Teach

I think this article is great for those preparing to teach. For myself, the article helped to clear up many conflicting ideas and methods I have heard about teaching to students who may have a different way of speaking English. I would like to some day be a high school English teacher, and I have always thought it best to teach proper English (the language of power) in school. Where else are students going to learn it? As far as I know, the main role of education is to prepare and equip students with the tools they need to function in the real world. The real world mostly consists of working or trying to find work. This is why it is especially necessary to teach the “language of power” to those who did not grow up speaking it. Otherwise, as a teacher, I would not be adequately performing my job of teaching students about the tools they need in order to function in the working world.

Delpit’s Influence on My Teaching Style

I am not a teacher, but question one interests me. After reading the article, I did not get the impression that Delpit wants solely a skills or process based form of literature instruction. I think that she simply wants to connect writing with how it is used in our society and in our culture of power. I agree with this perspective and feel that it is applicable to all students, not only those that are poor and non-white. I feel that I have had a lot of process type instruction that wasn’t constructive. Here are some elements I would include in my hypothetical writing class:

1. The students would be introduced to writing other than poetry and creative writing. Writing is everywhere and includes work such as cookbooks, travel guides, and lab reports.
2. The current form of modern written English would be used a tool expand creative writing. This is important. I think that anyone who writes ought to know the conventions of the culture of power. If a person chooses to expand their writing by bending the rules or using a form more consistent with their culture, that is fine. The basic framework should still be in every person’s mind after completion of their education. It is very hard to learn proper grammar and communication by reading Shakespeare’s sonnets (which are indeed beautiful) and writing similar poems.

Teaching Children Acceptance

Teaching children merely acceptance of the minority dialect without teaching the language of power to minorities still puts minority students at a disadvantage. Even if the people of the majority theoretically accept the value of the minority dialect, they may not understand the dialect and culture of that language, nor may they feel the need to change their way of thinking about it because they can still be successful in the workplace. In addition, not everyone will agree with the value of the minority language. The minority students might face many non-acceptance attitudes, as it is possible that the majority would not consciously make an effort to change. Also, dialect varies from area to area; a person who moves across country may be at a disadvantage in the workplace without knowing the language of power.

Delpit Response- #2

We discussed in class that it can be a good idea to teach minority children the language of power because if they are living in the United States, it is a great disadvantage to not be able to speak English in our society. For example the Alaskan children in Lisa Delpit's paper were able to retain their individual ethnic languages, but were also taught English. This is a good way to keep them from feeling like they are inferior and that English is the only way to speak from now on.
As far as teaching everyone acceptance goes, I don't think that is going to carry on outside of the classroom. Many parents or caregivers have their own point of view about what is acceptable and it is likely that they instill those opinions in their children. I think that the specific Alaskan school that we discussed in class has a good strategy going as to how to teach children with English as a second language "the language of power" while maintaining their identity as an Alaskan child.

Prompts for Delpit

Your assignment is to respond to one of the following questions related to Lisa Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue.” Aim for about 100-150 words, and post it to your team blog. Please follow the following guidelines:
1. Identify your entry with a title that suggests the content.
2. Single space.

You may respond to other people’s posts through the comment feature. You may also read the blogs of the other groups by going to: http://writingcommonsone.blogspot.com/ http://writingcommonstwo.blogspot.com/ etc. through http://writingcommonssix.blogspot.com/ You can add a comment to other blogs by using the comment feature. You can only post to your own blog.

Questions (choose one):
1. If you are preparing to teach, what are you taking away from Delpit’s article regarding language and power that might help you as a teacher, and how could you apply these ideas to your proposed level of teaching?
2. One student asked, “Why do we have to discuss teaching minority children the language of power? Why not just teach everyone acceptance?” Respond.
3. For one of Delpit’s specific proposals (refer to the article), discuss the challenges of implementation. How could these challenges be addressed?
4. Your own topic.

Delpit Article

Where can we find this article and what is the assignment that we are supposed to do for it? I do not recall hearing about this in class.

The last time I encountered diagramming was in eighth grade. I don't remember there being so many different patterns to worry about trying to keep straight! I do find the diagramming to be interesting and actually a little fun, even though it was a little frustrating at first. Does diagramming help any of you to understand the structure of a sentence better or is it something that seems to cause more confusion?

Diagramming

As i was reading the first two chapters, i saw examples of the diagrams, I thought they were pretty cool, but I just never knew they were so hard. It was my first time to actually hear about diagramming a sentence.

The question i have: How do we know when to put the words on top such as the example shown on bottom of page #30?

Diagramming

Writing Group 6

It is interesting to me that when diagramming, determiners, adjectives, adverbs and some prepositions are placed underneath on a slant to show the connection to the noun or verb they modify. Because they are in the same position, I see a relation between them rather than as having separate functions.

When diagramming and dividing sentences, how can you tell the difference between when a prep phrase is divided into its own slot and when it is part of the NP?

Sentence Diagrams

Group 6
First reading chapter two and coming across the sentence diagrams as well as the rules has been interesting to me. I never realized that grammar was this complex with so many things to remember.
My question is, does anyone have a really good way other than memorization to distinguish between the different types of verbs?

Definitions of Grammar

Group Six:

The three definitions of grammar are interesting to me (pg. 5). I never really considered definitions one and three until reading this book. I always assumed that grammar was only a formal description of the rules that we use to write (definition two).

As for something to think about, why are defintions one and three included in an overall definition of grammar? This stumped me while reading through the chapter.

Welcome to Writing Commons Six

Welcome to Writing Commons Six, your group grammar blog. Your first assignment is to identify something in the first two chapters of Kolln that interests you and share your thoughts with your group. Also, please pose a question related to your post to which other students might respond.

You are also welcome to use the blog to converse with your group members about the course content and assignments, get help, clarify things you don’t understand.

Enjoy!
vtb