Reflection on Part Four :1980-2000, The Bottom Line

            Reading Part Four: 1980-2000, The Bottom Line was an interesting read. This chapter spoke about how America had to find better ways to get public schools curriculum suitable and working for all students to be ready for the workforce and/or college. America was ranked the lowest in reading and math scores throughout the nation. The government did not approve of this and wanted to make a change within the public system so that all students can have a better opportunity in higher education and gain a better future for themselves. In this section, I had chosen to use one WORD, one PHRASE, and one SENTENCE with evidence to back up your choices.   

Word: Curriculum

I chose this word because having a good curriculum in place would not only better the test scores but also help better each student that want to create a better future for themselves and the world. The economy was facing harsh times with trying to build a better curriculum so that all students had a fair chance of higher education. The curriculum during the 1980s-2000s was a big issue because students were having low scores on the math and reading test and this was a big disappointment within the American society. People try to find the solution in investing in companies to help try to make the schools better and help with the curriculum standards. Solutions that were implemented were making smaller classrooms, giving vouchers to low-income students, and even having other companies sponsor their own ideas to help create a better school environment. With all these trails and errors in place, I find that the curriculum system still needs to be worked on of helping students be more prepared for college and the workforce.

Phrase: The future of a democracy depends on the education of its people. Page 213

            I chose this phrase because education is very important and if you design a lack of education you’re really creating a democracy of lost opportunities for many people. Kids are our future and we as a nation must do our best to create a better education so that we can create a better future for all. David Tyack had mentioned that we need to work together and in order to help the next generation. We should not create solutions that would tear the public systems apart, we should create more solutions that would advance the school curriculum so that the kids of tomorrow can have a better education.  

Sentence: You can’t teach a child how to think unless you have something for him to think about. Page 209

           

            I chose this sentence because this is so true. In order for a child to really understand and focus on a subject, you must give the child the proper tools for them to focus on. Without the right materials, the child would just be lost and would not bother to educate themselves further. The problem in the past was that education was not fair. Many kids had to either drop out and find their own path in life or deal with the system and do their best to create a successful lifestyle for themselves. Especially for those who were poor and could not afford to be in a good school and get the proper education. Things are changing now and the most we can do as a nation is keep bettering the education so that all students can succeed in life and continue to create a better future.  

Separate and Unequal

In Part Three 1950-1980 - Separate and Unequal of School: The Story Of American Public Education, the overall chapter really speaks about desegregation within the public schools in America during the 1950s-1980s. Many children were having issues with racial segregation and people wanted to take a stand to create a change to make it equal for all within the public schools. During this time, America did not see the purpose of bilingual education because they believe that everyone should speak only one language which was English. Bilingual education was very important to many students because most of them were diverse and it was hard for them to catch up with school work because of their diverse differences with understanding the English language.

            Many communities play a great price in securing educational equality because making things equal will create many open opportunities for many diverse cultures. Desegregating public schools was not always easy. Many people had gotten either bullied or killed when trying to make a change to bring black and whites to work together to create a better future for all. In the Article, “Revolutions Happen through Young People!”: The Black Student Movement in the Boston Public Schools, 1968-1971 written by Tess Bundy, he writes “From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, thousands of black high school students in Boston protested their educational marginalization by staging school boycotts, forming student organizations, and leading demonstrations. They demanded dramatic changes in the content and delivery of education in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). They called for a “culturally relevant education” that valued black culture, to be mentored by black educators, and for collaboration between school and community.” Boston and many other states within America had to face harsh times by making education equal for many diverse people. Many blacks had to fight for their rights so that they can get their freedom rights within public schools.

            There was a time when I was in second grade I had went to a school that was mostly white students, then when I went to third grade I was transferred to a low income school that was mostly black students and I notice the inequality difference right away. In the white school, the teachers there were more helpful and caring and if you need more help with school work one on one time was available. But in the black school the teachers seem like they did not have the time or proper resources to help students out more. The white school had better school books and resources then the black school. Most of the time I felt like I was not getting the proper learning then when I was in the white school. The inequality of many low income schools just does not have any fair standards to having better resources for students then the upper class schools. The board of education just did not seem to fund money to low income schools and just have kids attend these schools based on their living standards. Even though I did not have the proper resources I did not let that stop me to learning as much as I can in order succeed in life.

Reflection on Part Three: 1950-1980, Separate and Unequal

            In class, we were paired up in 2 groups to work on an assignment based on the notes we wrote from the reading from Part Three: 1900-1950- Separate and Unequal. In the assignment, each group had one facilitator and the rest of the students had to be recorders. Therefore, there were two groups with one facilitator and 5 recorders in each group. Facilitators had to circle and connect words that were similar to each other while recorders wrote down words and phrases and expand on the words and phrases that the facilitator circled. Then we had to do a second part and write down what we wrote to explain what part three in the book was about. What made this assignment interesting was that each team had to communicate with each other without talking. I was one of the recorders and I found this assignment to be interesting in how everyone communicates with each other through silents. Sometimes it was hard because when I wanted to write something down a student already had written down what I was thinking about. So it was like our group had to be competitive and I felt like I had to make sure I get out my thoughts on the paper first because someone would have written it down already. For my group, we were very competitive to have a space to write on the paper but we still were able to work as a team by helping each other expand our words and phrases into more meaning of what was going on in the book. In the second part, I found it a lot easier because we were finally able to speak and write out what we did in actual sentences to what Part Three of the book was about. We were able to come together as a group and really work together properly to get what we all had written in the first part of what I called the lost madness. Each student was able to help each other and explain what part came first all the way to the ending of the chapter. Even though my group was competitive in the beginning we were still able to complete the assignment through our own way of teamwork.

            As I notice the assignment with the other team, you can tell that they really work together in their first part. From the view of their work, it seems like they helped each other expand on their words and phrases as a team and as well as guide each other in their second part. By the looks of it, it seems as if they took turns writing something down and then they helped each other expand their viewpoints on their words and phrases. Overall, each group did a great job with the goal of this assignment to explain what Separate and Unequal was about. Each group had similar ideas but just with a different format off style. We all pull through to really defined this chapter of the book.    

Reflection on Part Two: 1900-1950, As American As Public School

New Jersey City University

Department of Literacy Education

Going Public: Literacy and History of American Education 

Class Assignment

             In class, we were paired in three groups to reflect from the reading of Part Two: 1900-1950, As American As Public School to speak about what we agree, argue, assume, and aspire and our reason why. Based off the group reflections, there were very good points of what students chose as what was the most important to the least important of what matters to their four A’s (agree, argue, assume, and aspire) from the reading.

During the 1900-1950, America had many immigrants living in the country to become Americanize and being successful in the public schools. Many of these immigrants had to be divided due to the lack of education based off their living conditions. It is upsetting to know that during those times in the beginning stages when public schools where trying to figure out what would work best for all students, they would divide students into different categories of 20 percent of students would be pared for higher education, another 20 percent should be pared for skilled work, and the remaining 60 percent would get a life adjustment education, which is a program that is focused on basic skills of everyday living, such as family life and consumer choices. This type of setup would only give a small percentage a better advantage of having not only a better education but also better job opportunities. Many students left school early due to the lack of encouragement from family and the school system and just work in factory jobs being that school was not in their suit of specialties.

Many students in class had agree that the educational curriculum status was not fair and unequal to many young students. Most of the educational curriculum was based off I.Q. testing starting from the age of 5 years old. When the child reach age 10 whatever I.Q. that child had would determine their lifestyle because at that age their I.Q. would stabilize for life. Having these I.Q. testing to determine a child intelligence was just unfair for all students because it did not give any of them an equal chance to wanting to become successful. Only those who scored high had the most advantages of having better privileges then those who scored low. Most of the students that scored low were immigrants who could not speak English well. Most teachers would already know that students who had problems with speaking English would not get far in life in being successful. What aspired me and I thought could had gone far was the Gary Plan because it was met for all students to have more of an active learning. Students would not only just sit for hours in a class but they would also have the opportunity to have more engaging subjects that leads to practical learning. The Gary Plan was set up to have students be more active and have more of an open mind for other opportunities that was out there and it would lead them to being more prepared and obtaining a job. The work-study-play as what they summarized it would have implemented perfectly and got many of the American immigrants a wider opportunity in life to succeed if America would had agreed to that plan.

Reflection on School: The Story Of American Public Eduacation

An assignment was given to the class to pick a word, phrase, and sentence that was meaningful to us as we read part one: 1770-1900- The Common School in the book School: The story of American public education. The class grouped up in 3 parts and had to pick three categories, the first category being the most important to the third being the least important based off what each student chose that was relatable to part one of the reading. In my group, I found this assignment was very tricky because everyone had their own opinion of what was more relatable to understand part one of the book. Even through everyone had chosen different words, phrases, and sentences, a lot of the contexts were very close to understanding what The Common School was about.

          

New Jersey City University

Department of Literacy Education

Going Public: Literacy and History of American Education 

Class Assignment

All the words that were chosen had its own importance to what part one of the book was about. Just to focus on the most importance category that each group thought as a team, words such as foundation, literacy, and equalizer, these word set a powerful tone to the section of the book. In the past, people had to create a foundation of what a school should entitled so that they can get some form of education to learn to read and write. Then eventually as time went on people wanted an equal school system that would work for all citizens. During the mid- nineteenth century, the common school was just for all white children and eventually changed over time to make an equal education for all children’s. The common school was a challenge struggle for many African Americans and for many people that were poor to get admitted into school. Diving into the phrases such as free common school the most American thing about America, all citizens have an obligation, and the educated citizen. I realized what all these phrases had in common is having the word “citizen” in each phrase. People in America wanted to make sure that all those who were citizens of America had rights to a free education or even some form of education. Whether you are rich or poor, all citizens had the obligation to go to school on their own will to brighten their knowledge to create a better world for the future and even for themselves. Finally, all the sentences that each group came up with together I felt that each one had its own importance to what part one section was about. America wanted to create free schools for all children and map out the educational needs to build a better school system for all. People such as Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, Catharine Beecher, and many others who helped out with making the school system free for all knew the importance to having an education and wanted to help out to make that change for all citizens. These people strive to create a balance to have liberty and equality. They wanted all diversity to have an educational track and create a path to pave the way for everyone to be educated from then till forever.

Literacy Autobiography

My name is Kasheena Collins and I was born on the 27th of February, 1991 in Brooklyn New York. I was raised among an educational Trinidadian mother and had a very interesting and exciting early childhood of my experience of becoming literate.

As a single parent raising three kids, life was not always easy for my mother. Even though she struggled while taking care of her family she made sure that her kids were well educated. My mother helped me to understand reading and writing in ways that I could never forget. My earliest memory of my mother is when she taught me how to read and write by using phonics coding and singing the words out loud so that I could understand and get familiar with words and letters and how they should sound. I was always encouraged when she had me sing along to the sound of each letters and we would even play games to enhance my knowledge to visualize words as well; it was important to my mother that I be inspired to always use my imagination.

When I read in my earliest years of childhood, I never read silently. I used to always read out loud so that I could not only understand what I was reading but that I could also hear the sound and imagine the words as I read to myself. In school, when my teachers would assign the class to take home books to read, I always picked books with pictures so that I could have a visualization on what was going on in the book. I had a very broad imagination in my early years and that was my way of learning to read and write. I also would often find myself using what my mother taught me and applying her methods to helping my classmates when they were having difficulties with reading.

My days learning literacy skills started not only at home with my mother but also when I was in daycare and during my first years in grade school. I enjoyed when teachers read out loud to the class and I learned many different, enjoyable methods of reading and writing such as phonics coding, whole-word approach, language experience method, Orton-Gillingham, and so much more. Sometimes, words that frustrated me the most were longer words that took time to pronounce correctly. I would always find myself sticking to a shorter word that meant the same as the longer word so that it was more comfortable for me to use instead. When I had trouble with reading, I always found myself going back to what my mother had taught me. She was my role model and I could always count on her help when I was struggling with my reading and writing.

 Today as I advance my literacy skills, I learned to feel extremely comfortable to do silent reading more often, to read more advanced books that don’t contain pictures at all, and to be more detailed in my writings, and so much more. With advancing my literacy skills it helped me to understand the world around me and to be involve with enforcing my own opinions and thoughts out to the world. In my personal life, I use literacy in my everyday life; I use it in school on my assignments, to communicate with employees at work, with my friends as well with my family. Having so many people around me helps to continue to inspire my literacy development each and every day.