After reading these two chapters, I wasn’t sure which way I would pronounce it! What really lives here is an unending stream of psychological, sociological, and educational vocabulary! It stressed me out completely and was unnecessary; in fact, a roadblock to comprehending and appreciating what Hicks was trying to communicate. Now that I have that off my chest, I will comment on some of what I gleaned through the jargon.
One statement that grabbed me right away was on page 2, “…feeling and valuing are integral to what it means to know.” I have never read anything in education that has made any better sense. Why does public education demand that everyone fit in a box? (The same box, of all things!) Even when ascertained that a child has learning difficulties, exceptionalities if you will, the state of North Carolina requires that child to experience the identical tests as every other child. To top that off, the tests are created by a set of peoples who have no knowledge of children as human beings. I contend that knowing is just as Hicks has explained through her own words and the studies of others. Literacy is indeed a social and cultural practice, never independent of others. We all come to the table of learning with prior knowledge and experiences, which differ from others and shape us as individuals. Sometimes we break out of molds when thrust into socially diverse settings such as college or change of location. The example from the podcast clarified this. I immediately thought of the “code switching” situation from the Baker article. Other examples are replete throughout most of the articles we have read for this class. We do bring ourselves from our histories to literacy and every form of learning. As educators, we see this on a daily basis if we are looking at the children instead of numbers on a chart.
Janet Gross
Comments (4)
Janet, something that came to mind as I was reading what you quoted from the text about "feeling and valuing are integral to what it means to know" was this: Simply put, we will learn when something has meaning for us. We will learn when we can make a real-world connection--our world preferrably, right? This is how our kids learn; no matter their social class, gender, or race, they all want to know: "What's this got to do with me?" Now, the gifted and committed educator, by gosh, is gonna find out, bridge that gap, and facilitate as this child, teacher, and peers together construct meaningful understandings.
Posted by erin farringtonf | June 23, 2009 12:42 AM
Posted on June 23, 2009 00:42
Well I think your post just needs a big AMEN! I think it makes SO MUCH sense for students to only learn when it has meaning for them. As a teacher, I think it is so important for us to make things relevant to their lives regardless of their cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds. I hate how we are told to differentiate all year long and then come the last couple of weeks in May we are forced to give all students identical tests. What is the purpose of differentiation when all students are going to be tested the same? This topic infuriates me so much! I as well think we should be looking out more for children than for numbers on a chart.
Posted by Erica Spicer | June 23, 2009 11:12 AM
Posted on June 23, 2009 11:12
This makes total sense - making connections and learning through real-life experiences. One more thing I'd like to add would be not only culture and class, but also states w/in the US. I am on vacation and have to NY and MA. The testing and curriculum is so different than NC is it ridiculous. History is history and geography is geography and math is math - how then can each state's expectations be so different?
Posted by Loren Van De Griek | June 23, 2009 4:36 PM
Posted on June 23, 2009 16:36
Janet:
You got my vote! I definitely agree that a LOT OF terminology used was waay out there and yes I too got hung up in the jargon. But if I can say anything about Ms. Hicks and her approach to writing, literacy, and comprehension…I certainly now have a greater appreciation for when I hear my students make statements and/or comments about them not understanding something. Or they don’t know what questions to ask, again because they don’t understand! NOW I UNDERSTAND! Janet, you right just like we as educators bring our “histories to literacy”. Our students bring their histories/culture to our classroom as well and we need to observe them as individuals…not numbers on a page.
Posted by Toni Wheeler | June 24, 2009 12:38 AM
Posted on June 24, 2009 00:38