All posts by Sarah K Hall

MVP #3 9/23

Perspectives & History of Adolescence, Urban Adolescents

Johnson, M. K., Crosnoe, R., & Elder, G. H. (2011). Insights on adolescence from a life course    perspective. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 273-280.

“The Society for Reserch on Adolescence is officially ‘devoted to research on the second decade of life.’ In this spirit, its flagship journal has published important articles over the last 10 years that, collectively, have advanced scientific understanding of adolescence as a unique stage of life. Without diminishing the impact of this work, we argue that it is equally important to elucidate the role of adolescence within the larger life course. In other words, our primary goal of understanding adolescence as a developmental period in its own right should come with a complementary goal of connecting insights about adolescence and its developmental processes to other life periods. These dual goals serve both our understanding of adolescence itself as well as the life course more generally. After all, a significant portion of the meaningfulness of adolescence lies in its power to translate childhood experiences into later competencies and statuses and then , in turn, to set up the transition to adulthood (Steinberg & Morris, 2000)”

 

 

This passage reminded me of Knoester’s (2008) article about description that we read for last week. Describing students from a wider view view can provide educators an opportunity to understand and serve their students better. As a part of that it is important to remember that adolescent students were once children and will be adults. They are not the same as they were when they were children. They are experiencing a lot of physical and emotional changes. The goal for all of our students should be that they become well-adjusted adults that contribute to society. Remembering this point should be encouraging when it comes to our more frustrating students. School should be a place to grow so they’re in the right place.

That said, I want to make it clear that I do not mean to say, “Oh, don’t worry about it. They’re kids, they’ll grow out of it.” We should be reacting to our students in a way that encourages them to grow in their knowledge and the way that they interact with others. If I reprimand a student in class, I try to always make sure that they understand why. I feel that this respects the students and their growing autonomy and is far more useful to them than a “Don’t do that!”

Sarah Hall MVP 9-16-15

Observing to Learn and Learning to Observe, Urban Adolescents

Noguera, P. A., Sadowski, M., Fowler-Finn, T., & Tatum, B. D. (2008). Joaquin’s Dilemma. In M. Sadowski (Ed.), Adolescents at School: Perspectives on Youth, Identity, and Education

 

“In addition to reinforcing stereotypes, grouping practices, which teachers and administrators often say are not based on race but on ability or behavior, often have the effect of reinforcing racial separation. Unless the adults in a school are conscious of how this separation influences their own perceptions and those of students, over time this separation may be regarded as normal. For example, black students may assume that, because there are no black students in advanced or honors courses, they cannot excel academically. Of course, black students can distinguish themselves in sports, because there are numerous examples of black individuals who do. Similarly, white students may assume that they should not seek academic assistance from tutorial programs, especially if those programs primarily serve black or brown students. When these kinds of norms associated with race take on a static and determining quality, they can be very difficult to counteract.”

 

 

I hated school. I drove to my high school graduation listening to Alice Coopers’ “Schools Out” on the radio, and promised that I would never set foot in a school again. Now, I find myself preparing to be a teacher and reflecting on that promise. The grouping described in the above passage was a large factor. I went to a smaller high school. My senior year, I had class with more or less the same 30 students. I witnessed two friends, the only African American student in the AP program and a student from the poorest part of town, struggle with teachers’ slights and assumptions that essential information was ‘common knowledge’. The reason that I chose foreign language education is that those classes seemed less affected by academic grouping. In my lower level Spanish classes we worked in groups of mixed academic levels. With each other’s encouragement and support, we all advanced together. Students should have the opportunity to form relationships with people different from themselves and to encourage each other’s growth. Academic grouping often discourages or even makes this impossible. School should be a place of inclusion, not alienation. If this were the case perhaps Cooper’s song would be a lament instead of a rock anthem.

 

Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”

Sarah Hall MVP 9-9-15

Culturally, Linguistically, and Socioeconomically Diverse Adolescents in Urban Contexts: Framing the Conversation, Urban Adolescents

Brantlinger, E. (2008) Who wins and who loses?

 

“For starters, rowing is largely an elite sport, available primarily to young people privileged enough to encounter rowing opportunities in their private boarding schools or colleges. Its availability to urban girls has an immediate impact on the ways in which they encounter a culture quite different form their own. The girls place themselves in relation to rowers in the other boats, who are private school and college students. By placing themselves in meaningful relationship to these rowers, they have entered another world and expanded their own horizons in an important way. It is not that their home environment or community is deficient relative to this new context, but rather that their exposure to and exploration of the larger world has been expanded.”

 

This passage was particularly valuable to me because, in preparation for this class, I have been considering my lack of experience with urban settings and urban students. I’m from Arkansas and spent the majority of my schooling in smaller schools. Coming into student teaching, I have concerns about how I will be able to relate to my students. Reading this, especially the last sentence I bolded, made me feel more comfortable because it reminds me of how I learned to relate to people while living abroad. I think it is easy to forget (especially if you’re from a more homogenous part of the country) that the U.S. is a very diverse place and that understanding other people means understanding a bit about their background and culture and accepting that different does not necessarily mean bad. While I think that broadening student’s horizons is important, we should remember that it is equally or more important to expand our own worlds and accept our students where they are.