well, after reading these chapters a few things came to mind. the first was a flash-back to those frustrating days that i spent in second grade at those blue round-robin reading tables where i struggled with a "dick and jane" text. my next thought goes to lisa outland...thank you. your first comment about the text made me feel somewhat better. next, in our teacher as researcher class i just took with dr. moorman, we were specifically told to write clear, clean and consise qualitative research papers. if your sentences go more than three lines...shorten them. if a paragraph goes over a page...shorten it. finally, i was somewhat disappointed because im afraid im going to miss something important! now that i got all that out...here are my thoughts...
i definately believe that class has an effect on children and their literacy and how they approach life. when i was a title I teacher we would follow our children's progress from first grade through fifth grade. i found the information that we gained to be valuable. in many cases the children that we served were from working class families. (i would have been a title I child, so my work with these children was extremely important) many of these children would have the same type of family behaviors as jake and lee ann. it is certainly an eye opener to read the dialogue between this family. kindergarten is a time when children do learn social literacy. i definately will be listening more to the conversations that go on in my children's literacy center...as well as home living and doll house...i would like to understand more clearly their social literacy.
the roadville and trackton section was also valuable. wow, in some home cultures it is wrong to "make up" a story! our school is now using writers' workshop. we are able to have the children write about their lives...things that they are excited about writing. we are also using the "turn and talk" and "say something" strategies that allow the children to talk about what they are thinking...what the discussion reminds them of. these strategies and writers' workshop would probably be beneficial to these children. my kindergarten children are so excited to share.
i am at a loss of words for what to say about the discussion between terry, sean and their teacher. i found this part of the text to be disturbing...extremely disturbing. obviously these boys have learned negative words and behaviors from their home culture. not only do these children know words that are horrendous, they actually know what context to use them. and they are in pre-school! and the teacher said that they were being..."silly"? they are not being silly.
what about the other children in this pre-school? it reminds me of an event that happened in my life when a child said something horrible to me. i asked my mother about it in the car as she was driving home. luckily she didnt wreck the car! that was my first experience with other home cultures and how mine home culture was different. that was a frightening time for me...my thoughts when reading this section were...what about the other children that are hearing this language? should the teacher handle this situation in a different way? what exactly are we to do if this happens...tell the children that they are silly so we dont hurt their home culture? im having difficulty with this one...
donna byrd-wyatt
Comments (27)
Good for you for stating the obvious...I too was disturbed by the negative and horrible language of the preschool boys. I was even more disturbed by the teachers casual attitude toward it. I kept wondering if she did this because of their age and at what age do you make them accountable? I agree that we as teachers shouldn't negate their home values but where do we draw the line for the sake of other students? Good point!
Posted by Sara Joyce | June 5, 2007 9:43 PM
Posted on June 5, 2007 21:43
Donna,
Your last set of questions are profoundly important in that they also relate back to discussion on this Blog about Standard English.
As we read more, we will see more data stories about how teachers deal with social practices from home cultures. I think it will become more obvious that these are also issues of power and oppression. Just as SE shouldn't be used to dehumanize someone, gender-specific insults shouldn't be either!
Very complicated.
Alecia
Posted by Prof. Alecia Jackson | June 5, 2007 10:16 PM
Posted on June 5, 2007 22:16
What is there to do? I am sometimes at the end of my rope when so many things need changing in this world. We have to take a step back sometimes and prioritize and I hate to say it, but we must pick our battles. But I do hate to say that and I want to know why I have to say it. Why are there so many things that need improving upon? I want to make a difference in this lifetime but which of the things do I pick to try to change? Money issues with budget, teacher appreciation, student test grades, testing itself, academics in the classroom, student behavior and success? I mean what do you choose? Because it is impossible to choose them all isn’t it? I find that this is one of the hardest things to tackle as a new teacher. Which battle should I choose if I must choose? Of course I focus on the students but even there, there are so many things to choose from. Special education brings many new view points as well. To practice inclusion or not to practice inclusion, that is the question. I don’t know what my entire teaching philosophy is, but I know that I can’t change everything. I just hope I can scratch the surface somewhere.
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