Chapter 3: Language and Identity At Home
1. What are the features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that align with academic varieties of language?
There are a few different features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that aligh with academic varieties of language. Jennie goes through these first six forms of language by telling her story. The first form of language is introducing a a beginning and end to her story and giving a summary of what the story is going to be about. Jennie adopts a frame that mimics story book reading as it is done by teachers; she is imitating adults language. The third form of language is giving her story a title. Syntactic structures are used such as: "'Once upon a time there was three boys 'n three girls.'" The fifth type she uses is a lot of repetition and parallelism; giving examples of types of activities girls like to do and what boys like to do. The last thing is that she uses "sympathetic fallacy". "The fight between the girls and boys is immediately followed by the sky turning dark and lightning flashing."
There are a few different features of the forms of language that are spoken in a home environment that aligh with academic varieties of language. Jennie goes through these first six forms of language by telling her story. The first form of language is introducing a a beginning and end to her story and giving a summary of what the story is going to be about. Jennie adopts a frame that mimics story book reading as it is done by teachers; she is imitating adults language. The third form of language is giving her story a title. Syntactic structures are used such as: "'Once upon a time there was three boys 'n three girls.'" The fifth type she uses is a lot of repetition and parallelism; giving examples of types of activities girls like to do and what boys like to do. The last thing is that she uses "sympathetic fallacy". "The fight between the girls and boys is immediately followed by the sky turning dark and lightning flashing."
2. What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language?
Leon uses parallelism and repetition throughout telling her story to the class. In many of the stanzas she ends the line with "cake". She goes back and forth in some stanzas from what her mom is baking and to what her grandmother is baking. She organizes her stories by breaking each part into different episodes that occurred. She ends many of the words with "an", too which is a unique way to her story telling. Gee says, "She is interested in creating a pattern out of language, within and across her stanzas: a pattern which will generate meaning through the sets of relationships and contrasts which it sets up, like the multiple relationships and contrasts- the points of contact and stress(Gee,2004)."
Leon uses parallelism and repetition throughout telling her story to the class. In many of the stanzas she ends the line with "cake". She goes back and forth in some stanzas from what her mom is baking and to what her grandmother is baking. She organizes her stories by breaking each part into different episodes that occurred. She ends many of the words with "an", too which is a unique way to her story telling. Gee says, "She is interested in creating a pattern out of language, within and across her stanzas: a pattern which will generate meaning through the sets of relationships and contrasts which it sets up, like the multiple relationships and contrasts- the points of contact and stress(Gee,2004)."
3. Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school?
Leona's specialized form of language was not accepted in school because the teacher thought she was rambling on with her story and that she was going to start telling more stories, when in fact she was getting to the end of her story. The teacher would tell her to sit down and she would not be able to finish her story. I thought this was so sad because the student wanted to share her story with the class like everybody else but was shut down and couldn't finish. Teachers are looking for stories about narratives or reports; they are not looking for stories like Leona's.
Leona's specialized form of language was not accepted in school because the teacher thought she was rambling on with her story and that she was going to start telling more stories, when in fact she was getting to the end of her story. The teacher would tell her to sit down and she would not be able to finish her story. I thought this was so sad because the student wanted to share her story with the class like everybody else but was shut down and couldn't finish. Teachers are looking for stories about narratives or reports; they are not looking for stories like Leona's.
4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998).
Gee quotes research conducted by Snow et al. and says, "As we have pointed out, in the United States poor readers are concentrated 'in certain ethnic groups and in poor, urban neighborhoods and rural towns'. Later on in the text on page 36 Gee says, " However that may be, the test scores were going up at a time that integration was also increasing."
5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers?
"Steele shows clearly that how people read when they are taking tests changes as their fear of falling victim to cultural stereotypes increases ( 37)." In order to make or break a good reader, they need to have a variety of academic language and to belong to a certain social group.
6. Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school?
"Children cannot feel they belong at school when their valuable home-based practices (like Leona's) are ignored, denigrated, and unused. They cannot feel like they belong when the real game is acquiring academic varieties of language, and they are given no help with this, as they watch other children get high assessments at school for what they have learned not at school but at home (Gee, 2004)."
"Children cannot feel they belong at school when their valuable home-based practices (like Leona's) are ignored, denigrated, and unused. They cannot feel like they belong when the real game is acquiring academic varieties of language, and they are given no help with this, as they watch other children get high assessments at school for what they have learned not at school but at home (Gee, 2004)."
Strong understanding of the need for teachers to understand and value their students "ways with words".
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