Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

Staples article on “re-authoring” and behavior in separate worlds was interesting. While reading, I thought of one of my students, Shamek, who is one of the sweetest children you could ever meet. He’s a well-behaved, hard-worker with a laid back personality when he is in my guided reading group. But when he associates with his best buddy, Clay, the two are fighting other students and the next thing you know he’s suspended from school again. It is truly hard for me to believe that he behaves this way around his peers. Shamek needs to "re-author on the outside" as Staples would say. I wonder how seeing African American men portrayed in a negative way in the media affects the African American male?

It was intriguing to read how Staples engaged students by giving them opportunities to work on their weaknesses in literacy through areas that interest them. As Staples states, “students who had trouble decoding print were able to forefront their abilities to talk, write, or deconstruct images while they gained practice interrogating documents.” Providing choice seems to be a prevalent strategy in education today, along with multiple modes of literacy learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, journals, storytelling, media and technology). Including students in the decision-making on what material to read, gets them involved and helps them to take ownership in their learning.

The community respect that developed was of great consequence, especially with these older students who normally refused to participate in the lesson. Having students agree to respect one another in the group (no ridiculing) helped to create a safe environment, so the students could take risks in areas where they struggle. Reassurance and praise from the teacher can positively affect struggling students who may just need a confidence booster to encourage them to put forth an effort.

Modeling standardized English, while allowing language variations the students were accustomed in using, reminded me of my ESL students’ pronunciations of certain words no matter how many times we go over it. I have mentioned this in a previous post, but they always pronounce “mudder” for mother, because they are so used to saying it that way. The pronunciation of this particular word, along with several others, must be engrained in their vocabulary permanently.

The use of roles in cooperative grouping made the assignments seem more manageable and less daunting for the students. I have noticed that my students enjoy being responsible for their part in a group assignment. I recently had a group of six 5th graders work in two groups of three. We read an informational text on reptiles. The group roles were Note-taker, Artist and Summarizer. As we read the text, the note-taker would write important information about an animal and the artist would draw a graphic representation to go with the note. After reading, the summarizer wrote a paragraph about reptiles and their characteristics. The students collaborated and discussed each part of the project even though they had group roles. The students were totally engaged in the group project.

I feel very fortunate that my position allows me to work with small groups of students. We are able to have discussions that sometimes reveal personal information that would never be mentioned in a whole group setting. Because of the small group setting, I learn things about students that their classroom teachers do not and, it is certainly easier to meet the needs of the students. For the students, I believe it is easier for them to express themselves in a small group setting.

In Annette Henry’s article, “Speaking Up” and “Speaking Out,” she mentions that her “objectives were shaped by research showing that reading and writing activities together promote greater learning than when they are treated as separate subjects” (Staton, 1989; Tierney, 1990). When my students respond to literature in their reading logs, they know that the most important thing is to think about what they have read and respond in writing. They know that I will not correct grammatical mistakes, so they are free to get their ideas written. This quote by Henry (1999), “Black girls may ‘learn’ to be silent or complacent in classrooms, they, indeed, have a lot to say,” made me think of a student named JaNyah. I was pleasantly surprised when JaNyah journaled an entire page about a portion of text we had read. She included lots of questions which revealed that she had given the reading much thought. Was I surprised at her lengthy response because she is black? My surprise did not lie in her ethnic background; rather, my surprise was based on the length of responses I usually get from this group of struggling readers. I mentioned her ethnicity because of the research that is sited in the article. Hale (1982) claims that black girls “are invisible to teachers as serious learners.” I’m curious to know how the researchers came to this conclusion. As a teacher of African American girls in K-5, I certainly disagree with that finding. However, that research is nearly 3 decades old and education has changed a lot since then. I have high expectations for every student, no matter the color of their skin.

Carol Holt