After reading the forward and the first few pages of the overview, I began to think to myself—I am going to like this book. However, the further I read into the overview, the more repetitive and drawn out it became. I know that my role, as a grad student, is not to be a reading critique, but I think the overview could have been summed up and to the point in just five pages or less. I lost interest after the fifth page of the overview. Maybe it was just me…
I am intrigued by this book’s focus of study. From personal experience, I have not read much research and/or studies concerning the white, working/blue collar class in our United States Society. This book is on target for the type of socio-economic level and working-class status of the school where I teach. For these reasons, I am eager to read further to gain a better insight into the lives of my students.
The scenarios given of Jake and his litter sister are effective in demonstrating the social responses to situations in working-class families. Deborah Hicks made a comment about the tiff that Jake and Lee Ann got into. She mentioned that in from the middle-class perspective, one would assume that this would be the perfect moment for an adult to educate the children. However, this did not occur. The adults’ responses were direct and to the point, encouraging for Lee Ann to take matters into her own hands in the form of aggression. From the middle class perspective, I would expect parents or guardians to take this opportunity to make this scenario a “learning experience” so that the children could review the preceding events and reflect on them to make an informed decision about how to respond—making the child the decision-maker. Unfortunately, these adults encouraged the more aggressive manner of handling the situation without a moment at all to reflect. The events that unfolded ended up being “reactions” instead of thought-out actions. Although I teach in a working-class setting, I am surprised by the adults’ response in this example. I have never before thought about these situations in terms of social-class differences. Reading Lives is helping me to look past my normal expectations and see beyond class divisions. I believe reactions to events at home can also shape our interactions and reactions to literary examples in the classroom.
Discovering a child’s home environment can be tough. Children are sometimes reluctant to share things about home unless they do so from a different angle. In my classroom, I have journal writing throughout the week. The children meet later at the rug and share their journal writings out loud so that others may hear about their experiences. I find that through this one activity, I gain a much greater insight in my students’ lives. Through this week’s readings, I have discovered that there is an even greater relationship between home experiences and the classroom setting. Children are a product of their environment. It is up to us, as teachers, to give them a strong foundation by creating a bridge between their learned behaviors from home to their learning at school.
Written by Heather Holland
Comments (6)
heather,
i agree that the relationship between our children's home lives/"working class families" and the school environment is in some cases extremely different. in this past year ive learned so much about the home life situations that my students come from. just this week one of my little girls told a lie about getting paint all over one of our centers. she is a good girl and i was suspecting that something was going on at home. it took me 30 minutes to finally get to the bottom of her home issues. mom did not come see her on her birthday. mom is addicted to drugs and she left her two girls. now this young five year old is struggling to make it in life. i know now that when she is "acting out" something must be going on at home. the other sad part of this child's home life is that she is basically being raised by her elderly great grandmother. i dont know what she will do when her great grandmother passes on. you can already see the major effects on this child. dad works constantly to provide for his two girls therefore he spends little time with his children.
these chapters really do make one think about our students in a different way.
donna byrd-wyatt
Posted by donna byrd-wyatt | June 6, 2007 11:30 AM
Posted on June 6, 2007 11:30
Hi Heather,
No one told us that we'd have to learn to be mother/nurse/physchiatrist and educator when we were preparing to teach!
I've learned that one of the best things I can do (if I just remember to do it!) is to LISTEN, not only to my students' words but also to their actions/behaviors. One of my 4th graders has really been "difficult" for the past week or so. I've realized that she is stressed about doing poorly (poor score) on the EOG and she fears retention, losing friends and losing face! Just knowing that she is reacting to a "threat" helps me to approach the behavior issue differently!
In my school (Title I, all children are from poverty), I am reminded daily of how "tough" many of the home lives are and just how "tough" my students need to be in order to survive! No wonder the standardized curriculum is not a number one priority for these children. They have to think about where they will sleep and what they will eat. In reading these chapters, I began to see a similarity in the lives of some working class (poverty level) families and the families of my students. I think this author, like many of those whose works we read last week, believes that we have to LISTEN to our students in order to build a common ground and support meaningful communication.
Betsy Baldwin
Posted by Betsy Baldwin | June 6, 2007 6:54 PM
Posted on June 6, 2007 18:54
Heather,
I agree with you. I believe the overview could have been summed up better. Journal writing can definitely give you insight into your children's lives. I use Writers' Workshop in my classroom. Most of my children want to share their writings. I learn a lot about their lives.
I found the dialogue of Jake and Lee Ann interesting. I was surprised at the response, too. I would have thought a different response would have come from the adults. That definitely goes to show that there are social class differences.
Posted by Dawn Thomas | June 6, 2007 10:32 PM
Posted on June 6, 2007 22:32
I would like to comment about the conversation including the two children. I don’t think that everyone reads that the same way. I had to read it several times but I think I finally realized that they were being playful. I do not think they were telling the little girl to go take up for herself in a very serious manner. And I think that the boy was just playing when he was yelling. If everyone else gets this then great, but if not then maybe I am wrong. I think it was just harmless fun though. I can just play this scene over and over in my head now and think that they are just all playing around. The kids and the adults.
Posted by Kristen Billings | June 6, 2007 10:54 PM
Posted on June 6, 2007 22:54
Heather,
I definitely could identify with what you said about the writing in this text. As I was reading the text, I thought to myself that the author chose the most complicated and round about way to express what she had to say. Chapter 1 was tolerable, but I thought most of the author's language patterns in chapter 2 were more complex than necessary.
I'm not sure if it is fair to classify particular behaviors as characteristics that belong to a given social class of people. I realize the author and other experts she cites have done their research on segments of the population, but not all people in a given social class behave in the same manner. Are we to assume that only working class parents respond to their children's problems like Le Ann and Jake's guardians? I don't think it is possible for that scenario to be true since not all working class people live according to the same values and beliefs. I'm sure there are people classified as working class who would also consider Jake and Le Ann's family's encouragement of aggressive behavior as being inappropriate and disturbing. In the news and media we hear about middle and upper class families engaging in their share of dysfunctional behaviors that negatively affect their children's ability to conform to what is expected of them in school. Perhaps the home environments of all classes of people need to be studied and analyzed before judgements are made about the values of people based on their social class.
Posted by Vickie Howell | June 6, 2007 11:00 PM
Posted on June 6, 2007 23:00
Heather,
I like how you turn the interpretive lens back onto yourself to see how your own class identity influences your reading of the text. It is easy to make quick critiques of family behavior and wonder why families to what they do, but once we realize that we are making those critiques via our own biases, I think we can be more responsive to students.
Alecia
Posted by Prof. Alecia Jackson | June 10, 2007 10:30 PM
Posted on June 10, 2007 22:30