Andrews, Nolt, & Cary1

Penny Andrews, Katie Nolt, & Courtney Cary

Dr. Timothy Oleksiak
English 306
6 December 2014
Voicing: An Intersection between Race and Gender
Imagine a classroom where your words and speech are irrelevant; your voice is silenced.
For minorities and females, this is a daily occurrence in classrooms across the country.
Therefore, it is our contention that being a female and/or a minority negatively effects the
development or use of voice in the English Language Arts classroom. Without a distinguished
voice in writing, students are less likely to participate in educational experiences, become
silenced, and fall into a repeated pattern of mediocrity concerning their schooling. The
development of a voice in writing, students thoughts and self-expression become compromised.
English teachers have a professional obligation to utilize tested and researched
pedagogical methods to help develop students voice in writing and in the classroom. This is a
mission to help develop student voice for three specific reasons. Firstly, including voice
pedagogy in the classroom makes student writing more relevant to the student. Bringing in
student voice, which carries their personal interests and backgrounds, allows students to connect
with their writing. The next reason is that student voice allows students to be heard. Giving them
a space that enables them to be reflective on their experiences with their writing empowers
students to use their voice and be a more active member of their classroom community. And
lastly, including student voice pedagogies is an empowering methodology in the classroom, but
also transcends into the larger community. Developing student voice outside of the classroom
allows students to become more vocal and influential in different political, social, and communal
spheres throughout their lives.

Katie Nolt 12/10/14 11:32 AM

Comment [1]: I worked on this Annotated
Bibliography with two colleagues. We had to
work together to organize and synthesis our
individual research to fit together in one
cohesive project. By completing this project I
fulfilled NCTE standard 2.3 Demonstrates
reflective practice, professional
development, and collaboration

Katie Nolt 12/10/14 11:37 AM

Comment [2]: Through this annotated
bibliography, we researched several methods
and theories to use in the writing classroom to
help develop student voice. This research
helps me fulfill NCTE standards 3.2 Knows
oral, visual, and written literacy practices and
3.7 Knows research theory and findings in
ELA

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Three major ideas we use to illuminate our theoretical perspective are as follows:
defining voice, articulating what causes voicelessness, and researching existing methods to help
develop students voice.
The first category in our annotated bibliography dealt with defining voice. When
discussing what voice is, we looked to Eric King Watts and others to guide us. Watts defines and
explains the implications of voice used in writing. He illustrates the many definitions of voice
used in rhetoric studies, but asserts that in order for voice to be heard it must be one that is
marginalized.
The second category in our annotated bibliography is focused on voicelessness and the
factors that cause this missing element. In order to discuss what/how voicelessness manifests
itself, research was collected on the student populations that most commonly are afflicted by
voicelessness or silencing in the classroom. These demographics include students who identify
as female and racial minorities. An article that depicts this phenomenon is Muted Colors:
Gender and Classroom Silence by Elaine Fredericksen. Fredericksen articulates the social and
pedagogical forces that work to silence young females in the classroom. Another key article
includes a research study titled Do Gender Differences in Help Avoidance Vary by Ethnicity?
An examination of African American and European American Students during Early
Adolescence. The article focused on the differences among both of our key demographics,
gender and racial, which showed interesting results with student voice and the willingness for a
student to ask for help in the classroom.
Our third and final category in developing our theory is methods used to help students
find their voice in and out of the classroom. Once we developed an understanding about who is
affected by voicelessness, how they are affected, and why these particular students are silenced,

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we were then able to research methods to combat silencing and voicelessness in the ELA
classroom. One of the key studies we investigated Annette Henrys Speaking Up and
Speaking Out: Examining Voice in a Reading/Writing Program with Adolescent African
Caribbean Girls. Before she conducted her research, Henry made it clear to readers that girls of
color are the most silenced voices in the classroom. Not only is it because of social conventions,
but because assignments rarely allow them to focus on their culture. Because their culture is
ignored in the academic setting, girls of color are silenced and do not find their voice due to lack
of effort/interest. By engaging this demographic, Henry tells us we can help guide these girls
develop their voice in writing. An example of Henrys practiced methods was having her
students create a script based on their culture. By involving their culture into the dialogue, the
girls became passionate about their writing and expressed themselves freely. It is methods like
Henrys that show us how we can help students cultivate their silenced voice in our classrooms.
Category 1: What is Voice?
Christensen, Linda. "Finding Voice: Learning about Language and Power." Voices
from the Middle 16.3 (2011): 9-16. Print.
Christensen responds to the limiting of the term voice to a category on a rubric.
Voice, being word choice, tone, and syntax of a specific person or group of people,
cannot be examined outside of the social realm that it functions within. Teachers too
often approach student voice and writing with a prescriptive list of rules. However,
Christensen suggests a more holistic approach towards student voice and writing choices.
This holistic approach includes teaching students about the intersection of language and
power in society. It forces students to question their own assumptions about language
and examine the power struggles at work in our society that dictate whose voices get

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heard and whose dont. By introducing literature and essays written from a variety of
authors of different linguistic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, Christensen believes that
students can begin to understand voice and how it functions in society. Throughout these
lessons, Christensen asks her students to comment on the authors choices, specifically
when they choose to use several different linguistic variations in one text. How does the
authors use of his or her own voice to deepen the meaning of the text? In addition,
Christensen has her students study the history of Standard American English and the
linguistic control of the colonizers on the indigenous people in their languages.

The

strategies that Christensen utilizes, function to encourage students to respect their own
voice and the voices of others.
Godley, Amanda, and Allison Escher. "Bidialectal African America Adolescents' Beliefs
about Spoken Language Expectations in English Classrooms." Journal of
Adolescents & Adult Literacy 55.8 (2012): 704-713. Print.
In this article, Godley and Escher respond to the lack of literary research on
pedagogical strategies for bidialectal students. The study is designed to add to the
academic literacy of bidialectal African American students.

The study is based in

sociolinguistic theory and research. The study took place over a three-year period at an
urban high school where 99% of students are African American. The researchers sought
to collect student perspectives on the appropriate use of Standard American English
(SAE) and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the English Language Arts
(ELA) classroom. The students were given a writing prompt in their 10th grade ELA
classroom, asking them to persuade the teacher to allow AAVE in the classroom or to
only allow SAE in the classroom. This essay was given after students were introduced to

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a unit about language diversity. The essay showed that 80% of the 51 students in the
study believed that AAVE should be used to some extent in the ELA classroom.
Students in favor of this stance believed that the use of AAVE in the classroom would aid
in communication, make students feel more comfortable, and allow students to maintain
personal identity. Although many students believed that AAVE should be used in the
classroom, many still noted that there were situations that they would be judged for if
they used their native dialect or slang. They believed that if they didnt adapt their
language in a job interview, their chances of getting a job were significantly lowered.
Although they connected language choices with employment opportunities, few
connected this phenomenon with racial or social injustice.

An implication of this

observation is a lesson or more in-depth classroom discussion about the relationship

between language and power.

Additional implications of this study include, ELA

curriculums that value student and teacher perspectives on language variation, creation of
non-threatening classroom environments, and explicit teaching of effective codeswitching techniques. This study also examines how students view their own voices and
language choices in the classroom and in the workforce. Gaining this perspective can
help teachers to better equip students and help them to develop their voices further to fit
various situations.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in
the United States. New York: Routledge, 2012. eText.
This article demonstrates basic linguistics precepts that seem prevalent especially
among language discrimination. The author from the beginning illustrates in a short
anecdote the idea of making everyone look the same, how society would react and what

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things would change as a result. In the article, Lippi-Green makes the same arguments
with language that if we as a society are focused on making everyone a one size fits all
there is going to be no progress and goes against all found principles of linguistics. The
order that Lippi-Green arranges her argument follows a very scaffold-ist approach,
drawing in the reader with this science fiction type of example, building on that
linguistics is something instinctual among all humans and is constantly changing, and
there is a drastic difference between written language and oral language. This article
includes significant linguistic background arguing that language is constantly changing
and there is no language more prestigious. The article also speaks on the difference
between written and spoken language in the classroom with emphasis that the
nonstandard American English is what all American speakers draw from because it is the
easiest to communicate. Seeing the implications between written language and spoken
language also brings up the idea that not everyone is seen as literate because of the gap
between written and spoken. The two need to be more tied together and not held in such
high regard from one dialect to the next.
Rosoff, Meg. Who are you really?: Your Voice Lies Somewhere Between your
Conscious and Subconscious Mind. The Guardian. 15 Oct. 2011.Web. 2 Nov.
2014
Meg Rosoff starts her article off by asking the question, Do you have a voice? (1).
The theme of her text in The Guardian is strictly about voice; what it is, and what it
means. According to Rosoff, a persons writing voice is the deepest possible reflection
of who you are, (2). By adding metatextuality to her article, Rosoff gives her description
of voice, voice. She states that to find ones writing voice, you must search the deepest

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caverns of your mind. Rosoff asks that us to be open to this experience, and confront
yourself with difficult facts, (2). By doing so, you are starting to understand yourself;
you understand your fears, your loves, your ticks, and your strengths and your
weaknesses (2). Rosoff is a well-known author, and for her, voice is what brings writing
to life. Voice is important in writing, and voice is needed from all writers, scholars,
students, and educators. To develop voice, the subconscious must mix with conscious,
and we must open ourselves up as writers; we must take risks (3).
Watts, Eric King. Voice and Voicelessness in Rhetorical Studies. Quarterly Journal
of Speech 87.2 (2009): 179-196. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
In Eric King Watts article Voice and Voicelessness in Rhetorical Studies, he
aims to establish two things: what the senses of voice (Watts 179) are in rhetorical
studies, and perform a case study that shows how voice is constitutive of ethical and
emotional dimensions (180).
First, Watts describes the many ways those who study rhetoric define voice. One
way to describe voice in literature to Watts is that it is a reminder of who is speaking;
writers must ask themselves who the I is in their writing (180). Voice announces who is
speaking, what their environment is, and their state of mind. As Watts states, it is a
psychological understanding of voice (180-181). The author goes on to say how
understanding voice as a psychological problem is difficult for rhetoric studies. In this
sense, voice only shows the speakers relationship to a surrounding world (181). Watts
offers another interpretation of voice: its an organic entity. What Watt means by this is
that voice not only belongs to the subject, but its a part of the subject that gives their
speech meaning. The third and final way Watts looks at voice, is that voice shows the

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resistance to oppression (181). Voice gives the speaker authority, and shows
marginalization the speaker fights through.
Watts explains how voice shows the experiences of the speaker. Even if he or she is
not directly addressing the oppression in his or her writing, the writing voice is
influenced by marginalization and is always fighting against it. Voice to Watts keeps us
close in correspondence with lived experiences (p181), especially those that are
oppressed.
Those that are voiceless to Watts are not the silent speakers, but those who are not
oppressed. He examines this further by making a case study from W.B. Duboiss piece,
My Country Tis of Thee. In Duboiss piece, Watts goes over the voice of the speaker.
Voice is subjective, and W.B. Dubois experienced marginalization because of the color
on his skin. After studying Duboiss article, Watts concludes that we must use our
marginalized voice when speaking and writing, because it is our true voice. To Watts, a
marginalized voice shows what society is, and how it affects the speaker
Category 2: Voicelessness
Brown, Lyn Mikel. "In the Bad or Good of Girlhood: Social Class, Schooling, and
White Femininities." Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in the
United States. Weis, Lois and Michelle Fine. Albany: University of New York
Press, 2005. 147-162. Print.
Browns chapter focuses on female voices in schooling in a research case study.
There were 19 girls in the study and all of them fell between the ages of eleven and
fourteen. Thirteen of the girls fell into a working class group where their families lived on
farms, in trailers and in wooden areas surrounding their town of Mansfield, Maine. The

Andrews, Nolt, & Cary9

six remaining girls were from Acadia and from the middle class and experience no
material want in comparison to the Mansfield girls that often go under the poverty line.
The study was done mainly through interviews with the students. The interviewers
encouraged them to speak out of their social locations as white, working class females
and to willfully refuse to do what their culture around them desires of them (152). The
working class females expressed through stories of their classroom teachers ignorance,
abuse of power, and mistreatment. The chapter section takes into consideration of other
similar situations and concludes that one of the main frustrations for these students is,
their teachers did not understand who their kind were (152). The chapter reveled that
regardless of social class or ethnicity, female voicelessness was a recurring pattern. The
classroom for these girls reinforces strong gender stereotypes of silence, obedience, and
being a proper girl. The author concludes that without someone to bridge this gap,
these girls are disqualified from relationships with their teachers and the culture of their
school and without change, these teachers cause these types of students to remain
outside the system and disconnect and risk marginalizing these students to become
ineffective.
Fredericksen, Elaine. "Muted Colors: Gender and Classroom Silence." Language Arts
77.4 (2000): 301-308. Education Source. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
This article is a descriptive study about how gender silencing manifests itself in the
classroom. In this article, Fredericksen details how some students are silenced and
marginalized in the classroom. Fredericksen believes that female and minority students
are most often victims of this marginalization and silencing in the classroom. In this
article, she seeks to uncover the teacher practices that enforce this silencing and she

Andrews, Nolt, & Cary10

provides teachers with some strategies to engage and value the voices of these students.
One of the ways in which young girls and minority students are silenced is by the
teachers continual focus on loud and even disruptive students. Quiet students are too
easily pushed along with the other students without being given a chance to share and
grow. Also, if female students are consistently being passed over by the teacher for their
more vocal male peers, many become frustrated and refuse to try to answer in the future.
One reason that girls are often quieter than boys is that they are taught to be polite and
well-mannered. When young boys are not polite or well-mannered, it is not seen as
negatively as when a young girl misbehaves. As a result, many girls try to prevent the
negative and sometimes serious consequences attached to misbehaving as a girl, by being
quiet and submissive. Also, in general, male students perform better when working
within a competitive environment whereas most female students do better when working
collaboratively. Unfortunately for girls, the majority of school programs operate within a
competitive system.

Also young girls are taught to value social and familial

relationships, often at the extent of their own academic goals. Fredericksen provides
several pedagogical strategies to use in the English Language Arts classroom to combat
gender-related silence. Some strategies include; openly discussing gender and genderrelated issues, same-gender grouping, and free writing. Journaling and pair-sharing may
also give students a chance to respond to a question or theme before bringing it up in the
class discussion. Fredericksen also suggests temporarily silencing certain members of the
class who often dominate classroom discussions in order to allow other students the
opportunity to share.

In addition, challenging the traditional methodology of

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competitiveness with more collaborative work, allows for female students to have more
access to the content.
Quiroz, Pamela Anne. The Silencing of Latino Student Voice: Puerto Rican and
Mexican Narratives in Eighth Grade and High School. Anthropology &
Education Quarterly 32.3 (2001): 326-349. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.
Pamela Anne Quiroz found twenty-seven autobiographies of Puerto Rican and
Mexican students. The biographies were written when the twenty-seven students were in
eighth grade, prior to their entrance into Lares High, a senior high school in Chicago.
Quiroz found that many of the students wrote about how the hated school. For example,
Quiroz cites a student who wrote, I didnt understand anything until 4th grade. Then I got
a regular [non-bilingual] teacher and it was awful. He was so meanI hated regular
class, (Quiroz 326). Quiroz was able to take these narratives, and perform a follow up
study. She used an interpretive design as she felt that she could not form a hypothesis
without all data collected. The study was not only based on the students personal
feelings and insights, but Quirozs as well.
After following up with students who wrote the narratives, she found that they
had no voice in matters related to their schooling, (328). These children had been so
beaten down by education that they no longer cared about their studies. Most of the
twenty-seven students associated school with a negative experience, silencing their
voices. Most of these students were immigrants, coming from Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Even though they are bilingual, the schools conduct somehow managed to silence both
voices by not letting the students express themselves and their culture in the classroom.
The data Quiroz collected supports the research on Latino youth that suggests it is not

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education that these Latinos reject; it is the stress and alienating experiences of minority
status associated with schooling (344). Because of the rejection, the students fail, and
the failure manifests into silence, (344).
Ryan, Allison, et al. "Do Gender Differences in Help Avoidance Vary by Ethnicity? An
Examination of African American and European American Students During
Early Adolescence." Developmental Psychology 45.4 (2009): 1152-1163.
PsycArticles. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
This article was a psychological study of African American and European American
middle school students to see if there was any correlation in Help Avoidance and student
voice with the students gender and/or ethnicity. The definition of help avoidance as used
in the article means the student does not reach for help when they know that they need it
which correlates with voice, as defined in this article as, sharing ones opinion and
speaking ones mind as a social engagement. For Ryan et al. avoidance and voice are
both forms social engagement in the classroom, but have different connotations with
regard to independence and self-reliance (1155). Asking someone for help implicates the
student because they admit that they are weak in comparison to the authority, but
speaking ones opinion does not have poor connotations. This was a two year
longitudinal study in three different middle schools in a small urban area and the
participants were fifty five percent female forty five percent male, and sixty percent
African American and forty percent European American. The main measurement of the
study was survey. A sample example could be, When I dont understand my work, I
often guess instead of asking for help and the student had to rate on a scale from one to
five where they thought they fit, 1 (not at all true of me) to 5 (very true of me). The

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article used a similar method for voice where the student would have to rank where they
felt their voice was heard in the presence of a teacher. A sample question includes, I find
it hard to share what I am really thinking with my teacher and the students would once
again rate on a four point scale for the survey. The results showed that overall help
avoidance increased over time, voice remained stable, but achievement in students
declined. The Study found that European American boys had lower voice than all other
groups in the study. There were no differences in help avoidance for African American
students, whereas European American girls were lower in help avoidance than boys.
European American females have high effort and achievement, but the article also notes
that there are high psychological disadvantages that correlate with this such as depression
and anxiety. African American females had higher self-avoidance in comparison to
European American females, but they also had lower voice in comparison meaning they
felt free to speak their opinion to the teacher, but not comfortable to ask for help. The
article notes that this is eye opening to see different challenges if you just compare
African American females and European American females.
Tatum, Holly E. , et al. "Classroom Participation and Student Faculty Interactions:
Does Gender Matter?" The Journal of Higher Education 84.6 (2013): 745-768.
Project MUSE. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
This is an article of an observational student to show the effect of male and female
ratios in the classroom to see if and what the main change of behavior emerges between
interactions between the student and the professor as well and regular class interactions.
The article opens with background of the history of all female universities and the coined
term chilly climate with females attending all female universities and also mixed

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gendered institutions. The researchers for this study focused on their school because it
was once an all-female institution and they wanted to see as more males came into the
classroom, if and what the change would be over a span of three years. The article
mentions implications of past similar studies and biases that can be created such as male
professors often lecture more and the overall balance of the classroom changes. The study
shows that the pattern of the more males increased, the percentage of females that would
respond would decrease which also include a male professor. And when females would
respond or become involved, their answers were much shorter than male answers in class.
The study here took into account student verbal behaviors (voluntary responses and
student questions) and faculty verbal behaviors (follow-up, praise, calling on students,
and corrections). All the classes involved the same number of students per class (twelve),
and all students were first year traditional students and totaled to one hundred fifty-eight
students (one hundred and seven were females, fifty-one males). The results showed that
female professors were more likely to follow up on students comments, praise, and
verbal participation. One thing that seemed to surprise researchers was there seemed to be
a correlation between female faculty and the increase in student calling out in
comparison to male professors. The article states that this could be because generally
female professors offer more discussions in their classroom than most male professors.
Wait time for male professors also significantly decreased in comparison to female
professors and this could be because male professors seemed in this case to lecture more,
have less discussions, and ask fewer questions

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Category 3: Approaches Used to Help Students Find Their Voice

Dippre, Ryan and Felicia Hellman. "Student Voice, Classroom Democracy, and
Writing That Matters." California English 20.1 (2014): 21-23. Education Source.
Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
This article is an evaluation of a proposed method for development of voice and
democracy in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Hellman and Dippre define
voice as being an enabling tool for shaping change. The authors are responding to the
focus on efficiency in school systems today. As a result of this focus, student voices are
not being developed through critical and democratic instruction. Rather they are being
prepared and taught for a specific exam to move on to the next level and repeat the cycle.
Hellman and Dippre purpose a different method of instruction that brings together
democracy and voice in order to empower and legitimize student voices. They propose a
method that focuses on student autonomy and decision-making in the classroom. The
students help to make decisions on classroom expectations and assessments. The method
also includes peer review that sets the students up as rhetorical readers. The use of peer
review takes the teacher out of the role of sole audience and provides the students with
broader and more meaningful context for their writing. Hellman and Dippre recognize
that this method is time-consuming and intensive, however they believe that this method
is key in helping students to identify and develop their personal voices within a
meaningful and supportive community. A voice engaged in community discussion is
respected by that community, and we have worked and are still working to create a
community of writers that has respect for individual voices (23). Voice should not be

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separated from community and context. This method allows the teacher and students to
construct a meaningful community that students can develop and value voice.
Hairston, Maxine. Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing. College Composition
and Communication 43.2 (1992): 179-193. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
Author Maxine Hairston makes the argument for less literary criticism in writing
courses, specifically Freshman Composition. In her article, Diversity, Ideology, and
Teaching Writing, Hairston speaks about how many teachers try to advance political
agendas in Freshman Composition classes, rendering students voiceless. By doing so,
educators are making Freshman Composition into a literary criticism.

Students are

resisting this way of teaching as well. Hairston cites David Bleich as proof to this conflict
in her article. By citing Bleichs comments that he dismisses his students resistance,
Hairston is showing readers how educators are dismissing the will of the students, and
adding their own personal agenda to the curriculum (Bleich 182). Bleich also
acknowledged that writing about political issues makes students uncomfortable, but
that we should keep encouraging this kind of oppressive pedagogy (182).
Hairston states that this way of conducting a composition class falls under the
deconstructionist theory. The deconstructionist theorists state that texts of their political
beliefs are only reflections of power and dominant structures of their eras (Hairston
183). These theorist believe they must enact politics into their curriculum, because the
status quo calls for it. If this is the case within the classroom, Hairston says the
classroom is no longer and open forum, and there is an authoritarian rule going on
instead, repressing the students writing and voice.

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Hairston goes on to say there are social forces creating this pedagogy. One such force
is the amount of diversity that is happening throughout the United States. Because of this
diversity, educators are using it as an excuse to make their classroom multicultural; only
theyre using it in a negative way. Deconstructionists are not letting students pick their
own writing topics in composition classes. Hairston explains how students write more
frequently and better when they are writing about something they appreciate. When
students are forced to pick a certain topic, their interest is not as strong, silencing the
students voice in their writing. The student no longer has lived experiences or passion
behind their paper; they only have the teachers words and beliefs. By limiting the
students freedom to express themselves, faculty members of the English department
are only hurting the students ability to find their voice, and write effectively (182).
Henry, Annette. Speaking Up and Speaking Out: Examining Voice in a
Reading/Writing Program with Adolescent African Caribbean Girls. Journal of
Literacy Research 30.2 (1998): 233-252. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.
Author Annette Henry conducted a research project that involved observing African
Caribbean girls, ages 14 to 15. Her goal was to reflect on the problematic notion of
coming to voice (Henry 233) for this specific group. For Henry, there were three
profound moments in her research that echoed how finding voice is harder for this
specific demographic, but when it is used/found, understanding of knowledge takes place.
Henry conducted her research on a group of girls in a weekly (233) writing and
reading workshop. The girls all had African Caribbean backgrounds and attended an
urban middle school. The author used an interpretive design for this study which allows
the researcher not only think and reflect on his or her subjects, but also how theyre are

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feeling and what they are understanding in the process (239). Data collected throughout
Henrys study were students writing, field notes, audio and video tapes, and student
feedback interviews.
Throughout her research, Annette Henry found that females are already voiceless in
the classroom due to social conventions of gender, specifically femininity. She speaks
that knowing this fact is vital when teaching students; its a way of understanding
students sense of needs (235). According to Henry, once we understand students
needs, that is when we can truly teach them. Not only females, the author states that
females of color are trained to be silent and voiceless in the classroom as well, if not
more so; a perfect example of this oppressed group is African Caribbean girls. Social
conventions teach girls to be demure and silent, and girls of color are not taught about
their culture, and teachers ignore issues in the lives of minority students (236), leaving
the girls voiceless. Because females of color are trained to be silent, they have no sense of
voice, even though they do have a lot to say, according to Henrys research.
Many of the girls in the reading and writing workshop spoke Creole, and as Henry puts it,
Creole is often devalued as inferior or bad English (Hairston 237). To try and break
their silence, Henry used daily journals with the research participants. They were to
respond to the daily readings in the journal and hand it in to be read by Henry. The
literature was chosen to relate to the girls cultural background to try and make it more
meaningful to the students; Henry was keeping the girls needs in mind. After reading out
loud, the girls were encouraged to speak out their own lives and how it can relate to the
readings. Henry was using critical analysis to help the girls speak up and find their
voices. Henry also used peer groups to pose problems and have the group work

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collaboratively. These exercises helped the girls use their voices physically and in their
writing.
Researcher Annette Henry was able to help students find their voice through journals,
having students create plays that focused on their culture, and allowing transgressive
speech (246) in the classroom. These lessons helped the African Caribbean girls speak
up and speak out (246). The research Henry conducted helped her conclude that the girls
were in fact able to find their voices, and that they gained the ability to express
themselves in written and vocal ways.
Sassi, Kelly, and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. "Walking the Talk: Examining Privilege
and Race in the Ninth-Grade Classroom." National Council of Teachers of
English 97.6 (2008): 25. Print.
This article is an evaluation of a proposed method for the ninth-grade classroom.
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a high school Language Arts teacher at a very racially diverse
school established a goal of creating a cohesive classroom environment. In her classroom,
she noticed that some students were silent, specifically African American females and the
students sat only with those of the same race. Thomas and Kelly are responding to a lack
of classroom instruction that challenge color-muteness and the self-segregation of
students based on race and other defining factors. In order to mend the classroom
environment and open up the conversation to all students, Thomas had her students
participate in a privilege walk. This activity required all students to stand in the middle
of the classroom and as the facilitator read a statement, students either had to take a step
backwards or forwards from the middle of the classroom. These statements related to
economic, familial, racial, and gender advantages and disadvantages. For example, If

Andrews, Nolt, & Cary20

you were ever discouraged from academics or jobs because of race, class, ethnicity,
gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. (27). At the end of the activity most
of the white male students where in the front of the classroom and the African American
female students were in the back of the room. Students were then asked to respond to
the activity and share their feelings about the privilege walk. Many of the students were
silenced by this activity. However, several of the African American female students
spoke up. They felt grateful to have the chance to talk about the realities of their lives.
One student shared her feelings about the discussion of race and privilege, Just because
no one talks about it doesnt mean its not there (28). Although some of the students
reacted negatively to this activity (particularly the white male students), it allowed the
African American female students a chance to speak up. In addition, Thomas felt that
this activity combatted color-muteness, or personal and political efforts to discourage
discussions about race in the classroom. As a result of this activity, students that were
voiceless before were more likely to share and Thomas felt that it provided a space to
teach rhetorical listening. Many of the students that were at the front of the class were
unaware of the struggles and hardships that other students, mainly female and African
American students, had to overcome to be successful. It gave a voice to the voiceless and
taught other students the value of these voices. Activities like this one can be used in the
classroom to increase democracy and understanding.

Although this activity is not

directly related to writing, classroom dynamics and feeling heard by ones peers effects
how students are able to express themselves in writing.

Andrews, Nolt, & Cary21

Wheeler, Rebecca S. and Rachel Swords. "Codeswitching: Tools of Language and
Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom." Language Arts 81.6
(2004): 470-480. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
In Wheeler and Swords article, Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture
Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom the main rationale as to why the two wrote
this article was a response that they noticed in their personal classrooms in their actions
and in a larger scale across the education school. The main argument or problem is the
desire to bring the insights of 20th century linguistics to bear on the achievement gap
specifically among African American students. These two educators also offer research
based approaches such as individualized case studies of their classrooms in order to make
the language arts classroom more accessible to all students especially in a dialectally
diverse environment. The article is effectively explains the current state of the common
every day classroom with examples that the teachers realized they were doing themselves
and that correcting prescriptively wasnt changing the students to follow the correct
way. The article also lays a good foundation of research showing how the school system
has been giving African American students a disadvantage from 3rd grade or earlier. The
article progresses using the authors classroom example and shows that by combining the
use of Standard American English with the home dialect and comparing them rather than
just enforcing the standard, the use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
decreased because students were to better understand which dialect to use depending on
the context. Another example of utilizing codeswitching in the classroom as shown in this
article, is a teacher explicitly says after a student says something in a nonstandard
codeswitch and the student will rephrase what they had said. This method of audience

Andrews, Nolt, & Cary22

consciousness is effective in that is shows students that this dialect is important in certain
contexts, but for certain environments it is not appropriate. The last method the article
speaks about is what the authors have developed in their own classrooms. If a student
says something in a nonstandard way, the teacher would often paraphrase what the
student said in standard and also the teacher made a clear representation to her students
the difference in audience with the example of clothes (whats appropriate at school,
prom, home?). The authors have focused on the idea of recurring patterns are important
rather than language prestige.