White Privilege

What makes each of these three articles different from one another? What is the most interesting idea from each? How can you think about your own privilege without feeling too guilty?

lesson planning for diversity

All the readings this week have to do with how teachers have created lessons that deal with diversity issues. What ideas are these articles giving you for how you might do the same? Which article or articles particularly impressed you?

I ain't doin that

What we have here is a case study. Does Apryl remind you in some ways of students you know? To me the most interesting part of a cases study are the hypotheses. When you really look closely at a student's words and actions, it is tempting to explain them in simplistic ways - "she's lazy" or "he doesn't care about school." But it is rarely that simple. How does this teacher develop a deeper and more complex hypothesis? Have you found yourself conducting case studies of a sort in your head? What did you learn from this case study that might help you improve your own case studies?

Finding Myself in My Students

What can you relate to in this story? If this is an example of a self-study, how would you define a self-study? Did you notice how pp. 56 & 57 are kind of like an entry in TWS section 1?

Tracking

How would you summarize the research on tracking/heterogeneous grouping? What did you think of the main article we read? Are you in favor of tracking or against it? Why?

The Gap

Between the two articles I gave you and the one I wrote you've seen gobs of possible reasons why an achievement gap exists. Of course the problem is complicated, and there isn't any one reason for it. Probably nearly all the theories provided do have some merit. But if you had to try to pinpoint the most significant theories you've read, which combination would you choose? Which seem to be the ones at play at your school? Pull together ideas from the three articles to create your personal theory of the gap. Then come back later and comment on someone else's theory.

Gay Marriage

How did you feel about Richard Mouw? Can you think of other public figures who are open to truly respectful debate, people who deeply consider and try to admire the views of their opponents? Can you think of public figures who have been willing to take a side that is unpopular with their political party or religious group? Have you ever changed your mind completely about a commonly debated issue? How did that happen? If you are Democrat, is there at least one issue where you can say, “The Republicans are more in the right on this” or vice versa?