Happy Holidays?

  So, I usually try not to rant, but my hometown has gotten really out of hand, and I think its most recent event fits in with our coursework quite well. As of right now, 111 people have been arrested on drug charges. Arrest began around 4 a.m this morning.  On the website for local news, 36 faces are displayed along with the full name of those indicted. The ages ranged from 16 to 68. At this moment, I'm still trying to process my own feelings. I read "The New Jim Crow" in our course, and I had my qualms with the text. However, I'm simply boiling over with grief and anger right now. This operation is not clearly draw against lines of race, but class. Still, all I could say was, "This is the mess Alexander is talking about." While I cannot declare anyone guilty, I'm simply disgusted at how my local law enforcement carries out these operations.

  1. They choose to do 'big' operation near the holidays. Most of the time they have 2 or 3 months worth of evidence against these individuals, but they choose to do these bust during the holidays to 'make a statement.'
  2. 4 a.m? Really?
  3. There's no consideration for the children.  My sister is a social worker for Child Protective Services. She will once again not have a Christmas because these 'round ups' are kept under wraps until hours before. Therefore, the children have such little time to become acclimated to a 'parent-less' household.  Note, many of these individuals could have been arrested over the summer. I'm not saying that that would be better... but,  there's a specific reasons that they wait until days before Christmas. This is pattern----My senior year of high school, 7 of my cousins were arrested on drug chargers. Most used the money to help their parents make ends meet. They were under investigation for 7 months. The 'authorities' arrested them one week before graduation-----"to make a point."
  4. People are just amazed---in an inconceivable way. It's like some grand celebration.
  5. I am completely against revealing names and faces to the public. No one has been convicted. If most of these people are acquitted, the community can remember a face and continue to marginalize the individual. Thus, perpetuating the cycle.


   I don't want to ruin anyone's break or holiday, but I really wanted to share this in a space where I felt like people could openly discuss the issue in an 'informed' way. I wanted to vent in a space where I wouldn't have to first convince the person to see that x,y and z are occurring. You all get it.

   Lives just being torn apart, man.

If you haven't already, take a look at this Op-Ed about NYPD in New York public schools:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/take-police-officers-off-the-school-discipline-beat.html?smid=pl-share

(I hadn't heard about Dennis Rivera, the kindergartner who was cuffed in 2008, so here is an article about that incident as well: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/5-year-old-boy-handcuffed-school-hospital-misbehaving-article-1.341677)

I can't even comment on this, it's too much.

The Power of Someone Believing in You

Many time throughout my life I have heard the saying that one person can make all the difference in another person's life. I have always believed this to be true. Yet, I could never really pinpoint an adult in the context of school who really motivated me or enlivened me. To be honest, I always thought of myself as forgettable. I could tell that many teachers and professors forgot my name or even sometimes called me "María". I really hated that. However, in college I did have a few professors who really made a difference in my life, who made me smile and who motivated me. My most positive experience of them all came my senior year of college. It was in a Spanish literature class, towards the end of the semester. We had to write a ten page research paper as our final. The professor offered us the option to turn in a first draft which she would read and give feedback on before our final draft. She graded that first draft and gave us the opportunity to improve that grade. If you received a good grade on the first draft, you would not have to submit a final draft. When I received my first draft back there were red markings all over it, a sign that she read it in detail, but at the top it read, "Marina you did a great job. You can leave it as it is, but if you choose I can help you edit it and you can sent it into Elements" (an undergraduate scholarly journal). My first thought was "wow!" I never thought that my writing was good enough to be sent to a scholarly journal. She believed in me and my capabilities and in turn I began to believe in myself. Even though I was not published in the end, I did gain something. I learned to believe in myself and have faith in my academic abilities. I learned that I was capable of being a great writer and much more.
I look back so positively on that experience. I learned that one person really can make a difference, especially in education. My professor made such a difference in my life because she believed in me. I hope to be able to give my students the same confidence that she gave me, because knowing that someone believes in you is a powerful thing.

Harlem on Our Minds: Incomplete in the Best Way Possible

Donovan Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you so much for bearing with us while we constructed our impressions of Harlem on Our Minds. It is finally done, so we hope you enjoy!

Valerie Kinloch's book contained a number of important key points. First of all, as Luis pointed out and we riffed on as conversation for a while, it is notable for its state of incompleteness. The premise of Kinloch's research was to engage students at Harlem High School in action research in their communities. However, her research was fluid and evolved from critical interpretation into concerted local involvement. With the specific issue of gentrification in mind, the author encouraged students to forge their own definitions of what the process meant for them as it happened to their home, with emphasis on connections between place (specifically, Harlem) and identity, and also on documentation of the historically Black community vis a vis white students and professionals taking up temporary, high-rent residency. Conversations among students on "reading" Harlem, particularly with one "literacy learner, soul, singer, and street survivor" named Philip, grew into videoing culturally significant spaces under threat as they changed. Soon students and teachers collaborated on interviewing and surveying those on both sides of the race and class lines of Columbia University's eminent domain-rationalized gentrification (and that of middle class "dancer's through Harlem on the whole), and spoke out at a Tenants Association meeting.

The feeling we got from this book as we discussed it was that it was a constant work in progress; a give and take between student agency and the direction of the facilitator. For future students or teachers looking to read this book, a good idea would be to read it with an open mind and with patience, it does not give clear cut answers on what it means to undertake participatory action research. However, the process of negotiation and growth that occurs with the students and Kinloch is extremely valuable. In the long run, it seems that students were able to fully realize and materialize their voices through a variety of media, something any educator can aspire to.

The New Jim Crow...What to know!

Good afternoon Donovans,

Sorry this has taken so long. When our group began discussing what we wanted to share with the whole class about Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, we instantly started pulling apart her arguments and critiquing areas of weakness. Alexander lays out her intention to write a book that is accessible to all at the very beginning of The New Jim Crow. As college educated individuals, we have been trained to examine the scholarship and pull apart the pieces that we read. It is important to understand before reading Alexander's work that this book is multifunctional depending on the background of the reader. 

In this vein, it seems appropriate to start with what this book accomplishes. The New Jim Crow is clearly meant to start a conversation, not to be the end of it. Although some of Alexander's metaphors are loose, she does not offer a magic bag of solutions to racism, denial of rights, and the system of mass incarceration in this country. Depending on the reader, Alexander also offers some enlightenment and increases the fluency of the reader to be able to have conversations with others regarding the systematic oppression of black men in our country. For example, Alexander uses court cases that many readers may not be familiar with to back up her claims. Furthermore, Alexander's work has the potential to reaffirm the realities of many Americans in this country and to connect the dots throughout history to unveil the deep historical roots of systematic racism that are often seen as "in the past" due to the prevalent "color blind" attitude of our current society. For example, this can be a reaffirming and empowering text for many of our students. Lastly, Alexander uses language that is specific and clear, making this text accessible for a wider variety of readers, thus, providing many readers with a "fluent language to defend their experience in their knapsack." Alexander undeniably succeeds in arming her readers with knowledge. 

The New Jim Crow unveils two critical points: What is the system and how is it self protected? Our group pulled two specific quotes to share:

What is the system?

"Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination--employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps, and other public benefits, and exclusion for jury service--are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it," (Alexander, p. 2).

How is it self protected? 

"...lower courts consistently rejected claims of race discrimination in the criminal justice system, finding that gross racial disparities do not merit strict scrutiny in the absence of evidence of explicit race discrimination--the very evidence unavailable in the era of colorblindness...many people may not believe they are motivated by discriminatory attitudes but argued that we all have internalized fear of young black men, a fear reinforced by media imagery that has helped to create a national image of the young black male as a criminal," (Alexander, p. 113). 

Our group would also like to share some of our criticisms. 

• It is so hard to disagree with Michelle Alexander's claims that it is easy to read this text without being critical of her sourcing and research methods. 
• Her argument focuses on the War on Drugs as the catalyst for the mass incarceration of black men but negates to acknowledge that this war targeted and still continues to target a specific socio-economic demographic of black men in the U.S. 
• The largest hole in Alexander's work is that she does not devote time in the text to analyzing the economics in low income areas that make these individuals vulnerable in the first place. Instead, she focuses on race. As Aleshia said, "arresting black men in low income neighborhoods is like shooting fish in a barrel but why are they in the barrel?" We talked a lot about how in order to really change the system, we need to disassemble the economic system at work. We talked about the historical racism that occurs in relationship to economics. The system of American slavery is a prime example of this because the system was based in economics, yet the discourse we use to analyze the system is race. 
• Lastly, as Aleshia shared with us, the rate of black women being incarcerated is growing at a faster rate than that of black men. Alexander's chapter on, "Where are all the good black men," does not even give a nod to the incarceration of black women and this is undeniably an issue that we need to be very concerned about. What are the choices that black women are making due to their economic realities that are making them vulnerable to this system?

We hope this was helpful in understanding the complexities of this text. The New Jim Crow is definitely worth reading but we caution you all as readers and as potential teachers of this text, to further the thinking of you and your students to consider the nuances of the economic foundations of the issues Alexander lays out. One suggestion is to incorporate other texts into your reading of this text like Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? 

Other group members or readers of The New Jim Crow, please feel free to add to this summary!

See y'all tomorrow,

The New Jim Crow Group

Takeaways: "Other People's Children"

As Professor Patel mentioned in one of our first seminar sessions, Lisa Delpit was one of the first voices in education to "get real" about the realities of urban education. It is incredibly difficult to boil down this book, a compilation of some of Delpit's most famous essays, into "just one thing", but here are a few points that our group found meaningful (feel free to chime in and clarify where necessary, group):

• Instead of the typical "deficit perspective" characterizing how many educators view students in urban schools, it is our critical responsibility as educators to connect to our students' rich tapestry of backgrounds and experiences with language.
• It is additionally our critical responsibility to connect students' background experiences with the "skills" required of the workforce, higher education, etc. We can do this while honoring our students' backgrounds and what they bring to the table by consciously making connections by aligning our praxis in a "real world" context.  We cannot pretend that gatekeeping points don't exist, but preparing our students for those gatekeeping points doesn't mean prioritizing "the standard" as "better".
• Educators of color, in the broader world of education theory and in school settings, are often silenced, ignored, and dismissed in lieu of the arguments of (mostly white) "authorities". Just as "nothing about us not by us is not for us", educators of color need to be heard - and lead the conversations. There should NOT be just one "default worldview" when discussing issues of urban education. Alternative perspectives are just as - and sometimes more - valid than the "standard". 

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

"I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that  which is already within in, and around you" - El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)

Lily J, Regine, Jeannine and Jianan

Our takeaway:

Read it.
Read it slowly and carefully.

It is not accidental that the life of Malcolm X takes over 450 pages to describe.
It is not accidental that over these 450 pages it tells the stories of three men: Malcolm Little, Malcolm X and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

Read it and reflect on the emotions that you feel as you read through each chapter of his life. Observe the changes in your perceptions of Malcolm X and the changes he goes through during his lifetime.

This book is about a man's critical literacy and also provides critical literacy about a certain perspective in this historical context.

Questions to ponder: 1) w What is not being said in his autobiography? (consider other takes on his life), 2) What would a modern day Malcolm X look like?, 3) Where would you stand on Malcolm X during that time?

The Grass Is Greener Where You Water It

In the class session on December 6th, we are going to focus on the positive in schooling and education. And although much is wrong, there is also much, every single day that is affirming and promising. In addition to the assigned reading, let us be the authors of these stories.

Please reply to this thread and share a moment, event, interaction  in education that was positive for you. Perhaps it enlivened you, motivated you, softened you. This entry does not need to be lengthy or formal. Give us an idea of what happened and why it is a source of positivity for you.

The Dreamkeepers Take Away

Hillary, Jessie, Iesha, Ashley and Steven.

Our Donovan brothers and sisters should take away many things from this book.

This book is mainly about "Cultural Relevant Teaching" practice. 

• These are covered through real-life examples rather than theory.
• This is a refreshing take on approaching urban education. Too often, as graduate students, we read more about theory then seeing examples of these theories play out in classrooms.
• Set 90's 
• May not be as relevant but still has some great take aways.
• For example, we can still relate to the examples presented in the book around working within the education system rather than working completely against it. (Chapter 7)
• African American Students
• But what defines African American?
• Talks about larger sub-set but does not dive into specific cultures.
• With no definition, it is harder to apply. 
• Sometimes tests are not culturally sensitive.
• These spur conversations around test questions being unfair. 
• (Not in the book) For example, standardized test that had an essay on first snow day experience when some students are new to the country and have never seen snow. 
• The book is able to identify problematic aspects of teacher training programs and provides examples relevant connections to our current Pre-Prac experiences.

Final class session reading

Hello Donovans,

I hope this finds you well. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you this Thursday. Before our class session, can you please post to this thread any wishes you have for collective reading for our last session, December 6th. I have set aside the reading that day for your choice. So, as a reminder, are there some pieces of writing, a film, excerpts from your literature circle book that you think would be good for us to read and discuss as a collective?

Post suggestions here.

be well,
leigh.

Teachers as Preachers

For my group reading "Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit, I was wondering your feelings on her comparison of teachers to preachers. In the chapter "Cross Cultural Confusions" she talks a little bit about how reformers of educational policy have looked towards law, business, and medicine to develop models for improving the training and assessing of teachers, but Delpit argues that teachers resemble preachers more. Like a preacher, each teacher must relate to different cultural constituencies. Preachers must modify the language they use to their audience. For example, a Baptist preacher might use "rhythm, intonation, gesture, emotion, humor use of metaphor, indirect personal messages to individuals, and audience participation." (Delpit, p. 137). On the other hand a Episcopalian minister uses logical structure, little humor and almost all of the meaning is found solely in the words.

Each of these preachers has a different audience, and they express their messages in very different ways. I believe that this is the same for teacher because every teacher has a different cultural group that we need to get a message across to. I think the while the MTELS and teaching assessments are a good way to assess a teachers content knowledge, there is little assessment on how a teacher is presenting the lesson through language. This is important because even if you a a math genius, you still need to find a way for students to become interested and involved in your lesson through the way you deliver it. Jaime Escalante said it the best, "My skills are really to motivate these kids to make them learn, to give them ganas -- the desire to learn." (Delpit, p. 139).

So my question is how should we assess teachers on their ability to linguistically connect with students and motivate them to learn and not just the teachers knowledge of subject matter?

Raised Brow

      To all my people reading, "The New Jim Crow," this week I had several raised brow moments.  As I read chapters 3 and 4, on a few occasions, I cringed when Alexander made her blanket connections to the Jim Crow Era in the South. I understand the similarities. I understand the connections in political and economic disenfranchisement. I agree with her mostly.  I want to agree with her 100%. Yet, a part of me still thinks this comparison is a bit stretched. I don't want to belittle the intentionally disastrous beast that is our prison industrial complex in America, but I also can't help but think of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," visualize the charred black bodies dangling from trees, and wonder if there is any damage in Alexander's comparison. When I think of Emmet Till, imagine his bloated and unrecognizable face, and then consider the young men behind bars, I hurt. I see that both were/are being destroyed at such as young age, but at the same time, Alexander needs to account for the differences, (Yes, I do understand that violence takes many forms and each one can have the same magnitude).
         In 1892, after Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow Era, Ida B. Wells wrote a piece similar Alexander, "Southern Horrors." Within this writing, she talks about the socially constructed image of black men and how it led to physical violence and lynchings. Still, Ida B. Wells had to flee for her life after she produced this work. There was a price on her head. Alexander writes from a position of increased privilege, yet she does little to address those differences. While there are some comparisons to our current legal system and those of the Jim Crow South, I need Alexander to dig a little deeper.  I'm not saying she's wrong. I won't say that she's wrong. I just think there's something behind that curtain that she should also show. Part of that display should be her own privilege in writing this book.
   Regardless, our prison system is something that everyone should be increasingly concern about.  It is designed to further marginalize and oppressed specific minority groups, and little is being done to counteract its damages. We must somehow devise strategies to dismantle it.  I will support that thesis until I die.
    I guess we'll see how the rest of this book goes.

Of interest to the New Jim Crow and others

Hello Donovans,

This documentary is timely for those reading the New Jim Crow and those who didn't get to this book this time around. It's showing at the Kendall Square Cinema. I'll be there Sunday evening with some friends. Be well.

Case study Questions

Please use this thread to post questions you have about the case study assignment. I'll address them here, so that we can all benefit from each others' approaches and questions.

"Aliens" and shifting politics of inclusion

Donovans,

As Marina and others deftly pointed out in class this evening, the context of immigration and systemic racism has everything to do with immigration is framed. Check out how Bush I and Reagan discuss how undocumented immigrants in this clip.

In understanding how and why the Mexican American studies program was shut down, we must be able to situate it in a political and historical context and understand it as the same kind of move on other 'enemies,' such as freed slaves in the 1800 and 1900s. Second verse, same as the first.

As I mentioned in class, Sean Arce, former director of Tucson's Mexican American Studies program is here this weekend, speaking about the ongoing legal battle, and giving updates. He is speaking in Boston Saturday. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/127253247425724/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Deconstructing The Racism of "What A Weird Name!" - Key & Peele

First off - hope everyone is staying safe from the storm. Be well, Donovans!  Stay safe/hydrated/enjoy your tomorrow off!

Secondly - IDK if any of you catch the Comedy Central sketch show "Key & Peele", but I thought this was a relevant (and hilarious) takedown of the white privilege behind "Your name is funny" comments. The reversal is that a teacher of color substitutes in a posh suburban school and tells a group of white kids - Aaron, Blake, Jacqueline, that their names are "weird" and "don't make sense". I'd always thought it was more than vaguely racist when acquaintances of mine joked about names outside of the mainstream, but never saw it articulated as well as this sketch. What do you think? Insightful, problematic - both?

ETA: On rewatch, I can see how this pushes the "angry black dude" meme. Nevertheless, I like how it deconstructs the racism behind making fun of non-mainstream names. 

Calculating readability with your classroom texts

Donovans,

Using the sample classroom text you brought to class on October 18th, follow these directions to compute the grade level equivalency of the text. It's a brief exercise that will give you tactile experience with some of the common considerations of what makes a text easy or challenging, as well as a chance for you to consider what is not taken into account. Please post your thoughts about this process of computing readability here.

More, More Videos

  Hey Lovely People,

   So, I'm joining the posting trend this week.  While I was at the movies on Saturday, I saw the movie trailer for a new Abe Lincoln film.  I immediately gave it a side eye and raised brow, but I thought I was try to "unpack"( Kat lol) it before writing it off.  Based on last week's conversation on Critical Literacy, I'm interested to hear how you all think this text can be understood with this political and social era. What does it mean to produce a movie like this at this time?

     It's coming to most theaters Nov. 16. I'd love to go see with with some of you!

  Here are the links for two different trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=F_PfTl63qQQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDMmIhDsBSw&feature=related

  See you in a few!

More videos!

One on white privilege:
http://youtu.be/Wf9QBnPK6Yg

And one on the NYPD's stop & frisk policy:
http://www.upworthy.com/meet-the-17-year-old-who-blew-the-lid-off-racial-profiling-with-his-ipod

I don't think "enjoy" is really the right sentiment, but, uh,

Be enlightened. 
M.

The minidoc on the police department is fascinating, although I'm wondering about fact checking?  Is that a terrible second reaction (after shock&horror, of course)?

What does it mean to be white?

Hey y'all,

A friend of my posted this on FB and I found it extremely interesting. I thought I'd share!!

http://blackgirldangerous.tumblr.com/post/33241021145/how-to-know-if-you-are-white

Application time

In light of Professor Kumashiro's talk on the neoliberal education reforms sweeping that nation, what do you think of the entrepreneurship highlighted here?

Widening what counts as the code of intelligence

Another example of codeswitching: this time from Lavar Burton addressing candidate Romney's comments about PBS and poor ole Big Bird. Listen for the phrase and tone behind it of "fix his mouth."

I am also posting this to open up a thread and space for discussion about the candidates' stances on education.

Denver Public Schools Erases "Social Justice" Language from its Teacher Evaluation Rubric

I just came across this article via EdWeek's Twitter and thought: "What better example of the deeper implications of language in the education world?" The headline speaks for itself, but here's an excerpt from the article:

In response to complaints, the Denver district is revising language in its teacher-evaluation system that described a "distinguished" teacher as one who "encourages students to challenge and question the dominant culture" and "take social action to change/improve society or work for social justice," The Washington Times reports.

District and union officials both said the language didn't properly reflect the concept they were trying to convey: that the best teachers help students view and analyze information critically. They've updated the framework as a response, the newspaper reports.

This raises some interesting questions. First, is "social justice education" the same thing as "viewing and analyzing information critically?" I can see arguments on both sides: the first being that one needs to think critically to agitate for social justice, the other being that one can think critically and come to different political conclusions about society's ills.

The other question I have is: was the "social justice" language suggested by the teachers themselves? If it was, isn't changing the language yet another top-down mandate of how teachers define and relate to their own work?

I want to know more details about what the Denver policy-makers mean when they say "social justice" - but what do y'all think? Were they smart to take away the "social justice" language away, or simply caving in on a political whim? 

Literature Circle Groups

Hello All - Everyone except one person got their first choice for the literature circles. Please order your books and be ready to start working with them on October 18th. I've noted where there are folks

The New Jim Crow (strongly recommend breaking this group into 2)
Yamira
Kat
Kamilah
Jamilah
Marina
Aleshia
Marcus

Autobiography of Malcolm X
Jeannine
Regine
Lily
Jianan

Harlem on our Minds
Mimi
Dan
Luis

Other People's Children
Tinyan
Sean
Anicia
Jessica H.
Emily
Mariela

The Dreamkeepers
Iesha
Ashley
Jessie Sofio
Hillary
Steven

Responses to Kumashiro and Picower

The Donovans represented in the talks at HGSE!

Both Drs. Kumashiro and Picower were greatly impressed with the questions that were posed to them; questions that lifted their game individually and collectively.

In this thread, please post any responses, comments, and/or questions you'd like the collective to think about. As much as possible, make connections to others' thoughts, so that we create a virtual conversation of sorts.

Theory into Practice: Widening what counts as competence

As we have made crystal clear in class, it is necessary but insufficient to state that fluency in Standardized academic English (SAE) does not equate with intelligence. If every example of competence, intelligence and status that we encounter is through the code of SAE, we will never unseat this geopolitical happenstance of linguistic power. One way to actively interrupt this pattern is to widen what counts as competence through the provision of diverse linguistic role models.

In response to this thread, holla back at me and all of us with examples you've found of linguistic prowess that goes beyond SAE. To get us started, I will offer two that are dear to me: first is Junot Díaz. His writing is unapologetically reflective of his immigrant experience across cultures and languages. In this interview, he handles with grace a question about why he uses Dominican Spanish if not all his readers can read this code. 

Second, is this throwback from President Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park. In minute 5, he moves to a rhetorical style that is familiar to anyone knowledgeable in some of the African American codes of English - call and answer. Esteemed sociolinguists H. Samy Alim and Geneva Smitherman contextualize the President's verbal stylings with on point racial analysis here. 

The idea in this post and your collective replies is to build examples of intelligence and linguistic, textual prowess that is not bound only by the rules in those little grammar books with their diagrammed sentences.

Theory into Practice: Getting specific about language and grammar

Shirley, Shirley, Shirley

Please respond to this post and extend our class discussion to develop metalanguage - language about language. Post your grammar rule here as a reply to this thread and note if you used a rule in standardized academic English (SAE) to provide a rule for the code used in the original story. Our exploration here is to notice if we can express language rules in a way outside of SAE. I'll also be commenting and making connections across contributions.

Brain Research

What a stimulating, grounding and high quality discussion we enjoyed in our class this evening about brain science, stimulation, the central nervous system and ways to think about effecting our contexts to better effect ourselves.

Here is some follow-up from Ms. Jaundoo's points and questions.

First, a TED talk in which Dr. Dimitri Christakis addresses sound stimulation and brain function

Next, an article that is one of a recent popular wave about the central nervous system, overstimulation and the body's biorhythms.


And, finally a few resources that address stress, trauma and the brain:

http://www.amazon.com/Traumatic-Experience-Brain-Dave-Ziegler/dp/0967118751

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org (I highly recommend this documentary series)

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-school (full episode that we heard part of in class)

I won't hire people who use poor grammar

Please reply to this post and share your reactions to this Op-Ed blog from the Harvard Business Review.

Normal (enough)

One of the key themes of liberatory literacy education is seeing all texts as partial representations of society. No text can address equitably all people, spaces, and needs. As such, we need to develop skills of creating and consuming texts with critical eyes, with a lens that consistently asks who stands to benefit from this depiction and who is marginalized. 

Tango Makes Three is certainly a move in the right direction as a resource to avoid having overwhelmingly heteronormative texts in a home, classroom, and library. However, we can, given our comfort level and that of our students, always push the question of representation and not rest too comfortably with any text. Mia McKenzie breaks it down here eloquently. Warning: Mia is not using formal standardized academic English. On purpose. My post today is about sexual identity in texts, but these are the same skills that we need when we address race, class, gender, ethnic background, national origin, and multiple intersections of identity. 

OpEd addressing the context of teaching today

OpEd from Alex Kotlowitz addressing a central but very hard question: Are we expecting too much from teachers?

I'd be interested to know your impressions as you prepare to enter this field.

Secretly Becoming Literate

When I was young, I often boasted about how much I "hated" reading. Even to this day, I may complain about having to read. However, despite these feelings of hate towards an essential life skill in our society, I still managed to become literate. How did this happen? When in school, we had library scheduled into our week. We had to take out an independent book to read. In addition, my mother often took my sister and me to the public library during school breaks such a summer or holiday breaks to take out books and VHS tapes. Originally, the agreement was that we were only allowed to take out a movie if we took out books as well that soon became a rule we wouldn't want to break. At first, I'd just grab books that seemed easy, but my mother was just letting me gain an interest for learning. Once that happened, it was too late. I secretly loved to read. For classes in high school and even middle school this wasn't always the case, but reading for pleasure was definitely something that I now enjoyed.  My teachers, one particularly, knew exactly how to fuel this new love. Around middle school age, I attend my favorite teacher's summer program and she mentioned a book that she liked and thought I would enjoy. It was a book by Agatha Christie called And Then There Were None. From there on, I knew I loved reading, it just had to be the right book.

Books you like

English grammar was always the bane of my existence in school. I hated prepositions, spelling, adverbs, pronouns ect... I failed tests and spent many nights studying for minimal results. This resulted in my loathing of English class and reading. I often skimmed or spark noted books for all my classes. It was not until the summer of my Junior year that I began to really enjoy reading. My friend gave me a book series that I absolutely fell in love with. I could not stop reading and reading. I spent my summer vacation immersed in the books, and I even finished a 1000 page book in two days. After I realized how rewarding a good book could be I went back to all of the books that I did not read in English class and read them over the summer. As I read books like A Brave New World and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I realized how amazing these books were when I could read them at my own pace and not worry about book reports or deadlines. Since then I now enjoy reading all types of books and have realized how amazing some books can be. This has made me think of my students and how I can find books that interest them to help then learn to love reading just as I was able to.

CTU Strike article and BTU response to Emmanuel

A political analysis of the situation:
http://www.thenation.com/article/169859/chicago-teachers-push-back-against-neoliberal-education-reform

A piece about how some young people are also gaining a political education from the strike:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-teachers-strike-freedom-camp-20120913,0,2247869.story


And BTU's response to Emmanuel's spin on the BTU contract signed this week:

Reading and the Power of Words

Reading has always been one of my favorite past times.  When I was little my mother would tell my siblings and I to form a circle on the living room floor so we could have story time.  She entertained us for at least two hours reading books and changing her voice to reflect each of the characters. She often read books from the "I Can Read All By Myself: Beginner Books" Collection.  I loved these books because the repetition made it easier for me to memorize. They were also my favorite because of the voices and facial expressions my mother used were the best! Whenever it was my turn to pick the books of the day, my sisters got annoyed. I picked the same three books every time.  Are You My Mother?, Green Eggs and Ham, and Oh The Places You'll Go were my absolute favorite books.  As I write this post I can still her my four year old self screaming, "I do not like them Sam-I-Am. I do not like green eggs and ham!" and asking the question along with the little bird, "Are you my mother?" After I started reading in the first grade I would read the books to my mother and sisters with the same excited tone my Mother used when she read to us.  I continued to read throughout my K-12 years.  I believe that since my mother showed me the importance of reading at such a young age I have always had a love and appreciation for words.  Words have so much power and sometimes they overpower actions.  Reading encouraged me to write my own stories as a child. I had notebooks full of stories and poems.

I loved Addy books

Although I do not recall my first experience with books or reading I remember always having books in my home. My mom and older brother read to me as a child and I remember asking for my favorite bedtime story "Sleepy Dora". I remember the various roles books played: entertainment, life lessons, the hard subjects my mom found difficult to explain. In second grade I remember my teacher reading the Addy portion of the American Girl Collection series- I LOVED Addy! Reading for me, before I was forced to do so in school, always presented an outlet for me, a way of escape, a way to create and imagine. 

Lessons Learned in Hindsight

My first and native language was Spanish; presently I would say my first language is English with Spanish remaining as my native language. I say this because the Spanish language belonged to me from birth. I did not have to “acquire” a Puerto Rican accent, it just happened. Furthermore, I can not even recall learning Spanish, in my memories it was a natural process, something that just happened and my memories associated with it are joyous ones of my conversations with my grandmother. My memories of learning English are barely more detailed. I know I learned English when I began schooling, I was young, and it came easily to me. In a sense the process of learning a language was foreign to me although have learned two. It was not until I went to study abroad in Barcelona and attempted to learn Catalan that I began to understand the difficulties in learning a new language when it surrounds you. I remember constantly speaking Spanish because almost everyone knew it but getting a push back from my host mother about breaking out of my convert zone and learning Catalan because it was the language of Barcelona. I will always remember this experience because it forced me to confront issues that pertain to language. The need vs. want  or willingness to learn the language of the place you are,  what do you lose and gain from it, and the difficult process of learning a new language later on in life are all things I pay more attention to now. 

Reading my own story

As a child, books were my favorite form of company. I remember my parents reading to me just about every night.  I began to read by myself at age four. My brother, who is seventeen months older, was learning to read and everything he did, I had to do too. From then on I devoured fiction, often favoring stories with animal protagonists. As I grew slightly older I shifted to realistic fiction-- books about other people's stories. And whether or not these characters' lives bore any resemblance to my own, I felt strong connections, and their stories became a part of me. Reflecting on my early college years, when I was a staunch vegan and enthusiastic student of anthropology, I realize now that for all my love-borne intentions and sensitivity, I was still negotiating my humanity through other people's stories. By junior year I began to feel like a tourist, like a demented scientist collecting and analyzing far-away peoples' oppressions and lived experiences. It was not until I took Race in America, and subsequently became an American Studies major, that I was forced to look critically at my own story, story informed by unacknowledged privileges. I continue to read other people's stories, but I do so responsibly, with intent, humility and commitment. I also think, speak and write about my own life. Human compassion begins with reading one's own story critically-- throughout all of its chapters.

Getting Lost in Text

I always had perfect attendance in elementary school and usually reserved one excused absence to observe Chinese New Year. The one day that I was absent from school in the 5th grade was the day Mr. Russo covered how to write book reports. In elementary school, I hated reading and I still struggle with reading for pleasure to this day. Mr. Russo gave me an extension on the book report and I recall staying up all night reading an abridge version of Anne and the Green Gables, attempting to summarize, and figuring out how to type all at the same time. I remember reading each chapter and writing a paragraph discussing what I had read and after reading only a few chapters, I realized I had written well over the one page limit. Getting frustrated and tired, I saved the document and never handed my book report in for Mr. Russo. I didn't know how to efficiently read and summarize text until I reached high school. Reading always took me a really long time and I avoided it as much as possible. After reading so much in high school, college, and grad school, I realized with practice, reading can get easier. I wish I could go back and tell my 5th grade self that.

The Good Earth

Whenever I am asked to talk about a book that resounded with me, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck always immediately comes to mind. Even though it is no longer my favorite book, which is now Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, I believe it forever made an impression on me. I remember I bought it because my 7th grade history teacher challenges our class to buy it and read it during our visit to the book fair that was set up in our library. I can almost picture exactly where the book was and how it was one of the few times I had seen anything Asian depicted in English literature. It also surprised me that the author was not Asian herself. I ended up buying the book and sped through this book so quickly that I started to read it again right after I finished. I don't think it was necessarily the way it was written that spoke to me, it was the first time I could heavily relate to my culture that was often kept after school, at home, and not with any of my friends. It allowed my two identities to merge; to fuse together in order to help me access this book. I needed fluent English skills along with the understanding of the deep cultural norms and expectations to truly grasp the magnitude of Wang Lung's actions. Whenever I think about The Good Earth, I think about the other books potentially out there that make me realize more about who I am and that excites me.

On children's books

I’ve always associated language with pictures. That’s part of the reason why I’ve always loved the stories I read in elementary school. Well, also because children’s books remind me of the power of concise writing. One that I fondly remember is the book The Relatives Came. I liked the storyline but I enjoyed more the depth that the pictures brought to Cynthia Rylant’s words. The beautiful illustrations drew me into another world and it is a good example of how visuals are an important facet for my literacy. 

Literacy or Just Reading into the Details?

Growing nostalgic in thought, I recall my first encounter with a book I once claimed to be able to "read." I remember my mother would read this book over and over with me; sounding out each word and pointing with emphatic voice and facial expressions to match each part of the story line. I was asked to repeat after her, and point to words too. I realize now my mother was aiming to develop my literacy skills. I was no more than three years old at the time, when while my family was eating dinner, I opened that very same book and began to read it. Word for word I knew the story, inside and out. My parents and siblings cheered with pride for by literary success, only to find I hadn't yet turned the pages. They realized I could not read, that I had only memorized the book. I wondered was this the beginning of literacy for me, or did I just have a keen ability to read into the details?

Classroom Language Brings in the Outside World

Language, for me, is a struggle between personal voice and the sets of linguistic structures in which we participate, and that have arisen over time. After sitting in front of a blank blog post for a little too long, I can safely say that we choose our displayed personhood when we choose which phrase to use of the range available whenever we want to convey subtly (or drastically) different meanings. I can think of a category of memories where this happening has became really apparent to me: encountering contradiction between my use of language and others' completely different verbal collocations. In short, the newness of contradiction has always thrown me for a loop, and no doubt has had the same effect on all of us. The most visceral memory I have of contradiction between my personal voice and social discourse was in sixth grade. What happened was actually pretty quick and simple, but it has stayed with me to this day. I was talking with one of my friends in a mostly empty classroom about the book we were reading for language arts (I believe it was Tangerine, though that's probably wrong...), and wanted to specifically indicate a character of color in the work. I found myself in a moment of complete aphasia in discerning which word I should use to best describe race to my classmate. Unfortunately, instead of using people first language or using the then more commonly used  and still possibly inaccurate term "African-American", no word came out and I instead described the character in other ways. An important reality was that the word "colored" had cycled through my head as a possibility, and though it existed I knew this word was not mine. Maybe it had entered my consciousness through a third grade MLK unit, subsequent touching upon civil rights, or Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. Regardless, I have never been able to reverse the realization that, as a human being, I am far less in control of my descriptive powers than I imagine, and that they are bound by the experiences that my social world presents me.

More to language than words...

The way we communicate with each other through language is something that has always been of interest to me. It is of particular interest because I am fluent in Spanish and English, and because I aim to teach a second language. To me, there is more to language than just words. The way we speak to each other or the way we address each other is significant. It can bring positive or negative emotions, and it can set up the tone for our classrooms. I had never really considered this until last Thursday, as I observed the first day of school in my classroom. I noticed a substantial difference in the language my co-operating teacher used with her Spanish 1 students and her AP Spanish students. The language she used in each classroom set up two different classroom environments. In the AP Spanish classroom the environment was informal, comfortable and very fun. While in the Spanish 1 classroom, the environment was more formal and strict. I know that she does this on purpose, and I understand her reasoning. Still, I was taken back by the importance of language in setting up classroom tone.