Blog post #6

 Post #6

Literacy with anAttitude by Patrick J. Finn

Extended Comments

For this week I am doing extended comments. I am doing it on Mason’s blog. He made some really good points on his blog. One main thing he talked about from chapter 1 was how the working class and poor kids relate to authority. Authority is so important in the classroom because it is a crucial part of maintaining discipline. I want to add onto that and say that Finn talks a lot about the teachers who see themselves as allies of their working class students and how teachers can help their students see that literacy and school knowl-edge could be a potent weapons in their struggle for a better deal by connecting school knowledge with the reality of working class students' lives. How literacy can be used to challenge and change societal norms and power structures. 

In Chapter 2 Mason talks about how the schools that have top earning families are predominately all white schools. He talks about the roles of a teacher, that As a teacher you should be eager to help the students reach their goals. The mentioning of personal development and creativity are crucial to understand. As a developing teacher, Mason finds that creativity is something that is lacking in the developing youth. Chapter 2 covers teaching strategies, activities, and resources for educators to use when promoting critical literacy skills among students. This reading is helping educators be more aware of the Importance of Literacy. 

One big thing that Finn talks about is the respect for Students' Voices, that teachers should respect and value the voices and experiences of their students. Acknowledging the unique knowledge and perspectives that working-class students bring to the classroom. Reading about this shows everyone what is going on and how students are being treated, that there needs to be a change. For example the role of teachers, teacher's should advocate for working-class students. He talks about how teachers should encourage and be allies in the struggle of fair education.