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.