Productive Literacies

Christopher Flores EDUC 6437 July 27 2018

About my Experience
Reading and writing have always been skills in which I have
always struggled. I have had experiences ranging from very
bad to great. All of which shaped me to continue to strive
for the best. As a student of color, with a low economic
background, there were no expectations set. This may well be
a factor to my struggle but as I matured, I knew that it
could not continue to be the reason. I will go into depth
on how relationships, basketball and a late bloomer have
been the contributing factors to my growth.
In Depth Background:
In the eyes of America, I was a African American, spanish speaking
Latino Male child, who grew up in immigrant parents.
Neighborhood that my parents were able to afford was one of the
worst in Boston, located across the street from Franklin Hill
Projects. In the 90s, this may have been the most dangerous
projects in Boston in terms of Drugs and Violence.

The schools I attended were majority children of color from low

economic backgrounds. The school reciprocated the students it
served. We lacked resources at the school, the energy in the air was
very nonchalant. This is be the foundation of all the schools I
attended in the Boston Public District.
 In many points of my Grade school career, I have
been traumatized by the way teachers have spoken
to me, how they approached me, and their attitudes
toward me. A sum of bad experiences made me into
a bitter learner. I cared little about learning. I was
rarely faced with teachers who cared.
After some years, I understood that the relationship
between teacher and student was completely
professional. Teachers came into the classroom to

“You the teacher?” teach, I came in to learn and that was it. I did
struggle in writing and reading. I keep in mind that
my experience have led to motivate me, but many of
my former classmates who endured similar neglect
have not used it in the way that benefits them.
Mood: All of Grade School
Sidenote: This was the way I approached majority of my
classes after middle school. I was mean and I was that kid
who tortured teachers. Not very proud of this and I hope
Karma does not hit me.
My Personal
encounter with In High School, majority of my teachers were women. A
majority of the women were white. It was rare to see a
‘Warm Demander’ Male of color as a teacher. Keys, who was a substitute
teacher opened my eyes to the importance of school.
Mr. Keys, after school, came out to the basketball
court and played basketball with myself and classmates of
mine. The bonding happened in the classroom and outside
the classroom. Mr. Keys was willing to spend time to play
basketball with me and my classmates. Since he was
willing, we seen him in a different light and it made room
for a different type of relationship to happen. Unlike
anything I have ever experienced, he was able to push us
like noone in the school was able to. He was a competitor
on the basketball court and it translated to the classroom.
He would say, “You really getting C’s? You average? He
ignited my competitive drive and I knew he truly meant
well.
 Bilingual Students
Bilingual Experience W/ Education
Emergent Bilinguals’ prospective will be
skewed due to what they have endure. As
an educator, I understand this and will
help in any way possible to help them
view learning in a different light if
negatively effected or add to their
positive experience with my creativity.
However, I believe majority may not
have a polite experience because
schooling has not catered to their
specific needs. Unfortunately, This will
have marginalized the students in ways
that I can only imagine.
Approach to Practice
● Given my experience, I can
understand different
possibilities in which some of
them may come from.
● Its imperative that I approach
their learning from an additive
prospective. (Garcia, 2009)
● Strategies to utilize are CLA
(Alim, 2010), Dialogic
Reasoning (Proctor et al. 2010)
● Engaging in classroom
discourse, It is important to
acknowledge that they all are
unique and their backgrounds
are essential to their growth in 40% English and native language, which is
education. phased out….
 Course topic and Reflection
Alim (2010) Critical Language Analysis theory, to me, is more than just a theory. We have discussed
this in one of the class group discussions and I felt that this was not met with the proper mindset. The
idea that our language in the classroom is perpetuating the “Whiteness” ideology is a fact. However,
surface thinking tells us, this is a “white teacher to student of color” issue. In fact, teachers of color
can also be a culprit in speaking and teaching “whiteness”. In schools, much like the study performed
by Alim (2010), are dominated by students of color whom are meet daily with “Whiteness, delivered by
teachers black and white. Since, Curriculum was geared for white children, history books are mainly
about white people, and teaching programs have not made social justice a pillar have secured a
disadvantage for students of color. The gap widens because there are educators who have been
teaching thus far whom are not conscious about their language. This affects all marginalized groups.
Going into my practice, I am critical about how I view a couple things; 1) their language 2) their
culture and 3) Their experiences thus far and lastly 4) how I engage with the students. Becoming a
warm demander and setting high standards, along with pushing my colleagues to be critical will be a
focus of mine going forward.
 References
Alim, H. S. (2010) ‘Critical Language Awareness’ in N.H Hornberger and S.L. McKay (eds), Sociolinguistics and language education.
Bristol: Language Matters 205-231

Hammond, Z., & Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among
culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Pierson, Rita. “Every Kid Needs a Champion.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED, May 2013,
www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion.
Proctor, C.P., Boardman, A., & Hiebert, E.F. (Eds.) (2016). Teaching Emergent Bilingual Students: Flexible approaches in an era of new
standards. New York: Guilford.

García, O., & Garcia, O. (2009)The sociopolitical of bilingualism. Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective,