Spring 19-E535 Literacy

“There are literally young black boys who have never seen a black man reading.” Alvin Irby by Jay Imagine entering your literacy class and dreading every second of the time you are in this prison of a classroom.  Classrooms that are not culturally sustaining assimilate into these prisons for many African American males, because of internal and external factors.  The following list form Tatum shows  “several factors that serve as barriers to achievement for African American males” (Tatum, 2006, P. 44)   Internal Factors:                                   External factors self-concept                              ...

When I hear the term "Book Club"... ...I think of getting together with a group of friends after reading a fictional, escape-from-every-day-life, easy-reader book, casually throwing out why we liked/disliked a character...and drinking some adult beverages.  Perhaps the conversation could spur a more serious debate or cause deeper thinking about the plot, but the purpose of our meetings would not be social action or critically responding to the text. I have seen book clubs in action at elementary schools. Obviously, wine was absent. But curiously enough, so was student-led discussion/activities and critical thinking. I didn't see students " inter preting,  debating, and constructing meaning from complex texts "...I saw students answering predetermined questions, participating in teacher-led discussions (or Q & A about factual parts of the book), and filling out worksheets after reading simple texts (Jocius & Shealy, p. 691). Yes, they split i...

Somehow many have come to equate exemplary performance in school with a loss of their African American identity; that is, doing well in school is seen as ‘acting white’” (Ladson-Billings, 2009, p. 12). Ladson-Billings (2009) goes on to say, “If they do not want to ‘act white,’ the only option, many believe is to refuse to do well in school.   Thus they purposely learn how not to learn ” (p. 12).   For young black students, there is severe peer pressure to not do well in school.   As students’ GPAs go up, their popularity goes down and they get made fun of by peers.   How did peer pressure affect you as a student?  Did it help you succeed or hold you back? We know this happens in schools.  We've read about it in various classes and discussed the achievement gap.  Tatum (2006) says this about reading scores, "National reading achievement data continue to indicate that as a group, African American males...are not performing well" (p. 44)...

Coming into this week’s reading, I was familiar with the concept code switching because I have studied it in sociology courses. It is also the name of a podcast I listen to regularly. I linked to an episode below in which the hosts discuss what it means to speak ‘standard american english’ through a sociopolitical lens. Before reading the article, Nah We Straight by Vershawn Ashanti Young, I had really only considered code switching as a useful tool for one’s cultural knapsack. Afterall, we are expected to use different registers in response to our social setting. We don’t speak to our friends the way we speak to our co-workers. We adjust our language and tone to be perceived as professional at work. I had only considered that people of color have a greater degree of modification because of the cultural value placed on sounding white. Whiteness is perceived as normal and a standard of correctness. W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness in which one has to present different ...

The article by Wheeler & Swords says "To code switch is to choose the pattern of language appropriate to the context. This is what I want my students to be able to do—choose the language form appropriate to the time, place, audience, and communicative purpose (Ezarik, 2002)." (2004, pg. 475)  In today's world, we have to acknowledge the different language patterns in each of our students, like SAE & AAE, and be aware of the sociolinguistic problem in the classroom.  I would love to imagine that all the educators and businesses around the world are aware of our cultural difference in language and don't hold it against us.  It's not realistic to think that these differences in our language patterns won't prevent in any opportunities form arising in the future.  We have to make sure our students are educated on code switching and know why we do it.  We also need to make them aware of different languages, besides standard english and AAE, and know how...

In Vershawn Ashanti Young's Nah We Straight , he states that,“ the fact that he had to code switch is the problem; the fact that AAE is still subject to racism is the issue to correct, not the people who speak it" (2009, p. 65). I agree that African-American English should be valued in the same way that Standard American English is. However, I think it's naive to believe that we live in a world where we can expect our students to do as well if they're not also familiar with SAE. Every day we're inundated with stories of people mistreating black people based solely on their appearance and speech.  This is unfortunately the world we live in. In an ideal world, code meshing would be welcomed by all however, that is not our reality. On the other hand, integrating code switching in schools is an achievable goal.  Why devalue code switching when its results have proven to be effective in the classroom setting?  Since I am no expert on code...

“There is no such thing as an apolitical position in teaching. Choosing not to disrupt the status quo is itself a political choice” (Garcia & O’Donnell-Allen, p. 30). When I decided to become a teacher, one of the main reasons was so I could make a difference in kids’ lives.   I don’t want to meet the needs of just one student, or a handful of students, but every student.   As we’ve discussed in many of our classes, the current educational system is not set up to benefit all students.   Those that benefit most in the school system are white, middle-class students.   THIS IS NOT OK!   If we go into our classroom and do nothing to change how things are, we are giving tacit approval to the current system. “If you stay silent, you are endorsing/reinforcing these conditions…in the lives of others who may not share your privilege” (Garcia & O’Donnell-Allen, p. 20). When we enter the school, we are entering a political arena where w...

Put Your Critical Lenses On by Lauren Creek “Critical educators hope that students will come to critique not only the texts they read but also the subjects they study, the media messages they watch and hear, the things that happen in the classroom and the world (Bomer & Bomer 51-52).”                                   “To involve children in critical conversations about the books they read or about the world they live, the teacher has to be a critical observer of the word and the world as well (Bomer & Bomer 45).”    I believe that Bomer & Bomer have laid out quite a few incredibly useful tools and practices for students to use to become critical observers of the texts they encounter in the classroom.    This is a great start to get our students practicing and growing their critical analysis.    As a future teacher I also want my studen...