For Class Sep 13th

In General: Two of the articles for tomorrow night's class are activist literature.  That is not meant to partake of any negative connotations of the word 'activist' or any of its synonyms, from Beria to Rove.  It is a statement of the author's apparent intent: to get at least a few of the readers to do something.  And 'activist' is not an antonym for 'scholarly'.  Good scholarly work is activist by its very nature, or its reason to exist is suspect.

But, activist literature must be read carefully since the author is trying to affect your life.  Don't assume that all which makes it into print in a scholarly setting is of equal value.

On McCoy:  Poverty is a politically-laden topic.  It is a shame that American society has allowed the simple act of trying to help someone else become so laden with unnecessary baggage, but that is present life.  That said, I applaud the author's willingness to address the issue as well as the warnings about students' feelings.  Any topic touching this is a challenge and a test of the classroom environment.

When the article hits on statistical analyses, it disappoints me in that it fails to make crystal clear what math can and can't do.  Statistics can point out possible problem areas.  No branch of math alone can determine why something is happening.

On Gutstein and Peterson:  They bring up the same statistical fallacy of occurrence proving intent.  That's a gross misuse of mathematics, and inexcusable in a math education setting where the practitioners should know enough math to know better.  That applies to both the 'random' police stop scenario and the liquor store ideas.

They make a fantastic point of using social justice issues as a way to hook math into their students' worlds.  The long-standing NCTM standard of making math live is there for a reason.  Adolescents are the world's masters at dismissing uncomfortable realities as irrelevant.  Hooking an uncomfortable reality, math class, into their worlds in a way that's meaningful to them not only encourages their interest in and use of math, it greatly empowers their entire lives by providing them a wonderfully powerful tool.

On Lotan:  This is an excellent article on group work.  Too often group work is taught as a unique idea, when it is the prevailing model in many professional work settings.

I feel that routine tasks may have some utility in classroom group work settings, but I see that as pretty well limited to icebreaker situations, either for a new group or with students who are resistant to the group work concept.

I like the discussion of making certain that individual accountability is designed into any group activity.  When it comes to assigning a 'grade' to the group work, I feel it is critical to remember that group activity develops topical understanding and real-world skills, and need not feed into a large part of an individual student's grade.