'Saving Black Mountain' was an inspirational read.
I was trapped at the airport with all the weekly readings in my hand bag. Having had a bad start to this unit of work - I was behind and feeling the pressure to catch up - I set about reading each article. (I know this sounds terribly "un-green" of me, printing each article but I was desperate to catch up!)
I'm commenting on 'Saving Black Mountain' first because it made an impression on me. Stories like this often make me question whether life as a primary school teacher with ONE class all year would be better than the 6 classes of 25 students that I have. This article certainly emphasized the power of literacy and its links to democracy - something I hadn't really considered before - and it became clear that as educators, we can influence the world in which our students live. To be able to spend time with one class and achieve such outcomes would be so rewarding!!
The teachers' devotion to the inquiry process is to be commended and the article highlighted a number of key ideas that rang true for me.
1. Critical literacy is "not only for literacy instruction, but also for individual empowerment." (p. 773)
2. Purposeful literacy activities will engage students, especially the reluctant learners.
No comments:
Post a Comment