Evaluating the writing of culturally and linguistically diverse students: The case of African American Vernacular English Speaker
Arnetha F Ball
This article addressed specific grammatical structures I have seen often I student writing but marked as grammatical errors. I failed to recognize the legitamacy of AAVE. The author states "Since AAVE does not require the use of the -s present tense marking following a third person singular, Jelani does not use one in this instance." How many times have I seen this as a grammatical error without recognizing it as a structural element of another language?
As teachers, this poses a conflict. By red penning AAVE, are we taking away from the cultural expression? Would Nina Simone's song be as powerful if it was called "I Don't Have Any" instead of "Ain't Got No"? How can AAVE be appreciated while simultaneously preparing student for "mainstream" writing and speaking?
Summer Institute 1 Fellows
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I think as I read Ball's specific break down of the way AAVE rules are used in the example poem, I see the complete necessity to explicitly teach students to code switch. In doing so, you can verbalize to students WHY you would want them to use the first person singular, I am rather than I be, and make it clear that this is a DIFFERENT language, not a better one, and that both are valuable. I would state in high school things like, this is about writing for college, or writing for a newspaper, and in these contexts, what Ball calls "global English" is necessary. THis year, I hope to more explicitely show students that they are in fact speaking AAVE, a language, which is rooted in African languages, and needs to be appreciated in writing, speaking, and reading. However, I need to make clear the importance of learning global English for the purpose of speaking, writing, and reading as well. I am hoping that by explicitely teaching the differences and explicitely creating spaces for where the language can be celebrated, then students may be more willing to deliberately code switch in writing and speaking, which hopefully will help when they read global English.
The easiest place for celebration of AAVE is poetry and fiction with writers who write in AAVE, Nikki Giovanni sometimes, Sonia Sanchez, and Zora Neal Hurston (although this is a different southern dialect). It's interesting actually, even though my students speak AAVE, they sometimes have trouble reading it through because they don't recognize the what they language written down looks like.Also, August Wilson writes in AAVE, and it causes students trouble when reading. However, the language is celebrated by August Wilson. It is difficult to help students make these connections and hard to motivate them to code switch in writing or speaking when it doesn't seem necessary.
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