· Scott Richard Lyons’ “Rhetorical Sovereignty: What do American Indians want from Writing?”
o Lyons writes, “In order to fulfill these expectations in writing, we should encourage multilingual students to looks at the text/context connection in a different way. Texts are not simply context-bound or context sensitive. They are context-transforming. It is for this reason that students should not treat rules and conventions as given or predefined for specific contexts and texts. They should think of texts and discourses as changing and changeable” (603).
· While Lyons aims his focus primarily on American Indian students, I think that his words can be applied to all students in America. Every time I teach a novel or a short story, I always ask my students to not think of the work separate from everything else they’ve ever read or been exposed to. Every student comes to the table with prior knowledge; it is my job as a teacher to work with that prior knowledge to build new and meaningful knowledge. Multilingual students are always challenging/fun to work with because they usually have prior knowledge so unique from others that incorporating that prior knowledge and learning process can be quite an experience. Working with students of all races, ethnicities, understandings, and knowledge can be difficult, but it also can be a very rewarding experience, for all involved.
· Bruce Horner, Min-Zhan Lu, Jacqueline Jones Royster, and John Trimbur’s “Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach”
o The authors write, “The translingual approach encourages reading with patience, respect for perceived differences within and across languages, and an attitude of deliberative inquiry. Likewise, a translingual approach questions language practices more generally, even those that appear to conform to dominant standards” (304).
§ Once again, I think that all teachers and students could benefit from this model. In my program, we are taught to approach any type of reading with the same respect, but it does make sense that translingual reading would need more attention. Teachers today get so caught up in texts that they are familiar and comfortable with, but they sometime neglect to take into consideration what the students (as a class and individually) want to read. Looking deeper into what your students need—multilingual or not—will prove to be beneficial for everyone involved and make for a more successful classroom.
Kelly, I completely agree with your first point. I think a key term in Lyons' view of the idea of literacy is transferability. These things, ideas, skills, etc... are not stagnant pieces of information meant to stand out in students' minds as wholly different from everything else. We must, as teachers, direct students to combine what knowledge/information/skill they already have with new knowledge/information/skills so that they can come to a wholistic understanding of what it is they are learning. And, I think, furthermore, it is this idea of autonomy or teaching students how to teach themselves, that is/should be our number one priority. I always try to think of my job as an educator not in terms of "teaching students," but in the terms of "directing students how to teach themselves." I mean, yes, I definitely DO want them to have an appreciation for literature, writing, the English word; however, I see a main and more important goal in teaching them the skills they need in order to teach/learn themselves. Shakespeare will not help them in the "real world" if that is not part of their chosen profession, but the understanding of how to learn new skills in relation to Shakespeare definitely WILL help them in all aspects of their future lives.
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