For this blog
post I am going to focus on connections.
While reading “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick Finn I was able to
make connections to several different ideas that we have focused on in class.

Along with my
connection to Brown vs. Board of Education and Tim Wise, throughout the rest of
the reading I was constantly connecting Finn’s experiences and ideas to Lisa
Delpit. This connection first came to my
mind when Finn stated, “I was from the working class and I knew how working-class
and poor kids related to authority. They
expected people in authority to be authoritarian, and I gave them what they
expected” (3). These two sentences are
Delpit’s main ideas. She believes that
teachers need
to explicitly teach students the rules and codes and Finn did
this. He knows that they need this
direct instruction so he is schooling them to “take orders” which will lead to
future success. Along with this, Finn
also didn’t give the students time to not be on task. He had them working at all times and the
students knew what they should be doing.
With this, Finn did not need to ask what a student was doing if they
were off task but could simply tell them to stop that and get back to
work. This too is an important aspect
that Delpit focuses on. She believes
that a teacher must be direct with a student rather than asking them what they
are doing. This way the student knows
that they are in the wrong. Although I
was able to connect the entire article to Delpit I believe that these few
points really show how Finn’s teaching style is similar to Delpit's ideas. Working in these ways results in a large
amount of success in the classroom with students who may have difficulty
following directions or doing what they are told.
Although I focused on connections in this blog I wanted to add an article on the grouping of different leveled students. In "Literacy with an Attitude" they talk about how students were put into different classes depending on their reading scores. This article talks about how grouping students by ability "regains" favor in the classroom. What are your thoughts on having students placed in different classes based on their abilities?