Schooling Autobiography

Paper Length: 4-5 pages (not including Reference page)

Background/Rationale

All of us come to this course with experiences in schools (elementary, middle, high school and colleges in the United States or abroad, as well as home schooling experiences, just to name a few). These experiences influence the way we think about schooling. For example, they shape our knowledge about how the school day goes and what content is covered, our ideas about how teachers and students should interact with one another, and whether schooling is a positive or negative experience. As we begin this course, it is important to make ourselves aware of our own ideas about schooling based on these experiences, as well as to learn about the experiences of other people who might have similar and/or different experiences. This assignment is designed to provide an opportunity for you to

1) understand your own schooling experience in a way you might not have before

2) reflect on this experience and

3) learn about the experiences of others.

We will also use this assignment to explore how the experiences we have had in school are shaped by our social location – our location in the social structure that is shaped by race, ethnicity, immigrant status, first language, geographic residence (urban, suburban, rural, and region of the country), religion, SES, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Below I outline the steps you will need to take in completing this assignment.While the final product is a 4-5 page paper that can be thought of as your schooling autobiography, there are two other steps that precede this final product that are critical to crafting this paper: research and reflection

Research

In order to understand your own schooling experience more fully it will be helpful to you to gather information on your neighborhood and school as well as that of other neighborhoods and schools.

( Unfortunately, I was not able to look up my high school online to gather information about it since I am an international female student and my high school is back in Oman “the country”. I will try to provide you with the info that I can get to write this part)

• My high school located within the neighborhood I lived in. It is a middle class neighborhood.
• Due to the religious and conservative culture in Oman, It was a females school only “both students and teachers”. Students have to wear uniform with strict roles when it comes to it. Teachers can wear what they want as long as it is not jeans or shorts “ they have to dress modestly”.
• Other schools in the neighborhood is almost the exact same exept for boys school “ which I have no idea about what is going on there”
  • Number of teachers and students, then compute the ratio
  • Number of students in each grade
  • Racial and ethnic makeup of the school

( I will provide you with the numbers as soon as I get them)

( I will provide you with the numbers as soon as I get them)

(almost all of the students “including myself” were Omanis “the dominant ethnic group/ citizens” except for a couple of students. One of them was from Syria and the other one was from Nigeria. The Nigerian student transferred after one semester because she could not blend in due to language and culture barrier. On the other hand, the Syrian student did not face the same difficulties, since she came from a similar culture and spoken the same language)

(as for teachers, the majority of them were Omanis too, except for few of them who teach sport, art, sport subjects)

Reflect

There are several ways I want you to reflect.When I ask you to reflect, I want you to think. turning these issues over in your mind.This reflecting takes time so you want to complete this part of the assignment well before you sit down to write.

1. Class Discussions thus far

Think about the discussions we have had in class and the readings you have completed (I will attach all of the readings and powerpoints) Has this changed your perspective on your own schooling?

(Yes because we did not have much race and race diversity in school. We had people with darker skin, but they were not treated in a racist way. You may lookup the culture back in Oman and add any info that you can find to help you in the section)

1. Your Research

Think about the research you have done on the census data and your school (First section)u.What did you learn?What did you learn about your neighborhood or school? What did you learn about your neighborhood or school in relation to others?

1. School Experience

Think about your schooling experience.Reflect back on your schooling experience and consider it in light of what you have learned.What do you notice now about where you grew up and attended high school?Are there particular experiences or patterns of behavior that seem striking to you now?Were there aspects of your schooling experience that were particularly noteworthy?

Write

Please write a 4-5 page reflection on your own experiences in school.It must be typed double-space with 1-inch margins and address the following components (at least one page per each section):

1. Describe Your School

Paint a vivid (yet brief) description so that the reader can see the school through your eyes. At the minimum, describe at least three features of the school (e.g., the buildings and their environment, the ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students, the kinds of classes you were able to take) and anything that may relate to the focus of this course (school violence, segregation, and dropout). Put effort into thinking about things that have been not apparent to you until now. Some other points to consider:

• What are some of your most significant memories of school?
• What type of schools did you attend? (Public )
• What can you remember about your learning environment, teachers, classmates and curricula?
• What was the tone inside the building? Did you feel safe? Welcomed?
• What was the neighborhood surrounding your school like? The community? Were there prominent businesses in or positive/negative attributes of the community? Did the community affect the school? If so, how?
• What other emotions do you attribute to your school experiences? Was school a positive or negative experience? Why?

(It was safe, but not really welcoming. It was just for classes. They did not really care for making it feels homie)

(It was middle class neighborhood. Mostly houses with a couple restaurants and shops. It was quiet. Did not affect the school)

positive

1. Write About Your Schooling Experience

Describe aspects of your schooling experience that support the insights you describe (as noted in #3 below). Some things you might think about include:

• Were there tracks in your school? How were people in each of the tracks perceived or stereotyped?
• Which types of classes did you take and in which tracks were those classes?
• How did your social status compare and contrast with the other students in your classes? How did they compare with students who were not in your classes?
• How did people self-segregate at your school?
• Describe the social locations of the following: Who rode the bus and who drove? Who hung out together during the day? Who hung out together after hours? Who were the leaders in your student body?
• What was the race and ethnicity of individuals who served in the roles of administration, faculty, school counselor, and staff (security guards, janitors, food service workers, office secretaries), and the PTA.

1. Describe Insights/Learnings

This is the reflection piece—considering what we have read and discussed in class, describe what you think is significant about your school—what was most significant about your experience? Communicate to the reader how your view of your schooling has been changed by this assignment. This is not meant to be a laundry list of every insight you have had or small point you have learned.Rather select two to three significant insights to focus on and describe how the readings or the research has influenced your thinking about your own schooling.

Finally, address this question: Are you here today in spite of your education or because of your education? Why?

A successful paper will use concrete examples from your own schooling experience and the readings, class discussion or research to illustrate and support your points. Please remember to cite your readings in text as well as a separate Reference Page.

Schooling Autobiography Rubric – SIL Spring 2019

Ratings	Excellent 4	Good 3	Satisfactory 2	Approaching 1	Unsatisfactory 0
Research about school and neighborhood
Description of school (Part 1)
School Experience (Part 2)
Critical Reflection (Part 3)
Organization and Quality of writing (includes citations)

our location in the social structure that is shaped by race, ethnicity, immigrant status, first language, geographic residence (urban, suburban, rural, and region of the country), religion, SES, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Materials:

You have to use Tatum,“Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” (attached). I will attach summaries for each chapter in the book if that helps.

You can use any other sources, I will attached few that you can use from.