Language Investigation Number Two

In schools, you are measured by what grade level you are at, and what scores you get on standardized tests. As a student, I have always been far ahead of my grade level in terms of reading and writing. I read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in second grade, and while I am certain that I didn’t understand the full meaning at the time, I was still able to read the book. I was typically in the 90th percentile or higher in terms of my writing and reading scores on standardized tests. I think that much of the reason why I did well in reading and writing is because I expected myself to do well. I was defined early on as a “good” reader and writer, and so I expected that I would understand reading and writing. We often live up to the expectations that are set for us, and since high expectations were set by my parents and my teachers, I did well. I believe that most students could have been as good at reading and writing as I was, if the same expectations were set for them.
Much of the reading and writing that I was asked to do in schools was in the vein of analysis and critical thinking. I was in programs such as Core Knowledge, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced Placement, all of which challenged students. In all content areas students were expected not simply to summarize what they had read, but to be able to think about information and apply it to their own lives.
In English classes, for instance, students were expected to critique texts rather than read them for plot. Typically I was expected to read a novel or poem, and then write a critical essay about the text. My teachers helped students to look at simile, metaphor, point of view, narrative style, etc., to discover what these details said about the text as a whole. Before asking their students to write an essay, my teachers would always say “Remember to analyze, not just summarize the text!” This style of analyzing texts was very useful. It is easy to forget the details of a plot, but analysis and thinking critically are skills that you can use for the rest of your life, no matter the subject matter. Even if you don’t necessarily enjoy reading, you can still learn a lot from English classes that emphasize thinking rather than memorizing.
In science and math I was taught formulas and rules as a necessity, but again, my teachers emphasized analysis over memorization. Often my teachers let students use note cards or formula sheets during tests, because they considered application of the formulas more important than memorizing the formulas themselves. Some students were very good with memorization, but it was not key to doing well in classes. My teachers understood that some students were literate with math and science, and understood the formulas and language of those content areas, but they tried not to punish students for lacking the language necessary.
Learning about the education that many people received had made me feel very fortunate to have gotten the education that I did. The expectation at every school that I have attended was that every student would do well in school. What I feel is important from my education is not specific assignments that I was given, but rather the general way that I was taught. Students were expected to achieve highly, and so most of us did. Teachers emphasized to students that their ideas were important, and did not just talk at their students. I learned to analyze whatever I was taught, think about it deeply, and consider how the information that I learned would apply to my own life. Language itself is a way to manifest our inner thoughts, and so if we can think well, it can help us to speak, read, and write well. The expectation at my schools was not that we would use certain words necessarily, but that we would use words in certain ways to show that we were learning.
It is easy to forget facts. I don’t remember many dates in history, or the names of all of the authors that I read. What I do remember is how to think, and that is what I believe we should teach all of our students. I have never felt daunted by college, or the assignments that I have been asked to do in college. I believe that college has come naturally to me because I came to college with an understanding of not only how to read and write well, but how to think well.

Language Investigation Number One- Language Communities

Over the past few months, I have become good friends with a girl named Jessica, who recently moved to Colorado from Alabama. Meeting Jessica has made me examine my own use of language, and a Coloradoan use of language, as opposed to Jessica’s southern use of language. Our accents, common phrases, and use of language are different in many ways.
We don’t typically think of having an accent in Colorado. However, many people who live in Colorado are from more Midwestern states (like Iowa and Nebraska) or have families from Midwestern states, which has definitely given many of us an accent. One simple difference that I have noticed is our pronunciation of the letter “o.” People with Midwestern roots tend to pronounce an “o” similarly to an “a” if it is in the middle of a word. For instance, Coloradoans pronounce the word Colorado like “Col-a-rad-o” rather than “Col-ah-rah-do.” I catch myself saying “Mahm” instead of “Mom.” Another slight difference is that Midwesterners tend to say “prolly” or “pry” instead of actually pronouncing the word “probably.” Our accents struck me more after they were pointed out by Jessica, a southerner. I notice hers a lot: for instance she says “code” instead of “cold,” and “y’all” instead of “you all.” The accent of Coloradoans and Midwesterners may be slight as compared to Southerners, but I think that it shows a sense of pride in where we come from. We live in a society where people move often, and having an accent is not only a natural result of learning to speak in a certain region, but shows that we have roots and care about our families and communities.
In my group of friends there are certain words or phrases that we use that are somewhat specific to this region and to our specific group. I feel that originality in terms of language choices is really valued by our group of friends, and we are always calling each other different names or using different kinds of phrasing. It really struck Jessica’s attention that the girls in our group tend to call each other “lady” or “woman,” and we often call the boys “sir” or “boy.” It is just a joking way to refer to each other as something other than “dude,” or other words like that.
Everyone in my family is highly educated, and so even if we aren’t necessarily using really sophisticated vocabulary, we talk about interesting subjects. I am an English major, my Dad used to be an English teacher, both of my parents are in book groups, and my sister loves to read, and so it is very common for us to talk about and analyze books together. It is very important in my family to be able to hold a good discussion.
There are three main language groups that I consider myself a part of: my family, my friends, and the larger community of Colorado. To be a part of those groups I have to be able to hold a good discussion, value originality in language, and have a slight Midwestern accent. I could never understand why Jessica always wants to lose her Southern accent, but now I understand that it is because she wants to be a part of the new language community that she has entered.

Memory Vignette

Mad Minutes
Here I am, an English major in my second year of college. I love reading and writing, and so I stuck to a subject that I enjoyed when I picked my major. Looking back through years of schooling, however, I don’t think that my love of English is the only thing that has caused me to do well in this subject. It was also a hatred of another subject- math.
In kindergarten, first, and second grade, I don’t remember being particularly different from any other students in my class. We all thought of school more as a game, and didn’t have any notion that any of us were particularly “good” or “bad” at any subject. But that all changed in third grade, in Ms. Carlton’s class. We started to learn multiplication, and to practice our multiplication, we did an activity called “Mad Minutes.” Mad Minutes was a horizontal sheet of paper, filled top to bottom with multiplication problems. The idea was that we had to fill out the worksheet as fast as possible, and those of us who were “better” at math would finish sooner.
Almost every day we would do one Mad Minutes sheet in class. The faded blue and black numbers covered the page so that I didn’t even know where to begin. I watched hopelessly as other students hands would fly across the page, finish their worksheets in what seemed like a matter of seconds, and then being rewarded for being so good at math. I was always one of the slowest in the class. Every weekend I would practice with my Mom- she timed me with the microwave timer while I sat at the counter, furiously trying to finish my Mad Minutes. And yet no matter how hard I worked, I could never get to be as fast as Thomas Chen, or the other students in class who were “good” math students. I never got stickers, or got extra time at recess. Soon I began to feel like math was just something that I would never understand, and might as well not put any effort into.
By sixth grade I was getting C’s on my math tests, and would have to stay inside to do corrections while other students got to play on the playground. The pattern continued through high school, where I barely passed my Math classes, despite being an A student in all other subjects. Last year I walked out of Math in the Social Sciences, the last math class that I ever have to take, and I was thrilled that I never have to deal with math again. But sometimes I wonder how it would feel to be able to do math problems in my head, or to know that satisfaction of actually finishing a really difficult math problem. I should have worked harder in math, but I also wonder what I could have accomplished if I hadn’t been labeled a failure from the very start.

Blog Numero Uno

The problem with writing classes is knowing what to write about!