Autobiography #4

A Break Through in Literacy

I had a break through moment in literacy when I attended an English 311 class here at Cal State San Bernardino. Before 311 I always believed that simple grammar and the common rules of writing were the explanations behind language. Breaking words down to the morphological and phonological level was a whole new territory for me. I was amazed at how letters' sounds are manipulated to create the smallest bit of meaning within a word. Although I was intrigued by the class, I chose to continue on the Literature path in my concentration since it fit my schedule. Otherwise, I just might have changed my concentration to Liguistics!

Everyone in the class seemed to enjoy learning linguistics as well. The Professor was very engaged in teaching and held the class' attention with her performance of the phonology sound effects. I will be able to take with me reason why letters make sounds and be able to use this as a tool to teach my future classes basic linguistics.

Moss' Ethnography and Composition: Studying Language at Home

Beverly Moss describes the functions of ethnography, the fundamentals of it and the approach an ethnographer should take. This insight is very helpful to those who are considering doing some sort of ethnography for themselves. Moss explains that "the goal of an enthnographer is to study, explore, and describe a group's culture," (389). I have always found culture to be one of the most interesting aspects of the individual and also believe that studying the culture helps lead one to a better understanding of why people are the way they are. Growing up in San Bernardino, I have always been aware of the mixture of cultures that this city entails and have grown up to embrace different things from different cultures because it was always apart of ME. I have attended quincineras, attended an African American church, and have always engaged with others races. I have always desired to understand and relate to others how I got to be the person I am and that I evolved from a variety of cultures.
When considering doing an ethnographical study of San Bernardino, I see it as a challenge because there is not just one set culture in this city. As Hymes describes the three modes of ethnographic inquiry, (comprehensive-oriented, topic-oriented, and hypothesis-oriented) I feel it would be most logical to take the topic-oriented approach. Although hypothesis oriented might be an interesting evolution of the process. Moss also brings up good points about studying one's own culture. She notes that an ethnographer must be as open-mided as possible. Because you are dealing with a familiar life-style, it may be easy to overlook certain aspects of the culture that seem normal or uninteresting because it has always been part of the routine. This may be hard for someone from the community to do, as well as withholding bias or predjudice about things.
I like the fact that Moss refers to Shirley Brice Heath in this article because I have also read her work, and agree that it is most insightful into a different cultural perception. There was one town Heath observed that was very similar to the lifestyle and cultural beliefs I had been raised with, for example, reading books and talking to babies and preparing for school. The other town took a completely opposite approach to lifestyle, where the children were only to speak when spoken to, put on stage to see how they would react to certain incidents, and having a much different view of what was important in life. At first I was shocked to think that people would treat their children to public humiliation and not encourage education, but after reading more into the ethnography, I discovered how important these things were to their culture and also identified them in their community.
After taking African American Literature, I have always been interested in how their language has evolved from oral to written, and how much of a role the oral language still plays apart in the community. This ethnography seemed to reinforce this concept for me and gave me a more open mind for these sorts of studies. Ethnography has no room for bias or personal opinion but can be very helpful when trying to understand someone's reasonings and ways of life.
Lastly, I would quickly like to address Moss' quote that "finding out what students did outside the class was the key to helping them succeed in school," (388). Throughout my studies on teaching children, I have seen this point reiterated over and over again. I too, believe this is one of the most important things to understand when trying to teach children and ethnographies are a great way to study them. This can be a difficult goal to obtain, but it truly is the key to success for these students. Through a better understanding of the students' lives outside of school, the teacher can look for multiple ways to connect and engage his or her students which is necessary for the student to want to learn at all.

The Chance to Create (Week 4)

My Sophomore year of high school was my worst and best year for English. I started out the year in full I.B. (International Baccalaureate) classes, and this included English. I had always done well in my English classes before this year, but, to be honest, I struggled first semester in English. IB is a high honors program, and though the material was college-level and, therefore, challenging, it wasn't the course work that discouraged me- it was my teacher. I won't name names, because I went to high school right down the street from CSUSB, but this particular English teacher was absolutely horrendous. He was older and had a reputation for acting inappropriately with his female students. I won't go into detail, because it is unnecessary for this assignment, but his, ahem, style didn't exactly inspire me to take his assignments seriously.

After discussing my intimidation of him with my father, my dad decided it was time for me to switch out of his class at the semester. For the first time in my high school career, I was no longer in full IB classes. My dad asked to have me transferred into the AVID program at my school after I told him about it (a few of my friends in P.E. were in the program and told me I should join). I was ecstatic to be transferred out of this teacher's class, but was a little hesitant when I realized that my new English teacher was a man, too. I really didn't need to worry, however. Mr. Garrett was probably the complete opposite of my previous teacher. He was younger, very outgoing and most importantly, he was warm and he took his students seriously. To be honest, for the first time in high school, I felt as though what I thought and what I said was respected and heard by a teacher.

The assignment that I remember best from all of high school was given to me that second semester. We read Ayn Rand's Anthem , which isn't exactly an easy read, but it was short so I wasn't turned off to it. We, of course, answered chapter questions to make sure that we understood the readings, but the assignment I'm talking about came at the end of the book. Mr. Garrett gave us a few (and by a few, I mean probably 10) final assignments to choose from, ranging from research papers to creative writing projects. I narrowed my choices down to two, one being an academic paper and the other being creative writing. I'm not sure what provoked my courage, but I decided to go with the creative writing project. The question was to write the story of the man Equality 7-2521 (the main character) saw being burned at a stake at the beginning of the book. I don't know what it was, but the combination between this book, the writing prompt and Mr. Garrett encouraged me to write a story for a grade, which was something I had never done before.

When I got my assignment back from Mr. Garrett, I was only encouraged further. I got an A+ on the assignment, and he wrote comments giving me helpful tips and praise. For the first time in high school, I felt talented and intelligent. He was the only teacher I had in high school who did anything remotely creative with writing assignments, and I attribute my success in his class to his patience and belief in his students. It was after his class that I considered seriously going into creative writing in college, and as those of you reading probably know by now, I did. The experience I had in his class also has given me ideas about how I want to give writing assignments to my future students. Because of his class, I know the importance of giving students room to be everything they can, even when that means going above and beyond what I might be expected to do as a teacher (as Mr. Garrett did). Because of this class, I know the importance of giving students a chance to create something they are proud of.

Universal Literacy?

In examination of Szwed's text on The Ethnography of Literacy, the notion of the socialism of education comes to mind especially as it pertains to the "social meaning of literacy". The difference between functional literacy and academic literacy and how the two are closely related to financial success and quality of life within the modern class system. Szwed referred to "the negative correlation of skills in literacy with lower socio-economic standing." and also how family and community literacy contribute to the "culture of poverty". Szwed asks perhaps the most poignant question on the matter of the ethnography of literacy when he asks "What is it that people read and write?" I also that in conjunction scholars researching the subject should also ask why? The books most often translated and read have to do with faith, ie the bible, torah, and koran etc. the knowledge of these books in impoverished and underdeveloped communities world wide is an important part of any literacy debate. The concept of those who don't have acess to the type off education that creates complete literacy being "street" or "functionally" literate is an old world ideal. When education was reserved for a privileged few poor people learned scripture, literary classics, fables and wives tales passing them from one generation to the next in a hybrid of oral tradition and the inclusion of certain texts as "functional literature". When it was illegal for a slave to be taught to read there were slaves who knew the bible chapter and verse from memory. Was this an example of literacy? Szwed examines "motivation" for literacy in his text and in understanding culture of poverty I can conclude that survival is one of the strongest motivating factors for literacy but in many instances due to the availability of information and the strain of poverty functional literacy is all that can be obtained. Szwed states that "ethnographic methods ... are the only means for finding out what literacy really is and what can validly be measured." In looking at literacy community by community world wide gives scholars a more sound foundation on universal literature and how it can be achieved, if that's possible

Week 4 Autobiography: Orwell Misunderstood

When looking back at my schooled experiences with literacy, they were mostly beneficial except for my ninth grade year at San Bernardino High School. This is the only time that my schooled literacy experiences did not seem like a friend to me. This academic year was the only time that I did not finish the texts assigned to me and felt as though I could care less about the story or more importantly, what the author was trying to say. Without much reflection I figured it was just my attitude about school at the time, but now I see how influential the other factors involved were.
My English teacher also happened to be the water polo coach and it was immediately apparent that he favored his chosen sport over his teaching subject. Even his students that were on the team were favored over those who weren't. His attitude towards English affected me from the beginning even though I did not see it at the time.
My biggest failure, or should I say HIS biggest failure that year was the lack of interest in the literature. We were assigned to read George Orwell's, Animal Farm from start to finish but I had already finished after the third page! I never picked it up again. I don't ever recall being introduced to the author's background, or his purpose for writing the book which might have sparked my interest a bit more, but really, I think that I just picked up my teacher's attitude and uninterest for literature.
Usually I will not finish a book if I am completely uninterested in it, but I don't ever remember stopping after the third page. I am not interested in all the literature I have ever read, but I think this feeling was intensified by my teacher's lack of guidance and interest in his job. Today, I have yet to read this story but I wish I could have given it more of a chance. I didn't even give literature a chance to be my friend in this case and I regret this decision today, but I feel I had no one to show me how to be interested in it. This teacher had a big influence on my ninth grade literature, but not in the way I had hoped.

Week 3 Autobiography: Bestest Books

I have had books read to me or have been reading them for so long, that trying to determine the first time a book really affected me is difficult to do. When I was younger, there is one author that still follows me around in my career of creative writing: Dr. Seuss. Whether it was the iambic patameter, the creative, outrageous circumstances of the story, the use of alliterations, or just how the story was told, Dr. Seuss was an enormous influence to my take on literature. I loved how easy he made rhyming seem and I followed his patterns as I began to write my own poetry by third grade.
I remember I wrote a poem called "Little Brothers" which ended up being entered into the Writing Celebration, a program my school was a part of, and won third place out of all who entered. Needless to say, my younger brother, Andrew, was not as thrilled as I was since the poem basically bashed on him. But as I look back, I am positive that Dr. Seuss was where I developed a sense of poetry at all.
Dr. Suess books were also great books for learning to read and I remember my grandmother bought me the whole collection once. My favorite book by him was Are You My Mother? My mom would sit down and read this book to my brother and me over and over again and we would laugh and laugh when the bulldozer would say "Snork!". It was real quality time.
Being an English major, I have read so many books! If I had to pick one (series) that I enjoyed the most, it would have to be J.R.R. Tolkein's, Lord of the Rings. I have never been more into another book than that trilogy. I think it was because it was like entering into another world that had been created special for me. I loved how he set up the entire world and tok the characters on that incredible journey. I remember at the end when Frodo is at Mount Doom and claims the ring for himself, I was so upset!! Feeling such passion for a book really draws me in and makes me never want to leave!

Moll/Gonzalez: Let them Use the Knowledge they Already Have

Luis C. Moll and Norma Gonzalez's Lessons from Research with Language-Minority Children was written to inform the reader about their findings, workings and implications of studies they have done with what they call "funds of knowledge" (158) and "inquiry-based instruction" (163). They define "funds of knowledge" as "those historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being," (160). They argue in this piece that education for bi- or multi-lingual students needs to include the knowledge that is necessary at home because they then can see themselves fitting in an academic setting. They then discuss the importance of using these funds of knowledge to encourage student-driven research. They obtain research on both of these concepts by implementing several case-studies at both language-minority homes and schools.

They give a couple of examples from their research of both of these goals, as I think of them. While doing their studies on the funds of knowledge there were several researchers (and teachers) who went to the homes of participating students and discussed with the parents or guardians what their family does and what knowledge is necessary to do it. In one case, a researcher found that one family in Tucson, Arizona has rural roots, as many of the men in the family are cowboys. This family owns a ranch, and the researcher found that even though they do not make a living doing cowboy work they still hold great importance in "teach[ing] [the children] the funds of knowledge entailed in these old family traditions," (161). They also found that in most cases in language-minority homes there is more than one household that contributes to the knowledge a child obtains. The implications they express in these studies are to "debunk" the idea that "working-class, language-minority households...[lack] worthwhile knowledge and experiences," (161) and to "[understand] the concept of culture... as the lived practices and knowledge of the students and their families," (162) and not as a sort of myth.

These implications lead to their discussion about inquiry-based instruction and student-driven assignments by using research done by Warren, Rosebery, and Conant (1636). This connection is that teachers can use the knowledge these students are getting from home as a springboard for assignments that the students are interested in. This "knowledge" includes languages they know other than English. In one example they gave, students were encouraged to speak in the language they were most comfortable with. This helped the students to organize their thoughts in the language they are most fluent in. They gave another example of a classroom in New York City with Puerto Rican and African-American sixth graders (165). The teachers asked the students what they would be interested in researching, and the students wanted to research "where and how to obtain resources to help the poor and the homeless, questions about drug and alcohol abuse, the etiology of diseases, crime and child abuse, early pregnancies, women and employment, and the food shortages," (166). The teacher let them organize themselves into groups based on which they would like to research and let them name their group. After the research was finished, a student said it was different from their other school projects because the teachers gave "the idea and let (them) find out the information and say how (they) feel," (167). This study showed that a working social relationship between teachers and students is incredibly useful in helping students take charge of and participate in their education. Moll and Gonzalez conclude that "'language-minority' students have the intellectual capabilities of any other [child]... and... instructional arrangements that capitalize fully on the many strengths they bring into classrooms" should be implemented (171).