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In Search of Funding: Providing Open Access to Secondary Discourses

In Search of Funding: Providing Open Access to Secondary Discourses. Stacey Shubitz Teachers College, Columbia University P.S. 171, East Harlem Literate Lives: A Human Right Whole Language Umbrella Louisville, Kentucky Friday, July 13 th , 2007. Primary Discourses.

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In Search of Funding: Providing Open Access to Secondary Discourses

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  1. In Search of Funding: Providing Open Access to Secondary Discourses Stacey Shubitz Teachers College, Columbia University P.S. 171, East Harlem Literate Lives: A Human Right Whole Language Umbrella Louisville, Kentucky Friday, July 13th, 2007

  2. Primary Discourses • Primary discourses are taught early in life as part of people’s primary socialization (as members of particular families within their socio-cultural settings). • Primary discourses constitute the first social identity: discourses are a part of each person’s knowledge base. • Everyone learns a considerable amount about language as they develop through interaction with their primary discourse. • Most of the information people learn about language through their primary discourse is acquired subconsciously. • People either accept or resist their primary discourse later in life since primary discourses form initial understandings of: • who people are. • how people behave in and out of public. • the sorts of things people value, do and say in and out of public.

  3. Secondary Discourses • The secondary discourse refers to all other social and cultural discourses outside the primary discourse. • Secondary discourses are learned, as part of one’s socialization, within groups and institutions outside of one’s peer group. • Secondary discourses are those learned by people when they become part of groups after their early home experiences. • Businesses, churches and schools are examples of groups for which one must learn a secondary discourse.

  4. Secondary Discourses, cont. • Secondary discourses involve the social institutions beyond the family, including classroom settings.  • Students may acquire language from their secondary discourse and add it to their primary discourse.  • A person’s discourse becomes more complex and acquires more layers the older one becomes.

  5. CRITICAL LITERACY • Guiding Question • How do I provide my students, who come from low SES/working class backgrounds, with access to as many secondary discourses as possible?

  6. DECONSTRUCTION • Patrick Finn, author of Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest, encourages teachers in working class schools to give their students access to the same experiences as students in affluent professional and elite schools. • Bottom Line: Working class students need access to secondary discourses! • The question becomes: How do you make this happen when funds are scarce?

  7. DECONSTRUCTION • “The stigma of being poor is overwhelming and can place families in a position of endless denial so as to not carry the burden of shame that is placed upon them by the larger society” (Jones, 2006, 22). • Students should not have to accept a “handout” or be punished by staying behind.

  8. RECONSTRUCTION • Making families pay for trips, when they could barely afford basic school supplies, is not fair. • Why shouldn’t they have the same enriching educational experiences as middle class and affluent students have?

  9. SOCIAL ACTION • SOLUTION: Seek out funds or partnerships so that students can obtain secondary discourses. • DonorsChoose • Field Trip Factory • Junior Achievement of New York • Local Organizations • Partnerships with local organizations (e.g., WABC-TV)

  10. Take advantage of local organizations and resources • Free Field Trips • Examples: • Brooklyn Botanical Garden • Metropolitan Museum of Art • Museum of the City of New York • New York Botanical Garden • Poets House • No-Cost Excursions • Examples: • Libraries • Parks (e.g., Central Park) • Zoos (many have a “free” day for schools)

  11. Field Trip Factory • Free community-based field trips in the following disciplines: • Animal Habitats and Responsibility • Farm Fundamentals • Health and Wellness • Materials and classroom activities are provided online, free of charge • http://fieldtripfactory.com

  12. Partnerships • Junior Achievement • http://www.ja.org/ • Career Day • Classroom Course Volunteer • Local Business Week • WABC-TV • Holiday Gifts • Tour of the Studio

  13. DonorsChoose • Teachers write proposals for materials or experiences they want their students to have. • Citizen philanthropists fund those experiences. • From March 2005 – present, my fifth grade classroom has received nearly $25,000 in funds from DonorsChoose. • DonorsChoose will serve 48 states starting on Labor Day. • www.donorschoose.org

  14. Field TripsSample Proposal Titles • Bridges and Boundaries: African-Americans and American Jews (The Jewish Museum) • East Harlem Kids Meet Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and Picasso (Guggenheim Museum Tour and Studio Session) • George Washington Stood Here (Fraunces Tavern Museum) • How the Other Half Lived (Tenement Museum and walking tour of the Lower East Side) • Positive Discipline Celebration (End of the Year Party at the Little Shop of Crafts) • Slavery in New York: It really did happen! (NY Historical Society) • Vegetable Lady Seeks Farm Fresh Food for East Harlem Students (Union Sq. Farmer’s Market) • WILD Poetry (Bronx Zoo Poetry Class)

  15. Literacy ResourcesSample Proposal Titles • African-American Author Study (Jacqueline Woodson Books) • CHICK LIT (books with strong girl characters) • Empowering the Voices of Ten Girls from East Harlem (seed money to publish a book of student writing) • Eve Bunting Author Study (Eve Bunting Books) • Literacy Crisis in East Harlem  We Need Books by Hispanic Authors!!! (chapter and picture books by Hispanic authors) • Poems Don’t Always Have to Rhyme (poetry books) • Social Issue Book Clubs for a G&T Class in East Harlem (multiple copies of books) • Socks Belong on Feet – Not on Hands! (Word Study Supplies)

  16. Classroom SuppliesSample Proposal Titles • Are Renoir, Hockney or De La Vega Hiding Inside of My East Harlem Fifth Graders? (art supplies) • Black Hole Backpacks (book baggies and parent communication pouches) • CLIP IT & GO! (clipboards) • Communal Supplies for East Harlem Fifth Graders (supplies) • Cursive Crisis (books and supplies needed to teach script) • (Re)Fill’er Up! (printer cartridges and paper) • Special Delivery with a Mailbox Organizer (classroom mail box)

  17. Special ProgrammingSample Proposal Titles • Hurricane Katrina: Help Kids Start School with Dignity (philanthropy project for KIPP NOW School – relocated to New Orleans) • OHM! Yoga in East Harlem (yoga classes) • The World’s A Stage… (theater residency)

  18. Other Organizations • Adopt-A-Classroom • www.adoptaclassroom.com • Grants Alert • http://www.grantsalert.com/gsft.cfm • This site links to corporations that provide grants for educators. • Teachers Network • www.teachersnetwork.org

  19. Q&A • Ask away!

  20. Closing Thoughts • As an educator in a working class school, I have come to realize I am unable to change the socio-economic status of the families whose children I am privileged to teach. • However, I pledge to continue helping my students gain access to secondary discourses by taking advantage of local resources and writing grant proposals so I can give all of my students the rich educational experiences I believe they deserve. • What do you pledge to do? What will your next steps be?

  21. References • BOOKS: • Finn, P.D. (1999). Literacy with an attitude: Educating working-class children in their own self-interest. Albany: SUNY. • Gee, J.P. (1990). What is literacy? In Mitchell, C. & Walker K. (Eds.) Rewriting literacy: Culture and the discourse of the other. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. • Jones, S. (2006). Girls, social class & literacy: What teachers can do to make a difference. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. • WEB: • http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/v1n2/wsu/klaus.html • http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=12320 • http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200407/ai_n9419922/pg_4 • http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0380-2361(199924)24%3A1%3C94%3AEFLLAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7

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