This week Shemona wrote a rap about her life. She typed it up and emailed it to herself and to Rachel so we would both have copies. We also started choosing pictures for Shemona to put into her music video. They are pictures of herself, rap stars that she likes, and quotes that inspire her. Next week we will work on editing the rap lyrics and continuing to put the video together.
In Kinloch’s “The Whitefication of the Hood,” she describes how Quentin found inspiration in Jasmine’s story. Although Jasmine was younger and lived in a very different community, Quentin really connected to her appreciation of black history in her town. Intrigued by her description of “old stores, slave houses and old family memories,” he noted “I can see some of Harlem in what she’s saying. When the new come, then there’s white-ification.” (Kinloch 67) By drawing parallels between Egypt, Texas and Harlem, NY, Quentin was consolidating common struggles in an attempt to amplify the voice of Black youth in gentrifying neighborhoods. Gathering similar experiences to highlight an issue is key to the success of any political or social movement. This is something that could be done in a classroom between students of the same age or different ages. I think it would be even more interesting for youth from separate schools to start this conversation. Not only was Quentin able to compare and contrast his life to Jasmine’s, but he gained inspiration that strengthened his own narrative. It can be really eye-opening for young people to get a taste of what its like to grow up in another state or community because of both the differences and the common threads that arise to pull two struggling people together.
I believe one of the major issues facing our nation’s schools at this time is the outstanding disconnect between schools and the communities in which they exist. Educators too often ignore the fact that a major portions of a students learning occurs outside of the classroom, in the home and in the community. In order for teachers to succeed in fully educating students who are not simply products of their schools, they need to understand and engage with the effects that communities have on education. Jessica Singer and Ruth Shagoury presented a spectacular way to engage students with their community in their article. By viewing education and learning as political acts that are affected by issues of equality and social justice, students are able to partake in learning that focuses on their own homes and the spaces where they live. In this way the school is connected to the community and learning that occurs in the community compliments what occurs in school.
In addition to bringing together the school and the community, learning that focuses on issues of social justice, allows students to make a choice as to what to study while still mastering the necessary literacy skills. In this way students are more positive about the learning experienced and are much more engaged. Focusing on social justice allows all students to deeply involve themselves in the world around them and begins to close the gap between the school and the community.
Today we made a story board for our video project. We’re making a video of highlights from Madden 12 and FIFA 12. We looked at some pretty cool stuff. We got to see some crazy tricks and goals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mc6A6tbPK4&feature=relmfuThe Madden video had crazy catches and touchdowns. Cam Newton… How does he do that.
Next time, we’re going to work on figuring out the music and getting the rest of our video clips.
Kevin isn’t going to be here next week, he’s visiting his brother at Army training camp in Missouri.
Until two weeks from now,
Peace,
Calvin and Kevin
Today we made a story board for our video project. We’re making a video of highlights from Madden 12 and FIFA 12. We looked at some pretty cool stuff. We got to see some crazy tricks and goals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mc6A6tbPK4&feature=relmfuThe Madden video had crazy catches and touchdowns. Cam Newton… How does he do that.
Next time, we’re going to work on figuring out the music and getting the rest of our video clips.
Kevin isn’t going to be here next week, he’s visiting his brother at Army training camp in Missouri.
Until two weeks from now,
Peace,
Calvin and Kevin
Johnise: so HEY!
im going to write a poem and with that poem im going to have motion to go along with it.
kinda to explain what my poem is about..similar to Billy Collin’s “action poems”.
Emma: Billy Collins was a US poet laureate. Some animators have made really cool videos over him reading his poems and posted them online–they call it action poetry. Here is an example of one of the poems with animation:
http://www.bcactionpoet.org/today.html
We will film video footage and maybe try some simple stop motion to create a video under Johnise writing her poem. So right now we are just trying to figure out what the poem will be!
For our project we are going to film Sam and several of her friends’ days from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, while asking various questions to guide the movie along. Sam’s movie is based off of a Sundance Festival movie in which people from all over the world filmed their days and sent in their footage to a director. The director edited over 4,500 hours of footage together to make a meaningful movie, titled Life in a Day.
Today we brainstormed the following questions:
1. What did you dream last night?
2. What’s in your backpack?
3. What are your pet peeves?
4. What are your dreams/goals in life?
We also thought about the kind of music we will be using. We tried to pick a variety of music genres to portray different emotions and feelings that Sam and her friends feel throughout the day.
While reading the Harper and Jong article on Misconceptions about English Language Learners, the overall idea of treating a second language learner as a first really resonated with me. Of course it does not make sense to treat both the same, but what is the solution here? As Calvin noted in an earlier post, the article does not offer much in this respect. However, on a basic level, why is it that when a non-English speaker is trying to learn English in school, we treat it so differently from an English speaker trying to learn, say, French or Spanish? I guess the easy answer is that there is more pressure in the former situation. There is an urgency around getting ELLs up to grade level in all courses, and up to testing level. But if we disregard pressure as a culprit, is there perhaps another idea present–the idea that English is the norm, and that the onus is on ELL’s to meet that norm. This is not intended as a negative generalization; there are many wonderful educators who do not take this view. But it is certainly something I have seen in classrooms where “ENGLISH!” is the frequent command to students chatting in any other language.
On that note, I wonder if there is a way we could treat English more like any other second language. When middle schoolers learn French or Spanish, they are not taught at their grade level in that language, even if they have had some slight prior exposure. Nor are all their other classes taught in that language. They begin with the basics and progress towards fluency. I realize this model does not work for foreign language speakers in an English speaking world. However, I’m thinking about an experience one of my friends had at a later age, when she studied in Germany last year. While there, she took all her classes in German at a German university. But before she reached that point, she had several weeks of a daily intensive language course, meant to boost her fluency level in German so that she would not fall behind once her real courses, in different disciplines, started. Could we come up with a system that had ELLs spend their first year as English learners taking courses at their grade level in their native language, while doing an intensive English course?* The students could integrate English into other disciplines at a more gradual rate this way. There are potential problems here, of course–students might work at different rates and come out at the end of the year with different fluency levels. But surely treating English as the second language it is will have more a success rate than expecting exposure to do the job. Or perhaps this idea is still too limiting, and something that incorporates English and native languages into the “mainstream” curriculum is of greater value. This idea certainly doesn’t fit into the testing system–the system itself would have to change for something like this to work. Sorry, I’m sort of brainstorming into the blog post at this point. But I just think that a school system that allowed students to take the time to really focus on English as a second language, rather than as an expectation, could be worth the year “behind” for the amount it would put students ahead. Students could maintain grade level knowledge while really working toward English fluency. And, of course, they could continue to expand literacy skills in their native language, working ultimately towards a bilingual education–as stated towards the end of Rubenstein-Avila’s article, “educators at all levels ought to realize that alllanguages are assets to be built upon, often simultaneously, in an additive—not subtractive—manner. Once students are becoming more proficient in English, their native language should not just be dropped–it should still be a part of the curriculum, so that they can learn to express themselves in two equally valid ways. We do not assume that teaching native English speakers another language will damage or hold back their performance in English, so why should we assume that working with speakers of other languages in their native tongue will prevent them from learning English?
I’m not saying any of what I’ve outlined above is perfect. I think it’s actually innately flawed, because I’m sort of trying to fit it into a system that is flawed–to truly make a change, I think more of an overhaul would be necessary. But I hope it’s a step in the right direction.
When reading Harper and de Jong’s article on misconceptions about teaching ELL students, I got increasingly frustrated with what I perceived to be an overbearing repetitiveness of theme: Teaching content and teaching language skills are separate processes. I agree with the authors we read for this week about directly addressing the language learning needs of our students by taking on the role of English teacher even when teaching other content areas. The distinction Harper and de Jong make between learning a first language and learning a second language was something I had never considered before, at least explicitly. When kids learn their first language, they are just that: kids. They have the language skills of kids, but they also have the critical thinking ability of kids and life experiences of kids. ELL students are in a much different head space than little kids, and too often that isn’t recognized.
While I appreciated all of these points that they were making, I got frustrated that they seemed to address WHAT the problem is without discussing HOW to solve it. The recommendations they give are all theoretical. They say things like, “Teachers should include ways to reduce the language demands for ELLs (i.e. provide comprehensible input) while simultaneously providing opportunities for ELLs to develop the neccessary academic language skills” (158). Good to know, but what does that actually look like in the classroom? They say, “Teachers need to be aware of common writing errors for ELLs, such as problems with verb tenses, plural and possessive forms of nouns, subject/verb agreement, and the use of articles” (155). Even though they get more specific here, communicating common errors for ELL students, I’m left with more questions than answers. Which first languages correspond most often to which errors? What do we do with this awareness? I don’t mean to trash the article, but I think the authors stop one step short. They raise awareness of a problem, and then give theoretical solutions to that problem without getting into the tangible practical solutions. Leaving this article, I initially thought, “Wow, I feel like I know a lot more about teaching ELL students now than I did before.” Pretty quickly, though, I realized I hadn’t fully learned anything. I had a lot of great theories, but no idea how to actually put them into practice. This is something I feel about a lot of critical texts in education. Sometimes it feels like we identify a problem and figure out theoretical solutions, but we stop there. This kind of discussion gives the illusion of being prepared for the demands of the classroom, but don’t actually equip us with anything we can really use.
I was thrilled to find a wealth of more practical solutions geared toward helping ELL students in chapter 8 of our Adolescent Literacy book. In that chapter, the editors and authors bring up the specific problems they have faced, discuss theoretical solutions, and then follow that up with real examples, diagrams, and figures.I wonder whether the chapter is more grounded because it is written by multiple authors in a dialogue. They don’t get a chance to over-talk anything, because the other contributors are right there to push the conversation forward or offer a fresh perspective.
Ultimately, chapter 8 is something I will definitely return to if/when I have ELL students in my classroom. Misconceptions About Teaching English-language Learners, on the other hand, feels like it has no more to offer me.
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