Blog 7

           Jill Ewing Flynn’s article entitled, "EJ [English Journal] in Focus: Shifting Perspectives about Grammar" was a look into a classroom that examined and exercised language a bit differently than a regular one. Mr. Ramsey was a new to teaching his 8^th grader but he was still able to teach the how ‘Standard English’ is powerful and how the privilege of language is relevant in today’s world. Ana, one of Mr. Ramsey’s students expressed and experimented with his teachings, talked to the staff of Mr. Johnson that they were familiar with what was going on, she was able to recognize the power of code-switching. Mr. Ramsey’s school has a majority of Caucasian students with small numbers of students of colour but the diversity with economic stasis is high. He shifted the perspective of language and grammar using exercising with different dialects and different language people use and in what context. Students replied well to his teachings by involving themselves with this new way of learning that was presented to them. Even though most of them did not remember is as a learning asset that they can use later in life-it seems to be not seen as an 8^th grader but later in life it is expressed in every day life that language is power. Mr. Ramsey was trying to teach his students that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ language but different languages that we should all adapt to and respect equally.  I used this article and some ideas from Lisa Delpit’s article “Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom”, in my language and power project/essay.  I want to be an educator exactly like Mr. Ramsey. He identified the needs of society and his students and made a curriculum out of it. Privilege of language and the power of that privilege needs to be identified. Even though 8^th graders did not completely respond to it like I thought they would at the end, I feel like juniors or seniors in high school would be more accommodating to the learning.

Final Reflective Statement: A Draft

(okaaay here it goes… **deep breath*…. Okaaay well I’m just gonna keep writing this)

         For my final portfolio, I am making flyers with different grammar examples, some even have exercises that you can rip off and take with you, some have definitions, some have written dialects of different languages and there is even a flyer with ‘Standard English’ rules and how it is used. I thought this was an interesting way to do my final portfolio. I thought of many ways to introduce grammar and I could not think of anything- besides a PowerPoint, which isn’t bad, I just make them every week for another class and I would prefer not to. I was walking to class and saw a flyer and it sparked my creative ideas.  A flyer is an interesting way to do such a project because my future students (I plan to use this project in the future) can take my definitions with them or even make their own flyers.

           I would like to teach my students differently than I was taught in my schooling. I do not necessarily want to be an English teacher, even though I am falling in love with English classes all over again. I would prefer to be a history teacher but if I do decide to be an English teach, I would like to follow Mr. Ramsey’s teaching with different exercises that express interest and include all the students and not the students that thrive within the classroom. I would like to use examples of dialect to promote different ways of thinking and not so much “they don’t seem smart because they sound dumb” type way of thinking.

My statement is still very rough but I do feel like I am getting somewhere

Pattern-of-the-Week

I seem to really enjoy dashes. But I like to play around with them because I never had experimentation with them in school.  I would like to experiment with semicolons and colons more but I always feel like I am doing it somewhat wrong but I will just have to play around with that more then.  I would like to think mixing up grammar is important because it shows that one can have fun with their writing, but also has the ability to show their knowledge of different ways of expressing grammar in their work.

Blog 6: Language and Power Project Ideas

I, a Humanities major with an emphasis in CES (Comparative Ethnic Studies), critical race theory and history, was really excited knowing we had a project with the topic of language and power [a list of three appositives, set off with commas to describe myself and my major’s specialties].  Being comfortable and feeling ease, it was nice to know that in a class that is out of my region, there is a section that I feel like I can really do my own thing [two back-to-back present-participle phrases; the participles work well here, since they reflect my constant state of action through the process of this project]. I have always found it interesting that language has such a stronghold of power and can influence all of society and alternate cultures to fit another. I would like to research how Standard English has power and why it is, specifically within the educational institution.  I want to know why it takes form in power and influences such an assimilation process and whom it affects as it does. I believe this is a relevant topic for every future educator because educators are at the forefront of that influence whether they know it or not.

As we did the Tea Party exercise, I got really excited and also frustrated. I got excited because I love hearing other people’s stories. As a future educator, I want to be able to fix the problem or to eliminate ways that the problem can come into my own classroom so that history doesn’t repeat itself. I did get frustrated putting myself in other people’s shoes because I was hearing true stories of how language and violence was used as power to eliminate tradition and cultures. I saw potential for the future and I was upset that if oppression of language is still in affect…is this really the world I want to live in. And so I thought, yes. Yes because I would like to educate my students on the power they hold and how they can use that power for good or bad.

This research project, even though it is shorter than what I am used to, I have a lot of ways to thrive through this topic. Mainly because I am in a classroom full of future educators-there are ways my research can assist my peers. As we all will be educators, I think the whole class would benefit from having research done by a peer so that they have some connection towards this issue instead of re-reading articles (even though I love them myself). There are ways to know what institutional influence has on our teaching and it is importance to develop knowledge on what it looks like. Standard English and units of grammar (for example) has dominant effect in the classroom yet has no reason to overpower someone else's language. It is important to acknowledge how it happens so that it’s easier to eliminate the problem that was set when we were in school and even when our parents and grandparents were in school.

Here is a bit of an outline for my paper and research:

·      Introduction:

o   Thesis

§  Still working on it**

·      Paragraph one:

o   Historical introduction with a story

§  Use one of the Tea Party stories and connect it to historical context of the issue

·      Paragraph two:

o   What issues come up within the educational institution that should be addressed

§  Use article to identify issues

·      Paragraph three:

o   How to address the issue of Standard English in the classroom to eliminate oppression and assimilation of other cultures and languages.

§  Use articles to determine how to do so

I experimented with the patterns I used because I have never really purposely put them into my writing, and I barely never put them in my writing without thinking about it.  I think I incorporated it well, maybe not 100% correct but I did my best J. I would like to experiment with it more because I really like how it changes up written work. I would just like to know if I did it somewhat correctly.