Thoughts on “The Politics of Correction”
“How can I help kids gain fluency in Standard English – the language of power – without obliterating the home language which is a source of pride and personal voice?” – Linda Christensen
For a recent school improvement day, the English staff at my school was asked to read “The Politics of Correction: How We Can Nurture Students in Their Writing and Help Them Learn the Language of Power” by Linda Christensen. Now, I have read many, many articles about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and English Language Learners and English Only legislation. I’ve read many, many articles about how students who have grown up learning Standard English – predominantly students who are white and/or middle-to-upper class – have an unfair advantage over students learning other vernaculars when it comes to taking state tests and other state standards. So much of these articles, however, were simply theory, and finally, after reading this article, I felt someone had finally written about what we, as teachers, can do to help these students.
Personally, with the way the state standards are at this time, I believe that there has to be a way to help students learn how to code switch – talk and write in their own vernacular with friends and family, but talk and write in Standard English when appropriate. In her article, Christensen posits a few solutions to this issue that made sense to me. She begins by discussing students she sees every day who are “handcuffed” by their inability to use Standard English – the language of power. She fears they will leave school and be afraid to speak up in public meetings or write letters of outrage over policies because they “talk wrong.” In this way, she justifies teaching her students Standard English; it is not just because of the state tests that they need to learn this vernacular, but because of future instances in which they may need to be able to use Standard English.
So how do we effectively help students feel comfortable about their writing and proud of their heritages while teaching them the “language of power?” Christensen says we must start by telling the students what they’re doing correctly. If they have a particularly powerful image in their writing, for example, regardless of grammar, we need to get them to explore that image and expand it. Once they start writing great images and descriptive paragraphs, then start focusing on one grammatical “error” at a time. Perhaps these errors are really errors – Christensen uses the example of helping a student master capitalization. Perhaps these errors are logical errors from their home language. To illustrate this, Christensen uses the following example:
In my student Larry’s narrative about shoes, for example, I needed to keep track of his patterns of punctuation errors, but I also had to help him understand when he used features of AAVE:
“Them old Chuck Taylor high top nasty looking Converse these are the ugliest shoes I had ever seen. I thought as I put them on. ‘Mom why I have to wear these ugly shoes.’ My mom say they was in style. ‘Larry be quiet these are in style right now.’ ‘I don’t see how they raggedy.'”
While Larry made some basic errors in punctuation, many of his “mistakes” correctly use the grammar structure of AAVE. This can be difficult for a teacher without a linguistic background to understand. As Geneva Smitherman noted in her groundbreaking book Talkin’ and Testifyin’, “Linguistically speaking, the greatest differences between contemporary Black and White English are on the level of grammatical structure.” It looks like Larry’s errors are simply grammatical, but if a teacher studied the grammar of AAVE, she would recognize that he follows many of the linguistic features of black vernacular.
For Larry, simply correcting these grammar errors without acknowledging their roots in his home language is not only inefficient, it sets Standard English up as the “correct language” and AAVE as wrong. Larry needed to understand how he was transferring the “logic” of his home language into the sentence structure of Standard English, and he needed to know how and when to change that.
What Christensen does after identifying an error is type up a page for each student that looks somewhat like this:
This sample identifies the student, the grammar used, the error that needs correcting, and examples from the student’s paper. She saves these pages on her computer and, every time she collects something from the students, she prints out the page and hands it back to the student instead of marking up the papers. This method works in a few ways. First, it does not tell the student he or she is wrong, but acknowledges that he or she is using a home language rather than Standard English, but makes it clear that Standard English is appropriate in this situation. Second, it puts the onus on the students to make corrections. This helps them learn more than a paper that has been marked up that the student may glance at and throw away or put into a folder never to be seen again. Third, as soon as a student has mastered the one error on which she has focused, she moves on to another error. This makes the corrections and learning more manageable for the students.
I love this method. Sure, it may take some work on the front-end to set up pages for all of the students, but once they are typed up and saved on the computer, it takes very little time to update the pages and print them out. I also love that this method of correction does not set Standard English as “right” and any other vernacular as “wrong,” but simply notes the differences between the two and helps the students understand when to use both.
Now, I wonder if it’s too late in the year already to start this!
Pingback:Thoughts on "The Politics of Correction" | Small Strokes
I think this is really fascinating, and that approaching this as an issue of code-switching–choosing the appropriate grammar and syntax for a given situation–rather than making it one of right vs. wrong empowers students–they can understand language and use it to their advantage, rather than feeling limited by what they know.
However, I think escaping the right vs. wrong paradigm is really, really difficult! Even in this example, Christensen writes “AAVE drops the ‘s’ on the verb when you use she or he”–implying that there’s an “s” just there to be dropped.
This still suggests that SE grammar is “primary” and that AAVE grammar is a variation on or deviation from that. And maybe that’s OK–I guess that’s pretty much what a vernacular grammar is–a regularized, commonly used deviation from a abstract “standard” language. The important thing in this case is, of course, the emphasis on one or the other being correct or incorrect. Definitely not trying to be antagonistic, just realizing how very difficult it is to avoid prioritizing one grammatical structure over another.
Thanks, Becky!
Code-switching is an important thing for students to understand, and I think teachers don’t teach it as such. But even the President code-switches! (I’ve heard news stories about just that!)
I do agree that this suggests that SE grammar is “primary,” but if that’s what’s going to be on the test, shouldn’t it be taught as the primary grammar style in school? But you’re right, primary vs. correct is a very important distinction. And maybe SE isn’t the primary grammar style for the students, but maybe it should be the primary grammar taught in school? I’m not sure! I don’t have all the answers to these questions, and probably never will. 🙂
Great post, Ashley! About 90-95% of my students are African American, and all of them use at least a bit of AAVE when speaking and writing. Helping them use Standard English more frequently and with more accuracy can be extremely stressful for a teacher whose district is desperately trying to meet AYP in comm. arts. This post gave me some new strategies to think about that will not only be sensitive to my students’ culture but help them think more in depth about the inner workings of their home language and SE as well. I think giving higher level students some of the responsibility for creating their cards and perhaps working with students who have more difficulty would also be an effective way to give the kids ownership over the language. My kids pride themselves on the way they speak, and I know they get frustrated with the SE rules. I think having them be involved in recognizing and even educating me on the rules of AAVE would not only make them feel proud but help us work as a team in the mastery of their language – both AAVE and SE.
Hey Sara! Glad you found us here! And thanks for your comment!
The article was fascinating, especially because I, too, teach in a school where there are several different home vernaculars being used. You try to teach SE, but you don’t want to say one way of speaking is “right” and another is “wrong.” I think the students understand this, but I think it is also frustrating for them when they are constantly being corrected without a reason.
I LOVE the idea of having students take some of the responsibility for making their own cards! I’ve also read a few things about having folders with worksheets on common grammar errors at the front of the room and having students look up their errors and fix them themselves. Any time you can put some of the onus on the students, it helps them learn better. If you give this a try, please let me know how it goes!
Love the article Ashley! I like any method that puts onus on the student to make corrections. I am still working on getting to that point with my students, but I would like to use this method at some point. My issues lie mostly with Spanish-speaking students rather than AAVE, but I feel like it would work the same.
PS It’s never too late in the year to start something!
I did start having the kids write journals about whatever they want and without lookin for grammar errors. It’s been fun learning more about them and responding to them has really helped to build relationships with them! It’s interesting, though, that I tell the. I’m not looking for grammar, yet their written grammar is still very good. Maybe they’re just writing well because they choose their own subjects. Maybe it’s because the pressure is off. Who knows! But it works!
Pingback:Equality 101 » Blog Archive » Standard English Privilege and Teaching
Hi Ashley, I was looking up a description for my talk, and I found your block. I’m happy to see how this strategy has been embraced by others and how you are using it. Be well, Linda Christensen
It’s a fascinating concept and something I think about often while grading papers and writing about teaching.