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.

Books books books

When I was younger, I would sit for hours on the frayed brown couch in my living room with a book propped in my lap.  With one thumb in my mouth and my other hand twirling a strand of hair, I had to do some complicated maneuvering to turn each page.  I gravitated towards mystery and fantasy, books that were worlds away from my daily experience.  My family moved when I was eleven, and I carefully organized my new bookshelf with my favorite series at eye level (they're now at shoulder height) and chose my favorite picture books to keep on the bottom shelf.  Whenever I had trouble sleeping in high school, I would grab four or five or twelve children's books and read myself to sleep.  Books are my comfort zone, especially children's books and young adult fiction.  I've graduated to more challenging texts, but the old standbys can still surprise me.  Rereading some of my favorites in order to teach them (and just for fun) last year, I found themes and connections that I had never seen before.  The best part is, they had been there the whole time.

While living and working as an ESL teacher in Korea for two years, I began understanding that physical bodies, like books, can be read as texts and function as textual space for the assumptions of the majority group. While my white privilege undoubtedly still opened many undeserved doors, I was nevertheless marked as "The Other" - assumptions about my sexuality (Koreans tend to perceive white women as hypersexual, not unlike the "Jezebel" stereotype) and my body size (by Korean standards, I was obese) were openly remarked upon, in public spaces, in the Korean many strangers assumed I could not possibly understand.  This is not to badmouth, to suggest that "all Koreans were like this" or that my experience as a whole wasn't wonderful - I deeply love the country and my time there - but this was one unsettling facet of living as an immigrant other; the experience of being dissected as if I were not there. Experiencing hangul (Korean alphabet) for the first time was also a visceral experience in the alienation that undoubtedly affects the ELL learner or recent immigrant on American soil, compounded by the peanut gallery who suggests these learners need to "try harder" or are "too lazy" to learn to read and write English. While no experience is alike, I like to think the time abroad gave me a deeper empathy towards the frustration and alienation that accompanies a lack of print literacy, or the unsettling feeling of being used as a pawn in other's political debates. 

Professional Jargon and Education

Although I am confident that there were a number of monumental experiences in my K-12 formal and non-formal education I can not remember any instances related to literacy and language that were important to me. However, I can recall an awakening I had in my undergraduate experiences in relation to language and literacy. As a psychology major, an important emphasis was placed on language, in terms of the profession and grammatical/structural standardization. This was the first time that I realized why individuals were truly called professionals and what it means to “speak the language.” As a professional in any field, including education, which some individuals discredit, there is an extensive related vocabulary that provided exclusivity to that profession. When individuals can fluently “speak the language” or a profession using the terms provided in the discipline and communicate with other professionals then, and sometimes only then, will you be considered a professional in that field. Once seeing this, I have made it a point to work hard to not only learn content but to make it my priority to learn the language of my intended profession and I am still working to achieve professional status as an educator.

The Phantom Tollbooth

     Since the sixth grade, I have devoured Norton Juster's fictional delicacy entitled The Phantom Tollbooth every year. Before I discovered this treasure, I enjoyed reading and participating in my favorite subject area,  language arts. However, the alternate reality, prose, and creative wit of Juster's novel completely altered the way I thought about writing and speaking.  I embarked on a journey with the novel's protagonist, Milo, and encountered a world where characters could taste letters, where puns gave old words new meanings, and where five statesmen simultaneously spoke with synonyms. I had never considered language to be slippery, playful or tricky. However, this novel presented it as a game---something not only to be mastered, but to also be experienced, altered and expanded. Reading it made me desire to create sentences, stanzas or stories that readers want to lick off the page, to taste and to relish.

Praxis Workshop

What is praxis and what is a workshop? The term praxis comes from the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and most simply put, it means theory into practice and practice that informs theory. So, it's when we take a situation and apply a theory to it or change our ideas because of an experience we have.

In our class, we have a unique opportunity to build on the cohort's learning in the summer about education and society and extend that into how language is often an enabler and constrainer of social opportunity. To do that, most classes we will have something called a praxis workshop.

The workshop is a place for you to bring up issues, challenges, moments of victory, tensions from your school setting that have to do with language and we'll, well, work on them. Some praxis workshop ideas might come from one particular pupil's issues; others might come from how to set up a classroom for language learning. This is the place to post your ideas for the praxis workshop. When you encounter a moment that would benefit us as a community to think more about in terms of language and schooling, respond to this thread and tell us a little about it. Post by Wednesdays at noon.

However, to get us started, for our second week of class, please post a brief (no more than one paragraph) memory you have of language/literacy from your schooling or a book or text that is important to you. The memory can be positive, negative, or neutral. Please post by Saturday September 9, 2011.