Postings Assignment: 10 from Class Blog, Adult Learners of Language and Literacy
1. “The Intelligence of their Mistakes”
Several of us, and Wynne included it in a blog posting, were taken with a phrase that Mike Rose quoted in Lives on the Boundary. He spoke of "the intelligence of their mistakes." This is a quote from Mina Shaughnessy.In the Introduction to her book, Errors and Expectations: a Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing, Mina P. Shaughnessy says that errors matter. Basic writers make mistakes just as all beginners do. How or why students make errors is complex and reveals rich insight for the teacher who wants to guide her students through the deadly minefield of academic literacy. Errors demand more investment from a reader ("energy" Shaughnessy names it) and these errors may demand more than a reader is willing to give. Errors at best are distracting, at worst, signal a lack of understanding of an accepted code, usually the code of academic literacy. Thus, Shaughnessy insists that teachers pay attention to and try to understand "the intelligence of their mistakes" (11). Shaughnessy is not advocating noticing and marking errors in basic students' writing simply in order to correct them. Although editing and correcting will come at some point in the writing process, Shaughnessy calls for teachers to see "the keys to their development as writers [that] often lie hidden" in the errors themselves.In one passage that is particularly moving she describes the basic writer laboriously at work leaving "a trail of errors behind him when he writes. He can usually think of little else while he is writing. But he doesn't know what to do about it" (7). When we as teachers notice these mistakes and see them for what they are, keys to their development as writers then we will be able to "harness that intelligence in the service of learning" (11).
2. The Conflux of Unions and EducationDuring our class visit to the Consortium for Worker Education I was captivated by the connection between unions and education. The conflux seemed a strange partnership to me. I grew up in small farming communities in rural Kentucky and Tennessee. As a child, in my home education was highly valued. And unions were the work of the devil. Unions were divisive, setting neighbor against neighbor. The mentality was that a man takes care of his own. “We don’t need no outsiders telling us what to do.” And union organizers were outsiders, troublemakers. So in the 1960s when Wisconsin dairy farmers poured their milk out on the ground to protest low milk prices, my father, a farmer and yes, the quality control manager of a small cheese plant, muttered darkly “A sin to waste food.” It seemed a judgment not just on the ignorant dairy farmers but the union behind their protest. Thus, I had a far from favorable attitude toward unions when I married a Yankee and moved to New York. And I continued to hold this attitude despite the fact that my own dear husband supported himself through law school working summers as a carpenter; he was a proud, card-carrying member of the carpenters’ union. But when he died suddenly leaving me a widow with two small daughters to raise, I gradually came to deeply appreciate unions and particularly my own union, 1199. At that time, having a union job pretty much guaranteed job security; the living wage and excellent medical benefits made our life without a husband and father a lot easier. Listening to Eric Shtob and Joe McDermott speak of the history of the CWE, I was impressed with the many educational programs the CWE either directly runs or supports with financial grants. The level of CWE’s commitment to education and job readiness/training programs is truly a vital service not just to union workers and their families but also to many people and communities in the NYC area.
3. Mike Rose, Marilyn Sternglass and Jane
One of the fundamental tenets in Mike Rose’s pedagogy is the necessity of teaching critical literacy. In his book, Lives on the Boundary, he says, "Many young people come to the university able to summarize the events in a news story or write a personal response to a play or a movie or give back what a teacher said in a straightforward lecture. But they have considerable trouble with what has come to be called critical literacy: framing an argument or taking someone else’s argument apart, systematically inspecting a document, an issue, or an event, synthesizing different points of view, applying a theory to disparate phenomena, and so on" (188).Teaching students such critical literacy skills was until recent times reserved for the elite, priests, scholars and leisure classes. Now we expect it of all our schools including our “beleaguered” urban public schools.This reading connects with a recent article for which I wrote a summary essay: Marilyn Sternglass’s “The Need for Conceptualizing at all Levels of Writing Instruction.” This article appeared in the Journal of Basic Writing, 8.2 (1989): 87-98. Sternglass argues that it is not enough to teach students in remedial classes the linguistic forms of Edited American English and the writing conventions, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and paragraphing. She says, “These conventions need to be taught within a larger conceptual framework” (88). In order to be ready for college level work, Sternglass argues that remedial students need to be exposed to, and gain increasing mastery of, academic cognitive skills such as summary, compare/contrast, and analysis. She says that teachers do not need to require mastery of these critical literacy skills but that all students, even and perhaps most especially those in basic writing and ESL, should be required to practice these skills over a several semester sequence of study.I realize that my own early education was sadly lacking in critical thinking. We were taught how to diagram a sentence or how to dissect a frog but very little critical thinking was encouraged (this was the rural South in the late 50’s and early ‘60’s after all). So by the time I got to undergraduate school I was woefully unprepared for college level work. How I managed to complete four years of college and graduate still puzzles me? There were numerous caring, supportive teachers along my educational journey, but none that required the rigor of critical thinking, practice and study that fortunately intervened in Mike Rose’s life. Now at 60 plus and in graduate school, I find it a struggle to catch up.
4. Mike Rose, Lives on the Boundary
Here is a link to an interview of Mike Rose by Bill Moyers about Lives on the Boundary.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tCokgfZmHUIn class tomorrow night we are to discuss Lives on the Boundaries and specifically, issues of access to education. What are some of the barriers or limits to access to education: poverty, an indifferent bureaucracy, poorly qualified and/or uncaring teachers, location and a "diminished sense of the possible." On page 105, commenting on a sense of ineptitude and depression that occasionally washed over him, Rose says, "This, I thought, was how South Vermont kept hold of its errant children. You can leave those streets, but the flat time and the diminished sense of what you can be continues to shape your identity. You live with decayed images of the possible."
5. To respond to Mighty's post I agree with Viktoriia: I suspect higher graduation rates might have more to do with dumbing down the curriculum but I would like to know what Humaira has to say on this.And to respond to Vika's question, I do think we should fire the "bad" teachers and replace them with better ones BUT the question then becomes how do we accurately judge who is a bad teacher? Judging them by their students' grades on standardized tests doesn't seem to me a useful way to determine teaching ability. The article that Vika quoted above, and that I quoted in an earlier comment on Freire's Teaching Philosophy, has caused me to do a lot of thinking about my perception of what makes a good teacher (and thus what makes a bad teacher). The article was "Building a Better Teacher" by Elizabeth Green and appeared in the March 7 Sunday Times Magazine. Vika gave the link above. And in today's magazine are many excellent and provocative letters to the editor about this article, most written by teachers.So what do you all think makes a good teacher? Can it be taught or is it as Sylvia Gist, Dean of the College of Education at Chicago State University says, "there is an innate drive or ability." I think it has gotta be a lot of both. I know from hard won experience that classroom management techniques, well thought out lesson plans and knowing your subject are essential. And also, when I look back at the good teachers in my schooling, I remember that some were tough, all were fair (as in just), some were warm and some more reserved but they had one quality in common: they cared. They cared about the subject they were teaching, they cared about their students and they cared if the students were "getting it" or not. They cared.
6. Quotes from the Tipping Point Research at Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges"Less than one-third (30 percent) of adult basic education (ABE/GED) students made the transition to college-level courses. Only four to six percent ... ended up getting 45 or more college credits or earning a certificate or degree within five years"(3)."Short-term training, such as the type often provided to welfare recipients seeking to enter the workforce, may help individuals get into the labor market, but it usually does not help them advance beyond low-paying jobs. Neither does an adult basic skills education by itself nor a limited number of college-level courses provide much benefit in terms of either employment or earnings"(5).Echoing Megan and Lashalla, I too thank both Amy and Wynne for their presentation on IBEST at LaGuardia. And I have a question. It actually is the same question I asked last Tuesday night but I would like some specifics. My question was, and still is, do you have a plan in place to link with adult literacy centers throughout the city so that promising students/graduates can have the path made easier for them to transition smoothly to La Guardia and further credentials/education. As I said last week in class, the essential motivator for our adult learners is that by accumulating literacy in English, they have access to better jobs. Now, I admit that after several months of teaching at BPL, I found myself wondering just what their chances were to get a better job. I was beginning to realize how high the next hurdle would be, that even reading and writing at a 7th grade level was not going to help much. Nevertheless, I encouraged these goals believing (perhaps naively after I read some of your materials and statistics - see quotes above) that they are attainable. What I learned: I am very excited by the I-Best model. Naturally, as I listened to your presentation (and after reading the materials) I pictured some of my adult learners at BPL moving into the I-Best credential/education track. What is most exciting is that the stop off metaphor would so work for them. They are working adults (30s - 50s)with families and responsibilities. So back we go to my question: is there a plan or do you have direct contact with some of the adult literacy programs in the city. I will be honest. My heart breaks to think that all the effort and time literacy tutors and programs give believing that they are significantly helping to pull their students out of poverty, or more aptly, giving them the tools to pull themselves out.
7. I did look at Grant Williams comments on Defining Assessment. One thing that caught my attention is that teachers should consider assessment before they begin planning the lessons. It is kind of a "duh" moment for most teachers but also a good reminder. The reason is simple: you look at where you want to go, what learning outcomes you hope for the students to gain and how you will assess. Then you design the lesson plans that hopefully will bring students to this point. Williams calls it "backward design". Once you have your objective in mind, how you assess will begin to make sense and then the activities you plan will flow from this.
8. Well, after reading through our Wiley text, I now am more aware and sensitive to looking at an individual’s literacy practices and competencies as a whole. And yes, I find it outrageous that we test only for English competency and then mark the person illiterate if not "literate" in English. If I moved to Italy for a year I would not consider myself illiterate or non-literate simply because I didn't read or speak Italian. And I don't think the Italians would either. Not speaking the native language might make life difficult for me, and I would have more difficulty getting a job, unless of course I could teach English!A semester ago I would have understood and perhaps secretly agreed with the English only advocates. Or at least made some temporizing statement like "Well English is our native language." Now I can't. It seems to me that our nation would be best served by acknowledging the wealth of opportunity we have in our diversity. To be literate in any language is to be literate. To be literate in more than one language is common in other nations. Why wouldn't we want to test for all literacies and then shout it to the rooftops and build on it. Make it easier to get jobs, go to school, etc. For those of us in Troyka's class last semester, remember Harvey Daniels, "Nine Ideas about Language"? Well, one of his myth busters was that the English language is not dying, it is in fact alive and well and people who come here want to speak it, we just have to give them the opportunities and along the way, we also will be enriched. And should I ever move to Italy, I would for certain sure want to learn the language and try to speak and write it like a native.
9. Back to our concern for high school drop outs, how to keep them in school, making it worthwhile for them to stay in school, or coming up with good alternatives like vocational training. (or is that a good alternative?)I like what Mahla's suggesting, a well trained tutor who can form a personal relationship with a disaffected or troubled adolescent. Actually this is what I found most satisfying in tutoring at the Brooklyn Public Library. My students were working adults but it became clear to me that it was after we got to know each other, and develop a trusting relationship that my students began to take risks with their writing and discussions.Doesn't this remind you of the reading "Freire for the Classroom." The teacher and students formed a close relationship and as the semester developed, as their trust levels developed, their engagement and willingness to take risks in their writing and learning process developed also. I loved this reading. This is what I want to do, this is how I want to teach!
10. Defining Literacy
Preparing for tonight’s class (Adult L&L) and reviewing chapter 4 of Wiley’s Literacy and Language Diversity in the United States, I am once again struck by our inability to define literacy, to pin down that elusive non-count noun, “literacy.” What is it, who has I, who doesn’t and how do we measure it?Last semester we talked about literacy in its many manifestations: functional literacy, cultural literacy, literacy as social practice, autonomous literacy, multiliteracies, academic, etc. Wiley in chapter 4 adds several more terms or definitions to confuse the mix.Minimal – “the ability to read or write something, at some level, in some context(s).”Conventional – “the ability to use print in reading, writing, and comprehending texts on familiar subjects and within one’s environment.”Basic – ability to read and write that “allows for continued, self-sustained literacy development.”Functional – “ability to use print in order to achieve one’s goals and meet the demands of society by participating effectively within the family, workplace, and community.”Restricted – restricted to a minority of self-selected people, perhaps gained without formal schooling.Vernacular – unofficial, “may involve the use of nonstandard as well as nonacademic varieties of language.”Elite – “pertains to specialized knowledge, skills, and academic credentials.”Analogical – refers to knowledge and skills related to particular types of texts such as cultural literacy, computer literacy, etcLiteracy as social practices – practicing literacy within social and ideological contexts.I wrote a paper on Functional Literacy for my midterm in Theories & Models last semester and it seems to me that Functional Literacy is at the heart of the discussion. Because what all the differing definitions of literacy boil down to is performance. Can a person perform at this or that level well enough to do this or that job or school or whatever?Perhaps, I find myself wondering, we should set aside the term “literacy.” Allow it to return to its Latin root, literatus which means lettered or learned. Let it remain lofty and mysterious like love.Perhaps, instead when we talk about measuring and quantifying, we should talk in terms of competencies. Then the questions become less loaded, less offensive, and less elitist. Can she read and write (in English, remember each language has its literacy, we are speaking of English right now) well enough to function in daily life in this country to ride the subway, shop, and bank? Can he read and write well enough to complete a job application? Can she read, write and think critically enough to go to high school or college.I am not trying to end the discussion; I am suggesting that we might want to redirect the conversation.
11. I am very troubled after reading Chapter 5 in Wiley, "Literacy, Schooling and the Socioeconomic Divide." "Illiteracy may be more a result of socioeconomic problems than a cause."I have long held to a firm belief that education is the route out of poverty, or at least one key route. Which is why reading this chapter has left me feeling very troubled. One of the main reasons why I joined this program, L&L Masters, is that I want to teach impoverished and struggling adults. I believed and led them to believe that learning to read and write in English would allow them to move up the socioeconomic ladder. I am sophisticated enough to know that the causes of poverty are complex and there are no easy answers but I did think that improving my students' literacy would truly help.
No comments:
Post a Comment