Double Journal Entry #10

 

Chapter 3: Language and Identity at Home

 

1. What are the features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that align with academic varieties of language?

Announcing the beginning, middle, and end of the story and providing a brief summary. Adopting a frame that mimics story books. Offering a title and using syntacic structure that is typical of literary books. Using literary sorts of repition and parallelism. Using specific figurative device that is common in "high literature".

2. What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language?

 Leona uses forms of poetry as her specialized language. Her lines are parallel to one another and contains matching content. She uses repetition within here lines and stanzas. You could organize her story into different episodes. Her story involves complicated syntatics and an evaluation that connects the begining of the story to the end.
 

 

3. Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school?

 

Leona's specialized form of language is not accepted in school becuase "The teacher heard her as rambling. In fact, the teacher often thought Leona was going to start off on another story when she got to what we have called her "evaluative" section" (Gee, 2004).

4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998).

 

5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers?

 

Other factors that will make or break a good reader is his/her sense of belonging. Students must feel valued and accepted in their social groups.

6. Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school?

Students fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "way with words" taught in school because of three reasons. One is the child is living in a home where the adults find "ways with words" alienating. Another reason is because the teachers make these varieties seem irrelevent. Lastly, students live in a society filled with technology. Thus, making students more interested in it's language rather than the normal language instruction.



Double Journal Entry #9

A Strange Fact About Not Learning To Read

 

 

1 and 2. The strange fact about not learning to read is the fact that the majority of the people that can't read are those who come from "minority groups whose members have faced a history of prejudice and oppression (Snow et al. 1998)". The reson being is because most students who fall into this catergory are usually "poor". They don't fit in with the middle to upper class student which alienates them from the other students. Thus, causing them to not be interested in school.

 

3."it seems a bit strange - creepy even - to claim that an African American child or a poor child might be inherently less able to engage with Pokemon than white or rich children. We do not, however, find such thoughts strange when we thnk about school learning, though we should" (Gee, 2004)

4.The difference between the traditionalists approach to learning to read and more progressive educators is the fact that the tradionalists are focused more on skill-base situation as opposed to the meaning driven based progressive educators.

5. Learning to read is not a natural process. Learning to walk and talk are more natural processes. Learning how to read is something that is learned.

6. The natural process is one with which we are born with (like walking and talking). An instructed process is where someone is instructing/teaching. The cultural process is one with which a person learns pertinent information that is based off his/her cultural upbringing. Reading should fall under  the cultural process. It is important for students to learn in a culturally rich environment.

7. Reading is taught as an instructional process. However, I believe that a cultural based process might be more beneficial to students because in most cases that culture will stick with them in what ever endevors they choose to embark on.

8. The fourth grade slump is atributed to the changing from learning to read and reading to learn. This change causes many students stress and often causes grades to drop.

9. Better predictors of successful reading is the early language experiences the students come to school with. The more experiences a child has with language and literacy the better able the student is to learn how to read.

10. Vernacular language is one that occurs on a daily bases and is gernerally more natural to the person. Whereas, the speciality language is learned and is more proper.

11. Early language ability is generally formed when a child is raised in a print rich environment prior to entering pre-k or kindergarten. The more experiences the child had prior to entering school the better equipped the child id to learning how to read. It is developed at home.

12. The traditionalist approach fails to teach kids how to read because it is not started early enough. It also doesn't account for their language experiences.

13. I don't think that it necessarily the parents fault that the children don't know a specialized language. It is hard enough to learn the vanacular of most places, so I believe specialized learning would be even harder. We also live in a society where there are millions of single parent, no parent, or working parent families. I feel as though providing food and shelter for their children might just be slightly more important that teaching their child a specialized language. They could provide them with the neccessary tools if possible, but I don't think that it is plauseable in most situations.


14. To be honest, it was not a hard reading. There were a few words that challenged me but once I looked them up and found a defintion for the word the meaning of the sentence became much clearer. I only had a few words that needed to be defined, so overall I think I did pretty well.

Double Journal Entry #8

Situated Language and Learning: A critique of traditional schooling

Introduction

 

 

1. The main challenege being addressed in this book is "how to get all children- rich and poor- to be successful in school, but to ensure also that all children -rich and poor- are able to learn, think, and act in new ways fit for our new high-tech global world" (James Paul Gee, 2004).

 

2. I think what the author means by "ways with words" is that each subject area has it's own special set of language and symbols. Thus, making it more difficult to like language in the first place. Each subject has their own "ways with words".

 

3. The core arguement of this book is that "people learn new ways with words, in or out of school, only when they find the worlds to which these words apply compelling" (James Paul Gee, 2004). This means that a person must be interest in the content of the place where the language is useful.

 

4. I have worked in some type of food industry since I was 15 years old. While working there I have picked up my own "way with words" that only applies to that particular resteraunt. My friends that don't work with me are often confused when I say things to them that only my coworkers would understand. For example, when talking to a cook behind the line, you would say "Inside, I need.." and you relay the information. When they have understood what you said their response is "Heard,..." They repeat what you said back. If I were to use this language at home it would not make sense to anyone else but me.

 

5. People learn their "ways with words" best when they can tie those words to an experience or situation. It makes it easier to comprehend the words when there is a connection between the word and an experience/memory.

 

6. In order for people to be successful in the 21st century people "must become 'shape-shifting portfolio people'; that is, people who gain many diverse experiences that they can then use to transform and adapt themselves for fast-changing circumstances throughout their lives" (James Paul Gee, 2004).

 

7. I do believe that he is right. Language that you would learn in the classroom is not the ONLY language students will need to be successful. The more 'tools' they have on their toolbelt the better. I highly believe that students need to adapt to this changing world in order to be successful. 



Student Interviews

Excelling student:

I interviewed a female second grader from my class. She is known to be a very good student. She told me that she enjoys school. She believes herself to be a good student and she tries to get her work done on time. When outside of school, she loves to play hide-n-seek, tag, and she plays with her brothers. She states that she is friends with Amelia and Jocelyn and they love to play together especially at birthday parties. Her good memory of school is when she recieved a "caught being good" card, and she does not recall any bad memories. Her favorite teacher was her Kindergarten teacher because she smells good, and she is very nice. Her ideal teacher is one that gives her extra play time, listens to her, and is supportive. The one thing she wished her teacher knew is that she loves school and would love to do more fun math activities.

My observations of this students supports my beliefs of her being a high performance student. She is always first to raise her hand, and rarely gets in trouble. She is always one of the first to turn in her work and usually gets all the answers correct. She is a very sweet girl with a big heart. I have also observed her interacting with students on the playground. At one point when we were leaving one of her "friends" hit her arm instead of giving her a hug goodbye. She became very upset and started to cry. I took her aside and spoke with her and she said she was upset because she gives everyone else hugs but her. After getting her to calm down, she was perfectly fine and content. I have also heard that she is adopted and that her brother is in the gifted program. I believe that she is feeling the pressure at home, as she has thrown some of the papers that she did not get a perfect score on in the trash can. When asked about it she stated that she didn't want to take it home. My theory is that she is feeling the pressure of her brother and is trying to be perfect, but sometimes doesn't meet those expectations.

Struggling student:

I interviewed a male second grader from my class. He is known to be a student who is slower with doing his work, and fails to complete homework/school work on time. When asked if he enjoys school he did say yes. He thinks of himself as a good student. When outside of school he likes to play on the swings, video games, and plays football. His classmates describe him as a good friend. He is friends with a student named Andrew and they like to talk and hang out on the playground. His favorite memory is his first day of second grade because they played many fun games and he met new people. He does not recall and bad memories. He says a good teacher is one who gets them up and moving more, is nice, listens to him, and does fun stuff all the time. He wishes his teacher knew his favorite video game is Little Big Planet.