Adolescents on Edge Ch. 3+4

This week, I'm going to distinctly analyze the separate chapters. Chapter 3 was titled Challenge and Self-Efficacy and was concerned with the importance of keeping the students engaged and stimulated (but not bogged down with hefty workloads in place of true challenges) and the importance of instilling in every student a feeling of personal faith.

It's not an easy task to keep a student challenged but not overwhelmed. "Challenged" does not mean, "busy" nor does it mean, "Intimidated." A student who is challenged by the curriculum is a student that is engaged in the content and is willing to work with it, even if that means putting in a lot of effort. So how is this balance found?

Well, first the student needs to be prepared. Students who are not accustomed to speaking in front of a group will not feel challenged by a debate assignment; they will feel uncomfortable and perhaps incapable. So, it's important to work up to the big challenges with smaller challenges. Put the students in smaller groups, have them read scripts or plays first. Then, when their comfort level is obvious, keep the challenge going by moving to ad lib discussions, debates and role-playing. Continually have them advancing their skills, but be sure to set the foundations first.

If a student doesn't feel comfortable with the work their being asked to do, they aren't going to want to put in the effort that's required. This is why it's important for teacher's to be in touch with where the student's confidence level is in different areas of study. Any student who feels they are not good at reading, writing or any other subject will manifest that as reality. As teachers, we need to be aware when students are employing such mindsets. Again, we start with the foundation and should begin looking for opportunities for the students to feel even the smallest senses of success. Allow time for them to express themselves in writing without having to worry about grammatical errors so they can begin sharing their ideas. Facilitate situations where students can share these ideas and respond positively to each other’s efforts. Students without confidence or strong sense of self-efficacy often benefit from seeing their efforts from other perspectives that don't share that criticism.

Chapter 4 is titled Collaboration and Group Work and my favorite line out of it was "Who seriously believes that locking 25 students in a small room with one adult for several hours a day is the best way for them to be "educated?" (36) This is in the beginning of the chapter and is characteristic of the remainder, I just thought it was a valid question for everyone to consider. Our system of "education" being employed in this country seems to be growing more and more constrictive and bureaucratically impeded, at least in the mainstream. Group work can be a way to shed, at least for an hour or so, the restraints enforced during "typical" classroom time. But, again, balance is necessary. Like the chapter mentions, group work, especially group discussions, have significant potential to lead to the classroom getting "out of control." Personally, I like that idea, but as an aspiring teacher I still find the thought of a wild classroom a little terrifying.

If group discussions and group work is going to work, we need to go back to a previous chapter and remember the importance of community. If students don't feel that connection with one another and the teacher, they aren't going to want to participate or they won't respect one another's contributions.

In the end, if we can find a way for group work to function, it could mean all the difference in our students' educations. After all, once they are adults in the "real world" everything becomes group work. Yes, students need to learn history and mathematics and literacy, but if they can't function as a respectful social unit, their odds of succeeding in society are gravely compromised. So, even if the first group assignments are a fiasco, they're still important steps to facilitating a well-rounded education and the more students partake in it, the more beneficial the practice will be.

Adolescents on Edge Ch. 1+2

I was a little disappointed by how this book starts out. I judged this book by its cover and was expecting it to be a little more, well, edgy. Jimmy Santiago Baca's stories start in part 2 of the book, and I'm looking forward to getting there as I've read A Place to Stand and found it mesmerizing. But this first half is looking to be a little humdrum. Sure, there's some good concepts but the introduction doesn't even mention how the information will be presented and it all seems to be in a random order.

Chapter 1 was Community and Trust, both important concepts. I totally agree that a sense of community is greatly beneficial in a classroom. And a student who trusts their teacher and trusts that they are genuinely invested in teaching them is going to feel much more motivated. While reading this chapter I kept thinking about my first grade classroom and imagining how it was to feel connected to every person there, especially my teacher. Comfort in the classroom is paramount and all teachers should know that exploring ways to create a comfortable, all-inclusive community is integral to successfully inspiring students to learn. How can we do it though? The book mentions that Jimmy's stories later on will help us with that. I guess I'll wait and see. Here's some thoughtful examples for community-building tactics listed right at the end of the chapter:

-Post a calendar and write each studen'ts birthday on the appropriate date

-Celebrate positive events and achievements

-Have a digital camera handy to capture moments that define community

I sure wish I could have come up with such potent ideas.

Chapter 2 was titled engagement and motivation. I wasn't surprised to read that students that are engaged and motivated tend to be better learners. I figured that out myself, I think I was probably about six when I made that discovery. How can we engage the students better? Jimmy's stories later on will help out with that. So why am I reading this? The chapters bold subtitles did inspire some thoughts on worthy subjects including Expectations, Immersion, Responsibility and Approximation. One of the most important things that was more firmly anchored in my brainf after reading was insuring that students are comfortable expressing their thoughts without feeling whether they are right or wrong. This goes back to the sense of community. Students absolutely need to feel comfortable and included in the classroom, they need to feel as though they have value and potential. Jimmy's stories have more on that later, but before that I'm going to read Chapters 3 and 4, Challenge and Self-Efficacy and Collaboration and Group-work.