Cody Brunton
12/05/08
Ethnography paper

One Pager

Research Questions:
What is your definition of Standard English and are there any particular terms you associate with the idea?
What does Standard English look like while instruction is taking place?
When grading student work, how do you deal with use of non-standard English?
How do you address issues surrounding Standard English during instruction?
-For Example: Students who believe that integrating them into Standard English takes away their identity and a piece of their cultural background?
How do you feel about the use of non-standard English in the classroom? By students or yourself.

Primary Sources:
Mrs. Lona Brunton. Language Arts Teacher At Frederick High School.
Dr. Pamela Coke. Professor in the English Education Department at C.S.U.
Professor Gerald Delahunty. Professor in linguistics at C.S.U.

Major Findings:
Standard English is they type of English that is codified in grammar text books. The kink of English that is spoken in public, or formal places.
Teachers should speak formal English in the classroom as much as possible unless the context of the assignment or lecture lends for them to do otherwise.
Teachers should expect, for the most part, for their students to respond using standard English unless again the context of the situation lends for them to do otherwise.
Teachers should grade student work according to standard English when the situation asks for it. For a research paper but maybe not on a poem.

Secondary Sources:
Delpit, L. Other people’s children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New Press. (1995)

Fecho, Bob. “Critical Inquiries into Language in an Urban Classroom.” Journal of Education . Volume 34. (2000)

Gee, James Paul. "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?." Journal of Education 171.1(1989): 20.

Wheeler, Rebecca S. “Code-Switch to Teach Standard English.” English Journal Volume 94. May, (2005).

I have found much about what is standard English. Gee explains the differences between primary and power discourses. Delpit discusses how students can bridge the gaps and gives ways that they can evolve to whatever discourse they want with the right tools. Fecho looks at the idea of the effects that come with changing peoples discourses. And I cant remember what my other articles are really about because I don't have them with me. Im not really sure what gaps still exist. Maybe more of an explanation of exactly what standard english is and not as much about the effects of changing peoples primary language. My research will help to fill this gap by getting more information into the topic and better examining and explaining what standard english is.

What is the last step an educator can take to convince a parent to allow their child to read a particular book?

I believe that if a students parents were being so conservative about what their child is reading that the students education would be imp0acted by their parents choice, I would take it as far as possible. I understand when parents have controversy with material and will definitely be willing to find alternate reading but in the article I read the parents weren't allowing their students to read anything that wasn't in a wonderful world with perfect people and happiness. This to me does not represent the true cannon of life and in my opinion would greatly hinder someones ability to mature as a productive member of society. If I was in this situation I would do everything I could to convince the parent otherwise, then I would go to the principal, and if still necessary take it as far as the school board. Parents have the right to say what their kids can read but the student also has the right to a proper, valuable education.

Gee and Delpit in their articles are talking about discourses and the impications that they have on us as teachers of literacy. They talk about how these discourses effect the education and even everyday life for many people. One of the main arguements that they have with eachothers views is the idea that language, especially your primary discourse, is either aquired subconciously or conciously. Gee believes that the acquisition of language is unconscious and is pushed on you just by being immersed into whereas Delpit believes that it is a conscious decision, a process that people actively take part in. So what does this mean for me as an educator. As a future teacher it will be imperative to have an understanding of discourse and the terms around it to be able to tap into the many different students that I will have. Every person comes from different walks of life and has different discourses that effect how they function. It will be necessary for me to be able to sort through this and figure out the best approaches to teaching these students and bringing them to a point that they will be able to function properly in the mainstream discourse of society. I think that the main thing that I want to know is how to better identify different discourses and how to address them.

Warm Up. Rose ch. 5

Q 1:
The main type of writing and reading in Rfose ch. 5 that particularly struck me was the assignments that he was giving to his thursday lunchroom group. He had a group that were somewhat struggeling reading and writing students to different degrees. The assignments that he was giving them were simple writing prompts that progressivly got more chalenging. They started out with simple prompts like giving them a picture and telling them to write about it and then progressed to letting them pick their own picture to write about or writing after they have listened to a song. I think that this method was chosen because of the openness of it. the students were allowed to slowly work into writing outside of their comfort level instead of being pushed into something that made them feel aquard or uneasy.

Q 2:
The most significant piece of school language in the chapter that I noticed was the report on Harold. This report was disturbing to me. It was his files from years back and to me showed no compassion or dedication or determination to make things for poor Harold. The harshness and talking town town I thought were not necessary and only perpetuated the problem. The whole time I was reading all I could think about was what were these teachers doing to help Herold excell besides badgering him for not being profecient.

When I was a young student in primary school I can remember most of the reading and writing I was asked to do by my teachers was based on synthesis and summary. We would read some small excerpt, sit around and talk about what we had just read and try to understand it all, and then write a small piece on what I had just read and discussed. It never was more that a short paragraph or so.
When I became intellectually capable of beginning to be able to think and read and write in more of a creative way the schools laid it on me. Instead of starting to work these creative juices that were flowing through my young mind, they began to train me for CSAP. When I was in early middle school the state started putting way more pressure on teachers and schools to have their students preforming at a proficient level that that is what our total focus turned to. Instead of letting me create a piece of beautiful poetry that I could carried with me for the rest of my life, I got what I like to call the five paragraph treatment. That's it. Every time we would work on writing it would be in this stupid, juvinile five paragraph form. Intro, Body 1, Body 2, Body 3, conclusion, transition sentences, firstly, second, then, after that, and Lastly. These were tools of the traid. I didnt need to have any new, individual, thought provoking ideas. All I needed was this english formula (and I hate math so that was a bummer). They took all of the creacivity and unique thought out of me.
How does this effect me as a student of heigher educational learning. I believe that this style of education that has been placed on the schools to monitor for "the best possible education" did not prepare me for this level of learning half as much as it could have and I would have liked it to. I believe that I am developing into a good and for sure profecient writer here at CSU but that is thanks to several of my teachers here at the university that have pushed me. I walked into my freshman year having the skills to write a damn good but completely basic paper. I struggled through my first two years if not still today to find my own voice that wasnt just words being plugged into a topic on the page. So even though I feel like I am realy finding this voice of mine that I have looked for for so long, I still find myself falling back into that bland boaring format from time to time and will hopefully someday truly find myself as a writer of my own style.

Another community that I am a part of and share a very unique and specific language with is the community in which I work. I work for a small buisness on the north side of Fort Collins called Earthstone Products. What I do at Earthstone is create manufactured stone. In the process of making this stone there is some basic pieces of language that you must know to understand the product. First of all you have to know the basic names of the products. We create 2 general types of stone. The first is called pation stone. This is an obvious one as the stone is created with the intention of using it to produce a pation. Withing this category, however, there is another set of terms to describe what kink of stone you will be buying. First of all you have to look at one of the many sizes that we offer. First you can get basic square and rectangle shaped pieces that either come as 1x1's, 1x2's, or 2x2's (measured in feet). You could also be looking at doing a circle pation in which you would need to be using what is called radius stone. The next set of language that you would need to know if you were looking into stone would be the color. Patio stone comes in 4 different colors, blended sage, prary gold, rustic brown (the most popular), and gunsmoke grey (my favorite because its the easiest and cleanest to produce).
The other type of stone we make is called venere. Venere is a stone that is used to put on eitherthe exterior or interior of bouldings. It can go on houses like brick, put around fireplaces, or on exterior collumns and walls. First you will need to distinguish petween corners and flats. Courners obviously fit around the corners of walls and flats cover the remainder. There are four types of Venere you can use. Ledgestone which sort of looks like different shaped bricks, river rock which is different sized rounded stone, field stone which is very differently shaped jagged stones, and weathered field which is the same as fieldstone but with smother surfaces. Within the venere category there is also many different colors as wiht the patio.
Why I need to know this specific language set is aparent. It is imparitive that I can communicate with the guys at work as quickly as possible so we can keep the work on the appropriate schedule and to do that I have to have a great understanding of all of the different terms. Also it is important when dealing with customers. The people who come in to buy our product generally have no idea what their looking for an it is imperative that I am capable of explaining all that we do and all they need to know in a language that they will be able to understand.

One of the main patterns that I saw was simply that every family or close nit group has these specific terms that they use. Some of them were a bit complex and you would probably only know what the meaning is if you were a part of the circle and some were pretty basic. You could probably understand the meaning from context alone. The other pattern that I noticed was that they all had a unifying factor. Some seemed to have close deep meanings between the parties that created a tight bond and to a lesser extent some simply created a common ground between people. I found this very interesting. This to me conveys the true importance of language in the family context. Having some silly word that only you and your family use seems unimportant and trivial but as I said earlier, it can truly unify. Common language can create strong bonds.

One phrase that has always been used in my family home is the term "shifter." This word is obviously a substitute for the heavily debated term of a television remote control. I have herd people use words ranging from remote, to changer, to clicker, even to zapper. I was always brought up with my parents using the word shifter because of the fact that you shift channels. Another term that my family used growing up was that of "The Dangerous Room." The dangerous room was a room at the back of our house where the ironing board and the sewing machine were kept. The origin of this coined term was to keep my sister and I out of the room when we were children for reasons of keeping the both of us safe from hazardous objects such as hot irons and sewing needles. As I began to grow up I believe that I found another reason for the dangerous room being titled as it was. This is also the room that my parents would keep presents that were supposed to be from the jolly old St. Nick when Christmas rolled around. They figured that as long as they had already instilled a fear of the room in us, why not use it to there advantage and hide secrets in there as well. These are several terms that Hold Specific meaning to me and my family and probably mean very little to others.