Running head: BOOK CLUB ONE REFLECTION 1

Book Club One Reflection

James Capps

IUPUI

EDUC L500
BOOK CLUB ONE REFLECTION 2

Book Club One Reflection

In her book, Framing Languages and Literacies, Margaret Hawkins (2013) explores how

language and literacy research apply to the educational system and classroom practices. Hawkins

(2013) states:

People who are apprenticed to, and acquire forms that dont hold sway in school-those
that dont align with mainstream language and literacy practices valued in schools- do not
have the same educational access or opportunities as those who have command of school-
based forms (p.3)

Causes and methods for countering this problem are then explore throughout the work. The most

impactful of those being the concept of teaching our students to use language in a way that

honors and lends agency to their culture by allowing students to frame that culture in dominant

discourses.

An analysis of Hawkins book reveals two central, interconnecting themes of language

and literacy development. The first of these is this idea of the organic literacies that students

already possess when they enter the classroom. These are meaning-making strategies that have

already proven useful to them in maneuvering through, and solving problems within-the personal

lives. As educators, we are then responsible for acknowledging these literacies and providing

students with opportunities to build upon those skills and apply them in an academic setting. This

leads to the second central theme in the work-using critical literacy and critical pedagogy in our

classrooms. Providing students with the opportunity to explore and use language as a method for

solving problems, and making change, creates an authentic relationship with language and

literacy that proves functional in their everyday lives.

This reflection focuses on the interconnecting relationship between these two themes and

how that relates to classroom practice. By embracing and celebrating the literacies that our
BOOK CLUB ONE REFLECTION 3

students bring to our classrooms, we build self-efficacy among our students and provide them an

opportunity to transfer those literacy skills to academic forms of language use. Furthermore, by

providing students with an opportunity to solve problems that exist in the community, we create

a venue for students to use language to change the world around them.

Organic Literacies

This theme of organic literacies-the language skills our students have learned to solve

problems and exert agency in their personal lives is present through many of the chapter in the

book. As shown in the book, these literacies are often times ignored or discredited in our

classrooms for a number of reasons. The most impactful, and perhaps underlying, cause of this is

stated by Teresa McCarty (2013), Throughout the world, physical and linguistic genocide, de-

culturation, and de-territorialization have been the combined goals of colonial regimes (p.174).

When we discredit the literacies and language skills that students bring into the classroom

because, They are not assessed, we are missing an opportunity to build self-efficacy among our

students when it comes to language use as well as sending the message to them that their

experience and skills do not matter because they are not recognized in academic discourse.

Meaning-Making and Problem Solving

In a later chapter, Allan Luke (2013) suggests that educators should view these literacies

as the foundation for the new literacies we want them to acquire in the classroom. Luke

references the work of Paulo Freire who combats traditional instructional strategies with his

belief that, A dialogical approach to literacy based on principles of reciprocal exchange. These
BOOK CLUB ONE REFLECTION 4

would critique and transform binary relationships of oppressed and oppressor, teacher and

learner (p. 142). This suggests that if we can embrace and celebrate the experiences and skills

our students bring to the classroom, we can then guide our students in developing and

strengthening those skills with a purpose. That purpose is to combat social justice issues that

affects their own lives and the lives of those less privileged than themselves. In doing so, we

provide students the opportunity to develop and use language to affect and make change in the

world around them.

Implications for Future Practice

McCarty suggests, To revitalize a language is to create new domains for its acquisition

and use among a heritage community associated with that language (p.175). This one idea,

embodies the most pertinent lesson in Hawkins book; instead seeing our students as empty vases

that we fill with our knowledge, we should focus our instruction on revitalizing the organic

literacies they bring to our classrooms. In doing so, we honor our students culture and empower

them to bring agency to those cultures.

Though I have always been inspired by the work of Freire, after reading Hawkins work I

feel that I have more knowledge on how to apply that to my classroom and why these strategies

work. Like Freire, I hope to create opportunities for students to see the agency that language has

already lent them, and how that can grow and evolve that agency by growing and evolving the

literacies they already possess.

BOOK CLUB ONE REFLECTION 5

References

McCarty, Teresa L (2013). Indigenous cultures: Continuum or divide?. In Hawkins, Margaret R.,
(Ed). Framing languages and literacies: Socially situated views and perspectives (pp.
169-191). New York, NY: Routeledge

Luke, Allan (2013). Regrounding critical literacy: Representation, facts and reality. In Hawkins,
Margaret R., (Ed). Framing languages and literacies: Socially situated views and
perspectives (pp. 136-148)). New York, NY: Routeledge

Hawkins, M. R. (2013). Framing languages and literacies: Socially situated views and
perspectives. New York, NY: Routledge.