Ok my head is swimming again but I'll dive in to add what I think I might kinda know about all this stuff...
Anna, I love how you explained gatekeepers but I think we could also expand that definition to the more formal gatekeepers in education, like the SAT for example. In addition to the people, ideas, and processes that allow us into or exclude us from social circles we also have a huge system of hoops to jump through to get to the next stage in education. I think gatekeepers can be anything from the fact that you have to have an address to enroll in kindergarten (and how where that address is can determine the quality of your kindergarten) to how high your high school GPA has to be to get into college. We have all encountered many gatekeepers on our path to where we are today. Teachers frequently serve as gatekeepers by assessing our ability to succeed in the upcoming grade, to recommending us for special services or AP courses.
With process writing, I was assuming it meant a writing curriculum that valued process over product, similar to what Olivia said. As long as you are engaging in the process of coming up with ideas and finding some way to record them on paper you are learning about the process of writing, regardless of if you are following conventions or not.... I think?
I'd like to echo Anna's question too about the difference between progressive education and constructivist education. I get that Dewey is the progressive guy, but let's say you are using constructivist pedagogy in your classroom, are you also a progressive because the kids aren't sitting in rows memorizing stuff??
I don't even remember ever talking about “higher order thinking” but something about it seems Kohlberg-y to me. Like high level moral reasoning?
I also have a lot of questions about standards. I feel like every thing we read provides the opposite opinion on standards from whatever we read before it. I wonder about how most teachers (not just the ones writing passionately for or against) feel about the standards movement. Can it help create equity? Will it eliminate creativity from education? I’m also really curious about how all of YOU are feeling about standards right now, after this rollercoaster of standards info!
ut-oh I think I got the progressive/constructive element mixed up. hmmm. From the standards we have been using in our classes, I feel like they are pretty open and don't necessarily dictate how we teach, just as long as we get there. Before we used them though I felt intimidated and nervous about what they might entail and how they might hold us back. The standardized tests on the other hand do intimidate me, although the school I will be at does not teach to them, because they are lucky enough to have high scores and are not "in trouble," with the man.
ReplyDeleteI agree that maybe the problem isn't so much the existence of standards as it is the way the tests are done, and the punitive relationship between test scores and funding.
ReplyDeletePaige, I appreciated that you expanded the definition of gatekeepers. I think that it is easy to get caught up in thinking of a gatekeeper as a person or people. Gatekeeping comes in many forms. Thanks for providing examples of this.
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