Ch 5,6 Warm Up

1. What kinds of reading and writing did you see students doing in school? Why do you think Rose chose these assignments?
Students seemed to enjoy and participate in Rose’s writing activities. They wrote about stories, pictures, and personal experiences. Rose chose these assignments to get students thinking about how they can create their own voice in writing. By prompting students to write about what inspires, disturbs, or motivates them in writing, Rose gathered some quality writings from students.

2. What “rules and regulations” did students appear to be following as they read and wrote? In light of the students’ overall schooling experiences, did these seem useful or not? Speculate about how they might have influenced students’ literacy development.
Students seemed to be worried about spelling and other prescriptive grammar issues while they were writing. Other students had a hard time reading their writing aloud. Still others had trouble overcoming labels that had been placed on them by schools when they were young. These are labels such as “slow” or even “mentally disabled.” These labels stuck with students for the rest of their academic career and affected their confidence and sense of identity in the classroom.

3. What did you notice about the language schools used to refer to the students Rose featured in this chapter? How did this language mark students as “insiders” or “outsiders” to school? How do you think these labels might have influenced students’ literacy development later on?
I wrote the same sort of response in question #2, but I got the feeling that the labels placed on kids by the school really affected their own perceived academic capabilities. Many students were considered outsiders because of their lack of confidence in their reading and writing because they were behind in school.

4. What larger generalizations/questions do these patterns raise? Make a list of 2-3 of these generalizations/questions. Beside each item, also note the writerly moves Rose took to arrive at these generalizations and/or to prompt these questions in you as a reader. List page numbers of passages you want to refer to when you share your findings with the rest of the class.
Generalizations: Many of the students were labeled “retarded.”