RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Voice is the students’ participation and acceptance of the academic and intellectual process. It is the students’ desire to express ideas in a clear, coherent way, because that student understands that his or her thoughts are important. It is the solid understanding of why an individual must communicate clearly and effectively the recognition of self within the student that gives that student the ability to express with confidence.…

I believe the definition of voice was my favorite part of the research by Annette Henry. It defines voice not just for African Caribbean female students or minority students but for all students. We know in order to become a better reader you have read. To get students to read, you find books on their level and of their interest. I believe this applies to written and oral communication as well.

Henry begins the program with reading and connecting the text with the girls’ lives. The girls experienced difficulty because of trying to find the right answer. If teachers want students to connect with text, is there a correct answer? Connecting with text is personal because it is between the text and the reader’s personal experiences. If the student can make the personal connection and elaborate on the connection, it should be accepted. The world is made for listeners. A person may not have the ability to read, but they can listen to the news and local conversations and form opinions. They do not walk into the classroom a blank slate.

Henry wants the girls to have the ability to tell a complete story without worrying about correct grammar and sentence structure. I look at this rather simple. When young children are learning to talk or tell stories interesting to them, we let them speak freely without interruption. They make grammatical errors but we ignore them because we are focusing on the story. As time goes on, the young child makes less grammatical errors but his grown in the ability to express himself. I wonder if a child was corrected every time he spoke, would he continue to express himself.

Positive reinforcement, credible, community respect, individual freedom, acceptance, text value, cooperative authority are words used in Jeanine Staples article. The same words could apply to Henry’s research. Henry and Staple work with unengaged students by meeting them in their world. They give the students the ability to speak and express themselves in a community of learners without fear of being dismissed by the authority figure.

The Staple’s students created a traditional literature group but renamed the roles. The students were the leaders and the teacher was the facilitator. The students flourished. Staple noted this model is not easy to imitate because the teacher has to relinquish control while creating a learning community with rules. The teacher has to step outside of the traditional box and learn a new method. The new method may not produce right or wrong answers but several correct answers. If this is the case, then students are becoming true critics of literature. They are no longer resisting engagement. As teachers in the 21st Century of learning, we are going to have to create a new learning environment with students as the focus, not the teacher.

Zandra Hunt