Critical Questions, Close Reading

“Research shows that when teachers use questions in the classroom, they often use closed questions, which have only one right answer. Teachers often go fishing by asking questions that can only be answered in one way – the right answer. Using questions to check comprehension is a common practice in the classroom, of course. But overuse of closed questions ricks turning students into barking seals, performing the role of good student.”

I very much agree with this statement. I absolutely despise when I have teachers that use closed questions. In my experience the students are too afraid to answer the question, which may be simple, but mostly is not. This fear to answer the question leads to a prolonged silence in the classroom. I prefer a method where the students have a meaningful conversation on a subject, and most of the questions are reflected to the teacher for clarification, or extra information.

Authors and Audiences

The magazine is produced by MENC (Music Educator National Conference) and is intended for music teachers in all fields of music to use as a tool to improve their teaching methods, and incorporate new tools.

Messages and Meanings

For this issue the cast of the television show Glee, a show about a high school glee club, is what is being used to draw in the reader. The cover addresses the show’s popularity, and asks the question if it could be used as a teaching tool.

Representation and Reality

I would say that the cover shows pride. If you take a close look the surroundings you see that the actors are posing gleefully on a stage, but are standing with garbage thrown around them. It shows that no matter what others might do or say, they have this thing to be proud of, and I think that that is a very important message.

Surprisingly there is no musical equipment or instruments on the cover, and if you didn’t know that it featured the cast of glee, one would be puzzled by the cover.

The deconstruction of this magazine cover will support content learning by having the students consider the show Glee and how it actually resembles a real music classroom, how it is different, and how they can use deductive reasoning at figuring it out. This will give the students a better grasp between what is real and what is fiction in other media outlets that they might not be as familiar with.   

PSA

I will be doing my PSA on The Ethics of Representation, and how it relates to students life online. In it I will focus on a variety of topics such as consent, free will, consequences, and intentionality, as well as the different ways the students can participate in ethical triangle. I will direct this PSA to a teenaged audience. 

Life Online

“Courts have stated clearly that a student “should be able to speak his mind when the school day ends” and that school administrators’ disciplinary power must be restricted to the boundaries of the school itself.”

I think that this decision is for the best. While principals need to be able to maintain the peace in school, it would be a gross overstepping of their authority. But I also think that it is important that students know what they do during their time off school can still effect their school lives.

“This structured verbal format is not necessary for all students to engage in sharing feelings, but I have found that it tends to equalize the differences between students who are more or less comfortable with expressing their feelings. It encourages them to use full sentences while describing and reflecting on their feelings and promotes divergent responses.”

I agree with this statement. Having the students write out their thoughts will help them form their arguments better when they are speaking out loud. It would also help with their interpersonal communication skills with their fellow students.

“In the contexts of the classroom, do not be tempted to take a look at an online video that a student mentions or describes.”

This is a very good piece of advice to follow. Even if the student has the best of intensions with the video they want you to show, it could still contain content that is not suitable for class. 

Research as Authentic Inquiry.

“Today, many teachers across the curriculum are developing creative strategies to make teaching the research paper more relevant.”

I find that developing new strategies and finding new ways to reach out to and interact with our students is of the utmost importance. A trend I am noticing is the when young people are looking for information on a subject they go to the internet, and find a video that teaches them in a very general, and concise, way. These videos normally relate the subject to something the viewer who deal with in everyday life. I believe this relation of the subject is how we will make teaching the research paper more relevant.   

“Oral Explaining – with both students and teachers participating – develops reasoning skills that support reading and writing practices across the disciplines.”

When I think back on my years in school I always remember asking a question that us students would have an answer to, but the teachers would always say “Well yes, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for.” I think that it is this lack of clarity on the educator’s part, and their inability to maintain a running dialogue with their students.  

“Similarly, many young people find the preoccupation of the adult world to be remote, disconnected from their lives, and incomprehensible.”

And lastly we have to remember that our students are growing up in a very different world than we did. What is important to us isn’t exactly what is important to them, and vice versa. But it is imperative that as educators we find a common ground with our student.

Deconstruction

To the first question I am unfamiliar with Century Link and the customer satisfaction that they have although the evidence would seem to suggest that is making profits over customer satisfaction. But I do know that it is easy to make assumptions on topics based on similar knowledge. A good example around here would be Comcast, with their bad customer satisfaction. To the second question, on first viewing of the video my immediate thought was not that the ad promoted racism, up until the showing of the “immigrants”.  I think it shows a cultural ignorance and insensitivity that we have become too used to.   

Hard Work Conquers All: Red Bull and the American Dream

http://medialiteracyproject.org/deconstructions/hard-work-conquers-all-red-bull-and-american-dream/

I picked this deconstruction because it points out the how unfair the thought of the American Dream is, and that we do not have a level playing field and that all you need to have a good life is to work hard. 

Reflecting on our Love/Hate Relationship with Media

Digital Media is an amazing tool that can be used to great effect in our schools. One of the words I kept seeing pop up was “unreliable”. While there are certain problems that go along with digital media they are getting fewer and fewer as technology progresses. And as those problems are shrinking the benefits are getting better than ever. As the group posted on the Padlets productivity, creativity, and access to information are huge advantages of digital media.