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Last week , we talked and read about how sometimes well-meaning white teachers who want to value the culture of Black students end up not teaching their Black students academic English skills. They don’t mean to be doing a disservice to these students, but that’s what ends up happening because the students don’t learn how to write or speak in a more academic context. However, the flipside of this is when teachers enforce academic English all the time, even in casual conversations. We talked about a few different ways that teachers could do this, and they all had pros and cons. For example, the teachers could use roleplaying to practice formal English skills, but this is potentially problematic because students might see it as not accessible or part of themselves.

What do you think teachers can do to get the right balance of valuing language diversity while still teaching students important English skills? Is there something that is key to deciding when it’s time to enforce formal English?

As I was reading the Purceil-Gates piece, I went through a lot of emotions. I was mainly upset when Jenny said that, regarding how to read, “some people think it’s easy… but it ain’t.” That just broke my heart. Why is it hat so many of those in a lower socioeconomic status lack these resources to improve and get a better life? Why is it that these city schools that truly need exceptional teachers, really don’t seem to make the impact they need to, or to push the students like they need to? And the public then dares to blame these people on “not trying to better themselves” and “just skating by” when it truly does not seem to be their faults, at least not in the case of those like Jenny and Donny. My question is how do we begin to address this issue of literacy in those of a lower socioeconomic status, like the ones living in the rough areas of the city?

For my question, I would like to visit the Delpit article about how there is so much cultural conflict inside of the classroom, especially in areas with kids with strong dialects. My first question is why does the method of using the students dialect and way of speaking work in a classroom setting? Does it make it easier for the students to understand? Or does it perhaps make the learning more interesting? Secondly, when is it okay for teachers to stop using this method and go back to traditional learning (because they have to learn the basics eventually, right?)

In one of the articles we read this past week, we saw how some students struggled in schools because they had a different literacy background and how some teachers overcame that barrier.

For example, the one teacher used rap in order to better understand her students. The author emphasized how important these ideas are in celebrating diversity in literacy and how it can help all students better understand language.

If you were a teacher, what is one method or idea you would implement to better understand the cultural differences that your students have?

 

Both of our readings this week featured multiple instances of somewhat unorthodox methods to replace traditional literacy. In the reading on developmental literacy, stepping-stones such as the ‘elemeno’ to replace L, M, N, and O and the use of letters as stand-ins for letters (R=Are, U=You) allow children to communicate without a complete understanding. In the case study featuring Jenny, she used colors and shapes to bypass the need to read signs or labels. All of these cases use patterns recognition and memorization to transcribe and translate messages, in the same way the literate typically read letters or numbers.

My questions, then, are based around the legitimacy of these types of literacy. Can a shortcut to literacy still be considered literacy? If someone is able to perform basic functions by using tricks such as these to bypass the need to read, is there an absolute need for complete literacy? How might the culture of Jenny and her family change if all of them were to become literate?

In many of our readings, literacy has been associated with a change in status and thinking. In a culture that is predominately literate, would an adult becoming literate later in life experience any sort of change, or would these patterns of behavior and culture be too ingrained?

Critical Thinking. It enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary.

Over the weekend I conducted my interview for this week’s literacy assignment. The person I chose to interview was my aunt, who is the head principal at a local high school. Once we were done with the interview there were aspects she furthered on upon me asking some questions and the subject revolved around critical thinking and writing and how that is incorporated into the Collins Writing Program. Collins Writing is a 5 step program that builds us up to be critical thinkers and good writers. This was interesting to talk to her about. She was explained how it is brought into the school system and how it is integrated into each academic level. As she touched upon each level, I could remember certain points in my academic career when I either learned the steps to critical thinking and writing in school or when I had to learn them myself; this was especially signifiant in my freshman year of college. I had to learn how to think critically and analyze to understand the material. In order to pass some of my classes I had to be able to ask the right questions while studying to succeed.

I would like you to take a look at this website (link below) and read a little about the Collins Writing Program. Did your school integrate this into the learning system? What aspects of this system do you think could be changed? What are the best parts of the system? For those of you who want to teach, which area do you think is most important? If one cannot critically think while writing does that make them a bad writer?

http://www.collinsed.com/5types.htm

I really enjoyed this weeks readings, especially ‘Cultural Conflict in the Classroom’. My biology teacher in High School taught me literacy far beyond that of living organisms. For every ‘like’ or ‘umm’ used in a sentence, 25 cents were owed to him. This money eventually lead to huge pizza party, but the lesson taught was relentless in my future undertakings. To this day, I find myself listening to speakers and tallying in my head the number of ‘likes’ they use, just as I had in High School.

While I agreed with the majority of the reading, I find it hard to believe that ‘proper English’ doesn’t also have its benefits in our society. By speaking the way we write, we are able to improve our literacy skills everyday, rather than having to translate our personal dialects into a noun-verb structure.

Do you find that the way people speak influence other areas of their literacy? or are reading, writing and speaking completely separate practices? What experiences did you have as a child that conformed you to proper English, or allowed you to express your personal diversity?

 

I found last week’s reading by Akinnaso on how the context in which someone develops Literacy affects them and how sometimes it may even isolate one from their surroundings if is not already perceived as a cultural norm or ideal. Akinnasso mentions “becoming literate in a non-literate society”, and how this affected him. He also mentions how the questions he received from his father with regards to the Youruba people and how it could be the case that they would not be written in the Bible if they were active worshippers of the Christian Deity. Akinasso quips that he wished he could explain to his father at the time that every culture has its creation mythos and how this varies based on the times they were conceived.

That seemed very awkward to me. Not awkward in the way that it was written but awkward in the sense that it divides father and son in the way that it does. Between “literate” and non-literate individuals, value systems seem to change. It got me thinking about literacy as a cultural norm in our society versus others that do not value it in the sort of high-minded manner we do. I’m wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience to Akinasso in the sense that the more knowledgable they became via literacy, maybe it isolated them from family members?

I really enjoyed Delpit’s piece on language diversity and the notion that someone’s race can influence the way a person speaks. Race, as Delpit notes, is also highly correlative with a person’s socioeconomic class/background. African-Americans and Latinos, for example, are disproportionately located among lower-income neighborhoods and thus school-systems. As the little boy in the beginning of the passage notes, there is a communicative dissonance between members of these “inner-city” communities, as we refer to them and those who “talk white” (even perceivable by children!).  Now, this seems obvious to most people who are not completely sheltered (much like those from my hometown) but it raises an interesting question: Is there a “correct” way to speak?

What I mean by “correct” is not necessarily “best” or “optimal”, and certainly not “most intelligent” but simply right by objective standards and rules of a language i.e. certain pronouns correspond to certain groups in English like “he”, “she”, “they”, etc. Does it matter if someone who talks “white” and someone who does not are able to nonetheless have a conversation and communicate with the same ease as two people who engage in the same dialect, as Delpit defines it? Curious as to what everyone here thinks on this matter, given most of us share in a relatively diverse series of backgrounds and experiences, and as such may have different experiences with different “dialects’, as it were.

I also am aware I use a frustrating amount of “quotations” in my writing, thank you ahead of time for bearing with me on that.

I was particularly interested in the Lisa Delpit reading, “Other People’s Children” and the power of literacy, particularly the effect of the language and dialect used in teaching. I was not aware how much of an impact language diversity could have on an individuals learning experience. It is striking how a change in dialect can result an individual’s better comprehension of the same material.

I could make a particular connection with the teacher who was able to better teach his students through the use of real world examples. I too have had a similar learning experience. In some of my engineering classes, I struggled particularly with material that I could not relate to a real world example. For example I consider calculus 2 and 3 to be some of the hardest classes that I have taken.  The problems were purely theoretical and they did not click for me. However, when more complicated material was placed in front of me, in which I was able to associate real world meaning to the numbers, I was able to grasp it much easier.

I am curious as to whether anyone else has had learning experiences similar to mine or the ones we read about?