Shirley Brice Heath and her Ways With Words

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Shirley Brice Heath and her Ways With Words
Lauren Thompson
Hannah Joy Saleeby
Ramona Renfroe
Jessica Burlamachi
Alex Lakatos
Brittany Glover
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Who is Shirley Brice Heath?
Linguistic Anthropologist
Author, Professor, Researcher, Director
Interests Specializations
Learning environments OUTSIDE of the teacher-led
classroom
Oral written language
Youth development
Race relations
Organizational learning
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What has Shirley been up to?
Taught at Stanford University for 20 years
Holds honorary degrees from Georgetown
University, Carnegie Mellon University, Stockholm
University, and University of London
Currently teaching at Brown University
http//research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id
10170
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Where in the world is Shirley Brice Heath?
Mexico Guatemala United States South
Africa England Germany Sweden
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Heath has 4 major publication areas
1. Language socialization
3. Youth culture
2. Organizational learning
4. Language planning
Heaths Focus
to study communities who lead entrepreneurial
and community building skills while developing
and maintaining learning environments that
contribute culturally and economically.
http//research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?i
d10170
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Heath directed the documentary ArtShow
Explores 4 youth-based art organizations
Boston New York Rural areas of Kentucky
northern California
...profoundly illustrates ways in which young
people can defy public perception of being
vulnerable, apathetic, and disengaged from
productive challenge.
http//www.shirleybriceheath.com/2008/12/shirley-b
rice-heath.html  
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Ways With Words
Language, Life, and Work in Communities and
Classrooms
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Part I Ethnographer Learning

1. The Piedmont Textile mills and times of change

2. Getting On in 2 communities
3. Learning how to talk in Trackton
4. Teaching how to talk in Roadville
5. Oral Traditions
6. Literate Traditions
7. The Townspeople
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Ethnographer Doing
Part II
Teachers as learners
8.
Learners as ethnographers
9.
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So what do the important people think?
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Scholarly Reviews

• American Anthropological Society
• Word, Martha. Review, American Anthropologist,
  Vol. 86 No. 4 (Dec.1984), pp. 1047-1048. Web.
  Nov. 9th, 2010
• Chicago Journals
• Miller, Peggy. Review, American Journal of
  Education, Vol. 94. No. 1 (Nov. 1985), pp.
  106-108. Web. Nov. 8th, 2010
• Linguistic Society of America
• Feagin, Crawford, Language, Vol. 61. No. 2 (Jun.
  1985), pp. 489-493. Web. Nov. 9th, 2010

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Ways With Words
Teachers, dont forget
Students who speak another language or who have a
different dialect are NONE of the following

• Dumb
• Rude
• Slow
• Lazy

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This concept may seem simple,

• but Heath points out that these are the first
  reactions that educators have towards ESL, ELL,
  and students of other dialects.

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Anthropological Perspective on Ways With Words
Suzanne deCastell Tom Walker
Suzanne deCastell and Tom Walkers journal
article, Identity, Metamorphosis, and
Ethnographic Research What "Kind" of Story Is
Ways with Words? published in Anthropology and
Education Quarterly, focuses on how Heaths
linguistic and ethnographic study of Roadville
and Trackton is informative in understanding the
cultural aspects behind language development.
deCastell and Walker praise Heaths
highlighting of Roadville and Tracktons oral
traditions in Chapter 5 - it provides a good
example of how young children are able to learn
what is and is not a culturally acceptable means
of story telling in their communities.
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More from deCastell Walker
However, deCastell and Walker also point out
the issues that students have who have studied
the text, regarding Heaths contributions to the
study of language. Not being able to accept
Heaths study as a project of merit since it did
not work.
They also claim that Heaths assertion that
making beneficial changes to the educational
system are not possible. This made students
feel upset at the belief that attempts to make a
positive change would be pointless.
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Linda Brodkey
Linda Brodkeys Writing Critical Ethnographic
Narratives also presents an anthropological
perspective on Ways With Words, by claiming that
Heaths use of the ethnographic present is
crucial in the reader understanding the context
of the work. Creates a sense of the here and
now in a narrative taken place in the past.
However, Brodkey also does not believe that
Heath completely conforms to this concept.
Appears as though the ethnographic present
becomes too much of a story rather than an
ethnographic and linguistic account on the
language development .
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Brodkey continued
Meaning Brodkey argues that Heath is merging
actual occurrences the with narrative style
details. Believes this can come across as
distracting to the reader.
Overall Brodkey deems Heaths Ways With Words
as a work of merit and beneficial to the
education of ethnographic and linguistic study.
However, in conclusion she argues that
ethnographic works such as Heaths should be
written as is and without the element of the
typical narrative.
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Boys Girls
Repeated process of aggression, interaction,
and unpredictable feedback Live in an uncertain
world and they need to know that to get
on Tested continually and need to give as good
as they get Responding with aggression is
approved crying is ignored or punished
Trackton demands reciprocity, no submission or
you are seen as weak.
Girls

• Not allowed on the main stage very often
• Have to talk to themselves a lot- no other form
  of interaction available
• Older siblings try to help but any help from
  boys is frowned upon
• 2 types of participation
• Fussing- only way they can show aggression and
  dominance, even to boys
• Playsong games
• Use them to teach babies when adults cant or
  wont
• Both good and bad subjects

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Childhood learning in general

• Must learn many nonverbal signals
• Must be able to take on any role the situation
  calls for
• Must know they live in an uncertain world and
  act accordingly
• Words do not matter - signals, tone, and
  context
• Not expected to be information-givers rather,
  to take in information by being keen
• Adults never use or approve of baby talk
• 3 stages of participation
• Repetition stage
• Repetition with variation
• participation

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Baby Talk

• Such as
• Reducing phonological structure of words
• Substituting easier sounds for more complex ones
• Reducing inflections
• Using special lexical items
• Clarifying features
• Slowing speech
• Using special pitch or intonation patterns
• Substituting names for pronouns

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What Adults Really Want Children to Know

• Ask 5 types of questions to gauge their language
  and thinking skills
• Analogy
• Story-starter
• Accusation
• Answer with information
• Questioner has information
• Crucial to these questions is the embeddedness
  of interactional contexts
• Questions are used to gauge what a child knows
  about what a particular utterance means to the
  speaker and how it can be interpreted

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Scholarly World Response

• Ethnographies Reviewed
• Draws us into their lives with the artistry and
• finesse of a novelist.
• Carefully documented
• Wonderful research into implications for teachers
• Quarterly Journal of Speech
• Comparison to others in field
• Has a depth and breadth uncommon
• Manages to balance multiple factors well
• Praise for her dedication, immersion, and
  application of findings to teachers
• Lively style, easy to read yet succinct
• Journal of Education
• More concerned with educational implications
• Patterns of continuity between what children do
  at home and what goes on at school
• Focused on analyzing what parents in the book did
  wrong

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Problematic Disciplinary Assumptions

• Students from a similar geographic area will
  have similar life experiences.
• A resistance to reading and writing is a
  resistance to learning.
• Dialect differences in the classroom are minor
  issues.

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Ways With WordsAn Education Standpoint

• Socialization
• Exposure to different cultures
• Code Switching
• Responsibilities of the teacher

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Epilogue
When Ways with Words was first published, its
final word pointed to the merits of bridging
between classrooms and communities in efforts to
create opportunities for more students to
demonstrate accurately their competence with and
through language. The Bridging metaphor remains
viable today, but the span of the bridge and the
vehicles that cross it will differ.
Realignments of time and space, shifts of
intimacy and social structures and new sources of
entertainment and consumerism have influenced
classrooms as much as communities since Ways with
Words was first published. Language as both tool
and target of socialization reflects these
changes deeply and subtly in form, content and
use Exploring creatively the need for social
connectedness of institutions, such as schools
and youth organizations, as well as the
workplace, offers us ways to create and tell new
stories. As we do so, we have to acknowledge that
what seem limits or losses can be beginnings as
well as ending.
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Want to know why you all have corn cobs?