Anotated Biblography

Hollie, Sharroky. “Acknowledging the Language of African American Students: Instructional Strategies.” The English Journal 90.4 (2000): 54-59. 27 Mar 2009.

This journal discusses the results of the Linguistic Affirmation Program. This program is set up to acclimate a wide variety of non Standard English speakers to the dialect and build a sense of comfort for when they are required to use it in their lives. The article discusses how the language is viewed by these pupils as they are being put through the different steps which they are being submitted to.


Jonsberg, Sara D. " Whats a white teacher to do about black English." English Journal Vol 90. No 4. (2001): 51-52. 27 Mar 2009.

This journal discusses the stigma that accompanies the use of AAVE in a classroom setting. This piece was slightly different than others that we have been exposed to because in this setting the teacher was presented with a number of students who had a firm grasp of both Standard English and AAVE. The students understand that their relaxed, natural way of speaking brings about specific consequences and stereotypes so they avoid using it altogether in the classroom setting. The teacher discusses ways of trying to integrate their dialect into the curriculum in a way that the students feel portrays it in a positive light.


Rickford , John R.. "African American English and Other." Journal of English Linguistics Vol 32. No 3. (2004): 230-320. 28 Mar 2009.

This journal discusses the interest that is shown by many teachers in the field on the subject of teaching AAVE in the classroom setting. A substantial number of references have been gathered to discuss this topic in an in depth manner. Although this piece does not give specific examples of work in the classroom it does discuss how AAVE as well as other dialects have been treated in the past and should be treated in the future.


Whitney, Jessica. "Five Easy Pieces: Steps toward Integrating AAVE into the
Classroom." English Journal 94 (2005): 64-69. 27 Mar. 2009.

This journal primarily discuses the difficulties that Jessica Whitney encountered while teaching her class. Because Whitney was a white, non native AAVE speaker she was having tremendous difficulty trying to teach the class in a way that the students could relate to. After attempting many different techniques and schemes she finally came up with a teaching plan that she found to be effective. This journal focuses on the different steps she has documented for teaching AAVE in the classroom.

DW3b

Sara Dalmas Jonsberg describes the problems that follow trying to teach AAVE in the classroom in her journal titled “What’s a (White) Teacher to Do about Black English?” The article describes how Jonsberg has encountered difficulties getting her students to use and embrace their knowledge of AAVE in the classroom for a number of reasons. Jonsberg was fortunate enough to have the ability to work with a number of students who had a solid understand of both Standard English and Black English. These students felt like the use of their natural Black English in the classroom gave their teacher an impression that they were uneducated and inferior. Since they knew that their teacher was not a natural in AAVE they felt their work would be judged and graded harshly because of the languages differences. Jonsberg discovered that the students had developed such a strong knowledge of Standard English because they were so concerned about the consequences the followed the use of their other language. The teacher realized that something needed to be done to break the stigma the students felt from the use of AAVE. In order to try and inspire some sense of spirit behind their natural language Jonsberg began to show the students inspirational pieces from James Baldwin, Theresa Perry and other influential writers in that field. Jonsberg hopes that through educating the next generation to embrace their language that some of the fear that comes with using it in all aspects of life will begin to fade away. She hopes that once the fear begins to fade, the stereotypes and misconceptions will fade as well. This article does a very good job of discussing the issue in a way we haven’t looked at too specifically. Rather than worry about how the outside world views the use of AAVE in the classroom this document actually looks at the student’s opinion on the topic. This article truly shows how difficult of issue educators in this field have been faced with. How can these educators be expected to effectively teach the students when the students are afraid to even learn in some situation. It certainly seems to be an uphill battle for the teachers. I think that this take on the subject is very interesting and I would like to find more sources that discuss this issue from this point of view.

DW3a

For this assignment I chose to work with the reading selection by Ramsey titled “Teaching the Teachers”. In this piece we are presented with the idea that no single dialect is superior over all the others. However because of their distinct differences some dialects give their users an advantage depending on the situation. For example the use of AAVE and other dialects that differ from Standard English were found to have a negative impact in the workplace and interview setting, and their use can even result in the loss of jobs. Because this concept has been realized by most education institutions, teachers now attempt to teach their students Standard English to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately there is no one uniform rule that explains how to teach Standard English to students. Often when the teachers try to correct their students writing and rhetoric they go about it all wrong. In schools the teacher’s focus was said to be too focused on grammar and not enough on comprehension. It is all fine and well if you can complete an in class worksheet, but the real test is presented when the students are asked to use their Standard English in the real world. When the students were required to compose papers the mix of the AAVE dialect they believed they were familiar with and the Standard English they had been taught in class combined to form very poorly written papers. This problem is said to be so prevalent because the students simply do not know what they need to do to integrate the two dialects to create a good paper. According to Ramsey the solution to this problem is for the teachers to teach the basics of writing a paper that can apply to any dialect rather than focusing on unique dialect techniques. Understanding the qualities of a paper such as organization and solid paragraph formation are necessary to write a good paper no matter what language or dialect you are comfortable with. Overall I don’t think this selection argues that the use of AAVE in composition is the best choice. Instead it tries to make the case that the use of Standard English by speakers of AAVE is not a selling out of their culture. In cases where the students have a desire to learn Standard English the problem often lies on the teachers end. Ramsey claims that if the teachers are not encouraging of the students then it is very difficult to expect results from the students.