Blog – Reading #3
The author this week is Terry Meier and the article is
called “Why can’t she remember that”? I
will be reflecting on the article.
The article gives some ideas and examples to help teachers engage children in reading storybooks. The article links the use of cultural language by adults, friends, siblings, etc. with the educating/learning of these children. The link between hearing more of this “cultural language” amongst African-American children seems to lead to them talking four times more and engaging more than the European American non “cultural linguistic” children. It’s written that by the age of three these cultural language kids have mastered all of the sounds and most of the grammatical writing for their culture. I don’t know if I agree with that statement. The article goes on to tell us how children use language to their advantage, even at such young ages. There is the example on page 243 of the young girl that dropped the rice cake in the car with her mom and the young boy who created the railroad poem after his mom told him she would “tie him to de railroad track”. We read how these two culturally opposite kids used language to their benefit to get out of trouble. I agree with these two examples, I have seen kids use words wisely to get out of certain situations. Books are known to give children a sense of identity in the world, I can see how this may be true in some cases but not all. The article tells us about the “non-white” children having trouble identifying with storybooks because they can’t relate to the “white” characters and cultures in the books. I don’t totally agree with that because kids have great imaginations and I believe no matter who the characters are in a book, the kids can imagine themselves being there. I will say it’s easier for children to relate to books these days as everything is more “cultural neutral” or inclusive of all cultures as opposed to when this article was written back in 2003 with quotes and ideas taken from as far back as the 1970’s. The article gives great ideas in getting kids to interact with the storyteller and engage in real conversations with the books being read to them by the use of props and puppets.
The article gives some ideas and examples to help teachers engage children in reading storybooks. The article links the use of cultural language by adults, friends, siblings, etc. with the educating/learning of these children. The link between hearing more of this “cultural language” amongst African-American children seems to lead to them talking four times more and engaging more than the European American non “cultural linguistic” children. It’s written that by the age of three these cultural language kids have mastered all of the sounds and most of the grammatical writing for their culture. I don’t know if I agree with that statement. The article goes on to tell us how children use language to their advantage, even at such young ages. There is the example on page 243 of the young girl that dropped the rice cake in the car with her mom and the young boy who created the railroad poem after his mom told him she would “tie him to de railroad track”. We read how these two culturally opposite kids used language to their benefit to get out of trouble. I agree with these two examples, I have seen kids use words wisely to get out of certain situations. Books are known to give children a sense of identity in the world, I can see how this may be true in some cases but not all. The article tells us about the “non-white” children having trouble identifying with storybooks because they can’t relate to the “white” characters and cultures in the books. I don’t totally agree with that because kids have great imaginations and I believe no matter who the characters are in a book, the kids can imagine themselves being there. I will say it’s easier for children to relate to books these days as everything is more “cultural neutral” or inclusive of all cultures as opposed to when this article was written back in 2003 with quotes and ideas taken from as far back as the 1970’s. The article gives great ideas in getting kids to interact with the storyteller and engage in real conversations with the books being read to them by the use of props and puppets.
My overall opinion of the article is that it was written when our culture and the culture of others were treated differently. Today, we live in a “cultural neutral” society trying to please and include everyone with their cultures and beliefs. If this can’t be done we make the situation so generic that everyone and anyone can relate. I will reflect on the statement” Why can’t she remember that?” in class.
I think that in classrooms today teachers are doing everything they can to connect different cultures around the world. Your last paragraph really goes with my idea of this
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