Read Ken Macrorie's "The Poison Fish" and prepare to answer the following questions:
What is engfish and what are its to varieties?
What causes engfish?
Is it a possible result of our educational or schooling experiences?
What can we do about it?
What word or phrase could you use to describe the opposite of engfish?
Enjoy a little music while you read and answer the questions. I call this my "fresh-start" mix.
How does education challenge our sense of self? Our identities?
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Clip from Spanglish Columbia Pictures 2004
A little small group conversation...
Form groups of three or four and do the following
brainstorm a list of both the costs and the benefits of education
try to think beyond the immediate and the superficial, to the more conceptual--to what's really at stake
try to make some connections to the Alfi Kohn essay you read for today; perhaps draw some examples
draw from your own personal experience, as well, when listing costs and benefits
It's time to play the carrot or the stick!
The exciting, the unforgetable game of school where you win the carrotts, or else you get the stick!
This sounds like gameshow music to me, don't you think?
Are we being conditioned?
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B.F. Skinner on Operant Conditioning
Are grades like operant conditioning?
Is there a relationship between Skinner's method of conditioning behavior and the way grades are used?
Do "carrots and sticks" shape behavior?
Are there ethical implications to using such methods to shape human behavior? That is, your behavior?
Let's resist as much as we can. Let's find a balance, at least. A contract?
Some recent research on motivation
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Dan Pink on Motivation, Carrots, and Sticks
Homework for Next Time
Read: Freire's "The Banking Concept of Education." These texts require multiple reads. Continue to post to the Splatter site your thoughts on the reading and begin responding to each other too. (At least three posts/responses a week, remember.)
Write: A 1250-1500 word (minimum) essay in response "Prompt #1: Applying Freire to Your Own Experience as a Student." Post this essay to the Splatter site as "work for review."
If you need help with any of the technology this first time, it's your responsibility to seek it out. Ask me before you miss this deadline. Remember the grading contract
