Work is due on Sunday (2/23/20) at 2000 hours (8pm eastern time zone). Work needs to be completed according to the APA writing style. This assignment should be 3 pages.

***Critically respond and answer the following questions for each of the stories in the attached document:
 

(a) what are the texts’ assumptions about the phenomena being discussed? 

(b)  What are the implications of the assumptions and/or the arguments? 

(c)  What is at stake in the text’s arguments for the authors and for you?

(d)  Who (or what) are the authors arguing for or against? 

(e)  How do the authors construct and articulate their arguments?

(f)  How do the texts “fit” (or not fit) in relation to your own thought and practice? 

(g) What questions did you find yourself asking after doing the reading? Please do not simply summarize the readings.

Write a critical response connecting the content from the text with your responses to the prompts. 

The response should be written in a narrative form that is evident of engaging with the content and reflection.

Story2

Naming, walking and magic

By Carlos Gonzalez

The words you speak become the house you live in.—Hafiz (Ladinsky, 1999, p. 281)

Brazilian lyricist and novelist, Paulo Coelho, says that magic is a kind of bridge between the visible and invisible (2014). My work as a teacher and my students’ experiences in the learning spaces I help create sometimes reflect Coelho’s definition. In class, I often make the argument that language is the ultimate form of magic. Without it we don’t really understand the world about us. It is that bridge between what is known and what wants to be known or is currently invisible.

In our sessions, because most of my students are familiar with and culturally rooted in the Bible, I mention a passage where God tells Adam to name the animals in the Garden of Eden. For me, this story works as a powerful reminder that the impulse to name is an integral part of what it means to be human. The naming of the animals implies that the way we relate to the world has something to do with our ability to name what is in front of us.

The challenge comes when we don’t have language for what we are confronting. In such instances, our names or vocabulary often fails us. Over the past 13 years or so, we have collectively struggled to properly name the violence that flows from the margins and often hits the very centers of power that we think are immune to challenge. Personally, naming is especially difficult when it comes to matters of the heart. Sometimes during times of testing, we are left speechless and voiceless, confronted with what at the moment is nameless and terrifying. At these times, it is the role of the magician to name, particularly in these times of uncertainty and gloom. Proper naming can open possibilities other than fatalistic violence.

But not everyone is interested in magic. For some there’s little interest in exploring the unknown or invisible world. The dark crannies of our lives, the marginal parts of ourselves and communities, for some, are better left off reach. The reasons for this are many. There may be a vested interest in keeping the terror of the nameless alive. Terror sells all sorts of things, makes marketing destruction more palatable. And some are scared of naming for fear of what may become visible. The bottom line is that it seems to take energy, effort, skill, and most of all, courage to live a magical life.

But there are some who thrive when walking to the edge and groping for the name of that which at the moment is nameless. The people who do this well are the poets, scientists, and mystics. How they do this is an amazing process. It seems that it often comes in a moment of quick realization. But frequently, the breakthrough in naming comes as a result of a lifetime of arduous exploration, experimentation, and perseverance. While saying this, I also want to point out that before you and I cede our rightful desire to name to only the few, it’s important to remember that we each can develop or grow a bit of the poet, scientist, and mystic in us. That’s what most of us were before we started kindergarten. Just pay attention to children playing and interacting with one another, and you can see that the inhibitions that come with a desire to look and sound just right and professional are not there. Children are fantastic magicians. By the way, they are also excellent teachers. If we want to rediscover our magical abilities, we should spend some time with four-year-olds! As I write this, I realize that my class can be an opportunity to see how close we can come to the edge, how willing we are to explore and to name what we don’t know, and play with the possibility of co-creating the reality we want to live. This sounds like a huge undertaking, but when we look at it carefully, we see that it’s what we do on a daily basis but just don’t notice. Unfortunately, I don’t have the kinds of magical powers that can make any of us want to move in this direction. All I can do is invite and entice. It’s up to each of us to want to move closer into the shadows and begin our own apprenticeship with intentionally naming. I ask my students early in the semester to begin writing their first set of essays for the term. These first texts may start with what they can see easily. Over time, students may become aware that the themes they chose to write about may move closer to the shadows, those places where it’s not completely clear what they are exploring or knowing. Before that happens, they will need to grow courage and also curiosity. Maybe the word curiosity is not the right one here. The association of curiosity and cats is an unfortunate one. I think the word I’m looking for is something like wonder. To live in wonder and in awe is a stance that draws us from the familiar and seemingly safe to the place where we contact mystery. I can’t forget Rabbi

But not everyone is interested in magic. For some there’s little interest in exploring the unknown or invisible world. The dark crannies of our lives, the marginal parts of ourselves and communities, for some, are better left off reach. The reasons for this are many. There may be a vested interest in keeping the terror of the nameless alive. Terror sells all sorts of things, makes marketing destruction more palatable. And some are scared of naming for fear of what may become visible. The bottom line is that it seems to take energy, effort, skill, and most of all, courage to live a magical life. But there are some who thrive when walking to the edge and groping for the name of that which at the moment is nameless. The people who do this well are the poets, scientists, and mystics. How they do this is an amazing process. It seems that it often comes in a moment of quick realization. But frequently, the breakthrough in naming comes as a result of a lifetime of arduous exploration, experimentation, and perseverance. While saying this, I also want to point out that before you and I cede our rightful desire to name to only the few, it’s important to remember that we each can develop or grow a bit of the poet, sci- entist, and mystic in us. That’s what most of us were before we started kinder- garten. Just pay attention to children playing and interacting with one another, and you can see that the inhibitions that come with a desire to look and sound just right and professional are not there. Children are fantastic magicians. By the way, they are also excellent teachers. If we want to rediscover our magical abilities, we should spend some time with four-year-olds! As I write this, I realize that my class can be an opportunity to see how close we can come to the edge, how willing we are to explore and to name what we don’t know, and play with the possibility of co-creating the reality we want to live. This sounds like a huge undertaking, but when we look at it carefully, we see that it’s what we do on a daily basis but just don’t notice. Unfortunately, I don’t have the kinds of magical powers that can make any of us want to move in this direction. All I can do is invite and entice. It’s up to each of us to want to move closer into the shadows and begin our own apprenticeship with intentionally naming. I ask my students early in the semester to begin writing their first set of essays for the term. These first texts may start with what they can see easily. Over time, students may become aware that the themes they chose to write about may move closer to the shadows, those places where it’s not completely clear what they are exploring or knowing. Before that happens, they will need to grow courage and also curiosity. Maybe the word curiosity is not the right one here. The association of curiosity and cats is an unfortunate one. I think the word I’m looking for is something like wonder. To live in wonder and in awe is a stance that draws us from the familiar and seemingly safe to the place where we contact mystery. I can’t forget Rabbi.

Abraham Joshua Heschel’s dictum regarding this stance: “Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge” (1976, p. 11). Heschel helps us understand that what often happens to both students and teachers as they walk into the classroom is quite the opposite of wonder. Students get discouraged by what feels like, and often is, meaningless work. Educators lose their courage, become disheartened, when what they offer students is superficially acknowledged and not seriously explored, and all too often we focus on the institutional requirements and ignore or suppress the possibility before us, the opportunity to do magic, make and walk bridges.

The Classroom as a Magical Arena

At our best, you and I, student and teacher, we work creating bridges every time we enter a classroom. There, when I’m at my best, I invite and nudge students into that place where they can tap into their innate wonder and desire to know what is at the moment not seen. I never quite know how to do this. I don’t have access to an easy formula. The intention itself is an invitation for me to come to my own edge and rummage for what creates the bridge. Fortunately, the kind of teaching I do has to do with language. I and most of my students are bi-lingual Spanish/English speakers. Magic seems to be an ingrained part of the curriculum. As a teacher of that curriculum, I often need to work through some of the barriers that we each bring; otherwise, we may not see the potential of our time and work. For many students, writing is seen as a one way mode of communication: writer to reader. What may not be so obvious is that writing is also a means of personal exploration, of figuring out, of knowing. We write to name what we don’t know. (This is happening in this short reflection right now.) I’ve meandered through the question of agreeing or not with Coelho’s definition of magic. This meandering has allowed me to hear his voice anew, to see his words paint new dimensions to the teacher/learner process. By taking the time to wonder and wander through his words and definitions, my sense of what I try to do in the classroom crystallized. I am an alchemist, a magician, and bridge maker in training. Though, I am not the only one with this identity. I envision my students as alchemists, magicians, and bridge makers. Together we often co-reveal what, at the moment, seems invisible; and we do so in the common day-in and day-out of conversation, learning logs, essays, and Twitter updates. Alone or together, we interrogate our individual views of magic. As we examine texts, we sometimes build together the bridges that are pure magic.

Story 3

My English isn’t too good-looking by Pamela Hernandez

I have always embraced my language incorrectness and took pleasure in slang words and the use of Ebonics—“you feel me?” It’s not because I’m ignorant or without education, it’s because I offer my truest self when I am able to express my ideas freely. I communicate successfully using double negatives and Hialeah street jargon, oye asere que bola. I celebrate my bilingual tongue, and practice code switching as well. I can speak Spanish, English, Ebonics, Standard English, Spanglish, and at the Cuban Café I speak café con leche and pan con biste. Today in the school where I work, I heard a teacher tell her students that they “don’t talk right.” Last week it was red slashes on a paper, tearing through the student’s diction. What is proper English and who determines who is speaking “right” or “wrong?” Why do the hegemonic language police get to decide that using “standard English?” is the best way of communicating or holding ordinary conversations? The Hispanic or Latino population in the United States is young and growing quickly, due to immigration and higher birth rates. Our country is becoming more and more multicultural and with the arrival of new-comers, new customs, cultures, traditions, and also come new languages, accents, dialects, and slang. In order to accommodate and communicate effectively with the growing majority of this country, the hegemonic “Standard English” language just won’t do the trick. Having said this, I fully understand that it is imperative that we begin to cultivate a generation of successful and effective communicators who do know “standard English,” but we must also respect students’ home languages in the classroom and require our students to learn different languages and dialects. Effective communicators also can be bilingual and bi-dialectal. For this reason, educators must refrain from telling students “They don’t talk right” or “This isn’t proper English,” or reprimanding students for speaking their native languages in class (Wynne, 2002). Instead, we should teach our students how important it is to be bilingual, bi-dialectal, and even trilingual. This does not mean that I recommend that students only speak an entirely new language. Rather, it means pre- serving a student’s natural language and explaining that moving forward in the world requires them to practice code switching. We should understand and teach our students their use of Ebonics or Spanglish, etc. is colorful and lively and shouldn’t be condemned; instead kept in their back pockets and used whenever necessary. As an educator in an urban, low-income community, I have witnessed an emphasis placed on Spanish speaking students to learn to speak only English. While I agree being fluent in Standard English is imperative in this society, we should not limit students’use of any other language or dialect. We must cultivate a generation where bilingualism is the norm, and where students and children are being taught multicultural education, and intercultural competency through language acquisition.

Our country’s main language has been the hegemonic English language; however, in central cities and states all over this country, that reality is changing. In 2013, the U.S. census estimated the nation’s population was 316.5 million. The same U.S. census estimated the population of Hispanic and Latino people made up 65.6 percent of the population in the city, where I live. The Hispanic/Latino population is one of the largest minority populations in the country, and the numbers of Hispanics/Latino people continue to grow around the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, in California, Whites made up 38.8 percent of the population. In contrast, Hispanics made up the majority of the population with 39.0 per- cent. According to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 2015, whites made up 62 percent and the second largest population being Hispanics, made up 17 percent. These statistics show that with the increasing number of Hispanics and Latinos, the Spanish language and the Spanglish dialect are a force to be reckoned with. According to Jennifer Ortman and Christine Guarneri and their research in the U.S. Population Projections from 2000 to 2050 (2009), the Hispanic population is going to continue to grow through the years, meaning that the Hispanic/Latino people will continue to bring more multicultural children into this world, more Mexican Americans, Dominican Americans, Cuban Americans, etc. America won’t be just for “Anglo-Americans” any more, America will be for the multiculturalist. In many schools around my city, Spanish speaking students are expected to learn and perfect in the English language, a reasonable goal. However, I believe that giving students the opportunity to learn another language in all public schools also should be a requirement. Many cities like Miami, FL and San Andres, CA have a rapidly growing Hispanic population. It would be especially beneficial for students and people in those cities to learn multiple languages and among those, of course, Spanish might prove to be very advantageous.

My experience in teaching in an urban school that requires only Spanish speaking students to learn English, while not requiring English speaking students to learn Spanish, has made many students feel that their home country is inferior, and that their Spanish language is inferior to the English language. However, the census statistics may suggest that people who only know English will be at a disadvantage in the years to come. For example, in cities like Miami, where there is a large population of Hispanic/Latino and Caribbean populations that will continue to grow, employers will probably seek out employees who are bilingual, who can speak both Spanish and English, or Creole and English, since these are two dominant minority languages in the city and county. Bilingual students may become more attractive as applicants because they can communicate more effectively with all people. Learning different languages is vital. Therefore, encouraging students to learn different languages including Spanish seems a reasonable educational proposition. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to explore the benefit for our schools to place English speaking students in a “Spanish class for English speakers”? In the world today, over 5,000 languages are spoken, as well as several varieties of languages (Ramirez 2005). However, as language scholar, David Ramirez claims, “Those varieties with higher status are called languages, and those with lesser status are usually called dialects” (2005, p. 3). Because Spanglish and Ebonics are often spoken by Spanish and African-American students, these students are typically portrayed as inferior people when compared to White Americans. According to my current urban school district’s statistical report, from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, are 239,681 students who identify with being Hispanic (District Report, 2014). Latino and Hispanic students make up the majority of the public schools here. However, “Because many educators view language varieties of the home and community as deficient, they do not believe that children should have a right to their own language (Ramirez et al., 2005).” If our students don’t have the right to their own language, then who does? We must become radical in our teaching, in our schools, in our homes; and we must fight to preserve our children’s identities and cultures. Too many schools just want our students to “shut up and sit down” and “write like this,” and “talk like that,” but our Spanish, Arabic, Creole speaking students, and all of our urban students should have the right to their own language, and be able to express themselves in a variety of ways, not just in stubborn standard English. In my own experience working in a large urban public school, with ESOL students (English for speakers of other languages), a lot of those students have labeled themselves as ESOL, instead of just students. Their Spanish language has turned into something of ridicule and lower class status.

“Ms. Hernandez, I can’t do this, I’m ESOL” is a typical comment I have heard throughout this year. Since the students’ first language is Spanish, and they are placed in a class that doesn’t value the diversity of languages or culture, one that is focused only on teaching these students the English language with no respect for the home language, the students associate their ethnicity and first language with being less intelligent than a student whose first language is English. Furthermore, Ramirez et al. (2005) explains that several varieties of language spoken by students have not been raised to the status of school languages. Why not? Because what would happen if privileged students were required to learn Ebonics, the same way that minority students are forced to learn Standard English? We might begin to bridge the gap between privileged students in upper and middle class and urban students in poor communities. That may be a scary thought for the hegemonic English Gods sitting on their thrones of grammar, punctuation, and regulation.

Once, when standing in line at the Racetrack gas station, my Spanglish was put to the test. I was waiting in line to pay for gas, and I overheard a conflict occurring between a Spanish customer and an American cashier. “How much gas do you want” the cashier repeated into the man’s blank stares. “Queiro gaso- lina” the man repeated. The empty exchange of words continued, and the conversation was going nowhere. “How much tu le queire poner” I asked the man. “Vente” the man answered. I turned to the cashier, “He’d like twenty on pump six please.” In my city, this happens every day, because of the lack of bilingual- ism. The use of the Spanglish dialect would have allowed these two people to communicate more effectively. The term Spanglish “indiscriminately refers to the incursion of English words, meanings, and forms of expression into Spanish… and to alternate between Spanish and English phrases and classes, as in classic, intra-sentential code switching (Banks, 2012). If the cashier could just have said one word, “quanto,” meaning how much, the customer would have understood the question. If the customer had known the English number system, he would have been able to tell her twenty. In this case, fluency in both Spanish and English isn’t needed. However, a tolerance for Spanglish would have proven to be effective. These two simple words, “quanto” and “twenty,” represent how important and useful the Spanglish dialect can be, in an ever increasing Spanish America. The struggle with Hispanics and Latinos, and their language mirrors the issues that African-Americans have always faced with Black English and/or Ebonics. In December 18, 1996 the issue of Ebonics and education became public. The Oakland School Board argued that Ebonics is a “language distinct from English that should be recognized, tolerated, and, otherwise, accounted for in the instruction” (Blommaert, 1999). For them it only made sense since a majority of the students were African-Americans who typically spoke Ebonics. This would have been a grand opportunity to teach students about the history of their dialect, and encourage students to appreciate their culture, and feel proud to be studying a language that African-Americans invented and still use today, instead, though, speaking Ebonics is considered shameful.

In my city, the majority of students in public schools are Hispanics and Latinos (239,681). Similar to the argument of the Oakland School Board and Ebonics, Spanglish, I believe, should be tolerated and recognized as a way to communicate, especially in a primarily Hispanic public school system. Some of the issues the Oakland School Board faced were the questioning of what it would mean for the students if Ebonics was introduced into the curriculum. “Would recognizing and allowing for minority speech patterns improve students’ performance, or would it ‘ghettoize’ the schools (Blommaert, 1999).” Many scholars (Delpit, Kilgour-Dowdy, Ladson-Billings, Nieto, Wynne) agree that not only does respect for students’ home language improve performance, but, most importantly, it gives students a more positive self-image. As educators, we should not only aim to teach our students material for tests, but we also should be developing our students as well rounded individuals who are comfortable in their own skins. Language is one way the guardians of the hegemonic English language keep minorities suppressed. They want to convince people that it would be an injustice for minority dialects to be accepted in schools; they fear it might “ghettoize” the students. Yet, the possibility also exists that by introducing Ebonics or Spanglish into the classroom, teachers can educate students on how to code switch. By teaching our students to code switch, a teacher indicates that both forms of languages have a place and a value in this world. For our students, these minority dialects seem imperative for communicating with family members and surviving in an urban, minority community.

The real injustice, it seems to me, is presenting English or Standard English as the most important language, in and outside of the classroom. If we consider Black English to be “learned as the native language variety of 60 percent of the more than 35 million persons of African-American descent in the United States, then there are probably more than 20 million people for whom this is the ‘first dialect’” (Blommaert, 1999). If the majority of the population in a school speaks Black English or Ebonics, then suppressing that group of students by demonizing their native language would be destructive (Wynne, 2002). Urban educational expert, Lisa Delpit in the preface of her book, The Skin That We Speak, shares the thoughts of one of the contributors of the volume, Asa G. Hilliard III. “He knew the forces aligned against our youth: those who would tell them that they were not smart enough; those who would say that they did not speak ‘right’; those who would cause them to question their own worth and thus stunt their growth; those who would suggest that they are anything other than phenomenal”

Many of my students live in poverty and attend the urban school where I work, and for several reasons, they feel like they aren’t smart enough.

• They are constantly told that they don’t talk right, even though they can communicate perfectly fine with their family members, friends, and me. Sure, they don’t use standardized-test English, and I don’t need them to when they are just trying to tell me about their day, or how their parents are migrant workers, and that they will have to switch schools yet again.

• They don’t think they are smart enough because they can’t understand every- thing the standardized question is asking them. In their language, in their country, they haven’t seen words like this, or the word means something different in their native language.

• They don’t think they are good enough because they are Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, Haitian, Jamaican, Chinese, or Indian, and they don’t speak English like Americans do.

• They don’t learn about their history in America and the world—they learn about White American History In our school, their culture is not taught or encouraged.

My students’ identities are at risk. I would never want my student or my own child to feel like they are valued any less than a wealthy American-born person. The total number of Hispanic students (239,681) in public schools in my city stands as an outlier, compared to other ethnic groups in my city. The U.S. educational standard seems less prepared to allow minority students to inject their urban culture and languages. In The Silenced Dialogue, Delpit (1988), cautions us that children and students have a right to their own language and they have a right to their own culture. She insists that we contest cultural hegemony and that fight the system. This task requires for parents, teachers, and students themselves to speak out and declare that students be permitted to express themselves in their own language style, regardless of its dialect or slang. Moreover, she goes on to say that it is not the students who need to change, but the schools, and forcing students to do anything else, she says, is short of condemnatory and unreasonable.

The approval of different languages and dialects within the school house could be very impactful for both students and teachers. The students can develop a more positive self-identity and learn about code switching. However, perhaps, most importantly, teachers will have the opportunity to educate students on different cultures and ethnic groups, who identify with a particular language or dialect. Multiculturalist, Kenneth Cushner and Jennifer Mahon agree that “Developing the intercultural competence of young people, both in the domestic context as well as in the international sphere, requires a core of teachers and teacher educators who have not only attained this sensitivity and skill themselves but are also able to transmit this to young people in their charge” (2009, p. 304). Intercultural competence is defined by some, as the ability to communicate successfully and appropriately with people who have different cultures. Today, our youth are entering aprogressively interconnected society, which demands they attain intercultural competence. It’s not enough to understand the density of global problems. Our students must also develop the capability to collaborate with others in the resolution of those problems. Yet, Cushner and Mahon claim that “Schooling as we know it today is not socializing students sufficiently for a global context, in part because many say it is beyond the scope of U.S. educational standards” (2009, p. 315).

Finally, in the concluding hours of the dominance of the hegemonic English language, I urge parents, students, teachers, and friends to advocate for a better universal education system that requires all students to be bilingual. Being fluent in more than one language is vital for living in a country, where there are so many different languages and dialects spoken. Increasing our students’ knowledge of different languages and cultures will allow them to effectively communicate with people from diverse cultures as well as increase their opportunities for procuring jobs both locally and internationally. Let’s fight for our students to learn different languages, for both teachers and students to become global citizens, and to take another step toward celebrating language diversity.

CriticalResponse Rubric:

Category 0 1 1.5 2

Timeliness

late On time

Delivery of Critical
Response

Utilizes poor
spelling and
grammar; appear
“hasty”

Errors in
spelling and
grammar
evidenced

Few
grammatical or
spelling errors
are noted

Consistently uses
grammatically
correct response
with rare
misspellings

Organization

Unorganized. A
summary of the
chapter.
Unorganized in
ideas and
structure.

Some evidence
of organization.
Unorganized in
either ideas or
structure.

Primarily
organized with
occasional lack
of organization
in either ideas
or structure.

Clear
organization.
Ideas are clear
and follow a
logical
organization.
Structure of the
response is easy
to follow.

Relevance of
Response
(understanding the
chapter)

Lacks clear
understanding of
the chapter

Occasionally off
topic; short in
length and offer
no further
insight into the
topic. Lacking 2
or more of the
following: (1)
The text
assumptions (2)
implications of
the assumptions
(3) what the
author is
arguing for (4)
how the author
constructs their
argument

Related to
chapter
content; lacks
one of the
following: (1)
The text
assumptions (2)
implications of
the
assumptions (3)
what the author
is arguing for
(4) how the
author
constructs their
argument

Clear
understanding of
chapter content
and includes all of
the following:(1)
The text
assumptions (2)
implications of the
assumptions (3)
what the author is
arguing for (4)
how the author
constructs their
argument

Expression within
the response
(evidence of
critical thinking)

Does not express
opinions or ideas
about the topic

Unclear
connection to
topic evidenced
in minimal
expression of
opinions or
ideas

Opinions and
ideas are stated
with occasional
lack of
connection to
topic

Expresses
opinions and
ideas in a clear
and concise
manner with
obvious
connection to
topic