Private Individuality vs. Public Identity

Reading through Collier, I had several agonizing flashbacks to preparing to take the Sheltered English Immersion MTEL exam (an exam I had to take three times before passing). Much of what she describes is best practice for ELL educators, specifically for bilingual educators. Attaining an SEI endorsement is challenging enough, but the demands for bilingual teachers are staggering. The quote that stood out to me the most highlights the less-academic challenges bilingual educators must face:

          People untrained in linguistics, particularly politicians, tend to believe that if limited 

          English proficient students can converse with their monolingual English-speaking peers, 

          then these English-language learners can compete with them on an equal footing. (225)

This embodies so much of what’s wrong with the bureaucratic influences that dictate how our students are taught and how they are held accountable to perform on an “equal footing” on an imbalanced playing field. Conversational English (L2) proficiency is not the same as academic L2 proficiency (which holds true even if the student is a native English-speaker). Throughout Collier, which I read second, I kept coming back to Rodriguez’s “Aria,” whenever native language (L1) was pushed to the back burner in her examples of “what NOT to do.” 

Rodriguez’s piece was the more engaging of the two articles for this week, especially in all the places where I saw language acquisition connecting to acquiring the tools of the culture of power (Delpit). Rodriguez’s story is a jarring example of how L2 acquisition can lead to lost proficiency in L1 and a diminished sense of culture, identity, and agency. L2 (English) becomes the culture of power, as it is the language of politics, education, and business. Without L2 proficiency, access to the culture of power is cut off; oftentimes, L1 is pushed aside in favor of acquiring L2, power, and a public identity. In considering how public identity is achieved by assimilating into the culture of power (in this case the language of power) I found myself asking, Does assimilation into public life always require losing a sense of private individuality? Then I thought about the implications of asking that question: Is my white, native English-speaking privilege allowing me to even ask such a question? My private individuality is so inline with the dominant ideal (SCWAAMP) of public individuality that I can’t dismiss my privilege here. 

If you have time, please check out this “Immersion” short film if you’ve never seen it, it’s definitely worth the 12 minutes. 

Pecha Kucha Presentation

My experience with Pecha Kucha has been limited to helping a very close friend prepare her own Pecha Kucha presentation by timing her slideshow and giving feedback. I remember the stress that went into keeping pace with the show, and that is my greatest area of concern now. I like the tips from the instructional video to use an outline instead of a script, but I know that my tendency to ramble or trail off might make sticking to the 20 second mark a challenge. Knowing the presentation through and through makes for a less anxiety-inducing presentation, but I feel like it is possible to overprepare. Still, the supportive culture that has been established in our class really eases any anxiety I have about presenting to my peers.

As for what I am going to do my Pecha Kucha on, I'm still undecided. My best idea going forwards is inspired by the Youth In Action presentation. It was definitely the most impactful part of this class thus far, and gave me some ideas as to how I can be a more effective advocate for social justice within my own classroom. At the program where I teach, the greatest deficit my students must overcome is the lack of stability in their lives. Integral to this is my students' almost universal lack of positive role models. Throughout the entire Y.I.A. presentation, the thought that nagged me most was how I wished my students could be there to hear those young women speak. Very rarely in their lives do they receive positive messages and inspiration, especially outside the program. I would like to more closely examine the potential benefits of having powerful examples of young women advocating for themselves and how the exposure to these examples could benefit my classroom population. I would also like to look into ways my program could provide residents with access to mentorship programs. Too often do messages come to my students only through the lenses of the media and the program, and I believe it would help my students' growth to have role models like the young women in Y.I.A. and similar programs.