Karen Paine - Ch 5 - Peley's Sensitivity

Schmidtheads:

What I have noticed throughout the book and particularly in Chapter 5, is the author's ignorance of Peley's obvious physical sensitivity. For the Christmas assignment, the students were to make a piece of art that they would give to their parents as a "Christmas present." The project required the students to place the entire surface of both palms in glue and print them on construction paper that was decorated with a pre-printed poem. Peley resisted this project. Mrs. Starr had to physically place Peley's hand in the glue herself, all the while Peley exclaiming "yuk yuk." In fact, after the project, "Peley continued making her 'Yuk' sounds and quickly washed her hands after the imprint' (page 78). Ruggiano-Schmidt stated that Peley was not happy about placing her hands in the paste because "a Christmas gift for her parents was meaningless." I definite agree that this was one reason why Peley was displeased with the project. But neither Peley's teacher, nor Peley's observer, questioned whether a physical sensitivity was a factor in Peley's resistance.

Illustration (Chapter 1-4)

First four chapters: Susan Schuler (Chapters 1-4)

The first four chapters had a lot of information to take in.
Reading about the teacher's reaction or more aptly said, non reaction, to what is happening in the classroom, my first reaction is to wonder just how much attention she is paying to her students. My second reaction is to think what if I end up like that? Not noticing the issues going on right under my own nose? It's one thing to not do something properly and to notice and learn from it. But to do something wrong and not even know or realize...
I wonder what her reaction was, what everyone's reaction was to how they were portrayed in the book? Did they learn from it, did they change the way they did things?
Another thought that ran through my head while reading this was to think that this was written back in the nineties and keeping in mind the editing process and the actual observation, these children were children in early nineties or even late eighties. Where are they now? What are Raji and Peley doing now? Did their social problems get better through the years? Did they even complete school?
Did anyone else think about this?

ElizabethF. -Cultural Differences are important to recognize, include and utilize in literacy education (Chapters 1-4) Blog#2

When I read the first four chapters of this book I had to keep reminding myself that this teacher wasn’t in the benefit of the hindsight view that the reader has, nor the cultural background of the family life of each of these students’ Peley and Raji.

I found that I thought, wait, she is missing a teaching opportunity here! There are many times when I thought the teacher should have talked about these two classmates cultures, and have them shared and used as a chance to learn about a different place in the world and that the world is so much larger than the average kindergartner knows.

In particular I thought that when Raji would leave the class to be in India for a few months that the teacher should have told the class that he was leaving for his nature country and let them ask questions about that. Then Raji and the teacher could supply answers. It seemed to me that this would have helped Raji with being included, rather than further excluded, because the other children just made their own assumptions that Raji was missing school and just having fun while they all still had to attend, creating a dislike.

“It seems apparent that the classroom teacher who creates a literacy learning environment that promotes social connections and encourages the understanding of different social patterns contributes to children’s literacy learning.” (Schmidt pg3).Mooney’s text “Theories of Childhood” shows that Vygotsky found the “primary contribution to our understanding of young children’s development is his understanding of the importance of interaction with teachers and peers in advancing in children’s knowledge” (Mooney, pg 83). This is key in explaining why Peley and Raji are not advancing in their language development as well as they could be. They are experiencing isolation and peer rejection and it’s hindering them. The matter of fact is that the peers don’t understand Peley or Raji’s behaviors well, nor do the teachers. If there was more family cultural background conducted then some of the ‘odd behaviors’ could be explained as a breach in cultural experiences in their homes, their native countries and school environment. It’s being missed by the teacher because some improvements are seen but deeper understanding is not there. This book shows how important that element is.

If I were Peley or Raji I would really be discouraged and frustrated and as such young children they aren’t likely to know to speak out for themselves with their words. There is no praise for Raji’s talents and Peley is completely misunderstood. This would make a love of learning hard for anyone when there is so much conflict experienced over and over.

We are all becoming more of a 'global community' as technology and travel have made it easier to prevent cultural isolation or immigration. Understanding conflicts in culture become that more important of a topic for teachers to be aware of.

Elizabeth Francescotti - Rigorous Researcher (Chapters 1-4)

As the rigorous researcher, I tried to get a little more acquainted with the cultures of Peley and Raji.

Cambodia is located in South East Asia and is between Thailand and Vietnam. Culturally most Cambodians are Buddhists. And interestingly, Birthdays are not big events like in the West. People of the older Cambodian generation may not even know their date of birth as many lost their birth certificates during the Khmer Rouge Years. This was a period of war torn times. So culturally, the year of the birth is know and birthdays aren’t stressed as highly important events like it is in the U.S.

“India is a land of diversities. This diversity is also visible in the spheres of religion. The major religions of India are Hinduism (majority religion), Islam (largest minority religion), Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith”( http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/paintings/index.html)

As far as art work goes nature is a very common theme and is something Raji demonstrates with his intricate floral designs. Unfortunately this cultural feature leads his talented artwork neglected and instead he is called “girly.”

Resources utilized:

Central Intelligence Agency. "https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html." The World Factbook. US Government, CIA, n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/index.html>.

"Indian Culture - Cultural India - Culture of India - Cultural Heritage of India - Cultural Attractions in India - Indian Cultural Heritage." Indian Culture - Cultural India - Culture of India - Cultural Heritage of India - Cultural Attractions in India - Indian Cultural Heritage. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2010. <http://www.culturalindia.net>.

Karen Paine - Vocabulary (Chapters 1-4))

Grapheme

A written or printed representation of a phoneme, as b for /b/ and oy for /oi/ in boy. Note: In English, a grapheme may be a single letter or a group of letters. It includes all the ways in which the phoneme may be written or printed.

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence
The relationship between a grapheme and the phoneme(s) it represents; letter-sound correspondence, as c representing /k/ in cat and /s/ in cent. Note: Technically, grapheme-phoneme correspondence refers to how letters correspond to sounds, not vice versa. Phonics as a teaching device in reading instruction concerns grapheme-phoneme correspondences-that is, how to pronounce words seen in print.

FROM: Indiana University

Karen Paine - Ch 1-4 Impressions

The cultures of Peley and Raji are not valued in school, and they are not used as a catalyst for learning with the other classmates. In chapter three, Ruggiano-Schmidt says, "neither child was introduced to literature relating to their cultural backgrounds" (page 36). In Chapter Four, regarding snack time, Ruggiano-Schmidt states that in response to Ravi's favorite foods, classmates exclaimed "Yuck!" or "I don't get it!" (page 44). If the teacher does not familiarize the students with the varying cultures represented in the classroom, then the majority culture may threaten the minority cultures.

This cultural tension is manifested in student relations. Repeatedly, Ruggiano-Schmidt mentions how incidences relating to the children's discomfort or skill go unnoticed. For instance, Raji's intricate drawing of the rocket ship, or Peley's apparent physical sensitivity to touch and textures. When there is animosity from other students there is not adequate intervention. The teachers act on a day-to-day basis and because they are focused only on daily interactions, the cumulative effect of the negative social-cultural interactions between the students, the unhappiness of Peley and Raji, is untraceable.

What is clear is that Ruggiano-Schmidt believes that without social interactions, students cannot fully display literacy learning; without cultural recognition, social interaction is nearly impossible. This is where the teacher comes in, to bridge the gap of understanding. However, Mrs. Starr never relates the social problems of Peley and Ravi with the cultural differences between home and school (page 36). "When the school program ignores or rarely makes cultural connections between home and school, cultural conflict and struggle become apparent" (page 40).