Given the article we read for yesterday and the two epilogues in our edition of the book, WwW clearly has a life of its own due to such a large readership. This has probably been a blessing and a curse to Heath as a researcher. What an interesting thing to constantly be expected to publicly reflect on a work that you wrote so long ago.
On Learners as Ethnographers: "We do that everyday, and so do our students" (339).
This quote captures 0ne of the major themes of the book. That some teachers' methods of instruction are stripped of context, and therefore, don't make use of the students' already developed keen sense of their environments and the language used in them. One concern often expressed by teachers is that they can't know every student as much as they wish they could or they don't have time to use student generated research. But the methods used by some of the teachers in WwW show differently. Using ethnographic methods gives students an academic space to share their lives and what they see, and by making better use of their rhetorical skills, creates a more productive learning environment than other methods that don't respond to the school/home literacy gap. This teaches studenrs how to make use of the gap.
Writing Fieldnotes
15 years ago
1 comment:
Robin-
Really great overall insight to Heath's ethnography: "Using ethnographic methods gives students an academic space to share their lives and what they see, and by making better use of their rhetorical skills, creates a more productive learning environment"
I always like your perspectives. Could I borrow your brain a few times a week?
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