prompt 3 and shor

My classroom is diverse on many level, race, ability, and to some extent on economic background. But so far I have seen little addressing by the teachers to this fact.
While observing a math lesson, one in which the students were first introduced to mix numbers, as in a whole number and a fraction. The teacher used to example of shoe sizes as a model for when mixed numbers appear in real life applications. This example is claiming that the students know about half sizes in shoes and watching the students many appeared to not have this knowledge. Truly I cannot say I knew my shoe size in 3rd grade, usually my shoes were brought by my mom and I just wore them. This knowledge may be unknown also because students don’t have the luxury to go to stores to try on a lot of sizes where they may be introduced. Not that this example of shoes sizes is necessarily a bad example, but this is the only example the teacher gave of mixed numbers. If a student didn’t understand this example then the whole concept of mixed numbers may be lost to them. This idea is also explored by Ira Shor saying that by not understanding an example or being consisted put down or unheard results in “negative emotions; self doubt, hostility, resentment, boredom, indignation…” This could be seen in the classroom as students tried applying what they were taught, or not taught, to a worksheet. Shor quotes McLaren in saying that “the process through which children learn to critically appropriate knowledge existing outside their immediate experience in order to broaden their understanding” Breaking down to meaning you need to acquire what the students know and from there apply the lesson being taught. A better way to introduce a lesson on mix numbers would be what examples can the student think of for mix numbers, after accepting a few, a teacher should be able to give multiply examples trying to give every student full understanding of the concept.



About the video
I like what the first man Darrell Brown, shares his experience from being in both low and high income schools, saying that in both setting students have the same hunger, same passion and ability for growth. Yet thier growth is limited by their economic mean, Kozol had worked and advocated to close the gap between both races and classes. This connects with the prompt in saying that the needs are the same, but teachers need to be able to address lessons in different ways. Patricia Gomez says that her elementary students tend to ask many questions, a trait I sadly see little of in my classroom, whether this is from understanding of the lesson or if the will of the student to ask questions have been diminished already by the 3rd grade. Other parts of the video since it’s a voluterring orientation video have little connection to the prompt.