" The degree to which you do not experience these extensive uses of print in your young life is the degree to which you do not know / understand the concepts that are so crucial to making sense out of beginning reading and writing instruction in school" (Purcell-Gates, 2002).
" I believe that if we claim to allow equal access to educational opportunity to all children in our schools then we must. But i also know that whether we interpret differences among children----or adults---- as deficit or difference depends primarily on our preconceptions, attitudes toward, and stereotypes we hold toward the individual children's communities and cultures" (Purcell-Gates, 2002)
Reaction:
I chose these quotes because they are extremely powerful. To sum up the author's extensive research, if you do not have an adequate amount of literacy knowledge you will have trouble understanding the basics of learning how to read and write. This leads to the second quote explaining education for all students without discrimination. It is truly sad to see how often teachers write off students like Donny because of the lack of background they have or the culture they are from. As sad as it is, I am sure that it would be easy for a novice teacher to get confused between having a lack of experience or actually having a learning disability. As a "soon to be" novice teacher myself, this opened my eyes to see that you have to have a clear mindset in order to "diagnose" a student in your classroom. Are they struggling because of a deficit or a difference?
Literacy knowledge is the knowledge that children have before the start of literacy instruction. It doesn't necessarily mean that the child knows how to read or write, but that they have formed ideas about literacy by observing the things that others do. Some examples are: looking at a book and "reading the pictures" , knowing which way to turn the pages in a book, knowing that the " Golden Arches" stand for McDonald's or that the red sign means stop. I have had a similar experience to the little girl the author mentions. I had been reading a book silently and my four year old nephew Caleb asked what I was doing. I responded "Reading to myself". He said, "Well how are you doing that? You're not even talking!".
As mentioned in the quote above, it is easy to have a stereotype against someone when you notice something different about them. By letting stereotypes sink in, you are taking a portion of that child's education away. Stereotypes make it easy for teachers as well as the school to have a "no care" attitude when a student is having difficulty in a subject or when a teacher thinks they know the full background on their students. Through working with Parks and Recreation, I can easily say that in many instances assumptions based on parent appearances are wrong. Just because a child comes from a low SES family does not mean that that family is illiterate. In retrospect, the bad image reflects on the school and the teacher that do not take the time to know the family of the student who they are teaching. In order to improve literacy instruction schools need to get on the level that the families are. Break the content down to simplest form and start at step one. Involve the parents as much as possible (e.g. hold workshops for parents who struggle with literacy, send home newsletters with ways parents can help at home, etc.)
The relationship between language, social class, and denial of education is this: If you come from a middle class family you will have an equal opportunity education and have the knowledge of literacy that is needed. However, if you are from a poor, working class family with little background knowledge, your education is forgotten about because you aren't "capable" of learning. Many misconceptions are formed from this relationship. If you are from West Virginia you are often thought of as a non-educated hillbilly. What people fail to look at are all of the successful West Virginians and the ability of all the rest to succeed.
I feel that the term "proper English" is old fashioned. As the author suggests, no one speaks the same way. We each have a different way / sound in which we talk. It is merely part of our individual cultures
Resource:
Purcell Gates, V. (2002). As soon as she opened her mouth. In L. Delpit & J.K Dowdy (Eds.),
In The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language culture and power.
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