All posts by Crater Morgan

Monsters and Professionals

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line
Goodman, S. (2018). It’s not about grit: Trauma, inequity, and the power of transformative teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Slightly unrelated but, when I read this, it made me think of a movie I recently watched, Monsters and Men. One of the dilemmas within the plot was that there were repeated incidents of police brutality against black boys by the hands of white officers. An investigation pursued, but when a fellow black police officer was questioned about the integrity and practices of his peers, he covered for them. I must note that the black police officer’s character experienced intense internal conflict due to his decision to cover his peers’ brutality, but other friends had convinced him that if he cooperated in the investigation, it would only stir the pot, more people would get in trouble, and the community would trust them all even less than they already did. Continue reading Monsters and Professionals →

Discovering and telling stories from around the world

Media and Technology Critiques

Of all the media, Instagram, in particular, seems to be all the rage for younger generations, the multi-colored camera app present on almost all teenagers’ screens. Depending on who you talk to, there seems to be on an ongoing debate about the potential effects this app has on its users. We spend huge quantities of time scrolling through pictures and video clips of friends and strangers alike. We even post content of ourselves, presenting a public persona to be seen and hopefully liked, with the possibility of being judged as well. Some people may argue that it’s a forum for self expression, exploration, global connection and discovery, but we can’t deny that (for some) it acts as a breeding ground for harassment and trolling. That said, I have often pondered ways to use it in my classroom, considering the vast majority of students have it and enjoy it. If it’s so readily available to them, how can we make it educational? If we can, could we also make strides in improving students’ reading, writing and critical thinking skills?

I’ve recently had an “ah-ha” moment, as I have found a way to use Instagram to deepen my own learning. I have been following a local Nicaraguan newspaper’s account on Instagram who have been posting live videos of the protests and police brutality happening in their streets every day. In these posts, surveys are often included to gauge the public’s opinion and the visual clips always come with short captions, also giving context for what we’re seeing. The most educational aspect of all of this is that 100% of the content is authentic, meaning it’s created by native speakers of Spanish for a Spanish-speaking audience. It dawned on me, if I’m learning so much about current events and cultural content by means of Instagram, why can’t my students do the same? What is most appealing about this modality, and how it differs most from traditional outlets, is that all the videos posted are no longer than two minutes. As we know, adolescents’ attention span is not necessarily great. With these short clips, a lot of essential but concise information is front-loaded, while he caption only further aids in comprehension. Instead of them zoning out during a 30-minute presentation and getting bored, they are focused and attentive, all awhile intrinsically learning how they, too, should be efficiently presenting information in their written and oral assignments.

I think Instrgram could be an incredible tool in a foreign language classroom because a lot of scaffolding is already built in. The short videos offer authentic aural exercises along with the obvious visual aid; in addition, the caption of each photo or video offers context for the content, giving students reading practice in the target language. For more advanced learners, they can even read people’s comments to further reinforce what they heard or thought they understood. Possible issues teachers may face with this modality could be ensuring the content is age-appropriate and that all students have access to the modality. To avoid issues pertaining to the appropriateness of the content, teachers would simply have to pre-determine which pages were followed for the various levels taught. As far as accessibility issues, the great thing about Instagram is that the forum exists as a website too, so students don’t necessarily need a smartphone to use it. I plan to use Instagram as a means for students to show their learning about the world in a foreign language. They can follow predetermined local news channels and write biweekly reflections about what they saw and/or learned (depending on level). More advanced levels could even do cultural comparison activities to show their understanding of current events happening in Latin America versus in their home country, to further demonstrate their global citizenship. I much rather grade those reports than monotonous homework assignments.

Due to the fact adolescents are already using Instagram and are familiar with all its functions, completing assignments via the app will be intrinsically motivating. As we read in Brown’s (2011) curriculum integration article, allowing students choice in their learning and assignments improves their reading and writing skills, critical thinking skills, and better prepares them for adulthood.

Brown, D. F. (2011). Curriculum integration: Meaningful learning based on students’ questions.
Middle Grades Research Journal, 6(4), pp. 193-206.

Why does grouping have to suck so bad?

Differentiation as an Approach to Teaching Diverse Learners

“For almost a hundred years, ability grouping has remained one of the most controversial issues in American education. On the one extreme are those who view tracking as a means of maintaining the existing political status quo whereby students’ race, class and ethnicity determine the currency of one’s education. On the other, are those who believe that grouping maximizes the learning potential and contributes to the positive affective development of all students” (Ansalone, 2010, pg. 7).

I’ve read a lot about and have engaged in multiple discussions with educators regarding the topic of ability grouping, all of which have entailed various views and opinions. When I read across this passage, I had to stop and let it all sink in, pondering once again how I feel about grouping. I liked that Ansalone’s article debunks a lot of assumptions about ability grouping, but there’s a relevant piece missing that may have not been appropriate to mention in his article, but is worth mentioning here. In theory, I think grouping is brilliant, especially when you only take it at face value, e.g., “[it] maximizes the learning potential and contributes to the positive affective development of all students”. It would be easy to say, “Wow! This is great! Let’s start grouping students then!” It’s when you examine the potential consequences of grouping, the inevitable disadvantages that it poses on students, that you quickly understand that grouping can be used (and, unfortunately, is often used) as a means to determine the “currency” of a student’s education based on his or her race, class or ethnicity. I think this is the part that needs to be mentioned: it feels discouraging that something that could be used to really improve the learning environment for students and teachers alike (if used without any bias whatsoever), is commonly used on an institutional level to further disadvantage them; it’s manipulated for the benefit of someone other than the students themselves. The only assumption that Ansalone addresses that turns out to be true, is that teachers actually prefer teaching upper tracks (higher-performing students) “since they often define their status as teachers according to their track assignment” (pg. 13). And this is true! I have been in a department, and worked closely with another department, where there were multiple fights between teachers over who would teach the AP course versus the creative writing courses. Again, it’s worth mentioning that it’s just so discouraging that a concept created to better the learning environment for students, is so easily manipulated into a political move or ego booster for the adults responsible for providing free and equitable education for all students, regardless of their race, class or ethnicity.

We have to empower our disadvantaged students too.

eLiteracy and Social Media(tion)

I must say, Goodman (2018) writes a pretty enthralling introduction. The part that stayed with me the most is when we writes “It is healing for students to know that it’s not their fault that they live in inequitable and impoverished conditions in their community or attend underresourced schools, and that these conditions do not define them. It is empowering for them to learn that there is a history of economic forces and racialized public policies that have created these conditions, as well as movements of people who have long struggled to change them” (p.7).

It is commonly believed in the education world that students must understand what they’re learning and why. As teachers we have to tell them, and show them, and model for them what they’re learning today, why it’s important, how does it connect to their previous knowledge and how will it relate to upcoming activities/projects. We have to help them build connections from the content of the classroom to their own experiences and realities to make it relevant to them on a personal level and gain their interest and motivation. A good teacher plans all of this into his/her lesson plan just to conduct some activities, so I loved that Goodman made the same point in regard to students learning the history of their disadvantages — they must be explicitly taught, just like everything else in the classroom. I can image that without access to this kind of information, disadvantaged students potentially walk through life blaming themselves or their parents or their ancestry for these prejudices and the conditions they bring. They may know in their hearts that the system is against them, but not have the knowledge to explain how they know. Using historical facts to be able to support the truth of their experiences has to be liberating. While they learn that their experiences aren’t singular, they also get to learn that there have been passionate and ambitious groups of people before them that have fought to hopefully eliminate similar struggles for future generations. With this empowerment, students of this nature can begin to heal.

Interruptions in Intimacy

Socioemotional and Psychological Development in Adolescence, Urban Adolescents
(Collins, 2008, p. 570)

Collins cited Reis and Shaver (1988) for this definition of intimacy and I LOVE it. I’m sure many people wouldn’t be surprised by this definition, yet I know that intimacy and sex are commonly interlaced in discussions and, therefore, the two can sometimes become very difficult to separate as different entities. Continue reading Interruptions in Intimacy →