Gap Wisconsin

At the beginning of the semester, I went to the Morgridge Center for Public Service to find an opportunity to become involved in community work. Volunteer opportunities in Madison are plentiful, especially in reference to tutoring. A special program for tutoring, Schools of Hope, is one of the largest volunteer programs. The program sounded fine, as I quickly turned into the application, and waited.

A few days later, my phone rang and an interview was set up. The interview was intended so I could be become more accustom to the mission of the program. Schools of Hope is a volunteer opportunity for students to be tutors at schools with a large minority population in the student body. The goal of the program was to improve the racial gap in academia. I learned that Wisconsin had one of the worst academic racial gaps in the entire nation.

I was shocked. Wisconsin. Really?

Reading the articles confirmed this incomprehensible fact. Wisconsin has a lot of work to do to improve its academic institutions. Improvement of urban schools should be the first problem addressed. The majority of Wisconsin's African American residents live in the Milwaukee or Madison areas. Improving these two school districts would improve the gap numerically.

But that is just a number. A conscientious effort should be made to improving racial discrimination within the classroom. Although subtle, something is prohibiting some of Wisconsin's citizens from achieving an average education. The problem should be investigated further, and poses many questions. Questions that need to be answered.

Something interesting was the degree of shock that was implied when the largest gap did not come from the South. I feel that those problems are in the past, and now racial discrimination should be viewed as a national problem.

Response to A Conversation with Lisa Delpit

The most interesting part I took from this Q&A was that teachers can't just "give us the secrets". For example, it is not a teachers job to tell us the answers, but to lead and guide us to find the answers for ourselves. Lisa tells us that it is the teacher job to make the map and provide it. If the students cannot realize this for themselves, especially younger students, sometimes parents or other outside sources are brought in to evaluate. The teacher may be at fault, but is it right to let an outside source evaluate? Through Lisa's experiment with the class that was lectured to by one teacher and split into discussion groups by another, we see that we cannot rely on outside sources to evaluate a teacher's methods. The students all talked about how the lecture was interrupted by their teacher himself where the outside source saw it as being more involved with the students; but did the students really learn? The students felt gave the split up discussion class high marks, while the outside force saw it as lazy teaching. This shows that evaluations show more or less be left up to what the students themselves have learned and not how they were taught. Also, another main point I took from this article was that no matter what your social status is the way you're taught should not be effected. There should be a more personal, maybe even a cultural, reason to shift the lesson.

Response to "A Conversation w/ Lisa Delpit"

I think that this article covers a lot of topics that need to be addressed between teachers, students and parents. Specifically, I find that Delpit's ideas about culture within writing might be controversial to some, but can be very helpful to others. She emphasized that people write differently from each other in order to better communicate, but this is because of our different experiences and backgrounds. She then went on to explain that many teachers expect less from students because of their own personal situations, such as poverty, or because they aren't up to the same standards as the rest of their class, or other kinds of set backs. Throughout the article, Delpit makes the point that teachers should use techniques and methods that focus on what students need to learn and know within their writing. She also speaks about how teachers, students, and parents should communicate with one another in order to find out what those needs are. She explains that some students may need more help than others, a point with which I completely agree. Upon reading Delpit's conversation, I agreed with many of the remarks she made. I think they could really be useful with childrens' learning experiences of writing, especially students who come from such diverse standpoints and cultures.

Response to "A Conversation"

I thought Lisa Delpit’s idea of teaching from a standpoint of the “culture of power” was an idea that most don’t think about when thinking about the equality of education. I had never really given this topic much thought, coming from a small town that was not very diverse, but I think she raises a good point. Many teachers are very systematic and teach by the book, or so to speak, instead of creating their lessons according to the abilities of their learners. There is an assumed cultural understanding that young students are thought to have, and in many cases, do not. It should not be the case that minority students are more susceptible to fall behind academically because the majority of teachers, Caucasian females, only fully understand their own culture. Classrooms should be more universal and revolve around the students’ needs to give everyone a fair shot at academic success.

They Say/ I say Reflection

This excerpt summarizes exactly what I have trouble doing. I find it very troublesome to somehow incoorporate the opposing side into my argument. When I have a strong opinon about a such topic, I stick with it not allowing any room for discussion. One section of this piece "Put yourself in their Shoes" explains how a writer should suspend his/her own beliefs otherwise the summary becomes totally bias, resulting in distortion towards your entire piece. In my opinion, I think this is a great lesson to help young writers learn. If students learned how to write along with the argument, still adding their position, it would be beneficial for the future. I also think that everyone has the ability to be persuaded. In the section "Know Where You Are Going" says stating the opposing side is fair and allows you to exert an influence, this can help your opinion stand out even more. I definitely need to learn more about this topic.

They Say I Say Reflection

I totally agree with the fact that some people write summeries to play it safe, so that they arnt judged by what they think, or what their opinion is. But in order to make your summery interesting, you need to be able to crasp the readers attention. The best way to do this is by adding a hint of your own opinion. it gives the writing alittle zest. But I also believe that in order for people to read what you are writing, they need to be able to relate to it. That is why you need to show where other views might be coming. The most boring summery a writer can ever create is on that becomes a list, just rattling off what happned. The best way to write a good summery is to represent whatever is being summerized with dignity, but also putting your onwn creativity in it.

"They Say / I Say" response

I find it really surprising; Graff and Birkenstein believe that your voice should be recognizable in a summary is extremely important. I have trouble maintaining my voice in papers already, so I wholeheartedly agree within the first paragraph when they say that your voice can be lost in summarizations. I think this will be really hard to fix since what you're summarizing isn't what you wrote but somebody else's work, and they deserve all the credit in a summary. However, voicing is a step in becoming a better writer. They also urge us to keep a balance between you and the author while staying focused, which is difficult but very true. Brittany's idea of a "happy medium" is exactly what they're suggesting in their essay. Although it is super hard to summarize an article that expresses differing opinions from what you believe, they are still right. You have to wait until a seperate part of the paper where you express your beliefs. Or you could just write one of those satirical essays they are talking about.... either works.

What I find most interesting though is their comment on "list summaries". Those 'they say' and 'i say' introductions in summaries are complete no-no's. While reading that, I started to wonder if this was a problem in my writing. I never even thought about that being a problem until now, and I know that a clear and interesting voice in my papers is missing sometimes. So, after reading this, I'm going to proof-read my short assignment that's due on Friday to see if I ever wrote one of these poor introductions in my summary. If I did, I will be really embarrassed. However, it will only make me a better writer. I suggest, not 'say', that you should do the same for your papers. Use the language and verbs suggested at the end of the essay.

By the way... did anyone catch the "they say" I wrote in my first paragraph? Wow...