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

I found this book an interesting but difficult read. I found the podcast extremely helpful but I still had to read the text twice. The difficulty of the text really made me think about how kids are able or not able to interrupt text that we ask them to read. This text was difficult for me because of my lack of exposure and experience with research. I think that more often than we know it kids in our classes have these same struggles.
It was definitely thought provoking and made me wonder about things I hadn’t really thought about before. .

Thinking about discourse and how many discourses even a young child has is mind boggling to me. I have always known that many of my children home lives are often different than their school lives but I never really thought about it being a struggle or how much of an impact it can have on literacy. Is there a way we can ease this transition or has it just become a fact of life?

Hicks comment about preschool really hit home for me since I teach the little ones right now. She said, “ It’s not just the children’s preschool engagements with written text per se that make a difference once they enter school, nor even their engagements with stories and other types of oral literacies. Rather it is the entire cultural web- a cat’s cradle, if you will-of language practices and identities that so importantly has an impact on school learning, including literacy learning.” As a teacher it really made me think about my goals. One of my main goals each year is to introduce my kids to the world of literature. Many of them are not read to or have had limited exposure to a vast amount of exphttp://blogs.rcoe.appstate.edu/admin/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=120#eriences. I work to create these experiences, expand vocabulary and build a love for literature. Hicks comment made me think through is that really enough? We know that our parents have the most influence on our children and what they know, however sometimes this influence is not a positive one, for instance with Sean and Terry. It was obvious that somewhere in their home environment they were learning language practices and identities that are less than ideal. At school I find myself trying to “resculpt” these kid’s experiences. But can I really do that? And based on what Hicks has said should I? Or am I just creating another discourse for them?

Amy Spade