HW 49, 50, 51 & Notes on Finishing School Unit

As we finish this school unit I hope for the following experiences for you -

1. HW - 49 - A 4-6 paragraph analysis of your section's class savior/teacher film. This will be due Friday, April 23 at 9pm. Please address:

a. your personal contribution

b. your analysis of the message and tone of your section's film

c. contrast the film with the savior/teacher films we watched clips of

d. theorize (explore thoughtfully and powerfully) the connection between salvation and education/schooling in our culture

If your section didn't successfully complete a film you could choose to use this film to compare/contrast.

2. HW - 50 - Your response to a set of readings and final interviews on schooling. Please read the following and write a one paragraph summary and a one paragraph response to each separate text or author (depending on your skills read all or some of the texts - making sure you read at least one from each author):
Gatto - Against School, 6 Lessons, Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech
Freire - Second Chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Critique of Banking Model) - strong readers should read the whole chapter and weaker readers or the time-crunched should read the first 14 paragraphs - up to and including the paragraph about "the humanist, revolutionary educator".

Delpit - Silenced Dialogue, Interview with N. Stanley, Other Peoples' Children (24-34 on the pdf viewer)

SOF Educator - Interview done inside or outside of class - Fanning, Manley, Copeland, Ms. D, and Andy, etc.

This will be due Monday, April 26 at 8:30am - it will include the above text responses and the results of an educator interview.

To clarify - you will publish on Monday a paragraph of summary and a paragraph of analysis of at least one text or interview from Freire, Gatto, Delpit, and an SOF educator (Ms. D, Fanning, Andy, Cope, Manley, etc). This means you will write at least 8 paragraphs total for this assignment.

3. HW - 51 - A 3-5 page paper, drawing on your independent research, interviews, class materials, etc on a particular topic of interest to you related to schooling. This will be due Tuesday, April 27 at 9pm.

If you don't yet have a topic please consider the following - linked to what we've studied this unit:

1. School as salvation - what can schools realistically do to address the systematic problems of inequality, anti-intellectualism, and meaninglessness in our society? (Savior Teacher Films, Obama speech, Sizer, Freire, Hirsch, Delpit, interviews, own thoughts)

2. School as domination - How do schools train us to be sheep, to be dull, to be dumb, to be absurd? Is it possible/preferable to escape, to transform, or to understand the institution? (Dead Poets Society, Freire, Sizer, Delpit, interviews, own thoughts)

The quarter quiz will be offered (a bit late) Monday, April 26. All questions will relate to school unit material found or linked to from two blogs - mine and Andy L's.