Broadening the English Language Arts Classroom

After reading Robert P. Moses’ chapter “Algebra and Civil Rights” from his book Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project, I was surprised to see how much I could relate to this chapter. I always had a hard time understanding math. In high school and college I took the minimum requirements. I also remember my parents not getting as mad as me if I failed a math test. However, if I failed an English test or did poorly on a paper, my parents probably would have been mad.


Moses reflects on how the illiteracy in certain subjects keeps African Americans from being successful in today’s economy. Moses states in this chapter that according to the Department of Labor “70 percent of all jobs require technology literacy; by the end of the year 2010 all jobs will require significant technical skills” (9). This is a very true statement. During my observation in a seventh grade English Language Arts classroom, the teacher has to be pretty savvy with technology. The use of a traditional grade book is now obsolete in this middle school. All grades are posted on the computer and then e-mailed every Friday to the parents or guardians. This classroom also has a smart board. Most of the lessons incorporate the use of a smart board. Teachers now have to understand the computer and all its applications and they also have to understand other technologies such as the smart board.


Our schools are failing African American students. Our students aren’t learning the skills needed to participate in today’s workforce. Many of our jobs require computers skills. For example, an automobile mechanic not only needs to know how to fix a head gasket or a carburetor but they also need to know how to fix the computer under the hood that runs the entire car.


English Language Arts has often been denied to minority groups. Most of the authors that we read in school are from the canon which consists of dead, white men. The curriculum doesn’t usually include minority authors or women authors. Also many students do not succeed in ELA because they don’t speak Standard English. The ELA classroom doesn’t allow different dialects of English to be spoken in the classroom. For these reasons, among many more ELA is often denied to minority groups.


As an educator, I want all my students to know that their culture and languages are important to me and that I respect their culture and language. While there is not enough time in the school year to read and write able all the cultures in the world, I will encourage my students to connect to the stories that we read and explore and share books and other writings from their culture.

Critical Literacy

Literacy in its most basic form is the ability to read and write. However, literacy goes far beyond that definition. Literacy is everywhere. We see it on television, in and out of school, advertisements, and many other places. Critical literacy encompasses a vast array of communication. Ernest Morrell and Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s article “What They Do Learn in School: Hip-Hop as a Bridge to Canonical Poetry,” the students’ critical literacy is hip-hop; the students understand it and relate to hip-hop.


Morrell and Duncan-Andrade engages his students in critical literacy by allowing hip-hop into the classroom. Morrell and Duncan-Andrade realized that “many students could critically analyze complex and often richly metaphoric hip-hop music that they listened to and then effectively articulate that analysis to others. Yet, most of these students were failing to exhibit the same analytical skills in class with regard to canonical texts” (247). Instead of forcing the students to read only canonical texts, Morrell and Duncan-Andrade introduced hip-hop as a bride to canonical poetry.


Youth research played a large role in Morrell and Duncan-Andrade’s research. Many students failed because they felt that the texts they were reading were inaccessible to them. Often times, students not from the dominant culture often struggle to bridge home life with school life. In contrast, those of the dominant culture often yield higher levels of literacies (248). By combining hip-hop with canonical poetry, the students were able to build a bridge between home life and school life.


Morrell and Duncan-Andrade assigned groups a poem and a song. They were to prepare an interpretation of their poem and song with respect to the historical and literary period and provide links between the poem and the song. For example, one group had “Kubla Khan” by Coleridge and “If I Ruled the World” by Nas. This assignment “reflected the basic tenets of critical pedagogy in that it was situated in the experiences of the students, called for critical dialogue, critical engagement with texts, and related the focus texts to larger social and political issues” (265). Morrell and Duncan-Andrade brought in something that their students could relate to. They built a bridge from canonical texts to what the students can relate to. In other words, they made canonical texts more accessible.


Morrell and Duncan-Andrade’s approach for cultivating critical literacy should be brought into every classroom. While hip-hop may not work in every classroom, there are ways that educators can make material more assessable to everyone. Fortunately for me there are many ways to connect students’ lives with English Language Arts.

Literacy in a Second Language

As more people immigrate into the United States, our education system is seeing an increase in students who do not speak English. These students are often categorized as special needs students or placed in remedial programs. However, most of these students do not need to be placed in remedial programs; they need to be placed in a bilingual program that celebrates both their culture and language while also integrating the English language.


Language can take various forms. We have different dialects of the same language (i.e. British English and American English) and completely differently languages (i.e. Chinese and Polish). All these forms of languages can show up in one school system. The question here is how do we form a curriculum that celebrates the culture and the language of all students? Another question that educators can ask is how do we incorporate the different literacy practices our students use? The answer to this question is very difficult. One school may have as many as forty different languages that are spoken by the students and each student may have a different culture. It may be virtually impossible to incorporate all this into a curriculum. However, there are ways that educators can make students feel that their culture and language are important.


Mari Haneda in her article “Becoming Literate in a Second Language: Connecting Home, Community and School Literacy Practices” offers one way educators can include culture, language, and literacy practices into a curriculum. Educators can research households’ “funds of knowledge.” This will allow educators to create lesson plans based on what is relevant to their students (342). For example, an educator can give a questionnaire to his or her students that ask questions about their interests, after-school activities, favorite books or genres, favorite subject or anything else the educator may find helpful. The educator may also want to give a questionnaire to the parents asking about the different languages spoken at home, if they would like to be involved in the classroom or anything else that may help the educator. From this “funds of knowledge” the educator can form a curriculum that can incorporate the interests and culture of her students. As Haneda states in her article: “[the funds of knowledge approach] is deep respect for, and appreciation of, students’ home languages and cultures and an attempt to make students’ experiences in both home and school coherent and mutually reinforcing” (343).


One main theme that is reinforced throughout many articles is that we need to make education assessable to all students. In chapter six of K.T. Lomowaima’s book To Remain an Indian, the author argues that students will have a higher success rate if educators taught the students to read in their primary first language and then introduce English later (120). One example of this is the Rock Point School. They designed a system call “coordinate bilingual instruction.” The students learned to read in Navajo, then in English. In higher grades they added reading in English. They also learned math, science, and social studies in both Navajo and English (121). Data from this school system showed that the students from Rock Point outperformed Navajo students from English-only programs (121).


To make education assessable to all students, we need to make our curriculum relatable. Ernest Morrell and Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s article “What They Do Learn in School: Hip-Hop as a Bridge to Canonical Poetry” explains how educators need to find a way to relate material to their students. In this article the two teachers connected hip-hop to the district-mandated material. Often time’s students are failing academically when they show high intellectual abilities. What Morrell and Duncan-Andrade found was that students can’t relate to the material. These students are able to critically analyze hip-hop music but they couldn’t analyze the canonical material that they were given in school. By connecting hip-hop music to poems such as Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan" or Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29” the students were able to relate to the hip-hop music while also learning to critically analyze a hip-hop song and then relating it to canonical poetry.


The main theme that comes from these articles is that educators need to respect the culture and language that students come from. Incorporating their culture and language in school will help close the gap between home life and school life while also showing the students that where they come from is important. This should be the main goal for all educators: allowing students to be themselves, showing students respect for who they are, and allowing students to relate to the material given in class.

Gender

Our society tries to limit gender identities to either male or female. However, there are many people who fall in between these two categories. In Darryl B. Hill’s article “Categories of Sex and Gender: Either/Or, Both/And, and Neither/Nor” he interviews transgendered people, who explains the different categories that Hill had devised. In the either/or category, participants of Hill’s study believe that there is either a female gender or a male gender. This coincides with society’s view of gender. The next category is both/and. These participants believe that there is “actually a large amount of overlap between the genders” (28). This means that there are males with female qualities and females with male qualities. Under the both/and logic, there is also more than two genders and also those who feel “in between” the two genders (29). Other participants of the study suggested that their gender is neither/nor; they are not female and they are not male. In other words, there is thirdness. This neither/nor category rejects gender altogether; they are not female and they are not male.

Before enrolling in the education program I never thought about gender. I always assumed that everyone is either male or female. Assigning gender begins at birth. Baby boys go home in blue and baby girls go home in pink. As children grow up gender is always reinforced. Parents give there boys trucks, baseballs and GI Joes and they give their girls dolls. Society also reinforces gender roles by telling boys that it is not okay to play with dolls.

Society dictates how each gender should act. Males should be masculine and they shouldn’t show emotions, females are more feminine and are emotional. However, society needs to realize that people fall in between these two genders. Teachers should be aware that students aren’t going to fit easily into the male and female categories. Schools should organize their curricula so we don’t restrict our students’ identity. We should let our students explore all aspects of gender, which means letting males explore traditionally female roles (for example, cheerleading) and letting females explore traditionally male roles (for example, football). Educators should also limit their language that builds these gender restrictions. We should build language skills that support our students and not limit them into thinking that there is only male and females, that there is also an “in between.”

Educators need to also move away from a male-centered curriculum. Most of the English Language Arts curriculum is based off of “dead white males.” We need to incorporate females and transgendered into our curriculum. Our society is mostly male-centered and to “level off the playing field” educators should incorporate other genders. We need to make our education system equal for all identities.

Permission to Fail

Reluctance to Read and Write

There is a reluctance to read and write in our school system today. One reason for this is that some students just don’t like to read and write. They think it is boring and pointless. A lot of people can relate to this, even educators. Many of us had a least favorite subject (mine was math and science), and to have someone tell us that we had to learn something in that subject area was like pulling teeth. As educators, we need to find a way to help students that reluctant to read and write. Educators should respect their students’ opinions. They shouldn’t take it personally when someone states “I hate English,” “I hate math,” and so on. Instead, the educator should ask “why do you hate English?” The answers can vary from “because I don’t like to,” “because everything we read and write is boring,” to “I get frustrated reading and writing because I’m not good at it.” That was my reason for hating math and science; I never understood it and I used get frustrated because I didn’t understand it. If an educator encounters a person that doesn’t find the material interesting, have them list a few subjects or genres that are interesting. For example, if a student states she is interested in Greek Mythology, try incorporating a section of Greek Mythology into the curriculum. If a student is interested in science, assign a project that connects English to science. When the student states “because I’m not good at reading and writing,” extra help could help the student understand. An educator may also be able to connect it to something that the student may understand. For example, a student could be very knowledgeable in the American Revolution. If you give that student a reading and writing assignment he may be able to grasp different concepts than perhaps a worksheet.

Educators need to accept the diversity of students. A student may be reluctant to read or write because an educator may have told them that what they read and write isn’t worthwhile. Many educators frown upon magazines; however, the student is reading. A student may like to write personal essays. In school students are often told to leave any personal references out of essays. Some students may not want to write because they can’t make a connection to the essay.

Many times a student is reluctant to read and write because they don’t find the material interesting, they don’t understand the material and they get frustrated, or that educators have told them that what they are reading and writing isn’t worthwhile. An educator can help overcome a student’s reluctance to reading and reading if they help connects reading and writing to various subjects that students enjoy or understand and if they praise their students whenever they read something—whether it is a magazine, a canonical novel, or a blog on the internet.

Permission to Fail

In Ladson-Billings article “I ain’t writin’ nuttin’: Permissions to Fail and Demands to Succeed in Urban Classrooms” we are introduced to Shannon who refuses to write. The answer that she gets from her teacher is “That’s okay. Maybe you’ll feel like writing tomorrow.” The answer from her teacher is allowing Shannon to fail. Permission to fail is when educators allow students to not do their work. Many times when someone is refusing to do their work, they are hiding the fact they can’t do it. If educators fail to have the students do their work, then we are allowing them to fail. Ladson-Billings states three propositions that every successful teacher should have:

• Successful teaching focuses on students’ academic achievement,
• Successful teaching supports students’ cultural competence, and
• Successful teaching promotes students’ socio-political consciousness (110-11).

Educators should focus on the students’ academic achievement. That means educators should demand that every student learn something and not allow them to refuse to an assignment because they don’t want to or because they don’t know how to spell a word. Educators should also support cultural competence and diversity. In every classroom, there are going to be twenty to thirty different students who have different beliefs and cultural backgrounds. Educators should support the diversity in the classroom. A socio-political consciousness environment will help students to come together and eliminate inequity and injustice. If Shannon’s teacher support socio-political consciousness than Shannon would most likely want to write. Her classmates would also probably encourage her to write. Instead Shannon doesn’t write because she “covering up her inability to read and her lack of phonemic awareness” (110). If teachers possess these propositions then we wouldn’t be giving our students permission to fail.

Out of School Literacies

There are many literacies that are not included in the traditional curriculum of school. These literacies are sometimes more important than those that are learned in school. By looking at these literacies that aren’t in the traditional curriculum, a person would learn about the students we teach, what is important to them, and hopefully that person would be able to find ways to connect to those students.

Jabari Mahiri made it a point to research different types of literacies that aren’t necessarily learned in school. I will focus my discussion on Geoff’s video essay because this section impacted me the most. In school, Geoff is often surrounded by violence. Often times, African American youth are considered violent, juvenile delinquents who are involved in gangs. In his video, he is a suspension hearing. He is dressed in the hip-hop style—baggy pants, and an oversized hooded sweatshirt. He sits across from two white men who are the teacher and the discipline officer. The main point of the suspension hearing is that the teacher felt threatened because Geoff believed that another man shouldn’t put his hands on him. Both the teacher and Geoff where breaking up a fight. Geoff felt that this was just a warning. The main concept of the video is that Geoff feels that is “perception and explanation of what happened was never really taken into account” (29). He believes the decision was already made before the hearing started.

Geoff’s literacy was never learned in school. Hip-hop was never considered a literacy even though it contains many aspects of traditional literacies such as poetry. In Geoff’s documentary the teacher probably felt threatened because of the way he was dressed and the image that he portrayed. As a teacher, it is important to understand the different forms of literacies a student may identify with. This way, you can understand and connect to the student, and hopefully avoid stereotypes.

Trilingualism

According to Judith Baker in her article “Trilingualism,” Americans needs to know three forms of the English language. These three forms are the “home” English or dialect, which is usually the language spoken at home or the language of their peers. The “formal” or academic English is the form that is learned in school and from reading. The last form is “professional” English which is the language of a specific profession. This is either learned in school or while working (51-52).

The Primitive language myth entails that “certain tribes speak primitive language with only 200-300 words, and simple grammar” (71). This myth has been dispelled, but the myth continues to live on. This myth usually encompasses people in low income groups. According to Michael Stubbs in his article “Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts”, there have been studies conducted in urban Britain and the U.S.A., that the dialect in these urban areas are “inherently systematic and rule-governed, deeply organized systems of great complexity” (71).

David Bloome and Patricia Enciso’s article “Looking out across Columbus: What We Mean by ‘Multiple Literacies” discusses the different ways people use language and how schools should prepare students to survive in our society. The way a person speaks varies depending on the person they are talking to. A person wouldn’t talk to their mother the way they talk to their friend. Bloome and Enciso believe that to participate in the “economical, social, cultural, political, and educational life,” the individual would have to know how to use language in the way it would be appropriate for the specific social setting.

What all these articles suggest is that educators need to come together so we can teach all students. We need to be accepting of the different dialects, and help students become trilingual so they can succeed in any social setting.