RE_5539

Like many of you I found these two chapters difficult to read. In fact, I made a note in the book about it being "wordy." I had to re-read and make notes along the way the second time through the chapters.
In my mind working class and middle class are one in the same. I had always used those two terms interchangeably. I grew up in a middle class family, yet my father worked very hard to provide for the four of us. There were things we wanted but sometimes had to wait for, but we never had a need for the basics. If he had lost his job, we would have been in trouble financially. So for this reason I felt that our middle class family had to work very hard to earn a comfortable living. I understand that for the understanding of this book, working class means lower middle class or near poverty level. However, I feel that most middle class families today are living right on the edge of poverty. According to Ruby Payne who has completed research on social classes, poverty is situational and can affect many middle class families throughout a lifetime if circumstances change.
So as I understand the working class I try to keep in mind that children who come from these situations are possibly lacking the necessary resources to achieve or perform up to academic standards in school. Perhaps teachers should keep in mind that poverty is not just about lack of money. It involves a completely different set of values because resources are not the same from family to family.
I liked the point that was made on page 13 about teachers should "draw on listening, watching, feeling and understanding." As a Kindergarten teacher I model many practices and therefore my students must listen, watch, and understand what I'm teaching. Each child is unique and capable. I am a firm believer that children live up to or down to the expectations that we place opon them.
In an earlier course I learned about Gee and his description of primary and secondary discourses. I think that the bottom line is this: Children who can successfully shift from one discourse to another and be able to think about the implications of this process will do well in school. Naturally there are other factors that contribute or hinder progress, but students need to be taught that their primary discourse should be embraced and valued for what it is, but that SE and the language of school or workplace is equally important.
Think about students who are trying to learn a second language in school. They are taught and expected to speak using correct pronunciation, spelling, verb usage, etc. The most comfortable form of communication is the language that you learn first-- the language used at home. So when ESL learners are learning English it is important to teach them SE so that they can communicate effectively with other English speakers.
I feel that the book we are reading is focused on the viewing the student as an individual, a complex person with a cultural background that must be considered when setting the course for success in literacy. Teachers should be sensitve to issues that involve social class, gender, or ethnicity when preparing to teach.