Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom post

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom gives very insightful tips for when teaching in an Urban school district. I loved how this paper emphasized the need to give students reading materials that will challenge their critical thinking skills and make them analyze texts. I also liked how they chose literary texts that students can experience through a different lens, and look at the texts from different perspectives of those who were involved within the piece. I think it is so critical for students to experience these old texts where they should explore the different themes that they may not be familiar with.

All students are entitled to an equal education, but that is not always the case. The difference between poor schools and rich schools are drastic when compared to the materials and the resources that are available. Schools in urban school districts for the most part do not have access to the new materials and textbooks available because these schools are usually underfunded and have limited resources. I don’t think that it is very fair for students in urban areas to have to suffer such inequalities that they have to go through, but what was presented in this article really gave great ideas on how students can be inspired to go above what they have available to them and excel academically.

I liked the unit that compared contemporary hip-hop music with canonical poetry texts. It was very beneficial for the students to see how in both they use literary techniques in the different styles of texts. Because hip-hop culture was so important to the students in the class, they could incorporate something that they were interested in into the curriculum and they were able to make those connections to what they know to something new and unexpected.