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.