After introducing (and in some cases re-introducing) yourselves, please understand that your working guidelines for the rest of the semester's frequent small-group discussion and subsequent mini-presentations (to the entire class, hopefully sparking class-wide discussion) are as follows:

All small groups must have at least three (3) but no more than five (5) students total in the group--and at least 3 separate roles and tasks, performed by at least 3 different students in all groups, must be undertaken:

1. A secretary or recorder, to take notes on a lot of what's said. Additionally, the recorder must somewhat quickly write a good bullet pointed list (of ideas and/or key spoken phrases from students, of quotes from the assigned reading with page #s, and especially jot down specific connections between Freire's ideas and education today, in response to the given prompts and discussion questions). Later when small group work ends in 15-20 minutes, the group's presenter/spokesperson will read aloud to the class-wide session and/or paraphrase, present and/or elaborate on your small working group's list of bullet points. The recorder will also act as a backup or secondary presenter. (If more than one person in your group wants to talk in the class-wide session, that is most welcome).

2. A facilitator or discussion leader, within the group. Someone outgoing and well-read, especially on that week's assigned reading. But don't lecture the group on it or summarize it, although some extended explanations of key parts are surely ok. Instead, ask a lot of questions and/or draw meaningful parallels to related issues ongoing in society today. Shouldn't be burdened by having to take notes, but certainly may if s/he wants. Also acts as a backup presenter/spokesperson.

3. A group presenter/spokesperson, who will read (and paraphrase, and elaborate on) the recorder's bullet-pointed list, to the class at large, "publicly," after the time spent in small groups ends. In-person students can exchange paper copies (or paper notebooks, or laptops or tablets), but you don't have to. E-mailing each other your ideas on a document as works-in-progress, or doing Google Shareable docs, is not required but of course is surely ok, since the material that one of you writes down may help others in the group later on with their Freire coursework or paper.

Small Group Work on Freire: For Discussion

Come up with a 3 idea (or more) bullet-pointed list, based on answering and discussing at least two of the following questions and topics. Feel free to come up with more than one bullet point for whichever questions or topics particularly interest you. Be sure your bullet list and group presenter include at least one key Freire idea illustrated by a good, fairly long quote from the Freire text, being sure to state the page number (MLA style). Get ready, since Temple is a diverse community, and these are topics about which reasonable people often disagree. Whatever you discuss and argue for, I am sure that at least some of your classmates will not have the same opinions or ideas, yet this multiplicity of views is ultimately a good thing even though it may be uncomfortable for you at first:

Can you connect specific parts of Freire's theories to an increasingly dominant concern over the last few decades, a controversy you are quite familiar with: increasing use of high-stakes standardized testing in K-12 public education, and in the college application process? Explain some of your thoughts.

To Freire in his totalitarian, mid-1900s Latin America, the need to take responsibility for the miseducation of the banking method, fight for change, and reject the static wisdom of the past was clear. Are similarly wide-ranging and dramatically different approaches needed again now, in the democratic U.S.? Why? Or, why not?

How might Freire's banking and problem-posing overlap with or relate to the increasingly high cost of college and, sadly, the debt that too often follows?

What’s really misguided about banking according to Freire, beyond or beneath mere educational methods. What is the hidden agenda?

The early 2000s No Child Left Behind federal educational program has caused an American backslide into banking, many educators believe -- why? To explore this law and its related legal-political revisions, feel free to Google it and report on what you find (it may be abbreviated NCLB).

Discuss actual classroom instruction, especially your own K-12 educational experiences with banking and problem-posing, whether positive or negative (or both as the case may be). You may focus on specific academic subjects, teachers, and classes—or on the elementary-middle school-high school distinction.

So, describing some of your own K-12 education and/or family life is perfectly acceptable—and yet of course you do not have to. Or if you decide to do Paper 1 on Freire and want to include this material in it, you could change names and even relationships (using phrases like “someone I knew fairly well” to protect privacy). Personal experience actually can’t be a significant part of the related upcoming essay, since in academic writing our own personal lives, however valid to us, are still just anecdotal evidence. But all your 3 long, formal papers this semester always can include a short paragraph of personal material, or 2-3 sequences each of brief first-person references, a few 2-3 sentence personal-experience passages.

Or, since a college education has been understood as the ticket to the "American dream," is this dream attainable for most of our society? Why, or why not? If not, what are your views on the related, ongoing debates in the U.S. over making community college free nation-wide and/or addressing (forgiving?) student loan debts?