Pytash: Chapter 7

Jago begins the chapter by writing about how there should be national standards and how making them and getting them put into effect is quite challenging. I agree with her to an extent: I think there should be some national standards, but not quite as much as state standards. I believe this for two reasons:
1. Different lessons and skills apply more to different states. It is tough to apply the same standards to schools located in rural environments as ones in inner-cities. Basics, like reading, writing and grammar should be incorporated, but the details should be kept to the states.

2. Teachers already stress out about teaching to the state standardized tests, and would be even more if there was both a state and a national test. Obviously the tests would overlap in some places, but it still seems like these may be overkill, in some places. I would definitely like to know more about the potential creation of these national standardized tests; it can either makes students more robotic and memorize exactly what they need to know to pass, or hold them to higher standards and improve their learning. I would like to hope that the latter would occur.

Another part I really like about this chapter is when Jago describes how she taught Brutus and Antony's speeches. My initial thought was to parallel the speeches with presidential candidates, and have students debate on what qualities would make a better president, and if our current president embodies these qualities. Reading forward, Jago describes a similar idea to mine--I love when English class incorporates outside lessons, where students can see how English skills can apply everywhere in the real world, not just when reading canonical literature. I will definitely use lesson ideas like that in my classroom.