My Dad read to my sister and I before bed. We had bunk beds, mine was on top. Sometimes my sister and I both sat in the bottom bunk and he sat, sometimes we both sat in the top bunk and he stood. Either way, he made sure we were both listening. He read us The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It may have been a bit of an advanced book for a four and five year old, but I remember crying when the deer died.
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Before I was old enough for school and until I was in about second grade, my parents, my sister and I would spend the summers in an old, crusty trailer on the Missouri River. Mom and Dad moved irrigation pipe by hand morning and evening so my sister and I spent the summers playing in the enormous garden, swimming in the river, and running through sprinklers. A couple of summers before I started Kindergarten, I decided that I was going to learn how to read. I always made Dad read me the Bernstein Bears "Sleepover" book and eventually I had it memorized so even though I couldn't read yet, I knew what some words were. I used that book to decode the writing I found in all of the National Geographics strewn about the coffee table. I remember sitting for hours, puzzling over the strange words, tirelessy asking my Mom and Dad "what word is this?" and "how do you say this?"; writing combinations of letters and making them pronounce the words I created. My parents were ever patient, answering my questions and teaching me as they went. I was the only kid in my Kindergarten class who could read well right away, and it put me ahead in school from day 1.
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I have a wonderful idea for inspiring literacy in my children. I plan on finding one (or a couple) of Far Side day-by-day tear-off calendars and using the cartoons to decorate an entire wall in their bedrooms. Far Side jokes most definitely inspired my sense of humor from an early age, and I think I'm pretty damn funny sometimes. Finding humor in forms of text is integral in developing children's enjoyment in reading. My parents were always sitting down and reading us Far Side jokes to us. Some were a bit tough to contemplate for a young mind, but I was always dying to understand the joke, which encouraged me to improve my reading comprehension.
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My parents have a bookcase taking up nearly an entire wall in their bedroom. I remember laying on their bed, staring at all of the books and marveling at the creative names and the names of all of the different authors. Sometimes Dad would sit with me and I would ask him questions about random books on the shelf. "What is this one about?" "What is your favorite book?" My parents were forever encouraging my sister and I to read and would be so proud of us when we finished a book...so we read a lot. Who doesn't want to make their parents proud?
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After reading this article and seeing two drastically different approaches to literacy development in children, I have come to understand how truly lucky I am. I think my parents did it right! It was certainly helpful that I had intrinsic motivation to read, but I think they helped me along pretty handily.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Works Cited for Appalachian English Group: Sally, Doug, Katelyn, Alyssa, Jake
Amazon. IMDb. Quotes for Mater (Character) from Cars
(2006).Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0009195/quotes>.
Appalachian
Mountain Homework Questions Answered. Author Unknown. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://tcdsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/asaulnier/Atlantic%20Canada%20Studies%209/Explorations%20Answers%20p%2025%2026.html>.
Brown, Esther. “FACT:
Adirondack=Awesome.” Outside.in. 30
Sep. 2010. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://blog.outside.in/2010/09/30/adirondack-almanack-awesome/>.
Harding, Craig. Setting a Higher Standard. Sep. 2008.
Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://www.craigharding.com/>.
Humphries,
Stephanie. Some Features of Appalachian
Dialects. Applit, 3 Dec. 2003. Web. 23 Sep. 2012 <http://www2.ferrum.edu/applit/studyg/dialect/features.htm>.
Montgomery,
Michael. Appalachian English. 6 June
2006. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/index.html>.
Movie Quotes. Author unknown. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://www.quotefully.com/movie/Cars/Mater/4/>.
San Francisco
General Hospital. “Trekking with AIDS, Part 3—A Special Report.” The Body. Feb. 2001. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://www.thebody.com/content/art12597.html>.
Visitmississippi.
“Woodall Mountain- Luka, Mississippi.” Mississippi
Travel Blog.4 Nov. 2009. Web. 23
Sep. 2012. <http://visitmississippi.blogspot.com/2009/11/woodall-mountain-iuka-mississippi.html>.
Group Project
The group project was a good assignment. I feel like we could have done more in-depth research for it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I especially liked the article I found about the history of language because it was in strong defense of the validity of Appalachian English. The author clearly had a lot of respect for those who speak the dialect, which I think may be somewhat uncommon, as I would imagine most of society would brand those who speak it as "stupid hillbillies" or something equally offensive. I especially liked the quote that I included in my part of the presentation: "Almost all the so called 'bad English' used by natives of Appalachia was once employed by the highest ranking nobles of realms of England and Scotland." I doubt that nobles in England and Scotland sounded much like Larry the Cable Guy, but I believe this quote to be valid nonetheless. It is important to understand the roots of a dialect in order to respect it. If I hadn't done this project, I would have probably gone on thinking anyone who spoke in the Appalachian dialect was of similar intelligence (or portrayed intelligence) of Larry the Cable Guy and I can't say that would be a positive assumption at all.
I felt that our group worked well together. We got along well and working together turned out to be surprisingly easy. I wouldn't say our presentation was exceptional, but I feel like we all learned something and hopefully the class learned something as well. If we would have had more time to research and could have met a few times before the presentation, I feel that we could have done a really good job. Great assignment, but we definitely could have been given more time to research and present.
I felt that our group worked well together. We got along well and working together turned out to be surprisingly easy. I wouldn't say our presentation was exceptional, but I feel like we all learned something and hopefully the class learned something as well. If we would have had more time to research and could have met a few times before the presentation, I feel that we could have done a really good job. Great assignment, but we definitely could have been given more time to research and present.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
What to do?
How can I let students know that people will question their intelligence if they speak in a dialect? It is the cold, hard, truth. In this class, we all may be accepting of dialects and we may not think that someone who speaks in dialect is less intelligent. But this class is not what I would consider "the real world." Society is a lot less tolerant...and yeah, that sucks.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Reality Check
I don't really have a preference as to what grade I teach, as long as it is within the 7-12 range. For the purposes of this post, however, lets say I want to teach seniors.
I feel that the most important aspect of this topic is simply awareness. I will most likely teach in a rural setting. Having grown up in a rural area, I know that people who live in such places are oftentimes quite narrow-minded when it comes to topics like race. I can remember clearly the talk that went around about the issue discussed in the Pullum article. People in my hometown where up in arms about "poor English being considered a different language." I agreed (yeah, I know) as most young people would be prone to do when their surroundings are wrought with such attitudes. My goal as an English teacher in such an area would be to have an in-depth conversation with my students about such a topic. When the majority of the community has racist tendencies, it is difficult for a teenager to have their own thoughts on a topic to do with such. I will never tolerate racism in my classroom, as I will make clear to my students from day one. Thus, I feel that I could help them look take a different perspective on the matter. If I could create a racism-free, factual conversation about AAVE, I feel that my students would gain awareness as to why there may be a need for certain teenagers to be allowed to speak in such a dialect.
I was never taught about dialects in my English classes in high-school; I was only taught Standard English and that Standard English is the only way. As a teacher, I will encourage my students to explore different dialects and to attempt to understand why people speak the way they do. I will, however, make it clear to my students that Standard English is necessary to know for formal settings. I hope to maintain a dialogue with my students about how dialects are perceived and I hope that they understand that a way of speaking/writing is not wrong because it is different.
One of the main goals I have in my classroom is that it is a hate-free environment. I want to create a safe space to talk about such huge issues as racism, homophobia, etc. I will tolerate many types of misbehavior to a certain extent, but I will maintain a zero-tolerance policy on hate. I feel that if I can do that, my classroom will be a place where students can gain perspective, awareness, and learn a little something about themselves.
I feel that the most important aspect of this topic is simply awareness. I will most likely teach in a rural setting. Having grown up in a rural area, I know that people who live in such places are oftentimes quite narrow-minded when it comes to topics like race. I can remember clearly the talk that went around about the issue discussed in the Pullum article. People in my hometown where up in arms about "poor English being considered a different language." I agreed (yeah, I know) as most young people would be prone to do when their surroundings are wrought with such attitudes. My goal as an English teacher in such an area would be to have an in-depth conversation with my students about such a topic. When the majority of the community has racist tendencies, it is difficult for a teenager to have their own thoughts on a topic to do with such. I will never tolerate racism in my classroom, as I will make clear to my students from day one. Thus, I feel that I could help them look take a different perspective on the matter. If I could create a racism-free, factual conversation about AAVE, I feel that my students would gain awareness as to why there may be a need for certain teenagers to be allowed to speak in such a dialect.
I was never taught about dialects in my English classes in high-school; I was only taught Standard English and that Standard English is the only way. As a teacher, I will encourage my students to explore different dialects and to attempt to understand why people speak the way they do. I will, however, make it clear to my students that Standard English is necessary to know for formal settings. I hope to maintain a dialogue with my students about how dialects are perceived and I hope that they understand that a way of speaking/writing is not wrong because it is different.
One of the main goals I have in my classroom is that it is a hate-free environment. I want to create a safe space to talk about such huge issues as racism, homophobia, etc. I will tolerate many types of misbehavior to a certain extent, but I will maintain a zero-tolerance policy on hate. I feel that if I can do that, my classroom will be a place where students can gain perspective, awareness, and learn a little something about themselves.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Introductions
I grew up in a town populated with a whopping 200 people. Actually, I didn't even grow up in town, but on a ranch 30 miles away from town...a ranch thirty miles north in the Missouri River Breaks. Don't worry, I know about people and all that stuff. I'm not totally ignorant to it. In fact, I would venture to say that I know more people than most...or at least know more people well (roughly 200 of them). A community of such a diminutive size can be likened to an enormous family. Everyone knows everything about everyone else, or so they think. And if they don't, they make it up and it is believed by the majority of the community. Interesting huh? Yeah, but I'm happy to have lived in Bozeman for the past five years.
I started out school in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. I never realized how difficult college would be considering I skated through high-school with straight A's (except a B in choir, and I was the only Alto so that's just bullshit) and graduated as valedictorian (a class of seven, but I'm still pretty proud of it). College life didn't work out so well at first. I guess you can't just drink every day and expect to do well in school. Hindsight is 20/20 indeed. Luckily, I got it together right around my second year, realized that Biology wasn't for me (four-hour labs, not a fan), and switched my major to Psychology with a minor in English. Then I realized that Psychology is sort of a dead-end for a person who doesn't plan to go to graduate school and thus decided to add a second major of English Education.
To be perfectly honest, I worked through three straight years English Ed. classes and really didn't know if I wanted to be a teacher. I just wanted to get through school. Then I went to South Africa for a semester and it changed my life. I am well aware that that sounds a tad cliche, but it is the truth. I was a volunteer coordinator for an after-school program called "The Kayamandi Project" in which I would spend several hours a week with kids in a nearby township. If you don't know anything about South Africa, know that townships are where the black people live. Kayamandi was a dirty, crime-ridden, poverty-stricken place directly outside the beautiful, upscale town I was living in. Surrounded by wine farms, the township was like a blemish on the countryside. A place allocated for black people, and black people alone. The goal of the program was to provide supplemental education in Math and English. I wrote lesson plans, created activities, and bossed around a whole bunch of volunteers...and let me tell you, that last part really, really, really, sucked. A lot. Aside from my run-ins with surly volunteers, the experience is one of the most amazing I have ever had. I got to see kids learn. Learn because I was teaching them. It solidified my decision. Now I am ready to be an English Teacher. I also would like to teach Math one day, but that's a different story.
So here I am, in my sixth year of college. I got my graduation paperwork in last week and am working on my student teaching application. Am I ready to become a teacher? Absolutely not. Is anyone ready for such a challenge? I doubt it. But do I want to become a teacher? I sure do.
I started out school in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. I never realized how difficult college would be considering I skated through high-school with straight A's (except a B in choir, and I was the only Alto so that's just bullshit) and graduated as valedictorian (a class of seven, but I'm still pretty proud of it). College life didn't work out so well at first. I guess you can't just drink every day and expect to do well in school. Hindsight is 20/20 indeed. Luckily, I got it together right around my second year, realized that Biology wasn't for me (four-hour labs, not a fan), and switched my major to Psychology with a minor in English. Then I realized that Psychology is sort of a dead-end for a person who doesn't plan to go to graduate school and thus decided to add a second major of English Education.
To be perfectly honest, I worked through three straight years English Ed. classes and really didn't know if I wanted to be a teacher. I just wanted to get through school. Then I went to South Africa for a semester and it changed my life. I am well aware that that sounds a tad cliche, but it is the truth. I was a volunteer coordinator for an after-school program called "The Kayamandi Project" in which I would spend several hours a week with kids in a nearby township. If you don't know anything about South Africa, know that townships are where the black people live. Kayamandi was a dirty, crime-ridden, poverty-stricken place directly outside the beautiful, upscale town I was living in. Surrounded by wine farms, the township was like a blemish on the countryside. A place allocated for black people, and black people alone. The goal of the program was to provide supplemental education in Math and English. I wrote lesson plans, created activities, and bossed around a whole bunch of volunteers...and let me tell you, that last part really, really, really, sucked. A lot. Aside from my run-ins with surly volunteers, the experience is one of the most amazing I have ever had. I got to see kids learn. Learn because I was teaching them. It solidified my decision. Now I am ready to be an English Teacher. I also would like to teach Math one day, but that's a different story.
So here I am, in my sixth year of college. I got my graduation paperwork in last week and am working on my student teaching application. Am I ready to become a teacher? Absolutely not. Is anyone ready for such a challenge? I doubt it. But do I want to become a teacher? I sure do.
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