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

It is disturbing to think that any teacher would not connect with their children. Being a young teacher is helpful for you to understand a lot of what they are talking about, music, movie stars, etc. I agree I will put out more of an effort to enter their conversations, but I still want them to hear "proper" English. Encouraging them to code switch will serve them well when they enter the real world. I agree with the article and you they need their own time to use their home language, but we must prepare them so they can compete globaly, and right now the business language is English.

I am glad to hear that someone else agreed with my about Delpit's attack on teachers.

Providing student with ample opportunites to use the native langauge in a relaxed setting such as the cafeteria, lunch and in groups is an excellent way to allow them to show who they are. I like the idea too of speaking to students in a more relaxed tone so that they know oyu are really listenging and relating to them and who they are. It is so very interesting listening to how they speak to each other versus how they speak to me. I too am more relaxed in my converations and some might even say I "code switch" when speaking with friends. But as I read in another comment, children need to be taught when that "code switching" is appropraite for use.
Kim Shaw

I couldn't imagine trying to connect with my students on a personal level. That simple factor makes such a huge impact on student learning! I agree with the fact that culturally they need to be able to speak in their own dialect. But as I stated on another post, these students need to know the appropriate situations to use their dialects. Could you imagine President Obama getting up in front of the country speaking in "Ebonics"? Could you imagine a student going into a college interview for a scholarship and throwing around the word "ain't"? It is for times such as these that teachers try their best to engrain in students to use correct grammer. I as well did not like the attack on teachers in this article.

I definately agree with all of you!A strong connection with your students will provide a safe, caring environment. I have always found the more connections that i make with a student the more successful they will be or become. I also talk to my students in "code switiching". For some reason the children usually think that teachers are all old and know nothing about the new trends.

One thing that I must say is that even from the year 2002, when I believe this article was made, to teaching now, in the year 2009, we have changed greatly in our education system. We are focusing more of our instructional time on student-centered learning and trying to understand our students as indivuduals, since we all know they have different needs to be met. I think Dowdy was using observation from her own experience and if she attended any of your classrooms today, she would not see teachers ignoring students interest and only teaching how they want to teach the curriculum. I would like to believe her article would be more appealing to read as teachers, and not so frustrating to us.

One thing that I must say is that even from the year 2002, when I believe this article was made, to teaching now, in the year 2009, we have changed greatly in our education system. We are focusing more of our instructional time on student-centered learning and trying to understand our students as indivuduals, since we all know they have different needs to be met. I think Dowdy was using observation from her own experience and if she attended any of your classrooms today, she would not see teachers ignoring students interest and only teaching how they want to teach the curriculum. I would like to believe her article would be more appealing to read as teachers, and not so frustrating to us.