Friday Sessions

I. Poverty and children's lives outside of school

Consider this research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (UK):

Experiences of poverty and educational disadvantage

Also, what have data from the SAT revealed about achievement, socioeconomic background, and gender?:

SAT Data and Reports

2008 National Report

See page 7 of the 2005 National Report of SAT scores

II. Rethinking our thinking about poverty

"Return of the Deficit," Dudley-Marling

"What These Children Are Like," Ralph Ellison (1963):

"I don't know what intelligence is. But this I do know, both from life and from literature: whenever you reduce human life to two plus two equals four, the human element within the human animal says, 'I don't give a damn.' You can work on that basis, but the kids cannot. If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then I will not only drop my defenses and my hostility, but I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit."

III. Are boys in crisis in schools?

Do we have a boy crisis?

IV. Best practice for boys. . .and girls. . .

Best Practice, Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde

Reading Next

Writing Next

IV. Change, change, change. . .We need to rethink literacy and expectations.

A) Graphic novels and comics

B) Science fiction

C) Young Adult literature

D) Video games, music (lyrics)