I love this class and the ideas presented. It offers you a different perspective and a way to look at leveling the playing field for our students of a variety of economic levels.

The topic of the class is important and very worth learning about. I thought the book was interesting and also quite valuable to read. The discussion prompts were, generally, quite good at promoting reflection. By way of suggestions, I would have liked to see: 1) more participation in discussion by the facilitator. I would think that the goal of discussion is not just for the students to swap ideas, but also for the students' thinking to be challenged and probed and expanded by the thoughtful involvement of an expert in the subject. I would have enjoyed -- and benefited from -- that. kind of expert involvement 2) more thoughtful journal assignments/prompts. Asking professionals to outline the major ideas of a chapter seems a bit juvenile. I guess it's fine if you really think that we won't read the chapters otherwise. But perhaps you could increase the value and challenge of the assignment by requiring some discernment and justification...e.g., phrasing it something like this: "Please choose six ideas from Chapters xx - xx that you think are crucial to an educator's understanding of students (and/or adults) from poverty. For each idea, explain 1) why you think it is crucial, and 2) how understanding it will impact your teaching in the future. Be specific." That kind of assignment achieves the goal of making sure that the student read the book, but ALSO, because it would require some comparative thinking and defending would be much more thought-provoking and valuable to complete. All-in-all, though, I am glad to have taken the class. Very helpful!Thanks!