Reflection on TiRP 4

Although I was unable to attend class this week, it is my understanding that you took the pieces assigned for reading and were able to build a new theory with them. By unpacking these pieces, you shed new light on the subject of equity and were able to use each piece of writing as a building block for understanding the concepts more clearly.

In my original analysis of equity, I traced its meaning through Anzaldúa’s essay, How to Tame a Wild Tongue. I used her idea of voice and the idea not feeling like she fit in among her peers in school because of language she spoke and the dialect that she spoke with depending on she was speaking to. ESL in the classroom and the conflicts that arise from those situations were issue that I noted from guidelines from the CCCC and NCTE websites.  In my analysis I talked about how the school system emphasizes the importance of other languages, but only in those specified classes. There is no room for another language in an English class for example. An individual’s voice is shut down on the classroom of it is not the norm.

However, I learned from you that there was a new realization from that piece that helps shed a greater light on ESL and the individual voice in the classroom. As you unpacked the essay’s you were able to see that voice is a combination of conforming and resisting, not simply conforming to the school agenda. This was not something I was able to see in my individual work.  

After talking it out with a few people, I was able to see how you came to that conclusion. As individuals we pick and choose what influence our voices. We make the choice (consciously or not) about how what social rules we went to take on and what social roles we want to abandon. I see this now in Anzaldúa’s essay when she talks about the different Chicanos from various regions that she interacts with and how her dialect is the same or varies from them.  I think this is an important concept to see and to understand in the classroom because when a teacher understands a student’s voice is not something that can simply conform to their norms it allows for a greater chance to learn. It allows for the student to have a better education.