Ethnography Learning Paper
Kaitlin Burgoon

Research Question: What subjects need to be avoided in books read in the classroom if any?
Primary Sources:
James, Matt, and Lauren: 8th grade English students at Lesher Junior High School
Pam Coke: former 7th and 8th grade English teacher and current professor at Colorado State University in the English department
Field Notes from Adolescents’ Literature class
Major Findings:
Overarching theme: as Suzanne Kauer puts it, we cannot “simplify the issue of what students ought to be reading and who ought to decide” (59)—there is no black or white answer
Three main themes:
*Choosing topics should be based on the context of the audience: Different classrooms have different students with different needs and different maturity levels. Teachers should consider timing.
*It should ultimately be up to the parents: Parents usually know what’s best for their children because they have raised them and the teachers haven’t. Educated parents who have read the books and know what themes are appropriate for their child should be respected and not immediately dismissed.
*Teachers’ and Students’ Voices are Just as Important and Should Also Be Considered: Even though parents should have a say, teachers and students should too. Teachers teach certain books for a reason, and they know what is important for students to experience. Teachers should be ready to defend the books they choose and should be prepared for certain reactions from parents. Students also have an opinion in that matter and are just as upset about a book being banned or censored. They have a voice too
Implications/Future Questions: What should I do if there is an objection to a book that I strongly disagree with? What measures should I take to fight for this book, without having to sacrifice my job?
Secondary Sources:
Committee on the Right to Read of the National Council of Teachers of English. "Students' Right to Read." (posted on ncte.org)
"Bold Books for Teenagers: Censorship, Clear Thinking, and Bold Books for Teens." Don Gallo
"Christ and Cleavage: Multiculturalism and Censorship in a Working-Class, Suburban High School." Julie Gorlewski
"Last year's most frequently challenged books and authors." 2008. American Library Association.
"A Battle Reconsidered: Second Thoughts on Books Censorship and Conservative Parents."

Having your say

I found that most teachers said that nothing should be censored in the classroom in terms of literature, but that the parents should always be allowed to voice their opinion. Some topics that conservative parents and those that have submitted official challenges to books think that swearing, sex, homosexuality, violence, and many other slightly scandalous things should not be in books in the classroom. Some have objections just for their child, which educators are fine with, but others want it banned altogether in the school which is more controversial and inconvenient for teachers. There is a gap between parents and teachers, but English scholars seem to side more with the teachers. I think the more I research, the more opinions I will find and the more I will be able to fill in the gap. Getting a wide range of opinions will help me come to some sort of conclusion.

How do you establish when a student is mature enough to deal with certain texts?

One of the most important aspects of teaching is student-teacher relationships. Teachers cannot effectively educate students without knowing their background, their personality, their learning styles, and who they are as a person. If teachers have this relationship with their students, then it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to pick books at their maturity level and to know when they are mature enough to handle certain topics. Before a teacher can know for sure, however, they need to see how mature the class is as a whole which could be done through initial class and group discussions exposing the issue before going in depth with it through a novel in the classroom. So student relationships with the teacher, as well as the classmates are a good indicator as to how they are able to handle things and how they relate to the person as a whole based on their background, achievement, and other things that show how they relate to the world. A teacher could also talk to the parents or have some sort of class survey.

Gee and Delpit

Gee and Delpit are talking to each other about what discourse means to them and how it shapes other people.Delpit thinks that the argument and ideas Gee presents can be manipulated which she finds problematic. They start out with the same basis but then she finds common patterns that Gee doesn’t necessarily address. With literacy teaching and learning she emphasizes that discourse differences can be overcome and that students from a secondary discourse can still succeed in that setting, or in other words hey can resist the system. Gee is saying that discourse is restrictive while Delpit is retaliating with examples of how students have overcome those obstacles.

I agree mostly with Delpit because I think students are capable of being successful in the classroom no matter what their background is if they know enough about the dominent discourse. The concept of transformation makes sense, especially since she gave examples of students who were able to do that.

As English teachers they give us hope that students with language differences can succeed and outline ways that students are able to do that. They raise the question of how restrictive discourse communities are.

I would like to explore the challenges non-native speakers have since they aren't a part of the primary discourse. That is important to me because I am interested in teaching ESL.

Last language investigation...

A lot of the writing I did before college was very technical. I remember starting with learning how to write the letters of the alphabet and their sounds all the way up to complex grammar. There were many rules along the way that made writing almost a science sometimes, that were actually quite useful, but complicated to the point of confusion sometimes.
In elementary school we began learning the parts of speech and spelling. It was more about the words themselves, rather than their meanings. There were the basic rules, like “I before e except after c” that had to do with spelling, and then those that had to do with ordering sentences, like putting the noun before the verb. These provided good groundwork for writing, because learning how to put a sentence together is essential before you can actually start writing them. My elementary teachers extended beyond these rules as we progressed through the elementary years, however, with “writer’s workshop” where we were free to write creatively. In sixth grade I remember writing a story that my teacher loved and that was really encouraging. So even though there were a lot of rules to learn early on, the free writing we did allowed us to apply them to some extent.
In junior high and high school, however, things got more technical. One of the writing formulas that was pounded into my head was the five paragraph essay. First we focused on introductions. The sentences almost had a certain formula to them. There was the introductory sentence, then the thesis then the concluding sentence, with a few other sentences in between. Then the three paragraphs that explained each of the three points made in the thesis statement. Then the conclusion paragraph that restated the thesis and hit on each of the three points again. I probably learned about that in every English class starting in 7th grade. This was of course useful just because we never really had to write essays in elementary school and we did need to know how to form them. I admit I still follow close to this format today, but I’ve found that if I'm too formulaic my essays aren’t that great. So I can understand why teachers would teach this. It’s a good standard way to break up the essay into different parts so that students can understand the process, but it shouldn’t be the only type of writing taught. I didn’t really do enough free writing in my secondary school years, which made it harder to develop a voice, but I definitely knew how to write a standard essay well.
The kinds of reading I did varied. In “regular” classes and in elementary school precision was important. We were required to know the facts of a story, like the characters and the plot, and definitions of words that were difficult. But then in my higher level classes, and my “honors” classes we went beyond that and explored the content and the related ideas and issues. They had to teach us the basics of reading, and the rules, before we could go beyond that. One thing that I had to do a lot of was fill out study guides. As tedious as that was, I can see now how that made it easier to do more advanced reading later.
A lot of the reading and writing I did before college was very precise and technical. For many years it was very objective, with the study guides and the five paragraph essays, but it did help. I think my teachers were just trying to find a convenient way for us to learn the basics. Convienence isn’t always the best way to teach, but it helped me at least, and I can definitely see where my teachers were coming from. It is hard sometimes to break free from the formulas and the rules when I am trying to make my writing more advanced, but ultimately the “rules and regulations” from my pre-college years I have found to be quite useful.

Warm up #2--Ch.5

1.The type of writing assignments I saw students doing in school in this chapter were basic ones having to do with grammar that they struggled with. Rose had to modify these assignments to meet their needs better, by incorporating more creative writing and images to inspire them. An example of this is the lesson where he taped pictures from magazines on the wall and had students write about them. His focus on the ideas and just getting them to practice seemed to help a lot more than the focus on whether or not they were writing perfectly.

3.The language that labeled the students in the school he was at during the Teacher Corps he said was nondescript so that students wouldn't really know the truth about where they were at and what the school thought about their ability. In a way, they weren't really useful because the labels influenced the teacher's views of their abilities which hindered their capacity to learn literacy.

Common Words of Mine

The language I use with my family is quite different than the language I use with my friends. Since I don’t spend as much time with my family anymore, a lot of the language we share has to do with memories from the past and our history. But the language with my friends and groups that I am a part of reflects my current personality and what I experience in my daily life rather than memories and inside jokes about the past. They are words I use more frequently that come up in a majority of the conversations I have everyday.

Because I am a very indecisive person a lot of the words I use with my friends aren’t very definitive. When my friends and I are trying to figure out what to do when we are hanging out, for example, my response is almost always “I don’t know” or “I don’t care.” This is quite frustrating for most of them and usually makes decisions a little difficult. They are usually able to make the decisions though or able to persuade me to make a decision. The real problem comes when I am hanging out with my boyfriend. He and I have similar personalities when it comes to decisiveness so he frequently says “I don’t know” or “I don’t care” as well. Neither of us is extremely definitive either, so words like “maybe,” “I guess,” or “I suppose” are frequent in conversation making our conversations quite humorous and limits our vocabulary significantly. One of us will be telling a story, for instance, and at the end of the story the other person will say “cool” or “that’s awesome” or something and the first person will immediately say “I guess.” Or if someone says a statement, the other will says "maybe." We have picked up on this pattern however, and find it a bit funny so now it’s more of an inside joke than anything, meaning that we say words like that all the time.

Words that are also frequently a part of my vocabulary are words from Target, where I work. There are many terms that refer to different people and areas of the store that an outsider probably wouldn’t understand. For example, there are four main areas of the store: hard lines, soft lines, grocery, and guest service. Grocery and guest service are self explanatory, but some people might not understand the other two. Soft lines refers to clothes, jewelry, shoes and baby stuff, while hard lines is everything else, including household stuff, electronics, etc. I am a cashier so I work in the guest service area of the store, and we too have our own words. We talk about GSTLs, the GM side of the store, abandons, and REDcards. GSTL stands for guest service team leader, and they are the people that supervise us. The GM side of the store (which stands for general merchandise) is the side of the store where we don’t want to check people out because it is slower than the grocery side and therefore boring. Abandons are things that people don’t want that we take from them and give to the people at the Guest Service desk. We and other employees have to put that stuff away and it really isn’t the most fun job. Finally, REDcards are the Target credit card that we have to ask the “guests” (we don’t call them customers) if they are interested in every time it prompts us on the register, which also is quite annoying. There are many acronyms that we use that I won’t go on about, but the point is nothing is really called something ordinary.

All the words I mentioned I say everyday all day and go beyond memories. Because I work and hang out with my boyfriend frequently they come up more than words from my family, showing that maybe these areas have more importance in my life right now.