I love that this reading addressed one of the things that came up in another discussion board previously: the fact that we hold students to a grammatical standard without simultaneously teaching what that means. The text says, “Language issues beyond simple ‘grammar’ correction are not addressed extensively even when the assessment of student texts is based at least partly on students’ proficiency in the privileged variety of English… [students are] being held accountable for what is not being taught” (p. 640). This applied heavily to our own ENG 101, ENG 102, or ENG 105 classes where students aren’t required to look at any teaching on grammar (It’s optional, but does making that available absolve us from teaching it?), but they are held to
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In the 2003-2004 academic year, there were 579,509 international students in U.S. colleges… There are at least 150,000 to 225,000 active learners of English graduating from U.S. high schools each year” (pp. 640-641). Those numbers do not include bilingual students or people who speak another dialect of English (p. 641). These figures are good to keep in mind as we teach English. If we can try to remember that students come from a variety of linguistic backgrounds, we can address grading and teaching in a way that allows for …show more content…
I do not have a teaching background, have not taken other teaching classes, and this is my first exposure to helping with a college-level English class. Basically, I’ve never thought about it because I’ve never had to. I do remember a post on regarding NaNoWriMo on Facebook a few months ago though, where someone had posted a funny grammar meme and one lady got very upset over it. She started talking about how her mom’s second language was English, and how her mom would cry and get upset when people would tease her about her grammar. Here we were, a bunch of writing nerds laughing over something we thought was hilarious, and then all I could picture was this sweet mom-type bawling her eyes out in private because she felt less-than even though she was trying so hard. That image has stuck with me, though I don’t know what to do with
In the 2003-2004 academic year, there were 579,509 international students in U.S. colleges… There are at least 150,000 to 225,000 active learners of English graduating from U.S. high schools each year” (pp. 640-641). Those numbers do not include bilingual students or people who speak another dialect of English (p. 641). These figures are good to keep in mind as we teach English. If we can try to remember that students come from a variety of linguistic backgrounds, we can address grading and teaching in a way that allows for …show more content…
I do not have a teaching background, have not taken other teaching classes, and this is my first exposure to helping with a college-level English class. Basically, I’ve never thought about it because I’ve never had to. I do remember a post on regarding NaNoWriMo on Facebook a few months ago though, where someone had posted a funny grammar meme and one lady got very upset over it. She started talking about how her mom’s second language was English, and how her mom would cry and get upset when people would tease her about her grammar. Here we were, a bunch of writing nerds laughing over something we thought was hilarious, and then all I could picture was this sweet mom-type bawling her eyes out in private because she felt less-than even though she was trying so hard. That image has stuck with me, though I don’t know what to do with