"The moral of this story is not to confuse dialect intervention with reading instruction. To do so will only confuse the child, leading her away from those intuitive understandings about language that will promote reading development, and toward a school career of resistance and a lifetime of avoiding reading. For those who believe that the child has to 'say it right in order to spell it right,' let me add that English is not a phonetically regular language. There is no particular difference between telling a child, 'You may say /bruvver/, but it's spelled b-r-o-t-h-e-r,' and 'You say /com/, but it's spelled c-o-m-b." pg 60-61
This quote is particularly meaningful to me because I spent a large amount of my undergrad studying linguistics. I find the whole area fascinating and I could totally nerd out right now but I won't because it will have nothing to do with my own experiences rather something I've read in books and seen on films.
Why this quote speaks to me is mostly because I was the kind of student who had mastered reading English and I was able to read out loud fluently at an early age because I had heard and absorbed what difficult words sounded like. I could read a word such as "comprehension" in second grade but I doubt that I could comprehend what the word actually meant. So my point is that not only should you not assume a student isn't comprehending their reading if they're not translating it into Standard English, you shouldn't always assume that a child can comprehend everything they're reading even if they are able to form the correct phonemic patterns.
What Lisa Delpit wants us to understand from that quote is that the way we speak does not strictly correlate to how we write. It perfectly sensible for someone to read what I am writing right now and when they read it to change up the vowel sounds and consonants in their own dialect. Think about the above example for speaking "brother" as "bruvva," someone with a thick Scottish accent might say "brota" etc. The way we make our oral translation has great variance because we all come from different communities from different parts of the world and through that isolation we start to form our own dialects. If we correct dialect differences during reading that will only get in the way of the reading. Dialect discussions should be dealt with separately and only in the manner in which Standard English and the students home dialects are discussed and how neither are more correct than the other but how Standard English is used by the dominant culture and is important to know in order to work within the dominant system.
As far as influence on my future teaching goes I am a little confused. The above quote is just something I picked out because I thought it illustrated a point I already identified with nicely. I am interested in how to teach a multicultural class if certain cultures need drastically different things from me. I most comfortably identify as the kind of teacher who is fun and non-authoritarian. I am authoritative however and will demand certain respect and behavior from my students in a reciprocal way. But I never thought about how to approach students who might need a more strict and direct form of communication than those who need less directness in classroom behavior or instruction. I am kind of at a loss as to how to address this problem. But now that I'm aware of how certain students might need different instruction I am comfortable that I'll be able to figure it out. I guess being aware of cultural differences is the key. But not just being aware, but being really really aware.
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"A black elementary school principal in Fairbanks, Alaska, reported to me that she has a lot of difficulty with black children who are placed in some white teachers' classrooms. The teachers often send the children to the office for disobeying teacher directives. Their parents are frequently called in for conferences. The parents' response to the teacher is usually the same. "They do what I say; if you just tell them what to do, they'll do it. I tell them at home that they have to listen to what you say."
ReplyDeleteThis quote stood out to me for a couple of reasons, I do feel that there is a time and a place for indirect instructions to encourage the child to process information on their own instead of just acting like robots, but on the other hand children need direction and structure, if you'd like a child to sit down in his seat, I don't believe asking the child, "would you like to sit down?" is the appropriate way to handle the situations. "Its time to sit down." There's no confusion, it is what it is. I find this also important because when that child moves on from school and finds a job, his boss isn't going to ask him if he feels like working. The real world requires direct instructions, and people should know how to handle it. I believe a teacher should pick and choose when to use direct and indirect instructions.
Lisa Delpit wants us to consider that children from different cultures or backgrounds don't necessarily learn the same as each other. So therefore we can't teach every child in the same manner. She also wants teachers to be aware of the "silenced dialogue". Teacher shouldn't just go through the motions of hearing differing perspectives, but "Listening" to the differing perspectives so that we can truly collaborate together to educate all children to the best of our abilities.
I hope that what I just read will influence my future teachings, I hope that I always remain open minded to my colleagues, I'm a huge believer in teamwork, and I don't believe there is just one way to teach children, I think the best teachers can bring a variety of tools into the classroom. If you're not getting the response from the children you're looking for, adapt, find the method that works best. Also, I want to make sure I always take my students cultures into account, respect for each other, and respect for ourselves will make my classroom a safe and comfortable learning environment regardless of your background.