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

“Speaking Up and Speaking Out”
I’m going to be brutally honest and say that I struggled through reading this entire article. I think I got so caught up in trying to understand the research terms that were presented in the beginning that I almost lost the meaning of what was being said. As I was reading there was one point in particular that spoke to me, on page 238 Henry says that Brett and Blake (1995) did a study that showed that “girls need permission to write in formal classrooms” they need opportunities to read, discuss, write and express themselves in safe, private contexts.” For me this point struck particularly hard! This was the first year in my nine years of teaching that my female to male ratio was so different. This year I had 14 girls and 6 boys. I began to look back and think about their writing and the times that they expressed themselves. As I looked I was pleased to realize that in terms of academics my girls expressed themselves and their opinions much more frequently than my boys did. Even when I began to think about years past I realized that for the most part in Kindergarten my girls had no trouble saying what they felt and expressing their thoughts and opinions. This made me began to wonder when does that change. When do girls start silencing their thoughts and ideas to be more like the boys and why. I realize as I ask these questions that no one can pinpoint the exact age or grade that this happens, but it still leads me to wonder that if I did more to foster my girls opinions, even at an age when they have no trouble sharing them ,would I be helping them along later in life.
The other part of the article that I was able to understand and thought was a wonderful idea was letting Alice and Nadia practice their literacy skills by having them act out a skit. By doing this and letting the girls speak to each other in their native tongue the girls were able to express themselves and were also able to share their culture. I loved how they based the entire skit on their home lives and things that they experience every day. I think that allowing students to do more activities like this would enable us as teachers to learn more about them, while also allowing them to feel comfortable in the learning situation.

Hustle and Flow
“WOW” This article by far has made more sense to me than any of the others so far. I think the reason that it was so powerful was that it focused on labels. I find myself everyday trying not to put labels on my students but I would say 80% of the time I fall short. In my classroom you could probably find, talkative students, disruptive students, smart students, low students, students who try to impress, students who are annoying. The list could go on and on, yet everyday when I go in I consciously try to erase those labels, but yet in the first hour or two of the day they are back. I don’t think I realized how much labels do effect us. I loved it on page 379 when the article said, “outside of school their identities are entwined with authority and specialized knowledge that are not privileged during the course of their regular days. Outside of school my students are call “lyricist, ‘master surfer, gamer, poet, and even cultural critic.” As the article went on the explain what some of those labels entailed I began to realize that inside a classroom those would most definitely not be the labels that were placed on the students. Even as I saw how these labels could change from school to home, I don’t think I realized how truly influential a label can be until I read page 384 where it talked about, “DJay’s longing to be called author, writer, or rapper. It was clear that he did not want to be on hard times and that he longed desperately to be “someone” as opposed to a pimp.” After reading that sentence I realized the extreme effect that labels truly do have on people. In this characters mind it was almost as if someone else could see him in a different light then he could change. I once again when back to thinking about the labels that I like most people subconsciously put on my students and I began to wonder if I changed my unspoken label will this allow them to begin to change themselves. I don’t know if it will work but I do know that I am going to try.
Katie Templeton