From making textbooks beautiful to mixing students by socioeconomic status, articles in this issue propose many ways to shake up standard practices. Let's look closer at some of these ideas.
What Does It Mean to Be “Student-Centered”?
- This kind of student-centered curriculum is based on the assumption that someone other than each individual student should determine what the most essential skills and knowledge are; students don't pursue whatever skills and content attract them. How do you view this interpretation of “student-centered,” and the way Ferrero describes it being carried out at Northtown?
- Contrast this view with the way “student-centered teaching” is generally interpreted in innovative teaching philosophies: as a curriculum that starts with individual student interests. Which seems more centered on students to you, and why?
- In your opinion, can teaching incorporate the attributes of the “traditional” end of the teaching ideology spectrum, as defined in the sidebar on page 11, and still be student-centered?
The Effects of Magnet Schools
What happens when schools act as free-market enterprises and compete for students? Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink (“The Ripple Effect,” p. 16) describe how magnet schools can often benefit at the expense of regular Joes. Have you encountered or heard of a situation similar to the one portrayed by these authors, in which a magnet school has received resources and accolades while a once respected regular school nearby withers? If so, do you see any relationship between the two schools' fates?
Hargreaves and Fink propose that all newly established schools try to predict the environmental impact that their launch will have on the surrounding community. What kind of effect do you think your school—new or long established—has on the area within a 20-block radius? Over the next school year, your group could use surveys, county and school district data, or other methods to measure the impact your school's presence has on other neighborhood schools; opportunities (academic and otherwise) for children in the neighborhood; transportation patterns in the area; the diversity of who visits or lives in the neighborhood; and crime and safety issues.
Hargreaves and Fink assert that “to ensure social justice, we need to break the assumption of the essential bond between one student and one school.” The socioeconomic integration paradigm described by Richard D. Kahlenberg (“The New Integration,” p. 22) could risk loosening the bond between a school and the families that live in the surrounding neighborhood. Brainstorm ways in which school leaders can cement a feeling of connection between students and their school—and between a school and its neighborhood—even if kids attend schools far from where they live.
Goodbye, Black and White?
- What has been your experience with using reading material in traditional black-and-white format versus teaching with colorful texts? Do eye-catching reading materials seem to engage your students' attention and comprehension or distract them?
- Compare a few pages from a typical middle school textbook with the pages of Kirschenbaum's article. Chances are that the textbook uses some colorful visuals, varied fonts, and graphic elements, as Kirschenbaum recommends. What differences do you see between the textbook pages and Kirschenbaum's pages? How do you think these differences might affect your students' mood or level of interest in the material?
- Do you think visual treatments like Kirschenbaum's could boost reading comprehension among your students?
