Christensen, Chapter 3

Christensen, Chapter 3: Writing the Word and the World

This was a huge chapter with a wide variety of content. I'd like to comment on everything, but I wouldn't do it justice without writing for two hours (and I have company arriving an hour from now). Since I was a slacker and didn't get the blog in before class today, I think I'll talk about a few parts of the chapter that we didn't get to talk about.

Standardized Testing
I could almost imagine students' eyes brightening as they started to discover that just maybe the cause of their problems with standardized tests was in the test itself and not because they weren't smart enough. Educators have been talking about the biased nature of standardized tests for decades, and it's even been discussed in the popular media. (I remember a Diff'rent Strokes episode where the kids prove to a prep school administrator that standardized tests are biased.) However, these conversation doesn't always filter down to our students. This is an important conversation and realization for students to have. It might end up being a bitter pill to swallow, though, if you can't do anything about it.

Essays with Attitude
Christensen has some great advice in this section for teaching kids to write essays. Hers is an excellent model. I like that she has students writing introductions fairly late in the process of writing. Too many students get stuck in their introduction and never mind their way out of it. Even me - when I write my introduction first, without fail I end up scrapping it or moving it to the conclusion and having to write a new introduction anyway.

Acting for Justice
Christensen is big on getting students to understand each other - to see things from another's perspective. I love the role play Christensen designs for this purpose. Someone mentioned in class today that part of the process of becoming an adult is understanding that the people around your are also humans with emotions. How much better off would our schools be if everyone had one other student who stood up for him an advocate? No one should have to go through school alone.