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

When I was thinking of a title for these two articles, I started to realize that the most effective and meaningful time of their school day happened after school. If only we could have smaller more intense classes during the day to reach all these teenagers who are unmotivated and not interested in participating in their classes with texts. I suppose these groups had more leniency afterschool and the open environments that allowed topics of interest and discussion were not as regulated as they would probably be if conducted during a normal school day. I thought it was fascinating to see how these African American males in the Staples article took media and were re-authoring them. The skills they were using weren't pressed upon them, they just unintentionally were exercising them and developing them by re-authoring their pieces of work. The set up of the program was very inspiring because the teacher took away her authority and gave it to the students. The topics were related to these students' lives and more meaningful to them than texts from within a normal classroom. The time invested in this program by these students showed their dedication, freedom, value, commmunity and acceptance into this new avenue of literacy that they were developing and sharing openly with others. These students put themselves out there, and took risks. The framework for this was eye opening. What an awesome program to be apart of.
The same awe was reaffirmed when reading the Henry article. Both of these groups allowed for open discussions and a safe secure place for all members to participate. I noticed that each of the groups the students had the choice of writing in their journals or discussing the topics at hand. I was amazed to see how many chose to write. Relating that to my classroom today, it was like "pulling teeth" this year to get my kids to write. I even tried using fun writer's notebooks, and shared the Amelia's Notebook series with them to show them all the different ways a notebook could be used. I let them go with the concept of drawings in their notebooks, but then it was more drawings and less writing. But when I thought back to my teenage years, I could relate to the use of my diary. I started writing in my diary in 8th grade all the way up to my senior year in high school. It was amazing to reread as an adult.
The other part of the Henry article I found to be the most interesting was the feelings and emotions expressed through the term voice. These girls were afraid to express themselves and all their emotions were building up. I couldn't even begin to imagine how hard that would be to not be able to talk to my own mother about things because of our cultural status and expectations. But taking some time to relate to this, I didn't have that voice as a teenager either, but my restrictions were not a race issue per say. My issues were nothing compared to the limitations and expectations these girls had to live up to. The most lasting part of this article was what the research showed: "Black girls are expected to adopt female roles of passivity and complacency; they are invisible to teachers as serious learners; they receive less encouragement and rewards; they are assessed for their social skills rather than academic achievement; they are evaluated by their physical characteristics......" and it continues. Are schools helping this change? Is this something that Black girls will have to deal with the rest of their lives? As a teacher, my lasting thought was, how can I help change this?

Abby Boughton