Gee Units 3 and 4

10/30/13


I really liked the Theoretical Tools in Unit 4.  Of course, they made me think of my Reading Recovery group.  Especially when he talked about intertextuality.  When I think back to my pilot project, where I talked with Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders about their experiences of PD and I observed PD sessions, there were so many references to Clay's text or to common experiences we had all had together.  Because I had once been affiliated with that group, I had the insider perspective and could understand the text references.  Had someone else been doing a similar study on this same group, many of those references would have been lost.

The Big D discourses are also part of the RR group.  There are certain ways we use language and certain ways we think together that only happen in that group.  I don't use the same kind of language in any other context - even when it is other teachers and we are doing a PD kind of thing.  What our regional RR group has created together is really unique - specific to all of us that have worked together over the years to construct it.  It is interesting to go to reading conferences and meet other Reading Recovery Teacher Leader groups.  Though we use the same common text and have similar training requirements etc., we are REALLY different in how we talk and engage and what we place more emphasis on in how we work with kids and teachers.  I think that is pretty fascinating.

Early in the reading, I can't remember where exactly....I remember thinking about context and knowing that it DOES matter.  There are certain people who have been mentors to me through the years - and I actually think differently in their presence.  I can feel a shift, and I am on some higher plane with them, because of them.  One was a grad student I worked with when I was an undergrad.  Her name was Jean Hunt, and she got her PhD in the Psychology department years ago.  We would have these really interesting conversations, and I would never know what we were going to talk about.  She was brilliant and I think that my thinking was changed just when I was around her.  Another was my former title 1 director, Denise Wilburn (she wrote the Mismeasure of Education book with Jim Horn) - same thing happened with her.  I thought differently in her presence.   And now, with Sue Duncan, a co-worker of mine at GSU.  So, I think that context does matter, but how do you talk about it, how do you even address it?   I can't explain why it happens (the thinking shift) I just know that it does.

I liked GEE better this time.  Maybe it was the theoretical tools?  I also do really like his examples and the questions after.  It would be interesting to talk to people in class about some of those passages (if we had time).  Would be interesting to hear people and their different takes on things.