Manny did a really great job with this project. He had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do and realized it largely by himself. Kudos to Manny! Enjoy!
Manny’s Presentation!
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Author Archives: hetran
One Way to Stop Bullying
Manny and Henry Update
Today, Manny finished the essay portion of his tribute to Michael Jordan. He and Henry revised the written piece together and Manny’s excited to present it to the whole group. We also finished our tribute video! We worked on fine-tuning the clips so that they’d flow well with the background music. We must say, it looks pretty good 🙂
Reading Response to Ray
I think it was a few class sessions ago that we discussed what it means to read critically and how teachers should go about teaching students to do that. The complexity of these seemingly simple questions really puzzled me and left me thinking for quite some time afterward. For this reason, I found Ray’s piece on inquiry-based teaching really thought-provoking. I was at first somewhat reluctant to accept Ray’s notion of the efficacy of this method of teaching/learning. I thought it was a little bit risky as a pedagogical strategy and too loosely structured for comfort. But having gone through all of Ray’s explications and illustrations–as well as Skinner’s own model of inquiry-based learning in conjunction with critical media literacy strategies–of the ways that inquiry-based teaching can and does work in the classroom, I became convinced of the method’s power to help students learn critical reading and writing skills.
I was particularly drawn to Ray’s emphasis on immersion within well-written, real-world texts that, after all, are from and are representative of texts from the real world. Often times students encounter in the classroom oversimplified writing samples and models that have no resemblance to good, quality writing. Even the academic writing that college students encounter have no resemblance to the sort of writing that they are taught to learn as young students. Letting students figure out, roughly for themselves, what good writing looks like can be a powerful strategy that encourages deeper levels of examination and critical interrogation in reading. As Ray stresses over and again, students must not merely be taught so they can learn, but instead taught to learn how to learn.
I think there’s a lot of power in letting students learn through immersion. Of course, this method of teaching presents many challenges and risks. Clearly, it is much more difficult to improvise a lesson than come to class prepared with one. Furthermore, inquiry-based learning places a lot of pressure on the students themselves to be active agents in their own learning. But I think this is what this type of learning is all about: the challenge of and growth that spring from inquiry. If we judge students’ work on what they do correctly and what learning they’ve exhibited in their work, rather than on what they fail to do or include in their writing, teaching through inquiry can be an empowering strategy for both students and teachers alike.
What I found initially troubling was this idea that the curriculum is to be generated with the students and not all planned out beforehand. But what’s really poignant about this exercise is that teachers will gain instructional expertise from it, and content expertise will necessarily follow. No teacher can be an expert in everything s/he teaches, but any teacher can become an expert in teaching students how to learn. As Ray suggests, I believe that the key to critical reading, writing and thinking is rooted in this idea that process is infinitely more important than product.
Manny and Henry’s Update 2/28
This whole time in digital storytelling we have been changing our ideas but, i think today we finally have the tools to finish our project. So we found a way to import YouTube video onto the the desktop (after a whole lot of trial and error). I think that from now on, we’ll be able to actually work on the project instead of trying to learn how to do everything. We plan on continuing our original project and will compile videos from YouTube into a commercial for Michael Jordan sneakers in the next few weeks.
Today, Manny also worked on a written piece that will accompany his digital project. He’s decided to write a short piece about Michael Jordan’s rise to fame and will trace his trajectory from underdog to superstar athlete. He is still working on a rough draft, but it looks very promising. We just have to figure out how to tie this paper into the digital project.
Bringing Non-Academic Literacies into the Classroom
In “Dear Tupac,” Heidi Hallman illustrates an interesting alternative to teaching “at-risk” students. She emphasizes the need to incorporate out-of-class literacies into the academic curriculum. Hallman provides a powerful example of students from a school for pregnant and parenting teens who use hip-hop to practice and improve literacy skills. While I find her argument salient, especially when considering the marginalization and degradation (academic as well as societal) of teen parents, she doesn’t address too deeply a fundamental issue: academic literacy.
In my opinion, Bob Schaefer’s approach, or at least what Hallman reports of it, is not as academically inclined as it should be. The students do have an opportunity to improve their writing skills through journal writing, narrative writing and poetry, but Hallman makes it seem like these exercises are designed more for therapeutic purposes than for academic purposes. While I completely agree that students labeled as “at-risk” youth deserve the opportunity to learn and express themselves in ways more easily afforded to other students, basic skills are still necessary. It is important for students of all levels to “investigate their individual agency,” but they must also be equipped with the knowledge necessary to succeed in school and beyond. Certainly, we must be careful to not drill basic skills and rote memorization into these students’ heads. It is unfortunate that arbitrary standards are what teachers are forced to focus on in the classroom, but sadly, it is what ensures academic and future success.
I think hip-hop is valuable in that it allows students to engage with the things they’re interested in and are most familiar with. But bringing out-of-class literacies and technologies into the classroom also has the potential to be distracting. I don’t mean to impugn the value that out-of-school literacies present. They are of extreme importance when it comes to drawing students into their own learning. But in my opinion, academic learning should still be a central part of the curriculum. In no way do I mean to discredit the value of what Hallman is encouraging teachers to practice. I just wish she had clarified more specifically what was being done to prepare these students for more fulfilling and promising futures beyond school.
Day 2 of Digital Project
Today we revised our previous ideas and thought of some other topics. We have decided to work on a different type of commercial. Instead of creating a commercial of my own shoe brand, I wanted to use some video clips of the one and only Michael Jordan to market his shoe brand.
Heres one clip we think of using;
Two Birds, One Stone
I found Harvey Daniels’s chapter on letter exchanges between teachers and students to be extremely and surprisingly thought-provoking. It’s really such a simple idea, yet as Daniels cautions, it requires a lot of time and dedication. Nevertheless, Daniels provides a number of examples and explanations that demonstrate just how powerful a strategy letter writing and correspondence could really be.
From what I gathered from Daniels’s argument, the benefits of letter exchange for both teachers and students is twofold.
This form of communication between student and teacher is important for several academic-related reasons. First, it has the potential to teach what strong writing should look like. While it’s important that teachers use less formal, and therefore less distant, language to effectively communicate to their students through their notes, their writing style will ultimately convey to the students what forms of writing are appropriate within an academic setting/correspondence. Second, letter exchanges provide a means by which students could discuss what they understand, don’t understand, like or dislike about the content they are learning. While this shouldn’t replace extra face-to-face help from the teacher, this strategy would certainly illuminate the problems that individual students–or perhaps a group of them–may have in the classroom, thus making it possible for teachers to take further measures to ensure that their students are fully grasping what they need to know.
I guess that in high school, some of my teachers presented me with opportunities for written communication with them via weekly journals. But the emphasis was based primarily on the week’s content and not so much on open-ended musings. Furthermore, the teachers would clearly read through my entries–as I could tell from their markings–but would not provide constructive or particularly valuable comments. I didn’t find this particularly noteworthy then, but I can now see how my teachers may have missed an opportunity to develop a more academically and personally fulfilling relationship with my peers and myself.
That being said, what I found to be Daniels’s most compelling argument for the note-exchanging process is the more personal implication of letter correspondence: the connection that is allowed to develop between a teacher and his/her students. This form of communication allows for personal attention that can enhance a student’s–particularly a shy student’s–level of comfort and confidence. This would be especially important for ELL students who find it difficult to find a voice in the classroom!
Of course, this whole process requires a ton of time and dedication on the part of the teacher. And reading and writing letters will be especially hard when you’re teaching up to five classes a day. Unless an efficient system could be worked out, letter-writing could become extremely taxing. But it is of the utmost importance for teachers to know who they are teaching, what strengths and weaknesses could be focused upon, and what personal issues may require further attention. Daniels concludes with a powerful thought: “Could any teaching act ever be more important” than connecting with a kid who’s in trouble?
Hello, My names is Emmanuel but, everyone calls me manny.
I was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on 3/23/00 which makes me 11 years old. I have two siblings. I have a 17 year old brother who is named Sebastian, and a 14 year old sister named Isabella. My favorite thing to do is to watch and play all kinds of sports except for the one that I don’t think should be considered a sport (golf). My favorite teams are Miami Heat (basketball),NY Jets (football), NY Yankees (baseball), and Real Madrid (soccer).
A Little Bit about Henry
This is my super awesome post about me.
My name is Henry and I’m a sophomore at Vassar College. I’m majoring in Urban Studies and Sociology, but am interested in Education and Environmental Studies as well. I’m originally from Anaheim, California and as much as I love Poughkeepsie, it’s always nice to go home to sunny California.
Here’s my first digital story: