Heath
Erica Tymeck
Although I have already posted and responded for all of you (If I
haven't please let me know), i just wanted to make a comment to all of
our posts in relation to our readings for this week. So, as you know,
the readings talk about the disparity between the two communities in
the Carolinas (flashback to 1st and 2nd language acquisition
anyone? :) ) Anyway, after reading it it reminded me a lot of the
comments we have all made in regards to the populations in which we
teach (urban) and the standards gaps that exist. I feel that the
hidden and null aspects of these two communities/cultures were really
profound. Perhaps, just as profound as the communications and
populations in which we teach.There are expectations and "norms" for
one community that do not apply feel that many gaps and "standards"
existed between the two communities. I'm sure a lot of us find this
between cultures and communities that we teach in. Perhaps what is the
"norm" or what is "accepted" is not necessary true to the children and
families we teach., just as it was true for the African American
community in the Carolinas. Did anyone else find that?
Finally, a key piece of Heath is doing work with ethnography.
Ethnography is centered around curiosity. As "Profile" says, "IF
you're a real scholar, you don't have times when you work and times
when you play. Your curiosity is there all the time. There aren't
seams in my life; there never have been." I feel that through the
course of these online discussion, our work with our students and
practicum students and our deep discussions with one another, we are
the curious inquirers heath mentions. I feel that by closely examining
our curriculum and our students we are able to get the deep, detailed
understanding that Heath is able to do. (How amazing her her noticings
of these two communities?! Perhaps one day, one of us will be able to
do such poignant work like this).
As an aside, I found the work on Roadville and Trackton kind of
controversial when we worked with it in 1st and 2nd language
acquisition with Dr. Gilhooly, did anyone else find that? Heath
identifies the "gaps" and "standards" between the two communitiesso
clearly that it is really striking and almost saddening to me.
Although both communities have clear views on children, only one is
viewed as socially "acceptable" (by most) therefore the gaps that
remain are so vast and held so strongly. I'm looking forward to
dissecting it and hearing everyone's ideas in class on Wednesday.
Look forward to hearing from you all :)
Have a good week!
(rain rain go away!)
-Erica
suzette cross
Erica,
Yes, as I read Heath I did have a flash back, especially when Roadville and Trackton were mentioned. We have crossed this path, somewhat, before. The Profile aritcle on Heath certainly reinforced the idea of when we were called to reflect and write on our literacy journey from child to present. I too, as with Heath, had a clear recollection and recognition of the power of litearcy and the importance of stories and books in my early life.
But, how many of our students, specifically in the urban pubic schools, actually have that as a reference? How many were avid young readers? How many had oral story tellers in their families? How many had even books in their homes and can recall being read to, or that they had access to?
When I speak to my students many of these scenarios are foreign to them. Parents never read to them. Books may have been around, but no one was there as a model to teach them through action that reading was fundamental. They never found, as Heath pointed out, the magic of books.
The result are students who are low level readers, uninterested in their academic process, poor test takers, and the list goes on and on. Could exposure to reading as something fun and necessary had made a change? Well, Heath's anthropological study said YES!!!! But, is reading books and telling stories the only way our students acquire literacy skills? No, they also acquire it, from the study of the Rockville and Trackton towns folks, through observation of their families, hands-on work, etc. as we were able to look at closely in Dr. Gilhooly's class (your memory is so sharp Erica - kudos:-)
Literacy is all around them and in various modalities too. Heath was gracious enough to make this public knowledge. So yes, Erica, there are expectations and norms for different bodies of students, suburbs vs. urban, private vs. public, minority schools vs. charter, magnate etc. This does nullify and hide their many capabilities and abilities, and unfortunately because of the hiearchy our society has set up, one social context is deemed more acceptable than the other. However, as teachers we have to try to find out, and my school is big on this, as many ways as is possible, for students to show their strenghts in inconventional ways. It may be rapping instead of writing an essay, drawing for a project, creating a short film, and basicaly thinking and producing outside the box to show what they have learned at the end of a unit. Blooms Taxonomy asks for synthesizing as the highest level
of displaying knowledge - we are asked to allow our students to present this knowledge in the way they are best able to do so.
Would this be acceptable to the "normal" society as an expression of acquired knowledge? Maybe, and maybe not!
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