I do not think that my blog would be complete without the addition of my niece, Avery.She is the little love of my life!Avery is why I do what I do...I want her to grow up in a world that is righteous and just. Relayed to me by my sister, please enjoy the wisdom of a four-year old!
Avery is lying on the floor.I ask, “What are you doing?”She says, “Dreaming of my life.”I respond with, “Oh yeah, what are your dreams about?”Avery says, “I am dreaming in my heart, I have such a fun heart!”The stuff she says…it really makes me wonder what goes on in her little brain!
We are working on cutting and writing with Avery.She was just talking to herself when I hear her say, “Ok, I am doing my homework.I am a grown-up because I can use safety scissors!!”
Watching some news on 9/11 and Avery asked what happened.I explained it.Amazing to hear it from a 4-year old—she went into the kitchen and said, “Daddy, before I was born, bad guys bonked a plane into buildings and that is why you and Uncle Johnny protect us.That is what happened."Ten years ago, I sent my husband and my brother to war, and now I am explaining this day to my child…we will never forget.
I am going to admit that I struggled with Dr. August’s Making Room for One Another.Unfortunately, I had to miss the class discussion, so I am left with outstanding questions in regards to the implementation of dynamic and designed dialogicality.In an attempt to receive further input, I am going to present my thoughts—please work with the digression into children’s trade books and a personal definition of dialogicality!Any feedback is welcomed!Please help me to ‘unpack’ excerpts from Dr. August’s dissertation!
Here is what I understand:
While reading Dr. August’s first chapter and the mention of Alice and Wonderland, my mind wondered to a children’s book, Tacky the Penguin.Please bear with me!Tacky is an odd bird who marches to the beat of his own drummer. Tacky the penguin does not fit in with his sleek and graceful companions, but his odd behavior comes in handy when hunters come with maps and traps. He is something of an eccentric, which would not be a problem if all the other penguins were not such conformists. Tacky’s individuality saves the day! Yes, this is a children’s story…with a very grown-up message.Do you know a Tacky?Have you ever been a Tacky?Who is Tacky in your classroom?
Here is what I understand:
Introduced in Chapter One: Equal Opportunity Adventure of Making Room for One Another (2009), Dr. Gerri August elucidates,
Each day school age children enact a familiar motif from the world of children’s literature.They leave home, have an adventure, and return home.The adventure, of course, is school…Most come ready to share their stories, eager to make connections.Some children narrate their family experiences with abandon, painting their stories with broad brush strokes and vivid colors; others offer up only tentative sketches, smudged with erasures.All children, however, return home from the adventure changed in some way. (1)
Thus, what is the factor that implements the change?August would argue that it is dynamic and designed dialogicality—different voices, styles, and ideas expressing a plurality of judgments in different ways.Reflected in Zeke Lerner’s kindergarten class (ZK) at Horton School, every child has a story or a discursive pattern.Highlighted in “circle time” students are “encouraged to share accounts of celebrations, traditions, vacations, and other notable family experiences” (1).Observed by Dr. August, some students fare better than other during circle time.“Children whose discourse patterns, [their ‘dialogic’ stories], match those of the dominant culture, for example, seem to enjoy longer turns and more meaningful interaction with the teacher” (1).But, what about the Tacky in the classroom or the figurative ‘odd bird’ (not by choice!) who does not adhere to the dominant culture?In the ZK, it is Cody, a Cambodian child who was adopted by lesbian parents.For Cody, these ‘dialogic’ stories are maintained by socially imprinted voices and logics that are ‘dialogic’ to one another, yet remain unfinished.To put it colloquially, between the lines of our story is the stuff we fill in, are expected to fill in, and we do so in our own way. Despite being a kindergartner, Cody recognizes his ‘differences,’ and hesitantly shares his story with the ZK.
Here is the disconnect:
How does Zeke do what he does?How does Zeke promote dialogicality rather than monologicality in order to create a more democratic classroom?How does dynamic dialogicality transcend a teachable moment?How is dynamic dialogicality applicable to a secondary classroom?Is it more or less present in a secondary classroom?
•Best attempt yet at providing equality of educational opportunity for LEP students through an educational process that validates and develops both languages.
•Two-way models may serve as a vehicle for positively impacting educational and social change and potentially narrow the achievement gap between non-LEP and LEP students.
Which model seems the most effective???
I am going with the Two-Way Enrichment Education model!Please view the link to another of Collier’s articles: http://njrp.tamu.edu/2004/PDFs/Collier.pdf. The Two-Way Enrichment Education model wins! Thus, in order to usurp the paradigm, the most competent bicultural language program must be utilized.Educated in Switzerland, I can confidently assert that bicultural education in Europe is education.Being a polyglot is revered, not frowned upon.We live in a nation of linguists (doesn’t that term sound better than English Language Learners?), so how have our policymakers missed the boat? Why is there “the incongruity—the clash of two worlds” (Rodriguez, 35)? Why is there such a disconnect between the cultures represented in the schools and our educational system? The maintenance of the status quo and the proliferation of power might be the answer.
There are the obvious words or phrases that are forbidden from use in the classroom; however, I include three phrases on my list of ‘bad words.’They are:
1.That is ghetto.
2.That is retarded.
3.That is gay.
Why you may ask?Each utterance belies an offensive implication.Words can hurt; words can damage; words can harm.As English teacher, I feel obligated to educate my students on the etymology of the aforementioned colloquialisms.
1610s, "part of a city to which Jews were restricted," especially in Italy, from It. ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," various theories of its origin include: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); a clipped word from Egitto "Egypt," from L. Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or It. borghetto "small section of a town" (dim. of borgo, of Germanic origin, see borough). Extended by 1899 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups (especially blacks in U.S. cities). As an adjective by 1903 (modern slang usage from 1999). Ghetto-blaster "large, portable stereo" is from 1982.
late 15c., from Fr. retarder (13c.), from L. retardare.The noun is recorded from 1788 in the sense "retardation, delay;" from 1970 in offensive meaning "retarded person," originally Amer.Eng., with accent on first syllable.
late 14c., "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;" also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from O.Fr. gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert" (12c.; cf. O.Sp. gayo, Port. gaio, It. gajo, probably French loan-words). Ultimate origin disputed; perhaps from Frankish *gahi (cf. O.H.G. wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. Meaning "stately and beautiful; splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chaucer:
But in oure bed he was so fressh and gay
Whan that he wolde han my bele chose.
Slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.) begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense:
After discharge A.Z. lived for some time at home. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup. He always wished others would make advances to him. ["Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniques," 1947, p.240]
The association with (male) homosexuality likely got a boost from the term gay cat, used as far back as 1893 in Amer.Eng. for "young hobo," one who is new on the road, also one who sometimes does jobs.
"A Gay Cat," said he, "is a loafing laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wages and vagabonds about hunting for another 'pick and shovel' job. Do you want to know where they got their monica (nickname) 'Gay Cat'? See, Kid, cats sneak about and scratch immediately after chumming with you and then get gay (fresh). That's why we call them 'Gay Cats'." [Leon Ray Livingston ("America's Most Celebrated Tramp"), "Life and Adventures of A-no. 1," 1910]
Quoting a tramp named Frenchy, who might not have known the origin. Gay cats were severely and cruelly abused by "real" tramps and bums, who considered them "an inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum -- as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts" [Prof. John J. McCook, "Tramps," in "The Public Treatment of Pauperism," 1893], but some accounts report certain older tramps would dominate a gay cat and employ him as a sort of slave. In "Sociology and Social Research" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay cat" phenomenon notes, "Homosexual practices are more common than rare in this group," and gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Scottish variant of gay).
The "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S. female impersonator Will S. Hays, but the word evidently was not popularly felt in this sense by wider society until the 1950s at the earliest.
"Gay" (or "gai") is now widely used in French, Dutch, Danish, Japanese, Swedish, and Catalan with the same sense as the English. It is coming into use in Germany and among the English-speaking upper classes of many cosmopolitan areas in other countries. [John Boswell, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality," 1980]
Gay as a noun meaning "a (usually male) homosexual" is attested from 1971; in M.E. it meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight," also "something gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c.1400).
Historically, my classroom is silent.No words are uttered, and the students stare back at me with a look of “REALLY?”Yes, my eyes read REALLY.
Interestingly enough, I have always done the introductory lesson as an extension of my personal beliefs of equity and tolerance; however, I was unclear of the ‘why’ behind my pedagogical choice.After reading Meyer’s “Gendered Harassment in Secondary Schools,” I can unite my beliefs to my practice with theoretical support.According to Meyer,
The problem of sexual and homophobic sexual harassment in schools has been the subject of scholarly investigation since the early 1990’s when two concurrent bodies of research emerged that began examining the phenomena of sexual harassment.More recently, the gendered and sexualized aspects of some bullying behaviors has been explored… [t]hese studies have shown that sexual and homophobic harassment are accepted parts of school culture where faculty and staff rarely or never intervene to stop this harassment.Students report that teachers stand by and allow biased and hurtful behaviors go unchallenged. (1)
Why would a teacher stand by and allow this type of behavior?Isn’t it our responsibility to maintain a safe classroom environment that is based upon mutual respect for all?This may seem like a call to action, but as teachers, we must lend a voice to homophobic harassment and harassment for gender non-conformity in our classroom.
Please view the following videos:
Remember, words can hurt; words can damage; words can harm.
Upon reading Alfie Kohn and his ruminations on assessment, I immediately thought of the film, Dead Poets Society.An English teacher, played by Robin Williams, compels his students to read aloud from the preface of their anthology.According to the foreword, works of literature can be evaluated by graphing two qualities—significance and implementation.Midway through the reading, Mr. Williams’ character tells his students to rip out the offending pages.Art should not be so mechanically reduced!
Thus, how is the movie’s warning applicable today?Driven by state testing and standards, teachers are being pulled toward prompt-and-rubric teaching that bypasses the human act of composing and the human gesture of response.Please refer to the following article, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2000/09/13/02newkirk.h20.html.According to Newkirk’s article, through the use of rubrics, teachers are providing their students with a more precise and analytic reasons for the evaluations they receive.However, is that truly the case?
Alfie Kohn would adamantly respond with NO!Disparaged by a “tool [that] promotes[s] standardization” (2), Kohn offers the following criticisms of rubrics:
1.“Just as standardizing assessment for teachers may compromise the quality of teaching, so standardizing assessment for learners may compromise the learning” (3).
2.“…Students, presumably grown accustomed to rubrics in other classrooms, now seemed unable to function unless every required item is spelled out for them in a grid and assigned a point value…they do not have confidence in their thinking or writing skills and seem unwilling to really take risks” (3).
3.“Studies have shown that too much attention to the quality of one’s performance is associated with more superficial thinking, less interest in whatever one is doing, less perseverance in the face of failure, and a tendency to attribute the outcome to innate ability and other factors thought to be beyond one’s control” (3).
Rubrics fail to reveal the narrative, moment-by-moment process of evaluation.Their formal and categorical ratings disprove the work of the reader; moreover, rubrics fail to provide a demonstration of the reading process that can later be internalized by the writer. (Criticism 1) The very authoritative language and format of rubrics, their pretense to objectivity, hides the act of writing or reading. (Criticism 2)The key qualities of good writing (organization, detail, and a central problem) are represented as something the writing has—rather than something the writing does. (Criticism 3)
With the present utilization of rubrics, what is left to evaluate in student writing?Has writing been so mechanically reduced?Outlined by Kohn, Maja Wilson argues assessment is “stripped of the complexity that breathes life into good writing… [and] we need to look to the piece of writing itself to suggest its own evaluative criteria—a truly radical and provocative suggestion” (4).So, was Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society “radical and provocative” or was he on point?
