Strong Chapter 6

Photo from moviepilot.com

     I really enjoyed the visual of Darth Vader in the beginning of this reading.  It provided a great mental image.  We don't want to let Darth Vader win in his campaign to ruin the student's educational experiences.  Like the other methods that we have learned about in the readings, this one requires preparation.  These writing assignments that are created in the RAFT format are tasks that will take the students extended time to complete because of the creative nature of the tasks.
     I have never been a fan of busy work.  As a student, to receive busy work I used to think that the teacher was not competent.  I felt disrespected and that would, in my eyes, ruin the relationship with the teacher. I was never disrespectful to the teacher, but I cannot say the same for my classmates.  I don't remember where I saw this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDt0PX4rVg but it is a video that I believe expresses how the students who receive busy work feel.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the student was very respectful in this video, but I understand how he felt.  To avoid these feelings we need to make sure that the students understand that we respect them, and we should respect them.  They are not all going to be perfect students, but neither were we when we were growing up.  Using the RAFT format for framing an assignment can insure that we express that respect to the students.
    Then to use the RAFT to assess textbooks sounds like it would help to focus the evaluation.  With such a large text that the textbooks tend to be, anything to help narrow the search is appreciated.  It also makes sure that it covers the things that we might not intentionally think of when reading the text, so why would we rate the text based on that.  RAFT makes you think of the bias that everyone has and doesn't mean to express.