Article Critique

Include the following elements in your critique:

1. Summary – Provide a brief overview of the article, its intended audience, and its purpose.

2. Analysis – Analyze the article’s strengths and weaknesses, providing evidence to support your opinions.

3. Key Elements – Select 1–2 key ideas from the article and consider how you can effectively connect them to your research question.

4. Reflection – Explain various ways that you could incorporate the learning theory expressed in the article into your teaching methods. Also, explain how the theory demonstrates Christian principles in teaching.

Format the critiques in APA style and see the Article Critique Grading Rubric for the specific grading criteria.

In Closing the Achievement Gap with Curriculum Enrichment and Differentiation: One School’s Story by Maragret Beecher and Sheela Sweeney is an article that introduces an approach to reducing the achievement gap between White, African American, and other minority groups including the gap between low and high socioeconomic households in a West Harford Public School, Connecticut. Within this school the achievement gap on standardized tests were reduced slightly by implementing a reformed differentiated school-wide curriculum with the addition of an enrichment afterschool program, teacher professional developments, and increased student engagement. The study emphasized

This enrichment approach resulted in improved student achievement and the reduction of the achievement gap between rich and poor and among different ethnic groups. The school improvement process began with a thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of all dimensions of the school, and resulted in the creation of a school mission, strategic plan with broad instructional goals, specific learning objectives, and detailed action plans. Enrichment and differentiation were chosen as the methods to improve the learning environment based on evidence that engagement in learning is enhanced when...