Double Journal Entry #8

Situated Language and Learning: A critique of traditional schooling

1. What is the main challenge being addressed in the book?
The main challenge being addressed in the book is how teachers need to teach all children, despite race, SES, etc., and the skills required for our students to be sucessful in school as while as in the real-world.

2. What does the author mean by the phrase "ways with words"?
He means how we use our language.  How I speak to certain people differently than others in different discourse communities.

3. What is the core argument being made by the author of this book?
The argument being made is about how we should connect meaning with words when teaching.  We should use concrete examples and make meaning out of something that students have never experienced.

4. Give an example of a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" you have learned outside of school?
As a server, servers and other people in the restruant industry have a lingo that we use, that most people don't understand. We talk in computer abbrievations when talking or explaining food items or modifications. I always catch myself saying 86, GO (instead of saying green onions), shrooms (instead of saying mushrooms); sometimes guests question what you mean when I talk in abbrievations on accident.

5. According to the author, how do people learn a specialized variety of a language or "way with words" best?
People learn a specialized variety of a language best by experiencing it. By using and making concrete examples, they learn it best.

6. If people are to be successful in the 21st century, what must they become?
People must become adaptable to their society and surrounding.  People must be able to shift their views, values, identities, in order to become successful in the 21st century.

7. The author states that  learning academic language is NOT sufficient for success in modern society? Do you agree? Why or Why not?
I do and I don't. I do believe that people sound smarter and usually recieve more respect when they learn and use academic language, but their are different kinds of success.  Success means different things to different people.  A poor African American boy that grew up on the streets of an inner city surrounded by drugs and crime might view being successful in modern society if he made it out of that city alive and out of real trouble, and maybe became a famous rapper. In contrast, a little girl might dream of being an astrofissitist. Success is in the eye of the beholder.

8. What do you think about this author's "way with words"?
I like the author's way with words because I think he uses a good amount of acedemic/sophfisicated language that we want students to hear and use to build a broad range of vocabulary but the author also uses "kid language" and isn't affraid to say words,phrases, and lingo that kids normally use.