[Teaching_Basic_Writing] Re: Nickled and Dimed

[sgoen@sfsu.edu]

Hi Ed, Nice to hear from you. Here's what happened, as best I know. 
The reading was "unconventional" from the instructor's point of view. 
She anticipated that they would find the text relevant and 
interesting and full of possibilities for issues related to work, to 
class, etc. Instead, many of the students revolted,and found the text 
offensive, that this white middle class (or from their point of view 
upper class) woman could just take a vacation from her "real" life to 
come join theirs, that Ehrenreich "othered" them in ways she does not 
own up to. They felt "talked about" in the text, but not talked to, 
hence their view that they were not the intended audience. They 
extended their criticism to the instructor who they found insensitive 
for choosing this text. Like Robert, in Hull and Rose's text, I find 
their reading to be a defensible one. Have you had, or heard of, 
similar reactions from students to this text?

>Hello Sugie. It's a pleasure to see you on this list. I'm teased at the
>students' reaction to Nickled and Dimed, a reading I also have in the text I
>edited with Lynn Bloom (INQUIRY, Prentice-Hall, 2004). For those who 
>don't know
>it, it's a vivid and detailed essay (from Ehrenreich's book) describing the
>author's experience as a low-paid restaurant worker; I would think it perfect
>for our students. What was "unconventional" about their reading?  Why did they
>not think of themselves as intended audience? What went wrong, if anything?
>--Ed White
>>
>>
>>Today's Topics:
>>
>>    1. New Module: Integrating Reading Writing (sgoen@sfsu.edu)
>>
>>--__--__--
>>
>>Message: 1
>>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 13:38:13 -0700
>>To: teaching_basic_writing@mailman.eppg.com
>>From: sgoen@sfsu.edu
>>Subject: [Teaching_Basic_Writing] New Module: Integrating Reading Writing
>>
>>Hi everyone,
>>My name is Sugie Goen-Salter and I'll be facilitating this new
>>discussion module on Integrating Reading and Writing in the BW
>>course. I look forward to our discussion, especially as I am sitting
>>at my desk rereading Hull and Rose's "This Wooden Shack Place" in
>>preparation for a graduate seminar I teach on the integration of
>>reading and writing. Although Hull and Rose wrote this article some
>>fifteen years ago, many of the issues they were struggling with come
>>up in this graduate seminar: As Hull and Rose write, "One of the
>>interesting things that has emerged as we've been conducting this
>>research is the place of reading in the remedial writing classroom.
>>As the integration of reading into the remedial classroom continues,
>>composition teachers will  increasingly be called upon to explore
>>questions of interpretation, expectation and background knowledge..."
>>
>>All semester, my graduate students have been raising similar
>>questions: What constitutes an acceptable reading of a text? What, do
>>we as teachers, do when mismatches occur between our expectations of
>>what constitutes a "conventional" reading of a text and our students'
>>reading? And if reading and writing are so closely integrated, might
>>some of what we consider writing problems have their source in these
>>unconventional readings?
>>
>>Another example came up recently with a teacher who asked her
>>students in a developmental course 2 levels below first year comp to
>>read "Nickeled and Dimed" only to find that many of her students had
>>a very different reading of the book than she expected and
>>questioned, as do Hull and Rose in Robert's case, whether they were
>>the intended audience for the book.
>>
>>Much to chew on....I look forward to your thoughts.
>>
>>
>>
>>--__--__--
>>
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