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

After reading through the Jeanine M. Staples article, Hustle and Flow, as well as “Speaking up” and “Speaking Out” I became more aware of what public school educators may be doing in a classroom to send some students on a downward spiral of feeling incompetent, incomplete and unable to succeed.

I began to think about how some of these students that were featured in Staples’ article were treated in public schools. I can only picture five younger adolescent African Americans sitting in a regular classroom slouched in their desks, talking above one another, disrespecting their teacher as well as other students around them. To be honest, the scene that I play in my head comes from a movie that I watched as a pre-service teacher at ASU, called “Dangerous Minds”. A clip can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQf9noA7xY

After thinking about my own teaching experience and seeing the classroom management issues, the lack of focus, the lack of interest in school I realized that it all boils down to what was addressed in that short clip: choice. I think that Staples and Henry share that the number one way to get students interested is by giving choice.

I noticed as I read that Staples first brought students into her after school center and offered them a “safe place to be”. She worked hard at building a sense of classroom community, and made sure that all of her students were comfortable with each other, and with her.

Then, Staples selected materials that were appropriate for her students’ interests and that related to her students. She did not have the restrictions of public schools to limit what she could show or not show. This enabled her to really find materials that related to the lives of her students and to open conversations that would not necessarily be appropriate for public schools.

Staples conveyed to students that they were going to participate in “re-authorization”. They were to take common “norms” of characters in their studies and re-author how these characters were viewed by society. She used a sense of community, high interest literature and a restriction-free zone to finally reach these young African-American adolescent men.

In the end, Staples found that her students were comfortable with confronting her as well as each other on ideas and points made in the after school session. Once again, I believe that her findings were based on that # 1 piece…choice. If our students feel that they are respected, appreciated and given a choice in what they do in our public school system, all will reach some kind of personal success.

In reference to Henry’s article, I see the same ideas for the African Caribbean girls that are involved in the after school program. Students are set up in a community of comfort, and then give opportunities to write and journal about experiences. Then, students were paired with others to complete a series of activities that enabled them to feel competent and to feel that they had a “voice”. In the end, students gained enough comfort that they were able to speak aloud in front of the class about issues that were taboo in public schools. I can see that students were provided with a sense of community, and in turn, shared that they too, had a choice to feel important.

Here is the next scene of “Dangerous Minds” after the teacher confronts her students with making choices to come to school. Notice that there is a sense of communication about literature from a couple of students after the teacher speaks about choices that the students make to come to school each and every day. Stop around minute 2:25 to conclude this scene. Keep watching if you are interested! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hns8TDH_nmI&NR=1

Renee Hennings June 13 2010