Chapter 4 Adolescent Literacy

The main problem with classrooms now and days teachers only teach so the students can re-iterate information on a test then simply forget all or most of it and move on to something new.  This is the case even where there is no standardized tests involved.  We move and go through the material so fast that students can never truly appreciate the material and learn to understand it.  Science is by far the best example I can think of.  I can recall several times in middle school going over very basic principles regarding elements and the periodic table, but forgetting them and having to relearn everything in high school.  If we look at all of the material that is retaught throughout our lives we would be sick that we had to learn something so many times only to forget and not care about it when we are thirty.  Why should we care does it matter that we do not know calculus or chemistry?  Or proper citation for that matter, how many of us will after college write a book that requires citation while in our fields of study?  In order for our students to want to know things we must teach more than facts we need to teach principles with those facts principles that they want to know and understand.  For example in science we can teach principles that go with having proper lab safety that may go with automotives and cooking so that it incorporates more than the basic facts that even though I enjoyed these facts have already forgotten simply due to not needing them.  But, involving other aspects allows for relating concepts so that they will remember the facts because they will actually pertain to life and not simply some test they will take at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 6 Adolescent Literacy

This chapter of the book talks about how things are changing all around us.  From technology to the very world we live and how the youth is able to see and experience everything that happens now and days through technology.  That is not necessarily a bad thing as many young people are capable of knowing and should know about the world we live in.  However we can see a change they have in the types of literature they want to read.  Middle school students are no longer reading books just to read they now read books that create insight and deeper understanding into the world which they live.  They are reading items that even I did not know existed until I was in my first year of college.  These children are quickly becoming young adults overnight due to the amount of resources and technology that they have available to them.  That is not to say it is a bad thing, but we as people need to understand that simply because they are younger that does not mean they do not have input or theory to offer in a subject.  As teachers it is important for us to give proper material so that their minds may grow in the appropriate manner.  These students are very influential and some of the most influential books were written by men of ill content.  So being sound minded adults and professionals we must understand that young adults need more challenging and broadening literature, while at the same time we must make sure that it is appropriate and does not create clouds of doubt in what may be already confused minds.

Chapter 10 Adolescent Literacy

So just to any outside viewers I am reading this book for a class.  In this chapter we read about how the world is becoming a smaller place and how it will take a certain mindset to adapt and grow in the future.  It talks of the different mindsets and the people that emerge and the strengths that they have.  The one type that is described as being the most capable of succeding are those of right brain oreintation.  That is the imaginative and creative the people who think outside the box are going to be the ones who control and run things as they will be creating the new innovation as left brained people can be outsourced and replaced by automation.  However I submit this question, if right brained people who enjoy expression and freedom are the ones in control where will the control be?  Or how will these people who are normally not organized or interested in calculations be the ones who control the large corporations and buisinesses.  While only a few are required that does not change the fact that children who grow up in such a way can simply change their style of thinking.  Personally I have been described as center to left brained by a test measuring brain level.  Meaning I am capable of thinking different ways while being capable of strategical and creative thaught.  But that is me.  Most people are not associated one way or the other.  Im not sure where im trying to go with this now, but these different mindsets are good but what are we supposed to do with this information.  I mean we can't change the way people process information so I guess its a more power to you type of thing, on whether you like to create or to process things.

Chapter 1 Adloscent Literacy

Opening this book I was surprised to find it talking about a scenario regarding NCLB or No Child Left Behind. I found it very intriguing that there was such a large opposition to the program which I knew existed but never to what extent.  This made me realize that professional teachers everywhere are having to work with this program and the unnecessary   strain that it puts on them.  The fact that so many schools are overly concerned with the test scores demanded by the government that they are forgetting that they are there to shape young children and students into functional adults is sickening.  This is as bad to me as eating meat is to a vegan (no offense).  But really if we were to ask schools what made them special they would cite test scores and rankings within their states.  No one cares if the school has the best music department in the county or that the teachers all take turns giving after school tutoring its about the test scores and punishing the students who cant meet some politicians line simply because they thought this is a good number.  People don't realize that it was not teachers who said lets do this its the politicians who's children attend very wealthy private school and are given anything they desire.  The problem with this legislation is that it focuses on the negatives and does nothing to help a school in need except to take it over and eventually shut it down then requiring the parents to pay exorberant fees to send their children to a different school.  People can also bet if the legislation can't create a budget then there is no hope in changing this anchor of legislation that slowly drags schools to their knees