Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Meeting the Boys
In this chapter, the authors introduce 4 of the 20 boys that they used in their survey and explained who they are. Three of the boys were eleventh graders who were all at different kinds of schools. The forth boy was a seventh grader at a rural school. It is interesting to me that the two boys who were not native to the US were most interested in school. We are commonly led to believe that minorities and those who migrate to the US are less interested in school. That never really made sense to me, I just figured that they struggled with a new language and having to deal with that in a school setting. For one of the boys, the researchers commented "Ricardo helped us understand that a teacher who looked only at his school literacy would miss much of his literate life and much of who he was and wanted to become." Ricardo was very interested in visual arts all over the world, which is not something that is used very often to determine literacy. Bambino, another boy was willing to work on what interested him in school, but little did that for him. He was even willing to work for a teacher who recognized his interests and expertise. Bodey, the seventh-grader, was very interesting. He not only was failing English, but he was reading the books assigned outside of class for his own pleasure. He didn't want to do reports on them, he just wanted to read the parts of the books that interested him. I couldn't imagine what his grades would be if the teacher let him pick out what he wanted to read!!!!
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I remember in elementary school being given the choice of 2 extra vocabulary words I wanted to learn. It was an amazing concept to me at the time because I was actually given a choice in my own education. That is how I learned how to spell California! I learned it quickly and it stuck and I give credit to that because I was given the control. I think we are loosing sight of this. We don't give our students the control over their education because it has gone to far toward standardization.
ReplyDeleteI think that as teachers one of the most difficult things that we will face is making our students read something that they are not interersted in. I think this becomes more of a problem when students enter junior high and the material becomes more dry, very few teachers use fun ways of teaching for junior high and high school. I can only imagine, just like you, how his grades would be if he was able to pick what he read.
ReplyDeleteChoice is critical to student motivation and buy-in.
ReplyDeleteAlice’s positive memory of getting the choice of 2 extra vocabulary she wanted to learn. She was amazed that was actually given control in her own education…I believe we all feel motivated if we’re given the respect of making our own choices.
Given choice and control students feel a sense of autonomy and they are motivated. Motivation declines when students have no say or control. Providing options means providing motivation.
Your post helped remind me of the readings that I had to do when I was in high school. I remember that, within my literature classes, my opportunities to read what I wanted were very limited. When I did have the opportunity, it was as though I didn't know what to do because I did not have the experience before. Therefore, I would end up simply choosing a book taht I knew would either please or impress my teacher. Like Dana mentioned, choice is so vital, and it is important that choice is given throughout the school year and not just once or twice during the semester. Thanks for the post!
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