As I was reading the section about the police coming to school and wanted to talk to Marcus, my mind automatically went to my sister, who is in law school, and some of the stories she has told me. If you remember, Miranda's mom came to school and basically took the place of Marcus' lawyer, she talked to the officers and found out why the wanted to talk with Marcus. Belle had called the police and reported that Marcus had pushed Sal into the street, as we know, Marcus didn't push Sal into the street. So, what I'm trying to get at, is how important point of view is. My sister told me about a case she has on her plate. A young boy in tenth grade was reported to the school resource officer because his teacher felt threatened by him. The teacher reported the boy because he has discussed guns at school, keep in mind that the boy lives in a rural county and frequently participates in recreational hunting. The teacher only reported her fear to the resource officer after the recent shootings in Arizona.
Where am I going with this? It's important for all of us, lawyers, teachers, parents, students etc. to keep in mind point of view when dealing with any situation.
I totally agree and I love how you connected the too...when I read the part about the police coming to school to question Marcus without parental consent I was so blown away. First of all, hopefully, that would never happen at a real school in today's time...but you never know, just like with the resource officer who is still a cop because he/she is a sheriff's deputy. I think the point of view connection is so perfect, in dealing with this story as well because had we been dealing with the point of any other character the story may not have come together.
ReplyDeleteI think point of view is something that we as teachers really need to be aware of and take into consideration not only with out students but also with parents and other teachers.
I think this is a great connection to discuss with students. Not only do students need practice with identifying point of view in a story, but they also need to understand how a person's point-of-view can affect the story they tell. After this discussion, I think this would be a great opportunity to bring in additional texts like newspaper articles and have students share ideas on how a different point-of-view could have changed the article. Like Dr. Meyer said, even the most "unbiased" writer still tends to have some type of bias whether they are aware of it or not.
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