Hello Donovans!
Welcome to the Donovan specific section of Literacy Pedagogy and Assessment. This blog will be our online course space. Take time to become familiar with navigating the site, including reading the syllabus in detail and perusing our weekly schedule. The schedule will be modified from time to time, depending on our developing conversations and needs over the course of the semester. For your first post (to make sure that you are able to post and to get in the habit of using this space), please respond to this thread, give us a brief intro to who you are (since y'all already know each other) and tell us a moment or time that stands out for you in terms of literacy. This could be a specific book or text, a moment in school, something from outside of school, an interaction with a teacher, etc. Keep it short - a paragraph or two at the most, and by all means, include multimodals, links should you wish.
We are looking forward to working with you as we think about literacy instruction to break patterns of oppression in schooling.
One,
Professor Patel.
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ReplyDeleteHello Everyone!
ReplyDeleteAs many of you know, I was born in Brazil. However, at the age of two my family and I left Brazil to pursue the “America Dream.” Once, we arrived to Boston I was immediately enrolled in a daycare program where I learned to speak English. As the years passed and I continued to receive my formal education in English, I did not learn to read or write in Portuguese. At first I did not mind, but this quickly changed once I realized that my Brazilian peers at church could read and write in Portuguese. I remember sitting in a circle with the church’s youth group as they read the bible. The group’s mentor began reading and then instructed all of us to take turns reading out loud a paragraph. I anxiously waited for my turn. I sadly had to inform the group that I cannot read in Portuguese. Once I failed to read out loud, I remember feeling judged, embarrassed, and in some ways stupid.
While we have begun to discuss literacy in broader terms, this experience connects to what Kakas described in class. In discussing literacy it is common to think of illiteracy and the negative connotations of being illiterate. While I felt “smart” in school I did not feel “smart” at church.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteMy parents immigrated from Taiwan before I was born. I was born in the states and grew up attending Chinese school on the weekends. But, because my formal education was conducted in English, I, like Caroline, had very poor Chinese reading and writing skills. Although I would speak Chinese to my parents at home, whenever I was with friends or at school, I would always speak English. Furthermore, going off to college, I struggled to keep my Chinese reading/writing/speaking skills. Now, I am struggling to even converse with my own family members in my native tongue. I personally feel embarrassed because I can no longer speak Chinese as fluently as I used to, which saddens me. I feel like because I have grown up in the US, I have slowly lost my native culture, especially in my literacy skills.
As many of you know, I served in the Peace Corps in Mali right after university (like, a week after I graduated). As a disclaimer to this post, I have distilled many thoughts and experiences down to a few sentences and I fear it will lend an air of simplification. And, for better or worse, it is simplified: my time in Mali was very dynamic and necessitated several sets of reconciliations and introspection that I continue do today.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a significant moment for me in terms of literacy, I think of my family in Mali. My host parents, Ba and Kadjia, could not read or write their spoken language, Bambara; they never went to school. And their youngest son and daughter and grandchildren, who were young students, went to a school that taught in a language that was not their own, a language that was never taught to them, a language that demeaned them and their experiences every time they stepped in the classroom. As I grew to know my family, I witnessed their wealth of knowledge that enabled them to survive in a tough place and build significant and strong relationships. School and formal education in their village was fraught with complex challenges and historical ills in which only a small amount of students ever “succeeded”. I could write an essay concerning my thoughts and learnings from living in Farakan Dougoutigila for two years. For this post, I want to convey the transformative experience it was for me to learn and realize that the measure of knowledge lives (literally) outside the classroom. That as “uneducated” as Ba and Kadjia were, they remain among the wisest people I have been blessed to know. Equally, as destructive as the school system in Mali can be, Djakadi, Aishata, Bashina, Hawa and Rokia’ s literacy would have failed a classroom test but it fortified their lives.
Salut, Donovans!
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned it to you thousands of times over, but I'll say it again for the sake of this memory related to literacy: I used to be in the Navy, and one of the places I was stationed at for part of my training was the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. While I was there, I was enrolled in two language courses (Mandarin and Spanish) that would bring me to a level of fluency in those languages upon the completion of the eighteen-month training. I've always had a knack for learning languages, but I hit a wall when it came to learning Mandarin. Our first two weeks were spent being able to correctly pronounce the sounds and tones required to speak Mandarin in the first place. Speaking and listening to Mandarin came easy to me, but when it came time to memorizing characters, I was practically helpless. I had relied too much on pinyin, which romanized Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet, and my dependency on it left me struggling to get through the bulk of our assigned readings, which by that point had gone from short form of the characters to the traditional long form. The short form was created in the 1950's as a way to promote literacy in China, and is generally used more today in the larger cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
The pace of the program was incredibly rigorous and being in the Donovan Program gives me bouts of anxiety sometimes because it reminds me of where I fell short (no pun intended) when I was in my Mandarin program at DLI. Since I was unable to keep up with my Mandarin readings because it took me too long to get through our readings - which were supposed to bring us to a level of full fluency in a quarter of the time that it took most people - I didn't end up making it and was placed in the Spanish program. At the very least, the Spanish language had an alphabet that I could recognize, even though we had only six months to become fully fluent in that language. Now that I'm on the fast track to graduating with my Master's, it is never lost on me for one minute that I am fortunate enough to be able to understand the readings that are assigned to me. As I go over the papers of the first writing assignment for my West Roxbury Academy students, I know that this memory will be lingering in the back of my mind.
Hello! My story goes back to a time when I lived in a missionary compound. Upon graduating undergrad in 2012, I left to do mission work in a country called Timor Leste. As soon as I settled down in my new home, I was paired with a few other students around my age to learn Tetum(National Language). Our teacher introduced himself by saying "Hao nia naran Arianto" which translates into "My name is Arianto". I was like whaaaat? He chuckled and began our lesson with a graphic organizer that had vocabulary in Tetum and english translations on the side. I was amazed when I saw words like communicacion which literally means communication! Arianto became the main language teacher for all the missionaries and whenever time permitted I sat down to have a conversation with him. He would ask me questions like who is the president of the US and would make me respond in Tetum. Sometimes we would have conversations about religion and family. My fondest memories of Arianto were the times we laughed to the point of tears when I asked him questions like, "do you like Xanana Gusmao(First Timor Leste President)". Xanana Gusmao had a tendency to cry during his speeches.. and Arianto thought he was full of shit. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I am sure Arianto would be pleased to know that I wrote this.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone!
ReplyDeleteA moment that stands out to me in terms of literacy was when I was in the first grade. At the time, I was in the bottom reading groupin the mainstream classroom and was being pulled out for speech and additional reading help. I could not pronounce the -ch sound ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" sounded like "Shitty Shitty Bang Bang", for instance) and could barely read, even with help. In addition to the extra assistance in school, my mother (a learning support teacher) would spend hours outside of the classroom to get me on grade level. It took me until the beginning of the 2nd grade to get anywhere close to how I was supposed to be reading at my grade. I still remember crying in the kitchen feeling ashamed and embarrassed that I could not do my homework because I could not read like my older sister and my classmates, even with so much support.
Reflecting on this moment, I'm very aware of the privileges I had. When I was struggling academically, I was lucky enough to have non-stop support both inside and outside the classroom to make sure I would not fall behind. Once I did get to grade level, I also was able to take my position for granted and not have to think about such intense struggle in the classroom for a very long time. I think (and hope) my understanding of where I was academically, the help I got, and the privilege to not have to struggle with language and reading in school will allow me to put into perspective where my students are academically, the help they may or may not have been getting, and the best ways I can serve them.
Hey Donovans!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am the oldest of three to immigrant parents from Sierra Leone, West Africa. I was born in the U.S however I went to school in Sierra Leone from 1st to 4th grade. I returned back to the United States due to civil war in my country. I experienced the affects of colonialism first hand. In school we were not allowed to speak our native tongue, we were only allowed to speak English and when we heard speaking any other language besides English there would be serious consequences.
A moment that stands out to me in terms of literacy would be when I was told that the English I spoke was the wrong English. I will never forget my first grade teacher telling my six year old self that I spoke "Americanized" English, which was the wrong English. She then went on to explain that the way Americans spoke made them sound ignorant and illiterate. From that moment on I mimicked speaking English the exact same way she and my peers did. When I returned back to the United States speaking my "British" English as my teacher would call it, I was ridiculed by my peers for sounding to foreign which in turn made me sound dumb. I was so confused because I was told that speaking I was told that Americans sound "Ignorant" now I'm being told that "British" English makes me sound foreign and dumb.
It is not until recently that I realized that literacy and what people consider to be literate varies from culture to culture, nation to nation, and person to person. I also realize that because a person may not seem literate to a person outside of their comfort zone, does not mean they are not literate at all.
I look forward to learning and understanding the different aspects of literacy and how they vary between class, race, gender, age, etc.
Hi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteAs you probably all know or figured out from my last name, I am Jewish. I grew up in a conservative family, which means that we attended a conservative synagogue where we prayed in Hebrew. As a result, both by listening in services and formal education in Hebrew School, I learned to read aloud and write in Hebrew. However, I have no idea what I'm saying. I cannot understand or have a real conversation in Hebrew.
Although I always knew this was true, I didn't officially realize this until college when my friends asked me to explain Hebrew and Judaism to them. It felt weird to say I can do these all of these rituals in Hebrew and feel like I belong in a synagogue but have no idea what I'm saying. Furthermore, it's probably more strange to explain that from what I can tell, this lack of understanding Hebrew is very common. I think it is very interesting that in many Jewish circles, a person who can read aloud and write Hebrew is considered to be pretty literate, even though the understanding is not there. Nevertheless, I hope to learn Hebrew one day.
P.S. I'm not sure how to change my name, so this is Bethanne Goldman.
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was born in the United States, Polish is my native language. My parents are Polish immigrants and when I was born, they were still just learning English. Thus, when growing up, I was only spoken to in Polish and had to attend ESL classes during kindergarten. Being so young, I was able to pick up English quickly and no longer had to attend ESL classes in first grade. Through schooling, I had learned English. However, my parents tried to make it a rule for me to only speak Polish at home and I attended Polish school on Saturdays; they did not want me to lose my native tongue. I remember this time in my life as being significant in regards to literacy. Although I had learned English, I somehow still felt like I was behind other students. They always used “bigger” words that I did not know the meaning to. I assumed that they must have learned these words at home and I remember feeling as if I was somehow lesser because I did not speak English at home.
While my parents helped me realize my bilingualism as an asset, school was contradicting this idea for me. In order to survive in school, I needed to master English. Thus, in my eyes, English somehow became superior to Polish. I cared more about learning English and preferred to speak it, because this was the language that allowed me to communicate with my teachers and friends. I obviously needed to know Polish in order to communicate with my family, but as a child, I took this for granted. I felt that my Polish language skills were something that I could never lose and my parents were learning English while I was, so I knew that we would always be able to communicate with one another. However, now I realize that I was not able to fully develop my Polish language skills. My reading, writing, and speaking skills are much worse than my English skills and I simply feel more comfortable reading, writing, and speaking in English, even though some words come to me faster in Polish. Sometimes I feel embarrassed when I make grammar mistakes or cannot think of the words I need to say what I mean when talking to my grandparents and cousins back in Poland. I also find it interesting how I now talk to my parents in both Polish and English, often switching between the two. However, every time that I need to switch to English for a phrase or sentence, I cannot help but feel that a part of my native language has been somehow taken away from me.
Greetings and Salutations,
ReplyDeleteI, Lauren Bales am an exquisite southern belle who admits to not fully enjoying school as an adolescent. However my scholastic achievements in school exemplified me as the honor roll type of chick with the social skills to keep me entertained throughout my time. Over the years I have developed a love for education in my own way. As a third generation of the prestigious Tuskegee University, I found myself learning how to comprehend text that I may not have been fully prepared for in my early years of education. Even though I graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts in English, I never enjoyed reading texts because at times I could not fully understand what the author was trying to say. Literacy was never a forte of mine but I decided to major in English, thinking I would become an Entertainment Lawyer. Entertainment Lawyer? Yes, I figured I would have to suck it up and study so much material until my brain fried. But, it was not until my junior year of college that I found a passion again for wanting to become an educator and provide a setting of transformation for future students who found literacy dull and challenging. My major was perfect and Institute for Recruitment of Teachers during the summer before my senior year taught me so much about reading and how to analyze a text in order to find some sort of meaning of what assigned readings were given. I still have trouble finding my way through literacy, but I truly enjoy how literature can be analyzed and interpreted in many different ways. Literacy is the foundation for people's everyday encounters with life. I hope to gain more respect and different understandings for literacy and how it can relate to my past, future students, and self.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy story about literacy is a reflection on the connection between reading and language. The first school I attended in Chicago was my public neighborhood elementary school, Hans Christian Andersen Elementary in the West Town neighborhood. The school was majority Puerto Rican and Mexican, and had sizeable non-Latino Black and Polish populations. Many students spoke Spanish or Polish at home, unlike myself who only spoke English at home, and every student learned basic Spanish starting at kindergarten. By the time I was first grade, my standardized test scores indicated to my teachers that I could read very well, and I was placed in a third grade reading class while in first grade. This prompted the school to skip me from second grade to third grade the following year, during which my mother worked to place my sister and I in a public magnet school, Newberry Academy, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Newberry didn't want to double promote me, but after taking a second grade spelling test, they let me move on to third. It was in seventh grade here that I decided to become an English teacher or professor, after my teacher taught us our first culturally relevant text, A Raisin in the Sun.
Until that point, I had no idea that reading actually meant anything larger than the physical object of the book. Reading had always been a skill, something that I learned to do in school that I seemed to pick up faster than my classmates. I liked books, but mostly because I was able to finish them. After reading A Raisin in the Sun, I discovered that the true skill was not phonics, but interpreting language. Literature exists to be interpreted, it is a means of expressing language. This realization finally occurred with a culturally relevant text because the play was speaking a language I that understood. I was no longer someone who could read, I became a reader.
Reading always came naturally to me (I think that there are many reasons why this is the case) and began being an avid reader from an early age. Part of me was entertained by the stories, but a lot of me craved the gratification of succeeding. I wanted to do what I had to do to be "smart" and to succeed, which for me mean reading many books. This very much reflects the way that I viewed education as a whole- for a while it wasn't about my learning but instead about my succeeding. When I took an International Affairs introductory course my freshman year in college, the text gave multiple viewpoints on some of the principal global issues. I remember feeling like the book was being confused, and it dawned on me that although I had known for a while to critically analyze a viewpoint when stated verbally, I had rarely been asked to do so in a text. Since then, after much re-education, I take pride in my critical lenses through which I view the world, and which are always changing developing, and growing stronger, but I realize I still have a lot of work to do. I find myself genuinely loving reading for the way that it can speak to my personhood and help me learn about myself and the world around me.
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ReplyDeleteMy parents were both born in Mexico and emigrated to California; my dad when he was 18 and my mom when she was 2 months old. One of my earliest memories in terms of literacy: I am in my kindergarten classroom, sitting criss-cross-applesauce with my classmates on the floor as my bilingual teacher sits in her chair near the small white board guiding us as we sing the ABC songs in English and Spanish. Spanish is my first language and I remember having conversations with my teacher in both English and Spanish. These experiences took place about a year before California voters decided to ban bilingual education. I am thankful for these experiences because I was not made to feel ashamed for speaking Spanish. As I reflect, I am reminded of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s who fought against the ban on speaking Spanish in schools and of the struggle of being prohibited to speak their native language in school. Students were seen as inferior if they spoke Spanish.
ReplyDeleteMy mom went to public schools in the 60’s and didn’t receive support to help her understand the English instruction. She’s told me stories about how she never understood what the teacher was saying and only vaguely remembers her 3rd grade teacher telling her not to crack her knuckles. Many schools today lack providing support to students who speak a language other than English. I am currently working with a 5th grade student who speaks Spanish and knows little English. I have been working with the student since the start of school to support as needed with translations, answer questions, and help him feel comfortable in the class. It’s amazing to see how supportive the student’s classmates have been to translate, engage in discussion, and guide in various times of need, such as helping get in line even when the other students don’t speak Spanish. It is inspiring to see how accepting the class is and how no student seems frustrated with having to work with him. Throughout the semester I hope to learn more about how I can bring multiple literacies of students into the classroom.
Hey everyone!
ReplyDeleteWhen I introduce myself, I usually say I’m from New York, and then feel compelled to clarify—Rochester, NY. I went to a public, full inclusion elementary school in a predominantly white suburb. For 5th grade reading shares, I remember being paired with a student named David, who had just immigrated to the United States from Ukraine. David and I worked together throughout the year; his first language was Russian, and as he often worked with a paraprofessional, I could tell he was still uncomfortable speaking in English. This was my first experience working with an English Language Learner and perhaps my first encounter with the complexities of literacy, as defined within a reading-and-writing-focused domain. What I remember most is how much I learned from David—about phonetic challenges, discomfort speaking in public, uncertainties pertaining to written language, and literacy as a social act, prone to judgment and constant perception by others. Honestly, most of 5th grade is a blur, but I recall working with David, ignorant of the challenges many students face in 'demonstrating' (?) literacy in a culture different from their native one. I’ve carried these insights with me as I continue to work with ELLs, in the university, and now high school, settings.
For me, a moment in literacy, that stands out, happened during my first few months living in South Korea. I distinctly remember walking home with a friend/colleague from my school and all of the sudden I got very angry discussing something that happened at our job, unnecessarily so. I realized that I was not frustrated by my job in particular but my literacy or lack thereof, which at the time was preventing me from doing a lot of things. I consider my independence, and self-sufficiency, to be a big part of my identity. However in South Korea I had to rely on others to help me with a lot of things, even simple things like doing errands because of my limited proficiency. Things I had taken for granted all my life because I always had the default of English wherever I went. Throughout my time in South Korea my eyes where opened to the depression, frustration, isolation, stigmatization and host of other things that comes along with not being considered "literate".
ReplyDelete*I know Professor Patel asked us to keep it brief but I wanted to note that International Literacy Day was September 8th. I am still forming an opinion about it myself but wanted to share it with everyone since we are talking about literacy.*
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/
Hello all!
ReplyDeleteI have two sisters and a brother. Growing up in a family of four children, I often felt I had to work hard to make my voice heard. A moment that stands out in my memory is an interaction I had on an airplane the first time I flew alone. I was about thirteen years old. Soon after I sat down in my designated seat, I realized the woman next to me was deaf. She signed hello, and I waved back. I thought that was the limit of our ability to communicate because, at the time, I did not know sign language. I opened my book and began to read. A few moments later, I looked up and glanced over at the seat next to me. The woman sitting next to me had her palm open and the woman on the end of the row was signing letters into her hand. I watched for a moment and appreciated their commitment to find a way to connect. The two women went back and forth signing letters into one another’s palms. It took me a few minutes to realize that the other woman was blind. In this moment, I was humbled, inspired, and had a new appreciation for the way words allow us to connect.
Hey friends! The first experience that came to mind when I started thinking about literacy was a moment in my 9th grade U.S. history class. We were starting a Civil War unit and were talking about President Buchanan. I had literally never seen this name before (still haven't met anyone in real life with this name...) but of course, it was my turn to read out loud when his name was first introduced in the text. Naturally, I pronounced it "Butch-A-Non" because, hello, English makes practically no sense phonetically. An entire row of freshman morons starting laughing and one kid said, "That would be pronounced Buchanan, my friend" in an impressively condescending tone. I was mortified beyond all belief. As a Brown, scholarship baby, I felt enormous pressure to have people think of me as smart in high school. It felt like mispronouncing one word had undone years of proving myself to my classmates. I feel there's a more developed conversation around not forcing emergent readers to read out loud, but we don't think about how the same anxieties and insecurities manifest in older students as well, especially english language learners. I still get super sweaty and heart palpitation-y when I'm asked to read out loud. I'm not sure if people are familiar with the game Lotería, but it's kinda like bingo and people take turns reading the cards out loud. In college, my friends would play all the time and I would often refuse to be the person to call the cards because even in a casual setting with people I was comfortable with I was still sort of nervous. I often wonder about ways that my teacher could have reacted in the situation that perhaps would have made that "small" moment less of an awful memory for me.
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ReplyDeleteI am a native born Dominican and moved into the United States when I was eight years old. By the time I moved into New York City from the DR I already knew how to read and write in Spanish. Therefore, my first encounter with words was in Spanish. I can’t remember much of my experience on learning how to read and write, however, I do remember that once I did learn I used to write my loved ones names on everything! I still have my first bible where I wrote in Spanish, "this bible belongs to Paola, Maria (my grandmother), Juaquin (my grandfather), Richard (my brother), Victor (my father), and Maria Esther (my mother)". When I came to the US, my mom put me into a bilingual school, where the students and the teachers where bilingual Most of my teachers and students knew how to speak in Spanish and English, which was very helpful to me when I was transitioning into American schools. However, as a whole my experience as an ESL student was not a good one. In elementary school I and some other students were pulled out of our Gen ed classroom by our ESL teacher. In middle school, I was placed in an ESL classroom - which I was miserable in. I hated ESL because I felt stupid. I felt as though my ESL teachers and the staff around me treated me as if I was not a smart student. They underestimated me because I was not able to neither read nor write in English like the other kids could. They did not take time to know that I was a very good writer when I wrote in Spanish. In middle school I ended up testing out of ESL and was placed in a gen ed classroom in 8th grade. Its sad to say that after getting out of ESL, was relived and felt like I was a "normal" human being.
ReplyDeleteHi class,
ReplyDeleteI was born and raised in South Korea until I was fifteen. Then, I moved to the U.S. to continue my education. I graduated from Boston College last May and I am in its fifth year program, hoping to become a Chemistry teacher in an urban school.
When I was in elementary school, my family got into a car accident. At the time of accident, my mother was driving the car and my father, my younger brother, and I were in the car. Fortunately, everyone only had minor injuries, except my mother. To this day, she cannot walk. Anyway, she was immediately transported to the nearby hospital and stayed in its intensive care unit for half a year. Contrary to what most of physicians said she miraculously survived. However, this did not mean our family was financially benefitted from her survival. Now, burdened with unbelievable amount of loans, my parents decided to send my younger brother and me to a rural part of China, which apparently was a lot cheaper to raise children there than in South Korea. So this is when I first had difficulty in literacy. I never knew that reading and writing can be so difficult, yet reading and writing in Chinese was brutal. I remember spending countless hours memorizing Chinese words until I had no energy to do anything anymore. Writing this post, I am reminded that many people who are dealing with matters related to their literacy is not just dealing with literacy but myriad of other things going on in their lives.