Growing up in a southern, middle class community, I was always salient among my peers, especially since I enjoy video games, animation, and academics. However, my friends dislike those hobbies, which gave me a separate discourse. However, despite the circumstances, I kept doing what I loved best. In other words, instead of trying to blend in, I purposely attempted to create my own identity, or a personal discourse. In “ Home and Away: The Tensions of community, literacy, and identity,” Bronwyn T. Williams writes to researchers and teachers so that they understand that various backgrounds cause students to learn distinctly. Specifically, the family background tends to affect this academic discourse. In order to achieve this aim, he uses three moves: referencing other work, comparing and contrasting, and proposing a policy.
First, Williams brings cites other works in order to explain how social and
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For example, when trying to talk to a typical student about a test, he or she might say “I do not care, forget about it.” However, as the years went by, I realized that I was overestimating myself. The issue was that I completely focused on the academic discourse. As a result, I rarely had the opportunity to experience a social discourse in my community, which meant I lacked the ability to mingle with my friends. In “Home and Away: The Tensions of community, literacy, and identity,” Bronwyn T. Williams writes to researchers and teachers so that they understand that various backgrounds cause students to learn distinctly. Specifically, the family background tends to affect this academic discourse. In order to achieve this aim, he uses three moves: referencing other work, comparing and contrasting, and proposing a policy. After reading his work, I question how my former peers managed to succeed in class while balancing the academic and social
In conclusion, in Conley’s memoir he focuses on his experience of switching schools, while in the third grade, from a predominantly African American and Latino school to a predominantly caucasian elementary school. His memoir focuses on the differences in his experiences at each school and how race and class further separated the similarities between his two schools. Conley focuses equally on race and class and how they both influenced and shaped his life, but class was the primary influence on Conley’s
Too often, students are taught that their lives are defined by who they are and what they do, not by circumstances. But circumstances can be very crucial to determining how a person’s life is shaped. It’s no secret that not all schools and neighborhoods are created equal. Some schools offer advanced classes, and college prep, and opportunities, while some schools don’t even have textbooks. Even within the circumstances, there are circumstances. The students in the latter school that lacks textbooks may have parents who go the extra mile to ensure that they have more opportunities, or could have parents who don’t have the resources to do that. Environment and circumstance can make a huge difference, and Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore is a fantastic
Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship between Bruce Bechdel and his family and his attempts to disguise his homosexuality by creating the image of an ideal family, themes which are prevalent throughout the rest of the nook.
When one engages in writing they are able to look upon their lives in a new perspective. One separates from roles and statuses of daily life, community’s, and experiences at particular time and place. This idea of stepping outside or beyond ones recognized community and structure of life presents the opportunity to recreate and voice identity and stories in new ways. In Joseph Harris’ Book A Teaching Subject there is a chapter on this idea of community and composition. Basically, Harris argues against the idea of a coherent, unified academic discourse community. He expresses the difference between the ‘language’ of the university and ‘language’ of students/individuals. This disconnect between them presents difficulty in figuring out and understanding why people would move in between the two. People are members of many communities in their daily lives and this means have many discourse communities. Adding additional ones does n...
hooks, bell. "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education." The Presence of Others. 2nd ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 85-95.
While growing up, Drew watched his immigrant parents struggle to provide for his family. His parents worked hard to ensure Drew and his sibling received a good education. Drew never imagined living a lucrative life because of the struggle his parents endured. Drew’s parent was not able to speak fluent English. Due to this, Drew could feel obligated to make sure he learned English so he would not struggle like his parents. While in undergrad, Drew minored in Sociology. As a sociology minor, he took courses that primarily focused on race, class, and other aspects of sociology. These courses encouraged Drew to crave more knowledge about his culture and
While the mother felt she was cultured she never fully understood what she was reading and learning, and could only name the classics. This difference between mother and daughter is what created a gap between the two. While the daughter had the knowledge to self-educate herself, her mother would never meet these standards no matter how hard she persevered. There was a generational gap between mother and daughter created by the change in social and cultural norms. For the daughter’s generation it wasn’t unheard of for a woman to continue her education and strive for social advancement through knowledge. For the mother’s generation social mobility was almost impossible even if one worked every day of her life, and children did what they were told to do by their parents. This wedge created a series of rebellious years by the daughter, leading her to ask permission to study in
The class’s main goal is to help improve our writing ability and help prepare us for upper level writing. As freshman, most of us have never had to write a huge research paper, some of us have not even had to write a research paper at all. Whenever I began this class I viewed it as a waste of time. I thought that I would never learn anything new and I would just continue writing the boring old papers that I had to write all throughout high school, but I was very wrong. The first paper we wrote was a synthesis of three given authors, all scholars in their specific field. The author’s names were Swales, Gee, and Porter. They all had varying opinions on what a discourse community was to them and how they distinguish one fro...
Allen, Brenda J. "Difference and Other Important Matters." Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity. Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 2004. 1-22. Print.
The essay " Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing" written by Maxine Hairston discusses the diversity in college classrooms in 1992. She highlights the idea that these students come from different backgrounds and have a lot to offer the class through their experiences. Also, they come in at different levels of writing and understanding. She believes that these students can learn from one another. They can learn about the diverse society that we live in. She states that " Real diversity emerges from the students themselves and flourishes in a collaborative classroom in which they work together to develop their ideas and test them out on each other." She looks at this diversity as an opportunity for students to learn and collaborate about society. Their papers and analysis would come from experiences that the class has had in life.
Lareau, Annette. "1." Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: U of California, 2003. Print.
...ents, and my English problem. I didn’t even have control of my own identity at that point. In the bilingual classroom my education depended upon the teachers and the system. I couldn’t express my viewpoints to faculty members like I do now in college. For instance, in college when I need help in a certain class, I can just go and talk to the professor or even to my counselor. Unfortunately, in grammar school, I didn’t know how to talk about the situation. As a result, in college I have been determined to change my study habits and take back control of my identity because I see how a student cannot survive with inefficient study habits. I realize now that, as a child, I was disadvantaged in many ways. Today, I have to be prepared to do extra to make up for a poor educational background by spending more time studying, focusing on school, and controlling my life.
Therefore, teachers teach the whole child since they maintain cultural identity of a student not only do they emphasize on the importance of academic achievement. Consequently, when promoting academic community for students, teachers play a role in responding effectively to the learners needs (Gay, 2000).
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
“People knew I was different. But not less.” Temple Grandin understood what she had, but she knew she was not less than anyone else. She did what anyone else could do. She knew she could push through everyday, no matter how hard and how long it took. Temple is not different, but she is unique! “We’re focusing so much on academics that we’ve taken out things like, art, sewing, cooking, woodworking, music, and other things that introduce kids to careers.” Temple Grandin is trying to explain and tell the world that it is not all about academics. She had the tremendously strong willpower to prove that what she was thinking was actually right. She wanted people to stop worrying about all academics and more about the arts, sports, and the creativity of all of it. Because if not, only the few students that excel at academics are