Reflection Essay

Read 2-3 essays of your choice from Who Speaks for Justice, Part 1: A human being

Read two of the following PDFs 

• Baldwin, Prologue from City Kids, City Schools
• Bell, Goodman, & Ouellett from Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice
• Watson, from Rethinking Schools

Watch 2-3 of the following videos:

• Greening the ghetto (Links to an external site.) 
• Julian Treasure (Links to an external site.)
• Isaac Lidsky (Links to an external site.)
• Bryan Stevenson (Links to an external site.)  (Links to an external site.)

As you read and watch, make notes about your reactions, assumptions, implications, arguments, questions (see prompts in instructions)
The idea of personal responses are to engage in thoughtful internal dialogue about the idea of global issues and education. You should attempt, in your understanding of the readings to get “underneath” what you read in order to understand the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the issues. Reading critically involves more than understanding the words or liking or disliking the texts; critical reading requires reflection.

Some prompts are helpful for how you should approach these assignments. As you consider your reflections, think about these questions: (a) what are the texts’ assumptions about the phenomena being discussed? (b) What are the implications of the assumptions and/or the arguments? (c) What is at stake in the texts arguments for the authors and for you? (d) Who (or what) are the authors arguing for or against? (e) How do the authors construct and articulate their arguments? (f) How do the texts “fit” (or not fit) in relation to your own thought and practice? (g) What questions did you find yourself asking after doing the reading? Please do not simply summarize the readings.

Write your critical response connecting the content from the readings with your responses to the prompts.

Your response should be written in a narrative form that is evident of engaging with the content and reflection.