Failed Lesson

Abstract

In the University in Ruins, Bill Readings helpfully offers “that when faced with a disciplinary project, a crucial way of situating that project is by considering what it is not, what it excludes” (p. 176; emphasis in original). This chapter examines the very literal and traditional “disciplinary project” of lesson-planning from such a perspective—that is—I ask what considerations are excluded when our assessment of success is guided by conceptions like Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development,” and/or the emphasis of the Common Core Standards, for instance, on “allowing the text to take center stage” (Shanahan, 2013).