Sunday, April 17, 2016

"Empowering Education" by: Ira Shor

"Empowering Education

By: Ira Shor 

Extended Comments on Kamryn's blog

     In Kamryn's blog she highlighted a lot of great points from the Shor article. Shor is talking about education in school systems and how it is important for students to feel challenged and have the opportunity to question what they are being taught. Kamryn also brings out the idea of standardized tests and how a rigid system often times doesn't agree wit students, causing them to drop out. For example she states, "...students should be able to research anything that becomes interesting to them." I really liked that Kamryn pointed this out because people have different interests and with such a rigid system that is based around standardized tests, it isn't making for an empowering education in the classroom. Take for example if a teacher was to give an assignment about the theater; their instruction could be to know the history of it as well as the types of plays there are. However, a student who really hates the subject of history but loves the arts may find it more interesting to learn about the making of the costumes and scripts. Both students could be receiving knowledge about the theater but in ways that peaks they interests. This also allows for the students to be challenged and ask questions about their topics. 
     Kamryn also talked about the part with teacher involvement in a students education. She mentioned about a teacher taking into account every student as a person so no one feels like an outcast or like their interests aren't important. Relating to Lisa Delpit's "codes and rules of power" Kamryn wrote about the rules and codes of standardized tests on teachers concerning curriculum; while also talking about the rules and codes for the students in the classroom. There certainly has to be a happy medium which is a huge task to handle when a lot of students learn in different ways. 

Questions-Comments-Point-to-share: 
     I really enjoyed this reading because I think it took into account a lot of the other readings that we have completed for class. Kamryn's blog was super helpful at organizing the main idea's of the reading as well as summarizing them.
     

3 comments:

  1. Kate, the picture you included good not be a better representation of this article! You did a really nice job expanding on Kamryn's ideas. I especially like your comments on the issue of standardized test. Your examples were great!

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  2. I agree with Grace, you did a great job expanding on Kamryn's blog. I also want to say that the picture you choose is really good. I remember being in school and when NECAP was coming up, my teachers would start focusing on what they knew we were going to be tested on. It was all new material and we really weren't going to be tested on things that we've been learning. These tests don't give a good representation at all on what we know and that's the big problem with them because they are weighted and looked at a lot .
    Overall, great post !

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  3. I agree with Katherine and Grace you did a really good job expanding on Kamryn's blog. Your picture really fits for the reading. The test do not show what we truly know and it causes a lot of kids to doubt their intelligence if they do not pass. It makes them feel like they do not know anything when they do know a lot. Overall, great post!

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