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How to Teaching Writing the Right Way (Hint: It's Not with Grit)

The importance of learning how to read and write well has been established as a vital part of surviving in America today. If you aren't determined to be literate "enough," you're likely to be cast aside as a less-than-functional member of society. Besides its function as a way communicate, literacy is tied up in advocacy, wealth and class structure. As Cadeiro-Kaplan points out, this is a kind of cultural capital that's inextricably linked to a predetermined privilege. Comparing this with the Radical Eyes for Equity piece, it further validates that grit is a bunk concept. 

I felt almost stupefied when I read about the deficit ideology. Our brains (or at least mine) have been so programmed to think that we're operating from the ideal "100," A+ starting point. By illustrating the material that was missed by writing something on a paper like, "100-30 = 70" the teacher really does devalue the work that may have taken hours for some students but days or weeks for others to learn. I remember the embarrassment I felt after getting a test back with that same grading at the top of a paper in red ink. I can only imagine what it must feel like for a student who repeatedly has to see that. 

The readings are again blending in to what I'm reading in some other classes. I'm certainly not complaining about that, though! This week, I can't help but think about my Postcolonial Lit class and how education relates to colonization/imperialism and the erasure of cultural identity in favor of a prescribed cultural literacy. As Cadeiro-Kaplan points out, literacy just seems to be a way to "serve the interests of maintaining the industrial social order." Sounds a little drone-like, no? 

Comments

  1. Bethany Rose BarsoianSeptember 13, 2017 at 5:20 AM


    Hi Alyssa,
    I definitely share your feelings about the deficit ideology and the reading really opened my eyes to just how discouraging and negative that type of grading is. In all my years of schooling (with the exception of a few college classes) this is exactly how I remember being graded and truthfully I never stopped to consider the implications the author notes. Do you think there is any hope of changing things now, especially when that is the only grading system most teachers (and students) have ever known?

    ReplyDelete

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