Author: Gwendolyn Jordan

Group members: John, Bella, Liv, Noah

I went to the group at the tables next to Einstein’s at 3:30 on December 5. We were there for 10 minutes, but the leader did not show up.

Praise:

Makayla: The second and third paragraphs are super in depth and well understood by a reader.

Maura: The first body paragraph is super strong and really offers a lot to the rest of the essay.

Gwen: You have a super good connection between WCU and your claim consistently throughout the essay.

Constructive:

Makayla: Try to include Percy in your introduction.

Maura: It might be beneficial to try to add some more to the intro about the specifics of your claim.

Gwen: Maybe try to add more about Percy to the last paragraph and include some quotes.

Percy:

Makayla: The connection to Percy in the third paragraph really helps connect the quote to your claim.

Maura: Add some more about Percy, especially quotes, to strengthen to connection to Percy.

Gwen: This is good support to your quote and claim but it’s difficult to connect to Percy with just one mention of him.

PEER REVIEW 2: maddie barker

Praise:

Makayla – The support for the quotes is very descriptive and well done.

Maura – The connection between West Chester, the problem, the solution, and Percy is strong.

Gwen – The organization is really well done and helps strengthen the argument. 

All – The supportive reasoning you used after each quote is super well done and very impressive! Great job!

Constructive:

Makayla – Be sure to stay in the same tense throughout a sentence.

Maura – Watch out for run-on sentences and be sure to capitalize where necessary.

Gwen – Try to use the strongest parts of quotes and work it into sentences.

Percy:
Makayla – Your first quote works really well with the idea you are arguing, but it is a very long sentence that might be able to be a little bit more pinpointed.

Maura – The explanation backing the quote in the second paragraph really supports the quote and connects Percy’s beliefs to your essay.

Gwen – In the fourth paragraph, the connection between Percy’s belief of avoiding the professor’s lecture based teaching really supports your argument that online platforms are a better way to learn.

On Thursday, October 17, Makayla and I discussed what changes an experience for someone. There was a misunderstanding in where the discussion was so this group met in two different groups. Therefore, this discussion was only Makayla and I.

Makayla and I talked about how experiences can be altered greatly by the way you view the experience. If one enters an experience behind a camera or while staring at their phone, they will never get the same experience as someone who actually experiences it. For example, some people will go to a tourist attraction such as NYC and walk around taking pictures and will not once look up from their phone or camera. An experience behind a camera is not nearly the same as truly being there mentally to experience something.

We also said that some people will walk into an experience with expectations of what their experience should be like. These expectations greatly alter your actual experience because it changes your mindset and if the actual experience is not the same as the expectations, one may be greatly dissatisfied with the experience. If they did not previously have these expectations though, this dissatisfaction would have never been a problem.

We also said that by taking your own path and through experiencing what others normally do not, you are allowing yourself to truly experience something. We decided that along with this, simple things such as positive or negative attitude, and uncontrollable things such as those that surround you, the weather, etc. also affect your experience greatly. In conclusion, we said that phones and cameras, expectations, new experiences, attitude, and external uncontrollable variables affect an experience.

Topic: 4- Course-based learning. Freire’s essay advocates for a model of learning that is 100% based on student initiative, student choice, and student action. Yet some classes at WCU seem to project a passivity onto students as a model of success. Using one WCU course as a model, analyze the model of learning that this course presently relies upon in order to propose concrete, implementable alternative practices that could achieve Freire’s model of learning at WCU

Team: Makayla Medycki, Maura Kelly, Gwen Jordan

Focus of essay: FYE class- 1 thing that is bad about it and 3 ways to fix it using Freire’s banking concept of learning

Problem: Students are not learning in FYE.

• Ways to fix it
  • Have older students teach the class because they relate more to us and understand us better
    • Friere thinks that you must teach others in order to teach yourself the information
  • Take a survey of what other students wish they were taught and offered their first year in college and ask current first year students what they are already aware of and have been taught so that they know what we still need. 
    • Consult students regularly about what is being taught in the course 
      • What’s being helpful and what is not helpful

Working Thesis: Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Learning” relates to West Chester University because of the lack of education that occurs in the First Year Experience class.

On September 19, 2019, we discussed how no one teaches another and how people do not teach themselves. We talked about how you cannot take knowledge and hand it to someone or they will not get it. People learn by teaching others not by being taught. We said by handing people knowledge, no one learns. Knowledge can’t be given out to students. The students can’t sit in a class and absorb information. We also said people learn from personal, real world experiences. Knowledge is not something you can formulate. Instead, it is shared through communication. Speaking and communication are learning. In order to teach, everyone has to be engaged in conversation. This relates to Freire’s essay because he wrote about how teachers are not capable of teaching students by sharing information in a classroom. Teaching is not handing information to someone; it is something obtained from actually experiencing things and learning from that. Group:

Bella, Maura, Makayla, Emily, Mia, Julia, John, Ava, Amanda, Ethan, David

On Friday, September 13, my group discussed what we thought was the determining factors in what makes a teacher good or poor. We then connected that to how what we believe relates to Freire’s beliefs when it comes to the education system. 

My group began by sharing what we each considered to be desirable attributes in our educators. We discussed how important it is to engage students in what is being taught and share examples that the students are able to understand. We also said a good teacher will make connections with his or her students and will care for them enough to offer them their own independence. Some qualities that students do not appreciate in their teachers is when the teacher is ignorant or insensitive to personal problems students have. We agreed that teachers should not forget that students are also people. We also said that as students we do not appreciate when teachers teach memorization and only go through the motions of teaching without putting any real thought into it. We connected this to Freire’s Banking Concept of Learning because Freire also states that teachers do not teach how to think, but instead how to memorize.

Group: Jake Heikkinin, Makayla Medycki, Emily Foley, Mia Citerone, Julia Digiorgio, Michael Lindholn, Gwen Jordan, Juliana Beristain, & Maura Kelly

Today in the writing discussion about Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education“, we discussed how each of us personally felt about Freire’s opinion on the education system. Olivia Vearling led this discussion and David Macmullen, Jeff Biancaniello, Maura Kelly, Makayla Medycki, Sam Zicorno, Cait Mangini, Laura McGroary, Seamus Corkery, Haley Clark, Amanda Regan, and I followed on September 5, 2019.

A point that was brought up was that teachers should make sure students are understanding what is being taught. A student should not be seen as a listening object. The reason the teachers are there is because the students make it possible for them to be. The teachers should care about what they are teaching, and it should not just be a narration. Narration is lifeless and adds to the process of memorization. The education system reminded everyone of a suppressed society and the teachers just force students to abide by their way of teaching. The teacher does not care about how the students need to learn. In this ‘banking’ education style, teachers only care about doing what is easiest and just lecturing to get it over with rather than actually caring if the students are gaining information.