Quote: "Discourses can represent the ways we signal our identities. Our ways of dressing, speaking and acting all signal our membership of different identities in practice. Gee considered that people can occupy different, or multiple identities, in relation to the different discourse communities we occupy. We might be a parent in one context, a teacher in another, a member of a band in another. We can move between these identities as we go about our life." (Pahl, 17)
Comment: I believe that literacy is one way that many people define themselves. The literacy of playing video games, reading music, or knowing computers places us in separate categories. This is one way we are able to organize our world. It is also true that students will take these different discourses, and will need help to place themselves into different discourses depending on their surroundings.
Question: How can we as teachers help children to create positive identities and feelings about themselves through the students' discourses?
As teachers, we need to encourage our students to take in their experiences and grow from them to help become the person they want to become. I think in our society, we focus too much on how we identify one another, whether it is by the clothes we wear, how we speak, who we surround ourselves with or even the color of our skin. Children need to know, that these things don't define them, but the experiences they have and what they learn from them is what defines them. We as teachers need to help children find the good and positive in the experiences they have in the different discourses they experience. From there they can create those positive feelings and identities.
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