Blog 7: Reading RI Laws and Policies & Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy and ABC

Larissa Guido Swenson

FNED 546 - Summer 2023

Dr. Lesley Bogad

Blog 7: READ: RI Laws and Policies

WATCH: Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC 

(video Analysis)

3 Quotes & Connections 




After watching the video where kindergarten teacher Ki reads the book “They, She, He Easy as ABC” by Matthew Sg and Maya Christina Gonzalez, I took away three quotes that caught my attention which I would like to start my writing with one of them: “Instead of calling them by their pronouns he or she or they or z or tree, you can call them by their name. That is so important, sometimes if you forget or you don’t know someone’s pronouns it’s your best bet to ask them their name and then call them their name”. 

At first glance, these updates seem strange. Many questions come to my mind on the subject: are they really necessary? Who is proposing these changes? For what? Will I have to teach this form to my class? Where can I find out about this? To be on the safe side, educating myself on my state Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender and non Confirming Students and recognizing when I make a mistake until I am able to refer to people by their preferred pronouns comes out naturally.

Until then, I may feel embarrassed several times, but as Ki mentions on the video: “It’s ok to be embarrassed. Sometimes we feel embarrassed when we make mistakes. The most important thing is that we love ourselves enough to say when we’ve made a mistake. Because we can do that, we give other people who may have heard when we made the mistake space and time to heal from that mistake”.

Where would non-binary people fit in, the ones who do not identify with either the masculine or the feminine gender? It seems to me then the idea of ​​non-binary language, therefore, would not be to neutralize genders, but to bring a more inclusive language, meeting a demand for representativeness of the LGTBQIA2S+ community.

Although these are issues related to identity and diversity, it is worth remembering that gender and sexuality are different things. As discussed in class, gender identity refers to whether or not a person identifies with the sex (male or female) assigned to them at birth. When she identifies, she is cisgender (or “cis”). When not, she is transgender (“trans”). Non-binary people can have any sexual orientation, which refers to sexual or affective attraction towards other people (homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc).

 It may feel strange, it can be challenging to get used to the new norms of pronouns, but Ki says: 

Point to share in class: “Know, understand, appreciate, learn, accept”, which tells me these norms are not about how we feel, but how he, she, they, tree feel. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 2: Delpit, “The Silenced Dialogue”

Image
  Larissa Guido Swenson FNED 546 - Summer 2023 Dr. Lesley Bogad Blog 2:  Delpit, “The Silenced Dialogue ” and overview handout Option: Reflection - Personal connections to this text Growing up as members of a family and community, children explicitly and implicitly learn the rules and expectations of their cultures. They can be members from more than one cultural group and can be fitted into their cultures at different levels. Cultures borrow and share rules and cultures change over time.  Following up Johnson’s reading along with Delpit reading, Johnson talked about “the luxury of obliviousness” when he said that white people are rarely aware of the privileges they have.  Delpit says, “Those with power are frequently least aware – or least willing to acknowledge - its existence.  Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.” It means to me that one doesn't even know they "have" a culture until they find other ways of thinking and acting.  T...
Read more

Blog 10 - Abolitionist Teaching video

Image
  Larissa Guido Swenson FNED 546 - Summer 2023 Dr. Lesley Bogad Blog 10: READ: Ginwright, S. Healing Centered Engagement Or WATCH: Abolitionist Teaching QUOTES :  Choose three quotes from the text and explain what they mean and their relevance to the text. “The beauty of teaching black and brown children”, “First respect them, then show love”, and “Abolism teaching, we are going to dismantle together in justice”. Dr. Betina Love.   Abolitionist Teaching is an empowering life lesson that I wish every educator had access to. I enjoyed learning the difference between being  a co-conspirator and an ally. My hope is that more teachers of the culture of power use their privileged voice in order to follow the path to social justice which requires consistently disrupting, dismantling, and rebuilding. In fact, it is beautiful to teach black american culture. After all, aren’t we entitled to Culturally Inclusive Teaching? It should also feel beautiful to hear and learn about ...
Read more

Blog 9 - Course Content Reflection

Image
Larissa Guido Swenson FNED 546 - Summer 2023 Dr. Lesley Bogad READ: Review the ENTIRE Slide Deck and re-read your ENTIRE blog.  You will be using this info in class!! WRITE : Blog Post #9 – When you look at everything we have done this summer, what stands out to you as meaningful? Pick 2 things that you think will stick with you (article, quote, video, podcast, activity, etc) and write 2-3 sentences about each of those three things on your blog. S.C.W.A.A.M.P Culture of power Lisa Delpit  When I look at everything we have done this summer, one of the things that stands out to me as meaningful and will stick with me is the lesson on Culture of Power along with Leslie Grinner S.C.W.A.A.M.P board. This particular lesson was extremely important to me since I am from another country and the S.C.W.A.A.M.P board showed me some of the unwritten power of the dominant culture that I was not able to see. The video by kindergarten teacher Ki of the Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as...
Read more