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.
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