CLICK HERE FOR KING'S ARTICLE
After reading the article, please respond to each of the following questions:
1. What were the "aha" moments for you in this article? What did you learn?
2. How can these learnings be applied in your classroom or in our school?
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My "aha" moment was that the school confronted their data, made a conscientious"one degree" shift and obtained extraordinary resuts for all students. Teachers did not pull away from curricula, but rather created differentiated assignments to connect with all learners. The personal connection/high interest level while maintaining high expectations was key to their success.
ReplyDeleteWe need to create more authentic experiences for all learners if we are going to stop the trend of losing so many of our male students.
The “aha” moment from this reading was the male special education population of Douglass Elementary. 75 percent is an amazing number of males identified as needing special education services at this particular school. I felt that this should have been explored, as it was used to define achievement and gender gap ratios, which were used to explain the success of the brain science, based implementations.
ReplyDeleteI found that there are several implications for my/our current practice. It is true that we no longer teach the “heroes” in our schools. When they are taught, it seems that they are tragic heroes, often meeting an untimely demise. In an informal poll of 12th grade psychology students, I found that only one student could name a military hero, whereas 8 of 10 students knew what happened at Abu Ghraib prison.
Deb says....
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Douglass Elementary is not alone in having overidentified AF AM males into special education. It is an alamring national trend and says more about our lack of effectiveness as educators then it does about this population of students.
I have long been fascinated with the difference between hero and celebrity. It makes for an interesting contrast and it says about our values as a society in terms of what we admire collectively.
Josh Bergstein:
ReplyDelete1. The "aha" moment for me was the overall need African-American males have in the classroom. The big need I saw was the need for hands-on learning in the classroom. I also learned that students isolated by gender might be a beneficial idea, even though I think it would impact the social aspect of learning.
2. I think I could make a larger impact with the works I teach. Having strong male protagonist that young male students could connect to would be a definite plus. If I could also skew my works towards African-American authors or protagonists, the male students might be more interested. I also need to make my content more "real" to my male students. I think a good in-road for this is the Mock Trial assignment, where students have to debate the morality of slave uprisings. I usually see more male engagement during that activity.
Paul says...
ReplyDeleteFor me, the 'ah ha' moment was that I see a lot of what King and Gurian is going on with my sons. For example, my 6 year old creates long aggression scenarios, loves competition, action and definitely creates superhero journeys. His Nintendo ds is monopolized by Indiana Jones legos and Batman legos video games. Lego's are a very tactile play object as well which is indicative of King and Gurian's theory that boys need to more inclined to learn spatially-kinesthetically. Another 'ah ha' moment for me was the comment that many of the girls in Mrs. Hill's 4th grade class found that the boy based activities worked for them as well. Finally, the parental involvement related to homework had connections to my life. My son, who is in kindergarten, brings home weekly math activities that come with instructions. I must sign and date his packet. It is worth noting that in regards to homework, the student in Mrs. Steposki's class was motivated by his 'b' grade that he was earning in part due to the completion of this homework as well as the skills gained as a result of completing it.
There were applications to my classroom that came out of this article. I do end of the unit simulation role-plays at the end of some of my units. Audience, a reoccurring critical attribute of motivation that keeps coming up in current educational research, is very important. I think it would be a good idea to have students present these role-plays in the student center, possibly with the Principal Red, AP Martin, or other faculty members present. While this not the sharing of writing to larger audiences that the article recommends, it is communicating to a larger audience. Otherwise, the authentic assignments are a very good idea. Writing a proposal would be a cool way of getting young men motivated. Make the writing purposeful.
Deb says...Kerry and I collaborated on role plays last year. I also taught a lesson on role play and simulation to a group of student teachers at Wilson College. I want to use this lesson with our faculty. Role play is an excellent strategy and one we don't use enough. I would like to see you follow through with these goals.
ReplyDelete