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

Kim, I too can relate to your statement of being a "good girl" in school, but unlike you I didn't not enjoy reading and being good was a way for me to escape any attention I might get for my struggles with reading. It wasn't until I was able to make the connection with a text to take me to those "wonderful places" while reading. I too could relate to ch 3, but it did take that one teacher to think outside the box and help me to connect to reading. I think the key is for teachers to relate to their students and help each student to find his or her entry point into reading. It is not easy for each child and it is not the same for each child.

Kim,

Like you, I was never a behavior problem in school. I even had girls to confront me who wanted to "fight", and I just thought that was so ridiculous. Needless to say, I never got into any fights either.

I feel like I totally missed out on the joy of reading, though. I did not struggle with reading, I just never got hooked on books. When I think about that, I really feel liked I missed out. In fact, I know I missed out. I mentioned this in my initial post, but I was finally immersed in children's literature once my first child was born. I've been making up for lost time ever since!

Kim,
Based on the fact that probably most of us identify with the good girl identity in chapters 3 and 4, do you think good behavior is a gender trait? I think of the classes I have had in the past and most of my behavior problems were boys who, unlike my girl students, didn't care about pleasing me. Is that a female trait of trying to always please the significant other in our various discourses? Our mothers, our teachers/professors, our principal, our spouse?? I have never considered the different gender roles of my students and how each of their identities are shaped in the early years in their home discourse. Now that I have read the chapters about Laurie, I will most definitely approach behavior problems between the genders differently.

Kim,

I can definitely relate to being a 'good girl' in school, and even in college. Michelle mentioned tht she wondered if being good was a gender trait, and I think that is a very interesting point. I have wondered the same thing, but I think it just depends on the child and their culture, values, and the importance that their family puts on education. Although I have encountered a few boys who have worked hard to please me and to be a 'good boy', most of the time it is girls who are trying to be good and who need that stamp of approval from the teacher.

From Candy Kee

Kim,
It sounded like you were talking about me. I was the good girl as well. My mom was a teacher in the second grade and I had her as a teacher as well. She would not tolerate any comments from the other staff except good ones about my behavior. I was painfully shy and the fact that I was a bit pudgy sealed the coffin on relationships with others. I would rather dig a hole and jump in than to talk to anyone. No converation with them meant they would have no reason to pick on me or call me fat. I loved to read too and that is the only escape I had. I feel so bad for our students today that cannot read or hate it. Where is their dreamland or true excape from reality when the need it? I still escape into my reading as often as possible.

I, too, really enjoyed reading as a child – I can still remember my excitement when I realized that I could recognize the word “violet” in Dr. Seuss’s book Put Me In the Zoo! And, like you, I always had a book or two in my desk to read when I finished my other work. I think that’s why I am so interested in sharing my love of reading with my students.

In my years of teaching, though, I have become aware that many of my students don’t come from homes where reading is valued, where it is NOT something they do in their free time. Lots of those same students struggle with reading in school, and they are really skilled at disappearing into the group. If they don’t make waves, they seem to think, they can fly below the radar and get by. I am really sold on spending a lot of instructional time in small groups so that I can reach those students, too. They disappear less in a small group setting, and most are more willing to work with me when they feel like they can “get it” on their level.