Final Project

1. My topic is in regards to English Teaching and Learning Disabilities. Specifically, I am very interested in discourses surrounding students with learning disabilities and how this might affect their written or oral communication.  I have a hard time pinning down exactly why this topic is important to me, because I don't plan on being a special education teacher, all I know is that I find it extremely interesting.  I am very interested in how the brain works so that is part of it, and part of my intrigue comes from having a step-sister who lives in a group home, and whose way of interacting with the world is so fascinating to me.  Also a big interest of mine is what the place of writing/English might be for students with learning disabilities.

2. I haven't done a lot of research yet, so this leaves me feeling that I am not ready to totally commit to a format to present this project in.  I may write a paper, or I may construct a website depending on what different kinds of info I come up with and what the best way to organize it is.

3. I have so many questions on this topic and I know I will need to determine a clearer focus at some point, hopefully my research will help me to decide.  I want to know how students with learning disabilities write, if/how it is different specifically in how they construct narrative discourses.   I want to know what the different methods are that are currently being implemented to teach English to students with learning disabilities, hopefully some research on which methods have been shown to be more effective.  Basically I am interested in finding ways to better reach students with learning disabilities but I want to be careful in examining their work and don't want to stifle their creativity while I am trying to help them learn.

Common Core close reading

*Tried to paste the passage in I am discussing below but it looked completely crazy.


The passage I chose is on page 46 of the Common Core standards, and it deals with Text Types and Purposes standard #3.  What I found interesting about reading the standards in general was that once I got to the standards for high school age students it has different standards for grades 9-10 than for grades 11-12, but they differ only very slightly.  Therefore my close reading is mostly a look at these differences.

To answer the first question of Gee's seven building tasks, the question of significance, I would say there is a definite emphasis on the significance of writing very purposefully.  For example, the passage mentions 'well-chosen' details, not just the use of details, as well as 'well-structured' event sequences, not merely that event sequences exist.  The important words here seem to be 'chosen' and 'structured', and not the word 'well' as that is a bit vague, but the phrases imply that the details and event sequences used in students' writing will be both 'chosen' and 'structured' (thought about purposefully).  The significance of both of these ways to write purposefully are further elaborated on in all of the subsets to the standard.  Another aspect of writing that is emphasized as significant is the idea of a coherent whole piece versus the individual smaller pieces of writing that comprise a piece that is defined here as having an introduction and conclusion.

For the question of practices/activities, I feel as though this section is practicing the act of not only guiding educators about what is important to teach, but it also engages in the mimicking of the content itself that it discusses.  This standard deals with writing effectively, and it describes the sequence with which a student should do so while also following that sequence itself.  It begins with subset a), which discusses how a piece of writing should begin.  The next few subsets focus on details and narrative techniques, what should be used in the 'body' of the piece, and the final subset focuses on how a proper conclusion should be written.  In this way the writing is also engaging in the act of demonstration to show how the writing it is talking about should look.

Question #3, regarding identities, I can only think of the writing adopting a kind of authority or instructional figure, that writes assuredly in order to make the writing seem viable.It is firm and formal and the numbering/lettering each subset separately instead of writing the standard out in one long statement/paragraph like I am here makes the standards seem clearly set and defined.

I find the question of relationships very similar to the question of identities, as both are impacted by what the reader is perceived to be.  The relationship here seems to be administrator to educator, or government body to administrator, or government body to educator.  Again, the use of numbering makes the piece seem more instructional, or like a set of rules, and not a two-way discussion.

What was interesting to me with regards to politics in this section is what I mentioned before regarding the differences between this particular standard for 9-10 graders and 11-12 graders.  There are two parts in this section that have additional details for 11-12 graders that are not listed for 9-10 graders.  The first difference is in subset a) in which the additional language 'and its significance' follows 'setting out a(n) observation'.  The second difference is in subset c) in which the following is written after the mention of following a sequence of events to create a coherent whole: 'build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g. a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution.)'  These differences seem to emphasize the importance of sequencing a piece of writing over conveying what its significance is or developing a writers' voice, at least for 9-10 graders.  The fact that these two 'social goods' are only represented after the rest of them have been established makes it seem as though they are almost seen here as bells and whistles next to the truly important aspects of writing which seem to be much more CCR-friendly.

Question #6 regarding connections made in the piece of language was kind of a tricky one fore me but it seemed to be making the connection between good writing and user friendliness, that is, how clear and concise ones' writing is for the reader.  So, the writer and reader are inevitably connected here.  I think my bias for creative writing is rendering itself impossible to silence here as it was for the previous question.  I find it very glaring that this standard has no mention of writing to express oneself FOR oneself or for any kind of inherent benefit, or for anything related to oneself at all, but it is all related to the experience others have of ones' writing.  I am not saying I think this is an entirely bad thing because I don't know if there is a standard in the common core somewhere more related to this, it is possible, and I don't want to assume this is what the entire document sounds like.

For the final question regarding sign systems, again I feel the need to point out that this piece of writing emphasizes the importance of academic writing vs. creative writing.  It also emphasizes the importance of the written word as a way to communicate an idea.

Some current thoughts on class discussions

I am finding the examination of these transcripts to be extremely valuable, at least I think so.  I like to imagine that when I start teaching on my own I will be able to incorporate what I think I have learned. We will see. I am really enjoying hearing these classroom discourses and seeing how teachers react and think on their feet, and how students derive meaning from discussion questions and the comments of their peers.  I feel as though I am learning a lot from, as we have discussed in class before, the experience.  Some things I have noticed so far:

Clarity-The instructors are almost always speaking more coherently than the students.  When I was working on our transcription, I would listen to the audio and could understand what a student was saying, but closely reading what I had transcribed, someone who never heard the audio would have no idea what was being said.  What has impressed me with these classroom discussions is the understanding students have with each other and their teacher.  Things can be said in very roundabout, incomplete ways but the context helps to fill in a lot of blanks.  I think this is a very important function of classroom discussion because so often a students' idea they are sharing may just be coming to them at that moment.  It is not elegantly prepared and supported most of the time, but they are able to primitively share it with their classmates and it can be built upon.  It is so interesting to hear how a students' own idea can change throughout a class period or even within one section of speech, either because they are having difficulty refining what they want to say, or they are swayed be classmates or teachers.  I know both of those are often the case for me.

Anecdotes-The use of personal anecdotes in discussion offers a lot of possibilities. I think they can be extremely helpful for engaging students, the Mr. K example we were looking at at the end of class on Friday seemed to show this.  Students love to share personal stories and to think about how ideas apply to their own lives.  I think the most important mechanism here is that the teacher recognizes when it has gone on for too long and can steer the students back to topic.  For my own classroom I hope to get each student personally involved and recognizing how what we are learning about can be viewed from multiple perspectives.  However, I have been in classes, especially in high school, when teachers let the story-telling go on to the point where the same ideas are being repeated over and over and nothing new is being said.  I want each student to have equal opportunity to participate but I don't want to let it get too far off course.  While the monologue of 'Greg' in my transcript was a pretty lengthy one, I think it worked pretty well in engaging a pretty quiet class that seemed to be having difficulty discussing different classroom scenarios.  Greg didn't exactly answer the question that was posed but he did help his classmates examine what conflict of opinion between teacher and student can look like in a classroom, and I think he made the topic more accessible for them.  I don't think hearing two more similar stories would have been very helpful but I think the class was able to gauge this.

Role of Instructor:  All of these teachers so far in the transcripts we have looked at are central to the flow of conversation.  While students were leading the classroom discussion with questions they had prepared in the classroom Doug and I sat in, the instructor was able to reformulate and re-ask these questions to get more responses.  This is one skill I want to acquire, so that I can be prepared to handle topics that aren't going over too well in a class.  I also know that I will need to be able to work on my interpretive skills in what students are saying sometimes.  Like I said before, students sometimes have a tough time explaining ideas that are just coming to them.  I tend to have difficulty in this area and have been misinterpreted in discussions before because of it.  I want to be able to help students clarify what they are saying to make sure their points are being understood and to move the discussion in the direction they are intending.

Classroom discussions are something I am sure I will be tweaking for my entire career.  I have some ideas and most are stolen or at least built upon formats I experienced as a student.  For instance, I had a poetry teacher who was having trouble getting our class going in discussions on the poems we were supposed to be reading for homework.  He decided to start taking 4 students from our class and sitting them in a small circle in the middle of the room while the rest of the class sat around them in a larger circle.  The group of 4 would have to discuss a poem with one another with no help from the teacher or the rest of the class.  This was a motivating tool to get all of the students reading as well as discussing, even if it was a bit scary.  I liked this technique and saw its effectiveness.  One idea I had, however, was instead of the class simply sitting and observing the discussion, they will need to be writing while it is going on.  Noting ideas that come up that they are interested in, building on these ideas, disagreeing, etc. Then I would give them a few minutes to share any additional comments they might have at the end of class, and turn their writing in to me for participation credit.  When I was in this class format I often felt that students who weren't put in the middle of the circle would kind of tune out, this way everyone would need to be engaged, and those students who possibly really wanted to talk about a certain poem would still get a chance.  I also want there to be a lot of writing in my classes, and will always be looking for ways to incorporate more.  I like the method of writing for a few minutes before discussion that we do in this class, I feel as though it really helps me to solidify my ideas.  I think I will definitely utilize it in my own classes.  My personal opinion of calling on an unsuspecting student to answer a question is that it greatly depends on the question. If it is a question about a reading they should have done or about a topic that is pretty familiar, I think it is OK. I don't think it is OK or even very effective to call on a student to instantly share a complex analysis of a text or idea, unless it was a prior assignment.  Posing a complex question that requires thought and expecting someone to know their answer right away is asking a lot.  This is another reason why I like the idea of having part of the class discuss and part of the class write.  I have a theory that if a student is trying to think of something to say and is trying to form their words in their head, they are probably missing out on some of the discussion.  Letting them have at least some days where they can think and solidify their thoughts and share them later on would at least be an interesting experiment.  I look forward to seeing if there are some other things for me to steal from these upcoming transcripts.

comin down on a sunny day

Without looking at the common core definition of college and career readiness, I am going to go ahead and assume that they are talking about specific academic knowledge and skills, just for fun.  I am going to assume that they are talking about communicating effectively through writing, particularly essay writing, as well as having solid reading comprehension.  Outside of English I'll assume this definition also includes basic understandings of mathematical principles and scientific facts.  I guess I have this idea of CCR resembling a kind of General Education requirement for high school students.
I listened to the podcast Angela posted on her blog regarding 'non-cognitive' skills, researched by economist James Heckman.  Heckman argues that there are skills important to education aside from traditional academic skills. These include resilience, the ability to cope with stress, and impulse control, among others.  I can probably stretch and try to apply these to literacy somehow, but definitely, if I am thinking about college and career readiness, these are attributes I consider to be important.  I don't think my high school education really prepared me for college, and I don't really feel like my first college education prepared me for my career.  But, I don't think this is education's fault. I just don't think I had the character for either yet.  Can we as educators nurture our students' character to prepare them for the rigors ahead? I really think this answer is yes, but ultimately it is a measurement that is only important at the individual.  Everyone is at a different level before and after high school and college, and there is only so much teachers can affect.  But these are attributed I would try to work on with students, especially those who come from particularly stressful home environments.
We have talked in this class about exposure contributing to ones' literacy.  I don't think I was truly career ready until my first job after college in which I was responsible for a lot and given very little assistance and guidance.  Finally understanding the importance of my actions and what all depended on them was a big wake-up call for me and a big reason I feel prepared for the responsibilities of being a teacher.

Literacy

To me, a useful definition of literacy goes beyond the capability to read and write.  When someone says that they are 'computer literate' they are expressing that they know how to use the functions of computers with ease and to their benefit, they aren't just saying that they know what a computers' tools are.  There are a lot of students who know how to read and write in a basic sense but who still struggle greatly.  Some have difficulty thinking abstractly about a text, or even interpreting written information correctly.  Some students who now how to write have no confidence that they can convey meaning in their own writing.  I define literacy as not only being able to read and write, but to be able to grasp the intended meaning of a text and to be able to write with intent and control.  I don't mean that someone who is literate needs to be able to be able to apply complex literary criticisms, but they should be able to at least follow a basic text and take something away from it.
I have experienced moments with coworkers where it seemed as though a text was read and nothing was gleaned from it.  For instance, an instructional company wide email in which an employee cannot discern what is important and what actions need to be taken after receiving it.  It is as though they lack the patience or confidence to interpret the directions for themselves without needing to ask questions.  I don't mean to say that I think this person is illiterate, as this kind of material or use of is more complex than what I am thinking for my definition, but I do think that it could demonstrate that they never received proper instruction on how to do this kind of reading.
I guess I am taking this blog assignment and turning it into creating a definition of literacy/illiteracy that I want to have in mind for my own classroom.  I think it could be a definition that can change for the individual, especially as they age.  Literacy can be something one can always improve upon and develop.  As a high school English teacher I want students to be able to read a text and understand what it is saying, to be able to approach a text from different perspectives, and to keep an open mind and allow for abstract thought.  I want them to be able to write with purpose and authority.  As a teacher I want to allow the avenues for these abilities to flourish--I want to help students gain confidence in their reading and writing abilities and to encourage them to keep an open mind when doing both.  I don't want my students to go to college or to work and feel afraid of the written word.  I know that this definition is completely self-derived and simply what I want it to be, but I want a definition that can be used as a tool for myself when setting goals for my students.

Grammar(s) in the Classroom

Before I read the Hartwell article, I was under the impression that English instructors always unanimously consider grammar instruction to be vitally important.  It was a great relief for me to learn that is not the case.  I have often reflected on my own lack of formal grammar training, wondering why I never really received any growing up.  I have felt at a disadvantage as a student and future English teacher because of this, and have found myself wishing that I had gotten some formal instruction.  After reading Hartwell's article I find myself wondering if perhaps I was taught about grammar in school, and I just don't remember any of it. This may or may not be the case but either way I am much more confident now in my feeling that grammar instruction should not take up ample classroom time.  I already have too many things in my mind that I want to teach my students, and I consider this content to be much more important than grammar instruction after reading about all of these case studies denouncing its effectiveness.  I know that I learned my 'grammar 1' from all of the reading and writing I did as a child, and I want to help my students pick it up the same way.  An idea I have for possible instruction technique is to include the recognition of grammar errors in students' work, but not grading it.  This might be a way I could point out some of the formal rules but in a way that is not so confusing and rote.  I could have them correct their errors for a homework assignment so they get some practice in correcting at least some more widely used and accepted rules of formal grammar.

Stories

Early on I was exposed to being read aloud to and listening.  My mother often read me bedtime stories, and when she didn't I would listen to audio books as I fell asleep.  To this day I still fall asleep easier when there is some kind of noise around me, whether it be music or television or people shuffling around.  From the time I was very small I was always surrounded by noise. Like the children in Tracktown, there was always some kind of noise around me, and it was usually music.  My father worked a graveyard shift so he was always home during the day and always had his stereo blasting music through the house.  I remember memorizing the words to the songs he would play and creating little stories in my mind to act the songs out.  When I think of my first exposure to language this is what sticks out in my memory. I became so used to music being played around me that I always wanted it to be playing.  Many of my early memories have songs associated with them in my mind.  They weren't necessarily playing when the events occurred, I inferred meaning into them from what I thought the songs meant and what the event meant to me. For example, one day I had a friend over from down the street and she started teasing my dog with a graham cracker. My dog jumped up and bit her face and my parents ended up taking him to the pound.  After that, I couldn't listen to John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' without bursting into tears, and I still think of my dog to this day every time I hear that song.  I think being surrounded by music is really what sparked my interest in reading and writing, as well as music itself.  I loved the stories in songs and would just sit and do nothing for hours taking them in, like being read aloud to for hours a day. I never really had any guidance through my parents in what I was taking away from the music, in fact I don't think they ever really knew how engrossed in it I was, I think they probably assumed I was in my room playing games.  I was able to take what I wanted from the songs and in that sense I was able to exercise creativity and my own kind of story-telling.  

Dialect Presentations

I am happy that our group chose the topic that we chose and I am also happy about the topic I got to research, because I ended up becoming very interested in it.  I learned about some phonetic rules that I always knew existed but never really thought of them as rules nor did I ever stop to think that they were much of anything at all.  Once I started studying these rules more closely I started thinking about them in the contexts of other languages as well and I discovered I am actually quite interested in phonology While studying the retroflex 'r' consonant I became curious whether this was related to the more 'rolling' 'r' sounds I have heard in other languages like Spanish and Scottish, and learned that those are 'trills', different in the fact that they actually create a vibration when you speak them. Then I got to thinking about Spanish again and how they use both retroflex consonants and trills, depending on how many 'r's are in the word (pero vs. perro).  I am a big fan of these 'r' sounds, probably because I can't really do them myself and they are foreign to our standard English, which I think is unfortunate.
Back to the topic of Indian English, I really enjoyed studying these dialects because I think it sounds beautiful and rich and I love the humor and excitement they infuse into their vocabulary.  I have read several Indian English novels, some by Indian authors and some by British authors, and have always wanted to study they way they speak more closely.

Question

Mourdants' article was written in 2010. His last sentence reads 'By engaging in a concerted effort to steer students towards proficiency in SAE while continuing to value AAE, much progress can be made in the right direction." Has progress been made? Is Mourdants' stance on the acceptance of AAE to steer a student to bidialectalism a widely received one or is this issue still highly contested and argued over as it has been for years?  Do schools and instructors receive the support to teach students with these goals in mind?  Have the discouraging statistics listed in this article gotten any better or worse and if so why?

Assignment 9/5 re: AAVE in schools

When I was in high school, I had a hard time feeling confident enough to share my thoughts and opinions in front of an entire class. There were a few students that spoke in front of the class all of the time, but there were others who seemed so terrified of doing so that I don't think I ever heard their voice.  Considering myself somewhere in the middle, with probably an average self esteem level for a high school aged human, I can't imagine how much more difficult and intimidating it would be to participate in class when you have to consciously change the way that you talk as well.  

The concept of dialect switching was probably what struck me most in the Pullum article.  I began to wonder how someone who speaks in one dialect changes to another depending on who they are talking with.  Trying to think of times that I do this, they are pretty few and far between. I know that I use swear words much more in conversations with friends than I do in the workplace or in classes.  However, I have never really recognized any difficulty in making this switch. I wonder if this is because I haven't used swear words all of my life, I assimilated them into my vernacular over time, and never in a school or work environment.  It is as though I trained myself automatically by incorporating swear words only in (what I consider) appropriate environments.  This example is much different than the idea of an AAVE speaker switching their dialect.

Someone who speaks AAVE has probably been doing so since they could talk, or at least for long enough that it is what feels natural.  It is a part of their identity in the same way that I consider the way I talk to be a part of mine. At the high school age identity is a concept that many people struggle with.  I think it is unfair to uproot students by disallowing them from speaking the way that is most natural to them simply because it differs from standard English.  Speaking AAVE is not equivalent to speaking a foreign language in class that fellow students and the instructor cannot understand.  I am going to assume that in a community like Oakland, even students or instructors that don't speak AAVE can understand it just fine, so I can't buy the 'speaking english in an English class' argument.

As far as preparing students for a future that will be less welcoming towards the way they speak, I don't really know how to argue against that as it is a profound point, except to say that I think a students' future could be in more jeopardy if they are inhibited and discouraged when they are in high school instead of being encouraged to explore who they are without constraining the basic ways they communicate.  I don't know how easy it is for speakers of AAVE to dialect switch, how conscious they have to be of it or if it comes naturally. I do know that it is 100 percent unnatural for me to try to speak AAVE, and if I was mandated to speak it in school, I probably would have done poorly and more importantly I would have become discouraged and disengaged in school.  I think it is important for instructors to understand this and to try to relate to the way a student speaks if it is different than their own, as the student will probably have to make these efforts throughout their entire life.  Teaching students what you think is important is a big step in preparing them for the future, and at such a vital point in a person's life, the present needs to be thought about carefully in order for there to be a future to worry about.

Hello

Teaching has appealed to me since I was a child. At first I think this was mostly because I loved the school environment. I loved classrooms and the library and even the cafeteria. Reading and talking about reading were my favorite activities, I was pretty introverted and found it easy to sit still and pay attention, I think I am actually getting worse at this over time. 

I attended college at U of M in 2005 and graduated in 2009 with my Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing.  At the time I was still thinking about teaching as a possible avenue but to be honest the thought of going straight back into a high school after having been there so recently did not appeal to me at all. So I simply chose the classes and content I liked best without giving much thought to the future.

After college I worked for a couple of years at The Missoulian. I assisted with the creation, editing, and proofing of the ads that went into the paper as well as their website and helped with the daily layout of the paper as well.   A long with these duties I supervised 5 other employees with the same job and performed several other miscellaneous duties given to me simply because the Missoulian was insanely short staffed.  The struggling state of print journalism is what lead me to leave the Missoulian about a year ago. Once I knew that advertising and sales were not career paths I wanted to pursue, I decided the long stress filled hours weren't really worth it anymore.  Instead I took it pretty easy my last year in Missoula, working as a receptionist at Western Montana Clinic, basically enjoying laid back days with friends in a city that I love and miss very much. 

Writing (mostly poetry) is still an intense passion of mine, but I have returned to school to get my teaching license because I know it will be a career that I will enjoy a great deal as well but I will also be able to support myself. I came to Bozeman because as much as I love Missoula I needed to start fresh in a new environment to really inspire myself to be successful in this decision.  My family as well as my boyfriend Kyle's family both live nearby and we are happy to be able to spend more time with them.  I don't know where I want to go with my teaching license geographically, but I am very interested in getting a chance to work with Spanish as well as English speaking students, and would love a chance to go somewhere new. 

Twain Time

The first time I read through the story what struck me was the 'Misto C' character asking Aunt Rachel how she had never had any trouble in her life. I mean, really? I loved that Twain used that statement as a starting point for her story, because to me, the reader, I was astonished by Misto C's ignorance in asking her this question, as though a black woman living through the Civil War era could have lived her life without any trouble.  I know this does not answer the question of the assignment, I just thought that it greatly complimented the juxtaposition between the two characters that the language Twain uses so strongly solidifies.

The story begins with poetic, wordy sentences from the narrator. Long and slow and serenely calm. The narrator reflects on the weather and the end of the day, and observes Aunt Rachel's demeanor and physique in an honest and affectionate manner. As soon as he asks her about the lack of trouble in her life, we first hear from Aunt Rachel and she is just as surprised with his question as I was. 

What I initially noticed with Aunt Rachel's language was of course the misspellings of the words to convey the way she spoke. Most notably the letter 'd' where it shouldn't be ('de', 'den', 'dey') and missing in places where it should be ('an', 'husban', 'chil'en'). There is a general lacking of consonants in the language and a switching of vowel sounds in many words ('jist', 'sah' 'turrible'). A general lack of 'r's in words ('chil'en', 'yo', 'mash') creates an effect of blended speaking that can make the words seem difficult to discern from one another, creating a less concise and more flowing effect.

I found myself reading through the story once out loud to get a grip on how all the words should sound, then I read it again so I could take in the story she was telling more coherently. The initial newness to the look of the words initially held me up but after I got over this they created a vivid and dramatic vehicle to hear Aunt Rachel's story which is how I would imagine it would have felt to Misto C.

Hannah

I have never had a blog before and really wanted to post a photo of my dog. Her name is Hannah.

a Few Words on Words

Studying one's first language offers a unique opportunity to allow the language to be the topic of study on its own. While courses in other subjects utilize language to communicate lessons, English studies allow the language itself to become the primary focus. It is also unique to learning a foreign language because basic principles of the language have already been established, and the topic of the language can be approached more abstractly and in greater detail.  Because of this unique situation, it is very important that English teachers spend plenty of time exploring the English language itself.  When reading and discussing novels in English class, instructors must focus on formal analysis of the texts as well as focusing on the topics of plot, characters and historical context.  Without the close reading of texts by students, language again becomes simply a tool to communicate a lesson about something else. The breakdown of the meter and language in Emily Dickinson's poetry needs to be at least as important and represented in lessons as her biography.

Showing students how language can be used creatively is extremely important in helping to develop their own individual writing style.  Introducing students to close reading techniques allows them to learn ways to flesh out their own writing more purposefully, and to become more actively critical readers.  Exploring the many ways that language can be used, whether it be in stories, poems, or lyrics, help students become more comfortable with language in their own lives.  Developing a better sense of interpreting language can make them much more confident speakers as well. The more comfortable a student is with how intentionally they can use their language, the easier it becomes to clearly express their own thoughts and ideas for others.