Possible Objections To Teaching Nonconventional Literacy Practices

By Author: Jordon
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In writing this article, we realize that the incorporation of transnational and community literacies into traditional, school-based curricula may be easier said than done. In this section, we briefly discuss possible objections to this approach as well as strategies we propose to counteract this resistance.

Some teachers may consider the tasks of identifying transnational and community literacies and the planning of lessons based upon them to be too much extra work. As we have mentioned, gathering samples of these texts involves making trips to students' communities and photographing or gathering physical copies of local literacies. It may also take extra time to plan lessons that integrate these types of literacies with more traditional, school-based reading and writing— for example, mapping the intended learning outcomes onto the state Cartier Replica Watches language arts or literacy standards. As such, teachers may find this approach not worth the effort it requires. On a similar note, some teachers might also feel uncomfortable ...
... spending time in communities within their own cities that are likely to feel foreign to them to a certain degree.

In our work with preservice teachers, for example, we have encountered resistance when asking students to complete assignments that require them to interview individuals from another culture. Interacting with people from diverse cultures and language backgrounds may certainly be intimidating for teachers who are not used to doing so or who have not been expected to do so in the past. We are sympathetic to these concerns, and we recognize the discomfort they can arouse. However, we encourage everyone working with ELLs to consider that these feelings of belonging, legitimacy, and membership are major issues for all students but especially for students from immigrant families (Banks, 2008; Jimenez & Teague, 2007). We encourage discussion of these issues, which can only be more productive when all participants share some of the feelings of what it is like to be an outsider or other.

Another possible objection to the inclusion of transnational and community literacies is that this approach takes away from the instructional time allotted to preparing students for standardized tests. In other words, teachers may feel that they would be doing a disservice to their students if they were to become distracted by alternative kinds of texts that are unlikely to appear on tests. They may likewise experience perceived or actual pressure from other teachers or administrators not to include transnational or community literacies given the notable absence of these texts in traditional curricula. Finally, whatever their personal cultural and linguistic Tag Heuer Replica Watches backgrounds, teachers may also consider local forms of literacy as less prestigious or substandard and thus inappropriate for classroom use. As former students and now educators, we have all become socialized into understanding and engaging in literacy education in certain ways. For example, only certain kinds of texts (e.g., five-paragraph essays) have historically been deemed appropriate models and products within school boundaries.