Literacies, Literacies and More Literacies

As an elementary student my mother gave me the gift that keeps on giving.  After my teachers told her that I had an unusually high aptitude for reading and writing she insisted that I read at least one book a week, and we made frequent trips to the public library.  Naturally I rebelled against this in High School as I did not want my peers to view me as a nerd because I loved reading.  I still read secretly away from the prying eyes of my friends and I can remember the best cure for having the flu in high school was curling up with a good book.  I was especially fond of John Grisham’s work at that time, and I remember reading A Time To Kill, and The Firm, and wondering why we didn’t read contemporary, fast paced books like these in high school.  These were books that could get kids excited about reading, and any reading regardless of its status or lack thereof in the literary canon increases literacy and intellectual curiosity.  To this day I am perplexed as to why kids hate reading, and in high school it becomes “cool to be dumb,” an idea that I succumbed to for a while, and it cost me a lot most importantly the opportunity to go to a good college right away instead of starting my college education at the community college level at the age of 21.  In many ways I am still catching up to that late start in higher education.  As a teacher I strive to make sure my students do not make the same mistakes I made, and my foremost goal is to make them better readers and writers yet they are resistant to traditional methods and I have become open to new forms of literacies.   One thing students, both male and female love is technology and we can use that in the classroom to increase literacy.  Technology is gender neutral in a way that most high school texts are not as they usually feature a male protagonist.  I think the future of literacy may look something like Twitter.  I have become a Twitter addict.  For instance when I publish a post on WordPress it also appears on my Twitter account.  I love to tweet random stuff as it gets me  in the mood for writing more serious material.  Twitter has become my electronic newspaper and entertainment forum as I receive updates ranging from the NY Times to Damon Lindelof, Producer of my favorite TV show, LOST.  As an aside I use LOST excerpts in my Government classes as their final project resembles the plot of the show in that they must  build a government after they have been stranded on a deserted island due to an airplane crash.  My kids love this project because I use current media to build on the concepts we have learned in class.  This is an example of embracing technology and creating teachable moments.  I have also used LOST to illustrate narrative structures with its various forms of flashforwards, flashbacks etc.  Again the students love deconstructing this stuff, and their literacy levels increases as a result, and  I will argue that point with any colleague for as long as I am teaching.  Getting back to Twitter, it  is perfect for students because it is akin to online texting.  I can see a time in the future where I have students meet online in small groups during which I give them a prompt based on something we have learned in class, and they have 140 characters or less to prove that they have grasped the material and can expand on it.  I hope that Twitter one day becomes universal in that everyone has an account, and we can use it to have our students interact with contemporary writers, and other aspects of mainstream culture. 

James Paul Gee argues that we can incorporate video games into the 21st Century classroom as well.  His theories on video games as a learning tool are fascinating but I am not quite sure on how I can directly translate them into use in my high school Social Studies classes.  Gee is correct in that video games are a tool of learning, and if we can find ways to utilize the way kids learn when they play video games, and tap into that same form of knowledge acquisition in the classroom then we will have truly created new forms of literacies.  However I think this is still at least 5-10 years away because as much as I love playing my Wii and my XBox 360 these are not tools that help students become better readers and writers which I am primarily concerned with.  Yes they do increase critical thinking skills, but we still have much to learn about incorporating this technology.  Gee has opened an interesting dialogue and I will be watching and reading its progression. 

In regards to the issue of Gender in the classroom as discussed earlier I think technology is gender neutral but we do have to add more texts that our female students can relate to and that feature heroine’s  rather than solely hero’s.  Stanley’s article makes some interesting points regarding female readers and romance novels and there are lessons that can be learned from it.  Many schools have already incorporated the Harry Potter Series into instruction, which feature a strong male protagonist of course but the smartest girl and most capable in the series is Hermione and young girls truly admire her.  As I alluded to earlier I am a proponent of using popular culture to increase literacy, and we can use the newest phenomenon to include more female protagonists in our texts.  For example, there should be no reason that we can’t use the Twilight Saga in schools.  Many people sexualize these tales but they are actually chaste and are written by a Mormon.  Beside the supernatural element the books are primarily concerned with a young girl coming of age and finding her place in the world, something all girls can relate to. A lesson that I have learned in my own teaching is that by using new forms of literacy we can sometimes trick children into learning even when they don’t want too.

Ernest Morrell Gets It! Read his book! Now!

At the end of each semester or when I am dire need of cash I may sell some of my textbooks back on the Internet.  I can assure you that Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation by Ernest Morrell is one book that I will be holding on and any educator interested in becoming relevant in their classroom needs to purchase this book ASAP http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Literacy-Urban-Youth-Pedagogies/dp/0805856641/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267331637&sr=1-1

Morrell presents the amazing idea of teaching The Odyssey and The Godfather in companion.  I cannot wait to do this, and this is an example of what I tell my colleagues we should be doing.  We have to inspire our students with creativity and new approaches.  As I have become fond of saying just because it worked before doesn’t mean it works now. 

Morell favors the critical analysis approach to literature that I learned as an undergrad Political Science major at the College of Saint Rose.  The critical approach is the best way to create better thinkers, readers, and writers as instead of regurgitation students become proficient at asking analytical questions, which result in a discover of a deeper understanding,  and intent of the authors.  The critical approach also teaches students to stop taking things at face value.  In other words just because we are assigned to read something doesn’t make it great.  If it is flawed students learn to write critically about its errors, and if it is a worthwhile piece students are able to identify why with substantive explanation.  The critical response is also a solution to what Freire calls the banking concept of education in which the students are rote learners or depositors and the teacher is the depositor. 

In closing this blog was hard, hard work but worthwhile.  It got me writing again which is the best reward because my creativity, and inspiration for writing has come out of its deep coma, and I’m writing all the time now as ideas are constantly coming to me.  I’m working on a few creative projects that I will seek publication on in the future, and that would have not been possible without this blog serving as the ignition and now inspiration.  As for the theme and accomplishments of the blog I am proud of its honesty, and I think that is the theme of this blog as I may not have adhered specifically to all the prompts but it was only because I had other important points to make that I believed better served the posting.  After all part of the fun of blogging is the inherent freedom to express ourselves that comes with it.  This blog will serve as an online archive for me in the sense that I am left with many questions which I have noted throughout my posts, and this blog will serve as a place where I can come back to and re-examine those questions, and seek further scholarship on the pertinent questions to my teaching.  As stated earlier I am writing all the time now because of this blog, and I intend to write online in the future as I have become fond of on Twitter (although sometimes I am too honest, thankfully there is a delete tweet option), but as far as continuing the theme of  this blog I think my writing on diverse literacy is done until I take another course on the subject because I have so much other material that I want to write about right now.  I am proud of this blog, and I intend to come back to it in the future with a new theme likely centered around my attempts to create a classroom that implements pop and mainstream culture into our mandated curriculum and what the results are.  I’m thinking something along the lines of Morrell’s Homer/Mario Puzo yet reconfiguring it to fit my entire teaching.

Social Studies and Civil Rights

Robert Moses posits that African-Americans have not been properly educated in Mathematics and this has caused them to lag far behind other racial groups in our new digitized global world.  I think Moses is too narrow in his approach as from my experience as a student and now as teacher there is a tremendous fear factor where Math is concerned for all racial groups except Asian Americans.  Moses needs to broaden his research as our public education system would greatly benefit if we could identify why Asian American thrive in Math often at accelerated levels whereas the rest of our racial groups lag far behind.  I disagree with Moses and his belief that politics surround Math instruction; Science certainly as it includes the creationism and evolution debate, and current environmental issues are met with strong political responses.

As a Social Studies teacher I have no doubt that there are those who have been denied access to my subject, but in my role as instructor I have discovered that I have power in what and how my students learn.  For example, New York State’s 11th grade History curriculum dictates a linear approach yet I don’t always teach that format.  I love to teach about Civil Rights and since NYS places it at the end of the year-long curriculum it doesn’t get the time that it needs as we often rush to the finish in order to get ready for the Regents.  To correct this flaw I have implemented a non-linear approach in that when I teach the Civil War and Reconstruction, I jump ahead to Civil Rights, starting with the beginning of the movement in 1950 .  The students are able to grasp the connections between these three eras despite the lack of chronology, and they really enjoy it.  This unit is my proudest accomplishment as an educator. 

NY is attempting to change with the times regardless of what the uninformed may think.  The Social Studies curriculum no longer focuses solely on white men, as women, and leaders from other racial groups are featured.  NY State does not shy away from the many wrongs that America has committed throughout history, and the internment of Japanese citizens during WWII is strongly emphasized.  I also have no problems telling my students that the U.S. knew about the Holocaust as it was occurring and I can provide the primary documents from the FDR Presidential library to prove it.  In closing as with all debates in education it is imperative that educators realize that when the bell rings and that door closes they are in charge of the material and can dictate its course.

Sameness, Fairness, & Education

Reflective educators are faced with a dilemma every day, every semester, and every year.  Do I treat all my students the same?  Am I fair to all my students?  How does this affect my teaching? In a diverse society the sameness/fairness debate has become increasingly relevant and scholars have researched and postulated various positions on this subject, and as I read these studies I came to what a first seems a simple conclusion.  In the classroom, sameness is not fairness, and fairness is not sameness.  Furthermore, if we teach every student the same way, if we fail to recognize that our classrooms are melting pots and most importantly if we fail to recognize that each student has their own individual learning style, and in turn treat each student the same way in regards to learning we are not being fair to them. 

            In the book, The Skin That We Speak, Victoria Purcell-Gates contributes a chapter on the aforementioned subject, and her work is illuminating to say the least.  Quite frankly every educator should read it as it forces one to think critically and examine their own biases.  For example, as an upper grade teacher I am often frustrated when my students hand in their first written assignment whether it is on the American Revolution, or a particular Public Policy.  I am immediately shocked at their improper use of grammar, and incorporation of slang and internet short-hand. WTF? Ok it’s not quite that bad but I do get quite a bit of IDK’s on tests and quizzes, and a failure to recognize the difference between singular and plural and the intentional dropping of S’s on words.  It amazes me that most of my students reach the 12^th grade level without any comprehension of how to write a proper essay.  This is stuff I learned in the 7^th grade like thesis sentence placement, transitional phrases etc.  These kids have no clue, and I have to outline their essays together with them in class or they will become so frustrated that they will never complete the assignment independently.  I have to use class time to teach students stuff they should have learned in middle school.  How am I treating the student who already knows these concepts fairly when I am essentially wasting their time?

            Similar to Donny in Purcell-Gates study, many of my students have been forcibly advanced through the system and I am expected to pass them as we must raise graduation rates.  I complied until I could no longer accept the fact that I was allowing students to move on to college without becoming better reader and writers.  As these bad habits have become thoroughly ingrained when they reach me in the 12^th grade, I have become infuriated at my colleagues for allowing this to happen, and through reading Purcell-Gates I recognize my own biases in that I despise the way my students use language.  I instruct them to write academically, and remind them that we do not write the way we talk, and I use myself as a prime example.  Most students get this concept but after reading Purcell-Gates I have to ask myself whether I have neglected my duty “to guide all students to literacy with equal rigor, without ever telling them that the language they speak is wrong” (pg. 122, 2002).      

            After reading Purcell-Gates, I have reached some preliminary conclusions that I will incorporate into my teaching.  First, I have to recognize that students possess cultural differences rather than deficits.  It is because of these differences, usually regarding the exposure or lack of to literacy and prior knowledge that a teacher must adjust to and recognize that their students possess cultural differences not deficits.  When we recognize these differences we can treat and teach our students fairly, and recognize them as part of a same-age group rather than single them out in our minds as a deficient learner.  Recognizing our own biases will improve our teaching and make our classrooms more in line with sameness and fairness.  However I will reiterate that we can never teach each student the same way.

            In Chapter 7 of Literacy As Snake Oil, Kris D. Gutierrez recognizes the impact of sameness and fairness on education.  As I read this chapter I again asked myself is their sameness and fairness in my classroom.  I quickly realized that there is not and this is in large part due to my own faulty assumptions, and biases, but I also hold the teacher-education programs I have been in responsible.  Why is that only when I am finishing my Master’s Degree that I have come across this debate? Truly Ridiculous.  This flaw is likely due to the fact that our school districts and state education departments have become obsessed with high stakes testing, and from reading Gutierrez I realized that my lack of prior exposure to this issue is because it is not a priority to administrators, they want and need bottom line results and training pre-service teachers bilingual education serves no purpose when we are solely focused on monolingual education and this will not change anytime soon.

I Need To Teach Like This

Chapter 5 of Literacy as Snake Oil is the single best piece of teacher-education I have ever read.  I need to say that upfront because this post is supposed to connect Lynn Asterita Gatto’s work to other literacy diversity research. I am not going to do that in this post because to do so would be a disservice to Gatto as her work needs to recognized as a superior piece of teacher research that is quite frankly better than anything I have read on literacy diversity or anything I have read about how to teach in my undergraduate and graduate coursework.  In making connections to other studies I would be doing so only because it is my task and since this is my blog I am going to exercise some online freedom here.

Gatto’s chapter inspired me in a way that I have never felt before.  I wanted to immediately begin designing units as her style of teaching is the best I have ever come across in print, and I have to find a way to translate her methods in the 4^th grade classroom to my 11^th grade and 12^th grade classrooms.  Her theories on literacy are also the most succinct and relevant that I have read, and the fact that she has made her 4^th grade classroom a completely student centered classroom is amazing.  I am still in the process of making that transition as a 11^th and 12^th grade Social Studies teacher.  I have to cut myself some slack though as she does have at least 20 more years experience than I have.

Gatto often writes of authenticity and this is also a prime concern in planning my lessons.  How do I get my students to become engaged and motivated by the material?  Including student-teaching I have been in classroom since 2003, and it is from Gatto’s writing that I finally have a clear plan on how to truly get student buy-in, create a student centered classroom and develop better readers and writers.  When I return to teaching in Fall 2010 I am going to follow Gatto’s method in planning my units, and I can’t wait to compare my prior methods with my new plan of action.  The possibilities are endless as Gatto’s butterfly project has shown me that I can meet state standards without teaching to the test.  I am imagining an 11^th grade Classroom Civil Rights Museum modeled on and following the design of Gatto’s butterfly project, or a Graphic Novel Library, or a Public Policy Project for my 12^th graders during which they would choose the policies to research or propose entirely new ones.  My role will still be the most important in that I will guide the students towards creating engaging activities and authentic questioning that expands student literacy.  The difference is that the students will take control and ownership of their own education.  I could write about Gatto’s work for months, but in closing I encourage present and future educators to click the link and below and buy Literacy as Snake Oil, Chapter 5 will inspire you and that’s something we need to bring into our classrooms every day. 

 http://www.amazon.com/Literacy-Snake-Oil-Literacies-Epistemologies/dp/0820495433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267682644&sr=1-1

Assessment

In the graduate class that this blog is founded upon and its subsequent focus on Literacy and Diversity, our professor, Dr. Tuck, declared “after all these years of schooling, we still have no real way of knowing if students are learning.”  This has been a central theme in our course readings and discussions.  In a system that must answer to NCLB and its focus on high stakes testing are we truly measuring student achievement?  It would be nearly impossible to find any educator or scholar that feels our current education legislation has provided the proper means to measure if students are learning. 

            The book, Literacy As Snake Oil, especially chapter 4 by Larson and Levine illustrates the flaws of using pre-packaged curriculum with its sole focus on raising test scores does not in fact raise test scores, and certainly does not provide a way for us to know if students are learning but are rather learning how to take a test.   As our readings for week four by Hanenda, Lomawaima & McCarty, and Pearson prove, the one thing we know for certain is that our ESL students are not learning.  Lipman and Apple wrongly blame our lack of understanding on neo-liberalist policies, and Luna and Carini make compelling arguments for using alternative approaches to assessing student learning.  Lynn Gatto believes as evidenced by her Chapter 5 contribution to Literacy As Snake Oil  that she has developed a way to figure out if students are learning by guiding them through the journey of self-discovery, and a student-centered classroom.

I feel defeatist in writing this but I agree with Dr. Tuck, and as a result I really need to change my delivery of instruction.  I teach 11^th and 12^th grade Social Studies and my main goal is to prepare students for higher education by challenging them to become better thinkers, readers and writers.  Unfortunately by the time the students reach me they have developed such bad habits that they are reluctant to change and why should they since these habits have never been corrected and they have been advanced grade by grade.  In a roundabout way I have answered Dr. Tuck’s prompt because one thing I discovered for sure last year is that I did not create better readers and writers.  Their writing was indicative of this yet I was deemed a resounding success as 95% of my students passed the Regents, and I can honestly say that they were not any better at reading or writing than they were before they entered my classroom in September.  Did they learn U.S. History, and learn to work cooperatively? Absolutely and I am proud of that especially my inclusion students but I failed in my ultimate goal to better prepare them for college.

If I were allowed to design assessment without the Regents hanging over my head I would completely eliminate multiple choice tests.  I only use multiple choice questions in order to prepare my students for the Regents as all the questions I put on my tests and quizzes are lifted from old Regents exams.  Ideally my assessments would allow me to gauge if my students were learning by asking them to demonstrate knowledge of the material through reading and writing exercises such as analyzing short reading passages, primary and secondary sources, short answer questions, and long form essays.  We need to let get of the notion that if a student scores a 100 on a 50 question multiple choice test that they have mastered the content when in fact they may simply possess excellent recall ability.  Our society has a national literacy epidemic and all of our teaching and testing should be based on improving this.  Multiple choice and true/false questions do not accomplish this; they are archaic forms of assessment and should be discarded asap.

Teachers Still Have Power

Society does not look favorably upon the public educator right now.  People are sick of pouring their tax dollars into a system that is failing its students and community and understandably they need someone to blame.  Teachers are the easy target yet most community members fail to understand that in a top-down system teachers are at the second lowest rung of the ladder in terms of power and decision making.  Sadly the most affected, students, are the lowest rung in a top-down system.  The easy thing is for teachers to say is that because of NCLB and incompetent leadership they have no power.  This is a cop-out and a result of the negativity prevalent in most schools today.  Teachers feel underpaid, and unappreciated.  Able educators are correct in both instances, but I am of a belief which has made me unpopular among my colleagues, that if there is a long-term problem of educating students in a particular building or district, teachers need to look into the mirror and realize that they are part of the problem.  Yes were held to standards which we found cumbersome but so are employees in numerous other types of employment or government agencies. Teachers have become so consumed by NBC (nagging, bitching, complaining) and/or WBC (whining, bitching, complaining) that they expend all they energy on negativity and it has infected their teaching.  By working in this culture teachers have forgotten why they entered the profession and have lost their passion for their subject and students.

            Patricia Levine and Joanne Larson focus Chapter Four of Literacy As Snake Oil on the pre-packaged literacy curriculum that many districts have implemented in order to raise literacy and meet state standards.  The authors ably prove their point through solid research that these packages are complete failures in regards to creating better teachers and better readers and writers.  Unfortunately the authors strictly focus on the failure of these packages without providing any concrete recommendations in lieu of these programs.  Larson and Levine would have been better served by also observing Lynn Gatto’s 4^th grade classroom and how she deals with pre-packaged literacy.  Gatto remembers what we have all forgotten.  In the classroom, WE ARE KING!  Yes we are observed by administrators, many of whom are incompetent but this only occurs a few times a year, and as far as choosing how to teach we are the masters of our domain.  As Gatto proves you can implement a few of these pre-packaged pieces, and mostly teach the best way you see fit, and so as long as you meet the benchmarks administrators will leave you to do what you do best.  However one cannot transform into Lynn Gatto overnight.  You have to strive for excellence as she did, become Nationally Board Certified, and earn recognition in your field.  Reach these achievements and you will hold the power in your classroom, but in order to do that teachers have to work harder as Gatto did, embrace Professional Development and overcome a negative culture, and remember why they entered this profession.  Those teachers who fail to reflect and improve need to be removed as they are harming our children and I will discuss this further in a future posting.

Neoliberalism? Please! It’s not in my classroom or anyone else’s

There is no doubt that politics play an important part in formulating education policy at the federal and state level.  Petty politics pervade school districts as teachers, administrators, and school board members become embroiled in long-lasting often ridiculous conflict.  Those most affected by these political games are the students who are often forgotten as egos clash.  Students and teachers are also affected by the standards set at the federal and state level.  Moreover as someone who holds a B.A. in Political Science from the College of Saint Rose I am always interested in reading political theory and the articles Education Policy, Race, and Neoliberal Urbanism by Pauline Lipman, and Whose Markets, Whose Knowledge by Michael Apple were of particular curiosity to me as I wondered how Lipman and Apple would apply Neoliberalism to the classroom. 

            During my undergraduate and graduate coursework I have seen political ideologies distorted, misrepresented, mis-categorized, and/or completely misunderstood.  Both of the aforementioned articles are examples of a failure to understand and a misapplication of political theory as can be the case when education scholars attempt to apply political ideology to their arguments.  Both Apple and Lipman are of the belief that our current education policy dictated by our federal government including NCLB at the federal level, “has all the hallmarks of the neoliberal agenda” (Lipman, 45, 2008).  The problem with this argument is that NCLB was one of the main tenants of George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, and one of the 1^st pieces of legislation that his administration passed.  The Bush presidency was defined by its NEO-CONSERVATISM!  Neoliberalism is an economic policy that favors unregulated markets, which is also one of the main features of Republican government.  There is no doubt that these unregulated markets caused the collapse of our economy and our current recession, and Apple and Lipman both argue that this preference for unregulated markets has also attached itself to our current education policy, and consequently led to the current poor performance of our students especially those in urban schools.  Since both authors fail to have any understanding of what Neoliberalism is their arguments cannot be trusted, and are instead instances of flawed scholarship.  Both authors cite Hurricane Katrina as an example of neo-liberalism exhibiting racial oppression.  Both authors clearly failed to watch any newscast during this tragedy as President Bush and the neo-conservatives were blamed for this disaster with convincing evidence. Perhaps the authors are trying to break new ground by attaching neo-liberalism to the failure of response to Hurricane Katrina but their understanding of political theory is so inaccurate that their arguments are rendered null. 

In regards to my own classroom yes I have to adhere to NCLB, which was to reiterate created by Neo-conservatives, but as I learned from Gatto in Chapter 5 of Literacy As Snake Oil, I can plan lessons that create better readers and writers while allowing them academic freedom and still meet state and federal benchmarks.  In an ideal world I would prefer that NYS Regents Exams and NCLB did not exist, but we are failing our children and there must be some accountability.  This accountability is demanded by the voters on both sides of the political spectrum yet in reality our current education crisis has nothing to do with neo-liberalism or neo-conservatism.  Our education crisis existed before either of these ideologies gained traction.  Politics have nothing to do with a lack of student of motivation in regards to becoming better readers and writers.  As parents, teachers, administrators, community members we have and are failing to inspire and create motivation in our students.  Consequently Federal and State Governments want accountability and answers for the billions of dollars they are putting into a system is not working.  In closing, I have never come across a colleague, community member or administrator who believes that neo-liberalism has had an adverse impact on education.  Again, neo-conservatism government authored NCLB, and we need to stop using NCLB as part of our blame game.  Our education crisis goes back far before NCLB, and while NCLB is not ideal it’s certainly not the cause of current epidemic, and I firmly disagree with Lipman’s assertion that NCLB and neo-liberalism has racial overtones especially in urban areas.  Instead of playing this ongoing blame game we need to ask how do we as teacher solve this problem?

Let’s talk about Second Language and Literacy

As educators we always ask ourselves how we can best meet the needs of our students.  At first this seems a simple question, but it is truly quite complex especially when you factor in the changing demographics of our public education system.  So let’s take that question one step further and ask how do we best meet the needs of students who have been raised in a household where English is not their first language? Many scholars have attempted to answer this question and unfortunately there is no easy answer but the research does include valuable contributions that can help educators.  For example, Judith Baker, a high school English Teacher has made what I consider to be the most significant contribution regarding a true understanding of the complexities of second language literacy instruction.

                In the book, The Skin We Speak, Baker develops the essential term in aiding our study of second language literacy.  Trilingualism posits that educators can reach second language learners successfully once they stop trying to force English upon their students and instead realize that the best approach is to acknowledge and implement what many second language learners are already doing.    Trilingualism recognizes that second language literacy has three forms- 1. Home English i.e. slang or broken English, 2. Formal or Academic, and 3. Professional/Technical English i.e. English in the workplace.  Baker has taken an extremely complex field of study and made it very simple.  Understand and respect the different forms of English your students use, help them recognize it as well, and implement it in the classroom and we will develop better readers and writers.

                Michael Stubbs has also made a valuable contribution within The Skin We Speak and in the field of second language literacy by dispelling the primitive language myth.  Language is how we communicate and regardless of its improper grammar and underdeveloped vocabulary it still meets its purpose, which is in the end to help people understand and communicate with each other.

                Mari Haneda also guides us to a clearer understanding of second language literacy in her aticle, Becoming Literate in a Second Language: Connecting Home, Community and School Literacy Practices.  Similar to Baker, Haneda seeks to reconcile the differences of how second language students learn English at home and at school.  In discussing multilingual/multicultural literacy, Haneda conducts a fascinating case study that teachers should use in their own classrooms.  Haneda studied 1^st grade teacher, Patricia Chow.  Chow fully embraced multilingualism and had her students design their own dual-language or English books which the community of L2 parents fully endorsed and helped to promote within their homes and also by providing instruction in the classroom.  Amazingly, Chow developed a student-centered classroom at the 1^st grade level.  I have trouble doing this at the 12^th grade level.

                Lastly in developing a true understanding of second language learners we must address bicultural education.  Bicultural education is most prominent in Native American communities as I learned from the article, Indigenous Bilingual/Bicultural Education: Challenging the Safety Zone.  Through this article I discovered that Bilingualism has often been met with brutality and ethnocentrism as Native Americans have been repeatedly forced to solely learn English despite their heritage.   In 1972 Congress attempted to stop this racism by passing the Indian Education Act which supported bilingual education.  Bilingual education continues to lag as there is not enough properly trained teachers and by seeking federal funds to support their schools, Native American schools are forced to adhere to English-only and test centered education.  In my opinion Bicultural Education is dying and given our current economic and education crisis it’s not exactly a top priority.  Unfortunately within the next ten years I believe bicultural education will disappear for Native Americans, and a return to the Carlyle School English only based curriculum  awaits.

Books and Graphic Novels that I’m reading and you should be too

1. Atonement by Ian McEwan- http://www.amazon.com/Atonement-Ian-McEwan/dp/B00194W9KU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267250960&sr=1-5

2. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer-http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Illuminated-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0060529709/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267251044&sr=1-1

3. Quitter by Harvey Pekar-http://www.amazon.com/Quitter-Harvey-Pekar/dp/1401204007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267251187&sr=1-1

4. Maus by Art Spielgelman-http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Survivors-Tale-No/dp/0679406417/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267251231&sr=1-3

5. The Skin We Speak edited by Lisa Delpit-http://www.amazon.com/Skin-That-We-Speak-Classroom/dp/1595583505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267329974&sr=1-1

6.  Literacy As Snake Oil: Beyond the Quick Fix (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies) edited by Joanne Larson-http://www.amazon.com/Literacy-Snake-Oil-Literacies-Epistemologies/dp/0820495433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267331471&sr=1-1

7. Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation by Ernest Morrell-http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Literacy-Urban-Youth-Pedagogies/dp/0805856641/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267331637&sr=1-1

8. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein

http://www.amazon.com/How-Change-World-Entrepreneurs-Updated/dp/0195334760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267751373&sr=1-1

9. How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+the+way+we+talk+can+change+the+way+we+work&sprefix=how+the+way+w