Double Entry Journal #2

"Are we going to interpret this as a flaw, a deficit, in Phil? Or are we going to interpret it as a lack of crucial experience, EL difference ín the experiential backgrounds between Phil and the other members of the drivers education class?"
        I like this quote from the essay, '"... As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth!": Issues of Language, Literacy, and Power' by Victoria Purcell-Gates. This quote is the last lingering lines from an example scenario Purcell-Gates uses to illustrate the importance of experience in the learning process. The scenario depicts a foreign exchange student from the middle east who is enrolled in a driver's ed. class. This student doesn't realize the importance of automobiles in the human life, and thus doesn't understand the teacher's lessons, since he doesn't understand the language of driving a car, or the workings of a car, or why people use them.
        I picked this quote because it was such a great example, and it really helped me to understand what it is like to learn a new concept. It is important to experience something before someone can even think about learning about it. I have never experienced the act of swordplay, or a sword fight, so I couldn't begin to understand the slang, or the visuals of the technique to a sword fight.

Because I wrote my notes on each question in a Q,A sort of way, I will now state the questions being asked and then answer them.\


1. What is literacy knowledge? Give examples of both print and non print literacy knowledge.

     "Literacy knowledge ---the concepts children acquire during their preschool years, during the years preceding the beginning of formal literacy instruction, in kindergarten and first grade, in reading, writing and printed language.

2. How do stereotypes interfere with literacy instruction?

      Stereotypes- If a school or teacher holds some sort of stereotype among the students, then they might change the way the teach those students with the held stereotype, in a negative way, again following the stereotype. For example, a teacher might not try to teach the poor, black kid who sits in the back as closely because the teacher knows that it isn't any use, the kid isn't going to learn it anyway. That is an example of a stereotype that many teachers tend to think, rather than going out of their way to help the student gain the experiences s/he needs to build a foundation for learning.


3. How do schools and teachers contribute to poor literacy instruction in school?

     Allowing failing students to be "passed off" to the next grades, leaving them behind. following the stereotypes and not helping rid the world of stereotypes. allowing students to "slip through the cracks" of the learning environment, and never gain the experiences needed to begin learning a concept.


4.What is the relationship between language, social class, and the denial of educational opportunity?

     Some teachers have a problem with the families who they think are "ignorant" or "don't try." The teachers assume that because students are from a low income SES, that they have low language skills, and thus, they don't deserve the chance to learn language, because they are too "ignorant." These teachers are misguided and of poor quality, and to change, they need to learn more about how learning works and provide more opportunities for these children to learn.

5. What are some misconceptions about the relationship between language and literacy?

    Language and literacy are the same, but they don't entirely work the same way. One does not speak in the same way that one reads. They are two different things. Another misconception is that they can't be taught in the same way as other subjects, that they can be passed off to other teachers in the other subjects as a whole to teach students specialized vocabulary, and in turn, the vocabulary they need to succeed. This is untrue as well. Students need to gain experience by doing, or observing reading and writing. Just like they might observe someone doing math, or heading a science experiment. Students don't know concepts exist if they don't experience those concepts.

6. What can schools and teachers do to improve literacy instruction?
    
     First of all, the schools can get rid of negative stereotypes associated with learning, language, and thought. Secondly, they can begin giving students true "experiences" with subjects, be it by watching it happen live, or on video. This should be done before hand to illustrate the importance of that concept, or the unimportance. Schools can also use the parents as a resource for trouble kids. This is a bit difficult, because all parents know that "NOTHING IS WRONG WITH MY KID, IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE YOU ARE A BAD TEACHER." If a parent, however, knows their kid needs help, or tutoring, the best thing to do is to help that kid, if no to save your own butt, but to make sure that student is getting the best education they can possibly receive.

7. How do you feel about use of the term "Proper English"?

     "Proper English," after reading this article, means nothing to me. English has a written and a spoken set of rules for grammar, and the spoken ones tend to be much more lenient. That being said, there are a lot of different dialects and languages used in America, and no one of them is the absolute correct way.




"My own father spent his life backing up, apologizing for the space he took up in the world."
This is a quote from the article 'Tall tales of Appalachia' by John O'Brien. The article speaks of the joke people of Southern Appalachia have somehow become to the world, and it's insensitive inaccuracies to the culture of this area of the world. This article, much like the Purcell-Gates article, speaks of this as a sort of racism against the people of that culture. I feel like I disagree with this quote, as much as I have preferred to live somewhere else much of my life, I have recently become proud of being from West Virginia. As a huge fan of going against the grain, I an happy to be from the part of the world that people seem to write off as a joke without fear of insulting. I don't think we should stand for having to hide away from the rest of the world, and should stand up and act like we love our state, because we do.

References
Purcell-Gates, V. (n.d.). "..as soon as she opened her moouth!": Issues of language, literacy, and power. In L. Delpit & J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), In th skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language, culture, and power (pp. 122-40). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6DFAmexYq7vMGQxMjI1OTEtMjAyZS00NzJmLTg1OTUtODlmMGQ0ZDIxOTVk/edit?hl=en_US

O'Brien, J. (2003, May 10). Tall tales of Appalachia. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html