Quote: "When our students write, they draw on cultural experiences they have had in their lives. They may come from different parts of the globe, and then sit within an urbanized space." (Pahl, 9)
Comment: In the quote above it describes the classroom as being 'an urbanized space', which I found to be very appropriate. Throughout this country, there are thousands of cities or 'urbanized spaces'. Each city is popluated with hundreds, thousands, even millions of people. It is these people that make their city unique from others. They each bring in their own culture and their own identities, which interact and mix with those around them. Our future classrooms are similar to these cities. Students will begin to 'urbanize' our city or classroom and with that bring in different cultures, personalities and exeperiences. Once we realize that each student will be a contributing factor of making the classroom special, we will truly begin to understand and appreciate them. Through this understanding and appreciation we can begin to create a community that has an inviting and safe environment; something vital to a child's learning needs.
Question: In the quote it mentions that each student will write about things they know; things from their culture. As a teacher can we make our classroom so inviting and safe that the students begin to write about the things they experience in the classroom as if it were something from their culture? How can we make the classroom domain become as comfortable as the home domain? How can we make each students learning experience as unique as their identity?
I really liked the quote you chose. It is very true that children will take the classroom and make it their own. I think as teachers we just need to allow students to feel comfortable in the classroom to allow them to feel they can write openly.
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