Quote:
Originally posted by cash78mere
ugh.
i am so frustrated. i try and try to teach my students (4th grade) correct grammar and what do i get? nonsense from rap songs that they think is acceptable!
they tell me they "went to get their hair did" like in that nasty song. i try to tell them they "went to get their hair done" but it's like they don't believe me because they heard the other way in a song so that has to be correct. it drives me crazy.
then another student told me that her brother's "baby mamma" came to visit. i said no, it's the mother of the baby, not a baby mamma. literally, a baby momma is a mom that is a baby. they look at me like i have 4 heads!
ugh i swear, these kids will NEVER pass the freaking 4th grade ELA when they write and speak like this. wake up parents and correct these kids like i am trying so hard to do in vain! there are NO EXCUSES for this nonsense! it's one thing to not know correct grammar, but it's another thing to be ignorant.
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cash78mere,
If you don't mind me asking, where do you teach? I saw on a previous post that most of your student are black. If they live in a lower income area they problem hear most of the people they come in contact with speak this way. In addition, there are some true linguinstic reasons that many black people drop certain letters when speaking and conjugate verbs incorrectly. I know the whole ebonics thing has been relegated to a joke, but, while I disagree with the premise, there is some truth to it. You may want to do a little research on the subject. You would probably be suprised. It's not just the Gullah people from the Sea Islands who have kept parts of their original African languages. To compound the problem, SOME people in the Black community have glorified speaking nonstandard English as some badge of Blackness to wear proudly.
I saw a program a few years ago that dealt with an offshoot of this subject and one of the things the teacher did was talk about just like we have inside and out side voices (i.e. no yelling inside, but it's o.k. outside), we have two types of language. One is for formal settings and the other is for "home" or with friends. When a student would say something like "I had went to get my hair did after school." , the teacher would ask her to 'code switch" it (or something like that, it's been a while) and the student would then use her more formal, school language and say "I went to get my hair done after school." Have you tried something like this?
The other thing that I think you seriously need to evaluate is your attitude toward your students. I know you are frustrated, and being the daughter of 2 educators, I know it is one of the most thankless jobs out there, but when you say things like
"it's one thing to not know correct grammar, but it's another thing to be ignorant. I wonder if you have already made up your mind about their capacity to learn and achieve.
This brings to mind a great book for someone in your position. It's
The Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys" by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. He also wrote a book called (I think) To be Popular or Smart or something like that, that talks about our unique cultural phenomena that says to speak standard English is to 'talk white' and therefor loose major cool points with the fellas. Most successful Black folks I know are actually bilingual--we can go from standard to street in 2 seconds flat.
You just need to help your students do that.
Whew...dind't mean to write a book!