The great debate October 21, 2008

An important part of any school should be the activities they have to offer the students.  My high school had a ridiculous amount of clubs to join.  Seriously, we had everything from the food club to the native american club, the robotics club to the puppetry club.  You name it, we probably had it.  Clubs and activities are a way for students to feel involved in and proud of their school.  They also provide something for the students to do to keep them out of trouble when class isn’t in session.  Unfortunately, many urban schools aren’t given as many of these opportunities as suburban schools.  That’s why I was so happy when I came across an article about the Urban Debate League. 

The Urban Debate League is a program that puts debate clubs in urban schools, especially those that are made up of mosty poor minorities.  They then offer a debate for all the urban schools to come together and compete.  Creating debate teams in these schools not only gives the students a program to take pride in but it creates new learning opportunities.  The article states that at first, to get the students interested in debating, they asked questions such as “should uniforms or dress codes be required?” or “should high school students have more privledges that middle school students?”  These questions were things that the students could relate to.  Once they drew people into the debate team, they created debate topics such as the topic for this year’s debate, renewable energies. 

The best part about the Urban Debate is that the debate topics encourage students to educate themselves on certain social issues.  The article talked about how much intense research, planning and responsibility is involved in preparing for a debate.

High School Debaters in Training for Verbal Fisticuffs
By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
October 18, 2008

The debaters will continue to hone their research and debate skills on the same topic, renewable energies.  Their case file will grow to 24 files totaling more than 540 pages, with headings including “Nuclear Power negative” and “Social Ecology Critique affirmative.”

“The words might be big and I don’t understand them but I’ve got my trusty dictionary next to me,” Jessica said Thurday at Manuel, “and I’m looking up words and writing them down on a piece of paper like, that’s what that word means and that’s how you pronounce it.”

If research from other city debate leagues holds true, more than 75 percent of the Denver participants will go on to a four year college.

It’s amazing to me how debating has turned into something these students are passionate about.  Now they are taking their education into their own hands.  They are learning about social and environmental issues, learning how to work as a team, building their English skills and public speaking skills, and learning how to do proper research.  All of this is going to come in handy once they graduate.  Some may even have a better chance of going to college on debate scholarships. 

Hearing news like this is very inspirational.  I think the Urban Debate League has become very influental in the lives of these urban high schoolers.  It has given them something to work hard for and I can’t even imagine the pride and satisfaction they’ll experience when the debate comes and they can display all of their knowledge and debate skills.

All about Bill. October 20, 2008

I think William Shakespeare is absolutely wonderful, I really do.  I discovered this my freshman year of high school when my English teacher had us read Romeo and Juliet.  I fell in love with it immediatly.  In fact, it was the only piece of literature I read completely in that class.  Normally, and as an English major I say this with a great amount of shame, I would Sparknote all of our reading assignments.  However, there were a lot of other students who weren’t such fans of dear old Will.  Seeing this and wanting to get them interested, our teacher let us watch Baz Luhrmann’s movie version.  Yes, the one with Leonardo DiCaprio.  Being able to see Shakespeare’s words acted out in a modern way that related to our culture as opposed to that of  “fair Verona” helped lots of us to better understand exactly what was going on. 

I was reminded of this ninth grade lesson during Stephen Greenblatt’s lecture, “Cultural Mobility: The Strange Case of Shakespeare’s Cardenio“.  First, let’s take a minute to talk about Greenblatt.  Currently a professor at Harvard University, Greenblatt is the founder of “new historicism”, a specialist in Shakespeare, sixteenth and seventeenth century English literature, the literature of travel and exploration and literary theory as well as the author of many books including one of his most famous, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.  His whole lecture was about how different parts of the world can adapt the same Shakespeare play to their cultures and while there can be many differences between the versions, they all have the same underlying story.  In other words, Shakespeare can move across cultures and still be Shakespeare. 

Since the lecture was focused on Shakespeares lost play, Cardenio, Greenblatt first gave us a quick summary of the plot using some very humorous powerpoint slides.  The crowd chuckled and the evening began on a good note.  He then went on to talk about how he and a fellow writer conspired to create a play based on Cardenio that was set in modern day.  After the play traveled to other countries, those countries then began writing their own versions of the play and Greenblatt was able to observe how differences in culture affected how different versions of Cardenio were created.  One of the examples I found to be the most interesting (and also one of the strangest) was a version that I believe was created somewhere in Asia.  I could be wrong, I forgot to write down the exact country, let me know if you remember.  Anyway, this particular country’s version of Cardenio took place in America and portrayed the American characters as members of some kind of motercycle gang.  Interesting.  I guess that’s what America is to some people.  We do love our motercycles. 

Even when we look just in America we can see many different adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.  Whether it’s Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, the version of Hamlet starring Ethan Hawke or even 10 Things I Hate About You, an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, we’re seeing how Shakespeare is moving through culture letting millions of different people connect with him. 

I think I’m seeing a lesson plan that can be created from this…

Maybe my students could create their own plays, adaptations of any one of Shakespeare’s that could take place in any country or time period they choose.  They could even get into groups and act out their creations.

All in all, Greenblatt’s lecture was a pleasure to go to.  He kept me interested the whole time and even inspired me to pull out one of my favorite books, The Complete Shakespeare, and start reading again.

A great step forward…I think. October 20, 2008

As I type this I’m trying to remember what I was like in elementary school.  Did I enjoy learning?  I think I did, at least I hope so.  But did I want school to take up every single waking moment of my day?  Probably not.  I think rattling off multiplication tables in line for the bathroom would have been too much for me…

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. 

You see, the article I just read was very cute and inspiring for the most part.  It was about how Hartford Connecticut Superintendent Steven J. Adamowski is creating reform among urban schools by shutting down some schools, creating new ones, and making beneficial changes to the ones that just need a little boost to get them headed back in the right direction.  One change that’s being made is the creation of Achievement First Public Charter Academies, where urban students who have met state testing goals are being enrolled.  For the most part it sounds great and they have some pretty amazing plans.

It’s Cool To Learn
Jodie Mozdzer
The Hartford Courant, October 20 2008

Achievent First’s goals in Hartford are lofty: By the end of the year, school officials want to have 95 percent of the students reading at grade level and mastering 80 percent of the math standards, and have 97 percent attendance rates.  Students typically arrive at Achievement First schools reading about two years below grade level.

(CLOE POISSON / HARTFORD COURANT / October 8, 2008)

Excellent goals, Achievement First.  And it gets even better.  Not only do the schools have longer school days but they offer “intensive tutoring” after school.  In doing this they’re not only creating huge opportunites for these kids to learn but they’re keeping them occupied and off the streets.  Combine this with the small student to teacher ratio aimed to give students more one on one time with their educators, the constant mentioning of college to encourage the students to continue their education after they graduate high school, and refering to the students as “scholars” to…well, make them feel smart, I guess, and you’ve got one top notch school. 

However, even though these schools are doing hundreds of things right to make sure the students are getting the absolute best education while preparing them for a future at a university, I have to admit, Achievement First freaks me out a little bit.  Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems in my head, maybe I’m imagining it different than it actually is, but after reading the article I can’t help but feel like the students are going to graduate with a bit of the zombie effect.  These students are constantly in learning mode.  The article states, as I mentioned briefly earlier, that even while waiting in line for the bathroom the kids are going through math flashcards or being drilled on vocabulary or counting to ten in foreign languages.  All of these, of course, contribute the the excellent education they are recieving, but what about recess?  Do they have that?  Do the kids ever get to do their own thing?  Then I read this:

But first, the students learn behavior.  During the first few weeks, students learn to sit still and walk with their arms down by their sides…”It’s cool to learn, cool to be smart,” (teacher) Unifred said.  “Your brain grows and you get the knowledge to go to college.”

Um…anyone else envisioning the girls from the Madeline stories who do everything in two straight lines?  And yes, learning IS really cool, but that last little rhyming phrase sounds like something you would hear on one of those tapes you listen to while you sleep.

I’m sorry if this is sounding overly critical of the Achievement First schools, I really do think they have a great idea and that tons of students who need help are going to benefit from them.  I guess I just think it sounds a little serious for me.  But who knows, maybe for those students who are thirsting for the education and structure they couldn’t get at their old schools, it’s just what they need.