Based on what I have observed in life as
well as what I read in As Soon as She
Opened Her Mouth, I have noticed that the people who have power (that is,
those in government and public leadership roles) are usually people who speak
“standard” English. When we were in our
groups discussing these question today in class, Paul mentioned the fact that throughout
history, US
Presidents usually spoke this standard English.
However, one reason that some people didn’t like President G.W. Bush was
because he had a southern, Texas
way of speaking, and didn’t always speak standard English in the way that others
in authority spoke. Thus, when people
do not speak standard English, they are looked down upon. Furthermore, those who have power are always
in the higher social classes. Thus, many
people have the incorrect assumption that people from a lower socioeconomic
class who do not always speak standard English are unintelligent and don’t
deserve/can’t handle power.
Teachers who work in Appalachia
need to forget that stereotype and teach their students to be leaders
regardless of the fact that they may not speak standard English and may be from
lower socioeconomic classes. In As Soon as She Opened Her Mouth it
states that
“Jenny and Donny
belonged to a social underclass. They
were members of a cultural group referred to as “urban Appalachian,” “Poor
Whites” from the mountains or hills, “hillbillies,” “white trash.” Donny’s failure to learn was not considered
worthy of attention, and Jenny’s inability to get herself heard was intimately
related to this fact.”
Just because Jenny and Donny were from Appalachia, doesn’t mean that they should have not been
heard and doesn’t mean that Donny couldn’t have had a successful education if
only his teachers didn’t have those stereotypes!
There
are many ways in which teachers can overcome cultural deficit perspectives in
their classrooms. I think that one good
way to do so is by keeping the points for culturally responsive teaching posted
someplace handy and incorporating one or more of those points in as many
lessons as possible. By being culturally
responsive and getting to know each child as an individual instead of as a
statistic or just a product of a certain area, teachers will be able to
overcome any cultural deficit perspectives that they’ve created.
In
the Moll text, it states that a classroom project on building (because the
students in the classroom were very familiar with the building/construction
environment) “created new instructional routines… that helped the teacher and
student exceed the curriculum, stretch the limits of writing, and expand the
knowledge that formed lessons.” Thus, in
addition to just getting to know students on an individual level, teachers also
need to build lessons based upon what his/her students prior knowledge/interest
consist of.
I
think that one of the worst ways in which teachers and schools contribute to
poor literacy instruction is by condemning students for writing/speaking in their
native languages/dialects. When a
teacher has a preconceived cultural deficit perspective, he/she is likely to
try to change the way that a student writes and speaks if the student isn’t
writing/speaking using standard English.
Rather, he/she should build upon the student’s background
experiences/knowledge and view these things as cultural capital! Furthermore, a teacher who has a cultural
difference perspective will be able to do as it states in Context for Understanding for Educational Learning Theories and
educators will learn how to “modify teaching methods in order to accommodate
the different ways with words and understandings.”
Non-standard English
speakers can sometimes be looked down upon simply because of the fact that
their language is different. In an
article entitled National Council of
Teachers Beliefs About Writing, it states that teachers should “help
students negotiate maintenance of their most familiar language while mastering
classroom English and the varieties of English used globally.” Thus, one way in which educators can help
students see value in their language as well as learn standard English is by
allowing students to do activities such as the example that Dr. Lindstrom
showed us in class. In the activity, the
students translated a poem in Ebonics to standard English. When students do activities like that, they
get experience with standard English while still using their native language as
well. Teachers who do activities like
this tap into students’ funds of knowledge because they are allowing students
to bring their own language and their own knowledge to the table. In addition, the teacher would be considering
the students’ native language as cultural capital if he/she considered the fact
that a student who is able to speak his/her native language and standard
English has a wider fund of knowledge!
In Honoring Dialect and Increasing Student
Performance in Standard English, Clark
explains the practice of “code switching.”
It is described as students using their own words to describe patterns
in language. By doing this, they move “from
what they intuitively know about language to an understanding of language
variation and how it works in different settings and with different audiences.” Thus, if an activity like the one above were
done in a classroom, students could also be taught about code switching and how
they can use different languages in different situations.
The Where I Am From
project supported culturally responsive teaching/inclusive practices in many
ways. First, the instruction was
appropriate to our ages and level of performance. Secondly, by doing the activity completely
virtually, it allowed students to work using different performance modes. Third, and most importantly, it allowed
students to reflect on their own culture as well as learn about the culture of
others, and lastly, it helped create respect for classmates because it gave an
insight into their lives and personalities.
In my future
classroom I plan to do activities in which students are encouraged to share
their culture. One way to do this is by
having “Show and Tell.” Students love to
bring things in to show their classmates, and it’s a great way to build
community and teach respect for others’ backgrounds as well. Thus, students could write stories about
their show and tell items so they would be building literacy as well because as
Adolescent Literacy states, “literacy
encompasses writing”.
Sources:
Bolima, D. (n.d). Contexts for
understanding: Educational learning theories. Retrieved from http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/new_page_5.htm
Epstein P., H. (2001, September 15). Honoring dialect and increasing student performance in standard English. Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3655
Moll, L. (n.d.). Funds of
knowledge: A look at Luis Moll.
Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B38BSV_Zo7aHSGVoMWEtOFRGMVE/edit
The National Counsel of Teachers of English. (2007). Adolescent literacy. Retrieved from
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/Chron0907ResearchBrief.pdf
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