All of the readings that we had to do in this course were beneficial to the main ideas of the course. I found that two of the books, Ganske’s Word Journeys and Owocki’s Make Way for Literacy, are practical books for teachers. They give information on how to use material in different ways to teach children. Delpit’s The Skin That We Speak tells more of the struggles of the minorities. It tells mostly of the white-black divide that is still happening between many people. This book focuses more on the racial differences in language, which gave a lot of important information that is definitely something that everyone needs to know. However, the book that I feel was most beneficial to me this semester was my choice book, Purcell-Gates’ Other People’s Words. This book is based on an illiterate Appalachian family and their struggle to learn how to read. Much of what we discussed in class was about multicultural and racial language problems, while this gave the story of a white families struggle. To me, it applies much more to the type of life that I will be living.
The course has shown me that language affects every part of our lives. While many say that language is universal, after this course, it is clear that this is not true. Language is different depending on how students have been raised, what type of culture they are in, how they are taught and many other factors. Language is used orally and written, to tell a story or to do classwork. It is used in everything that everyone does and many think that the separation is based on race, but there are many more factors than that.
As a Vermont resident and a future teacher who plans to say in Vermont, Purcell-Gates book truly spoke to me. The family in the book is a white family with a low income. The entire family is illiterate and is struggling to learn how to read. This story contributes to the class in a different way than any other work we did. It shows that not only those of different races are affected by language barriers. Many of the people in Vermont are low income and in the rural areas, many people have literacy problems. This book helped me connect how I would deal with situations similar to this in a classroom. Throughout the novel, the family struggles with learning to read and doing other basic skills that it seems that they should just know. The book shows how important language is to basic life.
One of the most shocking and helpful scenes in the book is when they are refusing to keep the main boy, Donny, back a grade, even though he is illiterate. The teacher wants to hold him back, but when overall the school disagrees, Purcell-Gates steps in. This made me so upset as both a future teacher and a human being. As a teacher, it is important to do what is in the best interest of the children and to fight for that. While schools don’t like to retain students, sometimes, as it was in this case, it’s necessary. Also, this topic disgusts me just as a human. I feel, as we have talked about in this class, that all people have the right to an education and basic language skills. While it doesn’t matter to me if they are exactly correct language skills, everyone needs some and it is wrong to deprive a person of this. Part of the job of being a teacher, or a person in general, is accepting that language has a different role in everyone’s life and to allow the different cultures and language uses. Sometimes, it is necessary to help teach some of the language skills. The overall point is that all need to be accepted for their own language.
This class and the choice book, Other People’s Words give very good opportunities to think about how these cultural and linguistic differences could be used in the classroom. Much of what we learn here at JSC is about inclusive practices and incorporating all types of students into the classroom. In Donny’s case, he was included in the classroom and was not helped at all really. He was behind the entire time and was not given the additional help that he needed. In his case, it was better to get outside help. However, this may not have been the case in a different class or with a different teacher. Donny could have been included in the class if he had been given modified work that he could understand. There were simple ways this could be done, such as have him orally tell answers or draw pictures instead of writing. These ideas could easily be extended and create much more work that could have an inclusive classroom even for a child that is basically illiterate as Donny was.
We have also learned that the way people talk should not have so much influence on their schoolwork. Some children come from different cultural backgrounds and their home lives have very specific language uses. These could seem like they are “incorrect” but really they aren’t. Language is very diverse, just as people are and there is no correct way to speak. It is all based on where you are from, the environment that you have been raised in, exposures throughout life and many other factors that make everyone have their own unique language. Instead of discouraging this, as many schools do, it should be embraced. Language is really powerful and can explain a lot about a person. Individual language patterns can tell a story in themselves, showing how someone was taught how to speak. Just as creativity helps to show individuality, language does as well. This is something that should be included not discouraged.
Overall, this course has taught me how truly important language skills are. I always knew they were, but never realized how truly difficult it can be having different skills than others. As Purcell-Gates describes, life without any sort of literacy skills is very difficult. The mother, Jenny, in Other People’s Words is illiterate. She can’t read signs or anything else. When she goes somewhere, she must take someone along with her so that she knows where she is going and also what is expected when she gets there. Even something as simple as shopping is a daunting task to her because she can’t do it alone. The library is a completely unknown place, and how to behave there is a new experience for the whole family. Until hearing about how exactly difficult struggles with not following the “normal” language rules are, I would not have believed it. I understood that some have a more difficult time, but this course has really opened up my eyes to exactly how hard it can be. I feel that it will make me a better teacher because I will be able to notice these things and hopefully offer help that will keep the individuality of speech alive. I know that I will allow all types of language in my classroom, because language is very important. Language is something that is essential to our lives and is constantly used whether orally, written or in any other form. Culture is also very important to basic life. I feel that both language and culture need to be incorporated into classrooms and this course has helped me get some ideas for how I will do that. This course ended up being very beneficial to me and I will use the information I learned in it for years to come.
References:
Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people's words: the cycle of low literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Delpit, L. and Dowdy, JK (Eds.), The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. (pp.32-48). New York, NY: The New Press
Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Owocki, G. (2001). Make way for literacy: Teaching the way young children learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
