KaDeWo - The Joy Advocate

"All students have different abilities, types of knowledge, and literacies; all students can benefit from engaging with texts in different ways and in different contexts." Allison Hitt When I think of Universal Design (UD) the rainbow comes to mind. To me, a rainbow symbolizes a group of individual colors bound together to make one overarching bridge. It is as simple as everyone identifying as one of the colors, connecting themselves to another person/color for a common interest. Resistan ce only makes things harder for of all us ; working toge ther welcomes harmony.   Allison Hitt, author of "Access for All: The Role of Dis/Ability in Multiliteracy Centers" believes writing pedagogy should support multi l iteracies that are accessible to a diverse range of students . As a future educator, I am inclined to agree with her and apply this to all forms of pedagogy. I f teachers spend more time thinking about all learning styles instead of student diagnoses t...

"Black English (BE) -- a linguistic variety of English that is socially stigmatized and is spoken by many, though certainly not all, African Americans" - Denise Troutman So here we go again with the labeling, stigma, and race attached to a style of discourse. Why do the labels African American Vernacular English and BE exist? And why do many people believe these labeled languages are specific to a single race or urban population? (Believe me, they are people in every racial group that use such language.) Since the term "Ebonics" jumped on the scene, I cannot tell you how many conversations I have engaged in regarding users of slang, who they are, and why they disgust prescriptivists. I absolutely loathe all the terms that are meant to describe the slang used by a single ethnic group -- especially when used as a tool of separation to highlight ignorance. They are written loosely in articles and discussions about spoken and written language. I find the terms of...

"We can't afford to make assumptions about our students' "intuitive" grasp of language and rhetorical effectiveness." - Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano Globalization continues to make the world seem smaller. When I read the articles in  The Times of India application on my cell phone much of the nation's news is includes major news in the US and in other countries.  As quickly as my CNN and GoogleNews apps update their national and international news, so do the foreign news sources. As a digital immigrant I find myself still amazed at how instant media can go viral. The intermingling of American news in India reminds me of the tossed salad of culture and languages that exist in the US. Educators are continuing to, voluntarily or under requirements, prepare themselves through literature, workshops, and observations for the growing number of students who they will successfully teach that have different language and ethnic backgrounds from their own. The ...

"Maintaining a stance of collaboration rather than co-authorship in the tutorial is a constant struggle." Muriel Harris Over the past few weeks I have been observing, working, and writing in the Writing Center at Temple University. As I stated in previous posts, writing centers function to improve one's writing skills and not a single document; however, every tutorial meeting is unique and lines do get blurred by tutors and tutees. I felt revisiting Muriel Harris's (1992) Collaboration Is Not Collaboration Is Not Collaboration: Writing Center Tutorials vs. Peer-Response Groups to enlighten my reflection . The sessions I have decided to write about were observed with three major questions in mind: 1. What strategies did the tutor use during the session? 2. How much did the writer participate in the session? 3. What writing techniques were suggested for future application? Prior to my observations I decided to make an attempt to observe sessions that incl...

"Writing centers are places where students struggle to connect their public and private lives, and where they learn that success in the academy depends on uncovering and understanding tacit differences in value systems and expectations." - Nancy Grimm As an individual who wants to create a writing program that assists secondary students attending public schools through developing their composition skills with collegiate tutors, it is necessary for me to prepare myself by researching successful tutorial practices. Since writing is a form of communication my goal is to help the writers I work with express what is important, relevant, and plain old interesting to them, while they discover and/or mold their authentic voices. I strive to change some people's negative attitudes towards writing to increase the number of writers who write with a passion and purpose. Collaborative and dialogue-based learning, high-ordered thinking, universally designed techniques, and cultural ...