Jago Chapter 3

I was glad that this chapter touched on some of the state laws and teachers' legal responsibilities that we were talking about in class last week. I thought that Claire's story was a wonderful piece of writing, but again, the topic of writing might have been considered controversial. You can tell that the story really meant something to Claire, which is part of the reason she cared so much about her revisions. I think that we want our students to write about things that they care about, but it becomes difficult as a teacher when the "important topics" are the ones that could get somebody into trouble.

I also just finished watching the movie, "Freedom Writers." In the movie, the teacher gives the students journals. She doesn't grade them, but she lets them decide whether or not to let her read the journals. If the students put the journal into her cabinet, then she can read it. She ends up reading all of the journals, which are filled with entries of domestic violence, gang-related scenarios, and death. These topics are risky for a classroom, but you can see that they are topics that are part of these students' every day life. This movie helped me see how writing about these topics can help a student grow.