"A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 5:05 PM -0500 wrote: >It is considered punishment
Hi! And this is where I get beyond perturbed to see community service linked with detentions in that light. We spoke briefly earlier about teaching social literacy. So when detentions use community service as a punishment, we are teaching these kids that helping other people is something you are forced to do when you step out of line. How will that affect their behavior as adults? Will they likely be socially literate?! On the other hand, if we engage in a little backward design, and look at our goals, they might be: 1. That students behave well. 2. That students understand there are consistent consequences to misbehavior. 3. That students understand there are consistent rewards to proper behavior. 4. That students have the opportunity to make restitution. 5. That students see helping other people as a normal part of a healthy life. With all that in mind (and please feel free to disagree on any of those five, or add to them...), how could detentions be used to increase social literacy? What role should service play in a school? How do you run all this so that it comes from within the students and not perceived as something external to them and imposed on them (i.e. how to build self-esteem in a positive way)? Take care, Bill Ivey Stoneleigh-Burnham School _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
