mented the ways that literacy dramatically anddynamically unfolded in - PDF document

1 mented the ways that literacy dramatical
mented the ways that literacy dramatically anddynamically unfolded in their lives. I held mybreath as all of them fought through labels of lowliteracy or, worse, ÒtroubledÓ behavior. These youngmen were far from illiterate. They read, but theyread in ways we English teachers sometimes fail tovalue, respect, and acknowledge.By absorbing their ways with words, I learneda crucial lesson about literacy. Ideas about readingand writing in English classrooms should always besubject to revision, espec

2 ially in an evolving post-modern world w
ially in an evolving post-modern world where all things are contextual andsubject to change. In this article, I reßect on theNew English Education, which, for me, represents world is changing, and youth bear witness to itschanges (Alim, ÒCriticalÓ; Dyson; Fisher). As weELA teachers begin to recog-nize a changing world, itmust be clear to us that stu-dents are not bystanders inthe midst of change. Theyare trailblazers, forging apath toward postmodernity,resisting and afÞrmingresistance to high

3 modernity,and ushering in the post-moder
modernity,and ushering in the post-modern moment in languages and literacieswithin the multiple contexts of youth culturesÑsome Black and some hip-hop but both asdynamic as they are radical (Corsaro). The braveamong us will follow them.Hence students are, in the truest sense ofTupacÕs words, Òroses that grow from concrete,Ó andhip-hop, carved deÞantly in the soil of postmoder-nity, is a telling footprint of their beauty. The much, English standards may never be able to writethemselves fully in

4 to studentsÕ lives as hip-hop does.As su
to studentsÕ lives as hip-hop does.As such, it is important to question how texts andthe textual traditions that we in English educationembrace lead ELA teachers to abide by the failedassumption that roses (our students) only bud inÞelds (our classrooms) well manicured by standardsand traditions (Applebee). In a world where ideas,experiences, realities, and languages are multiple,diverse, and constantly in negotiationÑin a world Collins, Patricia Hill. ÒReßections on the OutsiderWithin.Ó Journ

5 al of Career Development 26.1 (1999):85Ð
al of Career Development 26.1 (1999):85Ð88.Cooks, Jamal A. ÒWriting for Something: Essays, Raps, andWriting Preferences.Ó English Journal 94.1 (2004):72Ð76.Corsaro, William A. The Sociology of Childhood. 2nd ed.Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2005.Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. 1967. Trans. GayatriChakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP,1976.Dyson, Anne Haas. ÒPopular Literacies and the ÔAllÕ Chil-dren: Rethinking Literacy Development for Contem-porary Childhoods.Ó Language Arts81.2 (2003):100

6 Ð09.Elbow, Peter. ÒMaking Postmodernism
Ð09.Elbow, Peter. ÒMaking Postmodernism and Critical Think-ing Dance with Each Other.Ó In ÒInterlude:Read(Writ)ing Constructed Literacies with Col-leagues.Ó ReInventing the University: Literacies andLegitimacy in the Postmodern Academy.By ChristopherL. Schroeder. Logan: Utah State UP, 2001. 222Ð26. Florio-Ruane, Susan. ÒMore Light: An Argument for Com-plexity in Studies of Teaching and Teacher Education.ÓJournal of Teacher Education53.3 (2002): 205Ð15.Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish:

7 The Birth of thePrison. New York: Panthe
The Birth of thePrison. New York: Pantheon, 1977.Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.1968. Trans. MyraBergman Ramos. New York: Herder, 1972.GutiŽrrez, Kris D., and Lynda D. Stone. ÒSynchronic andDiachronic Dimensions of Social Practice: An Emerg-ing Methodology for Cultural-Historical Perspectiveson Literacy Learning.Ó Vygotskian Perspectives on Liter-acy Research: Constructing Meaning through CollaborativeInquiry. Ed. Carol D. Lee and Peter Smagorinsky.New York: Cambridge UP, 2000. 150Ð6