Double Entry Journal #10

Chapter 3: Language and Identity At Home   1.     What are the features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that align with academic varieties of language?     Some forms of language spoken at home have characteristics similar to academic varieties of language, such as oral story telling, which in Jennie’s case, contains figurative devices and syntactic structures that are typical of literary books, which she picked up from being read to by her mother and sister. Leona’s story contains literary repetition, parallelism, complex rhythm schemes, and other literary devices. Games such as Pokémon, which young children often excel at, require advanced vocabulary and memorization. Schools demand that students think about what they are doing and why, and to think about the content (math for example) as a complex system with a design. This is just the kind of strategic, metalevel thinking that is required by video games. (Gee, 21-31)   2.     What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language?   Leona’s example of cultural African American storytelling is a specialized form of language that contains poetic features such as stanzas, parallel structures, and syntax patterns. Her story, which is really very advanced for a first grader, also contains a sophisticated system of signs that have deep cultural meanings about traditions and roles in the family. (Gee, 31-35)   3.     Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school?   Leona’s specialized form of language (African American cultural storytelling) was not accepted in school because the teacher thought she was rambling, and totally missed the complex and sophisticated structure of the language the six year old was using. According to research, during sharing time, teachers are open to step by step narratives and reports rather than stories with vernacular language. They are expecting linear prototypes of academic language, not emotional, poetic narratives like Leona’s. (Gee, 34,35)     4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998).     Snow’s report that “Children living in high-poverty areas tend to fall further behind, regardless of their initial reading skill level” contrasts with the report’s recommendation of the report to increase initial skill level at “real reading” through phonemic awareness and overt instruction on decoding. From the research results, it is clear that initial reading skills will not keep these children from falling behind, so focusing on skill training will not solve the problem. (Gee, 36)     4.     What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers?   Factors such as racism and power also have a huge impact on students learning to read. Studies have shown that victims of cultural stereotypes, such as women and African Americans, performed as well on tests as white males, but did less well when the test contexts triggered issues of stereotypes. Fear of these cultural biases has a significant negative impact on academic performance.  This is because learning to read is a cultural process, and is therefore very sensitive to issues such as power, status, and solidarity. The factor of whether or not students feel like they are a valued and accepted part of the social structure of the school also has a huge impact on mastering academic forms of language. (Gee, 37)   5.     Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school?

Children will disidentify with teachers or schools that oppress their home-based identities. They will not feel accepted in a school when the values they have learned at home are rejected and unused Other factors that affects how well students will learn to read is their associations with academic forms of language based on how it is delivered to them. If it seems distant, irrelevant, or even frightening, it’s not likely that students will identify with academic language. Another reason children may disconnect with academic forms of language is that the new varieties of language offered by technologies such as the internet, video games, and texting, are more compelling and interesting to them. (Gee, 36-38)

Source

Gee, P. (2004). Situated language and learning a critque of traditional schooling. NY: Routledge.