Literacy in schools according to Oak and Finn

(Argument)

In the articles Literacy  with an Attitude by Patrick J.Finn and Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route By Jeannie Oakes the authors are different but share a concept. In Oakes article  he talks about how we are separating the kids into groups based on there ability to learn and because this kids who are "High preforming" get better materials than those in the middle or lower preforming groups. He uses John Goodlad and his book A place called school he uses as a example to prove his point that kids are not equal in the example Goodlad uses literature as his focus for showing this.

" students in high-ability English classes were more likely to be taught classic and modern literature, provided instruction in expository writing and library research, and expected to learn vocabulary that would eventually boost their scores on college  entrance exams...... students in the low-ability classes were likely to have little contact with the knowledge and skills that would allow them to move inot higher classes or to be successful if they got there."


Oaks argument is that this is wrong and that by grouping people by levels but others at a disadvantage just because they may be slower. what he thinks the teachers should do is not give up on there standers but let the kids figure things out for themselves it ok if they struggle that how they learn. "To be successful, heterogeneous classroom probably need to lean toward placing students more in charge of their own understanding and asking for and providing feedback.  This is what happens naturally when students are engaged in complex tasks and have lots of intereaction."

In his artical Finn talks about how if we keep high power literacy from the working class we are hindering them and that we must find a way for the upper-class and the working class to get along and allow the literacy to be able to be privilege for everyone.
"Contemporary social scientists believe that if we can understand
these mechanisms, we can change them and bring ourselves
to a different place, one where there is greater equity and justice.
That would require that both the rich and poor get empowering
education and powerful literacy." for this to work both groups have to work together so that everyone rich or poor can get a good education and  rise up in status.

I found this video that through different comics show the importance of literacy and why we should teach kids to read. Some you wont be able to understand seeing as there in either Spanish or French I'm not sure which. I hope you enjoy them I did.

In class I want to talk about why literacy is so important and school and what education would be like if books did not exist in school for us to learn from.