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I love your point about students being able to express themselves in relation to social injustices.  At my school, I have seen some of the kids most likely to be impacted by these injustices are often unable to express themselves with words, either written or orally.  Many of these students are considered "behaviors," and I think it is in part because of this inability to express their thoughts and frustration that comes along with that.  In fact, one of the most notorious students in the school has a little sister in my class.  However, I have never seen him be anything but sweet and responsible. I have even watched him help other pre-k students find their classrooms when they looked lost. When I talked to his teacher, I told him about the little sister's trouble speaking; she has the words in her brain, but she can't quite get them to her mouth to say them. He told me that he has seen the same kind of issue with the brother. It would incredibly frustrating and difficult to know what you want to say on a subject, but be unable to get it out, especially when trying to voice your opinions and feelings about social injustices.

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That Dyson article was a really fascinating read.

The thought that comes to mind for me as I read this article is the way slow, thorough, and thoughtful analysis of our classroom practices can reveal some important "blind spots".  I like and use that term "blind spots" since many of us are aware of our strengths; and, to a significant degree, our weaknesses. A blind spot is that area in our thinking or practices where we are unaware of our "imperfection", but as we are able to acknowledge it, also contains a valuable opportunity for improvement. Certainly, all of us come to teaching with some level of implicit biases--derived from the normative way our communities have interpreted print with us.

The Dyson article exemplifies the way careful observation can expose biases--in this case about gender and race--that might be prevalent among our students or perhaps our own thoughts. Good work!

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So, are you saying that Matthew isn't superstitious, but he is "a little stitious"? (I kid, I kid).

What a great example of a way a person's ideology is seen as normative, and that anything else is, by direct extension of said ideology, wrong.

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You had me at "They Live".

Seriously, I think clips from movies such as this one are a method that absolutely ensures vigorous and animated classroom discussion.  In my own preparations, I was reminded of the work of Paulo Friere and his seminal book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Both Friere and Zizek, IF i understand them correctly, display the idea (with which I agree) that ideology is often difficult if not impossible to identify in a can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees way. Friere, (again, IF i understand him correctly) adds the dimension that more clearly identifies certain unwilling subjects or captives of ideology. In the sense that your response wisely encourages students to develop sociopolitical fluency, I think Friere would also, like Zizek, agree with you and re-iterate that this sociopolitical fluency is a requirement to find one's own voice, or one's peoples voice, in the process of making that voice be heard in the necessary socio-political arena.  Nice work.

See what you can do with Teen Wolf or The Emerald Forest next time...

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I agree with what you posted about how students make their own personal connections as readers. I was also raised that gender did not play a role in what a person could do in life. My parents never stereotyped anything based off of gender because I was always told that I could do anything I set my mind to. I think it is very important for students to be exposed to a variety of perspectives so that they do not grow up stereotyping genders and thinking a certain way. I agree that the strategy that you posted could be presented in a class to help students learn how gender does not matter and that things should not be stereotyped based off of gender. That was a great connection you made!

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I love what you posted about how we often read to make meaning in the wrong context. I completely agree with you. I feel like it is very important for students to have the opportunity to make personal connections to their lives and for us to be more mindful of the selection of texts that we are giving them. This also made me stop and take a look at my classroom library. It made me wonder if I had enough books that interests all students so that they could connect to the books that they are reading. I feel like it is very important to give them the opportunity to choose what they want to read, but it is also very important to make sure that you have a big enough variety for them to choose from as well.

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I agree with what you said about how students should be able to write, read, and talk about the issues going on around them and that they are experiencing. I try to make book selections in which I know that my students will be able to connect and really take meaning from the book. My students LOVE to discuss things and they think that it is so great when they can connect with a story.

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Response to Taylor S. from Felicia Tobias

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Response to Taylor S. from Felicia Tobias

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Taylor,
I agree with the statement that readers bring personal experience into their reading. The school that I teach at, our students come from homes where they have some rough experiences and they are not afraid to talk about them. I've had kids, during guided reading, they have made connections to the books we were reading based on things that they have experienced. For example, one time we were reading about a boy who was stuck in a snow storm and the lights went out at his house. My student stops and says, " Our lights have gone off before because we couldn't pay for yet." It really makes you think about what books choices you make sometimes because you want them to be able to make connections and their are some experiences that they have never had before.

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Response to Taylor S. from Felicia Tobias

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Response to Taylor S. from Felicia Tobias

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I agree with the statement that

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Response to Sarah G. from Felicia Tobias

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Response to Sarah G. from Felicia Tobias

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I always like reading about how you are making sure that your Mandarin student is learning for meaning! I love the idea of pairing him up with an older student. I really think that he is going to be able to connect with your student on a level that you are not able to. Our school is starting up a program like this where older kids are paired up with the younger ones to help them with reading. I think that this is going to work well because they come from the same backgrounds and can each relate and connect on a level that a teacher might not be able to.

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Jessica,
I too find the idea of gender stereotyping very interesting. It seems to be everywhere we look. It is displayed on the toy and clothing aisles of stores, in illustrations and depictions of characters in books, social norms, and much more. As a country, we should be focused on the progression of society in a positive way and not creating a divide through stereotyping. As educators, it starts with us as we are creating the next president and leaders of our world. We can make a difference by teaching that boys can like pink and that females can become anything they want to be. I just had this conversation with my kindergarten class two weeks ago. We were studying colors and I was reminding them to wear pink the next day. Many boys said "My mom said I can't wear pink" or "Girls wear pink". Right then, I took that as a teaching moment to say that there is no rule that says only girls can wear pink. Colors are colors and it does not matter who wears or like them. The next day, many of my boys had pink on. I glad I made a positive impact on them in regards to this very situation.

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Ryan, your post was very similar to my own in a sense that cultural groups and backgrounds can create an influence on the appreciation and dedication for academic development. Some cultural groups may see academic development as one that is taken very seriously, regardless that their child is learning these concepts as a second language.
From my personal experience with an ELL whose parents support literacy and all means for academic development, it makes a difference. This student in particular remains engaged regardless that he may struggle with the concepts being covered due to a language barrier. His parents have instilled a love for learning in him early and although he speaks English as a second language, his most recent progress reports displays his determination and dedication. He aced the assessment more so than others who speaks English as a first language. It is amazing to see this transformation!
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Response to John O'Kain from Nick Nostro

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Response to John O'Kain from Nick Nostro

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I have watched the PBS video before and felt the same way you did as like you said, "texts used in the classroom are the product of power relationships with society" as well as how "children read, write, and think in ways that reflect their social identities (Pg. 246). With the recent events happening in Charlotte, there was a recent news video on WSOC-TV about what has to be done to avoid this from occurring again and the answer to this was we need to educate our children both at home and at school.
On another note, I too love using music videos to have my students understand the meaning of them. A great one I have used is Wonder by Natalie Merchant because the author Raquel J. Palacio wrote the book Wonder and used excerpts of the song as a prolouge to the story. What I have done is have the students watch the video without the music and they write what they saw then share. Then they listen to the song but not watch the video to write what they hear. Finally we put it together make our conclusions and determine the meaning of the song and how it would relate to the book. At the end of reading the book, I have them watch the video again and reflect what they learned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpYFAzhAZY

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I definitely relate to the gender stereotypes students as I have seen it many times. I won't go into details about how the bathrooms are set up in our school (the photo attached will explain it clearly). The problem was there were no paper towels on the boys side of the bathroom and so I told them to walk to the other side and grab them. They looked bewildered, shocked, and giggled "No Way!" Asking why not I thought they would reply something like "I don't want to trespass" or "I don't want to be rude." Instead they said, "I don't want to get a disease." I didn't want to go any further into the discussion at the time I decided to pull out a book called There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar which deals with the situation but it is not just the one the title says as it goes deeper to the main character's (Jeff's) problems. I will use a variation of the Points of View lesson on page 271 where I would have the students read it from the view of the narrator and then write it from the view of the main character.

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Listening to the podcast and reading chapters 7 & 8 made me realize having the one day of discussion regarding the sociocultural practices in literacy is not enough and as educators we should be having these conversations all the time in our classrooms especially in light of recent events occurring in Charlotte and across the United States. Having these discussions in our classroom are important as we impact students’ learning and preparing them for the experiences they will face here and now.

When I look at the South Carolina Language Arts Standards we do teach our students to “explain the influence of cultural, historical, social, and political context of characters, setting, and plot development” (SCCCRS 2015, 5.RL.8.1b). Although on page 237 it states that “literacy as a social practice has received increased attention” the way in which we teach the standard may only last a week or so and not as in depth as we would like it to be. This is due to “conflicting ideologies” presented to us with No Child Left Behind, Common Core Standards, along with other documents and members of specific groups (Pg. 242) including to be “politically correct.”

In my read-aloud sessions I always have a book which has a word which may be uncomfortable to them. I don’t skip it or substitute, I read it like it is because there is a reason why the author wrote it. For example, I recall reading the book Dolphin Sky by Ginny Rorby in one of my reading classes and recalled a curse word in it. I asked my professor why they would this word in a book. She replied, “Why shouldn’t she write it?” It made me realize what the author wrote was acceptable to how the character felt at the time and where the story takes place the social norms they have were different than mine. Another example occurred the other day when a student pointed to the word “damn” in their book and I did the same thing to them, “Why shouldn’t they write it?”

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Response to Taylor Stephenson from Bailey Faile

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Response to Taylor Stephenson from Bailey Faile

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Taylor,
I completely agree with you with the fact that there are differences between home literacy and community literacy. The funds of knowledge the students bring to our classrooms have to be our starting point and the point of emphasis that we keep referring back to. Ultimately, we need to build on the skills the students bring to school, like you said. Readers bring personal connections as they read to help them better understand the material. This schema that they bring should be used to build upon and scaffolded. Gender roles could play a huge role in the funds of knowledge they bring about a particular character, but it is our best interests to show all options of the character/gender role so the child is building to their existing knowledge. This could bring about a great class discussion! Great work!

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Sarah,
I loved reading about the connection you make with the fifth grader and the kindergarden Mandarin speaking students. What a wonderful way to support Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of how individuals learn best from one another and that they socially conform through their interactions with others. Vygotsky also made the critical point of scaffolding. I think by having a fifth grade student paired with your kindergartener, you will see that the fifth grader will be able to scaffold your student because of the similarities and same cultural experiences. While teachers are the sole "scaffolder", I feel as if the older student will be able to make a more personal connection and value the young child's heritage. I am interested to see how your kindergartener progresses!

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Cultural influence is undoubtedly responsible for how we learn in many instances. From reading and doing a little refreshing on the works of Vygotsky and others I see relevance of scaffolding to increase the learning outcomes for students. It is important for us as teachers to unbiasedly take the knowledge that students already possess and build off of that to help them grow and further develop.
Here is a link that helped me to refresh on the developmental stages, and it briefly talks about Vygotsky.
https://youtu.be/8nz2dtv--ok

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Kucer and Silva raise some incredibly interesting points on socialization and relation to text in their chapter on sociocultural dimensions of literacy in Teaching the Dimensions of Literacy. In their consideration of how a student enters into a world of established literacy, they point out that "Because the beliefs of dominant groups so permeate the society, and because the individual may so seldom encounter alternate perspectives, he or she may come to view these beliefs as not socially constructed, but rather as normative or universal" where even the subject can't escape their own total indoctrination (236). Slavoj Zizek echoes this exact consideration in his definition of ideology as a warping in perception of reality shaped by the external world. Ideology "is not imposed on ourselves, ideology is our spontaneous relationship to our social world, how we perceive each meaning" due to our exposure to myths, glamour, faith, education, filial obligations, politics and policy, etc (Pervert's Guide). The way that we view the world is built into our very construct of external "real"ity, and as a result, influences our ability to relate to foreign ideological constructs, and as a byproduct this construction affects the relation to text. It is here that we connect to Silva and Kucer's consideration of sociocultural dimensions in literacy and pull the line further away from philosophy and towards how we can use literacy practices to examine our constructed ideologies, reflect on how they shape our reading of even the simplest commands or phrases (ie the sign "Thank you for choosing Pepsi" is read as sincere by people who aren't Coke fans, but sarcastically interpreted by people who dislike Pepsi). In the act of reading and writing we are confronted with a codified power language, a form of knowledge that is established by a governing homogenous force determining 'proper' discourse and reading practices. Silva and Kucer repeatedly address this power relation, most notably in the principles of assignments such as essays (a rigid writing style that promotes alienating rhetoric in order to convey an argumentative point), canon selection (the established 'must-read' books used to measure successful reading comprehension), and even topics that emerge in class. This discourse is out of line with many students own sociocultural background. The artificially generated rules separate the student from the text. In this separation, the student may feel alienated, and as a result, utterly unengaged in their education. Fortunately, reading, reflecting, and writing offer a solution to this problem very problem that the attempt to teach literacy practices in part support, or in some cases, reinforce.
Critical analysis isn't simply a matter of identifying overarching myths and themes established through the intertextual development of writing practices, it is a means of removing the blinders that keep us restricted in our ability to approach a text, or en masse reality. In this sense, the objective of a competent literacy education is to train the student not only write the power-discourse, but break it apart, understand how it is restricted by its own ideology, and then attempt to interpret in such a way that their own background can shine a light from the outside. In this act of examining an established, alien discourse, the methodology can then be flipped on the student and used to act as a catalyst for self reflection. The very same means of deconstructing an established discourse, which with assistance and textual navigation, can be learned by an outsider, can allow the outsider to not only understand that their cultural literacy isn't wrong, but out of sync. Once these tools are assimilated, and their relations to text exposed, the student can then engage in exercises that apply the same methods to texts that they do identify with as 'their language' of discourse. This exercise reinforces that there are different contexts and styles ingrained in ideology. Through this understanding, a student may critically approach a wide variety of discourses outside their own sphere of knowledge and through critical connections can translate, in a sense, foreign writing practices to improve their comprehension of challenging texts, or texts that use different understandings of terms and styles to communicate. These different positions of readers and writers become not locked away from the student, but a fluid pool of language and play accessed through critically engaging in a variety of sociocultural contexts.
Check out Zizek's (given more political) explanation of ideology in his reading of John Carpenter's They Live below.

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Analysis of "They Live" on the documentary "A Pervert's Guide to Ideology"

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Zlavoj Zizek, A pervert's Guide to Ideology.

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Interesting question about the appeal of characters. I will poll my third graders tomorrow and update this post! I don't think I've ever asked my students why the characters appealed to them because we usually focus more on genre and the author.

The reasons why my students choose characters:
- the characters are adventurous and "actually do something"
- they are funny (many referred to Junie B. Jones)
- the illustrations of the character made them look appealing
- characters are related to other characters (Judy Moody and Stink are siblings - they each have a series)
- characters were written by a familiar author
- characters are animals and kids love animals

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Working with people belonging to such diverse groups gets heated sometimes, but we learn so much from them. I, like you, love to sit back, watch, and listen as people share their perspectives and opinions. Being in the education field, it definitely is hard to gently 'stretch' the perspectives of students especially when they have no idea where their perspectives are coming from. Sometimes, our best option is to strategically group certain students together and let them get to know one another. When they become friends, they realize how much some of those differences don't matter. And when this happens, I love to see parents faces and reactions when their child has accepted something or someone that the parents haven't!

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It was very interesting to read how each of the children responded to the story's character "Emily". It told a lot about what the children's previous experience may have been and how they related to the character. It showed the importance of the knowledge and experience children bring to a situation.

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It think it's wonderful how you are willing to allow such an open conversation about societal issues, justice and equality in your future classroom. My younger students are always very quick to call things unfair and say why they think so. Usually, I have to agree, but on some issues I just shake my head and call on the next hand because I can't share my thoughts. However, the differences that students bring to the classroom will teach us all new things and make us look at situations a bit differently. We can use their stories and be able to say "I know somebody who has been through that so I know how it may affect others."

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Books were so important to me growing up and I would also like to know what appeals to kids now.  I feel that my readings helped shape who I am.

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Listening to your podcast brought me to the realization of how I am impacting my students daily though literacy. I too agree that literacy is more than just being cognitive. So many times, we read to make meaning in the wrong context. We have students read for comprehension or to make personal connections, yet we are not mindful of the selections we are giving them. Are these texts validating their home life, their culture, or interests? As an educator, it made me stop and take a closer look at the books in my classroom library that my students interact with daily. I found books that are gender-stereotyped and limited books that construct a socio cultural dimension. I never stopped to truly think about how this impacts my students. I want to make sure that students are making meaning because they can put themselves in the book or make a connection because the text reflects them in some way.
Vygotsky makes a critical point that individuals learn best from one another and how to socially conform through being around others. I have a student in my class who speaks Mandarin. He does not speak much English, so through interaction with his peers and learning through myself and those around him, it is amazing to see what all he is learning through simple interactions. I am finding ways to incorporate his home culture into literacy each week. I have started by giving him texts that are dual language. I am able to read it to him in English and although he may not understand it, he can see his home culture reflected in the illustrations. I have paired him with a Mandarin speaking 5th grade student who is able to read the text to him in Mandarin. It is so neat to see him react to texts that reflect a socio cultural dimension.
The textbook mentions that cultural groups can influence a student's appreciation for literacy. Some cultural groups take academic development very seriously, whereas others see literacy as more of a hobby. My students take 4 books on their reading level home to read daily. Although my Mandarin student cannot speak English, his Mom has made it very clear  that they still make time to read every page in each book, even if it means reading through pictures because academic development is essential in their home culture.
As educators, it is important to be mindful and respectful of all cultures, because we are their to support and equip these students with the skills they need to make them successful beyond their educational experiences.

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This week we were reminded that as teachers, we must be cognizant of the fact that there are differences between the relationship of home and community literacy.  If a student is “not prepared” for school, then we must be willing to seek out and affirm the aptitudes of our students.  We need to build on the skills they have.  Students bring many types of knowledge to the classroom and literacy.  The ideology a child brings regarding gender was very interesting.  “Gender, like other social identities, is a social construct that shapes the literacy experiences encountered and dictates “what is and can be learned and what is out of bounds”” (p. 244) A reader may not buy into what a writer has written if they do not believe in the character.  A reader brings personal experiences into reading so they may understand.  I was raised to believe that gender did not play a role in what a person could do in life.  My parents did not say girls did this or boys did that.  They even chose a gender neutral name for me.  We must make sure the students are exposed to a variety of perspectives so they do not get pigeon holed into thinking a certain way.  Looking over the learning strategies in Chapter 8, I think the one on page 258-259 will be very helpful in social studies.  It can be presented so that we go over historical cases in which individuals violated stereotypical norms, such as Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Martin Luther King, and so on.

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John O'Kain. "Arizona Prohibits Mexican-American Studies"

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John O'Kain. "Arizona Prohibits Mexican-American Studies"

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http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/need-to-know-february-15-2013/16294/

This excellent PBS video (25 min) documents the dismantling of a 15 year-old program in an Arizona school system that was accused of being anti-American even though the positive effects on students who participated in the program were demonstrable and quantifiable (sharply decreased dropout rates) I've watched it a handful of times, and continue to be intensely frustrated at the way this curriculum was politicized first, before being correctly understood, and banned at the expense of the students' education.  To use Kucer and Silva's language, it is unfathomable to me that the majority of a school board would make this decision that seems to reflect, at best, popular Western-centric knowledge, and the narrative that supports that thinking, instead of some level of transformative academic knowledge. The video also validates the point that the texts used in classrooms are the product of power relationships within the society.

Shifting gears, check out this song "When I Was A Boy" by Dar Williams (Lyrics are past the link):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE5YzRr9yPo
I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my hand
I said I was a boy; I'm glad he didn't check.
I learned to fly, I learned to fight
I lived a whole life in one night
We saved each other's lives out on the pirate's deck.
And I remember that night
When I'm leaving a late night with some friends
And I hear somebody tell me it's not safe, someone should help me
I need to find a nice man to walk me home.
When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom,
Climbed what I could climb upon
And I don't know how I survived,
I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew.
And you can walk me home, but I was a boy, too.

I was a kid that you would like, just a small boy on her bike
Riding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw.
My neighbor come outside to say, "Get your shirt, "
I said "No way, it's the last time I'm not breaking any law."
And now I'm in a clothing store, and the sign says less is more
More that's tight means more to see, more for them, not more for me
That can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat

When I was a boy, see that picture? That was me
Grass-stained shirt and dusty knees
And I know things have gotta change,
They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in, they've got implants to remove
But I am not forgetting
That I was a boy too

And like the woods where I would creep, it's a secret I can keep
Except when I'm tired, except when I'm being caught off guard
I've had a lonesome awful day, the conversation finds its way
To catching fire-flies out in the backyard.
And I tell the man I'm with about the other life I lived
And I say now you're top gun, I have lost and you have won
And he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see
When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talked
And I picked flowers everywhere that I walked.
And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom do
And I have lost some kindness
But I was a girl too.
And you were just like me, and I was just like you.
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I'm a dad now to two sons (one of them is still "in the oven"), and I can say (in total agreement with the podcast) that the walk down the toy store aisle is a real bummer when you're looking to make sure that your child learns to respect all people equally and not just confirm some existing gender and racial stereotypes. I've purchased a couple of sets of superhero toys for my son with the currently most popular characters. One set includes 5 white males (Thor, Iron Man, Hulk [white when he's not angry], Captain America, and Wolverine). Another set of 12 characters contains 1 female character and 2 black male characters. The rest are white males. I'm not anti-white male, but I don't think they make up 95% of the heroic figures in real life. For those of us that are Star Wars fans, I challenge any of us to find a Princess Leia action figure or even a Rey from The Force Awakens. I was able to find one on ebay but had to pay collector prices for it because they are so rare. What's up with that, toy manufacturers?

Anyhoo, here's an article that discusses the #wheresrey outrage and provides a glimpse of hope for us parents that want our kids to be able to play with figures that represent the main characters in adventure stories, whether or not they are girls. http://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-female-action-figures-are-flying-off-shelves-despite-wheresrey-outrage-retailers-say/

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Groups Influencing Literacy

One of the things I take away from the reading is that groups can influence a student's appreciation for literacy. If a culture, family, or clique considers reading to be an "other"ing activity, they may disapprove of a student's interest in reading. The causes of this could be various: one might be that parents did not like their English classes from their school days, and also do not enjoy reading now, so they propagate their opinion by influencing their children; another might be that friends prefer other activities over reading, and so the student wants to share interests with friends instead of developing their own; etc.

Keeping these issues in mind, it's the teacher's job to somehow counter these arguments while the student is in class (and hopefully while they are outside of class). It is not an easy feat to convince a student that their ability to read and write effectively is more important than their family and friends' opinions. Does anyone have suggestions for helping these students?

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I completely agree with teaching kids to like any color or hobby, or whatever it may be instead of always encouraging the opposite of the gender stereotype. This is such an encouraging, progressive way of teaching!

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I loved how you used The Paper Bag Princess as an example. That was a favorite of mine as a child! I agree that it is important for students to expand their literacy by reading about different kinds of characters, and then associating that to real life situations.

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The discussion about gender stereotypes is so relevant in today's society. I have not been exposed to grade school classroom settings much since I graduated high school, but I would love to hear what characters or books appeal to kids today. I would love to know if the look of a certain character is what attracts them to a story or is it a characters' inner qualities that draw students towards them. I think as educators we should encourage our students to read stories about characters that are unlike ourselves. We can learn so many things by diversifying our literature.

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I agree with you that the topic of gender stereotypes is a very touchy subject inside the classroom. As an educator we have to make sure everyone is happy not just the students so in a way it hinders our teaching to make sure we don't step on any toes. I like how you mention using role reversing literature in the classroom because while it is educational it provides students with a different view of how society can be even if they don't understand it.
Since you mention how personal experience is one best learning tools it may be an interesting idea to have the students do a mini project on their cultural background and present it to the class.

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I completely agree with you that often times students have an opinion on something based off what their parents believe as well as peers; even if they don't understand why they feel that way. I really liked how you tied this into biology because for some it is a difficult topic to relate to and form an opinion about. I think if we and the students can provide enough sources and evidence then we can guide them to make opinion for themselves!

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I think you have a great idea when you mentioned boys can like any color and women can work or be moms. Every individual has a reason for the decisions they make and we should all be literate enough to appreciate them. I think it is important for us all to remember we are able to make our own choices. Although our groups may influence us they do not make us. We make our own decisions and we all should be literate enough to make good and informed decisions. Once again something that our education system can greatly affect.

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I feel as if we were on the same page with our responses. I feel as if it is important that people such as Matthew understand and agree to disagree with others. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and in order to make our society better we all have to be willing to dig deeper into all angles. We do not have to agree with everything we read but we must understand that others may have valid points as well. I really feel like it is a failure on our education system that people are able to graduate from high school so narrow minded.

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I can relate to your standpoint in thinking about the various groups that we belong to. Being in the Math field does not bring a lot of diversity. Typically in this profession you see Caucasian males represented. Being an African American female, when I see another person that looks like me I am interested to understand their background and how literacy has changed them for the better.

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I definitely agree with what you pointed out about how students start to question what groups they belong to. I would say it is a good thing because they start to have a mind of their own beginning to do research on a specific topic, read about it and write about it. They then may begin to form their own opinion and grow into a new group.

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In reading Chapters 7 and 8, I was enlightened to see that children need not only to understand explicit meanings, but also subtle messages (Kucer & Silva, pg. 244). Young children may interpret readings, ideas, or situations in many different ways. It is imperative to educate your students on societal issues, justice, and equity. Some students are aware of these issues because they go through them everyday. Personally, I think it is so important not to only live through or have to endure social disadvantages, but also be able to write about it, talk about it, or even read about it in a classroom without being reprimanded. I think it would be so hard to teach this concept in a Mathematics class. I just put the book, "Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice," on my Christmas list so hopefully it will inform me on different teaching strategies and lessons. Bringing up societal issues in a history class may be more appropriate given students may be able to compare situations in history to now.

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I don't envy you the task of teaching biology in such a politically divisive climate, especially in the south. I had a science teacher in seventh grade who started the year by literally throwing the textbook on the counter, saying "I don't like this book," and then pulling a Bible out and telling us that the real answers were inside it instead.  I was more impressed by his boldness than anything.  It's definitely a tightrope walk trying to balance teaching with staying neutral on matters of politics and religion. Good luck with that!

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Your comments about Code-switching are interesting in relation to the teaching of language. Just as you must instruct your students in the ways of Middle Class America in contrast to their home cultures, we are all expected to teach Standard English conventions, even though many (most?) homes often feature alternate versions of English or a separate language entirely. Your success with four-year-olds is inspiring to a future high school teacher like me who is hoping to teach one "code" without stamping out or disrespecting their home culture. It's a tricky balance.

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As I read chapter 7, I couldn't help but relate it to my experience with my current coworkers. I work part time at a movie theater, and my coworkers come from all sorts of backgrounds, and belong to quite disparate "fuzzy" bordered groups as described by Kucer and Silva. While I certainly have my own beliefs, tendencies, and assumptions based on my experience and background, I tend to keep quiet and try to avoid stepping on toes.  Not all my coworkers prescribe to this philosophy, which can lead to some interesting interactions between groups. For instance, one of my coworkers, Matthew, is a Mormon, politically conservative, heterosexual male. One of my managers, Kelsey, is an agnostic, feminist, politically liberal, bisexual female. Kelsey is not as diplomatic as I try to be, and does not hesitate to contradict Matthew when she sees fit. Matthew falls into the category (described on page 236) of people unaware of the source of his beliefs, and seems to believe, perhaps because his is the dominant group in society, that his ideology is "normative or universal." For this reason, he is quite brash when discussing issues of the day. The conflicts that arise when he makes certain claims (i.e. that America has gone downhill because women work instead of being Mothers in the home), are utterly baffling to him.  He doesn't understand why the world doesn't have his version of "common sense." Matthew is not a mean-spirited person. He genuinely seems surprised when his views offend.  Picture Michael Scott from The Office, but not funny.
I look at the problems that Matthew has encountered in the workforce, and realize that if he had been challenged more during his development, he would likely be more empathetic and open-minded. He wouldn't be so sure that everyone agrees with him, and would therefore be less likely to spout his opinions haphazardly. This experience accentuates the notion that teachers have a responsibility to highlight the borders between groups, and illuminate the source of ideologies. This can be hazardous ground for teachers, as angry parents won't take kindly to teachers meddling in political, religious, or other sociocultural spheres. However, as Matthew's problems prove, failure to develop sensitivity to the viewpoints of others can cause legitimate problems later in life.  A teacher who can gently widen the perspective of his or her students is doing a massive favor in preparing them for the real world.

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While reading the chapters 7 and 8 I was intrigued and reminded of how groups we associate with influence us so greatly. I loved how the book pointed out that being part of group doesn't mean you all have exactly the same beliefs. I find that many times students believe what their parents believe. However, at some point they begin to question it. There are also times that things going on in the world create situations where parents are not able to logically help their children understand in a proper socially acceptable manner. I find that this happens often in my content area of biology. For example, there have been great debates on the subject of stem cells. Some students may hear that it is wrong/right to use them however, they do not know how to explain why they feel the way they do. A goal in my biology class is for students to learn to read and form opinions based on facts. I want young people to be able to explain why they feel a certain way about a topic or issue. On page 251 the beginning of a lesson on Literacy Use Audits discusses keeping up with how literacy is used outside of school. Science literacy is used in many factors outside of school. Connecting to my example above stem cells can also provide connections to religious beliefs. A log as shown on page 253 can be used over a week or two for students to make a connections to the different places scientific issues can be found. I would like to use the chart for just stem cells and explore the different groups and sources for such discussion. Then teach the students what is a reliable source and what is not and how to tell. This could be done for various topics. I would also teach students to be willing to look at the issue from different angles. For social purposes it is important for students to know how to talk about issues and be well informed. By learning what others believe and why. The over all goal is to develop students to think critically but respect the beliefs of other groups so not to judge harshly.

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How fortunate you are to have had such involved parents! I'm sure having them place such an importance on literacy throughout your childhood has played an important role in your education and personal life. Often times we don't even realize all the far-reaching effects the actions of our parents have had on us. You should let them know they came up in your Graduate class and that they were the textbook model parents for supporting literacy in the home. It would probably make their day! :)

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Parents do play such an important role! While having parents who are not involved does not necessarily set a student up for failure, how much more prepared and likely are students to succeed if they have had that foundation laid in the home! I'm glad to see this pointed out in the text as well. We as a society are moving away from parental accountability and toward complete student and teacher accountability. There is definitely a balance and all three have important roles to play!

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I love The Paper Bag Princess!  I think the role reversal is also intriguing for the students.  When I did a unit on Cinderella stories, I included one with role reversal, The Irish Cinderlad.  Using other cultures' versions of similar fairy tales can be a wonderful to teach about those cultures.  I still try to be careful; I want to teach the students about cultures, but I do not want them to see them as stereotypes.  Around the classroom, we have pictures of people in various traditional outfits for cultures, but we also have pictures of children from around the world who  are dressed in more modern outfits, too.

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I was very struck by a particular sentence in these chapters: “The group attempts to socialize-directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously-the individual into thinking and behaving in particular ways, ways that are appropriate to the group’s view of itself.” (236)  It made me think about the variety of cultures that my students live in on a daily basis.  Many of my students come from poverty, and we specifically work to teach them how to function in middle class society to prepare them for the future.  We are directly and consciously trying to socialize the students to fit into particular social group: the American middle class.  All my students are minority students, and at home, they are being taught the social norms of their home cultures.  They are also learning to navigate between the two, as well.  While some of my students are taught, “If someone hits you, you hit them back,” it is part of our job to teach them that at school, we use our words and how to talk through problems.  At four-years-old, my students are already learning about code switching between “home and daycare rules” and “classroom rules” through explicit teaching.

I was also interested to read about the way our social groups influence us while we influence them.  In relation to code-switching, I had a student who had previously been in daycare and had knowledge of social interactions and roles in that setting.  When we introduced all of our centers, and asked the students where they wanted to play, he said, “The house center [what they call it at his daycare] is for girls!”  I told him that nothing in our classroom was for boys or girls; everyone was allowed to play with all the toys.  He was intrigued by this idea, and dramatic play is now one of his favorite centers.  Without the notion only certain people could play in certain centers, dramatic is often (in fact usually) full of boys while blocks is full of girls.  Additionally, I have put plastic bugs and princess rings in the treasure box, and the students have extended the idea to include things they get from there.  Several boys wanted a ring and many girls wanted bugs.

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I find the whole conversation about gender stereotypes very interesting. While I definitely do not encourage any type of stereotyping, I think we have to be extremely careful addressing gender stereotypes, because not all parents/cultures view them as negative stereotypes.  For example, many people think it is wonderful for a girl to grow up to be a mom without a career outside the home. I know with my daughter, I will always encourage any career goals she has, but I will equally support her if she "just" wants to be a mom. We must be careful in our attempt to respect everyone, that we aren't belittling those who actually want to participate in whatever the "stereotypical" behavior is.  In short I think the goal is to respect and value all lifestyles and gender roles. So, rather than preaching "Its ok for boys to like pink" or "Girls can have jobs outside the home" I believe we should be teaching "It's ok for boys to like any color (including blue and green)" and "Girls can have any job they want (including the job of stay -at-home-mom)"
(Kucer & Sylva CH 7 & 8)

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Amber, thanks for the awesome video! Like you, I have fond memories of Vygotsky. I may be drawn to him for the simple fact that his name makes him the one theorist that I can always remember! On the other hand, he is also a theorist that I firmly agree with (like you!) so it makes it easier to remember as well. Like many others have mentioned so far, this chapter seems to really hammer home that the students are coming to us with so much background (positive or negative) in terms of literacy. It is our responsibility as teachers to take what students' parents, family, and friend groups have given them with literacy and continue development.

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The whole time I was reading chapters 7 and 8, I kept thinking about all of the gender stereotypes that are in the world around us. I came up with a list of things I see just in my community and the places that I go that "encourage" (in a sense) gender stereotypes. The first connection that came to mind was when I was writing with a pink marker on a child's whiteboard because it was the first thing I grabbed and I see the boy erasing what was put in my pink marker and rewriting it in black. This was extremely eye opening to me! At the time I did not say anything to the child because I honestly didn’t know what to say. This was the first time I had seen this happen. Thinking back, I should have told the child that it doesn’t matter what color I use, boys can like pink and girls can like more masculine colors. I was just writing a simple problem on his whiteboard, not getting him to transform into a girl by using the marker. One of the critical reading strategy lessons I saw that I could incorporate in my classroom is using the Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Be Girls lesson. I loved how I could bring in character analysis when talking about gender stereotypes. It is essential to value the students funds of knowledge, just as Vygotsky suggested, but also scaffold their funds of knowledge by inviting them to step out of their comfort zone and reading books with male and female characters resisting stereotypical ways. Personally, I feel as if this would be a great beginner lesson that would help the students see that males can take on female characteristics and hobbies and vise versa. Literacy can make difficult subjects to talk about and teach on a breeze! I am looking forward to checking out a few books page 259 suggested and seeing if I can get a different response from the same young boy. Finally, I love how I am seeing things in my classroom that I am able to read about in a content area class.

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Thank you so much for posting that website and your incite on Anne Dyson. I had never heard of her, but now I am very interested in reading and learning about her views and theories on sociocultural practices.

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I teach third grade as well, and had the same reaction. We just finished a fairy tale unit, and I wish that we could have done the role reversal with one of the stories we were reading. It would actually be really cool to find a book or even video where the roles are reversed to show students. I also teach my South Carolina History through literature, especially when I do not know much about that group.

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I also found the description of the different settings very clear and easy to understand. When you mentioned that you had never thought to consider the parents' role, I couldn't help but think of my parents. I was the kid who had to read and do book reports over the summer because my parents did not want me to fall behind. When they were children, nobody read with them and they remembered school being hard; they read with me every night in hopes that I would be a better reader than they were at that young age. But, if more parents were involved, took a little bit of responsibility, and read with their children each night, I could push my students so much further!`

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When I was listening to the podcast hearing Vygotsky's name brought back happy flashbacks! I remember not only learning about him in my undergrad course, but also my early childhood courses in high school. I remember agreeing with his theory that almost everything that a child learns about their culture and how they interpret and respond to the world is learned from an adult. That is why it is so important for parents to start reading to their children at an early age. I have attached a website that gives more details on Vygotsky's theory. When reading Kucer &Silvia , the table on page 243 threw me for a loop. I never thought about all the different ways knowledge is formed.  Transformative academic was one that I had never heard of, but after reading the definition, I thought of several of examples for how a student and even myself could have constructed that knowledge.

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Introduction

A young child and her father are playing with a shapes toy. The young child alone cannot figure out how the various shapes can fit into the designated holes. Her father describes how each shape can only fit into its same shaped hole. The father offers her encouragement and helps her put a few pieces in their respective hole. As the child grasps the concepts, the father allows her to complete the task alone. This is an example of interaction influencing the cognitive development of a child. This lesson will focus on these social interactions and their impacts of cognitive development, according to the psychologist, Lev Vygotsky.

Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory Overview

Lev Vygotsky's, cultural-historical theory of cognitive development is focused on the role of culture in the development of higher mental functions, such as speech and reasoning in children. His theory is sometimes referred to as having a sociocultural perspective , which means the theory emphasizes the importance of society and culture for promoting cognitive development.

Vygotsky believed that adults in a society foster children's cognitive development in an intentional and systematic manner by engaging them in challenging and meaningful activities. We will return to our introductory example throughout this lesson to illustrate the principles of Vygotsky's theory. In our intro, the father intentionally engaged with his child to help her understand how to fit the blocks into the designated holes. Without this assistance, she would have continued to be unsuccessful. But with the meaningful directions from her father, she was able to successfully get the blocks into the holes herself.

Assumptions of Vygotsky's Theory

Six major assumptions guide Vygotsky's theory. We will discuss each one generally. Some assumptions will be covered in greater detail in other lessons in this course.

1. The first assumption of Vygotsky's theory is that through both informal and formal conversations and education adults convey to children the way their culture interprets and responds to the world. Specifically, as adults interact with children, they show the meanings they attach to objects, events and experiences. Returning to our example, the father is now reading to his daughter a book about transportation. The book describes the different modes of transportation we use in our society (such as cars, trucks and boats). By presenting these concepts, the book shows the little girl how our society classifies modes of transportation.

2. The second assumption of Vygotsky's theory is that thought and language become increasingly independent in the first few years of life. We will talk specifically about language and speech development later in this lesson.

3. The third assumption explains that complex mental processes begin as social activities. As children develop, they gradually internalize processes they use in social contexts and begin to use them independently. This internalization process allows children to transform ideas and processes to make them uniquely their own. Returning to our example, the child and father are simply reading a book, but this social activity is transforming the way the child perceives modes of transportation. She will begin to classify these items herself when she sees cars, trucks and boats in real-life settings.

4. Vygotsky also introduced the idea that children can perform more challenging tasks when assisted by more advanced and competent individuals. Vygotsky identified two levels of development: actual development, which is the upper limit of tasks a child can perform individually, and level of potential development, which is the upper limit of tasks a child can perform with the assistance of a more competent individual. According to Vygotsky, in order to get a true assessment of a child's actual and potential development, we should assess capabilities both when the child is performing the activity alone and with a more competent individual. For example, our young child exhibited that her actual development was that she knew the blocks belonged in the holes, but she couldn't quite determine how to actually put them in. Her level of potential development was being able to put the blocks in with the help of her father, an advanced individual. We would not expect the child to then be able to sort the blocks into colors and shapes, or to do anything beyond these skills that she exhibited with the assistance of her father at this point.

5. Our next assumption is that challenging tasks promote maximum cognitive growth. Vygotsky described this as the zone of proximal development , or commonly referred to as ZPD. ZPD is the range of tasks that a child can perform with the help and guidance of others but cannot yet perform independently. ZPD will be discussed in more detail in another lesson.

6. The final assumption is that play allows children to stretch themselves cognitively. Play allows children to take on roles they would normally not be able to perform in real life. Let's return to our example. Our same little girl who was playing with the blocks is now five years old. She's playing house with a friend. She is the mother and her friend is the child. Through make-believe play, she is able to exhibit behaviors and be a mommy according to the rules of her society. For example, a mommy takes care of her child, prepares food, etc. That would normally be impossible for a five year old in real-life to do.

Speech and Language Development

We have covered the basic assumptions of Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, and now I want to focus, specifically, on the principles of speech and language development. According to Vygotsky, speech begins as a means of communication and socializing and later becomes a tool of thinking. His research led to the identification of four major stages of speech development.

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lev vygotsky's theory of cognitive development - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Lev Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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A young child and her father are playing with a shapes toy. The young child alone cannot figure out how the various shapes can fit into the designated holes. Her father describes how each shape can only fit into its same shaped hole.

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When I was reading the Kucer and Silva about the various groups that people belong to, I thought about groups that I belong to. Although not all cultural, the groups we belong to definitely change the way we react to specific things. As a member of my cultural group, I react to literature a certain way; I usually look for characters that 'look' like me especially when I investigate picture books to read with my class. However, as a woman, I look for books where roles may be reversed so that my students know that girls can do everything a boy can. I love when The Paper Bag Princess was mentioned (259) because that book depicts the reversal of roles.
In third grade, we learn about groups such as the Native Americans, Irish, Germans, and African Americans. Obviously, I know more about some groups than others so the best way I've found to teach about these groups and cultures is through literature. I love using read alouds because the information is written and illustrated in a way that young minds understand. Sometimes, we have students from cultures and backgrounds different than ours and, as children, they are very quick to say how things are the same and how they are different. Personal experiences are some of the best ways to understand the various practices and expectations of other cultures and groups.

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Macy,
I felt the same way when reading about Heath's study. That study was actually done on families from around Rock Hill so it makes it even more interesting. Heath's original notes and documentation on this book are now housed in the archives here at Winthrop if you want to take a look!
If you have't already read her whole book, Ways with Words, I would highly recommend it. It is a lengthy book with some dry spots, but it is a very interesting and enlightening book in terms of literacy. It really is amazing to read about how deep childhood and how a child is raised affects literacy and language all through life.

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While I was reading I kept referring back to page 239 where Kucer and Silva mentioned Heath's work in examining lang use in 3 different settings. I feel like it is a topic that is often talked about but this description just made it more real to me. It described the importance the parents have on a child's reading and writing habits which I never thought of; I always thought it was the responsibility of the child if they wanted to do better in school or not. Not necessarily putting all the effort into the parents but it was refreshing to see that they played a role as well. Heath's study went in detail of how kids in Maintown read alongside their parents and asked questions, really engaging in the reading which prepared them for the questions a teacher might ask. Whereas, kids in Roadville and Trackton suffered from less attention to detail or none at all from their parents which in turn set them back in school. With or without the influence of the parents it became apparent in the classroom how ready or behind a student was when they came to class on the first day. I agree with Kucer and Silva that parents and students expect teachers to catch them up or build on knowledge that is needed to be known when in fact all three should come together to help instead of leaving the responsibility on just one.
From reading Heath's study on reading and comprehension I thought the lesson Academic-Everyday Word Wall would be a great tool for students to learn. Whether they come across words in a lesson they don't know or words they come across in everyday life (appropriate) they can bring them into class and put up on the word wall to refer back to. This can alleviate the tension between your upper students and lower students because they all see that everyone struggles with language and understanding.

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This website pairs nicely with the one I read about Anne Dyson. As I was reading it, and the last paragraph suggested having students rewrite popular culture texts, I thought about the fairy tale lesson plan. Kucer and Silva explain a lesson plan that has students write fairy tales with gender roles reversed from the traditional view (pg 265). In all, I found this aspect of sociocultural literacy immensely intriguing and thought the overlap with critical literacy was significant as well!

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by Jennifer Rowsell
Brock University
Dec. 18, 2014

Why are movies like Frozen, videogames like Minecraft, and book series like The Hunger Games fixtures in so many classrooms? What compels students to take up popular culture stories and become so preoccupied with their songs, characters, storylines, and associated objects? Researchers including Anne Haas Dyson , Jackie Marsh (2005), Deborah Rowe (2008), and Karen Wohlwend (2008; 2009a; 2009b) have written extensively about how young children play with media and popular culture texts and how these texts and associated practices have the potential to open up spaces for learning in early years and primary learning contexts.

Wohlwend provides a particularly incisive, critical framing of the often hidden practices and competencies children display when they play and think through media and popular culture. As she repeatedly demonstrates in her research (Wohlwend, 2008; 2009a; 2009b), children perform their identities through media and, in turn, media and popular culture powerfully shape children's thinking and learning. In her various research studies, Wohlwend shows how adults have become more constrained by conventions, where children easily move across a variety of text genres (e.g. information, narrative, visual/image-based, haptically driven, and explanatory) and through a variety of modalities (e.g. sounds, visuals, gestures, animation). They do this seamlessly and often with abandon.

In one example of Wohlwend's work, Wohlwend (2009a) examined closely how a group of children engage with toys and artifacts as identity texts. Wohlwend spotlighted Abbie Howard, a kindergarten teacher with 15 years of experience in early years classrooms, who had an inquiry-based style of teaching in which she would plan out and negotiate activities for each day with the children in her classroom. Once they had a plan, children set to work on a project or compositional task. Children worked independently as Abbie circulated. Children naturally consulted with peers and engaged in collaborative work as needed. In her seminal article about the research project during 24 once-a-week visits over one school year, Wohlwend offered a detailed discourse analysis interpreting a group of girls named "Disney Princess Players." The group loved such Disney animated films as The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Aladdin, Cinderella, and Snow White and they spent much of their class time talking about the films, enacting parts of the films, extending their own stories based on characters. Wohlwend particularly looked at gendered tensions that arose during their playing and writing particularly around their sophistication with animating characters-that is, moving them, speaking for them, building on stories about them.

Wohlwend provides an in-depth, bird's eye view of material features of Disney princess characters (costumes, physical features, colour schemes, skin colours, etc.), connecting these material features to ways in which the girls in the group perform their own identities in the classroom and within their peer groups. Wohlwend shows how the girls not only negotiate their relationships with peers, but also how Howard had them critically reflect on the content and respond with their own plays. Howard fosters an environment in her classroom encouraging "approximated writing" and she builds on the children's funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) about popular culture. In her article, Wohlwend notes the Princess Players engaged in 42% more authoring than other children in the class, primarily because of authoring considered texts they dearly love, and they invested a lot of time in viewing, thinking about, and remixing into other texts and compositions.

Stepping back and thinking about research informing practice, Wohlwend's work tells us some important things that we might know on a tacit level, but that are not as prominent in theory and pedagogy, such as the power of incorporating media and popular culture in classrooms and how young children negotiate and even contest gender stereotypes naturally and in productive ways.

Three pieces of advice emerging from Wohlwend's work are: 1) talk about popular culture and media texts, discussing material qualities, critically engaging with stereotypes, assumptions, and underlying ideas; 2) provide students with opportunities to focus on particular scenes or characters in popular culture texts, such as Katniss in The Hunger Games, and devise alternative storylines or scenarios; 3) have students work in pairs or small groups to compose a response to a popular culture texts, such as a short film, a rant, or visual montage that depicts a part or theme of the text.

Dyson, A. H. (2006). On saying it right (write): "Fix-its" in the foundations of learning to write. Research in the Teaching of English, 41, 8-42.

Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Marsh, J. (2005). Ritual, performance and identity construction: Young children's engagement with popular cultural and media texts. In J. Marsh (Ed.), Popular culture, new media and digital literacy in early childhood (pp. 28-50). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Rowe, D. W. (2008). Social contracts for writing: Negotiating shared understandings about text in the preschool years. Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 66-95.

Wohlwend, K. E. (2008). Play as a literacy of possibilities: Expanding meanings in practices, materials, and spaces. Language Arts, 86(2), 127-136.

Wohlwend, K. E. (2009a). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing gendered identity texts through Disney Princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 57-83.

Wohlwend, K.E. (2009b). Dilemmas and discourses of learning to write: Assessment as a contested site. Language Arts, 86(5), 341-351.
Jennifer Rowsell The ILA Literacy Research Panel uses this blog to connect educators around the world with research relevant to policy and practice. Reader response is welcomed via e-mail. is a professor at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. She is the director of the Centre for Multiliteracies and the Brock Reading Clinic at the Brock Research and Innovation Centre. In her research she explores ways of broadening literacy education, policy, and theory to meet the challenges of multimodal, digital, and transcultural environments. Drawing from extensive research in new areas of literacy education, her scholarship reaches across age groups to move literacy beyond anachronistic, often print-bound notions of meaning making.

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by Jennifer Rowsell Brock University Dec. 18, 2014 Why are movies like Frozen, videogames like Minecraft, and book series like The Hunger Games fixtures in so many classrooms? What compels students to take up popular culture stories and become so preoccupied with their songs, characters, storylines, and associated objects?

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As I was listening to the podcast, I was immediately intrigued when Dr. Yearta mentioned Anne Dyson. While I have looked closely at Vygotsky's work, I wanted to know more about Dyson's research on gendered roles in student writing. The website below was a very interesting read! I found another website that I am going to link in another sticky that was very interesting as well.

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Hass Dyson on Critical Literacy and Gender

Emily is a Euro-American girl, a preteen, blonde, and quite pretty. Emily does not say much, and she is almost always polite, but she does have some spunk. She has a crush on Rocky, her good-looking, brown-haired neighbor boy, and vice versa; sometimes, however, she is quite disgusted with his tendency to be a macho "show off." Mainly Emily and Rocky smile at each other and inquire about each other's well-being. Whenever Rocky so much as glances at Emily, his brothers Colt and TumTum enjoy chanting "Rock-y loves, Em-i-ly," to Rocky's dismay. Rocky's grandfather is teaching him and his brothers the ancient martial arts of the ninjas (which will come in handy against Grandfather's former student and nemesis, the evil Snyder).

Emily is not real, in the strict sense of the word because she is a character in a movie marketed to children: Three Ninjas ... . Despite her young age, she is now, by all accounts, a has-been, no longer a part of the social and narrative life of the school children I observe in the San Francisco East Bay. Even in the original movie, Emily was only a very minor figure. She had few lines-approximately 23, averaging 4.5 words; and she asked a lot of questions: "Hi. You guys ready?" "Rocky, are you alright?" "Rocky, is that you?" But, at one time, in one classroom, Emily played a starring role; that role was a mediational one-she was used by the children to further their social and textual ends, and so I shall use her here.

Given that this is a book on critical literacy, I anticipate that readers would now expect me to explain how the children's teacher, Kristin, had the children interrogate this movie as a kind of text. That text, with its passive female and active males, its emphasis on the joy and glory of kicking (targeting others only when absolutely necessary) no doubt suggests a fertile textual field for critical uprooting. But this is not what happened, at least not in any simple sense.

Although many of the children were quite familiar with Emily, at first Kristin did not even know who she was. Kristin learned of Emily only because of the classroom literacy practices she initiated, practices that led the children to bring Emily, and other figures from their social lives as children, into the official school world. In fact, [my] ... thesis is that Emily became a useful mediational tool for children's critical reflections in part because of that rootedness in the children's unofficial (child-governed) social world, as well as the official world of school literacy practices. Through those practices, Emily was dialogized, to use a key concept of the language theorist Bakhtin ... ; that is, she was rendered a reflexive symbol whom the children could use both to reflect on and, through writing, to take action within their worlds. ...

[C]ritical literacy involves participating in activities or practices in which we use language, oral and written, to reflect on given words and, most importantly, on their familiar relational backdrops ... . At any age, critical literacy is always a personal as well as a political (power-related) matter because it entails reconsidering one's own experience ... . And critical literacy is always a local as well as a societal matter because it is something we do in response to others' words and actions, including their voiced views on the social world. ...

None of Kristin's young students would have been surprised, I suspect, an adult did not like a story about ninjas. In her school, some teachers even banned such media stories from their classrooms, and some children reported that their parents found these stories too violent. The children's critical engagement with Emily-their consideration of the relational background within which she (and they) were embedded-emerged within, and was channeled by, the official school world's practices. But their engagement was fueled and given substance by the unofficial world of peer relations-by the children's desires to play certain roles (although, certainly, not the 'hooverer') and by their concern for fairness. The classroom writing practices gave children a means for seeking both access and redress-and that redress included a redressing, so to speak-a rewriting-of a meek figure named Emily.

The writing and rewriting of Emily was documented during the course of an ethnographic study in Kristin's urban school; the study focused on 7- to 9-year-old urban school children's use of popular culture, especially superhero stories, in their unofficial social play and their official school writing. ... Like many inner city schools in densely populated urban areas, the school was high poverty (i.e., more than half of a school's families qualify for the federal school lunch program) and, in addition, populated primarily by children of color. However, the school also served a substantial percentage of White students who came primarily from a middle-class community surrounding the school (31%). ...

Out on the playground, the children tended to play in social circles marked by the interplay of gender, race, and social class (the boys, with their team games, being less segregated than the girls). In the classroom, however, the children were more apt to interact with others who experienced the social world quite differently. The social structures that organized this interaction were set in place by Kristin, in her role as teacher. She started a free writing period, which included an Author's Theatre activity; in that activity, child authors chose classmates to act out their written stories; after the performance, the class responded with comments and questions.

A Euro-American woman in her late 20s, Kristin became the teacher of 28 second graders in March and then kept her class through their third grade year. I knew Kristin because she had earned her Master's degree at the University of California, where I teach. I had gone to Kristin's classroom for a brief visit but had become fascinated by the ninjas and other popular characters that dominated her daily composing period. And so, shortly after she had arrived in the school, I began observing, and I also returned for (> months in the third grade, observing 2 to 5 hours per week throughout the entire project. Although I came to know all her children, I had focal children who provided me reference points in the classroom drama, one of whom figures into this chapter, Tina; like the other focal children, she was knowledgeable about the media and active in the peer world. ...

Ladies hoover and guys battle evil, according to the traditional storylines. Thus, it was not surprising that, in the second grade, Emily's prospects for textual action seemed bleak. Five of the 11 boys wrote at least one Three Ninjas story (although no second grade girl did). But these boys rarely mentioned Emily in their brief texts: Ninja stories feature good guys and bad guys, not boy friends and girl friends.

Nonetheless, Emily was very much a part of the unofficial social talk during official composing, and, in this talk, the boys used Emily much as Rocky's brothers Colt and TumTum did. For the boys, Emily's dominant meaning was the passive but cute girl friend, and, as such, she was useful for peer group fun. Any reference to Emily-and, especially, any attempt by a composer to cast a part for Emily-generated group chanting by the surrounding boys: "Rocky loves Em-i-ly. Rocky loves Em-i-ly." The chanting was a kind of bonding ritual and an occasion to exercise control over the embarrassed boy and girl who had been offered, or had asked for, the roles of Rocky or Emily. Rocky was a great fighter and karate was fun, but the potential for romantic meaning made even the strongest warriors run.

Given her romantic meaning, most boys never even considered including Emily in their stories. In fact, the absence of Emily could be a point of reassurance for potential male actors in the Rocky role. Nyem, for example, said to a reluctant Patrick, "It ain't no girl gonna be in it. Emily ain't gonna be in it." If the role of Emily was considered, however, the potential actress discussed was either Sarah or Melissa, both of whom resembled Emily in certain ways (fair-skinned, light haired, slim, well-dressed, friendly).

For the girls who wanted roles in ninja stories, Emily also symbolized the cute girl friend. But her social role or meaning was different. For the girls, Emily meant access. There were many boy parts in ninja stories, but just this one girl part. The desiring girls assumed the presence of Emily when any boy began a ninjas story, and, moreover, they campaigned for the part (i.e., they requested the role of Emily, without asking //Emily was going to be in the story). So, for girls, as well as for boys, social authority or power was gained primarily by referencing the original story (i.e., the girls assumed the boys' obligation to include Emily because the original story includes Emily).

Still, it was among the girls, especially the girls of color, that the boys' composed ninja stories generated ideological tensions. Tina's friend Johnetta, both children of color, was quite blunt about her feelings. "What you got against girls?" she asked Michael, a well-known superhero fan. And when Lawrence claimed that only White girls could play another media miss, April of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ... , because April was White in the movie, Holly, Lettrice, Johnetta, and Aloyse (all children of color) raised their voices in protest. The conflict led to an explicit classroom rule that anyone could play any role, without regard to sex or race.

So, in the second grade, Emily generated issues of access, not of her own representational stuff (i.e., her identity). The girls acted on their access issues by protesting Emily's absence, her limited role, or the chosen actress, but not by writing their own Emily. However, this would change in the third grade, when the female admirers of ninja stories began to write poor Emily a place in the action. ...

Although the third-grade girls sometimes wrote superhero stories, they wrote mainly rescue stories (e.g., Lena's Superman saved Lois Lane, and, as just seen, Makeda's Rocky, TumTum, and Colt rescued Emily). In January, even Tina, who had written second-grade texts featuring female X-men superheroes, wrote a story in which Batman saved "us girls." She told Kristin that she was not going to write any more "boyish" X-men stories.

But Tina was not of one mind on the issue of "us girls," and neither were many others in the class. During a class meeting, she sparked an intense discussion with her complaint that "in every story the boys always have to win. And that's really not fair to the girls.... The boys are always doing things for the girls, and it seems like the girls are weak." This was an ideologically charged complaint, not about access to a given story, but about the representational stuff of the story itself and, moreover, about the responsibility of the authors (i.e., about whether or not authors were being fair in their stories). Thus, it was not surprising (although certainly it was not predictable) when Tina saw new possibilities in Emily.

In the original Three Ninjas movie, Emily has a moment of physical glory, when she follows up TumTum's swats to an adolescent bad guy with a swift kick and a punch of her own ("Way to go, Emily!" says Colt). But it is only a brief episode in a movie in which she is mainly a smitten girl and an easy target for bullies, a victim to be rescued. In Kristin's class, Emily finally had an opportunity to be tough when Tina wrote a ninjas story (in March). And in that story, the usual gender relationships were inverted: Emily became the rescuer:

Once there was a girl named Emily. She was tough. Her and her boy friend was eating pizza. They love to eat pizza. So one day they were going to school. They love school. Emily's mother walks them to school. She was nice. She love little kids. Kids love her. Then they went into the room. Bad boys, they love to beat up kids.... School is over now. Rocky, Emily, TumTum and Colt. Colt was going away. Emily found him. The bad boys had him. Emily can whip some butt. So she did. So they all ran away. She is tough, 1 said. So they walk home again. The end. [Spelling and punctuation corrected for ease of reading.]

Emily was Tina's mediational material, her means of participating in-and resisting the dominant ideology of-the community dialogue about gender. Unfortunately, though, Emily as superhero was not able to generate a public response. Tina, who missed a great deal of school, did not bring her to Author's Theater. However, she did bring her next Emily story, and the resulting event suggested that Emily, Tina, and the community as a whole had, at long last, gained some agency, some responsibility for choosing actions from an expanded range of possibilities.

Tina's next Emily story was a horror story (meant to be both funny and scary) about a scientist, his wife, and a crazed bat. It featured a grown-up Emily, marked as pretty and married, with no specific occupation. Her husband was Batman ("like in the cartoon," as Tina explained), but this Batman did not save "us girls"; he studied bats. Moreover, Batman was victimized by girls and avenged by a man-obsessed female bat named Bebe. The original Bebe, whose name rhymes with Tina's given name, was a girl in a chapter book the class had read, The Sideways Stories ... .

Both Tina's actors and her audience enjoyed her story. Seemingly pleased with their response, Tina incorporated her actor's improvizations into her oral presentation, exaggerating Batman's fear and Bebe's ferocious love. The ever faithful Emily moved further into the background, as she waited at home for her man, and the more active characters took over:

Tina takes her place in the front of the rug and calls her actors. Edward is to be the scientist, Makeda the wife, and Rhonda the baby bat Bebe. Tina begins to read with great expressiveness:

Tina: Once there was a man that studied bats. He loved to study bats. He was married ... ['0::h', says the audience.] "Her name was Emily."

Edward: Just like "Three Ninjas!" (Tina grins very widely.)

Tina: She was pretty. So her husband went to the lab and was studying a bat named Bebe. (Tina stops reading and begins improvising but, at this point, stays very close to her text.)

Rhonda: I'm Bebe. I'm a bat. (Class laughs enthusiastically. Edward, apparently responding to the class's playful mood, gasps, runs off to the far corner of the rug, and stands shaking. Tina then responds to his actions, improvising her next line.)

Tina: He was afraid of her. She lo::ved him.... Whoever messed with him she would kill them. One day the man went back home. He told his wife about the bad day he had.

Edward: I had a bad day! That bat is messed up. She tried to kill me, man! (The audience laughs. Edward may have misunderstood Tina's text, since his improvisation suggests that the bat was trying to kill him, which was not the case. However, Tina once again picks up on Edward's improvization.)

Tina: He went back to the lab. And the bat killed him. And he died. The End (audience laughter)

In the fun of a performance, Tina's relieved Emily, dutiful Batman, and vigilant Bebe had become caricatures (the female vampire, the nerdy scientist, the little woman at home). But it was, nonetheless, a performance in a literacy event in a classroom community in which appropriated heroes-whatever their cultural source-were potentially subject to critical reflection. In the discussion following Tina's performance, the mood of the class shifted, and they began to wonder about the inner lives of the characters and their responses to their life circumstances. A number of children audibly wondered about Emily and, more importantly, about Tina's decisions about Emily. Indeed, the first questioner was Emily herself (Makeda), who asked about the motivation of her husband's killer:

Makeda: Why did Rhonda-no, the bat have to kill um my husband?

Tina: Cause he poked her, and she didn't like it. And so she just killed him.

Lettrice: How come you didn't tell that thing you told, that he poked Rhonda?

Tina does not respond to this inquiry about the representation of her story but calls on Jonathan, who has his hand up.

Jonathan: I think you should tell how they [Emily and Batman] met. Tina: The next chapter is where they met.

Jonathan: But if there's a next chapter-the guy died, so he couldn't tell that part.

Tina: I know. I'm telling it without him.

Kristin: Could you tell a flashback? Have you ever seen a flashback?

Many assents in the audience, and Tina recalls another horror story:

Tina: Like Jason, yeah Jason. The girl had a flashback to when she was a little girl and she didn't know her father.

Lena: ... Makeda [Emily] could've like um write her story about her husband and then start crying [because she was having a flashback].

Kristin: In the beginning of the story, you [Tina] said that Bebe the bat was protecting the man from other people... And then, all of a sudden, she killed him. And I wondered, how did she change from loving him ...?

Tina: And so-he didn't like her. And so he-when he was studying her, and she had rabies in her, and when he was studying her, he poked her, and she didn't like that...

As the discussion continues, Kristin asks if Tina's characters 'had a purpose in life':

Jonathan: Well, [Batman's] might've been to study bats ... to figure out which bats to avoid ...

Lynn: Well, one for the bat might've been-two purposes, to either be studied and to be sort of an example for other bats on how to be studied and, also, to um-fall in love with [Batman] and to kill him.

Lynn: And [Batman's]-[Batman's] wife um, Emily, Emily's purpose might have been-maybe she didn't follow her purpose. And it might've been that she should've gotten there and saved him some way.

Tina had liberated the characters from their usual plots, where actions and motivations were assumed (to get one's bike back, to defeat the bad guys, to marry the desired). But the characters' lives continued to be reinterpreted by Tina and others-in the fun of a performance and the serious consideration of the group as a whole. Some community members requested more explicit textual representations; others suggested possibilities that challenged Emily's silence and her passive relationship to her husband and to Bebe.

In Halliday's ... sense, a text did indeed seem to represent "meaning potential," a "choice ... from the total set of options ...". As for Emily, it seems fair to say that she had been novelized, taken from the absoluteness of her place among the ninjas and brought into "a certain semantic openendedness, a living contact with unfinished, still-evolving contemporary reality (the open-ended present)," in which another version, another rewriting, is always a possibility. At least, in this classroom community, it was now possible-it was not ideologically out of the question (or out of the text)-for an Emily to whip some butt, so to speak. And with new possibilities come new responsibilities (for author and for Emily). Perhaps, thought Lynn, Emily missed her chance. ...

In U.S. schools, there is an urgent need for teachers themselves to participate in evolving school communities ... . In her school, Kristin felt isolated, unable to discuss her own goals and experiences with colleagues. Moreover, to administrators, children (especially urban children "at risk" of low-achievement test scores) engaged in dramatising and talking (especially about the popular media) could seem a scandalous waste of time.

And yet, to Kristin and to me, all that dramatising and talking about symbols drenched with children's relationships seemed so powerful. Surely that activity furthered children's skill in interpreting, analysing, comparing and contrasting texts, as well as their skill in writing more elaborate texts ... . But most important in the context of this book, it provided children with a participatory forum. Emily was a transitory symbol, but the cultural tensions at the heart of her classroom life were not-the children grappled with gender roles, beauty and race, and physical strength and power. Moreover, those tensions were evident in the responses of individual children, who did not have simplistic, unified selves. It is, to draw once again on Bakhtin ... , precisely play with appealing but contradictory voices that allows us all to escape ideological bullies, intellectual kidnappers, and too slick cultural heroes and, thus, to remain open to new ways to tell our common tales.

Dyson, Anne Hass. 2001. "Relational Sense and Textual Sense in a US Urban Classroom; The Contested Case of Emily, Girl Friend of a Ninja." Pp. 3-18 in Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classrooms, edited by B. Comber and A. Simpson. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.3-4, 6-7, 8-9, 11-15, 17. || Amazon || WorldCat

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Hass Dyson on Critical Literacy and Gender | Chapter 7: Critical Literacy Pedagogy | Literacies | New Learning

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Hass Dyson on Critical Literacy and Gender Emily is a Euro-American girl, a preteen, blonde, and quite pretty. Emily does not say much, and she is almost always polite, but she does have some spunk. She has a crush on Rocky, her good-looking, brown-haired neighbor boy, and vice versa; sometimes, however, she is quite disgusted with his tendency to be a macho "show off."