CF Scavenger Hunt

1) Children’s Friend, founded in 1834

4) There are four schools in the Central Falls school district.

8) Yes there is a post office in town. (See picture below)

10) There are no movie theaters in Central Falls, the closest ones are in Lincoln and Providence.

12) Jenk’s Park is located right next to the Central Falls city hall. (See picture below.)

16) There are no large supermarkets in town such as Stop N Shop or Shaw’s, but there are many little market like places in CF. Some examples being Carlo’s Market (see picture below). However there is a Save A Lot and a super Stop and Shop close by in Pawtucket.

19) Adam’s Memorial Library

22) Central Falls High School

23) James Wilson

24) Charley Bassett, Jim Slwy, and Max Surkont

 

Carlo's Market

 

 

Jenk's Park

 

CF Post Office

 

 

I knew by looking on MapQuest that Central Falls was a small city. But by driving around it I got a better sense of how small and congested the city is. I can’t help but feel that this city is very cluttered and lacks a lot of open spaces. Even visiting Jenk’s part, I noticed that it was very small, and that MapQuest is misleading because parts of the park on the map were actually just parking lots. This scavenger hunt led me into neighborhoods I would have probably never been to, and I got to see how even the housing areas are cramped. Often time’s people have to travel out of CF for entertainment and shopping because there is a lack of fresh grocery markets, movie theaters, and shopping centers. The layout of the city with its tiny, barred shops and lack of open areas can lead one to feel a sense of entrapment.

 

Thinking as a teacher candidate, I realize that students may feel this way about their home town. Just driving from CF to Pawtucket’s downtown area I noticed a difference in architecture and structure and students must notice that too. Taking the bus from CF to downtown Providence, students see the water, art, culture, and the malls. This says to students that there is not a lot in Central Falls that fits with the modern culture, you have to leave the city to get to that. There is a sense of teaching pride of CF to the community which makes me hopeful because there is a lot of history and things to be proud of here. Unfortunately it is often shadowed by current issues with the education system and headlines of corruption in local politics.

Chapter Four, Going Deeper in Smaller Areas

One thing from chapter four that is really standing out to me is the idea of “Going deeper in smaller places” (53). We’ve all heard or even said to some higher educator, “When are we ever even going to use this?” I feel like if content teacher had the chance to select the main points of their curriculum and teach those things in detail, students would be more engaged and remember more about the topic. As Daniels and Zemelman suggest it would be difficult to do this, especially for history teachers, but I am a big believer that it would be beneficial to students.

Along with this approach schools could vamp up electives to cover more specific topics as well, so that if students found he core subject interesting, they might choose an elective to learn more. For example, if only a few major battles of World War II are covered in the core U.S History class, an elective based on the entire war might be available. English teachers already have to do part of this narrowing process by selecting one or two books that are supposed to represent the entirety of the theme of alienation or stand as a poster child for Brit Lit.

Going deeper in smaller areas requires a lot of thought and careful selection of what material and books are used in classrooms. From the tone of the chapter, there is a desperate need of revising what books and textbooks are used, so if anything, this drastic change would be a great change on many levels. Overall, the idea of a more in-depth investigation into more important topics is one that seems cohesive and logical to a high school setting.

Responding to Chapters One and Two

            The whole time I was reading the first two chapters of Subject Matters by Harvey Daniels and Steven Zemelman all I could think about was the Common Core. Being an English content teacher candidate, the Common Core isn’t exactly my exciting upcoming friend; it’s more like a messy loud roommate that leaves its hair in the drain of the shower. However, the first two chapters really got me thinking about the transition from fiction based text to nonfiction based texts in a whole new light.

            The scenario of the cross subject project and study of the fast food and our culture inspired by the students at Best Practices High School reading of Fast Food Nation got me really excited. It was interesting to see all the ways the teachers covered the topic in their carefully selected readings and projects. Here I can really see the integration of scholarly articles, text, and examination of real life events coming together to create a smooth, complete lesson. It got me excited, and really started to open my eyes to the possibilities of staying within what the Common Core standards dictate and what literature my students will have/should read.

            What I also found powerful in these chapters is the idea of schemas and having students build off of their background knowledge to scaffold into higher learning on a subject. As I’ve heard in many textbooks and education classes, no student comes to a class a blank slate. As teachers, we build off of the footing they have and go onward to more things. Before a student can understand a piece of reading in a book about anything they need that footing. This got me thinking of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and to what the panel of students at CF told us. One student said something along the lines of “Teachers need to be able to explain things in different ways so that students can understand it.” That means that every student should be exposed to information in different ways.

So if a student is learning about frogs then the teacher should show them pictures of frogs, some short clips so students can see how they move, what they sound like. Maybe if the opportunity was there, bring in a frog for students to touch or go to a zoo and observe frogs. Have open discussions about experiences they’ve had with frogs, fill out a KWL chart to brainstorm and gather their thoughts. Just reading about a frog and having never seen one is difficult and unreasonable.