This chapter was talking about teaching about Homelessness. When Webb runs into the homeless man, i knew right away, from just what we have read about Webb that he was going to find a way to use this experiences in his classroom. However, i didn't think he would use it so in depth, and focus on this topic for a whole class. It was very convenient that he again was able to find many different aspects to bring to the class such as a movie, texts, a speaker, and the class discussions that brought up a lot of controversy. I do agree with Webb when he talks about the fact that having topics close to home makes them more controversial and harder to talk about in the classroom without offending someone. When he taught Maggie: A girl of the streets was interesting to read about because right now, i am reading this story in my other English class. My class is having a very controversial discussion about naturalism and the influence of their surroundings. However, a huge topic that was brought up in my classroom was the homeless people around Kalamazoo. This is why i found it humorous that this story was brought up in the chapter about teaching homelessness.
Another thing that i agree with Webb about is the fact that it matters how he sets his lessons up, what he teaches, what texts are used, and what topics they discuss about the text all influence what his students learn in his classroom. I think this is very important.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
That's funny I knew there was going to be some sort of story behind the whole homelesseness theme too. It was a creative way to bring a theme like this into the classroom, but I agree with you, I was not expecting it to be in so much depth. Although, I found it useful to see the varieties of sources at the end of the chapter to use within this theme. Some of the sources I have read before, however, I would never have thought to use on a homelessness unit. Could be very interesting though.
I think we need to discuss as a class this concept of "offending" someone. As teachers, we are often so afraid of offending our students that we feel our hands are tied and we have to stick to safe subjects. We have to ask ourselves not who wil be offended, but why they might be offended. If we can answer that, we can get to the real root of the problem and act accordingly.
Sometimes I think being offended is code for "you just called my world view into question and now I have to come to grips with these new ideas."
Post a Comment