Saturday, April 11, 2009

Social Class and Knowledge

I just read some of the chapter on social class and knowledge and found it to be interesting. I can agree that some of the lower social and economic class districts are taught somewhat differently. I don't think that is always a negative, but just how it is in some areas. For example, when you live in a mining community in West Virginia, a lot of your curriculum may have to do with that way of life, because that is your community and what it knows. It is still possible and positive to encourage alternate ways of thinking. I just did a lesson for my seventh graders that Randy Goree thought was a little advanced. It was a lesson on comparing the economics of the Great Depression to today. The students did very well and understood a lot of complex terminology. I felt that it was important not only to challenge them, but also to begin to familiarize them with some of these concepts that are critical to their civic adulthood. They were very receptive. Moral of the story: DON'T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR STUDENTS BECAUSE OF THEIR SOCIAL CLASS...THEY ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK!
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Bob PulkowskiApril 11, 2009 at 1:09 PM

    I agree Andy. I think the one thing Cyrus drills into us is this idea of making connections amongst our students with prior knowledge. So if in a mining town trivially we ought to incorporate this with the students. In Wisconsin we connect our identity to the Native American culture. I think its a powerful towards teaching.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KevinApril 11, 2009 at 1:45 PM

    I agree with you a lot. I think the alternate ways of thinking plays a big part. It should be known and available that information/material can be approached by many angles, different students will take different things out of different lessons, the main point is that they take SOMETHING away from it. Something that will help them grow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. chonduApril 11, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    This makes a lot of sense. If we are able to use students' prior knowledge and then build upon this with the lesson plan then it can only help the students' learning. In addition, as educators' it's really important for us to be aware of our students backgrounds because it informs us about their values and knowledge about the world around them. Therefore, we can teach them in a meaningful way.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)