RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

I was reminded of the importance of qualitative research as I read this article. We miss out on so many of the details when we only look at the numbers.

As I read the first part of this article it made me think about how so many teachers don’t realize the opportunities that we are missing out on with our minority students. And for the ones that do realize it, they don’t know what to do to help these students. During my undergrad my professors stressed having multicultural literature available in the classroom. However, we never really discussed how to reach the students that are depicted in these stories and the struggles that these students may have in school.

Although, I do feel that university programs need to have a component that addresses and helps develop strategies, as well as, gives prospective teachers an opportunity to volunteer in schools to specifically work with minority students, I also feel that individual schools need to take a role in helping teachers help their students find their voice. Through workshops and resources the schools can help teachers develop lessons that are geared towards the specific cultures in their school. Schools are so focused on the test and workshops geared towards improving test scores, instead of realizing that direct needs of their students and teachers.

So often we scare kids away from writing and sharing their ideas because they didn’t write it correctly or say it correctly. If instead we would pick topics that interest them or that they can relate to (which may mean having more than one topic that you are discussing at once) and pay attention to the content and power of what they are trying to say we would have students that were eager to write and talk which would lead to greater success. I think Kay’s statement about writing reflects what many of our students think about writing and joining in during discussions: “If I’m in the mood, I’ll write good; if I’m not, I’ll just write anything. If the topics are good, I’ll concentrate and write.” I also loved what Henry said about how she decided not to look at the mechanics of the students writing but the actual writing itself: Thus, I ignored “errors,” particularly in the writing of Alice and Kay, working rather from my assumptions, based on current research literature, that fluency, control of syntax, writing skills, and self-expressivity would be increased through the use of personally engaging and culturally responsive literature and activities with specific themes for girls of this age; and that the use of group talk and journal writing would enhance language and thinking skills (Golden & Handloff, 1993; Pappas et al., 1995; Staton, 1989; Tierney, 1990). We become so tied up in the mechanics that we often miss the message of our students writing.

Amy Spade