My students really enjoyed discussing Flynn on Wednesday and Delpit on Friday. My lesson plan for Wednesday was slightly revised by class discussion, which usually happens. I started out by asking a male student to answer for a female and vice versa during roll call. Then when I asked why I might have done that, my students went back to Yergeau and explained how uncomfortable it was to have someone speak for them. This is not a connection I meant for them to make, but it was beneficial nonetheless. After we spoke about the link to Yergeau, I asked them to make a connection to Flynn. Then my students picked up on how the male student sometimes answered differently than what the female student would have. I then asked them to talk about how they communicate with one another. One of my male students brought up how guys don't feel the need to speak to strangers but girls do, say in elevators or seated next to someone on a bus. Then I asked why they thought this was true and what part of language was affected. This led to a great classroom discussion about language and communication. Then we moved to text. I pulled up The Guardian Quiz that Lauren Pisanelli had included in her lesson plan. It allows students to choose based on a paragraph of a novel whether the author is male or female. My class had so much fun doing this. I split them up into two teams and made it a competition. Each paragraph had a one minute discussion time and we evaluated word choices and subject matter within the text. The exercise was very successful, proving to my students that you cannot base your choice on stereotyping (which I plan to bring up with Alexander and Cixous as well). After the exercise we moved into pulling out 5 major points of Flynn's article, finding them in the text, and discussing whether or not Flynn would have liked or agreed with the quiz we took. The answer was mixed but they had serious reflection on the text and language.
On Friday, I reminded my students that we would be having class on Monday and those who were planning on coming should bring their Project #3 and their peer review. I did not elaborate on why because I fear they will not come if they know it's a workshop opportunity. I have 3 students saying they will be in class on Monday. So I did explain the homework for the following Monday--Project #4 Essay proposal due, reading the selected text of Alexander and Cixous, and a 300 word essay on a moment in which they wished or thought being the opposite sex would have been easier. They recognize that the workload is more significant because they are not coming to class, but I think that's fine for them to realize.
Our discussion on Delpit and Smitherman went well. I have a group of students who are several different ethnicities so I decided to approach the conversation of dialect by way of personal experience so they would feel more comfortable sharing their ideas about their own. I showed an Appalachian dialect video and codeswitched for them so that they understood the idea of register and appropriation. they thought it was hilarious but understood the seriousness of losing language and heritage as well. Then I showed a video of a prisoner speaking BE, a news segment of a black man trying to change BI speakers into Standard AE converts, and then a clip of Maya Angelou reading in BE but speaking in Standard AE. The discussion that followed was amazing! We discussed whether or not dialects should be accepted forms of English in academia (with no bias of my own) and whether speaking in dialect meant you were not capable of speaking Standard AE (which Maya Angelou really proved wrong with my class). We focused on the text and the points Delpit makes vs. what Smitherman says and what my class eventually decided is that this was the debate several years ago but it is still a current debate (especially with the newsclip). My class's reactions were very split down the middle and they were able to have a very respectful but passionate conversation about language and acceptance, but more importantly, text and identity.
I've been proud of them before, but this week was a week full of pride for me. I really needed this week to go this well, given the last two weeks had been ridden with problematic student situations.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Teaching Journal Week #11--Nov. 5-9
While showing the Autism video during class to go along with Yergeau's text, I had a student laugh. I shot him the teacher "glare" hoping he would get the picture that he was being immature and disrespectful. After the video was finished, we started a conversation about communication and the language we use to communicate with others. The same student said "I don't think this is a language or a way to communicate. I think it's a person with a disability and we are watching them in a video that doesn't matter to this class. I'm supposed to be learning about writing." To this I answered, "This does have to do with this class because people communicate in many different ways. Yeargeau describes her experience with Autism as wanting to speak for others just like her, but continually people think they need to speak for her because they are under the impression that she cannot. The difference between being an advocate and a supporter is very different. This is why it's important to not speak for a group you are not part of. It's like trying to translate a Spanish speaker's feelings when you do not know Spanish. You cannot speak for an autistic person if you are not autistic. Understand?"
I was very nurturing while saying this, not trying to be rude but continually trying to be helpful in processing, and the student's face turned red and he shut down. At the end of class I tried to talk to him and he just kept walking passed me. My initial response was to worry that he felt in some way that I was asking if he was autistic in front of the class by asking why he was speaking for them. This might be a bit of a stretch, but I worry about things. So I e-mailed him and asked if he could come see me during my office hours. I got no response. On Wednesday I asked if he received my e-mail and he said yes, but offered no other answer. So after class I asked him to please come see me on Thursday during my office hour, and so he did. I explained that I felt like he thought I was dismissing his ideas in class but assuming things I should not have. I explained to him that I have no idea unless I'm contacted whether or not a student has learning impairments, and I shouldn't have assumed that he could not speak for autistic people. He, again, laughed and told me that he shut down in class because he knew I was right in my point. He just didn't like hearing it but he did not feel as though I dismissed him.
This was a big worry off my chest! Friday's class went great, with no lingering cloud over top of me. We discussed Project #3's deadline, the process of sending it to their peer and myself, and workshopped an introduction. The students found the workshopping to be very helpful and many of them submitted papers on time that evening.
I was very nurturing while saying this, not trying to be rude but continually trying to be helpful in processing, and the student's face turned red and he shut down. At the end of class I tried to talk to him and he just kept walking passed me. My initial response was to worry that he felt in some way that I was asking if he was autistic in front of the class by asking why he was speaking for them. This might be a bit of a stretch, but I worry about things. So I e-mailed him and asked if he could come see me during my office hours. I got no response. On Wednesday I asked if he received my e-mail and he said yes, but offered no other answer. So after class I asked him to please come see me on Thursday during my office hour, and so he did. I explained that I felt like he thought I was dismissing his ideas in class but assuming things I should not have. I explained to him that I have no idea unless I'm contacted whether or not a student has learning impairments, and I shouldn't have assumed that he could not speak for autistic people. He, again, laughed and told me that he shut down in class because he knew I was right in my point. He just didn't like hearing it but he did not feel as though I dismissed him.
This was a big worry off my chest! Friday's class went great, with no lingering cloud over top of me. We discussed Project #3's deadline, the process of sending it to their peer and myself, and workshopped an introduction. The students found the workshopping to be very helpful and many of them submitted papers on time that evening.
Teaching Journal Week #10--Oct. 29th-Nov.2nd
An update on my student in the previous post: the ROTC coordinator e-mailed me to tell me that my student would be late every Wednesday and sometimes on Fridays. The wording of the e-mail was intended to be intimidating, I believe, because specific wording was:
"*&^%$ will continually be late because her first priority is to us. I appreciate your understanding and ability to excuse her absence at such times".
My response was:
"*^%$ signed up for my class at this specified time. If she knew she would be out or late getting back, she should have signed up for a different class. I am willing to excuse her tardiness as long as it is not disrupting my class and no more than 15 minutes. Anything after will not be excused and please understand that no amount of help from me to fill her in on what she misses is the same as being in class discussion. It's hurting her grade by interrupting her understanding of the material for her to write her projects. Please consider allowing her to leave your program early to make it to my class because her education is important as well."
A following e-mail was sent to me after this that said "Duly noted."
The student has not been absent or late since.
*Yay*
Teaching this week went great. My students really enjoyed getting to see each other's presentations. They worked so hard on them that I thought it would only be right to allow them to showcase them in class. I had a superb outcome of projects!
Also, we broke up into groups of two on Wednesday and I had one person pretend to be from the other's discourse community while the other person asked questions. This was a fun exercise because it demonstrated both "mushfaking" and gave the student an idea of how to build interview questions. I asked them to consider what they need to know to be able to understand how to communicate and interpret the data. The trial run was fun and successful.
"*&^%$ will continually be late because her first priority is to us. I appreciate your understanding and ability to excuse her absence at such times".
My response was:
"*^%$ signed up for my class at this specified time. If she knew she would be out or late getting back, she should have signed up for a different class. I am willing to excuse her tardiness as long as it is not disrupting my class and no more than 15 minutes. Anything after will not be excused and please understand that no amount of help from me to fill her in on what she misses is the same as being in class discussion. It's hurting her grade by interrupting her understanding of the material for her to write her projects. Please consider allowing her to leave your program early to make it to my class because her education is important as well."
A following e-mail was sent to me after this that said "Duly noted."
The student has not been absent or late since.
*Yay*
Teaching this week went great. My students really enjoyed getting to see each other's presentations. They worked so hard on them that I thought it would only be right to allow them to showcase them in class. I had a superb outcome of projects!
Also, we broke up into groups of two on Wednesday and I had one person pretend to be from the other's discourse community while the other person asked questions. This was a fun exercise because it demonstrated both "mushfaking" and gave the student an idea of how to build interview questions. I asked them to consider what they need to know to be able to understand how to communicate and interpret the data. The trial run was fun and successful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)