RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

Both Baker and Ladson-Billings depict an innovative teacher who is not willing to allow children to fail. The ideas these teachers came up with came after something else didn’t work. They did not ‘magically’ decide to do these wonderful lessons with their students out of nowhere. They first tried something that did not work and decided to find something that did! As educators we should all do this! We should not stick with something simply because it is all we know, even if it is not working.

The idea of trilingualism is ingenious in many ways. First of all the study of dialects as languages is something I would have never thought of. Each student is then allowed to take pride in who they are and ownership over what they learn. Language is no longer a study of right and wrong or yours and mine but a study of the things that make us unique and also the elements that unite us. Incorrect grammar and language is so deeply imbedded in who we are if it is the language of our home. It is nearly impossible to correct this quickly and effectively without acknowledging the value of the language which a person identifies with as their own.

I suspect that I have been guilty of giving permission to fail, and I identify with the teacher who allowed Shannon not to write her sentence. I do not agree with Ladson-Billings that the reason the teacher did not require her to do the sentences was because she was “unworthy in the teachers’ eyes” (110). I believe that this teacher faced the same struggle that many of us face often. The struggle is when a student is programmed to fail, it is very difficult and exhausting to re-program them. As a high school teacher, I encounter students who have failed so many times and simply expect to fail. These students are often resistant to school and even develop a negative attitude toward learning and teachers. So, giving a student permission to fail is not always something the teacher does on purpose, and I surely hope is not something that most teachers do consciously, it is just a negative outcome of having too much to do! It is unfortunate that this author has had experiences that led her to believe the teacher would consider a student unworthy, although this is probably a reality with some teachers.

I think the teacher who used the song to get his students to write did a very good job of pushing all students to write and not allowing anyone an out. This idea is one that many teachers do not try because it takes a lot of planning, and it is hard to know what the final outcome will be.

I really like Ladson-Billings “culturally relevant pedagogy” and the three propositions that go along with it. My school has a motto: we want kids to be able to read, write and think. If they can read, write and think then they will be able to do anything else that they are faced with. This concept along with the idea that students should be culturally aware and able to interact with many different cultures comfortably and be aware and able to question inequality and injustice truly make a well-rounded individual. These three principles she lays out could be the only three principles in school and I think we would be on the right track. We are not attempting to create robots who can bubble in the correct answer on a multiple choice test, but intelligent thinking adults who will contribute to society.

In conclusion, I believe that teachers should demand high quality work from all children and be creative and innovate in the way they attempt to challenge students to do things that they have previously been resistant to.

Shannon Keough