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

I liked how Hicks artfully connected memoirs of others to her own stories, and then led into Laurie's history. She points out that all children come to be readers in a specific location (class, race) and with specific people. It is those relationships and how children choose to react that determines literacy.

For Frame and for Hicks, living and reading came together. For Laurie, however, this doesn't seem to be the case. Even though Hicks considered school to be work, reading didn't have to be work because it fueled her imagination. Laurie had a close relationship with her mother and chose "domesticity" over academics. Romance was a real possibility to her. For Hicks, she had some of the same influences and experiences as Laurie, but reacted differently. She took the academic route. Wow!! The child's choice and reaction changes everything. How can we as teachers affect this choice??

I underlined the quote on page 50: Girls' identities are shaped by "their love for their mothers, their mothers' desires... and social class standing." My mother is not a college grad. I always thought of her as not very smart. I always wanted to get As in school and prove to her that I could be successful in ways I thought she was not. How much of my overachievement is tied to my relationship with her? Could I have been unsuccessful in literacy had I made different choices? Do I look down on Laurie for her desire to be like her mother?

I think this chapter needs another good reading for me to absorb the possible implications for my life.

Ashley Catlett

I enjoyed hearing Hicks’ reflection of her literacy experience as well as the stories of other working class girls. It is interesting to hear how much family influenced the reading lives of each person. It certainly made me reflect on my own experience. It seems I learned to read despite my family.

Growing up in rural Maine, hard work and independence is what mattered. I quickly learned to stack cord wood faster than my brothers and never to complain about my frozen fingers and toes. At home, my mom read dirty novels and we watched TV.

I can remember getting my first book at the school book fair in the second grade. It was called Benjamin and the Big Woods. I bought it with my own money and I read it every night for a year. I guess it must have helped me become a decent reader though, because in third grade, I was placed in the Blue Bird reading group. I loved reading the stories in our anthology where I found a whole new world into which I could escape! I also made a friend from a “rich” neighborhood. I loved visiting her house and was amazed to see magazines on the coffee table and shelves filled with books. Her mom smelled good, dressed pretty, and read “real” books. My friend gave me her hand-me-down clothes and her Nancy Drew books and I knew that I wanted to be just like her.

Although my literacy experience came from friends and school, the values I learned from my family, hard work and independence definitely helped me to achieve my goals. Eventually I became the first person in my family to get a college education. Looking back, I’m thankful for the people and the books that helped shape my thinking.

I know it’s important for me to remember that my students come from a variety of backgrounds. Some have lots of experience with literacy while others are just now getting their first taste. How exciting that I get an opportunity to introduce them to a whole new world!

Jayne Thompson

I made many connections within this chapter. I also grew up in a small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and went shopping in Asheville. (Does anyone know where Deborah Hicks is from?) While I didn't grow up going to Vacation Bible School every summer, my children did and I taught every year. It was a tradition and why wouldn't you go to VBS? I grew up in an area where race, class and gender, were important. You didn't talk about it, but there were "hidden rules" and you knew to follow them.What you wore on the first day of school determined the rest of the school year.
I traveled as a child extensively, without ever leaving home- my books were my escape. I was able to go anywhere or be anything I wanted to. If I wasn't doing chores on the farm, I was reading. While my parents weren't avid readers, they did read and knew the importance of it. I remember entire summers when the TV was unplugged and we turned loose outside to play. I usually ended up in my "fort", a special place in the woods. But my favorite place to read was in the barn. I would find a "nook" in the hay bales up in the loft, put an old moving blanket down and read until I heard mom ring the dinner bell.
What I found very interesting was how much of this chapter was like my own experiences, but I had never realized it until reading these chapters. I guess I never spent any time thinking about, reflecting on being a child in a rural working class environment. It's just the way it was!
SuSu Watson

I really enjoyed reading this chapter, I don’t know if it is because I share the same feelings of respect for the women in my family as Jane Miller, bell hooks, and Janet Frame. At the beginning of the chapter, Jane Miller wrote about the early attachments children have with their caretakers: “It is surely within those first conversations, those shared sightings and naming that the specificity, the material detail and concrete knowing of the world are learned as values within an actual, evolving culture” (page 37). This quote made me think about a chapter I read in Adolescent Literacy Instruction: Policies and Promising Practices edited by Jill Lewis and Gary Moorman. The authors of the chapter are David W. Moore and Karen A. Onofrey. I am reading this book for one of my other classes, and we actually discussed the chapter this week. The title of the chapter is “Fostering Literate Academic Indentities During the First Days of School”, within the text the authors define their ideas of what an identity is, and more specifically literate identities. I think the authors’ ideas/definition of the term “identity” are similar to the text we are reading in this class, it may be more like a combination of the terms discourses and identities. The reason the quote by Miller made me think about the chapter on fostering literate identities for students, is because Miller mentioned the importance of the first conversations between a caretaker and their child, and Moore and Onofrey mention the importance of creating an environment that fosters the literate identities of students within the first few days of school. I feel there is a connection between Miller’s feelings about the important connection that is made by a child and caretaker within the first “conversations and shared sightings” and Moore and Onofrey’s idea of the important connections teachers make on the first day.

Miller, hooks, and Frame described their identities or students identities outside of school and how they affected their experience with literature. In the text Miller argued: “Literacy learning is part of these histories, not something that children do as a cognitive task divorced from their lives”(page 37). I want to share some of the ideas in the chapter by Moore and Onofrey from Adolescent Literacy Instruction: Policies and Promising Practices so we can create cognitive tasks that ARE NOT divorced from students lives that help them develop literacy identities. (An identity that would be similar to Frame’s literacy identity she described in Reading Lives)

Moore and Onofrey suggested several instructional activities that would help students identify or develop an identity that relates to literature in school. These suggestions have the biggest impact when they are implemented the first days of school, I picked the two that I thought would be neat to use with students that are similar to those we read about in Reading Lives:

1. Literacy Resumes- “have students brainstorm all literary experiences from their early school years to present, considering all their actions inside and outside school as readers and writers...compiling such information helps students analyze their identities in general and their academically literate identities in particular” (Moore, Onofrey page 291).
2. Shoebox Autobiographies- “place minimal demands on the content of the boxes. Students fill a shoebox with objects or artifacts that best represent them as readers and writers. Shoebox autobiographies create opportunities for you to make personal connections with students and welcome them into a classroom community where multiple forms of reading and writing are valued”.

I have tried to connect two pieces of literature and provide suggestions of how to connect students identities outside school to the identity they are responsible for having in school, in fact I have tried to identify two activities that would help students develop hybrid identities that link their home life and school.

At first when I started reading this chapter I wonder what it had to do with Hick's research. I found the memoirs interesting but wasn't sure of their purpose. It wasn't until I was further in the chapter that I realized she was giving us background knowledge of what it would and could be like to be a working class girl. Once I read Laurie's story I appreciated these "references" and how they related to Laurie. It also made me think about how important it can be for our students that we help them develop background knowledge, especially when learning about an unfamiliar topic. This obviously empowers them as a reader and can help them read through more difficult text.

As I read I couldn't help but reflect on my life as a young girl and how it influenced me in school. I grew up in a house where material things, even books were scarce. Unless it was a necessity we didn't have it. I don't remember seeing anyone read and I never remember going to the library. Our life was very hectic and we were always moving. I would assume that is why I do not remember reading being something I valued. In school reading wasn't extremely difficult but it wasn't easy either. I really had to pay attention to learn but as long as I did I got it. Thinking about this made me think about my students and why some of them seem less motivated than others. If they haven’t been brought up to value learning and other circumstances at home make it almost impossible for their parents to even have time or the resources to put food on the table then why would our kids come to school wanting to learn or caring about learning?

As I finished the chapter I started to wonder how Hick's relationship with Laurie may have impacted her research. Hicks addresses this some but I am still unsure of how her research might have turned out differently if someone else had tutored Laurie and she hadn't taken her under her wing.

Amy Spade

"Literacy learning is part of these histories, not something that children do as a cognitive task divorced from their lives" (pg. 37).

How many of us have stopped to think about each of our students as having a personal history? And, even more sobering, that not only do they each have a history, but WE are part of that history? As their teachers, we play such a huge role in shaping their literacy futures by being a part of their literacy pasts. I know we all realize how important the role of teacher truly is, but I had never thought of it as being involved in the students' literacy histories.

I, too, really related to the introduction about growing up in the Bible Belt. While it was not as rural as growing up in the mountains, I grew up in a suburb of Columbia, SC for the majority of my life. However, I did spend 6 years in Florida, and I'm thinking now, how much did those 6 years shape my literacy? I was out of the South, into an entirely new "culture" for someone who was in the formative stages of life (ages 5-10). When I think about the personal literacy histories, it is very interesting to me how we can never pinpoint exactly what it was in our histories that may have caused something. It's the collective that has shaped us. I can't say for sure that being away from my home state for 6 years definitely caused me to act this way, but the collective of events that happened from day 1 of my life to age 26 has shaped me in ways I cannot specify.

I really enjoyed reading the histories of both Janet Frame and bell hooks. I wish that I had the time and know-how to be able to listen to the histories of everyone I've ever met. One of the biggest things I've learned since I've started my master's program is just how much the early years of reading (or not reading) impacts the rest of a person's life. I'm really starting to believe that it may just be one of the biggest indicators of how someone acts and how they live the rest of their life. And once again, it hits me that as "literacy supervisors" in the schools, we have a daunting task ahead of us.

Christy Rivers

"Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
As I read chapter three this week I floated between two worlds. The world I was reading about and my own childhood histories. Every few sentences, Deborah Hicks related a scenario or memory that I connected with and was transported back in time immediately to my youth. I stress building connection with my students as they enter a novel, yet this connection was different. I was knit to the experiences shared this week. "We never engage in cultural practices as sponges, simply appropriating cultural meanings or being positioned in power relations. Rather, learning also entails small, and at times imperceptible, moments of shading, valuing, and imaginative reconstruction. Those small moments and histories are as critical to a theory of learning as what we might descibe as socialization or positioning in discourses." WOW! I am the result of a long series of small moments that may have appeared insignificant to others, but now have constructed my outlook and beliefs about learning and life. I remember distinctly the stern Italian voice of my third grade teacher who called my handwriting chicken scratch in front of the entire class. I remember the shame and emabarrassment that lasted for such a long time, I would practice my handwriting endlessly in secret to avoid a situation as unpleasant as that encounter. I remember the same teacher's klip klop of ther Italian leather slide shoes as they approached my desk unsure if I would be the recipient of praise or condemnation. These are just a few of the particulars of my narrative that have shaped my life and the teacher I have become. I think almost effortlessly we translate these small moments into vows of what we will and won't repeat or become. We are not only teaching the reading of books in our classrooms, but the reading of lives, of situations, of behaviors. What we do expose our students to in books contributes to their histoy, such as this book is contributing to mine. We are fluidly taking what we read in a book and inserting it into our individual narratives or personal histories. They are stored in there waiting for a moment to escape onto a page as a fictional piece, poem, reflection, or conversation topic. That is the moment our histories are knit together in shared experiences, ideas, and thoughts. These are the stones we are bringing that contribute to the city of language. We are operating in a construction zone, each one of us assisting in the assembling of something bigger and greater than we are, yet our individual histories form its foundation.
Stefoni Shaw

Throughout the book thus far, I have personally connected with Hicks. In this chapter, she talks about her “Bible Belt” raisin’. Like her, I was reared in an environment where being bad would spiral into a world of sin, and inevitably Hell. Also, like Bell Hooks mentioned in her memoir, I had a personal struggle with my want to form a new identity, while at the same time my need to still fit in. I realized from a pretty young age that I wanted “bigger” things. I wanted to explore, and find out about the world through my own experiences. It was not that my parents specifically discouraged this, but my “church” environment (specifically) did not promote it. Even today, it is more common for a rural southern woman in her early twenties to be married with children than not. This is one cultural norm that I believe distinguishes southern women from those above the Mason Dixon. It is not that I think that these women are making poor choices, but I don’t think that it should be considered “abnormal” that a woman who is 25 is not married.

Janet Frame’s writing regarding her childhood experiences with literature also reminded me of myself. In an attempt to live beyond the world around me, I chose adventure and fantasy stories that I placed myself in. Growing up in a home with three other female siblings, it was not difficult to find others to share these experiences with. Looking back, it seems as if our summers were full of all kinds of adventures--archeological digs for treasure, princesses trapped in the woods forced to survive on our own, pirates on a magnificent river (really, just a small creek that ran through the woods behind our house), and gymnasts, bike riders, and dancers performing at the Olympics.

Before taking this course, and reading Hooks’ book, I never really considered the effect of my childhood literacy practices on the outcome of my life. Now, I can also see how my experiences also affect my teaching. One quote at the end of the chapter summarizes this: “We read students’ lives in ways that draw on our own histories as learners.” I can clearly see how my literacy experiences from my youth are reflected in my teaching practices. How I learned and experiences best is how I expect my kids to. I really enjoyed this chapter, and I look forward to reading the remainder of the book.

Heather Coe

I was immediately drawn into this chapter. The scene Hicks describes of time spent in Vacation Bible School could be one borrowed from my own life. Few are my childhood memories that are not situated around church. While I credit my parents’ diligence to provide a language-rich home environment as the key to my readiness for school, I must admit that many of my first experiences with reading and writing were in a Sunday School classroom. I can remember learning Bible verses printed on large posters for my classmates and me to read together. I loved each Sunday School paper adorned with cotton ball clouds. I was intrigued with the flannelgraph board and the colorful figures that told “…the old, old story—of Jesus and His love.”

Hicks states, “My teachers in Vacation Bible School were formative others, too, but their gaze, their touch did not have the special meaning of someone whose connection with me involved a loving value context.” When I read this statement I was immediately saddened. Although there are similarities between Hicks’s girlhood church experience and mine, I cannot relate to her conclusion. This stark difference between us is probably not just the result of differences in what we were taught but in how we were socialized in this discourse. As I evaluate how Hicks and I could arrive at points so opposite of one another, I realize the uniqueness of my discourse and hers. Although similar, they are not the same and cannot be the same by virtue of how our identities have been shaped. I am not just the product of a religious system. Hicks asserts, “Such are the histories of knowing and knowers. We never engage in cultural experiences as sponges, simply appropriating cultural meanings or being positioned in power relations. Rather, learning also entails small and at times imperceptible, moments of shading, valuing, and imaginative reconstruction” (p. 36).

It is the knowledge that my experience can be so different from Hicks’s that reminds me that I must truly read the lives of my students. I can read my students like a book—or can I? I can make predictions, anticipate twists, discover themes, and even read between the lines. But can I really know all that has shaped that book? I must make a decision to read each one individually and not to assume if I have read one I have read them all. Even if my students and I share similar backgrounds and interests, it is important for me to remember the individuality of discourse. I need to work on my own reading skills. Reading lives may be the hardest of all literacies to develop.

Lisa Rasey

Like several people have already mentioned, this chapter instantly caught my attention because it neatly fit into the summary and outline of my own life. I was the little girl living in the Bible Belt Southeast coloring pictures of Jesus at Bible School. I can relate to the idea of being a "good girl" and if not, rotting in the place where sinners go. I never realized how this played into my life or into my literacy.

Thinking about the Bible Belt made me consider my own history with literacy and reading. As a preacher's daughter, I read the Bible most nights during the week. The first words I was able to fingerpoint read where most likely those from a memorized verse of the King James Version, like John 3:16 or John 11:35. If I wasn't reading from the Bible, I was listening to someone else read from it or a bible story book. Also, my dad would actually ask questions after Bible Story to check our understanding. He would actually level his questions so that the same story would produce a more difficult question for my older sisters and the easiest question for my younger sister. Although all of this sounds like history now and a menial part of my childhood, I can't help but consider that it probably had much to do with my success in reading early in my education.

I was able to gain oral literacy and practice comprehension questions. Also, the reading was familiar and pertinent to my own life and socialization. I was very aware of the ideas and characters in bible stories. Therefore, I began to successfully comprehend even difficult text. I would compare this to a child reading a certain series of books in school. If a child reads Frog and Toad books, he becomes more and more familiar with patterns in text, events, and characters. This same continuity showed in my own literacy.

All of this discussion of reading, literacy, and socialization made me really consider how each of my students are impacted by their surroundings and social situations. What types of situations do my students come from? What have they been socialized to believe or think? How has their surrounding impacted their literacy?

Brittany Guy

I must say that I rather enjoyed reading this chapter by Hicks. I made so many connections to my own working-class girlhood as I delved deeper into the reading. In my childhood reading and imagining were intertwined so intricately with real life I was sometimes confused to where life and literature began and ended. I was the child that loved to read more than anything else, and that love has followed me into my adulthood. My parents surrounded me with books, fiction and non-fiction and they read to me religiously every night. However, it wasn't until I was in the 1st grade where I was a proud member of "the eagles" reading group that my teacher taught me and the rest of the group how to "go inside" of a book and become the characters. I was already connecting with the characters, but now I was getting lost within countless books. I would still be "inside" a story long after I finished reading it. Thank God my sister shared my love of reading and imagining because I remember making her re-enact countless storylines with me. We would go outside and play for hours pretending that we were some fictional character from mine (or her) latest book. Sometimes we would be lucky enough to convince our friends to play along with us. Unlike Hicks etc., I did not use reading to escape from lifeI saw reading as a way to make my life more vivid. I had a pretty awesome childhood and often in my imaginitive reenactments I incorportated elements from my own life into the story that I'd read. As an adult, not so much, but if I am reading I've been told that you have to call my name 5 or 6 times before I come back into the physical world and answer you.

I wish that all of my students could experience the love that I have for reading. For me, making connections is the part of reading that shapes our world. I try so hard to convey this during read alouds and I am seeing definite progress in my student's reader response journals. A few of my students are actually doing more than just reading for comprehension. They are interacting with the characters and relating to the characters on a much higher level. I will continue to share the joy of reading with my students throughout these last 48 days left in school.
Cherrita Hayden-McMillan

I am really starting to get into this writing. It is not so much that I can personally relate to it, as many of you have been able to. I grew up in a busy city with many luxuries not afforded to most children. We had 5 acres of land, a swimming pool, mini bikes and go-carts. No,I was very fortunate in that regard and never saw my parents worry over money. I think the way I am relating to this though is through my father. My father's mother was a sharecropper from South Carolina. She had a 4th grade education and paranoia schitzophrenia. My father was the oldest out of 6 children and after their father left and their abusive stepfather began to control his mother, he became the sole provider. The stories he shared were so vivid, so incredible. He would talk about their factory house with the bathroom on the back porch and how some days it was so cold, he would try not to use the bathroom till he got to school. He told me about working at UNC-CH selling peanuts so that he could buy lunch for his brother's and sisters when he was only 9 years old. And he told me of the fun he had in Monkey Bottom, the nickname for the little park where all of the "poor" kids hung out. He would make bamboo whistles and crawl through the drain pipes under the baseball field. I can't believe that even now, I can so vividly recall him telling us these stories. I even recall wishing that I had grown up poor because the family worked together to survive and my dad had so much more fun than I did.
For me, this really seems to be a common theme throughout this chapter. The fact that imagination becomes the main way to escape the reality and hardship of life. Hicks talks about "pegasus" and how she use to imagine seeing and riding off into the sunset, something very similar to what Laurie says. A number of the authors have written about imagining that they were a princess who was treated with royalty and doted on. This imagination is to me, what fuels a creative mind. Perhaps, this creativity and imagination in fanciful notions created a need for many of these authors to get their ideas down or to thirst for more stories fitting this mold.
For me, the stories my father told me have always stuck in my mind. Now that I think about it, I realize that a lot of the things I write reflect his hardships in life. I have never really written about "happy" events. I write lots of poetry about hardship and social injustice. My father was labeled as "Durham's first hippie" because people thought he was simply rebellious. They didn't know that he actually couldn't afford a haricut or had to wear clothes until patches would no longer hold. He shared these stories with us and moved my heart and led me to try and be a voice, an activist, for the little people that are often forgotten.
Whitney Gilbert

On a side note.......
Another interesting thing is, that even though my father was never very studious, my first memories of reading are with him. He use to take me to the grocery store and have me sound out food labels! I think he always just wanted a better life for us and he busted his butt to make sure we didn't grow up like he had to and that we had every opportunity out there.

As I was reading this chapter, I couldn't help but think how it relates to me personally. Both hooks and Frame talk about reading can be an escape and a pleasure. As I think about my reading past, I realize this couldn't be more true. Reading has always be an escape for me. No matter how difficult my day has been, I know I can always crawl into a good book a night.

I can relate to Frame and her way of sharing her identity with her mother through poetry. My father has always been a lover of books. As long as I can remember, he has had bookshelves covering all his walls. Some books are so old the pages have turned yellow. Most books are of US history. Every once in a while when I am searching through them, he surprises me by having a fiction book.

Wherever we go, there is always a book in his hand. When I was little, I wanted to be just like him. I always went with him to the bookstores with him. Even before I could read well, I remember buying "thick" books just to impress him. To this day, that seems to be one thing we can always talk about. When the conversation starts to slow, we always ask each other what we have been reading. I can now see that my bookshelves are growing each year. In part, this is how I identify myself. And when I read a book my father has read before, I always think about what he was thinking when he read it. What did he feel at this part, or what did he wonder at that part? My father and I have never been close, but books have connected us to each other.

I try to think about how I can teach this to my students. Reading aloud to my students is my favorite part of the teaching day. I try to show them how entertaining books can be. but now I realize I need to show them more. I need to tell them how reading has effected me. Students need to know the power of books. But more importantly, they need to know that reading is a very enjoyable thing. So often I get caught up in the progress my students are making. I continually push for more vocabulary knowledge and decoding skills. So it was nice to read this chapter and think about the big picture. Why are they learning to read? Do they know why they are learning to read?

Sarah Feinman

Laurie's perceptions of her own power seem to be what caused her to fail or succeed in the school setting. When she felt dominant and flirtatious with boys, she felt good about herself. When she went on meds, she felt bad about herself. When she was praised for being an obedient girl, she felt good, but when her mom's fiance didn't work out, she felt bad. Laurie felt in control when things were going according to her storybook discourse. This is the power of stories, Hicks writes, "they assume moral weight and influence in the context of our histories." (page 85)

I found three things of special note. First, we have to teach girls that it is okay to be feminie and smart. It is okay to mess up sometimes. It is also okay, even desirable, not to be so docile and mothering. I don't think I ever felt conflicting feelings about this, but I was acculturated to be a people pleaser and an obedient student. Second, Laurie was called a disabled reader in a "context that defined reading according to grade level expectations." She was not on grade level and that automatically made her disabled. I think this is where high stakes testing is taking us. All the kids have to be on the same level or there is a problem with them or with us. Third, on page 96 Hicks says that what teachers and schools perceive to be a lag in development might just be a "manifestation of a complicated web of class-specific relations." How hard it is for middle class teachers to identify problems related to a lower socio-economic class!! I see this with several of my students. A parent is in jail, the mom is stressed, and there is no support at home. Clothing and food needs are met but only basically. Life does not seem fair. The student cannot concentrate due to these issues. Could you concentrate? So we label him a disabled reader and try to get him on meds. What he really needs is some counseling on how to handle all these family issues.

This chapter made me so sad for the thousands of kids who live stories similar to Laurie's. I think we can do something about it by fostering relationships with students and by exploring diverse literature combined with class discussions. I think it also helps to tell the kids outright, "This is how middle class white people make schools. It doesn't look like your home life but you can learn to negotiate this system until the playing field is level."

Ashley Catlett

(I love doctors, don't get me wrong. But this seemed like a good quote for this post....)

This chapter was difficult for me to read. I struggled with two issues.

One issue that really stood out for me was the difference in Laurie's academic progress from kindergarten to first grade. She was doing well in kindergarten, and then faltered in first grade. Hicks talks a lot about the use of center time in kindergarten. In fact, there are several episodes in which students are working together in small groups. And yet, when she is in first grade, there is no mention of small groups. Most of Laurie's academic schooling in whole group or independent. How can this be? And it seems as though there was no mention of differentiated instruction, until she moved onto second grade where she was "placed" in a program. In my experience a balanced literacy program MUST have differentiated instruction. You need to teach kids where they are at, not where they SHOULD be. And just because this first grade teacher was experienced does not mean she was meeting the needs the of Laurie. I don't think she was. Most of the activities I do with my students are differentiated. I have small groups for everything. The only teaching that I do that is whole class is TDR, which is mandated by the district. Spelling, math, reading, writing, science and social studies are all small group. I really struggled with this. Of course Laurie was able to look like she was understanding. How could the teacher really know with a whole class to watch?

The other issue was the diagnosis of Laurie's ADD. As teachers, we all know. We know that kids act differently while on meds. In my experience I have met ONE student that truly had ADD. And, granted, I know I am not a doctor. But misbehavior does not mean they have a hard time paying attention or that they have a disorder. I had one student who I jokingly called Mr. Hyde. He was rotten when he wasn't on meds. But he was bright. His creativity and problem solving skills were astounding. But that only happened on the days mom forgot to give him his meds. When he had his meds, he was a zombie. I didn't recognize him. I could always tell if he had taken his meds by the look in his eyes. If he had taken them, his eyes were typically half closed. He rarely spoke and tired out easily. He didn't care about school work or friends. It was horrible watching it. I even told mom that I thought he was being over medicated. And her response was that she couldn't handle him when he wasn't on meds. (!) This whole ADD, ADHD thing has gotten out of control. During a SAT meeting I watched as a social worker told a parent which doctor to go to because that doctor was sure to diagnose ADD. WHAT?! I don't feel that Laurie had ADD. I think she had a difficult upbringing and it put extra stress on her. I do not see that as a disorder.
Sarah Feinman

"Where I grew up, learning was a collective activity. But when I got to school and tried to share learning with other students that was called cheating. The curriculum sent the clear message to me that learning was a highly individualistic, almost secretive, endeavor. My working class experience . . . was disparaged." ~ Henry A Giroux, Border Crossings

I think without realizing it I began teaching quite blindly. I grew up in a privledged home - I have no doubt about it. School seemed to be a continuation of the values that I learned at home. I fit in perfectly. I knew that I was expected to listen, complete my assignments, and come home to finish my homework each day. When I got home either my mom or dad would be there. they would continue to instill the importance of school by either asking me to start my homework (my dad) or actually sitting down to study with me (my mom). Both of my parents worked hard but they always talked to my brother and I about how important school should be to us. Going to college was always something that I knew would happen. By the time I got to high school everything I did was focused on getting ready for college. Unlike Laurie I never felt that I had to 'deal' with my home life. I do realize that I learned to be the 'good student'. I yearned to be the student that the teacher asked to take notes to other teachers or run errands for them. I also wanted to get the best grades because I noticed that teachers loved that in a student. A student that seemed to learn from them and learn well was their favorite kind of studnet. I think these experiences actually made me quite naive about how my classroom would be. My first month of teaching kindergarten was quite interesting. I realized quickly that my students' experiences were quite different from my own and that expecting them to know what I knew as I started school was unfair. Over time and with the help of my AMAZING assistant I learned to negotiate my way through the year. By the middle of the year I had learned to appreciate what my students' had to offer and began to differentiate instruction because of the vast literacy experiences in my room. Kindergarten is one of the hardest places at times because it is in kindergarten that you realize how vast the differences in students can be - you can tell which have had rich literacy experiences and which have not. However, no matter what they all still need those same experiences with their teachers.

I think the hardest part for me when I began to collect my own data was keeping my teaching me seperate from my research me. I see that same struggle with Hicks. From the first moments of thinking about my dissertation, I feared that struggle. As a teaching and more specifically as a teacher of reading, it is SO SO SO hard not to step in and work with a student when I notice their struggles. However, as soon as I step in whether to offer advice or actually teach a student, I change my entire research project. I think Hicks probably had to think carefully about how her research would change as soon as she began to help Laurie. I am glad she decided to step in because for a little bit at the beginning of the chapter I was getting angry. I kept thinking about how easy it would be to offer a little additional support while she was there but then I realized that her observations would change completely as soon as she did so. Feeling this struggle between observer and participant obeserver is hard but it has led me to see that I would be more comfortable in an action research format where I could actually implement change and watch how it works. Yet, I feel it's important to have experiences where you watch and learn because it helps you to see what is really happening and allows you to learn more about the learning process and what teachers can do to change it.

My last comments relate to the quote that I chose - Laurie excelled when she could interact with others in the learning process. She was able to learn and engage in learning when it was collection effort. However, once she left kindergarten much of the learning was focused on the individual. I see this happening quite often in the upper grades. Little group work is conducted because it is too hard to organize or kids don't work well together or, and this is my favorite, it is just too noisy. BUT group work has such value and importance. Sure, the first few times it is done, it will be messy and louder than usually. BUT the more the studnets try it, the more we fine tune it, the better it gets. Once students learn that there are expectations for group work, their work will improve and they can learn quite alot in the process. My undergrads are terrified of doing group work because they don't see it in their classrooms and their teachers tell them it doesn't work - or "this group just can't work together". Once I finally get my undergrads to give it a try, they wind up loving it and they begin to see that their students can do it. THey learn how to monitor, how to guide expectations and how to teach their students to listen and learn from one another. Yes, it is messy and loud but shouldn't all teaching and learning be a little messy and loud.

Amie Snow

As a child I looked forward to watching cartoons every Saturday morning. Although I enjoyed Looney Toons, I absolutely loved Schoolhouse Rock and the Fractured Fairy Tales segment that was a part of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I am not sure if I was drawn to Fractured Fairy Tales because I have such an odd sense of humor or because I had already figured out that fairy tales only existed in books.

While I read this chapter, I considered what shapes our ideas of femininity and life. I realize the power of stories and literature, even for the very youngest of all. I had not considered how much fairy tales and even modern stories for little girls indoctrinate the youngest of women as to what life should be like until my first daughter was born. My husband, who grew up on a steady diet of science fiction and had never read a classic fairy tale before, could not get over the recurring theme of the princess in despair who would be saved by her valiant prince. We have often debated what constitutes a good book for our girls. While I think there is a place for fairy tales and happily ever afters, I do wonder how much of this literature sets young girls up for disappointment and internal struggles when their lives do not measure up to this learned discourse. Hicks mentioned that Laurie’s mother read to her nightly from the packs that were sent home. I am sure those packs contained books with a variety of themes. But I wonder what else was read to Laurie. Yes, reading provides a way of escape from reality but reading also helps shape reality.

Hicks said, “What Laurie seemed to want in school was a sense of belonging that was made more difficult by her academic vulnerability” (p. 95). If home did not live up to fairy tale status and school was a struggle too, what was Laurie to think? Was something wrong with her? Why wouldn’t her prince come to rescue her? In our efforts to meet learning goals and comply with program mandates are we actually leaving the child behind? Although there are some kindergarten students who struggle with separation anxiety, most K5 entrants are excited to become part of this new world. So what happens to those expectations? The harshness of classroom reality may stand in the way of learning for some students. One size does not fit all in education. By failing to provide differentiated instruction, we create an environment that only meets the needs of some of our students. It may be that faulty classroom practices may serve to fracture fragile lives even more. While no child really lives a fairy tale, there are certainly some that seem to have a fairy godmother and others who seem to be banished to the dungeon. I may not be a prince, but I am a teacher. And for some girls, a supportive “in tune” teacher may do more to change a life than any glass slipper.

Lisa Rasey

This may be the most haunting chapter to me this semester. I believe I have met Laurie. She went by another name, yet her story remains the same. My heart hurt as I read line after line the history of a young girl longing for stability, acceptance, praise, and ultimately love. Her life was a pendulum, swinging from hope to despair depending on the scenarios playing out at home. School was a convenient place to reside, figuring out the codes to manuever praise and encouragement from those in authority. She wore the good girl mask in front of her teachers, yet her peers' perceptiveness noticed the areas in which Laurie lacked finesse. I was always drawn to these children in my schooling. I wanted to love them and include them in my world, though flawed, it was still closer to what they longed for. These friendships went well for awhile. We would have sleepovers at my house, trips to our church, and rainy Saturdays inside my room playing Barbies and school. Ultimately, the lure of my comfortable life became a wedge more than a bond. It was too difficult for my Laurie friends to leave my safe harbor and return to the stormy seas of their homes.
Now, as an adult and educator, I am still drawn to Laurie. It mainly plays out in my classroom, where the students who play "good" appear to be moments away from complete unraveling. While my demographic at FCDS is not the working class rather the upper class, the same familial struggles remain. Fractured families with working mothers trying to hold it all together while raising a family. My school may have children blessed with the material things, yet their souls crave the intangilbes.
As I read this chapter, I want to schedule an appointment with her first and second grade teachers and relate to them the importance of differentiated learning, investing in the lives of their students. I was disheartened to read accounts of the teachers who recognize some of Laurie's struggles, yet still maintained an arm's distance from her. So much could have changed with the investment of time on the teacher's behalf. Laurie was sitting there, silently calling out, "pick me, show me how, do you care about me?"
"Children's histories are so readily reduced to simplistic theories and equally simplistic solutions. The paths to creating negotiated movements between cultures and classes are, however, never simple-never reducible to a single method of teaching or theory of learning. Such moments of teaching require the hard work of seeking to understand the realities of children's lives and to respond in ways that extend from those contextualized understandings." p. 96 When the teachers of the Lauries fail to engage in this hard work of seeking to comprehend the lives of these students, we send the message that they cannot be rescued. They then begin to hang their hope on the dream that one day their prince will come.

This chapter really bothered me. I wanted to jump into the book, find Laurie and help her. I am worried about how a child goes from doing well in kindergarten to falling behind in first grade to being placed in second grade. True, kindergarten was a half day, and not as "demanding" but what made first grade so much difficult? Laurie loved the writing center in kindergarten but ending up writing "I like..." sentences later. Were teaching styles different? Why didn't Laurie get help when she first began to fall behind in first grade? I have a new principal, and he this year he implemented a strong push with Aims Web with kindergarten through second grade. I teach third grade and many of my colleagues and those in grades above have been complaining about the manpower and hours that this has been taking, saying we are the tested grades we need the help. I remind them that if children have a strong foundation then we will be able to teach them what we are supposed to and won't have to spend time on remediation. To me building this strong foundation makes perfect sense. Perhaps if Laurie had been tagged when she was first starting to struggle, inverventions could have been made and she might have had a different story to tell.

SuSu Watson

As I read I could not help think about how quick we are labeling kids because they don’t fit into the ‘box’ that is mandated by the adults around them. Is Laurie disabled, ADD or is she just at a different developmental stage than her peers? Not to mention facing issues that not even adults handle well but especially the adults in her life.

This chapter made me sad and angry. To see all that Laurie was going through at home, school, and then with being labeled and the affects the medicine was having on her was heart breaking. Her Kindergarten year was a successful year until she was put on medicine. What bothered me most about the medicine was that behaviors did not sound atypical for a five year old; it was that the adults in her life expected her to act older than she was. Unfortunately, I think this happens with so many kids. I wish there was a medical way to diagnose ADD and ADHD, other than having a teacher, parent, and doctor filling out a questionnaire.

As Laurie entered first grade and everything seemed to go down hill from there I couldn’t help but think about how many kids fall between the cracks so early on. I feel that many teachers are teaching using differentiated instruction now; however the teachers that are not and are only teaching to the middle of the road child and are hindering not only the kids below grade level but also the kids above grade level. So how do we convince teachers that by teach mainly whole group and to your average child that they are not reaching at least 1/3 to ½ of their class? Laurie, like many of our kids that were below grade level, was considered disabled because she couldn’t keep up. How was she supposed to keep up? It was obvious through her cheating and “distractedness” that she wasn’t ready for the material and the teaching style used did not meet her needs. So I can’t help but wonder was she disabled or was she at a different developmental stage than her “average” peers?

Amy Spade

This week’s reading was a bit frustrating for me as I believe it was for many others. Reading the story of Laurie was maddening because it is difficult to read about a child’s problems and the type of education received without being able to actually enter the story and change the child’s life. Reading the disheartening story without being able to alter it in any way is similar to living in a dream and wanting to scream without being able to do so.

It is quite troublesome first that Laurie was very successful in Kindergarten and early education but quickly problems emerged in first grade. Her personality and social abilities also seemed to change through this time span. The author explains that she was outspoken and even downright brassy while in kindergarten. She had a better identity at this point.

Then, the author talks about her femininity at this young age. This was interesting to me because I wouldn’t have thought to investigate a student’s femininity at the age of 5 or 6. However, after learning more about Laurie and her situation, I can see that she did exhibit actions of traditional female roles. This might encourage me to look closer at even young children, as conditioning and social ideas can be apparent at these ages.

Overall, all of the information about Laurie seemed to remind me that these children are all around us. We have all seen children suddenly drop in skills, whether social, educational, or mental. I have seen children who struggle to simply fit-in and whose social skills impact their academic performance. On the other hand, I have also watched students struggle academically. They have become frustrated to the point of no longer trying for fear that their peers will realize they struggle. A student would sometimes rather appear to make bad grades because “they don’t care” than to have trouble with the content. I just hope that I can always handle these situations in a way that will assist the student in improving skills in all areas of their life. I hope that I can be better prepared to deal with situations than what was sometimes done in Laurie’s situation.

Brittany Guy

Laurie's story was a gripping one to me. Deborah Hicks clearly spent a lot of time thinking about this little girl and became invested in learning about her development. I guess the one thing that puzzled me as I was reading was Laurie's diagnosis of ADD. Now, I am no expert in this disorder and only know as much as what was taught briefly in my undergraduate education classes, but it did not seem that Laurie had this disorder. I totally agreed with Hicks when she stated, "...I also believe that what has been marked is not her inability to focus, but her response to stressful material and emotional practices" (pg. 66). Nothing that was described to me in her history showed an inability to focus. Laurie just seemed to be burdened by the forces of her home life and was acting out in ways her teachers couldn't understand. I don't want to get into a big ADD debate, because I know that this is a HUGE issue in schools today, but it seems that in many cases, children are misdiagnosed as having ADD when the problem really lies elsewhere. It seems that this was the case here, and Laurie suffered needlessly from that misdiagnosis. Her medication hurt her school performance and changed her behavior from an outgoing, "brassy" child to a sullen and sulky one. It hurts me to think about how many children have had this happen to them, and how their outcome might have been different if they had gotten the right kind of help. I'm sure it made Hicks feel helpless, seeing as how she could see what was going on with Laurie but she had to be the unbiased researcher just watching it all happen. I sometimes feel that way in my own classroom. I have a student right now who comes to school physically, but is never there mentally. He sits in my classroom with eyes glazed over and an absent, yet angry look in his face. He does no work and is failing my freshman English class. When I called his father to talk about it, he blamed it on his medication, which is also what the student blamed it on.

I also found it interesting how Hicks talked about anger. On page 65, she writes, "Angry feelings and actions were expressed in ways that were sometimes uncomfortable for me as an observer. Having grown up in a rural southern setting, I was used to norms of restraint. If angry emotions were voiced in strong ways, they would not have been voiced, in my girlhood experiences, by women." I think I would have felt uncomfortable as well if I were watching these outbursts of anger that were apparently commonplace in this household. Just like Hicks, anger was never something I saw from my southern born-and-bred mother and grandmother, especially my grandmother. She is the epitome of Southern, and I can't say that I have ever heard her raise her voice in anger. My mother was a little better about showing anger, but then again, I watched her raise myself and my brother :) But the common theme is that we never show anger in public, whereas Laurie clearly was taught that it was okay, or perhaps her stressors at home caused her to forget the boundaries of society?

The interaction between Hicks and Laurie on pages 95-96 were quite moving. After researching her for 3 years, I bet it would be hard for Hicks not to learn to love this young girl. I wonder where Laurie is now and how she turned out?

Christy Rivers

and it will be my job as a teacher to create and provide that space.

In the past weeks, I posted about how I thought Hicks relationship with Laurie would have an affect on the type of research she gathered. Meaning that her relationship with Laurie probably altered her collections or findings. But, after this chapter I find myself wondering how any person who cares about children could not step into to help this child. I was so frustrated! I am a firm believer about placing students on a level, or giving them work that they can experience success. To me, the instruction for Laurie was no different in first grade or second grade, other than the proclamation from the teacher that she was changing and adapting a curriculum to serve the needs of all students. Did anyone read about a way that she changed instruction to fit Laurie’s needs?

I was not surprised to read about Laurie challenging the teachers, I find myself challenging the situation or others when I feel that I cannot do things correctly or “do anything right” in others eyes. Early in the chapter Hicks states: “Children knew well when adults were tired or annoyed” and Laurie knew what her teachers thought about her progress and level of academic achievement. But, there was no need for Laurie to feel this way. She experienced success when Hicks stepped in: “I began collecting books that I thought more appropriate matches to Laurie’s reading abilities, bringing these with me for each visit I brought enticing writing paper and some “artists’ crayons…I wanted to help her regain the confidence we had seen in Kindergarten” (Hicks 72). Why did her teacher not TRULY want to see this, I have a hard time believing that if that wanted to see this in Laurie, they could have done it. I am making an assumption, but I think Hicks would willingly share the things that she did to help Laurie “regain the confidence”. We read about how she regained the confidence, and the progress she made: “doing these one-on-one sessions at home, Laurie seemed enthusiastic and confident as a reader and writer”.

This chapter was just frustrating, but it also motivated me to strive to allow all children to experience success. It is reality that not all children with be pleasant to work with, but I feel that it will be my job to enable children to succeed.

Elizabeth Griffin

The story of Laurie’s literacy history was a very interesting account (frustrating at times). Throughout the passage, I could several of my own students through Laurie’s brief early biography. One of the initial aspects that stuck out in my mind was the mentioning of children’s “frustration levels.” Although the author made a point that she did not want to blame Laurie’s problems on the “institution,” I think that too often children are turned off from reading and writing because they are simply frustrated. Currently, I am taking a course in the reading department. One of the key things that is often mentioned is the importance of not frustrating our children—even if they are reading far below grade level, meet them where they are at. Honestly, I was always a “natural reader;” therefore, I never experienced as much frustration as Laurie probably did. However, while preparing to take the GRE (and during the test, itself), there were several instances where I was definitely “insecure” with my abilities. This, in turn, caused me to rush through certain areas of the test.
Another excerpt that really stood out to me (one that I see on a weekly basis with seventh graders) was Laurie’s experience with ADD. She said that she felt “powerful” before her diagnosis but not as much afterward. For some reason, students (and their parents) associate certain “conditions” with lower level intelligence and thinking. Not only do they believe this about ADD, but also the dreaded “EC” label. We probably have an IEP meeting weekly. Some of them are updates, but some of them are to discuss the possibility of a new child being considered for the EC program. I would say that 90 percent of the time, parents are twice as resistant to this as students. They do not see it as beneficial to their children, but rather a way for their children to stand out from all of the others (and not in a good way).
Children with ADD (and their parents) also struggle with medication issues. Should they or shouldn’t they? Honestly, I can’t say that I agree with one side or the other. Some children are successful with medication, but others (like Laurie in Kindergarten) struggle with the side effects of these medicines. I do not think that parents should be forced (or coerced) by a school to put their child on medication (yes, I know of a situation where this happened). Yes, these kids can sometimes be a nuisance in class, but I do not believe that they should be forced to take foreign substances.
Finally, an area of the story that I personally connected to was Laurie’s comment in second grade regarding her role as caretaker for her siblings—that she was “too old for her age.” Although I did not feel this way as young as Laurie, I completely understand what it is like to mature very quickly. My mother died at the age of 39 with inoperable brain cancer. I have two younger sisters who were only 12 and 14 when she passed. Not only did I have to help take care of my mother, but I also felt the added responsibility of helping with my younger sisters. I grew up very quickly. This affected my literacy history (even though I was 17 when she died). Therefore, I can only imagine how Laurie’s life was affected by her situation.

Heather Coe

This was a gut wrenching chapter to read. Laurie struggled both at home and at school as a result of questionable decisions made by the adults in her life. I recognize that “hindsight is twenty-twenty,” but I wonder if this story could have had a happier ending if people had made better choices along the way.

At first glance, Laurie seems to have had a great kindergarten year. She loved school, was a leader among her peers and seemed to do well. Although her academic struggles didn’t appear until first grade, it made me wonder about the foundations built in Kindergarten. I’m not sure what year this study took place, but it sounds like the whole language era where instruction is more by osmosis than intention. The whole language approach works for students who are natural readers, but not for those who struggle. So, I wonder if Laurie had received a more structured curriculum where the students learned the sound symbol relationships if she would have had a more success later? Or perhaps at least her weaknesses would have been identified earlier?

Laurie’s social and academic problems became apparent in first grade. Again, I question the teaching method at the time. Laurie needed instruction at her level and in a small group, but instead she got lost in whole group instruction. I’m sure this had a lot to do with the changes in her behavior. However, instead of addressing the real problem, they diagnosed her with ADD and gave her medication. I wonder how her mom and grandmother felt about this at the time. Did they agree? Did they simply trust that the teachers knew best?

I really felt for her young, overwhelmed mom. I’m sure she believed that she was making the best decisions possible at the time. And I think that she was doing the best she could, but I wanted to jump in and give her some parenting tips. I wonder if Hicks tried to advise her. I bet she found it hard not to! She clearly became attached to this sweet little girl. It must be difficult to try to be an objective researcher without getting emotionally involved. I sense that she didn’t agree with the ADD diagnosis. I’m thankful that she tried to help her by tutoring her and spending quality time with her.

I imagine at the time, that all of the adults involved had Laurie’s best interest at heart. But we’ve learned about better teaching practices from years of research. Looking back, it seems to me that Laurie was a struggling reader who would have benefited from intentional, foundational instruction. This certainly wouldn’t have solved all of the problems this little girl faced, but I believe that it would have made a positive difference.

Jayne Thompson

As I read Laurie's story I was so frustrated and saddened, not only because of what she went through but because I encounter students like Laurie everyday. I have two "Laurie's" in my class. I am sure this in not uncommon among other 3rd grade classes. "Something" just happens between 2nd and 3rd grade. Students that used to be successful in kindergarten through 2nd grade are suddenly struggling to find their place in the classroom.

After the 1st quarter of school I usually pull cumulative folders and copy the writing samples from the previous year and I compare them as the school year progresses. It is always interesting to see some students stop being good creative writers as they get caught up in the conventions and mechanics of writing vs. just telling a good story. I see some of my students get less interested in reading as they are expected to read more. There is always an underlying factor for this change in academic performance, and all too often it happens because of the disconnect.

I wish there was a fool proof plan for all the Laurie's in the world. Better parenting for them, more supportive and pro-active teachers for them, no more misdiagnosis of behaviors or lack thereof, and instruction that is still packed with rigor but paced for mastery. It has been my experience that once a student starts falling through the crack you have to grab them anywhere you can so that they don't fall completely. It seems that once they have completely fallen there is no coming back. From there the achievement gap just grows and grows from year to year.
Cherrita Hayden-McMillan

This chapter was absolutely heartbreaking to me, mainly because I wonder how many students in my school are going through the exact same thing. This little girl had so much promise in kindergarten. She was confident, bright, and performing on grade level but then it all seemed to go down hill. Hicks makes a good point about Laurie getting lost through the reading program, which I think all of us as teachers can agree happens. That is why we now do leveled reading. But unfortunately, Laurie wasn't exposed to that. The fact that Hicks could bring out the confident little girl who loved reading and writing from first grade in their study sessions shows that Laurie was indeed capable, but that she wasn't confident and secure in school which caused her to read, write, and try less.

Another issue I have is with the ADHD. I too think it is over diagnosed. I know we are reading about girls, but I had a a little boy in kindergarten that I absolutely loved! Sure, he was a bit dramatic, overactive, and quirky. But, we learned how to manage this energy and use it for learning. By the end of kindergarten, he was reading on a 3rd grade level!! He sailed through the book Thundercake without a single problem. Now, I am teaching second grade. He since has been diagnosed with ADHD and medicated and he is not the same little boy I knew. He is still bright, but not pushing the limits like he was. He is quiet, reserved, and obssesses over tiny things all day. I feel like a part of him was taken. I think a part of Laurie was taken. That spunky nature that gave her the confidence she needed in a life where she had so little of a voice was robbed from her, leaving her questioning her own ability. I wonder to myself, if I had been growing up during the ADHD fab years, if I would not have been medicated and if I had been, would I be where I am today?

Children like Laurie, and there are unfortunately are so many of them, have to face more struggles as a child than most face in their entire lives. She often assumed the role of a mother, since this was her reality at home. She more than likely worried over the stresses facing her caretakers, something which alotted her little time to be a child discovering the world of school. The fact that she considered herself as acting "old" in the second grade shows how much Laurie was dealing with internally. Not only did she acknowledge the fact that she was taking on responsibilities far beyond her years, she resened having to do so. Unfortunately, this seems to be more the norm, babies having babies. Now, I understand that sometimes things happen, but I see 21year olds everyday with 3 or 4 children. They have these children, then decide that they want to go back and do things right by getting an education. This often times leaves so many children living such stressful lives that they don't have the ability to focus on education and being a child.

I hate to see children like Laurie fall to the wayside. It just really breaks my heart, and unfortunately, it is something I have to see and experience everyday. We need to find a way to take care of these children and help them to balance their life the best they can. I try to do this in my class, but sometimes it just seems like their are so many children living in unbelievable circumstances, that I can't combat them all. It frustrates me because I know that they are capable of so much, but how do I help them regain their confidence and buy back into learning when they have to think and deal with their own situations and emotions?
Whitney Gilbert

But why? Jake appeared to have background knowledge and prior experiences that the teacher could help him link the text to, so did that happen, where the successful? I would really like to know. Based on the comment Hicks makes at the end of the chapter, I feel that Hicks may have thought the efforts may not have been effective/successful because she states: “His problems lay more in conflicts between an institutional system of middle-class practices and the life worlds he embraced as a boy”. Is she saying she feels that these worlds are so extreme that they cannot be linked to the curriculum? Based on the chapters we have read, I would think that she would not feel that way but I was a bit confused as to where exactly she stands. What through me for a loop as well, was that Hicks either did not see the need to help Jake (like she did with Laurie by providing additional instruction in a one-on-one setting). What is the difference? Hicks states: “Laurie’s’ even more troubling experiences in primary school have made mea cutely aware of how much schools need to change if students such as Laurie and Jake are to experience the sense of belonging in school …” Maybe she felt Laurie’s discourse would cause more trouble for her in school, than Jakes will because with his discourse comes MANY supportive family members.

In the beginning of the chapter we read about Jake’s story, and learned about his discourse. I was able to compare a few things to Laurie’s experience in the classroom, but I continue to find myself thinking “but why” as I read about Jake’s experience in the classroom (just as I did with Laurie’s). From last week’s critiques and comments about Laurie’s discourse and relationship with education, I understand that there is a frustration from educators when students’ needs aren’t addressed, and I understand and acknowledge the efforts that are made to meet these needs.

I have always felt that once you understand the reasoning behind a situation, setting, or event, you can begin to adjust and change that setting if it is fit for changing. It is very discouraging to me when Hicks states the following: “To make space for Jake’s primary values in school would mean opening up the curriculum to the forms of knowledge voiced by working men like his father. The classist nature of schools and society at large pretty much guarantees that won’t happen”. WOW. Because of the comment above, and the reflection of Jake's experience in a classroom led by an “accomplished teacher”, I feel that students like Jake are expected to hold their breath and see how long they can hold it before letting go. There are “courageous educators” that step back and see the changes that CAN be made to meet the needs of students, who are in systems like these. I respect the courageous educators! (I’m sure it is hard to do, but well worth it!) But what is the big picture of the educational system, is it to make sure students meet short term objectives that will lead to a long term objective of application of the skills they have learned? Or is just on the short term objectives in each classroom. I think the key is working together as a system so students experience a "hybrid space" across the curriculum and across the grade levels that addresses those objectives.

Elizabeth Griffin

As I read about Jake, I thought about our paper-pencil school system. Jake was more interested in action and the three dimensional world. The REAL world. The whole goal of education should be for us to prepare kids for the real world, but we continue in the same old system. Jake did well when he was able to work at his own pace and not have to stay seated all day.

I found it so nurturing the way Jake was included in his family and allowed to work with his dad. He was allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Action for men was "an important part of knowing" in Jake's family but also in working class values. Action led to learning. For men in the upper class and middle class, books and schooling are more valued. How can we ask children to abandon their family values and become the kinds of students who sit and write and read all day?

The action continued even in the way that Jake narrated a story. Hicks states that the way he told the NASCAR story was "evocative of his use of Sega controls." His narrator self was close to his character self, which is not school-like, when the narrator is outside the story. His kind of story and his interests and needs would not be met in the basals used in his school. Poor Jake just needed more time and more connections between his home and school life. Can't you just hear Dr. Morris getting upset about basals and bad pacing??

The challenge we are left with is how to place home identities "in dialogue with new (school) ones."

Ashley Catlett

As I woman, I see very little entertainment in watching a bunch of cars go around a circle. I also know enough to keep my views to myself. My late father in law, lived and breathed NASCAR. He loved to go the the races with my husband. I even went along one time to the track in North Wilkesboro. I remember is was loud and confusing, I never knew who was in the lead,and the best part was the food. However, as a teacher I believe we need to reach all children, and if takes NASCAR to reach the boys, why not? There are multiple ways to involve it in the classroom.
I can see why Jake did so well in kindergarten but then had trouble with first and second grade. The paper and pencil and sitting down to complete tasks did not fit his needs. That is one area I have worked on in my own classroom this year. Students are up out of their desks several times throughout the day and I have incoporated centers into my third grade classroom. I think the students enjoy the way the day seems to "fly by".
What I really want to know is what Jake's parents are like? I agree children and adults learn best from their mistakes, but I never let my children put their hands on a hot stove! Or risk getting hit by a ball.
This chapter is a good reminder, that studnets need to develop at their own pace. I was impressed with the amount that Jake was able to improve in second grade by selecting his own texts. Our required reading, the basils, does not reach every child, and we need to make sure we supplement our teaching so that every childs needs are met.
SuSu Watson

As I read about Jake I can’t help but think how fortunate he is to have such a loving family and supportive family. They seemed to be extremely involved and in tune with his interest and needs. Not only did they embrace his natural interest but they also embraced the importance of literacy. I loved that they had so much literature in their home and that Jake was getting those pre-reading skills that so many children do not. There are so many kids that are not so fortunate, not just in working class families but also in middle and upper class families, to have parents that have an invested interest in their child and take the time to do so much with their children.

What ever happened to recognizing that children have different learning styles? Every child can not fit into a one size fits all approach and typically boys are the ones that work outside of the box. They need engaging, hands on, purposeful lessons to keep them motivated and interested in learning. Otherwise, what can we expect to happen to them as they go through what they feel is mundane activities year after year. No wonder Jake’s dad dropped out of school in ninth grade. I know that just like kids having different learning styles that teachers also have different teaching styles. That is why it is our responsibility to match up kids with the right teacher and to higher teachers that are wiling to teach in a variety of ways, to meet every child’s needs. It was obvious that Jake’s first grade teacher was exactly the opposite of what he needed and then in second grade she was a much better fit. It sounded to me that they were somewhat displeased that Jake did not catch up with his peers in second grade. Whose fault was that though? He didn’t choose to be placed in a traditional first grade classroom.

I was just having a conversation the other day about how high school strives to prepare all kids for college, but what if this isn’t your track or your desire in life. Not everyone desires to go to college and there are plenty of jobs out there that require more hands on training versus a degree to get the job. So why aren’t we preparing those kids for the track that they feel drawn to? Why isn’t the guidance counselor meeting with them like he/she does with the college track kids to help prepare them for life?

Amy Spade

I've always been attracted to how authors use language to share their ideas, their thoughts. Whenever I read any book, although I read mostly children's books, I have a stack of sticky notes besides me so that I can write down and mark the quotes that stand out to me. Sometimes I choose them for their meaning, sometimes I choose them because I'm so envious of the author's ability to write so beautifully. So, with that in mind I chose a few quotes from this chapter that seemed to make crucial points about the literacy curriculum in our schools.

The Most Important for Me
pg. 123 - The stories voiced about us, by those who we love most and value, shape our identities in ways more powerful than even the most authoritative institutional systems of social regulation.

This quote seems to align perfectly with all that we have discussed this semester. Our students are defined by their families first. Who they are and how they became that person began at home and those home values/cultures have to be valued and respected in the classroom. By doing this we can then build a curriculum that meets the educational needs as well as the interest of our students. When Jake could write and read about topics of interest to him, he had success and enjoyed going to school. When Jake found meaning in his work, he was able to create and accomplish finished products that his teacher could appreciate. Hicks writes, "Rather than giving up the cherished identities they live at home, students like Jake should be able to place those identities in dialogue with new ones". It is in accepting who our students are that we can begin to help them discover who they hope to become. For me, our job is to show them the possibilities, provide them with the tools and knowledge they will need, and offer support as they work toward their goals. However, we must also remember that they carry with them the values of their family and those values will remain a part of them long after they leave our classroom. Finding a way to connect their literacy development to their home experiences can go a long way in helping them grow as readers and learners.

I think I wrote about the painted wall art in my house that reads, Home is Where your Story Begins, but I think it fits perfectly again in this entry. It is where we learn how to communicate, where we learn how to feel, where we learn how to know our world. We have to keep that in mind as we teach our students or we will be unable to give them what they need to become successful learners.

Amie Snow

As I read this chapter, I kept thinking of the book in which my title is named after (written by Michael Smith and Jeffrey Willheim). It is a look into the literacy lives of adolescent and teenage boys--how many schools don't cater to what boys need after high school and they don't show the relevance to everyday life. While this thought is not entirely related to Jake's story, it is something I couldn't shake out of my head. I thought of this book as I read about Jake throughout this chapter. I related to Jake's story as a teacher because he is the type of boy I teach everyday, only I teach older Jakes.

What happens to boys like Jake between the primary years and the high school years is crucial. Most of the boys I teach have similar backgrounds: parents who were dropouts but are hard-working blue-collar folks, who have a good priority for education but who may not want to move on to college after high school and instead will try to find a good job. This sector of students is one that is not being reached in schools today, but it's not because schools aren't trying. Many boys don't see the need for reading--they don't see how it would fit into the life they want to live outside of high school. English class is just one more class they have to get through in order to graduate. In fact, in my senior English class right now, many of the boys are reading their first "on their own" book (at my insistence, of course). Many boys make it to high school, and despite the teacher's efforts, don't want to try to be literate. What is it that happens between those primary and secondary grades? Jake, at times, seemed so interested in learning, when he was given independence of course. Many beginning readers, both male and female, are eager to show that they can read. They are eager to accomplish this new skill. Yet when they make it to high school, it is no longer "cool" and no longer something they even want to attempt. Like the title of the book I mentioned explains, "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys," and, no, reading technically does not fix a car--a person does. But students of either gender need to be taught that being literate in today's society can lead to skills like fixing cars. How can we find the relevance in reading in our schools so it is something our students WANT to apply to their lives?

At the high school where I work, my colleagues and I really do try to make learning relevant to students' lives. There are so many options at this school for vocational classes, and even the core classes attempt as best we can to make learning relevant (trying to muddle through those state standards, of course!) Yet the students resist this. Where is the weak point, and how do we break through that?
Christy Rivers

Closing the Gap in achievement takes more than closing the gap between home life and school work. It also requires appropriate instruction.

I don’t agree with Hicks on this one. I believe that Hicks is saying that Jake is struggling in school because the educational system doesn’t allow for his working class values. Rather I believe it is an instructional issue, not a class one. My observation is that he is loosing interest in school because the work is getting difficult and he hasn’t mastered the basic skills he needs to be successful. I see Jake as a struggling reader and writer who needs more time with sound symbol relationships, practice with spelling patterns, and strategies for decoding. I believe that the fact that he has a literate, supportive family and caring teachers who allowed him opportunities to explore his interests supports my view.

Jake is fortunate to have a family who cares about his education. They’ve provided a nurturing home, filled with both books and opportunities for hands on learning. They all value education and show this in many ways. They model reading, and spend time reading to and with Jake. I imagine that Jake’s dad, with a ninth grade education, values it most of all. I imagine he struggled in school too. Yet, clearly it was important enough for him to find ways to continue to learn on his own. I imagine he’d like things to be easier for his son.

Based on the information in the book, Jake had a similar educational experience to Laurie’s. Kindergarten was active, but relatively unstructured and first grade was whole group basal instruction with choice in writing. This environment works for most students, but the rest need more explicit instruction. Like Laurie, Jake didn’t receive differentiated instruction until second grade. And here, he made lots of progress! I think that all of the teachers allowed him to explore his own interests whether at centers in kindergarten or in writing during first and second grade. The difference was the differentiated instruction that he received in second grade.

I have to admit that my position on this subject is highly influenced by Dr. Morris’ class on Reading and Writing Instruction for the Beginning Reader! However, please know that I do recognize that good teachers teach the whole child. They value and consider their students’ background when planning relevant and motivating instruction. It is a challenge to help children meld their world at home with their learning at school. Closing the gap in achievement involves valuing a child’s background as well as delivering appropriate instruction.

Jayne Thompson

I envy Deborah Hicks’ role. She is able to see the home life and the school life. As the educator, I am often blinded by why happens at home. When I am able, I try to make home visits. But I will admit, this rarely happens in reality. When it does, I am shocked by what I see at home. I once visited a home in which the child was one of ten in the household of 5 adults. There were 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. There were no beds. There was one beat up couch and odd pieces of junk lying around. But to my amazement there was huge big screen TV in the living room. It was larger than the wall space and blocked part of the front door. I had many problems with this student. It wasn’t until I visited the home that I began to understand the issue he was having at school. As teachers, we can only rely on what the students and parents say part of the time. We really do not know until we step foot in their lives. For this reason, I envy Hicks. She is able to see where the issues are. She is able to make recommendations for school change. I only wish our system could see the power in this. Our school has lost 3 positions for next year. One of which is the home school coordinator. This position is one that the teachers greatly respect. We rely on this man to go to homes and speak with parents when we are unable to. He comes to us and tells us what he has seen in the home. He is a huge help in the home to school connection. I really do not know what we are going to do without him next year. How can a school system cut this position? We all know the research. We all know how important this connection is. Why is it being cut off?

Sarah Feinman

As I read these different research initiatives I am convinced that our reality is not working. Maybe it's time to approach education in a fantasy sense. The reality of it is that education as we know it is failing so many children. Children like Laurie and Jake and the countless others that are sitting in our classrooms. I have said it before, and I'll say it again. These same children are going to grow up and become adults in our society. What we (educators) do in kindergarten, first, and second grade etc. is going to impact the world. The children that we teach now are going to influence the world later. What we did or did not do, will depend on what kind of impact our students will have on the world. The reality of it is, is that we have a huge responsibilty on our shoulders. Yes the parents have a responsibility too, but all children don't come from loving and supportive families like Jake. So we have a responsibilty to attempt to make everychild a viable and productive member of society. The reality of it is that we have a "one size fits all" educational philosophy. Not "we" as in the folks in the classroom but "we" as in the lawmakers that make decrees about what should be so and they have never stepped foot into a classroom. In a fantasy world, children would be met where they are. In a fantasy world, children would be matched to a teacher as carefully and as closely as an Fortune 500 employer looks for an employee. In a fantasy world, children would be celebrated for their growth, not ridiculed because they didn't score as high as every one else. In a fantasy world, the child that could put together the 100 piece puzzle would be treated with the same awesomeness as the child that has never made less than an "A" on a math test. In a fantasy world, everyone understands that not all children are college bound and prepares them to be successful otherwise. In a fantasy world, teachers could voice their opinions and suggestions and they would actually be taken into serious consideration. In a fantasy world, teachers would be treated as the experts that we are, in the matters of education. In a fantasy world, teachers and parents would always work together for the best interest of their child. In a fantasy world, everyone would see education for its pricelessness and understand internally that without education we have nothing. Is it just me or is my fantasy way better than our reality?
Cherrita Hayden-McMillan

This week's reading reminded me of several different aspects of education. First of all, I thought about the way our system of education teaches all students in similar manners. Our education system has become more and more "standardized." We give assessments by reading scripted lines to a group of children without deviating from the script in a test that obviously has cultural bias. As educators, so often we teach to the way most children learn. Although the idea of leaving no child behind seems wonderful, so often, it is just a lofty idea. Some children are left behind by our current system, which may always be true.

Then, I thought about the ways we reach students on an individual level. I think it is extremely important that we attempt to reach students in subjects beyond those we teach by incorporating their interests into our own agendas. There are students who simply catch on and are entranced by learning. This is the type of student I was. The realization that I had made all As was enough reward and encouragement for me to continue learning and achieving in school. However, teaching will quickly make you aware that this is not the norm. Some students always need extra encouragement.

The one example that immediately comes to my mind is of a 4th grade ELL student who struggled both at home and in school. The student has two parents who are involved in gangs and drugs. He lives in a neighborhood that has encouraged him to grow up much faster than others his age. He has lived in the United States for two years and is 12 years old in 4th grade. He speaks very little English, basically enough to communicate, but definitely not enough to grasp academic concepts. I learned quickly that he had a love for fast cars, like many boys in similar situations. So, I ran with this. I tied every science concept possible to cars. In electricity, we talked about batteries, motors, and circuits. Then, in motion and forces, we talked about speed, inertia, air resistance (drag racing), and car brakes. I always found a way to capture his attention by tying our standards to his personal life. He loved this and really loved science. He saw a need for it in his own life. This was the type of connection this child needed to appreciate his education.

Brittany Guy

Again, this was a sad read for me. Like Laurie, Jake had a very successful kindergarten year. He was interested in the activities, learned the basic information and had a family that was dedicated to his success in school. But, unfortunately, Jake's progress trailed off just like Laurie's and again, I attribute this to the educational practices. Hicks concludes that this is because there is a gap between the knowledge that Jake learns from home and what is expected of him academically. I agree with this, but what bothers me is that his teachers did not try get Jake interested in school. I mean, I know that I try to find out what really makes my students excited. I have a student this year who absolutely LOVES reading biographies, so I tap into this every bit that I can. Another little boy, whom was having trouble academically really likes animals, so I played off of this interest and allowed him to create power points showing his research of any animal he wanted. I wonder if Jake's teacher ever asked him about Nascar, or his most cherished thing that he built with his dad. Perhaps, if they had gotten to know his interests better, Jake would have been more successful. If I have learned anything in this masters program, it is that you have to give students assignments that are meaningful. I can easily see Jake becoming uninterested in a writing prompt like "one day you found a magic rock". Now, give him one that says "you won a contest to meet your favorite Nascar driver" and I bet you would have a whole story.

I realize that their are gaps between what is valued at home and what is valued at school as far as knowledge goes. However, it seems to me like a lot of kids like Jake are slipping through the cracks because school isn't interested in merging home values and interests into academic practices and this is causing a lot of kids to become disillusioned with the idea of academic success.

Whitney Gilbert

The reading this week was very well-connected to a staff development meeting that my school recently had. In an effort to reach all children, we sometimes need to reach outside our comfort zone. So many Social Studies teachers (especially) get caught up in the pattern of book work and worksheets. Like our curriculum director told us, lots of times Social Studies and Science are two areas that get some students through the day. He or she may not be good at reading or math, but these “exciting” subjects are what keeps them moving. Therefore, it is a little troubling to me when these area teachers put little effort into planning an engaging class. Children need to be able to relate to a topic to truly internalize it. I (as a social studies teacher) have more options when it comes to hands-on activities and projects (and I am very thankful for this).

I have heard a lot about North Carolina’s new curriculum that will soon be implemented. From what I understand, it will be focused on the 21st century student. There will not be as much to cover, and teachers will have a chance to explore topics more deeply. There will be an increased focus on technology and “real world” activities. The current standard course of study, in my opinion, is in major need of reforming, and I think that this is a step in the right direction.

Another interesting part of this week’s reading was the emphasis that was placed on family, and how to connect home life to school life. We are currently studying East and Southeast Asia in my seventh grade class. I am very fortunate to have a pretty diverse group of students (for a rural North Carolina area anyway). Within our team, we have Hmong, Vietnamese and Korean students. Many of them are 1st or 2nd generation Americans. At the culmination of our unit, the kids and some of their parents are going to do short presentations for each of my classes. They are going to talk about their native languages, foods, customs, traditions, and many other things. There is really no way for me to replicate this experience in the classroom. I think that our kids will get more out of this than anything else that we do with the unit.

I don’t think that there is a better way for a student to connect to the curriculum than by involving their home life. We need to find a way for children to (at least) be able to use their home experiences as a base of knowledge for every subject. This is a lofty goal, but I believe that once these two areas are bridged, the child and the teacher will be more successful.

Heather Coe

This is the word that comes to mind as I consider Jake. As I have read these stories of working-class children and their literacy learning I have become increasingly more frustrated. I am finally realizing the meaning of “text of bliss” as I continue to be made uncomfortable with each new reading. And I am a bit confused myself—not because I fail to understand what I am reading but because I do understand.

Jake’s confusion was a result of the conflicting values of home and school. In some ways, I believe this has been a theme in many of the readings for this course. However, this reading did not “fit” the paradigm I had constructed. Just I was not expecting Hicks to state that Jake’s father read informational books regularly, I did not expect there to be strong family support for Jake’s literacy learning. It bothers me greatly that I was surprised by this. Have I been socialized in such a discourse that I assume if the values of home and school conflict it must be because home practices are not supportive of school practices?

As I wrestled with this text I was most intrigued with Jake’s assimilation into a culture of doing. I can now understand how confusing it must be to be taught at home that one learns by doing and then to be so restricted in the “doing” at school. While there are many classrooms where children are involved in activities that promote doing, the doing is simply a means to an end. And just as with the science journals, the doing often is simply a way to get to reading and writing.

I also wonder if Jake’s father seemed like a contradiction to Jake. On one hand, he was a man who did not need formal education to be successful and to provide for his family. On the other hand, he was a man who loved to read. Although Jake’s dad relied on books for his expertise on the JFK assassination, he was counting on the fact that experience—not books—would be his son’s best teacher. Did these seeming contradictions simply confuse Jake?

As I mentioned earlier, Jake is not the only one who might be confused. I cannot understand why teachers, schools, or entire districts would continue to use literacy practices that JUST DO NOT WORK. I have been thinking on this and can only conclude that it might be the fact that school has become a distinctively middle-class world. I am not sure that I would have truly recognized this before completing the work for this class. Is our resistance to provide “new forms of action in school” (p. 132) as Hicks described because we, as middle-class teachers for the most part, really have no idea of what those actions would even look like. We have been shaped by the discourses to which we have been socialized.

It seems Jake's dad may have been less confused about the matter than many educators as Hicks conveyed his notion "that schools could be engaging environments for learning" (p. 134). Is it possible that this man has some grasp on hybridity and permeable teaching communities?

Lisa Rasey

This chapter was one that could have been extracted from my classroom in many ways. I have a young man this year named Jake. He could be the fraternal twin of our Jake in Reading Lives. They are not identical twins because details of their stories are different. My Jake lives in opulence with a father that is a doctor and a mother who is a college guidance counselor at our school. However, this year has been spent building a bridge between the crevasse between his home life and his school life. Jake is severly dyslexic and began this year reading at the preprimer level in second grade. At home, his strengths as an athlete, a creative thinker, and a problem solver have been strengthened and celebrated. Hicks writes,"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." Jake began the year wondering if the stories he held in his mind about his worth would be welcomed in our classroom. Would his new teacher see the possibilities that existed or only the limitations exposed when text and other written work was revealed? These were difficult roads to travel this year. As with our Jake in the chapter, the stakes were becoming higher each year. As we approach the end of second grade, I am amazed at the progress we have seen this year. I began the year meeting regularly with his mom in attempts to close the gap between home and school. We worked together with another teacher to design a reading program for Jake that would provide a solid foundation for his reading successes. HIs mother's stories about how Jake learns best at home was the crux for our instructional practices. His mother's input is invaluable to me in how I can best educate her son. When Jake realized the care we had for him and the communal desire to experience success he soared. He began this year dictating his entries for his writing journal. Now, he does not want any help when he composes a new entry. And his thoughts are amazing. I have never seen an eight year old with such an incredible auditory memory. He literally remembers everything you say. He then uses my messages to connect with the messages and stories from home. We are finishing second grade and Jake is moving right along with his reading. I need to assess soon with another IRI, but the leap will be dramatic. There is a long road still to travel, yet the cooperation with his mom is the key. I could not have manuevered through this year without her insight and wisdom.
This is the part missing from Jake's life in Reading Lives. He operated in two different worlds. Absent was the integration of his home life into his school life. The insights of the parents were untapped. The results were disengagement, disinterest, and disappointment. This could have very easily happened in my own classroom. It was difficult at times to appreciate all my Jake's mother offered. I had to let go of believing I knew it all and grow in my listening to the wisdom of a mother. I have had to bend and adapt the ways I present my lessons to best meet the needs of Jake and others in my classroom that learn differently. Parents are a great asset, they are the table of contents for the stories in their children's lives. When we allow them the room to speak to us about the stories from home and how they can impact the classroom atmosphere, we take the road less traveled. We become both learner and educator. It is the road that makes all the difference.

As I read this chapter I was reminded of something that my undergrad Children's Lit. methods professor said over and over again, "Educators are teachers of students NOT subjects or materials." This entire book has reinspired me to "read the lives" of all the students that I teach. In some ways I envy Hicks, in that she is given a different "lens" in which to look into the lives of the students she works with. I am also somewhat envious that she has more of an opportunity to develop a deep personal relationship with the students that she works with. I would like to say that I develop personal relationships with all of my students, but I know that some of the relationships that I form with my students are closer than others. I think that in order to develop the deep personal relationships with all of my students I need to start seeing all of my students as individuals, not as groups of individuals in my class. I have found myself doing that often in my teaching career, lumping students together by characteristics and treating them accordingly. Once a teacher begins to realize that language, race, gender, nationality, and homelife affects who a student is and what they can bring to the classroom only then can learning take place.

I agree with this chapter that we need to fall in love, not with teaching, but with our students. It is truly like a romantic relationship, and what do you do when you are interested in somebody? You find out as much as you can about them. You want to know what does and does not interest them. You want to know how to add to their happiness. You do things to get them to respond to you in a positive way. You encourage them to open up to you. I think this concept should be one taught in methods courses. You can be the best planner and have the greatest ideas, but in order to plan an awesome lesson one truly needs to be in love with their students so that every student can achieve the goals and objectives that you have set for them to learn.

For me this chapter summed up, if you will, everything that we have been reading about this semester. I am thankful for my Children's Lit. methods professor who laid the foundation of teaching students not subjects, as a prelude to me understanding and internalizing all of the research that we were exposed in this course.
Cherrita Hayden-McMillan

Hicks suggests that we must understand our complexities and differences in learning. This must be the focus, and not a "faith in the unifying power of a body of knowledge" (Rose). I agree that for a long time, the information or curriculum itself has been the IT, the god if you will. We measure ourselves by how much of the IT we can grasp or understand. How much of IT we can cover in 10 months. The shift must take place for us to reach out to each other and not to the IT.

Hicks reinforces the idea that feeling is integral to learning. If the affective filter is high because of an unloving teacher or a culturally unmatched curriculum, students will turn off or tune out. Especially the working class ones. The example given of Rose's journey exposes the positive things that can happen when growth is fostered and the detriment that occurs if it is not.

To really see our students "faithfully" requires constant attention. What works for working class kids in the mountains might not work here in Davie County. Parent meetings that draw Latino parents to the school in Greensboro are not necessarily applicable to parents in Asheville. Each community is different and there is not a magic formula for any minority group. I think this is what we try to do. We say, Hill Center works for all kids. Reading Recovery is the only way to do it. All ESL kids need sheltered instruction. None of these generalizations can be made without first SEEING the specific kid and community. This is a hard pill to swallow and it makes me tired thinking that each child is complex and needs me to focus on him. Really, though, it is like parenting. Not all kids respond well to time out. Not all need to be spanked. Every child is different. It is sad to me when I try to visualize a kind of school built around this idea. I cannot do it. I do think research like Hicks' can propel us toward that kind of school.

Ashley Catlett

I need to schedule some time to read Mike Rose's book. I think it would be an inspiring read, much like Reading Lives. He was able to capture in some of the quotes Hicks uses, the essence of teaching. "Teaching I was coming to understand, was a kind of romance. You didn't just work with words or a chronicle of dates or facts about the suspension of protein in mild. You wooed kids with these things, invited a relationship of sorts, the terms of connection beign the narrative, the historical event, the balance of casein and water. Maybe nothing was "intrinsically interesting." Knowledge gained its meaning, at least initially, through a touch on the shoulder, through a conversation of the kind Jack MacFarland and Frank Carothers and the others used to have with their students. My first enthusiasm about writing came because I wanted a teacher to like me."
Teaching is an art. It is tapestry being woven together every day. Some threads, or ideas remain as a dominant color all through the pattern of the tapestry. Some threads may exist only in small areas, making their impression as a piece to the whole masterpiece. Each day we are contributing to this tapestry. A piece of our personal history may run all through the tapestry as we weave it into every class we teach. Other threads may be particular stories that influence the atmosphere of the classroom for a school year, that weave their way in to a permanent place in our memories, changing who we are forever. Every child represents a thread, for the beauty of the tapestry is weaving together each one of our students' stories with our own on our education exploration. We weave their stories with the math, the language arts, the reading, the social studies, and the science we teach. If our weaving comes across a knot or an unraveling thread, we just trim it and pick up the loose end and tie it onto another piece of thread. The mending is barely noticeable! At the end of each year, we glance at our tapestry to check its progress, it is interesting to see the unique patterns and colors that are beginning to reveal themselves. It won't be until retirement or beyond that we can truly view our tapestry and appreciate all the work that went into this masterpiece.
This is the image I thought of as I read this chapter. Rose touches on this, we are creating environments that are magnetic, where love is in the air. We are laying the groundwork for a lifelong love affair for learning. It is not simply a list of terms or equations, it is an interest in the child's interests and then connecting it with the curriculum. I love love. And I love to go to school each day in an attempt to create a classroom where a love for learning will flow from a child that first knows that are unconditionally loved and valued by their teacher. When a child believes that, you have caught their attention. You have caught their attention because you have first paid attention to their heart. There will be days, as in any romance where mood swings may temporarily derail some progress, but communication and a great big hug can usually shift the atmosphere back. I've read the blogs and comments this semester and we all are desiring and attempting to build this environment. We want to woo children, to enthrall them with the beauty of education, not because of any other reason than simply we care about them. Spring has sprung and love is in the air.....

“Within real pressures and limits, such practice is always difficult and often uneven”. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE!

I felt the placement of this chapter by Hicks was a very effective way to end the book. For me, this chapter was uplifting. I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of Bakhtin, Rose, and Nussbaum that were identified by Hicks in this chapter.

Nussbaum suggests, “New relationships can constitute new forms of knowledge-some empowering, some tragic”. I think I focused a little too much on the hardships Jake and Laurie faced in the previous chapters in the book. Because this chapter, and Nussbaum’s idea made me realize and think about how effective teachers do have a chance to allow students to start with a new slate. Especially when teachers accept and take on the idea of moral relationships from Bakhtin. Hicks identifies the following statement about Bakhtin’s ideas on moral relationships: “his theory of language allows space for the kinds of everyday attachments that create the conditions for response”. This statement made me think that our actions can hurt others and others actions can hurt us, including those of students, but you get another chance because these “attachments” occur everyday, not once in a lifetime. I feel that the authors were also saying that it is important to provide these attachments for students and together create an environment that welcomes and supports “moral answerability”, because without those attachments “dialogue can be detached and oppressive.”

I think by creating these environments that are “attachment” enriched we welcome all discourses. To me, it seems that no matter the discourse of students, if they were able to experience and develop attachments with their teachers and peers then it would create a state that encourages hybrid languages of the classroom. For instance, I think of the times that I have experienced something new or different with a person that I was not very close to and we did not have the same background. Because of that attachment we made through the experience, it was easier to talk with them and experience other things with them even though our discourse was not the same.

All along we have learned that acceptance of various discourses is imperative, but I really feel that it is as important to not get overwhelmed if we upset someone because our discourses are different. I think when we realize that we have upset a student or co-worker, we have another chance to work with them and create attachments that enable each other to have hybrid discourses.

Elizabeth Griffin

I too as Stefoni said would like to find time to read Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose. I would like to read more about his placement in high school and and how he was affected by "switching tracks". I was also moved by the picture he presented with his teacher Mr. MacFarland who became his mentor and role model. So many times I have heard, "You can't be friends with your students, they already have friends." This is an issue I wrestle with, I agree with the statement, but we have to show the students we care, because "No one cares what you know, until they know you care." The caring involves a two way street similiar to friendship. ( As a teacher only in my fourth year, I would love some feedback on this issue.)
Hicks asks the question "What can help teachers move toward more responsive kinds of literacy practices with working class children?" Then she answers her own question with "It is an effort to learn about this community, this neighborhood, this family." (p. 154) I agree with this statement wholeheartly. Every one needs to find what works in their communtiy, then remember it won't work with everyone in the community. I have a key to my school that opens most of the doors in my school, yet it won't open all the doors. We need to remember we are dealing with individuals, not mass produced generic people, that fit a particular stereotype.

SuSu Watson

Like a few of the others have mentioned, I, too, struggle with the exact relationship that I should have with my students. Many of my kids do not come from supportive homes; therefore, I feel that I am often seen as their adult role model. I also believe that in order to be an effective teacher, your students have to know that you care and appreciate their lives. I try to make a point to talk to them about their interests, and get updates on their lives. If they think that you care about them, they are more responsive in class (most of the time). I know teachers that think that your relationship with students should be purely professional--no “small talk,” no hugs, and basically nothing that crosses the teacher-student iron boundary. Now, their students behave, but they often don’t respond well to their teachers. I would like to also add that I think that this boundary varies from student-to-student. Some kids are more open to you than others.

Aside from just teaching the students our assigned content, it is our responsibility to teach them to be life-long learners. We will not be with them following this year--what have we planted in their brains that will continue to grow? I love social studies (learning about it, teaching it, etc.), however, I understand that in order for my kids to truly appreciate it and learning in general, I have to make it relevant to their lives. How can a teacher truly make information relevant to a student’s life, if he/she does not know anything about that student or their background? One mainstream curriculum that attempts to place everyone in the same pot is not going to be effective. Teachers need to be aware of what backgrounds that exist in their classes. This reminds me of the analogy that I used in a blog earlier in the year. The United States should strive to be a “salad bowl nation,” not a melting pot.

In an effort to gain an understanding of the various backgrounds that I will have in my class next year, I have already decided that I want to do an anonymous survey. I want to know their ethnic, religious, language, and family backgrounds. I might even graph the results and leave them up throughout the year. I think that this will not only help me, but my students as well.

Heather Coe

I often complain about my undergraduate program. I feel as though it did not prepare me for teaching at all. They even warned me, “You will not be prepared for teach”. They gave me many wonderful lesson ideas (which I haven’t used at all….) and many great resources for curriculum (which I also haven’t used…). But there was clearly a lacking of ver’nost. No one prepared me for the connections that I would make with students. They are stronger than most connections I have ever made. I certainly think that a few philosophy requirements would have better prepared me for teaching. Even the reading of Rose’s work would have been suitable.

Countless behavior management workshops have told me that in order for my students to respect me, I need to respect them. Some have even mentioned that students can read your eyes better than your words. I would try to respect my students, but it never seemed to do anything. It wasn’t until I truly got to know my students, and meet them where they were, that I began to respect them. The beginning of the school year is always incredibly hard for me. I put so much time into my students. But by the end of the year, (like right now) I discover how much I love my students. I also see how much they count on me and need me. They know I will be there, everyday greeting them at the door. Perhaps ver’nost is not something that teachers can learn how to do with students. But if we can learn to be open, maybe we can try to reach it.

I think there is a huge issue in education today. Relying on high stakes tests to prove growth and progress is not the way to form educational practices. Each student that walks into the door is unlike any other student. Research tells us that because students come from such diverse backgrounds we cannot rely on these tests. But we continue to do it. Grading is easy. The numbers are easy. The comparisons can easily be made. I am hoping that the shift has started. I am already hearing many things about changes with the current EOG. I have heard that there will be added sections. They will begin to use short answer questions and essay questions. It isn’t much, but at least it is a step in the right direction.
Sarah Feinman

This chapter was a good way to tie up what we've learned in this book. I've enjoyed reading about specific people and feel like it has been a great way to learn more about literacy. This text has been able to illustrate, through intimate looks through students' lives, how their early experiences influence their later literacy lives. I found particularly interesting the section about Mike Rose and the controversy he writes about in getting too involved in students' lives. As Hicks states, "he expresses how movement through particulars was necessary for his own understanding of the dilemmas faced by poor and working-class students--and presumably also for his readers' deeper understanding of those dilemmas..." (pg. 140). One of the points brought up was that learning about these students' lives in such an intimate sense could be a negative thing, that stereotypes could be formed and being too "seduced" into the narrative to see the educational point. However, I can't see why one would NOT want to learn about the particulars of a students' life. Isn't that where all the answers lie? Why does a student act a certain way? Well, let's look at how his or her home life is. Why can this child not read? Well, let's look at the particulars of how he or she was taught and what kind of support they are receiving at home. Of course, there are boundaries to be met, as Hicks mentions. We cannot get to fully into a child's home life as teachers. I'm sure even Hicks had road blocks when she was trying to research these children at home. But we can take little steps, like asking our students about their likes and dislikes and taking the time to get to know them at the beginning of the school year. If they are acting out, take them aside and ask them what's going on, rather than calling them out and potentially embarrassing them in front of the entire class.

While we are all part of a very institutionalized setting everyday at our schools, we need to realize that the reason we're there is for the lives of the students we encounter everyday. To attempt to become part of those lives would make a lot of difference. I'm grateful for people like Hicks who take that time to do such quality research that really does make a difference for people like us reading it.

Christy Rivers

This semester I had the amazing teachers in my Advanced Children's Literature class read The Invention of Hugo Cabret. If you haven't read it, it's a must read for the summer. It's beautifully crafted with carefully chosen words and thoughtfully drawn illustrations. At the very heart of the book are many important life lessons one of which is the process of finding and following your purpose on life. When we lose our purpose, when we forget what we are striving to become we easily can lose track of all that is important. Like the clocks in Hugo's train station, we become broken when we can no longer find a reason to be. As I read this chapter the thought of purpose remained with me. Children come to school ready to learn, wanting to learn and as their teachers, it is our job to help them find their way to their purpose. It is our job to give them the tools that they need to find out who they want to be. When children or students can watch their teachers, their professors, live the knowledge that they love, they can see the possibility for finding the same kind of passion of their own. In this chapter Hicks quotes Rose's work, which I also suggest as a must read, when he discusses the power his teachers had to excite and encourage his academic development: "They lived their knowledge. And maybe because of that their knowledge grew in me in ways that led back out to the world. I was developing a set of tools with which to shape a life" (p. 144). Through the passion of his teachers for their life's purpose, Rose began to find his passion as well.

Teaching is not only a deep knowledge of the subject or subjects you will teach. It is not only a knowledge of how students develop as readers and learners. It is knowing all that but also being able to connect with your students, being able to build a caring, supportive relationship with your students so that you are a part of their educational pursuits as well as their growth as an individual. I think Rose's connection between teaching and a kind of romance works well - teaching is something you work on, something that can get better in time, something that requires your heart to do well. I think that most of it feel those moments of teaching romance on a regular basis. You fall in love with your students and as soon as you do you find yourself doing things to stand up for them, to support them, to make sure they are getting everything they need to succeed. At the end of the year you let them go with a happy and heavy heart hoping that even just a little bit of what you taught them will stay with them.

Amie Snow

Reading lives is complex. Reading this last chapter helped me to realize how much the “lens” from which I view others affects my interpretation of and reaction to others. Not only does each child come with their own unique and complicated background, but my own experience influences my perception of their situation as well. Reflecting on my last entry about Jake, I can see how my “lens” has been influenced by my history. I saw Jake’s struggle as an instructional issue, rather than a class issue. This makes sense given my upbringing and education. I am the product of working class parents too. I worked hard to become the first child in all of my extended family to go to college. So I carry a bit of a “chip on my shoulder” believing that a good education and success can be accomplished with hard work. I recognize now that I have less tolerance for working class students. Reflecting back to the other stories about race, culture and language, I had much more empathy for their situations than I do for those that resemble my own. My professional resume also greatly influences my thoughts and feelings. I’ve spent years becoming an expert on effective instruction for struggling readers. Diagnosing and treating reading disabilities is not only what I do, but it is how I know students. It’s my situated discourse! I can see now that it is just as important to understand where I’m coming from as it is to try to understand where my students are coming from. I’m going to work on it.
Further complicating our attempt to “read lives” is our tendency to classify or categorize in our effort to understand. Hicks warns us that we need to avoid a creating a simplistic view of how language, culture, race, gender and class affects our students’ identities. We can’t just say that all boys are active and competitive by nature therefore we need to do X-Y-Z. Every student comes with their own unique experience. We need to meet each one of them where they are and treat them with respect and understanding.
That sounds great in theory. Now the next challenge is how do teachers really get to know their students? We don’t have the luxury of spending time with students outside of class, in their homes and communities. Student writing and recess conversations give a glimpse, but we need more depth. I’m working on this one too. It’s just all so complicated!

Jayne Thompson

This has been a very interesting read for me. Unlike a lot of the people taking this course, I could not relate closely with the stories of Jake an Laurie personally, but I could see reflections of my students in every situation. Then, when I started reading the comments on Rose's articles, it really hit me. Teachers are the ones who can make or break a child's desire and interest to learn. That is a very powerful and frightening thing. I have certainly seen and heard things that I definitely did not agree with, but these stories put into perspective the weight that a teacher's actions can carry. That science teacher could have just excused Rose's good work for a child being lazy on a pre-test. Instead, he went and questioned the child's placement and most likely changed the course of Rose's life. Perhaps if we focused less on a child's shortcomings and more on the positive, we could effect more change. It really is hard some times when you have a child that is capable of so much more, but won't try. It can be so frustrating. But, I think this book and this class has really taught me to take a step back, put myself in the child's shoes, and think about what else this child might be dealing with. I have only been teaching for three years, but I hope as time passes, my students will come back and tell me that I really helped them or that I was the one who led them to think about the possibility of a better future because I believed and cared. For me, this is the ultimate goal. This is also something that cannot be done without a personal relationship with children. If it could, people would be thanking textbooks and computer programs, but this doesn't happen because a child doesn't develop a bond with these things like they do with a teacher. We as teachers can sit here and transpose our passion, our concern, and our dedication to a child by developing these bonds. You can't expect a child to love learning if the teacher doesn't and you can't expect them to learn if their is no bond or reason. Each day gives us an opportunity to potentially change a life through our actions and reactions. I hope and strive for my change to be a postitive one, one that encourages and motivates a child that, in any other case has nothing postive in their life, to embrace education and learning and see it as a way to open doors when all others have been shut.
Whitney Gilbert

This final chapter of reading proved to be a great reminder of the concepts I have personally examined throughout the semester. I was reminded of the importance of individualizing education above all other methods of instruction. Hicks reminded us that we should not take a simplistic view. This theme has been weaved throughout the readings and conversations during the semester. Whether with regards to race, sex, religion, or any other devisive factor, it is important that we recognize and support the differences among our students. However, after realizing that students do fall into any one or more of these categories, their instruction must be broken into smaller pieces. As has already been mentioned, each child within any group will have special circumstances and unique needs.

Then, I was also reminded of the idea that we teach with a purpose or goal in mind and that we should be passionate. As a self-proclaimed passionate person, I want to instill that same type of undying love for something in all of my students. I have a true passion for learning and for life. Whether it is reading, watching television, or living life, I want to learn more about everything. I was the child who would actually prefer to read nonfiction works over the flowery fiction works that other children chose. It is my goal at the beginning of each day to help all of my students find a spark of that type of passion within themselves for learning. Each student will have his own specific subject for which he is most passionate about learning; however, I do not mind at all, as long as he has found that deep rooted love for something. The concluding chapter of Hicks work reminded me of this need for a purpose and for passion.

Overall, I feel that the last chapter and week reminded me that teaching is about relationships and personalities possibly more than subject matter. I can master any content yet fail as an educator. I must build relationships with my students, show them I care, have a purpose for their learning, and be an example of the type of passion I want them to have for something. I have thought of all of these components throughout the semester; however, I felt that this final reading (along with the mental state of knowing that the end is near) acted as a reminder of all of my previous ideas.

Brittany Guy

As I read Hicks recount her use of ain’t in a guided reading group, I thought the most important thing that happened at that moment was that Hicks made herself vulnerable. In one sense, she inserted herself into the role of a student and stepped away from being the teacher. Perhaps that is why “The word felt so familiar and so strange—“ (p. 154). Because of my own upbringing and training I would struggle to use this word, but I think I am beginning to understand why taking this type of risk is so important. In something as small as a verbal “stumble”, Hicks may have spoken volumes to her students. She may have rallied them to her side, to walk with her on a journey of learning so much more than when not to say ain’t.

Hicks asserts the way to help teachers move toward more responsive kinds of literacy practices with working-class children is to gain the crucial understanding of the particulars of that community (p. 154). While the notion of social activism as related to reading lives is a new concept to me, I am beginning to grasp the necessity to read lives in order to affect change. As Hicks points out, this activism will demand “considerable commitment to creating practices that extend from those readings (p. 154).” If I am not willing to take some risks and to immerse myself in that community, I will not get the opportunity to affect change.

I also take to heart the “warning” that Hicks gives about the level of work involved to engage in hybrid practices. That moral shift she mentions—“a willingness to open oneself up to the possibility of seeing those who differ from us”—sounds quite noble in this context but absolutely challenging in reality. What will I be willing to do to be vulnerable for my students? Can I step away from being "The Teacher" long enough to learn them, not about them? Hybrid practices necessitate my responding to the particulars of situated histories. “This is very hard work, but work that lies at the heart of teaching” (p. 152).

Lisa Rasey

Critique is understood as an interrogation of the terms by which life is constrained
in order to open up the possibility of different modes of living;
in other words, not to celebrate difference as such
but to establish more inclusive conditions
for sheltering and maintaining life that resist models of assimilation.
-Judith Butler

This semester has been one of extensive self-reflection. Not only have I learned a great deal about various cultures and discourses, but my own perceptions of myself and others have also shifted. Day one of this course marked the beginning of my transformation; however, the end of the semester will not be the end of my conversion. The quote by Judith Butler summarizes my learning experiences thus far. I believe that her statement describes the ideal world--one that is ever-evolving, and contains no “status quo.” We should never accept the constraints of society in an attempt to assimilate. Rather we should maintain our character and identities in an attempt to improve the world around us. My job as an educator is to foster this same idea of personal growth in each and every child that I teach. If we are ever going to be a “salad bowl” nation, this idea of a protective model of civilization must be accepted and adhered.
From the very first essay that I read by Judith Baker, I knew that this course was going to be “different.” Rather than reading and regurgitating for a test, I was going to have to read, internalize, and process (very high on Bloom’s taxonomy I might add). Soon after I read about Baker’s idea of “trilingualism” and multiple discourses, I began to notice it in my classes. Not only did I observe it, but I also encouraged it more. My English Language Learners began to see “Buen Hecho!” on their papers as opposed to “Good Work.” Our classes recently engaged in debates regarding proper discourse (yes, I explained to them, on a very basic level, what it meant). This tied in nicely when studying various cultures around the world, and how certain groups of people are discriminated against because of their discourses. We even talked about their parents--many of whom barely speak English, and the prejudice that they face. After reading about the emphasis that Hick’s places on connecting the child’s home life to the curriculum, I felt that it was necessary to extend the debate to include their own parents.
A constant theme that I believe was reiterated throughout several of the pieces was the need for global children. Chapter ten of The Skin that we Speak suggests that our children should be exposed to multiple languages. Not only will this make them more intelligent, but also more tolerant. Next year, I think that I will do a simplified language study with my seventh graders. Using the various countries of Asia and Africa, I want to talk about word origins, and study how some languages have been used to hold some groups back (some still do). Through this study, I hope that kids will learn to appreciate their own language, as well as others. At the same time, they are reflecting on social issues, a point that Moller and Allen suggests is imperative. My ultimate goal for these “world citizens” is to provide a neutral environment for them to learn about the world. With new Skype technology in our school, I hope to connect with various schools across the state, country, and world. In my opinion, there is no better way for the students to “critique” the world.
The readings have also forced me to reevaluate my method of giving assignments. Each and every time that I pass out a project, I hope that I think about Kay, and her quest to find a voice. Since reading about Kay’s writing journey, I have begun to give options for most work that I assign. One thing that I have learned this semester is that every person is different; therefore, we should not assume that all children learn the same way. If we, as teachers, are to truly nurture their personal growth, we have to make adjustments to accommodate their learning style. To take this one step further, state governments who dictate curriculum need to understand this as well. Teachers, alone, cannot change the education world. As long as our state continues to view all students as one body, never fully “critiquing” society, things will not change. Since I began this course, I have begun to solicit support from various teachers in my community to begin a letter-writing campaign to the state government presenting them with many of the ideas regarding multiple discourses and the various approaches that children take in order to learn. I finally realized that teachers can complain in lounges, offices, and classrooms all that they want, but until they put that verbal exchange into action, it is to no avail.
If the first half of the semester helped me to understand multiple discourses, and that various types of learners exist out there, the second half helped me to understand exactly what “discourse” entails, and why certain children behave the way that they do. For example, the idea that a child from a working class background will act out at school makes perfect sense to me now. Of course, they feel threatened. At home, they have mastered their discourse and have power; however, at school, they are not comfortable and often shut down. It also explains why children do not want abandon their peer groups. Often, this is their only comfort zone at school. Also, as Bell Hooks explains, many of these children want to explore areas beyond their comfort discourse, but are afraid that this will affect their place in their home environment. Utilizing these resources, I have slowly started to understand my children for who they are. Without even realizing it, I have begun to have more patience with students that I may have dismissed before. I truly want to understand their discourses.
As a person (not a teacher), this course has allowed me to examine myself. I now understand how my past has shaped and formed the person that I am today. As a southern woman, like Hicks, I grew up within a unique discourse. I had a wonderful childhood, oblivious to any thought that my family was different from any other. However, I quickly learned that being southern can produce a negative stigma in the minds of others. Therefore, throughout my teenage years, I fought vigorously against all things southern; however, as I began to grow up, I realized how truly special my culture was. I came to understand that I added something special to the world, and I should not adapt my way of life in an attempt to assimilate. Although many aspects of my life are different from those of my family, my home discourse is internalized, and will forever be a part of who I am.
Finally, in the ending pages by Hicks, I began to realize that as a teacher I have to walk a thin line. Not only do I have to assert myself in the classroom, but I also have to place myself at the children’s level to truly understand them. As teachers we can never accept a situation for face value, or get “stuck in our ways.” In order to shelter various discourses, we must tend to them much like we would a new flower. As the reading suggests, we have to get out of our comfort zones to reach the children. My visual goal for my classroom is now a large flower bed--full of shrubs, evergreens, perennials, and annuals. Even though each of them requires unique attention, with my individualized help, they will uniquely bloom to form a beautiful masterpiece. As Judith Baker suggests, it is my responsibility to “open up the possibility of different modes of living.”

Heather Coe

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks,
and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
Michel Foucault

This quote from Michael Foucault speaks volumes about what it means to be an educator and a person. It suggests that looking and reflecting in life requires one to be open-minded and capable of observing and judging from a different point of view. I believe that the ability to view life from someone else's perspective is a gift and a goal that we should all work towards each day. In order to fully understand others and be a productive citizen of the world, we must strive to think like Foucault wanted us to. We must know that we have the ability to think differently than we currently think and perceive differently than we currently see.

This semester has been a reminder that I must not get stuck into a stubborn way of thinking. It is imperative that I remember that each of my children is from a different background and a different way of life. Before taking this course, I have had several courses related to diversity; however, just enough time has passed that I had begun to forget about the many life lessons that are taught through stories such as "As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth."

Upon beginning the course and seeing readings that I had read before, I was a bit skeptical of the course being very similar to past ones. However, thanks to the set-up of the course, it was extremely interesting to read the viewpoints of others. I found it helpful to interpret texts in my own way and then read the responses of others. It is a good experience to be able to step back and consider your differences with other people.

I thought back to an excerpt from my very first post about language barriers. "Language is an interesting concept. It can be a uniting factor in a group of people but also a dividing factor. I remember the first time I traveled outside of the southern United States. I went to Washington DC with a group of peers. I noticed quickly that we sometimes received strange stares from people as we conversed. Then, I went on to make the tragic mistake of ordering sweet tea at a local restaurant. It was a unique cultural experience, and it made me realize that people had differences, even those of similar ethnicities, races, backgrounds, religion, and more. Language and dialect are parts of who we are as people."

Although we often consider race as a dividing factor in society and schools, we do not see language as a problem for many children. Not only a difference in language between English and Spanish, but a difference in dialect. For example, I had never considered the importance of dialect in our society. Then, someone pointed out that I code switch whenever I speak with others. If I am at home, every word that comes out of my mouth is dripping with Southern dailect and phrases like "y'all." Yet, the moment I am interviewing for a position or speaking with a professor, you can barely hear a Southern accent or unusual phrases at all.

Next, I began to consider why exactly I do this. It became apparent quickly that I realize the stereotype and negativity associated with being Southern. I change how I sound in hopes that people do not associate me with anything that is Southern, which is truly unfair. As a person who is constantly torn between embracing my heritage and fleeing from people's ideas, I hope to one day be able to be satisfied just being me.

After investigating my ideas about language and diversity, I realized that this could have a great impact on my own classroom. In my very next post, I examined how my ideas of diversity in language could change a student’s life.

This reminds me again of the troubled student in my class this year. He has responded to very little instruction throughout the course of the year. However, he seems to have more respect for me and will do as I ask most of the time. I think this is truly because I put forth an effort to include him and every other student in every class. I attempt to speak or learn Spanish from my Spanish-speaking students and talk about the sports others play. I think it is extremely important to bring a piece of each and every student to the classroom. I want my class to feel like one family.

This same student has impacted me greatly throughout the year. I feel that my presence in this course has made me more equipped to teach and relate to the child. He is still much more cooperative with me than any other teacher. Just the other day, he stayed after school a couple of minutes rather than running to be first in the cafeteria in order to help me put up the chairs in my classroom. He still expects me to speak Spanish to him and will be the first to laugh at me when I make a mistake, but he truly appreciates my attempts to make him feel welcome.

Then, this post also reminded me of the importance of creating a classroom environment that is open and inviting to all students. My classroom really should feel like a family. Each child should feel that he belongs and has a special niche in my room. Although I realize this and have put a great deal of effort into making this happen during this school year, I have struggled in this area. I cannot seem to make all of my children feel special and happy with who they are. Perhaps this has been made impossible because of the pressures of society and their peers, but this course has helped me in my quest to make this happen.

My peers have given me ideas such as examples of group work and projects like Heather's jigsaw activity. This type of support as well as the encouragement and acknowledgement of great things from others has really enabled me to provide the best education I can for my children this semester. I feel that I have truly grown as a teacher and as a person.

Finally, the coursework forced me to consider gender roles and religion in my profession. I did this by investigating my own past in one of my posts on the book Reading Lives.

As a preacher's daughter, I read the Bible most nights during the week. The first words I was able to fingerpoint read where most likely those from a memorized verse of the King James Version, like John 3:16 or John 11:35. If I wasn't reading from the Bible, I was listening to someone else read from it or a bible story book. Also, my dad would actually ask questions after Bible Story to check our understanding. He would actually level his questions so that the same story would produce a more difficult question for my older sisters and the easiest question for my younger sister.

This reminded me that some children are taught much before they come to school, while others do not have these advantages. Also, it reminded me that religion plays a major role in Southern schools especially. I even titled this posting "Bible Belt Raisin'" to show my Southern dialect and my religious experiences. Because my father was a pastor, I was taught to read and to comprehend through religious text. I knew more bible stories than most adults before I was able to read them myself. My dad, without knowing, improved my oral reading comprehension. He then encouraged me to sound out words in the text. Finally, he also provided me with comprehension questions leveled to my ability so that I would feel successful. I realized quickly that I had a great teacher and that this provided me with a head start in school and life. I was very lucky to have had the home life I did as a child and that is very apparent in the students I teach today.

Overall, the course was very beneficial to me. The type of thinking and rethinking I was forced to do about myself and the differences in myself and others will make me a better educator and person. I have strived to keep an open mind and reflect on my own ideas and those ideas of others. Foucault's quote truly summarizes how I feel about education and about my experience in this course.

Brittany Guy

Ashley Catlett

Critique is understood as an interrogation of the terms by which life is constrained in order to open up the possibility of different modes of living; in other words, not to celebrate differences as such but to establish more inclusive conditions for sheltering and maintaining life that resist models of assimilation. Judith Butler

As a teacher I believe in constant self-improvement and self-critique. In this way, I continually adapt and change as the fields of reading and education change. I feel like a better person if I don’t let myself fall into a rut in my personal or professional life. First, in looking at this quote, we have to agree that life is constrained in ways that are distressing and unfair to some groups of people. The status quo is not acceptable. It is not good enough to say that the USA is a free, just and democratic country. We must constantly analyze and uncover where inequalities still exist.

We study and identify our differences not for the sake of celebrating them. We examine our differences in order to find ways to make life better for everyone. Differences are not deficits, as we have come to believe in education. I like the use of the word shelter in the above quote, as it implies protection. I also agree with the use of the word assimilation, as opposed to acculturation. Our society can include everyone without making everyone the same.

Specifically relating this quote to the readings for this course, I think of the different groups we read about: African-Americans, Native Americans, Sudanese refugees, immigrants, working-class whites. As our diversity increases, we must examine our schools to see how we can be more inclusive of these groups. I tend to be a pessimist when it comes to institutions. However, the main idea I take from this course is that schools can and must change; I cannot sit back and fret, “This is just the way it is done. This is the way it is.” I have a responsibility in the “emancipatory literacy education” of students. I must be a social activist who is opposed to assimilation.

I think one of my most important moments of understanding came when I read the Noll article. As teachers we often blame the lack of success and learning on the home environment. The Noll article really showed that the home life of Daniel was supportive and rich in literacy. It was the school that fell down on the job. The articles and chapters that followed Noll reinforced this. A child who is read to and who engages in literacy practices can be turned off by school, or even feel rejected. That rejection basically undoes everything the parents have done to prepare the child for literacy. I think one of our biggest challenges in education is learning to value discourses that differ from white middle class.

As a member of this white middle class, I have to be vigilant not to fall back into the belief that there must be something wrong with the child if she is not successful. I have to constantly question where the disconnect is. Last week I found myself judging a former student when I found out she had dropped out of high school. I thought to myself, “How hard could it be? Just try your best and stay in there! Why did you give up?” However, I did not struggle in high school and I am not Hispanic in a mostly white school. I have no idea what it was like for her or where the disconnect became so painful that she had to quit. I am not excusing her for dropping out; I simply realize that there is more to it than her being lazy. I must blame the school, too.

Another important understanding for me came from the last chapter of Reading Lives. There is not so much a “set of general theories about ‘what works’ for working-class children (or girls, boys, Latino children, etc.). Rather it is an effort to learn about this community, this neighborhood, this family” (154). Hicks helped me understand that books with titles like, How to Reach Out to Latino Parents might not be very helpful to me. It explains why my parent meetings were not well-attended. It explains why no single reading program for struggling readers is the be all and end all. As a teacher I have to examine the community I teach in. Even more than that, I have to examine my students and their families.

My favorite example from the Delpit reading was in chapter eight about the man who had never been in a car. He was not stupid because he did not know how to operate a car. I am not stupid because I cannot use the four remotes that operate our television, DVD, DVR and receiver! Some things are easy and some are hard, and we all have areas where we need more time and instruction. For some reason, in education we have a hard time understanding that and putting it into practice.

I also appreciate Delpit’s book for the way it has forced me to think about African-American students and not just Latinos. I have studied issues of class and race, but always related to my Latino ELL students. I think Latinos and blacks have a lot in common considering the obstacles they have to overcome. Many of them are in a culture of poverty, or the lower class, which does not mesh with the culture of school. How can we remedy this? I asked that question after chapter two of Reading Lives. I suppose Hicks would argue that we need more qualitative research and more hybrid languages of inquiry. What else can we do as teachers?

I, personally, can continue to look for areas where life is constrained so that I can find new ways to teach and reach students. I can study dinosaurs with my students because dinosaurs are interesting to them, not just because “boys like animals.” I can value a student’s knowledge of farming and tending animals. But I have to show true interest. I can foster respect and caring relationships in my classroom. I can make sure than my teaching is “moral action that creatively responds to the particulars of situated histories” (Hicks 157).

Ashley Catlett

This book and chapter have truly made me reflect on my classroom, kids, families and the relationships I have or possibly don’t have with them. Hick’s steps outside of the box of doing “typical” research, or research that I am most familiar with and really makes you think. The authenticity of her research and her book really made me step out of my comfort zone and grow as an individual and professional.

In order to truly make a difference and be able to teach all of our students we have to step out of comfort zone and learn our kids, their families, and communities. It is something that is easier said than done. It is simple to state that we want to make these changes and that they are needed. However, over coming the challenges that come with engaging in these practices is one that I feel I may fall short of as a teacher. I wonder each year is there someone I missed? Did I do all that I could or was I blinded by the curriculum? I would be very curious to see what Hick’s or any researcher would find if they did research in my room? Sometimes you need an outsider to really help you see, what you may otherwise not want to see.

Amy Spade

I have to say, before starting this class, I was a little apprehensive of the online format. I had an awful experience with an online class at another university (which will go unnamed!) and was nervous that this would be similar. I guess you could say I was scarred from the experience. In actuality, this class has been one of the most informative and helpful ones I've ever taken. In my opinion, reflection is the most crucial ability for any teacher to have. It doesn't help your or your students if you can't look back on what you've done, assess its worth, and then tweak that to make it better. Especially in our ever-changing culture and society, reflection is a step that many take for granted, but I believe it is the most important. This class has assisted that most-important reflection.

With all of that said, this class has really allowed me to reflect on my practice specifically as it relates to race, class, and gender. As stated before, I grew up in a fairly diverse area and went to high school with a very diverse population of students. I have been somewhat culture shocked in my teaching career though. After teaching in rural Eastern Tennessee, where I was shocked everyday at the amount of discrimination and racist thoughts, I moved to the somewhat more open-minded area of Ashe County. I am still shocked quite often though at the closed-minded beliefs of some of these students, especially those related to Hispanics, Blacks, and homosexuals. This has made me want to up the ante of the amount of diverse material I bring into the classroom. These students may never have the opportunity to read novels authored by Black, Asian, or Hispanic authors. And maybe, just maybe, if they were to read a book by or about a minority, they might just change their views.

So, with my huge emphasis on reflection, it may come as no surprise that the quote I chose was the Michel Foucault one: "There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all." One of our jobs as teachers is to push the limits of thinking for our students. It is especially important for our high schoolers to start thinking differently. Otherwise, they will have a very unwelcome shock once they move out into the real world or college. In order to do this, the teacher must also push their thinking constantly. What I loved most about this class is how it always made me question myself; I was constantly evaluating my teaching decisions and reflecting on how it impacts my students.This has, hopefully, benefited my students as well. The Skin We Speak was definitely my favorite of the two books, although Reading Lives grew on me. TSWS really challenged my thinking, especially in thinking about how minorities deal with the discrimination that comes with their race. To be quite honest, I hadn't given much thought to the fact that perhaps their literacy was affected by their race. But given language and dialectal differences, that only makes sense now that I've been given the chance to think about it.

I am grateful for this opportunity to study, albeit "virtually," with such an open-minded and supportive group of teachers. Unlike some of you, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting most of you face-to-face. But I have learned a great deal from reading your thoughts and hearing your thoughts on what I've written. I also am grateful for being able to work with Dr. Jackson--it's been a pleasure! And I am so appreciative that the texts that were chosen and the podcasts that were given to us for clarification were so thoughtfully done.

Hope everyone has a wonderful end to their school year!

Christy Rivers

"There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all." -Michel Foucault
As I write this quote, I have The Byrds song "Turn, Turn, Turn" traveling through my head. This is what this class has caused me to do. Just as the quote suggests there will arise a time when a question will be posed. Are my ideas about learning, about language, about connection fluid, ever willing to be changed and adapted to meet the needs of the children I have been entrusted with? Or are my attitudes and convictions static, unwavering in their fervor, perceiving understanding by how something looks, rather than uncovering its reality? I must truthfully reveal that I unfortunately hang my hat more often in the realm of the perceived rather than the realm of possibilities. When we first read in the Delpit book about Ebonics, I had a very hard time understanding the relevance of such a language. I found it foolish, a distraction from the "king's english" that should be required of everyone. Now, however many weeks and readings later, I am ashamed of my intolerance and narrowmindedness. This class has caused me to ask myself if I am willing to think differently. Where do my formulas for language, its acquistion and use derive from? Am I only regurgitating information and suggestions I have gleaned from my own schooling or personal experiences? Have I ever given thought to personal stories and histories that may shape our language use and understanding?
This class is the next piece in the puzzle to the journey I have been on this year both professionally and personally.
If I take time to reflect in order to move forward, than I need to reevaluate how I determine a child's ability to learn. I often base my perceptions on a child's learning by what he produces, rather than by who he is, or rather, the events of his life that have lead him up to the time he is in my class. Through the Delpit and Hicks books as well as our additional articles,it is clear the personal histories of our students are what impacts their production in our classrooms. What fills their lives outside of school greatly influences what fills the assignments we prescribe at school. Building a bridge between these two kingdoms is key. A child knows how to live as king of his castle at home. He has honed this process, this langauage that is bantered around between the subjects of his family. When he enters the new kingdom of school, he automatically falls to "serf" level when the high propierty of language is thrown at him upon entrance. He becomes a foreigner in this new land, a land he is to reside in and conquer over the next twelve years. This is where my different thinking enters. I am not only queen of my castle, the classroom, but I have been given this great authority to add to those who help me rule my kingdom. I do not hold my hand clenched as a tyrant or despot determined for others to see things my way, but rather I hold my hand open as a host of a great celebration, inviting all to enter in. I believe welcoming each child into this land of learning with the words, "your stories are welcome here, your thoughts are important" sets up an atmosphere of invitation. It is an atmosphere where everyone of us is challenged to think differently, to look beyond what a face holds and examine the heart, the mind, and the soul of an individual.
As I began the readings of this course, I was negative in the first readings. (I cannot reference the name of the authors since I have given The Skin That We Speak to my principal to read.) I did not realize the relevance of identity at first in communication, but rather the differences of speaking in a way variant than the mainstream population communicates. I wondered why can't you just speak the way your teacher is trying to show you? I was saying keep your kingdom over there if you want to enter into mine. I was not looking forward to the next grouping of chapters. However, as we delved into the examination of language and identity, I was caught in a misconception. I was allowing my perception of a populace, or rather my prejudice of a populace to determine my value of their language. I did not really care about their history, yet I expected others to care so deeply about mine. I feel as though this class has allowed me to know freedom in some respects. I have been working hard this year on building community and pouring my time in finding literature which exemplifies similarities and differences. Yet, I was so invested in this endeavor I was neglecting the very people I want to impact, my students. I believe this class has helped me to stop, examine the histories of these children, then go find your literature. Meld where they are and what they've experienced with what a book has to offer. While I maintain my curriculum map and lesson plans, the individuality of the implementation is beginning to shine through. The student I first wrote about needing a topsy turvy with is now a child I am building connection with. Instead of seeing him and his set of idiosyncrasies, I see a boy operating out of what he knows from home. As a parent, I do not buy into a child centered home, but as a teacher I believe this phrase has some merit. I believe my instruction, my planning, my thoughts should be centered on how will this translate to each child in my room? I am pretty ignorant on the language and ramifications of the policies of No Child Left Behind. But I will hold onto the name of this legislation, becasue it rings true. As we have learned together through our readings and our blog revelations, our goal is that no child is left behind in a great expanse between two kingdoms. I have looked at the ugliness of my prejudices and misconceived ideas about people, about my own students, and I feel as though the shackles have been taken off. I have so far to go, but what a great place to start. I am trying to turn, turn, turn from what I have been to becoming a queen who is interested in kingdom building, welcoming all with whatever postcards they bring from the places they've been.
Stefoni Shaw

Text of pleasure: the text that contents, fills, grants euphoria; the text that comes from culture and does not break with it, is linked to a comfortable practice of reading. Text of bliss: the text that imposes a state of loss, the text that discomforts, unsettles the reader’s historical, cultural, psychological assumptions, the consistency of his [sic] tastes, values, memories, brings to a crisis his [sic] relation with language.~Roland Barthes

The past three years have been quite a journey for me. I left a place I knew well, the elementary classroom, and entered a place that initially caused anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. Of course I had been in school before, had excelled in school before, but this new step into the doctoral program felt completely different. It seemed that this new place required a different kind of thinking, a different kind of reading and a different kind of learning. On this end of three years, I realize that it required all of those things and for that I’m quite grateful. The reading and writing that I did in my masters program and continue to do in my doctorate program has changed my thinking as an educator and scholar. It has helped me see the comfort and security in a ‘text of pleasure’ and the struggle and hope in a ‘text of bliss’.

In the beginning reading was always what I did to travel to different places, to learn new things, to get lost in an unusual world. I would curl up on my bed or relax outside under the warm sun and read book after book. Texts of pleasure were always piled on my nightstand waiting for me to make a choice for the night. Those texts did leave me contented, filled with that sense of euphoria that comes after finishing a book. However, what I realize now is that I never challenged myself beyond those books. I never searched out books that might call into question what I believe and push me into a new world of thought and ideas. I never looked for those texts of bliss that made me slightly uncomfortable because it turned upside down beliefs I had held for a along time. However, as soon as I began my masters program, those texts of bliss found themselves in my hands over and over again. IN fact, those texts of bliss have now become what I search for, what I long to read, so that I can think about them, talk about them and grow from them as an individual and as a teacher.

Without a doubt, the pieces we have read in this class are texts of bliss. Each piece was thoughtfully written and filled with meaningful research that has the potential to create educational change. At the same time these pieces promoted change in educational systems and the importance of being informed about what happens in other parts of our world. Two of the pieces from our class seem to reflect all of these qualities: the piece on the Sudanese refuges and Reading Lives. The piece on the boys from the Sudan affected me as both an educator and a human being. First, I was completely in awe at how the boys made it to our country and began to build their knowledge of our language so that they could become active citizens for change. After all that they had been through, after all that they had seen, their main goal was to find a way to help those they had left behind. Learning a new language well enough to use it as a vehicle to support change requires a great deal of dedication and these boys were willing to do that without complaint. As a human being I also began to think about what I do to promote change. With all that I have had and with the little amount of hardship I have lived through, do I give back? Do I work to encourage change in my community, in my classes, with my students? These questions made me realize that while I do seem to encourage and support those around me, I still need to challenge myself to think more about the world around me. I think it is important for me to reflect on how my abilities could be best used to help those who need it.

As I read Reading Lives I also felt myself growing as both a person and a teacher, however, much of what I realized about myself from this piece is focused on the teacher I would be when I enter back into the classroom. So much of who I was as a teacher before I left the classroom has changed - for the better. I think my patience and acceptance for all students has grown in dramatic ways. Before I left the classroom I loved my students and wanted them to do well but I also allowed myself to be pulled into the drama that is an elementary school. I can’t tell you the number of times I was pulled from my classroom, taken from the students who really needed me to work on the yearbook, to plan a party, to attend a mandatory meeting, to calm a teacher who felt slighted by our principal or by a colleague and on and on. Now, with the time I’ve spent reading and discussing texts of bliss like Reading Lives I’ve noticed my weaknesses and have begun the process of building them into strengths. When you read about how teacher alienate students, you can’t help but feel uncomfortable because you know you have been there before. You can’t help but feel unsettled because you have done the same thing before - whether or not you realized it, or whether or not you feel justified in the end. Texts of bliss that create these feelings of discomfort can only serve to challenge us. They have challenged me to expect more from myself and to work hard to reach higher expectations. We have all felt those moments of helplessness like Hicks and the teachers she described. It’s almost a requirement for a teacher to hit rock bottom with a student and not know where to turn, however, it is in that moment of doom where we feel that we have lost the child that we can actually find a way to change things for the better.

Before I ramble more than I should, I’ll end this piece with a reflection on a reflection I’ve made it the past. Texts of pleasure and bliss are both necessary for the development of effective, compassionate teachers. We need the enjoyment of a book that fills our heart with ease and we need the challenge of a book that guides us toward great change. It is in reading books of bliss that we find ourselves, find our purpose and realize in the process our potential. As a teacher I see part of my role is to make sure all of my students know their purpose and work to achieve it. Knowing what you are supposed to give to this world makes it much easier to walk through it. Students like the boys from Sudan and students like Laurie and Jake need help to realize that purpose, so that they know there is a reason for learning and knowing. Asking students to read and answer comprehension questions or to answer 20 math problems does not always show a purpose for learning. We have to work to bring that purpose for learning to the classroom each day so that every child has the chance to figure out who he or she is supposed to be. Again, I have to quote Brian Selznick (2007) in his beautifully crafted narrative of the life of Hugo Cabret,

Sometimes I come up here are night, even when I’m not fixing the clocks, just to look at the city. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have nay extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.(Selznick, 378).

Maybe the key is to make sure we all have a purpose - because with purpose all things are possible.

Amie Snow

“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.” Michael Foucault

I think this quote means that being open to thinking differently is necessary for growth. I chose it because it reflects my own beliefs and my experience in this class. The search for new ideas is what learning is all about. It’s why I’m in this masters program! This class has been all about allowing myself the opportunity to look at life situations in a new way. As a result, my perceptions have changed; my awareness of both my own life experience and my appreciation for others has increased.

Our readings and discussions have raised my awareness of how language, race, gender and class affect both the learner and the educator in the classroom. It has been powerful to reflect on my own situated history and see how it influences my beliefs and my teaching. I’ve also learned some important insights from the authors and the commentators (my colleagues) about the experiences of others that will help think differently and become a better teacher.

Delpit and Baker helped me to understand the importance of valuing a student’s home language. Since reading their article about Standard English, I’m less judgmental and actively look for ways to honor and validate their home language in my classroom. Using good children’s literature where my students can both see and hear themselves reflected in the text has led to some amazing classroom discussions. “Hip Hop Poetry with a Beat”, edited by Nikki Giovanni has been one of the best books for validating the language and culture of the African American students in my room. They have enjoyed performing the poems for all of us. I know it was important for me to hear first hand accounts of various experiences in order to really understand and empathize with their life story. My own life story, growing up in Maine was relatively isolated. Although I didn’t learn any prejudices as a child, I just didn’t have any similar experiences. I needed to hear their story so that I could understand their experience.

The Sudanese refugees, the African Caribbean teenagers, Danny, Laurie and Jake helped me to understand the power of telling our story. Students need to feel safe enough in our classrooms that they are willing to take risks with their writing. We give them voice when we show them that we respect their background and give them authentic, meaningful and relevant reasons to write. I’ve been trying to give my students more opportunities to choose what they want to write about as well as making sure that all assignments are relevant and meaningful. As a result, I’ve got to know them better. I have a deeper understanding of their interests, values, and beliefs. It has given me opportunities to connect with them on a personal level where we have learned mutual respect for one another. I respect them and they feel comfortable enough with me to share the truth of their lives.

Seeing the classroom through the eyes of students from so many different backgrounds has helped me to find some common themes. It seems that no matter what race, gender, or class the students came from, they all needed one thing from us as educators: respect. When we try to truly understand who they are and what they need as individuals, we show them that we value and respect them. I’ve been mindful of our readings and discussions during my day. I try to remember that the relationships I form with my students are the foundation for the learning I want to impart. I want to teach the whole child, meeting each of them where they are at socially, emotionally, culturally, economically and academically.

I’ve so enjoyed our “discussions.” I have certainly learned just as much from my colleagues as the “published authors” we’ve read. Reading their stories of how they have built relationships with their students and their families has truly inspired and humbled me. I’ve been impressed by Sarah’s idea of making home visits in an effort to truly get to know her students’ families. Stefani Shaw’s story of her student, Jake, reminded me of the power of parent involvement. It’s a lot of effort but it has great payoff for our kids. Their stories and others have made me question and reflect upon my own thinking and practices.

Perhaps one instance in this class that best reflects Foucault’s quote came after reading Hick’s last chapter. This chapter helped me to reflect on my own situated history. It led me to some important self revelations and changed my thinking about Jake from the previous week. The reading and our discussion helped me to recognize that my background and beliefs have a huge impact on my approach to teaching and how I relate to my students. I’ve learned that I’m harder on the working class students who most closely reflect my own experience, while I have greater empathy for others. I’m grateful for this new awareness. I hope that it will help me stay mindful of my own bias in the future.

This class has challenged me to think differently. Now I look at myself and my students through a new lens. At times I have felt validated that my teaching style is meeting the needs of my students. Other times, the authors have “stepped on my toes” and convicted me to change. I’m thankful for the opportunity to change my thinking and grow as an educator.

Jayne Thompson

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks,
and perceive differently than one sees,
is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
Michel Foucault

This quote by Michel Foucault sums up nicely the transformation that this course has caused for me. I am going to be very honest here, and I hope that this transformation shows. When I first signed up for this course, I thought “ok, this is going to be an easy a, all I have to do is read the materials and blog”. I didn’t think in a million years that my perceptions or opinions were going to be changed at all. I have grown up in a very “don’t believe all the liberal mumbo jumbo, just do your work and make your a” kind of life. I thought this was what I was going to do. I, at first, was not willing to “think differently”. However, as much as I tried to ignore it, and maybe didn’t even recognize, my way of thinking and perceiving was indeed changing.
I believe that my beliefs and perceptions were first called into question when we read about the two Native American children. I read and respected the other articles before this one, but was still having a hard time making a connection with race being an issue. Perhaps it was Zonnie’s connection to poetry and her teacher’s inability to see this that really got me thinking about my literary experiences, especially with my own passion for poetry. When her teacher said that she didn’t know what was going on in her head, I found myself screaming “look at her poems”. I was outraged that someone so talented would be so stifled by standardized testing and education. I began to look into the bigger picture and bring in all of my previous learning of different cultures and lives. I began to change my way of thinking.
This process of change continued on and again, really hit a milemarker with Hicks’ writing. The stories of Laurie and Jake made a profound impact on my life. I started to really reassess my ideas about some of my students. I had always tried to be compassionate, but I wonder now if I was unable to reach some students because I had no idea of how to connect with them.
Now, everyday that I walk into my school, I see Lauries and Jakes running around. I find myself gathering more information about what is going on in their lives so that I can better help them deal with the demands of education. I approach everything in a more understanding manner than I ever have before. I don’t make excuses for them, but I am sensitive to their situation.

The teachings of this class and the inquiry into my own personal beliefs and methods came to a culminating experience for me the other day that sums up what I feel I have learned and I would like to share it with you all. I have a child in my class that comes from an abusive, alcohol driven, bipolar family. This child is very smart, but has a dangerous amount of anger built up and can be extremely aggressive. Before Easter break, he was suspended when another teacher in my grade level attempted to “teach him a lesson” about his actions outside of school at a local Easter egg hunt. The child snapped, and was suspended to his wreck of a home life for five days. We got back from break, and he didn’t come back. I asked his sister, and she said he didn’t want to. I began worrying more and more about this child. I talked to the school counselor trying to do a home visit, but I think they felt a since of relief upon his absence. This past Tuesday, his mother and grandmother pulled up with him in the car. He was kicking, punching, screaming out obscenities, to the point where the sheriff had been called. Both the counselor and the principal went out to try and get him into the school and he would not budge. I asked them for a chance to try. I went outside, and just talked to this angry little boy. I was honest and told him that I had been worried about him as tears welled up in my eyes. I told him about all of the neat stuff we were doing like planting flowers for mother’s day, and I showed him the ones I had planted for him. Then, I explained to him why this mattered. I told him that I knew his life was tough, and that I could never imagine what he had been through, but that education with people who cared could be his way out. I reminded him of all of the people we had read about in class, like Hellen Keller, and Martin Luther King Jr. and how their lives were hard but how they overcame their obstacles. I related his situation to the literacy we had shared in class to show him how education could change a life. I asked him, not told him, to give education another chance. I offered him my hand and together, we stepped back into our school.

I wonder if, two years ago I would have done this, if I would have been able to see how much this child needed a safe place and how much he just needed someone who cared. The truth is, I don’t know. But I do know that on Tuesday, I made a difference and got a child to buy back into education, all by changing my perception and using this change to guide my practice as a teacher.
I am very thankful for this class, for these readings, and for all of the wonderful stories and feedback you all have given. I am glad that my perceptions and beliefs have been changed and I am now a better teacher because of it.
Whitney Gilbert

There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all. Michel Foucault

When I first read the syllabus for this course and the three quotes included in the introductory information, I knew I was going to be stretched. Although I am not going to focus on the quotation by Roland Barthes, I have pondered the concept of “text of bliss” throughout this course and can say that with each new reading I have come to understand the meaning a little more. The Foucault quote is a “text of bliss” for me. My initial thought was that there was no way one course on race, class, and gender in relation to literacy learning would change my thoughts on these subjects. After all, I completed my undergraduate work almost twenty years ago, and I have had ample time in the “real” world to develop views that are founded on facts and not my personal biases and assumptions or ideas acquired from an admired professor. I really felt that I had a good grasp on these issues. Unfortunately, I did not even realize I had never been forced to wrestle with these issues deeply—to peer into my soul to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is all there.

I suppose Foucault’s quote unsettles me because by this time in my life I should not have to think differently, right? Is not part of maturity the stability in knowing what one believes and why? And, the way I have thought and what I have thought have served me well for many years. Why change now? If I choose to allow myself to think differently now does that mean that my prior way of thinking was wrong? At the heart of these conversations I had with myself was the notion that I was right. If I were right, there was no need to think differently, to perceive differently.

To say that this course has been a transformational journey for me is an understatement. Not only did I not know where I was going, I did not even know I needed to go! And yet within the first two weeks of reading The Skin that We Speak the map began to unfold and I started to chart a course. I realized my need to think differently. I came to understand the intimate ties each one has with her mother language. I saw the unfairness in the fact that Dowdy and Smith’s skin spoke so loudly that neither would have been heard in their mother language. I also realized that I had not truly respected my student’s home language. I did not see it as brilliant.

Probably the hardest part of allowing myself to think differently is the struggle to respect my own identity. In one of my posts I asked the question, “How will I value Ebonics without disrespecting my own home language?” It was in writing that post that I realized I was, for the first time, struggling in the same way that many students struggle. I finally got it—the issue is not language, it is identity. How can a child assume I am not trying to change who she is when I am constantly trying to change her language?

I think the key is in giving the student a voice, in convincing her of the power of being able to communicate her own story, the things that matter most to her. That teaching is a form of social activism had not occurred to me prior to this class. While I have always believed that teaching is one of the noblest professions because of the possibility of positively impacting another’s life, I guess I had not really considered it as social activism. But now I am convinced that more important than giving a student the tools to succeed in life, literacy is the key to giving the student a voice. But this voice does not come just with the development of reading and writing skills. It comes because someone listens to the student and values what she says. I think about Tamisha and her coming to voice. It was because of the time Henry was willing to give and the respect she showed Tamisha and the other girls with whom she worked. My allowing a student to come to voice requires that I recognize the value of what she has to share now.

I also learned a great deal about myself as I read the lives of Laurie and Jake through the eyes of Deborah Hicks. The most telling moment was when I caught myself being surprised that Jake’s father was an avid reader of non-fiction, content-laden material. I stated in my post, “Just I was not expecting Hicks to state that Jake’s father read informational books regularly, I did not expect there to be strong family support for Jake’s literacy learning. It bothers me greatly that I was surprised by this. Have I been socialized in such a discourse that I assume if the values of home and school conflict it must be because home practices are not supportive of school practices?” My assumptions and pre-conceived ideas reared their ugly heads. I realized that I, as a middle-class teacher, have been socialized to a particular discourse. Therefore, I must allow myself to think and perceive differently if I am going to be an effective teacher.

In the years that I have been away from the classroom many things have changed. My decision to enroll in graduate school was because I realized I could not afford to re-enter this world unprepared. While I wanted to learn new theories and practices, I do not think I considered that what I would gain from graduate school would be a new me. And now that I have started on this journey I want to continue to be willing to change, not just my methods but my thinking. If I want to change lives I must read lives. It is impossible for me to read lives if I am not willing to think differently. I still have a long way to go, but I have at this transitional point in my life answered the critical question. Yes, I know I can think differently—I can go on looking and reflecting.

Lisa Rasey

“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.” I interpret this quote to mean that people grow through reflection, and true reflection occurs when people think outside of their comfort zone or learn in a way they are not used to learning material. Through thinking outside of a comfort zone, people may develop feelings they have not experienced before, and learn from those feelings. In The Skin that we Speak, we read about students who were required to “think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees” because of their heritage or background these students entered school differently than other students from the majority group. They entered school with the responsibility to think differently than they were used to thinking and interpret things differently because of the language they speak. I agree with Foucault when he states thinking and developing new ideas of a subject through questioning is absolutely necessary. Teachers are expected to reflect everyday, as they consider how the lessons they have designed reached their students. This type of reflection is necessary, as well as reflection of literature. Especially reflecting on literature that presents ideas that test the attitude the reader has of the subject, and the literature we read in class tested my attitude towards the subjects addressed.

The literature we read in this class tested my understanding of how students from minorities feel about “thinking differently than one thinks”. By reading the literature I understand how to design instruction to fit the needs of all learners, the content and ideas represented in the literature have tested my attitude towards students of a minority group or working class family. Most importantly, while I was reading the text I questioned my own thinking and ideas and reflected on those ideas. I want to identify the important sections of the text that helped me do this.

In The Skin that We Speak, I learned about students from minority groups who were affected by the need to speak, act, and learn differently at school than they were expected to speak, act, and learn at home. They were required to think differently than one thinks, in terms of language. I read about students who questioned whether they could think differently than they were conditioned to think because of their heritage. These students were expected to develop hybrid identities if they wished to survive and excel in school. For example, Dowdy described her experience in the school system and the need to change her identity: “I invented a character that wanted to please her teachers and her dead mother”. Dowdy was different from other authors in the text, because her mother wished that she spoke a specific form of language that can be viewed as the language of intelligent people. Therefore, Dowdy experienced pressure at home and at school. Like all of the authors, I feel her experience of “thinking differently” contributed and influenced how she developed her identity. Later in life Dowdy participated in activities at work where she wrote small skits about the local people, and played their roles in the skits. Dowdy reflected on the experience: “The chains fell from around my tongue, and my brain began to feel as if it were oiled and moving along without hiccups”. She continued by stating that her life was then legitimized: “All of the shades of my existence could be called into the performance medium, and I, at last, could feel integrated”. I want all students, regardless of their background to understand that their life and feelings are legitimate. If they do not understand this before school, there are things teachers can do in school to help them understand.

I reflect on Baker’s chapter in The Skin that we Speak, because she identified one to build understanding in the classroom. Baker states that teaching students about “trilingualism” will help them build awareness of the need to develop a formal and professional language while accepting their home language. In the book she discussed how to utilize and the approach trilingualism, which I think is very important but because we have all read the information I will not include details of how to incorporate the idea into classroom instruction. Instead, I want to reiterate the main idea of “trilingualism”. In the trilingualism approach students learn about the three types of language that are important to develop: home, formal, and professional English. Baker defines the forms of language as the following: home English, or dialect, is the language most students develop at home or from peers; Formal, or academic, English is developed in school and through the text available at school; Professional English is the language that is developed in college or while working. From Bakers description in the book, I have concluded that the most important detail of the instruction of the “trilingualism” approach is to teach the students to respect each type of language in hopes the students will then be willing to use the best language form when appropriate. I feel the activities Baker identified in the chapter will enable students to question a different way of thinking and speaking. Students are also allowed the opportunity to reflect on their discussions of the different languages, which Foucault states is necessary.

As I reflected on what I have learned this semester from the texts, I realized one very important thing. These texts tested ideas and notions that I had of working-class children, and after reading the text my thoughts changed. I think differently than I thought before reading them. Before this class, my understanding of the working class children and the relationship to literacy came from being a working class student. I attended rural school systems where textbooks stayed at school because there was not enough money to replace them if students lost the books. Both of my parents were from a working class background as well, just as most of my friends’ parents were. I understood the restrictions that can be placed on a student, for example the monetary restrictions that affect the materials that are available. I also understood how the time parents have to devote to their children could affect their learning like spending time reading, and I understood that in a working-class setting parents values and goals are different. I was not aware of the specific examples that were found through research of these families that I became aware of by reading, Reading Lives: Working Class Children and Literacy Learning. For example, Hicks research identified problems Jake had with classroom instruction because of the value his father placed on learning by doing. Jake’s father states: “All they had to do was find ways to connect students’ interest with academic tasks”. Before reading the text I thought that teachers could link the material to students interest and the student would learn by reading interesting text. The ideas Hicks’ presented through research and the idea that reading and writing is a cultural and cognitive process, makes me feel that presenting interesting material is important but it is also important to develop a sense of belonging for students. I think differently than I do about the relationship of working class students and literacy, as I just described, but I want to know more. I want to understand how to teach students like Jake and Laurie because they are teachable.

All students are able to learn, and our job as teachers is to collaborate to build ideas when our own ideas do not work. We need to set a goal to attempt to think differently than one typically thinks and step outside of the box to brainstorm to meet the needs of students. Our reflection of these things will only make us stronger as teachers.

Elizabeth Griffin