Response: Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High

It is interesting how our reading of this text comes right on the heels of Other People's Words by Victoria Purcell-Gates. A striking similarity was the discourse of the school administrators with regards to the students who have and those who have not. The cookies and the urban Appalachians are similar because they are perceived as invisible by the dominate society. It is clear we have a greater responsibility as educators. As teachers we have taken on the role as literary sponsers whether we embrace term or not. Deborah Brandt makes a solid point in Literacy and Learning (25) that as sponsers we enable or surpress the literacy of students and the cookies and the Appalachians are certainly having their literacy surpressed. These texts made me wonder, how can I keep from making the same assumptions that these others educators have made? What strategies do I have to keep me in check so that I may engage all of my students and not the priviledged few?
I noticed the types of books that the cookies and the queens were reading, however I didn't get a sense of what the class was reading as a whole. Class time reading of multiple genres would be the opportune time to engage the girls in texts that will challenge them socially, open them up culturally and change the discourse that prevails in enviornments that place them into a marginalized category. I see Mr. Stone's satisfaction that the class is reading in two ways. First, he has achieved in creating a specified time when the class can select a book of their own and quietly read. No one in the class seems to give him a hard time about it. In his mind, this is successful use of class time and there is a sense of pride in his response "...But see. They are all reading." (16) It seems a little self congratulatory to me. It is as if he believes he has accomplished something that is hard to acheive with middle school students. Secondly, in carving out this niche of quiet time, he inadvertently allows them to see which texts he reaches for during his spare moments. Although the author doesn't say it, I'm comfortable with believing his students are keen to what reading he is drawn to and base their selections on what they see their sponsor doing. I'd like to read this article in it's entirety as I wonder if the author touches on what texts the language arts program in Northern Hills share as a class.
What is most interesting is that in observing this school for a year Ms. Finders is now reassessing her evaluation of the school and "the pedagogy that(she)had so completely embraced." (117) How can you not respect someone who after 13 years of teaching language arts in junior high and serves as a supervisor of teachers has had shift in thinking about the pedagogy of students? The teachers have become comfortable in the beliefs of the myths of middle school students and they seem not to notice what affect it has on their students and their teaching. Ms. Finders does.