Just want to know what you think about the exercise in class on Tuesday. We didn't have much time for discussion afterwards so I was just wondering what thoughts everyone had.

I thought it was very interesting but would have liked more time to discuss. Thought it went well with the readings. Do you think that this could be something that you could do in a class of middle or high schoolers? Opinions anyone?

I have done something similar to this a few times. It was based on race, disability and wealth. Each category had a square on a floor and the size depended on what group was going into the square. It was interesting because people started to take on the traits of the group that they were representing. It related to the social experiment with the jail that Dr. Turner talked about that one day. I could see the same type of thing happening with the exercise in class that happened with the other two. Members of each group took on the traits of the group they were representing. I know that was somewhat the purpose but it is amazing how short amount of time it takes for someone become the role they are suppose to be. I feel that it has to do with expectations. People will do what is expected of them. I hope that as a teacher I can help to break the expectations put on the students by other teachers, showing them that they can achieve if they really want to.

I found the experiment to be a fairly accurate model of what happens in different schools. I do wish that I had been in able to see what took place inside the classroom because I was out in the hall working with my group, so was not able to witness firsthand what events unfolded in the room and had to go on the discussion afterwards to recreate the scene in my own mind.

I wish that the lesson could have gone on longer. I was in the working class group and even though I knew what she was doing, I began to get agitated and I felt that some interesting things could have happened if she kept on going and pressing us further. Also if she brought us all in and acted differently to each group in front of one another that could have had some fascinating affects as well.

Honestly, i had no idea what she was doing until someone had brought it to my attention after the discussion had already started. I felt that she wasn't being the normal professor that we have seen for the last few weeks but i thought maybe she was having a bad day! ha ha! But i felt that it was a good lesson because some teachers do treat students different because of their class. i was a part of the middle class but i would have liked to hear what happened to the lower income class. i was in the middle of a discussion so i had missed her attitude towards them.

I was in the working class group as well and as soon as she said something to Jessie, I knew what was going on. No teacher can be that aggressive in a college classroom when all semester they have been extremely nice. I think it would have been really interesting had Dr. Turner told only one person in the working class group about the whole deal and had them make a really big scene in front of everyone. That way, the whole class could see how she acted towards the working class group. Anyway, for those who did not get to see, Dr. Turner made a big deal about Jessie not having her book. Then she made us read our section by ourselves and take notes on it. She kept interrupting everything we said to go help out other groups.

I wish that I would have been able to see the way she treated each group. I was in the second highest group and Dr. Turner was so nice to us. We had no idea what went on in the classroom after we left and I think it would have made a difference to see that.

Well i got the idea behind the exercise even though nature called and i was in the bathroom at the end of it. (i was a little confused when i came back in the room; i wasn't sure what the fuss was all about.) haha. But i hate that we didn't have a conclusion, a proper ending, a chance to reflect on it together much.

I wish we had more time on the exercise too. I didn't know what was going on at first, but then caught on when I worked with Caitlyn. I wish we had more time to 'play our parts' and getting some genuine reactions from each class, and seeing teacher/student responses and actions. If I had known that we were 'role playing' I might have said something to make it a little more realistic. I went to a school with a lot of working class students, and even though we weren't tracked (in middle school and elementary school anyway) I feel used to the 'working class' style of teaching.

I thought the exercise was great, even though I did not catch on right away. This would be a great exercise to do in high school when discussing social class in America in the past and now. I'm not sure if you could use this in an elementary school, but perhaps you could in the upper elementary grades, although it may not be applicable to the subject matter. I wish we had more time to discuss too and to see what other people's real life experiences have been. I know I went to a Lutheran school in a very middle class rural area and my experiences were exactly like the middle class presentation we did. But overall, I think the whole experiment was very successful in getting us to think about what we expect and the way we treat our students because of their socioeconomic background.

I was in the affluent professional group and we honestly had no idea what was going on until we got back into class. What clued me in was the elite presentation group being over-the-top snooty; of course we didn't find out about how Dr. Turner had been treating the middle and working classes until after we got back. I think maybe that's why our group didn't really identify so much as that class? I mean to say, we had nothing pushing us to role-play or respond defensively or whatever.
Anybody have any thoughts about my perception of the four kinds of school as being similar to moving from elementary school to college--from more control and direct instruction to more freedom and student responsibility for learning?