Various Approaches to "Mother Tongue" (8 blogs)

Blog 1-8: How would each of the teachers below use use Mother Tongue in a developmental writing class?  What kind of pre-reading, during reading, and post reading activities would they do?  What kind of writing might they assign?  How might they structure the writing process? How might they evaluate the writing? 

a traditional remedial teacher (e.g. Fry)

It is actually difficult to imagine a traditional remedial teacher using this reading, which honors and validates “non-standard” Englishes.  Students might be asked during reading to identify parts of speech, sentence and paragraph structures within the piece.  They might be asked to “correct” the passages which portray “non-standard” English.  There might even be some reading aloud, with an emphasis on phonics, or silent timed readings. After reading, students would likely be presented with some comprehension questions. Perhaps they would then write a short paragraph on the importance of Standard American English.  The writing process would be structured very rigidly with an emphasis on mechanical correctness during revisions, and students’ final papers would be evaluated on grammar, spelling, and structure.  (This is the worst possible version of a traditional remedial class, I think.)  

a teacher who aligns with SFSU's IRW philosophies

After previewing and skimming the text (and possibly reading something short which puts the text in context) students might write before reading, to reflect on the questions they have, what they want they already know, and what they want to know about ____________.  During reading, students might write a double entry journal, and after reading and class discussion, a reflection on what they learned from the reading.  There might be a difficulty paper involved, or some research on language rights or discourse communities.  If a research paper were assigned, students would also provide a cover memo reflecting on their reading and writing processes, and perhaps they would work with classmates to collaboratively create rubrics for their assignments. There would be plenty of collaboration during the reading and writing processes, which would be scaffolded carefully, while providing room for students to implement their own individual strategies and approaches.  In addition to student input on evaluation, teachers would consider ideas, connections, purpose, and audience awareness, but tone, mechanics and surface features would not be ignored. Teachers would also highly consider a student’s metacognitive piece of writing (about the writing and reading) while evaluating the work. 

a teacher who aligns with Discovery of Competence

The text would be used as inspiration for students’ ethnographic research.  Just as Tan videotapes and transcribes conversations with her mother, students might be asked to do the same during conversations they have in the cultural contexts they are researching.  This would be used to begin investigations on the differences between spoken and written language.  For this approach, I’m not sure I can break down pre-, during and post-reading activities in a linear or structured way, but while reading, students might be asked to find connections between Tan’s experience and their own ethnographic research.  Perhaps the text could be used to help students write research questions related to the language they are investigating in their own communities.  Evaluation would take place via written dialogue between teachers and students (as students move through the process of drafting their ethnographies). 

a teacher who aligns with Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts

Students might be in the process of developing a theory on the uses of English and English dialects in academic and non-academic contexts.  Perhaps they have already written several discovery drafts on autobiographical experiences related to their own uses of language, and they are starting to situate themselves and their own theories within other texts, and vice versa.  This is much shorter than a typical F, A & C course reading – I think students might actually read “The Joy Luck Club” (or another novel related to the theme) instead. Regardless, students would read at home, and then journal after reading.  In class, they might complete some group activities on the reading (e.g. “list characters and events in the story,” “determine the most significant events” “identify how the significance of the reading relates to our class theory on language use” etc).  Teachers would then present the class with examples of student writing, and the class would discuss the reading in relation to the samples. 

a cognitivist teacher

There would be some pre-reading questions to activate schema, along with comprehension questions (and these would also be given pre-reading).  I’m not sure which “meaning” exactly the teacher would be aiming for, but there might be one interpretation of the text in mind, which the teacher hopes to lead students toward with schema activation activities.  The reading might be broken out into sections, with guiding questions (and maybe images) for students to consider and answer as they read.  After reading, they would answer the questions given before they read.  Students would then write an essay on the meaning of the text (but they would be aware that there is a “correct” meaning, which might not align with their own personal interpretation).  They would however, integrate their own knowledge and experience into the paper.  Papers might be graded on how “well” the student understood the text, and how successfully they conveyed that understanding in writing. 

an expressivist teacher

Before reading, the students might write their own questions (to ask themselves) regarding their own personal experiences with language and dialect.  They would decide for themselves what to do during reading (journal, reflect, annotate, nothing etc).  After reading, they would discuss and write about their own individual interpretations of and experience with the text.  There is no right answer.  This entire reading and writing process would be very recursive and not prescribed in any specific way.  The paper would receive feedback (the teacher’s response to the student’s reflective experience with the text) but would not receive a grade.

a socio-cultural teacher

Students would really delve into the cultural, historical, and contextual significance of the text.  They might investigate societal factors which construct beliefs and issues related to language discrimination and language rights. Pre-reading, students would be asked to research issues related to immigration and “Englishes.”  (Specifically they would look at the context connected to Tan’s mother’s experience as an Asian American immigrant in California in a specific year.)  During reading, students would be encouraged to ask questions about why Tan’s mother faced discrimination, and what was going on historically and societally to cause the events depicted in the text.  After reading they would discuss such questions and then write a paper on a related prompt, possibly integrating other culturally or historically related texts.  Papers would be evaluated on the effectiveness of arguments made (arguments all incorporate cultural/historical factors related to the text and possibly compare/contrast to the present time) and how students support their arguments.     

a teacher who aligns with McCormick's ideological approach

working on it…