'In awe' are the words I continue to react when reading every single assignment in this course. Dr. Johnson surely has picked greatest reading assignments. I have not found any reading assignment that I find very dry or dull. I learned a lot each time. I have the ‘supposed to be for Quick Write’ journal that Dr. Johnson handed to me on the first day of the class. This journal now has a full of notes I treasure and reflect on for years to come. This journal is once again something I will cherish forever.
What I wrote:
Linda Christensen has full wisdom of teaching. The takeaway list:
- She teaches from the heart.
- She empathizes every student’s learning struggles.
- She believes in the students’ abilities to be writers.
- She encourages the students to do their best at their best.
- She pulls the students away from the traditional English instruction and pushes them into liking or loving to write more and forget about scary red markers.
- She has a rigorous expectation of each student.
- She has coolest teaching tools.
- She makes time for each student.
- Grading isn’t my thing either. I grade based on efforts and give credits when due.
- Malcolm X’s quote is powerful. Even back in the 1960s, he has foreseen something that still rings true today. I love to read Malcolm X books when I was young, and I have always had respect for Malcolm X.
- Shaughnessy’s teaching tool that I like is to be a scientist and find the patterns of grammar errors in each student.
- Have the student master the most straightforward convention and then move on to the next one.
- Always do mini-lessons for grammars.
- Recognize the home language in each student’s writing rather than correct them as a grammar error.
- Remember to praise the students’ writing before finding faults.
- As a teacher, teach the writer, not the piece.
- Finally, a perfect closure. Ask myself this question, “Will my words keep them writing or send them scurrying for cover?”
Another excellent teaching tool from Danling Fu has continued to amaze me. Speaking of the familiar parallel between Danling Fu’s Four Stages of Writing Development and Kristin DiPerri’s Bedrock Literacy Curriculum I mentioned in the previous blog, I saw Kristin DiPierri last week. I asked her if she was familiar with Danling Fu’s work. She replied that she has no idea and after listening to what I thought, she is so interested in reading Fu’s work.
Hybrid of two languages: I thought about the word: ASLish. To me, the word looks like it is ‘nearly ASL’ instead of two languages combined: ASL and English. In the definition of -ish, I find many ways to define ASLish: “belonging to”; “after the characteristic of”; “addicted to”; or “inclined to.” I prefer to keep these languages separate. Hybrid is out of the question when it comes to ASL. Meshing is not possible at all, either, when it comes to the language, but it is possible to mesh cultures between the Deaf and the hearing.
Something to keep in mind, Fu reminds that the students can get carried away with learning the second language and wean out the native language. As Deaf person, it is impossible to wean out ASL while I learn English.
In closing, I would like to point out that it is a real shame that the monolinguists believe that losing the native language is a price the immigrants have to pay for wanting to live in the United States. It is embarrassing to say that it is something our U.S. President, Donald Trump, would probably tweet, “Resounding Yes! It is a price to pay for coming to the United States.”
Oh, I agree with this so much. Particularly what you said about monolingual culture. It's really frustrating because as Americans particularly it's so hypocritical for us to say that there is one language that we all have to abide by. The United States doesn't even have an official language and for some reason this is still a topic of debate. I don't think we have to lose anything to be able to come together as a community of language learners, but that is something that certain people feel and we need to find ways to address that in schools. I had a little flash of that the other day when I was on my way to class and I noticed while the bus was stopped (there is a lot of time when you take public transportation to notice things like this. It's one of the only perks.) that by a second floor door leading out onto a deck there were three flags hung up. A Portuguese flag on the left, an American flag in the middle, and a pride flag on the right. It warmed me up to see that even though sometimes our ideologies and viewpoints clash with each other, it's possible to embrace our identities fully with all the complexity that is deserved. We carry these flags with ourselves all of our lives just as we are still learning and reworking language all our lives. We've come so far and even though we still have so many places to go after we're done with this class, I hope that your ASL flag will be the inspiration that it has been for your approach to teaching. That's what makes your perspective unique and it's important to use what we know how to do best to shine and to help our students shine with us.
ReplyDeleteI also just wanted to say that it's been wonderful getting to know you Deba and hearing all of your insights about the deaf community and the issues that have come up in your experiences. It's important to hear these things and I know that I'm going to take what you've said and remember it in the future.
P.S. Fuck Trump. What does he know about paying for things?