Blog #7

After reading the the article "EJ in Focus" I agree with his overall lesson about teaching grammar to student: changing ones perspective. Being a teacher we usually get complacent in how we teach students because if it's not broke don't fix it right? But with this thinking what happens is that the Teacher doesn't take into account that all students learn differently and that they need to change it to meet the needs of each individual. By EJ stating how he kept changing how he taught grammar as a way to help students learn grammar was something that he kept striving to do because he was trying to help students the best way he could. Besides that the article explains how we as teachers need to realize that students learn and write in different forms besides just in academic writing. When you only look at academic writing you have students believe that they only can implement grammar in academic writing instead of seeing it in your everyday life.

Philosophy:
My philosophy is that grammar isn't something you necessarily learn. But it's something you naturally do.[ I started my sentence with but to emphasize that grammar isn't learned but it's something that happens naturally.] Because of that I want to take natural writing that students have and show how we all know how to write and teaching grammar is just taking what students do naturally and just enhance them. This is why for my final portfolio I want to take examples from my writing and other student writing to show how with grammar it's already in your paper and it sometimes just needs to be tweaked to fit a grammar pattern. By doing my scrapbook I wanted it to almost be like a book and having people see pictures and examples of these writing grammar to show that this happens in everyday writing. But i also want to show where I mess up at. The reason is to show that leading grammar there will be a lot of mistakes that will happen, but you have to learn to work past that.

Blog #6

Cain’t nobody tell what im sayin’

But ain’t I speaking English?

Guess I ain’t speaking proper English. But you are. We all are. African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—thought to be seen as bad English because it does not follow these common grammar rules. Ebonics has been coined to devalue this type of English because it is seen as improper and something that cannot be used academically. However, similar to our definition of standard English it has grammar rules and patterns. With language, it is not only spoken by people of that culture but can be used by those living around or those who identify with a specific culture. In the Encyclopedia of African American History it states how “80-90 percent of African Americans speak Black English at least some of the time.” This is showing not only the popularity of this English by the prevalence that it plays in the black community.  Yet it is still considered improper. This is due to the language breaking popular grammar rules that we are taught at a young age. By being able to accept AAVE as a real language we will also be telling students that what they speak at home is not lesser, but a language that has strong ties to their community and its history.

African America Vernacular English has many theories on how it originated. One of the most prominent theories was its creation through slavery. During this time many of these slaves came from different parts of Africa where they do not speak a common language. Because of that, many spoke a type of creole which was used for transactions among them and whites. This shows how during these times many Africans were considered bilingual because they were able to speak this creole that they created, but also speak their native langue. Because of that AAVE came to play because it intertwined English with a strong tie to African grammatical ties. Thus, AAVE shows a connection with English though also showing distinct differences from it.

            African American students and their ability to switch between AAVE and standard English shows this idea of code switch. Code switching is being able to switch between two or more languages. [Explain This and the patterns that are different from standard English]

            African American Vernacular English plays a major role in many forms of entertainment: hip hop and spoken word. Hip Hop was a form of music that has come to be seen as a culture. Similar to the culture of AAVE it has this negative connotation due to its ability to break most grammar rules and seen. [Go more in depth]

Blog 5b

For my blog I want to focus on African American English and its presence in schools. These were the 3 sources I'm thinking about using:

Rickford, John R. et al. “Neighborhood Effects on Use of African-American Vernacular English.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112.38 (2015): 11817–11822. PMC. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Beneke, Margret, and Gregory Cheatham. “Speaking Up For African American English: Equity And Inclusion In Early Childhood Settings.” Early Childhood Education Journal 43.2 (2015):127-134. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

Boutte, Gloria, and George Johnson. “Do Educators See And Honor Biliteracy And Bidialectism in African American Language Speakers? Apprehensions And Reflections Of Two Grandparents/Professional Educators.” Early Childhood Education Journal 41.2 (2013): 133-141. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. 

Blog #5

For my blog post I decided to read the slam article From Africa to the New World and into the Space Age by Smitherman.

From reading this article I realized that there was a lot of information that I did not know in regards to black English. The one was this push pull method that the author talked about. In the article he discussed how this system ultimately pushes black Americans to use standard white English though when they do they are not as accepted into mainstream America. This can be seen when the author talks about an ex-slave known as Absalom Jones who converted to a “white man’s religion,” but when he tried to go to church he was kicked out and told that he did not belong there. This shows that the push was him being encouraged to join the dominant culture, yet when he does he is not accepted and forced to be excluded.

This article connects closely to my identity because being a black American I can see how it is viewed when you talk proper or when you talk in Ebonics. For me, many of my family members talk in what would be considered a mixture of proper and Ebonics and so for me I have grown up being able to switch between both depending on where I am and who I am around. I think this brings up an important issue on how some languages are seen as being lesser because it does not stick to grammar rules that we were taught and because of that it makes someone not want to speak openly in how they would normally talk. Because of this, I think it is important as teachers to be able to accept everyone’s difference in how they talk and realize that language differences do not mean that they are behind or don’t understand. It is simply that they are not familiar with mainstream English. I think for me issues that I might face is just being able to accept their differences especially in the way they write or organize papers. This is probably the hardest part because I’ve always been taught specific ways to speak and organize a paper so seeing someone do something differently makes me automatically think they don’t understand how to do it. Being able to break that mindset will help me in accepting student’s differences. This is why for my project I’ve thought about using Ebonics and showing how they play out in like hip hop lyrics or even books that are seen as highly acclaimed to show how Ebonics can be seen as a way of language.

In this article the author used a lot of patterns the one that was most distinctive was his use of his own personal dialect. He did that by adding Ebonics in his article to show the contrast between standard English and black English. This was important because it shows how effective black English can be used in academic writing. The author also used parenthetical dashes because he is trying to emphasize certain points that he made such as why the phrase “it bees dat way sometime” is such an important line and how it portrays to black culture.

Blog #4

Language is power and a tool used to empower students. In the article by Canagarajah it explains how diverse language is. Besides that, Canagarajah also explains that as future educators especially we should instead of trying to push “Metropolitan English” which is language spoken by dominant society such as the United States, Canada, etc. But instead we should encourage students to use their primary language to assist them in mastering grammar. Besides that, Canagarajah goes into details explaining how we only use other World English’s when it is not in a formal situation. This shows how lesser we think of those who do not speak what we view as standard English. The reason is because we automatically have this negative connotation that those who cannot write properly or speak flawlessly then they are then seen as not a smart. But then how can we judge someone for that when they are not smart based on our standard not theirs or their community. This is something that Canagarajah focuses on which is trying to break this barrier what we view as standard English and trying to show that there is no right way to speak English.

Besides just another languages Canagarajah also explains that teachers should also accept other English language that students speak just like African American English or different versions of English that students from different parts of the world speak. I think though we should still try to teach students basic grammar rules, we should not try to limit their language and speech by telling them the English they speak is wrong.

I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned is seeing how as a teacher it is more than merely teaching your subject to your students, but it is also trying to incorporate others language and cultures as a way to explain lesson. I think this ultimately is the most important thing as a teacher we can do. The reason being is because it will show students that one culture is not more important than theirs. But instead were all equal. By showing students that it will get students to want to experiment more with language and take chances because they won’t be embarrassed. Besides that, I’ve also learned that different languages aren’t just about people from different countries speaking different language, but also understanding that the way someone speaks English the way you do that instead of telling them their grammar is lesser we should encourage students to use that language.

Language—though unique—should be taught to students in Middle and High School. The reason is because during this time many students are trying to discover themselves and coming to terms with themselves. Language is a huge part of that. By being able to teach students about incorporating their own language in whether their writing or learning grammar. By teaching that is shows students that it isn’t merely just using full and complete sentences, but understanding that when I drop the -g in many words isn’t because I don’t understand how to write. But because that’s the type of speech I am familiar with.

Blog #3

After reading the “Error Analysis” by Crovitz’s I agree with the idea that using error to explain to students about where they messed up instead of showing students that how they could make minor fixes to tweak their paper is more beneficial. Like Crovitz states, that by showing student where the mess up at especially if done in front of the classroom it makes students feel as if they are inadequate. Yet this is false. Students in fact understand most grammar rules, but due to their diverse backgrounds or other languages spoken at home the may not know all these rules or how to display them in their writing. So by showing students these rules and giving them a place where they do not feel judged for getting a grammar rule wrong it makes them want to try and experiment with sentences. I also believe that DOL is problematic. Simply because it highlights what wrong with the sentence and showing that this is incorrect instead of showing where a student might have added this or taken this out in their sentence. By changing the way students view error is beneficial in how students feel about themselves academically.

In my group we decided to take basic and simple sentences such as the weather is nice or students have a lot of homework and show students how to expand theses sentences. This could be done by adding adjectives to describe the weather instead of giving just a broad sentence. In this alternative to DOL students can be asked questions such as what makes the weather nice, or how are the students feeling since they have all this homework to do. By asking students questions that leads them to expand their sentence makes it a place where students want to try and experiment with other grammar patterns or other descriptive words to be able to expand their sentence. This is where DOL sentences lack because they are only fixing simple sentences instead of having students expand these sentences that these students were writing,

What I hope students take away from this lesson is this idea that they should not be hesitant to try and write complex sentences or go against grammar rules that they were taught. The reason is by telling students that there either right or wrong when writing leads to them not wanting to experiment, but by showing them different possibilities that they can add to their writing will make them want to try different things. For example, in the grammar alive book Goal C is dedicated to showing students how grammar changes and is a variation of one’s social situation at the time whether that being around family or in an academic setting. By explaining that to students it gives them this idea that it is okay if their papers aren’t perfect and meeting all the grammar rules because a lot of these rules are not set in stone.  Also, just by showing students that they can expand their sentences leads to students having better papers because it makes it something that audience wants to read instead of these broad and boring sentences. 

Blog #2

I would say that Christensen and Chapter 1 & 2 from Grammar Alive definitely does challenge my idea of how to teach grammar. The reason being is because in my classes where I was taught it was primarily get a worksheet and practice the grammar over and over until you can do it without error. The only problem with that is that it is easy to get the grammar rule down when you are practicing it, but not actually using it in real life. This is why I think the article for Christensen was very interesting. Particularly because she focuses on how teachers should not focus on correcting students necessarily, but rather focus on giving students this idea that their writing is good because it is their voice and we should just work on polishing it up instead of creating something new (Christensen 57). This is why Christensen connects with Goal C of grammar teaching. With goal c, it focuses on this idea of students and how they should use grammar and this notion of language not just for standard English, but for language one uses around their house and among friends. This becomes important because most people do not use standard English/grammar. Instead, they use different vernacular that fits their social situation
.

Goal A of Grammar Alive is something I believe all grammar classes strive for- learning standard English [ I used a dash to emphasize an important goal that grammar classes have] (Haussamen, Benjamin, Kolln, and Wheeler 4) I believe that goal A is the foundation of what grammar teaches. The reason is because by being able to give students the basic foundation of what standard English is than it makes implementing goal b and c much easier. I think what’s most important is that in Grammar Alive that it makes this clear distinction that standard English isn’t always a set rule it is instead something that is fluid. Because of that, it allows people to interpret their definition of what standard English means to them and their family.

The next goal one wanted to learn was goal b which consisted of actually using grammar rules. This one is more of a terminology and structured goal ((Haussamen, Benjamin, Kolln, and Wheeler 4). Because of that, it is something that I am used to. The reason is because I am used to a more structured and focused teaching of grammar. Though this necessarily is not the most exciting goal since it is more structured based it is one I think that most will be familiar with. Though, what should be stressed during this goal is that still the grammar teachers are taking into consideration the social situation of each of these students so that they can incorporate how one talks outside of a school setting.

Finally, the next topic to talk about is chapter 2 in Grammar Alive which discusses this idea of language variety and having students understand that not all language you use has to be the same across the board ((Haussamen, Benjamin, Kolln, and Wheeler 10). This I feel is one of the most unique because most grammar classes do not teacher or care about you understanding when to use different language variety. Instead, it is about just trying to use and understand standard English that most will understand.

One can see that there is similarity between all of these reading because they both emphasize the idea of not just taking basic standard English, but being able to revamp it into something that students can use in their everyday life.  

Nonetheless, the reason I decided to use a dash is because I feel like I am more familiar with that. The reason is because I personally enjoy emphasizing the sentence I am making. Though I do want to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.