Reading 6

QUOTE & REACTION:

"But overuse of closed questions risks turning students into barking seals, performing the role of good student." p. 54

This statement was so powerful to me. When teachers have asked me closed questions, whether verbally or on an assessment, I knew that I was just looking to regurgitate what they had previously taught. Although this method may be effective in some instances, I think critical thinking is what is of utmost importance. Regurgitation of information is just a churched-up way of saying memorization. Memorization can be helpful, but I do not wish to create tiny little yes-men who cannot critically think their way out of a situation. If I use this method of closed questions, I am truly doing my students a disservice in the grand scheme of things. All people should be able to critically analyze the information they come in contact with on a daily basis.

MEDIA DECONSTRUCTION:

Headquartered in Baltimore Maryland, Sylvan Learning offers a variety of tutoring services at locations nationwide. Their primary audience is supposed to be students who need additional help outside of school, but their audience is truly the parents of those children. The purpose of this particular media message (from their website’s homepage) is to draw attention to the success of their brand. Clearly, they have been and will continue to “deliver results” and “inspire success” as it is highlighted in their opening page. The photo featured is that of a possibly Middle-Eastern “tween” who seems somewhat content. By doing this, I believe Sylvan wants to give the vibe that they are multi-cultural and have had success with all students--male, female, black, white, otherwise. Their phone number is highlighted in yellow and is at the right of the page right above the graphic of the girl, thereby drawing your attention from the largest image directly to the contact number. There is also a large font used for the word “success” so that if you read the idea from left to right, you assume that Sylvan has had success in tutoring this young female. This young female, has, in turn, been happy with the success received through her tutoring at Sylvan. The word success is used twice on this page, showing that the values that Sylvan holds are those of success through their brand…getting results. What this initial page is not telling you is the price of success. They have chosen to hide that information a little deeper in their website. As a matter of fact, in the FAQs, they continue to dance around the finance issue by saying that each program is specific to each student therefore there is no “set” price for Sylvan.