Language of Classrooms

For the third assignment in my Composition class this semester we were required to write a reflection of our personal experiences in reading and writing, so we could better explore the language that students and teachers used in the classroom. During this exercise it was interesting to see how the lesson plans of my English teachers changed throughout the years, yet also how they remained the same. The following is a copy of my own personal investigation into the world of reading and writing to that I was exposed to during my years of formal education:

Throughout numerous years of education and countless hours logged in a classroom environment, it’s interesting to look back and see how little language changed. Even though there were a variety of different instructors and school administrators through my twelve year stint in the Douglas County School District, the language of students was heavily regulated in and out of the classroom. The primary difference between the language we were allowed to use at various stages of our educational development occurred between the sixth-seventh and eighth-ninth grade years.

As elementary schools began sprouting up all over my community, my classmates and I were herded around to each one based on location. After attending two different elementary schools within five minutes of one another, my parents finally settled at Trailblazer Elementary. The majority of students in my community were from white-collar affluent families, and arrived at school already with the primary foundations of reading and writing engrained into their brains. As English classes progressed through the years, vocabulary and close reading objectives filled out course work. Spelling and grammatical accuracy were the primary areas teachers focused on as they read through the pounds of essays, summaries, and daily oral languages that were turned in on a weekly basis. Spelling tests on the “vocabulary of the week” were hammered into our brains on Mondays and studied every night throughout the week in the hopes of increasing our awareness on the importance of choosing the right words based on their individual meanings.

Although there were segments of the day devoted entirely to reading and summarizing a piece literature, teachers still encouraged students to circle words that they did not understand and then go back and use context clues to surmise the definition of the word. Individual reading did occur outside of the classroom, we were encouraged to read for twenty minutes a night, but during in class activities teachers would ask students to read aloud as they “pop-corned” around the classroom. The pop-corn method of reading aloud frightened the majority of my classmates, who were either embarrassed about their reading slow or stuttering reading styles or those who were forced to shyly admit they hadn’t been following along when called upon. Students who were at the upper end of the class in literacy where also annoyed with the slow pace in which the next was read, and would prefer to read ahead silently and then be ridiculed by the teacher for not remaining with the rest of the class. Despite the countless groans and protestations of students teachers even throughout my high school years continued using the popcorn style of reading in their classrooms; causing even greater amounts of humiliation to those students who had different reading styles.

Spelling gradually faded into the background as I progressed through the schooling system in Douglas County, Colorado. At the beginning of middle school, English teachers shifted from a curriculum based primarily on increasing vocabulary and focused instead on one of grammatical rules that a student must always follow in their writing. The proper placement of periods, commas, and all other forms of punctuation occupied our lesson times and papers were often returned with red marks citing the incorrect usage of grammar instead of the actual content or quality of the piece. English teachers even wanted their peers of different content areas to focus on the correct use of grammar and punctuation is our written works. Science, history, and health teachers all broke out their trusty red pens and made sure that all of our papers bled when the slightest misuse of a word or punctuation appeared. The intensity of red ink only continued into high school when our freshmen English teacher banned the use of major conjunctions in our writing. FANBOYS was dreaded throughout high school because if either for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so appeared in our writing our grade was automatically deducted by five points.

Even with the intensity of grammatical correctness being cracked over or heads, high school saw the focus of English classes stem from proper writing techniques to the development of our ideas and beliefs in critical essays and compare and contrast pieces. Learning to write high-end academic essays while completely voiding our papers of how we would normally write was difficult to do, and subsequently many of my classmates fell behind. Eventually the essays became easier to write but the “forbidden words” were still rampant in all of our pages. Luckily, not all of the teachers at ThunderRidge High School cared so much about proper FANBOYS. Critical analysis was naturally the next step in the writing process, and as junior and senior year rambled on teachers began to care less about grammatical errors and focused on the clarity, articulation, and support of our arguments.

Looking back on all my years of schooling, the phases in which students learned vocabulary, grammar, and analytical writing were all very distinct. The basic five paragraph essay became an obsolete lesson of third grade coupled with spelling, while the importance of developing a great critical analysis of work remained throughout my college years. Although a majority of lessons in grammar have stayed with me, it was easy to bid adieu to FANBOYS long ago, and its still sends a little ripple of pride when they appear in my paper, simply knowing that those coveted five points still belong to me.

Literary Investigation One

For our second class assignment we were asked to post a literary investigation describing one of our discourse communities and the language we used particularly in that community. Over the summer I was a camp counselor and taught a variety of students the fundamentals of rock climbing and adventure programs. Here is my reflection on the language used entirely within the climbing community:

As a camp counselor you form bonds not only with the kids you teach but also with peers your age whom you spend an abundant amount of time with. Although Kamp Kohut produced a variety of terms key known only by the counselors and campers who attended, there were many terms exclusive only to the outdoor education team. Over the summer I was an Adventure Lead Counselor, meaning I not only taught kids a variety if team and self esteem building exercises, but also key terms and phrases essential to their success. At the climbing wall one of the first requirements campers did was to correctly identify the name of all the materials they needed to climb the wall safely.

Helmet, rope, and harness where the easiest terms to identify yet as the lessons proceeded and the campers gradually got introduced to the climbing community, the language and word choice we asked them to learn got gradually more and more unique.

Level Two required students to define Gri-Gri and belay which are both fundamental aspects of climbing. A Gri-Gri is the device the belayer runs the rope through in order to safely allow someone to climb to the top of the wall; to belay is the action required by the person remaining on the ground to feed the rope through the Gri-Gri.

As the levels continued on, students explored the terminology behind the actual movements they were experiencing on the wall. A brief list of terms they had to understand and demonstrate is as follows:

-Dyno: Removing your entire body from the wall and jumping upwards in order to reach the next hold.

-Side-pull: Reaching across the wall to your arms full extent and using a side ways grip on a hold to reach the next destination.

-Heel-Hook: Using your heel on a hook in order to use it as a tool to push your body farther up the wall.

-Bouldering: Climbing a wall without the use of a belay device, usually from left to right instead of up and down.

-Mantle: To use a hold pressing your palm down and pushing up, instead of reaching for a higher hold with just your fingers.

-Crag: A small split in the opening of a rock face.

-Traverse: To successfully climb to the top of the wall moving continuously from left to right and right to left.

-Match: To place both of your hands or feet on the same hold.

-Carabiner: Clip used to safely attach equipment together.

-Switch: To move one hand from a hold only to replace it with

Memory Vignette Assignment

As one of the first assignments for my composition class we were asked to recall certain memories of teachers, events, or classes from our past that allowed us an insight to the true realm of the teaching world and simultaneously the philosophies towards education that we wished to enact in our own careers as well. I took a little bit of a twist from the assignment outlined by writing in my own third-person style while still trying to portray (I hope successfully) the foundation of my outlook on teaching.

So without further ado, here is my completed and hopefully clear memory vignette:

As the fatal countdown began again Andy jumped from behind a mossy covered oak tree lost in the seemingly endless wilderness about her and made a beeline for the lichen covered boulder standing at what seemed an unattainable distance away. Stately and unmoving the large rock would fulfill her every need, her perfect haven in the woods, now if only she could get there without being seen. Seconds whipped by in a blur, and as they rapidly ticked away from five to four to three… she just managed to make one sweeping jump, landing mere inches from her new shelter. As the final seconds whisked away she dove and slid the remaining few inches to safety. When the final call of “one” rang throughout the now seemingly undisturbed wilderness Andy ignored the light stream of blood trickling from her elbow, her newly throbbing leg and the heavy breathing escaping from between her lips. All that was left to do was wait; wait and hope that she had escaped this round unnoticed. At last with one crushing, devastating blow she heard the call… “You there! Behind the rock! Andy you’re out!”

Covered in an assortment of dirt and scratches Andy emerged sheepishly from behind her not-so-safe haven and came face to face with the group of her pursuers. As she walked slowly towards the large group at the bottom of the net strung keenly between two oaks she knew the fulfillment and pride of her students would last through the week. Nothing gave the younger generation of youth surrounding her a greater satisfaction than knowing that their teacher was capable of loss. Although her skills at the game were legendary, she was indeed the last one out, her participation in a “children’s game” was a great way to connect with the kids she had devoted herself to teaching at the beginning of the summer. Looking back on those days spent running through the wilderness of Maine, getting bloodied and soiled all for a game, Andy realized that relating to children on their level is often what it takes for a true relationship of trust and respect to develop.

First Posting

As a hopeful future teacher of English I thought it would be credible to establish a blog, not only for the fulfillment of requirements in my Composition for Education class but also to join the discourse of current and future English teachers around the globe. Already some fairly interesting blogs have been accessed and read and in the future I hope to cite some of their incites into the profession alongside of my own.