Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Chapter 2

In all seriousness, this chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed is straight up terrifying. When reading, I of course wondered at the author himself: did he have a disastrous, truly terrible run-in (or series of run-ins) with an education system? Was he the most cynical, jaded student to ever exist in the presence of teachers? Did his parents neglect him, and so looked to teachers to raise him and encourage him? Did they, by virtue of not being his parents and having to attend to other more pressing responsibilities, utterly dash his expectations of having a spectacular education peppered with love and approval?

Yes, if anyone would like confirmation, I am being a bit mean and sarcastic. I find Freire’s descriptions of teachers and students to be insulting and demeaning: mind you, that doesn’t suggest that I have zero issues with the system of education I happen to be circulating in. I, as a student, can’t stand it when a teacher descends upon the classroom with an air of delusional grandeur; that act as though they are the very source of knowledge itself, and arrogantly self-assured that they can mold me into a little receptacle that they can fill at their leisure, and do so while expecting me to be passive about the whole exchange. But that’s the thing: I’m not a passive receptacle, and though I’ve met and tolerated teachers that would very much prefer that, I’ve met and worked with twice as many that have encouraged me to think independently and to share with others my passion for literature.

They treated themselves and their students with respect, with the idea that every person in and out of a classroom has it in them to be a conduit of knowledge rather than being separated into the “teachers that know everything” and the “students who know nothing.” I’ve had teachers that have outright stated that they have enjoyed learning from us, their students, and I will always be grateful to them for their guidance and humility.

- Angela H.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

Honestly, this handout had me a bit overwhelmed. It seemed to repeat the adage, when discussing how students may respond to teacher assessment and evaluation, ‘different strokes for different folks,’ but as there was so much going on in this text, I just ended up feeling intimidated. I couldn’t help but crack a laugh at the heading of the first case narrative: ‘coping with issues of assessment.’ If there’s one thing I realized from this handout, it’s that I need to learn to cope with beginning my teaching career fumbling about for methods of assessment and evaluation that will realistically let me know how my students are doing. I hope I find them.

Basically, I’m afraid any method of assessment/evaluation I implement won’t work effectively, I’ll have no idea how well my students have processed the information I’ve given them, and then they move on to higher grade levels being ill-prepared for other assignments and how their new teachers will assess/evaluate their learning. In reality, I know I’m just scaring myself with a load of ‘what if’ scenarios while over-thinking my assumed responsibilities as a novice teacher. I’ll also have to get comfortable with the fact that teaching isn’t a mathematically precise profession that will always yield the results you want if you simply follow the instructions. Teaching always seems to be changing, and with it assessment and evaluation, of which I will have to learn to adapt.

 Happily, I did find a method or two of assessing/evaluating a student’s progress that didn’t scare the hell out of me. My favorite was the free writing journals, because I know that as a student that has indulged in them, they take the pressure off having to always follow a set of rules drilled into people about essay/paper writing. The free writing journal allows students to explore their ideas of what they want to write about, help them choose what they want to write about, and then can help them explore the content of their chosen topic without having to worry overly much about grammar, in-text citations, works cited, or the whole intro. to body paragraph to conclusion skeleton of your typical essay. Getting a student to relax really goes a long way in actually discovering what they know, and gives you insight into how to redirect that knowledge into more formal writing.

- Angela H.

Assignment Template Aligned to California’s CCS Standards for ELA and Literacy

Upon reading this Assignment Template, I caught myself being rather self-centered. I kept on thinking: ‘yes, yes-this is all very interesting-I’ve been through all of this, so I know how to do it’ and so on so forth. But then it hit me that this text isn’t just for the academic writer in me, but also for the teacher of writing in me, perhaps more so than the former.

Just because I know how to navigate an academically structured process of writing from the initial rough draft to the final draft certainly doesn’t mean that my future students will know what to do and how to do it. It hit that I’ll have to re-work my student mind-set into a teacher mind-set, and to continually remind myself that my students will need my guidance, as well as specific, useful feedback on their papers that can assist them in breaking down the writing (as well as the reading) process. It seems like something that should have occurred to me sooner: that my kids won’t be able to telepathically siphon off my writer-ly experiences and know-how, and then promptly get to work with zero questions whatsoever. In my defense, I’m still a student, and it will be sometime before my teaching experience (if I make it very far) will outbalance my time as a pupil.

As far as how to break down the reading process, I’ll have to assume that my students will be unfamiliar with some of the techniques used to analyze readings. When I, the instructor, read, I’m quite proficient in pre-reading, reading, and post-reading procedure; I’ve been drilled in it so often that I don’t need to necessarily think about a piece’s logical, ethical, or emotional components as separate. For me, the process of reading can be effortlessly precise: I know what to look for, what questions to ask. But only because of the teachers that came before me and taught me how to read and how to dig for the most critical information while reading.

- Angela H.

ELA Common Core & Beach, Thein, and Webb’s Handout

In the handout, there were several teachers who had their dissatisfaction with Common Core quoted; I’m a bit surprised by their disapproval. And no, it isn’t because I’m a diehard fan of the Common Core standards.

 

From what I’ve observed over the years to what I’ve read to the opinions of my father, who is a retired special education, public middle school teacher, Common Core is dug in like a tick into America’s educational system, and will be burrowed into it for the foreseeable future. Did these teachers and other school administrators and employees think that they were going to change that? Did they assume their desired, perhaps dreamed of methods of teaching could sway the tide of their school district’s curriculum? Did they think that they, and a handful of other teachers, could forcibly pry Common Core from the educational system once and for all?

Perhaps my line of questioning is too strong, or simply showcases my unfamiliarity with Common Core, its history, and what is currently being done with it now. I simply expect it to be there when I’m certified to teach, and I certainly don’t expect it to be perfect. Perhaps the professional anguish of some of these instructors is due to their pre-teaching expectations of Common Core, the real thing crushing them back to reality?

Let’s round back to what I know about my father’s experience with the Common Core Standards and his time teaching special education students math. He was a part of the Ontario-Montclair school district in southern California, and taught in an area that had at least twice the students that were black or Latino to the white student population. Many of these students towed the line between living in lower-middle class to impoverished levels of economic life, couldn’t speak English very well or were their family’s sole English speaker, fluent or not. He of course would come home and try to explain his bafflement with his school’s curriculum. The standardized testing seemed like a trap to many of his students, as reading in English was also a problem, and were no doubt preoccupied with their daily lives to devote their undivided attention to these tests. Many of his students couldn’t even keep up with the level of math Common Core had wanted them to be proficient in; the basic principles of learning math in the U.S. were already giving these special ed. students a rough time. How could they ever hope to catch up to Common Core’s expectations?

It seems that much of Common Core leaves both teachers and students alike in feeling helpless about whether or not they will be able to continue their paths into education. 

- Angela H.

Stephen Brookfield's “Discussion as a Way of Teaching”

Of all the ways that discussion is used as a method of teaching, part 14, the ‘Critical Conversation Protocol’, has monopolized most of my interest. As I intend to teach kids at the high school level, have been observing high school students in their classrooms, and had been a high school student myself once, I believe that this structure of discussion could prove effective. How so? Let’s see:

1.)    Your average teenager has it in them to be intelligent, motivated students; they can also be impulsive and easily distracted. Those last two can blow up a discussion in no time at all.

2.)    High school students, more often than not in my experience, not only need to process a lot of information but need to be coached into being proficient listeners. Many are passionate and eager to share their opinions, which is great; but those same students may be keener on sharing their tidbits into the conversation than letting their peers have a crack at expressing themselves.

3.)    The roles of ‘storyteller’, ‘detective’, and ‘umpire’ gives every student the chance to share their opinion while having others evaluate their assumptions of what the speaker may be assuming, while having other students step in and check any judgmental passes or potentially heated arguments. Not only do students need time of their own to express themselves, they need to feel as safe as they possibly can amongst their peers in order to have the courage to speak up in the first place.

I suspect that that’s the heart of it for me: employing a method of discussion in which not only students add their two cents to the activity, but actively listen and check each other while clearing up any misunderstandings that could lead to fights and bruised egos. I believe that students need to talk, listen, and look out for each other rather than any one teen trying to be ‘right’ or the center of attention while class is in session. 

- Angela H.