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

Hick’s discussions about Jake prompted me to reflect on my teaching of preschool and kindergarten children when I taught in the UK. Jake’s freedom to move was indicative of the type of learning goals that we used for the four year olds who begin ‘formal’ schooling. Our curriculum from the outside, with an untrained eye looked chaotic. However, it enabled children like Jake to engage in what the government termed “free-flow play”. It was not without structure though and we had clear learning goals from which we had to teach. We would conference with parents to establish the modes through which their children ‘learned’ best; their play and discourses from home. We then planned and offered multi sensory concrete activities that reflected these interests but also ensured the children engaged in learning. We basically had individualized education plans based home identities and literacies. Like Jake, if a child was interested in cars, or dinosaurs, his math learning goals were achieved through this. It was definitely amazing to see students construct pulleys and tractors in their outdoor play, which can then begin a discussion about concepts about teamwork, measurement and so much more. Like Jake, there were boys who absolutely thrived on a curriculum of ‘action’. As Hick’s rights observed “Jake could become passionately interested in activities that were of interest to him” (p.100).

I often thought how great this would be if school in general could incorporate home identities with some freedom and action! Of course these students went into year one (first grade) and received a significant jolt to their system- kids quickly figured out, as Jake did, that in some of the first grade classrooms, it was a whole different world consisting of ‘serious’ things and little ‘space’ for children like him. This type of environment highlighted how “social practices at home were at odds with school” (Hicks, p.99). At first it appears that Jake figured out early how to “do school” and was adept at two different discourses (p. 113). Whilst there were no spaces for him in first grade, he adopted the role that Laurie did: the ‘good boy’ who did not want to get tickets for bad behavior. This was again in complete contrast to his aggressive, masculine play with his father, and the ‘lion’s roar’ of his interactions. (p. 113).

However, even though he moved between these two discourses it did not produce greater engagement with literacy practices. Hicks notes that this type of activity had to ‘make sense’ to Jake. For example, she discusses books about spiders that he had at home that were read to him because of his interest in spider’s webs. There was also conflict within conflict for him at home. The females in his home read fiction predominantly, whilst his dad was a reader of copious amounts of information texts. Jake identified with this genre too and yet time was not taken to incorporate experiences and interests like this that ‘made sense’ to Jake and would have engaged him in literacy. Academic struggle was the outcome just as it was for Laurie. Jake was fortunate, like Laurie that his second-grade curriculum was more akin to the action he thrived on in kindergarten. This classroom was indicative of a best practice classroom that we all know supports the interests of our students. Freedom to stretch, move around and read in comfortable spaces but best of all- at instructional level.
Like Laurie, Writer’s workshop was ‘action and freedom’ to Jake “ His written compositions suggest the hopefulness of living between discourses” (p.131) He gets to write about what he wants, what he likes. Whether it is piloting a boat or writing about family life he states that writing workshop is “lots of fun”. (P. 131). Like the play of his kindergarten years, Hicks explains how his ‘authorial self’ involved ‘drawing on action as a way of telling. He was very much close to himself to the point that he was the author and the character’ (p. 113).

Having been a teacher in kindergarten and now third grade, I could in some ways identify with the difficult transitions Jake encountered in how the curriculum is delivered. By trial and error I quickly came to understand that much of my direct practice I used in kindergarten worked successfully in the upper grades – kids in third grade still need the freedom and action of concrete experiences. I was forced to become extremely interested in what engaged this age group at home and school! I was on foreign ground! This was especially important with the boys in my classroom- many of which were caught somewhere between an indifference and a tiny bit if interest in the discourse of school. I may not have liked reading ‘Captain Underpants’ and graphic novels, but that was exactly what I did and ensured I had in my classroom! I have learned more about Star Wars and Pokémon than I will ever need to know again! I continue that same philosophy in Writer’s workshop- write about what matters to you. (If I can ever manage to consistently fit it into the schedule that is imposed on us!). Unfortunately for Jake, the “stakes were getting higher” (p. 122) and the increasing struggle between gender roles, literacy and different identities produced a disheartening reality. He did not feel the bridge between home and school with both equaled valued (p. 132).

Hicks sums up the tragedy of Jake’s experience by noting if only he had been given “a space on the side of the road” (Stewart p. 135) in his third grade classroom. In her philosophical discussion in chapter six about narratives she asserts that we have to risk opening up these spaces for students- to cultures, identities and to talk within these communities. This can enable us to include home discourses into school life no matter what grade level. Feeling is integral to how students come to know and value. (p. 142). In discussing Bakhtin and Murdoch (1993) Hicks notes how ‘regimes can distance individuals from belonging’ (p. 139) Clearly schools cannot operate from a distance. There has to be attention given to this notion. Jake’s resistance to school came at a high price-it jeopardized his future. Like Jake we need to be moved by action by what we see and feel with our students because “ In the midst of struggling with identity there is the hope of transformation if we value hybrid discourses and the students situated histories” (p. 151).

Karen Massey-Cerda

As I read about Jake and his experiences with literacy, I am reminded of many young boys just like him, honest and outgoing, who want absolutely nothing to do with school. I found myself in shock when Jake told Deborah or his teacher that the work was stupid or dumb. I have had students refuse to do work before, but they have never been so honest as to say that they thought the assignment was stupid. This scenario really made me step back and think about what I might say or do if a student gave me this type of response. The problem that Jake had with the assignments was that he wasn’t connecting to it or interested in it. Therefore, he saw no reason to complete the work. There are so many students, like Jake, who require extra effort on the teacher’s part to help them become engaged with literacy and interested in school overall. I believe if Jake’s teachers would have made more effort to interest him with activities, he would have had a better attitude towards school and been more successful with his schoolwork. As it was brought to attention in the text, math could have been taught just as easily using miniature NASCAR cars as it was with blocks. It is simple things like this that we need to consider and try when we have a child who may be difficult to reach and engage.

Another significant problem that Jake encountered was the conflict that was caused between the school system and their middle-class practices and his home life. At school, he was expected to progress in his education, going to college, and holding an important, successful position in a career. On the other hand, his expectations from home were that he would learn enough reading, writing, and math to successfully take over the family business. There needs to be a compromise in the curriculum and instruction that fulfills both expectations. Ideally we want all our students to attend college, but the reality is that they are not. Upon high school graduation, some students will immediately enter the workforce in hopes of establishing a career. For these students entering the workforce, we need to have provided them with the basic skills and knowledge that are required to be successful in whatever they decide to do. Jake was forced to participate in middle-class practices at school, although they were very unfamiliar and uncomfortable. At times, Jake probably felt like he was an outsider in his own classroom.

As teachers, what can we do to make school a welcoming environment for all students, regardless of race, class, or gender? Most importantly, we need to make it a point to get to know our students- their language, community, values, and beliefs. All of our histories vary, and so do our students’. We need to welcome their history into our classrooms, and use it as a resource to help them connect and engage with literacy. ‘The situated histories that can lie hidden amid discourses about cognitive learning are in fact some of the most meaningful truths about learning.’ (p. 155) The history that a student brings can not be changed, but it can be molded with new learning and experiences that will make a student proud of his history, and open possibilities for the future.

Lisa Beach

As I read about Jake I was reminded of many male students I have encountered over my career. For fifteen years I taught kindergarten and had many “Jakes” in my classroom – boys who resisted the two dimensional paper/pencil type activities that have become such a huge part of school literacy activities, even in kindergarten. I always viewed these students as my “concrete” or “kinesthetic” learners. These students, like Jake, were much more successful when working with manipulatives, blocks, puzzles and the like. I had never really thought about the home literacy experiences of children like this in the manner that Hicks describes them; as “apprenticeship learning” experiences. Looking back now, this is exactly the types of situations that these students came from. They had gone from learning by doing, building, and constructing to a more typical school discourse and it wasn’t working for them either. As Jake’s teacher stated they were also “on task; it just might not be [my] task” (p. 101). I can see why these types of students were and are resistant to typical school literacy experiences. While I tried to continue to incorporate as many of the concrete, hands-on types of activities into my lessons, the curriculum has been “pushed down” to the point that more and more of the two dimensional tasks were required. This created even more resistance in my students, and like Jake, they also began to struggle academically.

I also think that these students, like Jake, were greatly influenced by the views of other members of their families. As Hicks observes, “The stories voiced about us, by those whom we most love and value, shape our identities in ways more powerful than even the most authoritative institutional systems…” (p. 123). Just as Jake’s father asserted that Jake would take over the family business, many of my former students already had an idea for their future based on family members’ stated expectations for them. Like Jake, these students also practiced school literacies, but their family’s views of them were much more powerful in shaping their identities. School was just something they had to do.

I found Jake’s views on writing very interesting. I was also surprised to find that he was not overly excited about science, or rather writing about science. The fact that he enjoyed Writer’s Workshop so much was very telling for me. When given the option to write about a topic of his choice, Jake more freely participated in the writing activity. As educators, we need to remember this and offer students more choice in terms of writing assignments. The difference between these types of writing practices and those that are “assigned” is, according to Hicks, the possibility of “hybridity”. This hybridity allows Jake to write about things he values in his home life and still participate in a school literacy activity. This is an important concept for educators.

Creating classroom discourses that support this notion of “hybridity” is essential if we hope to reach children like Jake and Laurie. In order for us to accomplish this, “change also has to entail a moral shift, a willingness to open oneself up to the possibility of seeing those who differ from us” (p. 152). This is not an easy thing to do. I am often guilty of seeing things only from my perspective or discourse, no matter how hard I try to “see” things differently. When this happens, I fail to create a classroom in which my students feel that their home culture and discourses are valued. I have to keep working, and as Hicks so rightly observes, “This is very hard work, but work that lies at the heart of teaching” (p. 152).

Leslie Rothenberger

Hicks described Jake’s differences between his experiences at home and at school. At home Jake was free to move around whenever he pleased, doing instead of talking were common, and learning through hands-on experiences. At school Jake’s experience was quite the opposite. It became increasingly further from his experiences as he got older. Hicks explained how Jake’s kindergarten experience was a success for him. This was because he was allowed to move around as he pleased. His teacher seemed to have a positive outlook on Jake “roaming”. She stated, “He’s always on task; it just might not be your task.” I believe that this point of view should be welcomed by more teachers. Many kindergarten teachers do an excellent job at allowing their students to freely move around. This is especially important because these children are as Hicks explained, constructing connections with school on their own terms. Each year a child moves into a new grade, they need to have the opportunity to do this. We should not assume that just because a student has reached fifth grade that they do not need time to adapt and form their own connections with this new grade level.

Sega video games were a favorite past time of Jake’s. I found it interesting that Gilbert and Gilbert relate these video games to masculine discourses, which align with “power and aggression, with victory and winning, and with superiority and strength” (72). I agree that many video games such as the ones Jake enjoyed playing are marketed towards boys. It makes me wonder exactly why these games are so appealing to boys. Is it proof that this traditional male discourse is still in full swing? I believe so. I also wonder in the battle of brains versus brawn which one most parents would prefer their son to have. I would be afraid to view those results!

Jake and his father enjoyed collecting race car miniatures. It is not surprising that Jake was able to “read” the details of each car to identify the driver. Most children are able to do this with environmental print at an early age. However, I could not help but wish that more of his father’s time and energy was spent on helping him learn his ABC’s or sight words instead of NASCAR drivers and car identification. Jake’s father was a high school dropout and had little value for formal education. Jake’s mother was expressed her concern that Jake needed to learn how to read better in order to prepare him for college. My heart broke when his father stated that Jake was going to take over the family business. Why would his father be so selfish and make this decision so early for Jake? It is one thing to wish that your son would take over the family business but it is quite another to plan your child’s future and terminate the possibility of higher education. Of course Jake was happy with that idea because he disliked school so much.

To me, Jake’s outlook on school was a direct result of having difficulty developing a hybrid between his family social, and school discourses. Jake needed more freedom and connections to become successful in school. Were his teachers meeting his needs? I do not think so. I also do not think that they were doing this on purpose. When Jake’s teacher took his miniature race car away from him, she had no idea how much that tiny car meant to him. This situation makes me realize just how important it is to get to know our students and their discourses. Hicks made a statement that helped me come to a grim reality, “poor and working-class children don’t just reject our discourses; they reject us – the others whose gaze envelops them in a destructive value context.” This reminds me of just how important it is to develop relationships with my students. I know that I would not want to listen to or be critiqued by someone that I had no connection with, why should my students?

Stacy Durham

Reading chapter 5 of Reading Lives gave me a new perspective of the needs of many male students in the primary grades learning how to conform to a school discourse that does not involve the movement and choice awarded in the kindergarten classrooms. Learning about Jake’s difficult transition from a student-centered classroom into a more structured first grade curriculum where his home discourse is not recognized, illustrated how important a child’s view of school becomes when he feels disconnected from what he knows and loves best. Jake’s inability to move from his familiar language practices of home to the more unfamiliar textual practices of his first grade classroom caused him to view school as “dumb” because it did not meet his needs of video games, NASCAR racing, or his family business, in which he has already been designated as the future owner. Having never taught kindergarten, I did not realize how differently structured the classrooms are in first and second grade. I have taught second and third grade, where students have made the transition from a mobile, center-structured environment to a more traditional classroom of literacy practices that require more seat work that focus on skills and technique. His inability to “act out” his stories in first grade seemed to hinder his interest in storytelling in his writing workshop activities. If the teacher had been able to use Reader’s Theatre in the language arts block, perhaps he would have fulfilled his need for action in his classroom literacy practices. Jake and most boys in today’s culture, have a need for constant stimulation due to video games and the fast pace of most family households. The shift between their working-class home discourse and middle-class school discourse is often too difficult for our students to make and they become turned off by the demands of the classroom that do not meet their immediate needs.

How can we as teachers bridge this gap between boys who need stimulation in the classroom and the necessities of meeting the objectives of our curriculum while shaping competent students who can take standardized tests that evaluate their literacy success? When we have the ability to integrate the interests and needs of our students, we can create the hybrid student that shifts between discourses instead of separating them and ultimately choosing the one that solidifies his identity – home. The challenge is not to integrate one kind of home discourse but several in a classroom of twenty plus students. As I noted in a previous posting, I have basically three different cultures in my classroom and each have different literacy experiences in their home discourse. Fortunately, the interests of genders can usually be generalized among these different cultures and brought into the classroom to connect with many students at once. This year we talked about teen idols such as Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana that girls from all ethnicities admired, while the various boys displayed interest in soccer and video games. During independent reading and writer’s workshop, students were able to integrate their interests into the classroom where it was discussed and valued as part of their identity. (Although I must say, I was getting pretty tired of hearing about Justin Bieber and seeing his face on all the girls’ folders!)

Whether it is our male students or the females, understanding and recognizing their histories and identities in their classroom, can be crucial to building the critical literacy practices in the classroom that prepare for their success in a middle-class world.

Michelle Carlson

Kindergarten curriculum and hands on activities have historically been composed of diverse learning centers encompassing materials for real life experiences for both genders. In walking through the classrooms an observer can see kitchens with dishes, baby dolls with clothes, building blocks, cars, trucks, water tables, sand tables and science centers. However, with changes in curriculum, these centers are seen more and more in the preschool class rooms and less in the Kindergarten class rooms. The Kindergarten rooms are beginning to look more structured like the first grade and the first grade more like second. When reading about Jake in chapter 5, I began to understand more of the difficulty of his transiton from Kindergarten to grade 1. Kindergarten provided similar discourse to home and a chance to learn sharing and social interaction with a wide range of kids. Realizing that grade 1 at that time would not provide these centers, we still see that Jake had a chance to familiarize himself with school activities in K before going into grade 1. I applaud the fact that preschool still provides these wonderful centers now but not all children have the opportunity to attend preschool. Now what happens with the Jakes that will have a difficult time transitioning straight from home to a more structured K setting? Seems to me that the transition to Kindergarten from home will be even more difficult for boys especially. I know where I live, a majority of the boys live in homes where the fathers hold blue collar jobs. They have a skill. They are welders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, farmers and truck drivers. For recreation they work on old cars or go to the drag strip and sometimes enjoy Nascar. Many hunt and fish or play ball as a favorite pastime. These experiences are all part of a boy's literacy background but we as educators fail to expand on that. What type of transition activities will we offer these boys that are so adapted to the male discourse at home? No wonder our males are farther behind in literacy than the females. Transition cannot be nearly as tough for the girls. I am sure they are more used to sitting with mom and sewing or making a grocery list, talking about recipes or listening to women chat. There again, the boys are more used to traveling around with dad and are not always involved in groceries and recipes and sitting at chats. All of a sudden they are sitting at a desk and listening to most commonly, a woman talk. I am impressed that Jake was able to transition in behavior discourse from home to school but we failed miserably in the literacy department by not continuing to supply interests similar to his first learned discourse. I am sure that the kid has a valid reason in his mind that many of the school activities are dumb and he continues to get this type of negative reinforcement at home just because he is there. But are the vocations and values a male child grow up with really negative? Guess it is based on some of our school curriculum, but in the real world we see hard working men enjoying wholesome activities and teaching their sons in the only way they know how. How is that bad? Do we not want our children to grow up and work hard and be a valuable member of society? Our educational system tries to transform all children of similar and diverse discourse, male and female through the same mold. My biggest fear in education is that we are continuing along this path with more structure and harder curriculum a lot sooner for our kids. When are we going to wake up and understand that the diverse discourse of our children must be the impetus for our curriculum? Why are we taking skilled based instruction out of our school? How many years of drop out and failure do we as a nation have to endure before our eyes are opened. I am so fearful for all the Jakes out there that must survive in our educational system.

I could relate to Jake's story because I have a son who is still active at 17 and prefers to stay busy. Like Jake, my son likes constructive projects, creating or doing something worthwhile. Also like Jake, my son has a sister who is 3 years younger. He has a dark blue room, plays the drums, enjoys XBox Live with other boys all over the world, lifts weights and other male-oriented activities. His sister has a vanity in her pink room and has always loved girly things. It's interesting to think about how my husband and I added to those developing gender roles. We read all types of books, however.

It's sad to read about Jake's history as a struggling reader. With teaching practices that involve whole group reading from a basal with worksheets to follow, and silent reading time with books chosen that he cannot read, it's no wonder that Jake fell through the cracks. I would have loved to pair him with appropriately leveled books on racing, building and making things, and incorporating writing assignments on the same topics.

In 3rd grade, my son was placed in a 3/4 combination class with some very bright students. At one point he felt inadequate answering questions in class, because as he put it, "Everybody else is so fast". So one day my son's teacher allowed him to bring in all his little electric motors and mini lightbulbs to demonstrate how they worked to his classmates. The other students were very impressed with his knowledge and asked lots of questions. That really gave my son a boost of confidence among his peers.

The opposite of effective instruction seems to surface with Jake's confusion on what to do with a particular worksheet. This makes me wonder if I have ever had students to feel totally lost and unsure about a lesson. That would be one of the most horrible outcomes I could experience as a teacher. Like Jake demonstrated, I have observed struggling readers in a whole class setting "tuning out" by staring blankly or more interest is placed on items inside the student's desk.

Finding ways to keep the lines of communication open between school and home can be a challenge. I like the idea of involving family members in teaching practices and generating opportunities to learn more about student histories.

Carol Holt

Well, I didn't get very far in the reading before I came to a section that really spoke to me. "During his kindergarten year, Jake was able to move freely around the classroom, engaging in practices that were closer to those he experienced at home. In first and second grade, however, he encountered practices that were much farther removed from his experiences and values."(pg.99) For many children kindergarten is a very successful expierence because children tend to engage in learning at school in ways that mirror thier modes of learning at home. As a first grade teacher I see this type of student often. Thier not "trouble-makers" but just not interested in the activities I would like for them to engage in. It seemed with Jake that the activities he enjoyed most were the activities that he could control. For these students, I find it a very sensitive situation. It seems as I reflect back over the years that I can see a Jake in every class that I have taught. It is to fall into a battle of control with these boys, but you really have to take a step back and see the situation for what it is. Logan, my Jake this year, had a close connection with media culture. Logan's passion was video games. This was a literacy that Logan brought to the table that I had little knowledge of, but I used it to my advantage. The only way I could get him engaged in writing was to allow him to write adventure stories about the characters in his games. I allowed him to write these stories under my direct instruction of what needed to be included. This really worked for him. I'll have to admit that at first I was very apprehensive about letting him do this, but to my advantage it all worked out. Later in the year he moved his interest to animals. He was able to publish many pieces of nonfiction writing and I was happy with that. We had to use different types of texual forms to "reach" Logan, but in the end he was writing some great stuff. I had to find different ways of negotiating with Logan, but we finally found what worked for him. I think that through these different opportunities Logan experienced new identities and connected with different textual practices. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have taken the time to allow a student to have such control over our classroom expereiences, but I have learned (especially in this course) that you have to take the student as they are and use what they give you. All of these different discourses can be used as teaching tools/resources. "For Jake (or Logan) to engage with the kinds of literacy practices valued by school, he would have to see a space for the things he most valued." It is important that we understand that these students participate in two discourse communities. These kids are learning how to "do school" in first grade and for me that is very important to know. The literacy practices at home are important in understanding the history of our students as readers and writers.
It is critical for teachers not to allow these students to take the safer route: tunning out, fantasizing, resisting. We should allow time for them to move between identities,this may take place during Writer's Workshop. The overall goal would be to find ways to help Jake and others like him value literacy. I hope I can make a little difference in their lives at least to show understanding and give them the support they need in helping to bridge the gap between home and school.

Karin Scott

Jake was an interesting little fellow. I believe I have seen Jake before around my elementary school. As I read chapters 5 and 6 of Hicks book, Reading Lives, I couldn’t help but think about stereotypes, boys will be boys and the implications of the home school connection. First of all, Jakes father emulates the personality of many men from my school community. I admire the fact that they lift Jake up at home and talk about how “smart” he is and that he will be the owner of the family business. I think in their eyes that is what being successful entails. I know many contractors, builders, and electricians that never went to college but are doing just fine even in the midst of a recession. As an educator of course I realize that Jake needs to read at grade level and aspire to go to college. I want Jake to have the teachers that will foster his interest and necessity to be an active learner and provide instruction that heeds his active personality. It seemed to me that he could behave when he was highly engaged in instruction and while this takes energy, preparation and foresight to accomplish it is not an impossible task. I want Jake to be held accountable for his work and feel that he would respond positively to a teacher that understands and accepts his “blue-collar, masculinity identity.”(p.113). After all his second grade teacher figured out that he needed more movement and more choice in reading as he made great gains during that year. I feel this quote is the cornerstone for understanding the way children view circumstances they find themselves in, “the stories voiced about us, by those whom we most love and value, shape our identities in ways more powerful than even the most authoritative institutional systems of social regulation. It is up to us to us to find ways to help students negotiate the boundaries of race, class, ethnicity and gender.” (p.123). Classroom dialogue and forming relationships with students and community are extremely important to achieve this goal.
Karen S. Gold

Reading Jake's story had me questioning fairness in education. He was definitely a child who had experiences with literacy prior to beginning school. His mother and "mom mom" had read to him. Both ladies and Jake's father read at home- although for different purposes. It appears that his early childhood experiences supported academic success. However, he never seemed to make the connection between his world and school. “Like other things in his family life, reading had to make good sense to be something of value to Jake.” (Hicks 120)

Jake's lack of interest reminds me of so many of my students. How many students have entered our classrooms feeling that education was pointless? They just cannot see how education fulfills a purpose for them. I believe Jake already had begun to develop a sense of self before he started kindergarten. With his father being a strong male role model, Jake seemed to mimic much of his father's interests and activities. From what I gathered, his father had the same attitude towards life. For instance, he expected Jake to take over the family business one day.

Eight years ago, I taught a student very similar to Jake. “Davy” showed little interest in school. From the beginning, it was evident that he had built up a wall. By fourth grade, he already had decided that he wanted to own a logging business like his grandfather so he planned to drop out of school. I really tried to encourage Davy to consider pursuing a business degree for the purpose of being able to manage his future business. Because his grandfather had been able to run a logging business with little education, he believed he could do the same. Unfortunately, his mother offered little support. During a meeting with her and the EC teacher, I had expressed my concern that Davy lacked motivation and had an indifferent attitude toward education. To this day, I can still remember her exact words- “He’s always been that way.” It’s very difficult to motivate a child when his parents apparently have given up on him. Although, I recently heard that Davy had become a father in what would have been his junior year of high school, I still have faith that Davy will persevere in life. I just wish there was a program in high school that appealed to students like Davy.

In the educational world, it is difficult to bridge the gap for students like Jake and Davy. However, we must make an effort to make those real-world connections. It is not simply a matter of ideas about “‘what works’ for working-class children.” Instead, it is more about “this community, this neighborhood, this family.” (Hicks 154) More personal connections must be made; forming stereotypes and generalizations will not solve the problem. “Teaching can be reductively construed as remediation, as opposed to moral action that creatively responds to the particulars of situated histories.” What a powerful statement! We must not assume that students have a learning deficit. We must first consider who they are and what they are bringing to the classroom.

Holly Lawson

Reading about Jake and his experiences with literacy was fascinating. I was not surprised that Hicks’ relationship with Jake was not like the close relationship she developed with Laurie. My relationships with my female students are somewhat different from my relationships with my male students – I think we just relate in different ways. Jake sounds like so many of the little boys I have taught over the years, the ones whose mothers told me at the beginning of the year “He’s all boy!” They are typically very active, interested (if you find the right topic!), busy, good-natured children, but they can be difficult to keep “on task” with school literacies. It was clear that Jake had a good kindergarten experience. It sounded like he was in a classroom in which developmentally appropriate practices were encouraged. I am often concerned that, with the academics being pushed earlier and earlier by the state curriculum, our kindergarten classrooms are beginning to look more like little first grades – mine included! In Jake’s kindergarten and second grade classrooms, it seemed that he had the opportunity to learn naturally, and to build on his strengths – in our school’s multiple intelligences magnet, he would be known as “logic smart.” In that situation, he thrived, and saw himself as successful. It seems to me that the teacher in first grade should have built on those strengths; however, they seemed to try to fit him into the school mold rather than fitting the school literacy to Jake’s needs. In an ideal world all teachers would have the time and resources to build on the interests and intelligences of the students. In the real world, though, with full classrooms of children with diverse backgrounds and different needs, it is a daunting task to plan the instruction for each child based on his/her interests.

It was interesting to me that Jake had such a literate home, even though his father didn’t graduate from high school. I would have thought, with his father’s reading interests, that he would have encouraged Jake in his school endeavors; however, that did not seem to be the case. In fact, he didn’t seem to feel the need for Jake to work towards a college education – he seemed to take the attitude that he himself had done just fine without one, so why would Jake need one? Although his father did not seem to agree, Hicks states “Jake and students like him must gain access to school literacies if they are to succeed in school and in the workforce.” (p. 132) I agree with that statement for the most part, but I don’t think every student is cut out for a college career. I think that, for some students, learning a trade – carpentry, welding, etc. – might be the best idea. I do think that knowing how to read and how to express oneself on paper is an important skill, even for someone learning a trade, and I would think that Jake’s dad would encourage him in that endeavor.

As I finished reading these chapters, I thought that Deborah Hicks hit the nail on the head when she said “Teaching is in these ways a process of reading – of immersing oneself in the particulars of students’ lived realities and of creating new histories of practice with students.” (p. 153) However, as she went on to note, “Some understanding of the particulars of community life seems crucial. This is not so much a set of general theories about “what works” for working-class children. Rather, it is an effort to learn about this community, this neighborhood, this family.” (p. 154) After reading the articles and the book we have used for this course, I know that I need to plan to spend more time listening to students and their parents, both informally and formally, as I get to know my class for next year...a daunting task, as I mentioned earlier, but one that I feel is important if I am to be the teacher I want to be.

Marlee Wright

Reading about Jake, I was thinking about so many boys that I have had in my own classroom. I recall many conferences with parents where they claim, “But he’s an excellent reader at home!” Jake’s story gave me insight as to what might be happening at home vs. school in innumerable homes across the nation.

Jake appears to be a typical boy, who idolizes his father and learns from experience, especially by making mistakes. He’s very active and takes interest in primarily masculine activities. The literacy activities he takes part in at home involve informative reading and constructive action, things that are “real” to him. He has difficulty making the connection to many of the books that are available to him in school.

This discrepancy between home and school is understandable, yet it negatively influenced Jake’s motivation towards school. Students are going to take more of an interest in things that are relevant to what is happening in their lives. As Iris Murdoch states, “I can only choose within the world I can see…” (p. 151) That is why it is our job as teachers to get to know our students and know what drives them. I wish that Jake’s first grade teacher had introduced him to books that might interest him. I do think that you can learn a lot from a student by reading their writing. Jake’s writing in particular, and the fact that he was always engaged at writing center should have been a clue to the teacher that Jake felt constricted in other activities and excelled in that center because it was the least restrictive.

Like we read earlier in the Delpit/Dowdy article, in chapter 6 Hicks also admits to wanting to slough off her girlhood discourse, in order to be an academic and pursue a life of psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. But then she realizes the importance of those young experiences and the relationships that shaped her. Jake should be entitled to embrace his own interests and cultural background, instead of being “good” and conforming to his teacher’s expectations of what is right. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t behave. We all KNOW how important good behavior is to learning. I just think Jake’s strengths and interests, such as writing or NASCAR, can be turned into learning opportunities instead of ignored.

-- Carrie Brown

While reading about Jake in Chapter 5, what stuck out the most to me was the need to provide work and readings that have a purpose. I’ve heard this so often in many of my Reading Education classes, but I appreciated the real life example of Jake to showcase why purpose is so important. As with Laurie, it broke my heart to read about Jake’s struggles as he made his way through first and second grade. I can understand how activities like finding hidden words and story maps would seem pointless to a boy like Jake who has been raised in an environment in which reading was a seamless part of everyday life, not something you stopped and analyzed piece by piece. A lot of the classroom practices that Jake balked at are practices that I have witnessed in most of my peers’ classrooms, and I know I have used some of them in my own. Although I know that I can identify a purpose to all of the activities I’m performing in my classroom, I realize now that the purpose may not always be clear to my students. I wonder how many of them have been resistant to work because, like Jake, they thought “It’s stupid.” I find myself, in this respect, lumped with Jake’s first-grade teacher Mrs. Rhodes, and I am hoping to get myself out of this position. As with most other steps towards becoming a more effective educator, this will take time. Perhaps if Mrs. Rhodes had taken the time to explain the purposes behind her assigned activities, Jake would have been more engaged in them. When in Mrs. Williams’s second-grade class, Jake continued to struggle with having no purpose for classroom activities such as writing sentences with weekly spelling words. He was thriving, however, at home where he was accompanying his dad on repair jobs. Hicks wrote:
“At home, he continued to be a brilliant young apprentice learner. In the classroom, he increasingly began resisting the values that defined being a successful student.” (p.120)

If we could manage to treat our students as apprentices, learning by acting and doing, instead of our audience, learning by watching, we would have less situations like Jake’s where they lose interest because it has no purpose for them. How to get to that point is a long process, but simple things like providing more hands-on activities and allowing more freedom of choice when selecting writing topics and books will send us in the right direction.

The biggest connection I noticed between Laurie and Jake was that both of them struggled after kindergarten due to a lack of differentiation. As the anthologies became increasingly difficult in the second half of first grade, Jake struggled because he had not yet solidified his emergent reader skills. Hicks noted that Jake needed more time to focus on these skills before being pushed on to more difficult ones. Jake’s mother questioned why it mattered if he was reading at a different pace than his classmates… as long as he was reading, why not let him read on his level? I agree with her wholeheartedly. That is another concept that has been emphasized in this Reading Education program: students will not learn if they are being taught at a high level that will cause frustration for them. That knowledge needs to be kept in the minds of all teachers as they split off from the standardized text and begin to plan readings for students to meet their individual needs.

Andrea Schlobohm

While reading chapters 5 and 6, I took particular notice of how Jake was only engaged in activities in school that he did not deem “stupid” or “dumb.” Whether or not they were “stupid” depended on if viewed them as having any real life value, or if it applied at all to the things he was interested in in his life at home, outside of school. Hicks comments several times that during whole class activities, Jake usually sat the furthest away from the teacher, near the back of the class on the rug, and only participated minimally. Yet, when there was a reading about the construction of a skyscraper, Jake was “alert and engaged.” He even raised his hand to volunteer information about his dad being a heating and air conditioning repairman. I feel as though once Jake’s teachers saw how interested and involved Jake became when there was a reading that engaged him, they could have worked to find more like it. We as teachers are always saying that children tend to learn better when the things we are teaching them are things that they can apply and relate to their lives in the real world and aren’t just abstract and arbitrary concepts. Jake didn’t see any point in learning some of the things in school because he knew what was important to him at home, so he only put forth an effort when he saw “the point” of doing it, or when he saw how it related to the life he knew outside of school.

In the discussion of chapters 3 and 4, the idea that maybe being the “good student” might be a gender trait was brought up. However, although the majority of those good students we see are “good girls,” as demonstrated by Jake, it isn’t strictly a female trait. As Hicks states, Jake also learned how to “do school” (p. 113). He learned that he needed to follow those ABC rules to earn the student of the week award. He created a hybrid identity for himself, because at home, he would let out his full lion roar and throw tantrums when he got angry or frustrated. Despite the fact that he learned how to meet the behavior expectations of his first and second grade teachers, it was clear he did better in Kindergarten, where there was less forced structure and he was allowed to “roam” to the centers that most interested him. Once he entered first and second grade, the increasingly restricting boundaries that were so unlike his life at home, started to make him resent school and the work that came with it.

So, yet again, here is another reason why it is important for teachers to get to know their students, their families and their lives outside of school. It may seem like a lot of work, but in the end, if it helps a child learn, isn’t it worth it?

Kim Strzelecki

I feel as though I have had several Jake’s in my class before. In fact one student and his brother, who I had two years later, were both nearly obsessed with NASCAR. This past school year each of our five kindergarten classes had 15 boys each…what an eye opening daily adventure! Typically kindergarten is more of a “hands-on” year than first or second grades. I believe children benefit greatly by actively participating and being engaged through more than more modality during lessons rather than passive participation. Don’t we all learn and retain more by doing? Our students are no different.

Jake’s home life and admiration for his father appear to be the main method by which he acquires new literacy knowledge. Like Hicks and Jake’s teachers, I too hate to see students become more and more disengaged and disconnected from school. Using the word “dumb” and telling his family he “didn’t like school” are not unheard of or that uncommon for struggling students. However it is one of the constant challenges of our job as teachers to really get to the root of that anger and find out exactly what factors are contributing to the child’s situation. Often the reasons are not clear cut or easy to fix, much like Jake there can be a deeply embedded discourse conflict at the foundation of the issue. As Hicks discusses in chapter six, it is vital for teachers to not make generalizations concerning the discourse students and their families represent but much more important and significant “to learn about this community, this neighborhood, this family” (p154). I am reminded again by these two chapters of the immense importance to truly and fully know my students- their families, their interests, their likes/dislikes, and basically what makes them tick as individuals in order to most effectively help them learn.

Ruth Ann Timmons

The discourses one involves himself in is not entirely due to the language used but the functions of that language in social relationships. We perform in dialogue in order to communicate with others – to establish our identity among others. Therefore, it becomes apparent why gender, race, and class affects one’s ability to grow and attain literacy education within a middle-class educational system, especially when we are first nurtured in these discourses by our living and actions at home with family that embodies us with love and empowerment. Though we are made to be individuals, we begin to define ourselves in relation to those around us and our personal commitments. No wonder children struggle when they first enter the school community. It’s because they are leaving an intimate relationship at home to be mixed within a limiting environment where already developed identities are conflicted with the expectations of school. School even alters the social setting one is allowed to partake in. Such became evident with Jake as he longed for environment that gave him choice and freedom to explore his interests. It’s ironic how Jake’s dad, a high school dropout, knew the reason for Jake’s conflictions and dislocation within school. He suggested that school needed to create an engaging environment that tapped into the interests of students in order to make a connection to literacy learning within the educational setting. I can’t help but think that his dad’s opinion and voice ring true because of the experiences and dislocations he felt with in the school setting. There is a need for schools to make changes in the way they deliver instruction, especially if we want them to experience a sense of belonging and security like the one felt at home.

For me, glimmers of hope began to shed upon Jake’s struggles as he found interest in writing and some of the second grade reading. This was only the result of the opportunity for Jake to write about anything he wanted. Through this, connections between school and home were beginning as he wrote about Nascar, trips, and his dad. As the structure and dynamics of the classroom changed and moved from less freedom of choice and exploratory methods, Jake’s conflictions and opposing feelings became more evident, especially as he acted out. The structure in school was new and unfamiliar, and he wanted to go with something that was more safe and familiar, which was his mode of learning and interacting at home in hands-on roles.

The role of gender in Jake’s view of school became obvious with the influences and expectations of his parents. Despite his mother’s voice promoting reading in order to achieve college, he ultimately listened to the voice of his father who felt he should take over the family business instead. These views show how voices shape an individual’s identity. Though two voices gave Jake two different identities, he decided to embrace the one from the person he admired the most – his dad. Perhaps, Jake saw himself becoming his dad as he grew older, especially with his father affirming that Jake was just like he was in school and also declaring that school wasn’t meeting his needs in the means best fit for his son. At home, sitting and talking and reading was associated with the female’s roles; therefore, when he was expected to do this at school, he felt conflict as it went against his identity of the male role of doing.

The story of Jake suggests that education needs to step up and do a better job at meeting the needs of each student. We have to make connections from home to school. Though kindergarten most closely resembled the hands-on exploratory learner completed at home, a transition needs to be made to carefully intertwine home within school in the upper grades. The goal shouldn’t be to establish differences and set perimeters that make home and school separate. Instead, educators must find a way to infuse home within education so students will be more open and successful within the classroom. Thus confirming the need for teachers to know who their students are beyond school, and a great way to accustom ourselves with their interests in order to tie it into their learning is to deliver simple interest surveys. By doing this, we aren’t forcing them to distract themselves because they are frustrated with the mode of instruction, which is similar to the episode of Jake playing with a car on his desk during instruction. He was doing so because his interest in Nascar gave him an outlet to avoid dealing with something unfamiliar and opposite to the identity he had incurred at home. Our role as a teacher needs to focus on building the relationship between our working-class students, or any student for that matter, in order reach and effectively educate them. Wondering the “what if’s” in Jake’s situation, what if Jake’s teacher would have been male? Would there been a difference in how he reacted towards the teacher and the tasks delivered by the male teacher? Would the modes of instruction shifted more towards the needs of Jake’s? These questions leave me suggesting that Jake would have most definitely embraced the school community differently, possibly being more accepting of it as his idea of the male gender role shifted to include teaching and the skills it required. One of the shortfalls of primary education is the lack of male teachers. Because we know gender roles affect how a person perceives things, offering a male influence within the classroom would change how our students view school and how they are taught as they are taught from the discourses presented by a male teacher.

Melissa Riley