To Teach the Journey, in Comics / Concluding Questions:
- A question is posed by a student on page 965: “Why does the wheel go around?” In reference to Mr. Quinn’s response, how would you have answered this question if you were a teacher? Has taking this class altered your potential response? Connect the comic strip ideals with Friere’s problem-posing model of education. Give examples from your own educational career.
- Using examples from William Ayers's comic excerpts and other readings, explain how the gap between students and teachers can be bridged.
- To what extent does the literacy of a comic strip differ from the literacy of a case study, for example? Be sure to define your meaning of “literacy.”
- What have you learned about education and literacy practices as a result of this class? Include examples from class discussions, this comic and other readings, and/or your site volunteering experience.
The literacy of a comic strip can be very similar to the literacy of a case study for many reasons. Firstly, a comic strip is looked at, often times with text bubbles and text boxes all over, to communicate its proclamation to the reader. This involves multiple levels of literacy because it is something that is to be read and interpreted by an individual through not only words but also pictures. Often times the comic strip may hint some kind of underlining message that can only be delineated by people with some sort of literate background. Literacy of case studies on the other hand make sense because case studies are usually analyses of different factors in relation to some context. These involve astute knowledge of not only the study but also the background of the study and several other descriptive and explanatory factors in order to comprehend the material. Therefore, both comic strip and case study are similar in requiring levels of literacy to understand. However, I would have to argue that because comic strips are usually for those who are looking for entertainment value and humor, they are very much watered down and therefore require less levels of literacy when compared to case studies, which are used for the exploration of certain principles for academia, research and other things. My definition of literacy is defined as the way one comprehends the word through viewing various kinds of mediums.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to start by saying that this was definitely one of my favorite readings of the semester. Short and sweet and to the point. The cool pictures don't hurt either.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone can relate to the comic strip and how when you're young, teachers seem like a completely different species. Teachers are beings that can do no wrong and they don't lead normal lives like we do, little do we know, they are as normal as you and I. They have lives, they enjoy music, they go to department stores to shop, they drink coffee and they make mistakes just like you and I. When Mr. Quinn, who was actually the class speaker at graduation, Quinn, became a teacher towards the end of the comic strip, it just shows how that gap between student and teacher can be bridged. In reality though, there really is no gap. The student never stops learning and even when students become teachers, they never stop that learning process. To say you know everything and you no longer need to learn from others makes both a bad teacher and a bad student. This just shows how literacy is ever-evolving in a person's life. Like how when the student asks, "Why does the wheel go round?" as oppose to the standard question, "Why does the world go round?" and Mr. Quinn says that he actually doesn't know and that they should go find out together. If a student at SMDP had asked me this, in the present version of myself I may have answered with the answer I learned when I was young, but now that I have gone through EDUC 140AC and read this comic strip, I may answer in the same way Mr. Quinn did. The process of the teacher and the student learning and growing together solidifies that delicate relationship and builds trust between the two. That trust is very important because in order for a student to learn from a teacher, sometimes you have to just base it off of good faith that the teacher is right, often times this is the case. Because teachers are seen as superiors or a different species of human beings, students believe everything the teacher tells them, also because that is what they are told to do. It's when a student questions things and then takes that extra step to find the answer that real and effective learning takes place.
It’s interesting that Tina brought up the misconception most students have about their teachers being a different species. I can remember being in grade school, seeing a teacher out of the classroom was a special treat, like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs. I used to think that teachers lived in their classrooms! I think that the gap from student to teacher stems from this idea. School and home are two completely separate worlds, so much that teachers aren’t even people in their students’ eyes. If teachers had a more active role outside of the classroom and in their students’ communities they could bridge that gap through more personal relationships with each student. Knowing your students on a personal level can also help with classroom control and creating that “positive supportive educational community.” We saw in the case of Jose that this is exactly what happened. Ayers learned a little about Jose’s lie outside of school and brought that into the classroom, allowing him to engage in the learning environment. Realistically, getting to know everyone of your students on a very personal level will not be easily done, but in the end it may make the difference.
ReplyDeleteFrom one perspective, a case study is scholarly work whereas the comic strip is not. We like to think that writing a case study requires education: a practiced eye at observation, systematic thinking in writing observations, analytical skills in reflecting on those observations, the writing and reading skills required to properly formulate what we are trying to say. Whereas often the comic strip is seen as just something fun: entertainment, something created by those who can’t do much else. The case study is work, and the comic strip is art, or possibly even recreation.
ReplyDeleteBut both definitely require literacy to understand, perhaps in many ways to an equal extent. I am understanding literacy here essentially as the ability to understand and interpret in a manner that allows for practical application of the knowledge and principles and data acquired through tat same understanding and interpretation (in that sense, literacy is self-referential—it can’t be only that we understand the world, but that through that understanding we gain knowledge ad have the ability to act on it). Given this, a comic strip requires literacy in a very important sense. For one, the comic strip is very much “colloquial” in a sense—it requires understanding of the culture from which the artist comes. It also requires the discernment to understand that the seemingly arbitrary lines and shapes represent real images and objects in the world. The case study, on the other hand, is much more straightforward, hopefully requiring less cultural understanding to interpret. So in a sense, the understanding of a comic strip, the literacy there required, is in fact more than that required for the interpretation of a case study. Ideally anybody who understands the English language should be able to understand a case study—but only the person with the proper cultural understanding can understand a comic strip.
One of the most significant things I've learned about education and literacy through my experience with this class is how teaching is not a one-way relationship. Working with the kids at SMDP and realizing that I am learning from them as I teach them and they learn from me was an important lesson. As we have discussed at various points throughout the course, the notion that teaching involves simply dumping information into students' minds is a false one, one that distorts the possibility for the kind of two-way, mutual beneficial relationship that teaching can be. The example in "To Teach the Journey, in Comics" of the teacher addressing a student's question by suggesting they go and learn it together is a good example of how our role as a teacher/tutor need not be so strictly confined into a sphere of superiority above the students, one that involves us telling students facts as they are and expecting them just to acecpt it. Rather, teaching is about being open to new information that the students can share with us and recognizing that they may know some things that we don't and can be our teachers too. In so doing, we are also able to show students that what they have to say and share is valuable and that to express themselves is also a form of literacy - that literacy is not only their ability to read and write but also to present their ideas and their identities to the world.
ReplyDeleteTo Teach: The Journey in Comics
ReplyDeleteWilliam Ayers
Ryan Alexander-Tanner
Foreword by Jonathan Kozol
“To Teach: The Journey in Comics,” by Ayers and Alexander-Tanner, provides an edifying perspective on the undertakings of learning and teaching. Through illustrations composed in the form of a comic book, both writers investigate the traditional modes of teaching and analyze why learning should be a “form of self-exploration, self-discovery, and self-motivation.” When I read this, I pondered the traditional modes of teaching in social media and wondered why there is an unfortunate discrepancy in the realm of education between males and females-specifically in non-fictional and fictional environments encompassing science.
Recently, I read in a New York Times article about how Texas A&M is tapering the gap between male and female students applying for science-oriented majors. Their solution involves visiting female high school students and allowing them to partake in a two-week science program held at the college. Remarkably, over time, Texas A&M reported an increase in female applicants for science majors, in which a handful of the applicants participated in the two-week science program. But how does this relate to social media?
We've seen, as in the case of Texas A&M, that women are not pursuing science related majors, but why? Social media is a powerful instrument for sending subliminal messages. One example is the Cartoon Network show Dexter’s Laboratory. Dexter is an intelligent eight year old boy who has his own secret laboratory. His sister, Dee-Dee, delights in playing in Dexter’s laboratory, and is often criticized for destroying her brother’s creations and for pushing wrong buttons. I believe that this sends a subliminal message that implies girls and science don’t mix. Even more so, I believe that social media unconsciously and consciously imbeds apprehension towards science-portraying it as overbearing and insurmountable. This is of course a misconception! My hope is that females, both real and fiction, will be fully represented in science.
In contrast to the traditional modes of research, both Ayers and Alexander-Tanner, masterfully combine best teaching practices with a new shift in teaching trends-in such may produce hopeful remedies to address the unfortunate discrepancy between males and females in science-oriented fields.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/closing-the-girl-gap-in-science.html?pagewanted=all
-Joshua Tovar
Q1.
ReplyDeleteI think I would answer same as Mr. Quinn answered to the question “why does the wheel go around?” if I was a teacher. Since I do not know the exact reason for why does wheel go around, I would ask the students to figure out the answer together. Maybe, student and I could look up the Internet together or search the books to figure out the answer.
I had experience already in this education field, so I could answer like Mr. Quinn, but my answer would be different without those experiences. I could not answer to that question at first time, maybe stood and thinking about the answer, or maybe ask them to wait and do something else while I figure out the answer to the question.
As I work at educational field more and more, I could learn how to react and handle toward different situations. There lots of unexpected situations if you work in some kind of educational field. Taking this class also provide another different environment that I never faced before. This class not only provide new environment but also let me understand the students’ ideas and led me to think about importance in literacy also.
Q. 4
ReplyDeleteLooking back at this whole semester, I can only describe it in one way: Surprising. This whole semester, I expected the worst and prepared for the worst, but instead, I got one of the best semesters of my life, teaching students first hand and meeting students like Sir Cameron is an unforgettable experience I learned so many things about teaching and the what it takes to be a teacher. To truly reach out and get to these kids, we must be patient and find ways to really teach them instead of give them answers. I learned that we need to guide them, not just drag them and take them along for the ride.
From class, the most important thing I learned about literacy is that it truly surrounds it in everything we do. At first, I thought it was all about reading and writing, but that is not the case. I learned it is in sports, art, etc. Without a doubt, the knowledge I've gained from this class has changed me as an individual.