| I invite students to explore their language as they | | | | classroom, varieties that reflect students' textual |
| write, the language that is most natural and | | | | worlds, and in my approach, they form the basis for |
| comfortable, as well as the varieties they know or | | | | instruction in academic writing. |
| have heard but may not have used as writers. This is | | | | The following are some samples of writing that I use |
| their opportunity to write about topics that matter | | | | to open discussions of language and difference: |
| to them in ways that seem fitting and natural. I bring | | | | I walked into the room. My drawer was open. |
| in samples of writing I've collected showing different | | | | Something was lying beside it. White. That's when I |
| genres and styles—samples for analysis and | | | | saw it. The torn sock. My brand new one. I searched |
| discussion, illustrating different genres of writing as | | | | the room. Behind me. Then in front. Finally, I spotted |
| well as dialectal varieties (e.g., ads, blogs, IMs, | | | | her. She lay on the other side of my bed. Ah, Hah! |
| cartoons, dramatic dialogue, letters to the editor, | | | | Her tail was down and her face was stained in guilt. It |
| excerpts from fiction such as Alice Walker's The | | | | was Ecstacy, my pit bull. Another pair of my new |
| Color Purple, excerpts from nonfiction such as Lee | | | | socks bite the dust!—DH, student writer |
| Tonouchi's Da Word). I want students to sample the | | | | Laurie wuz my friend, not by choice, more by default. |
| range of their choices (see, e.g., Lovejoy). Julie | | | | She came our school from Oregon fourt' grade time. |
| Hagemann, in "A Bridge from Home to School: Helping | | | | Since den da teachers always put us together in da |
| Working Class Students Acquire School Literacy," | | | | smaht group. I mostly only talked to her in class, |
| writes about an overt pedagogy that values the | | | | recess time I cruised wit my friends. We got along |
| home language Tag Heuer Replica of nonmainstream | | | | pretty good, except fo' da fack dat she wuz |
| English users, but she places all the emphasis on | | | | competitive, dat wuz one of her idiosyncrasies. Das |
| code-switching, making students aware of their | | | | my new word I wen learn.—nonfiction, from |
| language and how it varies from Standard English, and | | | | Tonouchi's Da Word. |
| she argues that doing so makes students less | | | | FR. HI-SPD INT. SND. MSGS. FASTR. GR8!— text |
| defensive about their language and more open to | | | | from an advertisement for Holiday Inn in Time |
| learning the conventions of academic English. This is a | | | | magazine It fascinates me how differently we all |
| useful strategy for some kinds of writing, but I | | | | speak in different circumstances. We have levels of |
| would argue that we need to make explicit how | | | | formality, as in our clothing. There are very formal |
| students can use their language without all the fuss | | | | occasions, often requiring written English: the job |
| about code-switching. | | | | application or the letter to the editor—the dark |
| I'm not suggesting that this kind of writing replace | | | | suit, serious-tie language with everything pressed and |
| more formal writing in which students learn the forms | | | | the lint brushed off. There is our less formal |
| and conventions of academic writing. I devote most | | | | out-in-the-world language—a more comfortable |
| class time to these more formal kinds of writing, and | | | | suit, but still respectable. There is language for close |
| I make it clear to students that code-switching in | | | | friends in the Tag Heuer Replica Watches evenings, |
| writing is often necessary. But I don't think it's | | | | on weekends—blue-jeans-and-sweat-shirt |
| irresponsible to talk about "Englishes," varieties of | | | | language, when it's good to get the tie off. There is |
| English students use every day such as African | | | | family language, even more relaxed, full of |
| American language, teen dialect (public), or a variety | | | | grammatical short cuts, family slang, echoes of old |
| associated with instant messaging, and to encourage | | | | jokes that have become intimate shorthand—the |
| writing in which they get to use Englishes other than | | | | language of pajamas and uncombed hair. Finally, there |
| Standard English. | | | | is the language with no clothes on; the talk of |
| When we discuss samples of writing in my class, we | | | | couples—murmurs, sighs, grunts—language at |
| talk about writing as situated, as having a context, | | | | its least self-conscious, open, vulnerable, and |
| and the writer's choices as purposeful. We talk about | | | | primitive.—nonfiction, from MacNeil's "English |
| Standard English, or edited American English, and | | | | Belongs to Everybody". |
| varieties of English that do not conform to such rigid | | | | With the exception of the student sample, all of |
| expectations and yet communicate powerful | | | | these are published works, and they serve to |
| meanings. I want students to understand that | | | | expand students' perceptions of "good writing" as |
| language is rich and multifaceted, capable of | | | | well as their understanding of language differences |
| expressing complex meanings in diverse ways. These | | | | and their power to communicate. |
| varieties have traditionally been barred from the | | | | |