Adolescent Literacy:
Turning Promise into Practice.
Chapter 1: “The Measure of
Our Success” by Kylene Beers
I
come from a small, poor farm school in Southwest Michigan. Schools like mine
were, and still are, a dime a dozen. We averaged 45 students per class and held
sixth through twelfth grades all in one building. Including faculty and staff,
there were about 180 people in the entire building on a daily basis.
One
of the most important lessons I had to learn throughout high school was that my
classmates—my friends—and I were
just as capable of achieving success as students at bigger, richer schools. I
had to work my tail off at times to do it, but I showed my parents, teachers,
coaches, friends, and—possibly most
importantly – myself that a lack of resources did not equate a lack of
ability.
In Ch. 1 of Adolescent Literacy, Beers explores the
measuring sticks of American educational systems: the tests whose scores are
used as leashes on teachers. He points out—with incredible accuracy—the
urgency with which principals and teachers are forced to meet pre-set,
universal standards which are designed to be applied to all students.
It would be so incredibly easy
for me to be infuriated, to exclaim that the
necessity should not be for regurgitation of analytical information, but for
the synthesis of new ideas. Students should be allowed to construct new ideas
based on what they have been given rather than build based on someone else’s
instructions. Indeed, this is what I wrote in the first draft of this post.
While I do not entirely disagree with those words—I did write them, after all—I
also do concede that structure is needed in schools. I also agree with Beers
when he points out that the No Child Left Behind campaign “accomplished something
that for too long had been left unaccomplished and, at times, even unconsidered…that
all children be taught to the same rigorous standards and explains that gaps in
academic achievement between and among groups of students…are not acceptable” (5).
The trick, however, does lie in
the fact that modern school systems do not always allow for the expression of
individuality through opportunities of praising students for their progress and
accomplishments. Rather, they system forces them all to conform to the same
standards. The journey will begin when we can all understand what kind of
literacy our students need to be taught so as to be capable of adapting and
expanding their knowledge.
NOTES FROM THE CHAPTER:
Different kinds of
literacy—more than reading the words
Signature
|
Recitation
|
Analytical
|
Conceptual
|
basic reading/writing
abilities
|
pure memorization
of information
|
regurgitation of
outside ideas
|
creation of opinions
and synthesis of ideas
|
Colonial
|
Pre-WWI
|
WWI -1990s
|
Now
|
Styles of Informational
Learning
Consuming Information vs.
Producing Information
Regurgitation vs.
Creation
Gathering Information vs.
Learning a Lesson
Yes, students need to be able to retain information;
memory is very important. However, they also need to be able to analyze the
information in a way that allows them to synthesize their own ideas and
opinions.
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