Teachers as learners (Ch 8) - Ways with Words

The switch from ethnographer learning to ethnographer doing was an interesting transition, and I was curious as to how much of this time was overlapping. I found the writing here to be very interesting, as she carefully discussed the innovative teaching strategies being implemented, while at the same time wove in the challenges students continued to have.

I think it was important for her here to give the very explicit explanations she provided as well as how students reacted. One of the most important things I learned from these sections were that all students respond differently, and we must find ways to adapt our teaching methods. Segregating students from various backgrounds is obviously not possible or desirable, so we must integrate these things into our classes to best serve all students, and to help students learn to see the world in new ways. These section was also particularly important to me because I have been doing my project research on academic literacies. When I first started the program, this would not have been my area of interest, however, I have come to see how important it is to help students understand their contexts and the choices they are making to become a part of that context. Further, it is important for teachers to see what they are doing in the context of the social, political and economic, and to value the adaptations that are required of students. Further, we must determine how to best adapt what we do to make explicit to students what may be implicit.
Some of these things for the students were understanding expectations for politeness, understanding interpreting indirect requests. Further, children had to "learn school." Teachers were now attempting to merge home and school reading. Some even went so far as to have students bring in things they would need to read (warranties, government papers, etc) and used those as exercises in school. This seemed so obvious, yet completely opposite of what most often happens in school. They were making reading MATTER. Further, students began to like writing and reading when it was connected to their lives.


Some important notes:
"they learned to believe that their students could learn, and that they could learn from their students" (314)