as long as there are colleges that offer better education or even as long as some professional positions offer better pay. As long as there is wealth, power and status to compete for in American society, I believe ranking and evaluation will continue to have a place in our education system.
Prolouge/ Progress or Regress? T&C (Reading Analysis)
The United States will always be tinkering toward utopia when it comes to education reform. The only answer is to come up with a solution that benefits all students equally, which has been the attempted goal for many years. When comparing the assigned readings to what is occurring in today’s society, it seems that the approach to education reform has not changed much since at least the nineteenth century. There is still no clear answer on how to accomplish this goal. Society continually hopes and prays that politicians on the executive, state, and local levels will develop an answer to this issue. The question that comes to mind is do politicians, mostly on the executive level, really care about the welfare of education in the country or pretend to because it is good political etiquette? When talking about government, the text mentions President Johnson’s “Great Society”, which did not solve the issue of education reform as wanted by the American people. Since Johnson, the United States has more recently had “No Child Left Behind”, “Private School Vouchers”, and a suggestion to put more money and resources into preschools. Each of these policies has individuals who are for and against them, which again puts the issue of education reform back at square one. There is always going to be a child that does not fit into the suggested solution. Anytime a group of children are left out, it is believed that an idea or policy has failed. Individual citizens and politicians fight for the policy to be amended or thrown out for a new one to be developed. A different group is the outcast and the cycle starts again. With this being said, is education reform realistic and is there is point in arguing about it?
The text also talks about the inequalities that exist in education reform. There are differences in how each state educated their students. There are also differences within a state of how resources and finances are allocated. The government and citizens constantly talk about preparing children for the future and taking care of the next generation. How is this possible when all children are not educated equally on a state wide, regional, or state-to-state basis?
The text also talks about the inequalities that exist in education reform. There are differences in how each state educated their students. There are also differences within a state of how resources and finances are allocated. The government and citizens constantly talk about preparing children for the future and taking care of the next generation. How is this possible when all children are not educated equally on a state wide, regional, or state-to-state basis?
Progress or Regress?
I found many aspects of chapter 1, Progress or Regress, to be very interesting and thought provoking. On page 14, there is the statement, “since the expectations and experiences of people differ, so do their appraisals of whether things are getting better or worse.” I think this is very true. For certain groups, things have definitely improved. Brown v Board of Education, PL94-142, IDEA, Title I, etc., have all improved the educational opportunities for groups of people that had been denied a fair and equal education or any at all. I also found it interesting that views that are now deemed unfavorably started out as progressive. Labeling students had initially been viewed as a progressive idea. If a student did not fit the mold, they were labeled and tracked accordingly. We now know that labeling a student can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Funding has always been an issue. It is difficult to provide a fair and equal education when funding is not fair and equal. In the 1930’s 25% of the nation’s students were educated with one-tenth of the income (p.23.) Because this segment of the population was poor, fewer funds were sent their way. This is similar to the situation today in our own state. The children of Dillon County receive fair less funding than the children of York County. Another enlightening and positive finding is that parents with children in the public schools education have a better impression of schools and education than the general public. This leads me to believe that many people are forming uneducated (how ironic) opinions based on media or other general perception. I was happy to read this, because I have always felt that my daughters were receiving very good educations, and lots of times I have felt out of stop with popular convention.
Reading Analysis- T&C Prologue/Chapter 1
Once again we are encountering in one of our classes the inequity of public education, as well as the issues that have plagued it for decades and the host of remedies that have been tried. For example, the prologue mentioned that instead of addressing huge social issues like the disparity between the haves and the have nots as far as wealth, education, and job opportunities, vocational education was instituted in public schools as a means to solve these problems. According to the authors, any new reform within education takes a generation or more to determine its effectiveness. They stress the history of educational reform should provide a guide for the future. So, what leads to educational reform? Their view is it it generally political, and they list a host of reasons on page 8 ("ethnic, religious, racial, gender, class differences"). No matter what the basis for educational reform, the real change needs to occur at just one level, the interaction within the classroom between a teacher and her students. Chapter 1 reflected on many of the educational reforms, particularly those from the past century. Statistics were given for many public views of education, and it was interesting to see how these varied over the decades with the overall feeling of the nation about patriotism, the family unit, role of education, importance of public institutions as a whole, racial and gender divisions, and the poor. The authors concluded the chapter with a discussion of the alleged decline in public education, which they felt the evidence for was "faulty". With a nation now facing issues never encountered in the past (page 37), the authors feel our public schools are doing a good job if they are even able to maintain a level of success under these outside influences. These two chapters made me consider in an entirely new light how our nation's public education system has evolved and what forces will continue to impact it in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)