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-   -   Single-sex classes may come soon to a school near you (http://www.shreveport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2384)

Jesse 08-12-2007 08:00 PM

Single-sex classes may come soon to a school near you
 
Why do so many action movies, such as current box office sensation The Bourne Ultimatum, start with chase scenes and then retrace to build the plot?

Answer: Look around the theater. See all those guys in the audience?

Males prefer stories that open with action, a research finding that teachers in all-boy classrooms have adapted to make reading more appealing to their students.

That kind of practical advice should come in handy later this month and next, when an estimated 300-plus districts across the USA begin experiments with single-gender classes or schools.

Those experiments arise from Education Department regulations issued last fall that cleared a legal path for single-sex public education. School leaders who are following that path say they are looking for a way to jump-start academic performance, particularly among boys.

Given how boys as a whole are lagging behind girls in almost every measure of classroom achievement, the experiments are worthwhile. Simply separating the sexes, however, is not a recipe for success. Single-sex classes thrive only with a lot of planning and the application of research that shows how boys and girls learn differently.

That research generates scores of practical tips, in addition to the one about using narrative tension or action to hook boys on reading. Others include setting different temperatures (boys prefer chillier classrooms), encouraging girls to be a little more noisy, allowing boys to move around more, and being tolerant of boys who want to write about things such as space warfare.

Unfortunately, when the Education Department issued its single-gender guidelines, it offered no guidance on how to make them work.

So it has been up to principals such as Skyles Calhoun, at Woodbridge Middle School in a Virginia suburb of Washington, to be pioneers. At Woodbridge, which will begin offering single-sex classes this fall, girls outperform boys in all subjects, except for upper-level math and upper-level science.

To prepare, Calhoun spent a full year researching the issue with his teachers and tracking down the experts. All the teachers who will handle single-gender classes have now been trained in gender learning differences.

Unlike Calhoun, however, many of the principals involved in these experiments appear to have done little planning and just a few months of research. Schools with untrained teachers and uninvolved parents aren't likely to achieve much, says Leonard Sax, founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Single-sex classes or schools aren't the only way to address the educational gender gap. Some coeducational schools have found ways to push up academic performance for boys and girls alike.

There is, however, considerable evidence that many students can do better with gender-specific learning approaches — and without the distractions of the opposite sex. Many boys-only and girls-only private schools have long traditions of success. Only careful planning and research will determine whether separating the sexes becomes a useful tool in public schools, or yet another discarded educational fad.

What say ye?

joepole 08-12-2007 09:49 PM

Sex-segregated schools are just as Unconstitutional as race-segregated schools.

LateNight 08-12-2007 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joepole
Sex-segregated schools are just as Unconstitutional as race-segregated schools.

The article speaks of segrated "class rooms" not schools.
Not sure if any of this would be an improvement.. but it might make it easier for some of us boys to concentrate on the matter at hand.. and not the ........... :yes:

Jesse 08-13-2007 07:07 AM

Having had the pleasure of both parenting and teaching, I know and understand real differences in boy/girl learning abilities.
This research generates scores of practical tips, in addition to the one about using narrative tension or action to hook boys on reading. Others include setting different temperatures (boys prefer chillier classrooms), encouraging girls to be a little more noisy, allowing boys to move around more, and being tolerant of boys who want to write about things such as space warfare.
I'm not looking at it as a way to deepen the problems in education or society, but as a way to reach more students in a better manner.
In Caddo Parish Schools, we have a huge problem with our middle schoolers. It comes to a point when the number of 16 year old eighth graders out-way the "should-be" thirteen year olds, and then they simply drop out. Would single sexed schools help to prevent this type of problem?

Isaac-Saxxon 08-13-2007 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesse
Having had the pleasure of both parenting and teaching, I know and understand real differences in boy/girl learning abilities.
This research generates scores of practical tips, in addition to the one about using narrative tension or action to hook boys on reading. Others include setting different temperatures (boys prefer chillier classrooms), encouraging girls to be a little more noisy, allowing boys to move around more, and being tolerant of boys who want to write about things such as space warfare.
I'm not looking at it as a way to deepen the problems in education or society, but as a way to reach more students in a better manner.
In Caddo Parish Schools, we have a huge problem with our middle schoolers. It comes to a point when the number of 16 year old eighth graders out-way the "should-be" thirteen year olds, and then they simply drop out. Would single sexed schools help to prevent this type of problem?

That sounds like a good idea. Heck I would still be thinking of them in the next room. Now days text messaging is rampant.

rhertz 08-13-2007 11:02 AM

In today's politicly correct world, Sex-segregated classrooms are just once step closer to a Muslim compatible curriculum.

Isaac-Saxxon 08-13-2007 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhertz
In today's politicly correct world, Sex-segregated classrooms are just once step closer to a Muslim compatible curriculum.

We don't need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
:think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: ;)
Just for the record rhertz I think Berkas suck !

rhertz 08-13-2007 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isaac-Saxxon
Just for the record rhertz I think Berkas suck !

Isaac, when are all the liberal minded fashion designers in California and Paris going to start making expensive designer berkas?? Maybe neither liberals or conservatives willing to adopt or cater to that market? Or maybe the market does not accept liberals or conservatives, both of which are too "western"?

Morpheus 10-22-2007 08:59 PM

single sex classes? I thought this thread was going to teach the finer points of self gratification!;)

Texasbelle 10-22-2007 10:08 PM

Only a man would type that!!!!:p

Isaac-Saxxon 10-23-2007 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texasbelle (Post 23242)
Only a man would type that!!!!:p

That is right TB. The lack of tea bags will stop analytical thought. :laugh:


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