Entry #1 (CG)

Late to the game, but here nonetheless!

A recurring thought or theme I found apparent in the first set of readings was the formation of identity. When I read Mellix, I thought back to similar experiences while I worked at Disneyland and attended college. I went from being comfortable in my home town community that shared similar cultural experiences and literacies as I did to entering a melting pot of cultures and discovering new discourses that I'd never enter otherwise. Sometimes, I found it very hard to enter conversations with other people because I did not share in their experiences. Although Mellix discusses a back-and-forth between formal and informal English, I still connect to her in a similar sense when I was trying to establish my identity between juggling school and academia, working at Disneyland, and attempting to involve myself with people who did not share my own experiences. I felt like I spoke my own language that others could not understand, and that frustrated me deeply because I wanted my voice to be heard and understood. I tried imagining how many students enter the classroom feeling like they cannot enter the conversation because they have never been exposed to the conversations or experiences being dominated by the teacher or other students.  

Shen further discusses identity within the process of breaking apart from her old identity into a new, Western identity. Students, like teachers, wear many "hats" or identities at once (both inside and outside the classroom) never realizing that formulating a singular identity is the culmination of a perfect balance between these hats. Personally, I don't try to distinguish my teacher persona as any different than my student persona or my personal persona because I have learned to be confident enough and knowledgeable enough to know when I must differentiate between them, and I think that is the balance that Shen alludes to. Further, whereas Mellix explores the power dynamics between the formal and informal, Shen showcases similar power dynamics between the illogical vs alogical approaches to writing as well as how Western pedagogical approaches can undermine or devalue non-Western approaches. Shen really blew my mind and made me self-conscious about the way I impede the writing process of my students who may have been taught one way while I try to get them to write in my way. I am equally frustrated because now I also feel sheltered or cut off from knowing different global perspectives to types of writing, like yijing. Shen helped me consider identity on a deeper level than simply overburdening students to "be creative... but not like that."

Above all, these readings made me contemplate the way teachers help students form their identities through writing. Personally, it does not help me to think, "Oh, just let them express themselves creatively," or, "Let them be open to write what they want." These readings do remind me to think of students like people who have a strong understanding of their own identities and literacies, and honing those literacies and teaching them more-so that their voice has power must be more beneficial than approaching their learning process as something other than wrong or simply "just not it." Easier said than done, right?  

CG

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