October 6 Reading Blog Questions & Attendance

Hi everyone,

Here are the blog questions for the reading for next week. Don't forget you're welcome to create your own question or respond to other students' responses.

Please also remember that I do take attendance in section. There were a number of absences on Thursday, only one of which I had cleared.

Enjoy your weekend,

Tracie

Gates and Douglass:

- Gates, Jr, argues that race is a trope, i.e., a word/concept that is used figuratively, what does he mean by this?

- Contiguously, is there a problem with the metaphor that he offers? More specifically, does Gates, Jr., by relegating race to an abstract concept, a metaphor, fail to account for the real, material effects fomented by race?

- Gates writes that (pp.591 of the original text) many Western writers and (pseudo)scientists have sought to reify race by arguing that it is inherently biological, i.e., on page 595 of the original reading, that it is “natural, essential, and absolute.” What, in your opinion, would prompt these writers and scientist to espouse this particular stance, and, whose interests does it serve (explain)?

- Likewise, Gates argues that there has been and continues to be an (erroneous) conflation between “race” and intelligence that permeates and pervades western thinking regarding innate ability/intelligence; who are the beneficiaries of this line of thinking?

Fredrick Douglass, Narrative life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave

- On page 53 of the original text, Douglass recounts the vicissitudes of his own literate awakening. What does his account speak to regarding the internalization of negative, oppressive reinforcement?

- What caused Douglass’ aversion to thinking? Why did it quickly become the bane of his existence?

Late blog postings

Hi everyone,

My sincerest apologies for the delay in posting the blog questions. My weekend was unexpectedly busy with family and I was away from a computer. Truly, apologies.

Please feel free to submit blogs up until Tuesday at 11:29pm as the delay is certainly my fault.

Thank you for understanding.

Tracie

September 29th Blog Questions

Question 1, Pearson:  How (and maybe why, but don't get too caught up in cause-effect) is the "middle" stance radical, in reading and in education?  Question 2, Brumer: As Brumer describes the struggle between whole language and phonics approaches to reading instruction, she relates the following about Marion Joseph, a main proponent of phonics, who "served as chief of staff to former State Superintendent Wilson Riles. Soon after NAEP scores were released," Brumer continues, "[then] current state schools chief Delaine Eastin appointed Joseph to a statewide reading task force charged with examining reading instruction and developing recommendations. Joseph became a framework critic nearly ten years ago. Her then-first-grade grandson's school had just adopted the 1987 [whole language] framework, and he had difficulty reading. 'You can't read words if you can't decode them, take them apart,' she says, adding that whole language is more a political cult than an educational philosophy." Brumer also describes whole language proponent Sharon Zinke as a veteran reading teacher, and otherwise places the two women in opposition to one another throughout the article. What impact does this juxtaposition of Zinke and Joseph have on you as a reader, education student, current tutor, and possible future educator? And what are the implications of these roles and the influence they have on policy? And, on another note, feel free to comment on who you think gains most from these vacillating pedagogical approaches and debates?  Questions 3 & 4 (combined the last two articles) Given the positive findings of both these articles, how can schools, teachers, and even you as a tutor take advantage of student language strengths? Give specific examples of how you would build on linguistic funds of knowledge, in a classroom context and within a tutor-student relationship. 

Berkeley Review of Education

Hi everyone,

Just a follow up re: my announcement in class this afternoon. I am an editor of the Berkeley Review of Education, our interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal (http://www.berkeleyreviewofeducation.com/). We are always looking for undergraduates who may be interested in learning more about the academic publication process, APA, etc.

We need students who may be interested in doing copy editing, reference checking, etc. The amount of work you'd like is up to you.

Please shoot me an email if you'd like more information.

Thanks!

-T

New Room & Announcements

Starting this week (Thursday, September 20th) we will be meeting in room 3515.

Going forward, blogs will be due 11:59pm Sunday night. We'll talk about this in section Thursday.

Also, we'll have students from SMDP coming to hang out with us the first 30 minutes or so of section this week!

Blog 1 Responses

I have finished going through your blog entries for this week. Nice job!

I have emailed feedback and grades. If you have NOT received an email from me and you are one of the two nameless Unknowns on the blog, please email me and let me know who you are and which response is yours.

New questions for next week are up and running. Enjoy!

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Have a great weekend!

-T

September 22nd Blog Questions

Thanks, everyone, for such a good discussion yesterday! And thank you for your flexibility and patience as we work out logistics.

Reminder: blog posts are due by 11:59 pm on Mondays. You need to respond to TWO questions. Please register for the blog in order to participate. I understand that sometimes technical errors occur so if there is a glitch, please email me your blogs before they are due. This shouldn't become a regular occurrence, but I know sometimes things happen.

This week's questions:

1. Why does Mike Rose want to be average? And what does he mean by "students will float to the mark you set?"

2. Imagine Gloria Anzaldua and Richard Rodriguez are at a language,
literacy, and education conference. They find themselves at the same
reception and have a few too many drinks. What kind of conversation do you
think they would have? What, exactly, would they say to each other?

3. Now imagine that Amy Tan cruises into the reception at the end of the
night, when the conversation's especially sloppy, and joins Anzaldua and
Rodriguez. What does Tan have to contribute to the discussion?

4. What themes, if any, emerge throughout the literacy autobiographies? How
are they alike? Different? How, if at all, do they inspire your own
narrative?

5. In Eva Lam's article, how does Willis demonstrate Pratt's ideas about the
contact zone? And how does that compare to your own contact zones?

September 15th Blog Questions

Choose one of the following questions to respond to. Your responses should be approx. 250 words and should engaged critically with the reading. Please spend some time thinking about your response, referencing the literature and using what you've read. Feel free to quote the text to support your argument and thoughts.

Please check spelling and grammar.

Freire:

1. In Freire’s critique of the banking model of education, he argues that students are posited as receptacles or depositories (pp.72 of original text). For Freire this is problematic because he considers the banking model inherently oppressive. Do you see a way or ways in which this metaphor can be appropriated and/or re-envisioned as something positive and or generative?

2.Why is it in the best interest of the oppressor to “change the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation that oppresses them (pp.74)”?

3. Freire argues for a problem posing pedagogy in order to subvert and counteract the damage caused by the banking model of education: what are the primary differences within these educational paradigms (pp. 79)?

Freire & Macedo

1. On page 98 of the original text, Freire argues that: “…the notion that literacy is [only reducible to] learning the standard [i.e., dominant] language still informs the vast majority of literacy programs…” Freire clearly has a problem with this; why?

Hull

1. What does it mean to expand our conception of literacy?

2. How can the use of digital media serve to create more agentive young people; more specifically, how can it help traditionally marginalized (and therefore silenced) young people find their respective voices?

Jane Hammons's "Bigger than Michael Jordan" explores the complexities and
intersections of race, gender, socioeconomics and the impacts thereof,
literacy, schooling, identity, and violence in many forms. What did you take
away from this reading and to what effect? What do you think the author
intended to accomplish with this piece?

'"The Wooden Shack Place' The Logic of an Unconventional Reading'
references "judgments about cognition" (reader p. 159), "conventional
readings" and students answers being "off the mark." What are the authors
referring to? Who sets "the mark" and to what effect? How do the authors
position themselves and the student Robert in relation to the academy and to
what effect? Furthermore, what do the authors seem to suggest as a remedy
for this "mismatch" between what a teacher expects and what a student does?

September 15th Reading Sign Ups

Be prepared to think through your pieces through a Freirean lens.

Each reading group should have five to seven members. Please indicate your choice by leaving a comment to this post and a way for group members to contact you. If six or seven people have already signed up for a reading, please choose an alternate.

We'll work on finding a more efficient way to do this next time...

1. Hammons, Jane. (2001). Bigger than Michael Jordan. High Plains Literary Review XVI (2&3), 138-152.

2. Hull, G. & Rose, M. (1990). “The wooden shack place”: The logic of an unconventional reading. College Composition and Communication 4, 3: 287-298.

3. Ambe, E.B. (2007). Inviting reluctant adolescent readers into the literacy club: Some comprehension strategies to tutor individuals or small groups of reluctant readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, (50), 8, 632-639.

4. Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, (31), 2, 132-141.

5. Morrell, E. & Duncan-Andrade, J. (2004). What they do learn in school: Hip-hop as a bridge to canonical poetry (247-272). In J. Mahiri (Ed.), What they don’t learn in school: Literacy in the lives of urban youth. New York: Peter Lang.

Welcome & Section Syllabus

Education 140, Literacy: Individual and Societal Development

Tracie Wallace, M.A.

5648 Tolman Hall

gsitracie@gmail.com

Office hours: By appointment

Welcome to ED 140! I look forward to working with you this semester as we discuss literacy and its history and social implications. We will meet on Thursdays, 12:30 – 2:00 in room 2325 Tolman Hall.

Fieldwork troubleshooting

Our section is largely comprised of students working at St. Martin de Porres (SMDP) Elementary School and we will devote time each meeting to troubleshoot and touch base about your field work. Working with young people has many challenges and rewards and we will hopefully spend time talking about both. Please come prepared to ask questions, offer advice, or share wonderful success stories.

Reading Discussion

Our section meetings will mostly be made up of discussion; I will rarely lecture. Each week you will be group and assigned one of the week’s readings. You are welcome to choose your own groups as long as you are mindful of others. Your group will be responsible for leading the group thorough a general overview of the literature, positing a few key discussion questions and facilitating group discussion. These questions can relate solely to your assigned reading or can tie more broadly to themes and issues raised in the class.

If there are specific issues or theoretical questions that you have in the course, please let me know and I will do my best to address them. If your questions are not in my specific areas of expertise, chances are good I know someone who can provide answers. If you are interested in exploring a topic in class further and you would like recommendations for readings or resources, please let me know. I love this stuff.

Reading

I think it is incredibly important that you keep up with the reading. Our class and section do not meet long enough for you to be given the information embedded in the literature. I expect you to arrive at section having completed all the required reading and prepared to discuss it. Discussion is the fun part and you need to be armed with knowledge to engage critically with the reading.

Blog

I have created a blog for our section at http://ed140fall11tracie.blogspot.com/ Please subscribe to our class blog. Every week you will be required to write a minimum of 250 words in response to one of the questions posed about the reading. If you wish to respond to another student’s post, please make sure that your response is relevant and cogently makes reference to the reading; it is not an opportunity to comment blindly without completing the reading. If you wish to create a question of your own to respond to, please obtain permission from me first via email. I will read through all the blog postings before our section meeting on Thursdays and will address issues, questions, or brilliant points then.

Attendance

Yes, I take attendance. Yes, it matters. Come to section. If you cannot, let me know as early as possible. Participation also matters. Yes, I pay attention. Come in ready to engage.

GSI Stuff

The best way to get in touch with me is via email. I will check my email once in the morning and once in late afternoon/early evening. Please allow 24 hours for a response. I will try to answer you more quickly than that, but I cannot guarantee that I can. If your question requires a lengthy response, I may request that you set up an appointment with me so we can discuss it more fully.

Please use the assignment and field note log (found under Assignments on bspace) to track your work. I will not answer emails during the final push of the semester asking how many field notes you have turned in.

I have another class immediately following ED140. If you need to speak with me, please come to class/section early. Otherwise, email me and we’ll set up a time to meet up.