The End
Top Five Passages
Taken from “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose
1) “Students will float to the mark you set. I and the others in the vocational classes were bobbing in pretty shallow water... mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond” (2).
This text stood out to me because it is a simple concept yet abundantly true. A thorough understanding of this passage will lead to the uncovering of a deeper meaning. The author is trying to portray that, although sometimes lazy and irresponsible, students will rise to the occasion when given high expectations from the start. The students in the vocational classes in this selection were challenged very little and had inadequate disciplinary actions taken on their behalf. Therefore, these students cared little for what was presented to them and were bobbing in waters that hadn’t even begun to tap into the deeper educational inquiry and potential that could have been. The tone of this passage is one of realization of the author’s situation. The author created this tone through the use of metaphors and looking into personal feelings of himself and his peers in the vocational program. 2) “I lived in one world during spring semester, and when I came back to school in the fall, I was living in another” (4).
I selected this text because it begins to show how a different course or approach to teaching can make a tremendous difference in a student’s life. In reading the text surrounding this passage, it is discovered that Rose switched from the vocational courses in the spring to the college prep courses in the fall. An understanding of this passage is important because it highlights the huge difference and transition between the vocational and the college prep courses. It also helps show the assumed nervousness and confusion of the author. Same school, same boy, yet a completely different atmosphere. This selection takes on a tone of
Taken from “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose
1) “Students will float to the mark you set. I and the others in the vocational classes were bobbing in pretty shallow water... mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond” (2).
This text stood out to me because it is a simple concept yet abundantly true. A thorough understanding of this passage will lead to the uncovering of a deeper meaning. The author is trying to portray that, although sometimes lazy and irresponsible, students will rise to the occasion when given high expectations from the start. The students in the vocational classes in this selection were challenged very little and had inadequate disciplinary actions taken on their behalf. Therefore, these students cared little for what was presented to them and were bobbing in waters that hadn’t even begun to tap into the deeper educational inquiry and potential that could have been. The tone of this passage is one of realization of the author’s situation. The author created this tone through the use of metaphors and looking into personal feelings of himself and his peers in the vocational program. 2) “I lived in one world during spring semester, and when I came back to school in the fall, I was living in another” (4).
I selected this text because it begins to show how a different course or approach to teaching can make a tremendous difference in a student’s life. In reading the text surrounding this passage, it is discovered that Rose switched from the vocational courses in the spring to the college prep courses in the fall. An understanding of this passage is important because it highlights the huge difference and transition between the vocational and the college prep courses. It also helps show the assumed nervousness and confusion of the author. Same school, same boy, yet a completely different atmosphere. This selection takes on a tone of