Kajder Text

The Kajder reading for this week was incredibly insightful.  Firstly, I loved that she commented on the necessity of her student's having a choice in what they read and how they present it.  As far as the audiobooks are concerned, I think that this is a great idea to implement into the classroom.  I also liked that the teacher (Kristen) gave the student's the freedom to pick the images they wanted to use to represent their work.  I was confused though when she said that some kids had trouble with this and were "print-trained" (p.73).  That hurts me as a future ELA teacher.  I never want my kid's to be frustrated by choice, and I think that in this case maybe telling them that there were no wrong answers and giving them a rubric to follow may have alleviated the problem.  Type A's always need a rubric.  Just saying.

The story of Leo (p. 67-9) also saddened me, however this sadness has nothing to do with the student and everything to do with the tests that we subject them too.  I completely agree that the definition of literacy needs to be reworked, but then so does the testing scheme.  It's obvious that everyone learns differently and yet we value people based on a biased and boring standardized test.  The same kids that are accepted into prestigious art schools are not the same as those who apply to an Ivy League college, and those that enter the business world are no less valuable than those that choose to go on for higher education.  So why would we not test them differently or offer multiple variations of these standardized tests so that every kid has the chance to succeed on at least one?  They would still have to learn valuable skills, but we would meet them halfway by allowing them to be themselves and if they find the education more useful, wouldn't they be better engaged?  This is a shame and in my classroom I never want a child's worth to be determined by his grade.  So allowing the freedoms offered in this chapter is something that I would definitely consider.

Finally, Kristen mentions that she works in a school where student's are not formally tracked (p. 70).  I don't know how I feel about this?  Thought?  I was tracked throughout my educational career and saw a lot more benefits than I saw disadvantages, because there was always the option to opt out.  However, I admit that I've never seen a classroom that wasn't "tracked," so I guess I'll just have to wait and see and form my opinion later.