Allright, here it is...my first blog. Today I want to write about the teaching of standard English to students whose primary language is AAVE. Specifically what teachers are currently doing and what should be done to enrich those students who currently face the challenge of using one dialect and being tested in another. I could post about the absurdity of these tests but that is for another time. The tests exist and will for awhile longer. I think the challenge of addressing the misunderstandings of teachers, and the inadequacies of the strategies they are using (in most cases have been told to use) will be a struggle that outlives this administration and their insidious testing penchant. The use of DOL in Godly, Carpenter, and Werner's article (2007) demonstrates what a serious problem this is going to be to realign teacher thinking.Werner, the high school teacher in this piece, is a 20 year veteran with a master's degree and doctoral credits as well. She is a self described "life-long learner". It speaks to her desire to improve her practice that she would take on the additional stress of a research project during what she describes as her most challenging year. Her challenges include the new curriculum and the everpresent test. When I first began reading this article I was thinking, she's one of the best. We're not talking about a 20 veteran who is flipping the calendar waiting for her retirement. She made a comment, which I will paraphrase, that when she is done learning, she is done teaching. What a great attitude to still have when you have worked in an urban high school for 17 years.However, when I examine some of her strategies at teaching the students Standard English she is clearly demeaning. Now, I would hate to be videotaped, transcribed, and served on a platter for a couple of researchers to categorize. She thinks she is doing right by her students to correct them. To imply through repetition, tone, and, position that her way of speaking is right. She clearly saw through the videotape that she was insulting. It appears that her desire for them to succeed created an end justifies the mean landscape in her classroom (That's Iraq and NCLB now). Sadly, this humiliation only results in humiliation as her end of the year mechanics scores did not improve ( at the risk of repeating myself...that's Iraq and NCLB now). And this teacher is One of the Best! What is happening in the other classrooms?More importantly, why doesn't she know better? Why are the curriculum and materials unsuccessful? DOL has been around for years. Many many teachers use this format.Have we just blinding been purchasing these materials without any research to say they work? Crazy!I read DreamKeepers by Gloria Ladson Billings last semester. I was quite surprised that in the introduction she discusses the possibility of Black students attending an all African American school. I was really shocked that after segregation that a strong leader in the community would suggest that. But in her book she talks about the power of the teacher as an involved, successful, community advocating, role model. I'm sure this would reduce the denigration of AAVE if teachers were demonstrating the beauty and appropriateness of AAVE while at the same time modelling and teaching another code (Standard English). I wonder if Black teachers would do a better job of emphasizing African-American discourse and , designing strategies for incorporating the Black imaginative storytelling style, as was suggested by the studies on the NAEP scores. After reading DreamKeepers Ladson-Billings did not come out and say only African American teachers can meet the needs of the African American students but it does raise an interesting question about who could best bring these instructional changes to the classroom.
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4/3/08
1 comment:
Hi Abby, I really like how you lay out the humiliation cycle -- what goes 'round, comes round. That said, I think it's much more damaging for the 20-plus teens who are still shaping themselves and being shaped than it is for the teacher. I also am stunned that it's really good teachers who are invited to participate in partnership studies....I too, wonder what the heck is going on in the rooms down the hall. Nothing like seeing yourself on video for the cold, hard truth. I truly applaud the courage of teachers who are willing to permit their practice to be scrutinized so... pretty terrifying. What I think might be "going on" is that "we" are enacting our cultural roles, our scripts....
Regarding the all AA high school notion, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, by James Anderson, traces that pretty amazing history. Overwhelmingly, blacks made incredible sacrifices so their kids could have an education even though they were taxed by the counties and saw only the tiniest fraction of that money come back into their schools -- so they essentially paid double for their children to go to schools -- yes, the poorest people, paying double. And,more to your point, Vanessa Siddle Walker's book Their Highest Potential is a history of one black high school and how it was a supportive, culturally relevant, and success-inducing place until de-segregation came along and broke it up. Another fun fact -- pre-desegregation, there were many many more black teachers than there were afterwards....hmmmm.
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