Ferry & HartENG 413 Final Paper Dr. Ellen Cushman21 April 2014Culture and Community Within the Classroom The culminating idea that this past semester has led to is the inclusion of community and culture as a means to teach content and encourage student participation. With particular focus on English Language Learners, exploring the ways in which community and culture impact the learning process for students has proven to be an insightful and relevant framework for positioning a curriculum that is tailored to expand beyond the conventional content and explore real life experiences that will serve as vital building blocks for literacy skills and practices. The driving inspiration and knowledge base for insights into how culture and community create a strong foundation for literacy skills stems from the pre-college writing level courses that pre-service teachers co-teach during their senior year in the college of education at Michigan State University. These courses provide a range of students from all walks of life, home countries, and educational backgrounds. The projects in these classes require students to first draw upon pre existing knowledge and experience while also seeking new information and incorporating it into their writing in a cohesive and intentional way. While these projects, with titles such as Cultural Artifact Analysis, Culture Shock Essay, and a This I Believe essay support students in numerous ways by allowing them to gain writing skills more naturally because the content isnt foreign in addition to the applicable processes. Betsy Rymes work follows pre-service teachers as they teach a similar course to adults in a predominantly Spanish speaking immigrant community. One of the masters students speculated that community is more important than English to many of the families . . . and if I want to create English opportunities I can never do so at the expense of community members (Rymes 1). While there is a significant gap between immigrant or international students and their home cultures, the native students typically dont have as much of a withdrawal from their home communities. In these courses, it is a noticeable issue for native speaking students to feel like they have less distinct cultural experiences from which to write. An interview with a PCW student from Detroit resulted in the following information: sometimes when I work in groups I feel like I dont have anything to talk or write about because Im not from China like everyone else (Student 1). As evidenced in the dynamics of WRA 1004 courses, some students may not feel as though they have a distinct culture or easily identifiable community to draw upon for the designated writing prompts or course content. While incorporating culture with writing instruction serves an extremely beneficial purpose for most English language learners or international students, there can be some distance between students who arent told that their culture is just as valid as any international culture. Anis Bawarshis ethnomethodological approach to genre and community can be beneficial in giving students the tools to identify influential aspects of their communities in the types of scenarios where students dont feel that they have a set of cultural practices or values. Bawarshi demonstrates how genre analysis gives access to the workings of discourse communities in a way that renders the idea of a discourse community a more tangible, helpful concept for teachers, students, and researchers (Devitt et al 550). Much like Bawarshis approach with the analysis of the Patient Medical History Forms, the artifact project in section 23 of WRA 1004 required students to comprehensively analyze an item significant to their lives in order to discover and expand upon its significance in certain social contexts. By doing so, it is easier to recognize the palpability and complexity of our discourse communities, to reduce their abstract, symbolic status, thereby making discourse communities more visible and accessible to ethnographic inquiry (Devitt et al 552). By allowing student to critically analyze the types of genre that are in their personal communities and cultures, they are able to generate abundant detail and insight which is significant to supporting their writing process as well as exploring the culture that directly impacts their academic and personal lives. This type of assignment is especially helpful to those students who feel like they may not have a working knowledge of their culture or community practices. As evidenced by Student 1 in my interview, this knowledge and application of community and culture is essential to functioning in this course. The artifact paper is an excellent example of allowing all students to explore their community experiences and use them as a base for gaining writing and communication skills. When expanding the possibility of culture and community impacting student learning, it is imperative to consider the types of communities that are often overlooked in our collegiate discussions on education. Young focuses on how particular communities have data that supports the impact on test scores. Perhaps most disturbing, given current reform initiatives focusing on accountability using standardized testing, is the high correlation between students living in poverty and low scores on standardized tests (Young 83). External environment and community influence have an impact on students individually, but also collectively as they have mutual knowledge and experience to draw upon, discuss, and change as a classroom community. Valerie Kinloch identifies employing culturally relevant methods/resources that encourage students to question multiple lines of differences in classrooms and communities as one of the challenges that increasing diversity within schools and surrounding communities raise for educators (Kinloch 1). Drawing on Kinlochs approach to having students be active researchers and participants in their community as a way to begin bridging the gap between community and the classroom, an ethnomethodological study of genres in student community is one way to get students engaged with the world around them and use their experience and research to become aware of the agency they have in their lives which can then transfer over to their writing. An example of this inquiry can be seen in this presentation. This type of project or assignment that is rooted in the fact that students are the meaning makers truly gives them power and confidence in their abilities and allows them to expand upon them in their future endeavors. For international students or ELLs in particular, assignments that require community action or inquiry can truly be life changing. In the WRA 1004 course, students were required to gather information and advice from people in their community as well as include their own insight in order to inform incoming freshmen about the types culture shock they might encounter and how to combat it. Bawarshi discusses activity systems in depth and the cyclical nature of students actions once they are immersed in the type of activity system. As Russell defines it, an activity system resembles what Giddens calls structure. Like structure, an activity system is constituted by a dialectic of agents or subjects, motives or social needs, and mediational means or tools (what Giddens refers to as structurational properties). Each element of the dialectic is constantly engaged in supporting the other, so that, for instance, agents enact motives using tools which in turn reproduce the motives that require agents to use these tools and so on (Bawarshi, 115).

The structure referenced here in regards to the PCW classroom involved the dialectic of agents (students) and their motives of research and social drive to influence their audience by means of mediating their prior experiences and research in order to create a product. Each component is necessary in this process and can stand alone as a step to accomplish a piece of writing or project. An example of a remixed Culture Shock project can be found in the form of several students Instagram page which offers a glimpse of the final product which can in turn be used as a research component of another activity system later on. The main takeaway from this theory is that students will become immersed in an activity system in order to create change and a product for future use. The writing skills were a supplementary part of this project as the paper component was a high percentage of their grade, but the remix project where they synthesize the processes is evidence of their routine activity system at work. There are going to be many different views on whether or not bringing many cultures into the classroom is going to be beneficial to the students or if it has drawbacks. Where do we draw the line between allowing students to be themselves in the classroom and them crossing a line that could potentially be problematic? Students should be able to express themselves in ways that helps them become better writers. As future educators it is going to be our job to make sure that were fostering growth and finding something that grows organically out of the needs and interests of our students (Goodson 22). Every student is going to have a different need and a different interest. Allowing them to bring these interests and needs into the classroom will help to create a more open environment for students to demonstrate the types of writers they want to be. What happens when we come across a student whose interests and needs are particularly unique and troublesome? Should we allow them to continue what they are doing despite putting the class in a place that might make it uncomfortable? Every educator is going to feel differently about this. It might depend on the student in question to whether or not you grant them the academic freedom that they want. Some students will be able to dig deeper into something and come out knowing they are better writers for it. However, there are always going to be students who feel stronger about one thing or another. And there are always going to be students who feel as though they need to express these different feelings to the class. We want our students to be able to find things that interest them and be able to be themselves, but students are routinely interested in reading and writing about things that school communities cannot validate (Goodson 22). What the students are interested in is going to change from community to community and what you allow in the classroom will too. Knowing whether you have the support of the school administrators will allow you to be able to have students do different things in the class on things that are meaningful to them or if youre going to have to ask students to write on something more conservative. In the article by Todd Goodson, he mentions a student that wanted to write about something that was disturbing to him. Despite the topic being something that he didnt feel comfortable with, he allowed the student to write about the topic anyway because he could see how interested she was in the subject. Allowing your students to write about something theyre fully invested in can make for a really great paper, but if the subject matter is something that is problematic, then is allowing student to continue writing about it a good idea? Since we cant stop them from continuing to research the subject, perhaps allowing them to continue pursuing the topic would work for academic purposes. The cultures in a language arts classroom are going to be different from the cultures in an English as a second language (ESL) classroom as well. While students are always going to come from diverse backgrounds, an ESL classroom is going to need to cater to students from many different countries who speak many different languages. Families from other countries are going to put different values on the education their children receive and that might transfer over to their children in an ESL classroom. Its important to make sure that the classroom itself has a culture or community within it so that students have a sense of purpose being there. When faced with students whose cultures put different values on education than those in the United States, it may be a good idea to emphasize that within the classroom community you have created, there is a strong emphasis on education and promoting successful students. This may include sending out general informational emails to the parents or talking to them one on one so they understand as well what is expected of their children. During placement in an eighth grade ESL classroom, I (Rachel) got to see a lot of different ways to bring culture into the classroom. My mentor teacher at the time was very welcoming to what her students had to offer to create a better environment for the different cultures they were bringing with them. She had a map of the world on the wall where she pointed to where all of the students came from and underneath their pictures there was a little excerpt on their background. She also would allow the students to bring in things for her to hang up around the room if they wanted. I thought this was a great way for the students to have agency within her classroom and to be able to be more of who they are outside the classroom, in the classroom. In my PCW placement I saw a lot of the opposite happening within that classroom. It felt like some weeks the students were allowed to express their differences within the classroom and some weeks it was strongly discouraged. For one of the projects the students were working on a papers about the different culture shocks they were experiencing when they first came to the United States. During this time I was having a hard time seeing how getting organized or making sure youre on time was something that could help a lot of these students with the real culture shocks theyre actually facing, but maybe those are also things they think will help with the transition to MSU life. (Ferry, February 22 Activity Log) I can understand how having the students focus on things that theyre experiencing according to the MSU culture is important, but I also think its important for the students to be able to talk about the other issues they may be facing. One way to allow students to express their cultural differences within the classroom is code-switching. This can be a great way for a language arts classroom to incorporate different cultures. While this may be something that seems little on the surface, its important to allow the students to be open and confident with themselves within the classroom. Its often thought that English teaches routinely equate standard English with grammar, as if other language varieties and styles lack grammar, the systematic and rule-governed backbone of the language (Wheeler and Swords 471). Some teachers may completely rule out students being able to use their different dialects within the classroom when there is an academic English that can be used, and is often more preferred. Being informed on why people speak different dialects and what they mean to their culture can be helpful when trying to understand why students arent speaking academic English. Teachers who make an effort to allow students to use different dialects within their classroom don't need to be convinced that accommodating diversity in their instruction is a necessity. They know it, see it, and feel it everyday (Eldridge). While students may not always be able to use their different dialects, that doesnt rule out the possibility of them using them when theyre writing in journals, talking out loud in class, or writing something for a creative writing unit. Creating opportunities for students to express themselves in new ways is going to create for a better classroom environment. Overall this past semester has taught us a lot about how culture and community can be implemented in our classrooms to help teach content and encourage student participation. Giving students agency within the classroom will allow for better working environments and potentially better work from our students. When focusing on English Language learners and how culture and community impact their learning in comparison to a language arts classroom, we can begin to see how important creating a good environment for the students can be in both classrooms.

References Artifact Paper Project Prompt (link)Bawarshi, Anis S. Genre and the Invention of the Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in Composition (2003). All USU Press Publications. Book 141.Devitt, Amy, and Bawarshi, Anis., and Reiff, Mary Jo. Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. College English. Vol. 65, No. 5. (May 2003). pp 541-558. Electronic. Eldridge, Deborah. "Diversity in Language Arts Classrooms." Education Digest 62.4 (1996): 51.Goodson, F. Todd. "Culture Wars and the Rules of the English Classroom."The English Journal 83.5 (1994): Pp. 21-24. Print.Kinloch, Valerie. Urban Literacies. New York: Teachers College Press, 2011. Print.Rymes, Betsy. Language in Development in the United States: Supervising Adult ESOL Preservice Teachers in an Immigrant Community. TESOL Quarterly. Vol. 36, No. 3, Language in Development (Autumn, 2002), pp. 431-452. Electronic. Wheeler, Rebecca S., and Rachel Swords. "Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom." Language Arts 81.6 (2004): 470-80.Young, Carl. Conversation as Curriculum: Learning to Teach English in Rural America. The English Journal. Vol. 93, No. 6, Teaching in Context: Rural Schools. (Jul, 2004), pp. 82-88. Electronic.