Sarah Kennedy's FNED 246 Blog

     Aria by Richard Rodriguez is about his personal experience of growing up speaking Spanish in an English-speaking school. He says that when he was young, speaking Spanish was something special to him and his family. He described it as “private individuality” and gave them a sense of separateness when in public. Having to learn English for school was hard, but by the end of the reading, he says it gave him a sense of success. He felt confident in his public identity, even if it meant forgetting or leaving behind part of his private identity. In Teaching Bilinguals episodes, the teachers advocate for their bilingual students. They encourage students to use the language they know to express themselves in class. I noticed that there was a big contrast between Teaching Bilinguals and Aria . Rodriguez talked about his experience when teachers denied him the opportunity to speak in Spanish. In the videos the teachers are doing the opposite, they are encouraging students to...

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  While reading Literacy With an Attitude, I realized that the themes in Finn’s writing relate to Amazing Grace by Kozol. Finn discussed four different social classes and how different schools at these levels operate. One of the big themes was how the schools are preparing students to work and stay in their social class. I felt like this was similar to Amazing Grace, specifically the quote “What is it like for children to grow up here? What do they think the world has done to them?” I wonder if the schools in the Bronx follow the same patterns Finn described and are designed to keep kids stuck in impoverished communities. In Amazing Grace, Kozol interviews Cliffe, from the interview you can see that Cliffe has a community that cares about him. I can only hope that that community extends into his school and some teachers try and help students succeed. I also want to connect Finn to Bell Hooks. Bell Hooks talks about how race affects different social classes. In her writing, Bell...

  In How Structural Racism Works Tricia Rose argues that research alone is not going to fix structural racism. She says that because there is so much research on this topic if research was a one-time fix-all, it would have happened already. I want to take this a step further and say that she is arguing that not enough people pay attention to the research that has been done. In this class, we’re actively learning about social justice issues and the different experiences they come with. But what about the average person? They probably know about issues like racism, sexism, and classism, but it isn’t always an active thought in their mind. As Rose says in her video, there has been so much research done on social justice issues. But how many people are actually reading and understanding that research?      I fully believe that we as a society are capable of taking steps to fix these issues. By watching videos, and reading articles we’re becoming more educated. We are ...

     The videos about intersectionality defined it as multiple identities that intersect. The oppressions and privileges that overlap to make up an individual. I noticed that this related to Alan Johnson’s reading about privilege and power. Johnson talks about how everyone is involved in social justice issues, and our positions in that involvement depend on our privilege. I think these two, Johnson and the videos, go hand in hand. While the videos work to define and help people understand what intersectionality is, Johnson goes the next step and talks about how we can use intersectionality to understand social justice issues.       Kimberlé Crenshaw, the speaker in the TED Talk, says that social dynamics come together in individuals to create unique challenges and experiences. She also says that the more specific a problem is, the less likely it is to be seen and taken seriously. This is because people don’t take intersectionality into account. Johnson...

     My first quote came from Kohn, it was the category that stood out the most to me. He says that a good sign in a classroom is, a “Room overflowing with good books, art supplies, animals and plants, science apparatus; ‘sense of purposeful clutter.’” I fully agree with Kohn on this point. I love it when classrooms are decorated and full of books and resources. It makes the room feel more inviting and like a space where you can successfully learn. Something common in my high school was painting ceiling tiles. In an English class, you might see classic book covers painted on the ceiling, or in a science class you would see the stages of mitosis. It gave us something to look at, but it also showed us that previous students have learned and enjoyed their time in that classroom.      The next quote I chose comes from the Culturally Relevant Pedagogy video. One of the speakers in the video explained that “Culturally responsive teaching then says that rather tha...

     In Amazing Grace , Jonathan Kozol visits Mott Haven in the South Bronx. Which is said to be home to the poorest people in New York. Kozol interviewed many residents to better understand what they go through on a daily basis. I also believe that he wanted to make more people aware of the situations these residents live in. One of the first people he interviewed was Cliffe, who was seven years old. While they were walking around the neighborhood, it became more and more apparent that this was no a safe place for the children living there. Cliffe acted like the average young boy, saying hi to people he knew, eating cookies, and telling stories about his community. But then he'd say something that made me pause while reading. "I saw a boy shot in the head right over there," "They're burning bodies there ... The bodies of people!" "The day is coming when the world will be destroyed." In a different situation maybe this could be passed off as a kids...