Bernice Reagon has voiced the perspective of others' experiences succinctly: "In an effort to understand the story of America, we're not getting enough help from many people who sahre the story, because they come from a culture that says their view is the only one. No one in a minority poisition can survive with only one point of view."
 
The challenge of our role as educators is how to effectively and meaningfully use the personal and cultural stories of students while at the same time reaching outside their respective cultural boundaries.
 
In the words of James Baldwin: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
 
These challenging contexts are related to the inquiry of language in our classrooms and how language becomes the entree to many complex levels of cultural, economic, and political awareness.
 
Semester Sneak Preview:
  • Working with students at Apache Elementary School, will provide an authentic setting in which to put theory and practice together as we learn from the children more about ourselves personally and as professionals. Our Oral History Family Project will be the collaborative lens in which we will puursue our learning this semester.
  • We will have the opportunity to study sign language with Vickie Bruno becoming more sensitized to the process of learning a language. 
  • The  October 9-11 is an annual event in Farmington that will become atradition for your family and your students. You will be invited to attend as a volunteer or audience member.
  • Our course text will serve as a resource for strategies, theories, cultural understanding and practical applications to prepare you for taking the TESOL endorsement exam and/or teaching in diverse learning settings.
  • Three books of short stories provide us with other cultural contexts to talk about in a relaxed, social atmosphere.
  • Our webpages are intended as a medium to house your your learning and other intellectual property throughout the semester. Since it is your webpage, you own the material and content and thus empowers you as the author. Your webpage becomes a documentation , scrapbook, if you will, of your learning over time this semester. It remains yours even after the completion of our time together.
  • You will have the opportunity to reflect at midterm and final about your learning experiences as a way to help clarify for yourself what you know and a way to share improvements for me, your course instructor.

Enjoy our semester together as we learn from each other!

Frances

"The stories we tell not only explain things to others, they explain them to ourselves." ~Donald Norman~
 
"People are often powerless, alone, afraid; this is because someone else is telling their stories for them." 'You are ugly. You are undesirable. You are useless'. Through storytelling, you recognize your own story." ~ Joseph Bruchac~