Connection to Authors

August: Safe Spaces
- One moment that really stuck with me throughout service learning was when I was working in a small group with two boys and one girl. The conversation at the end of our work turned to the girls shirt, that had Elsa from Frozen on it. She asked me if I liked the shirt and if I had ever seen the movie. I responded with yes of course I like Frozen. After I said this, one of the boys faces lit up and shout out "I like Frozen too!". The second boy looked at the first boy after he said this and said "Only girls watch frozen, what are you gay?"

Collier: Honor students' first language
- There is this one girl who I have been working with at the end of class for the past several weeks on spelling her name. Granted, these students are only in 1st grade, however this girl comes from a Spanish speaking background and has trouble spelling her name in English. The teacher however sets aside a specific time at the end of class for her to simply work with English letters to spell her name. The teacher allows her to spell her name "any way she would like" when the other students are working on their letters in groups...with the hope that the English letters will catch on eventually. This connects to Collier because the teacher does not put down this student due to her language, rather she lets her work on getting a better understand of her English letters in hope that eventually soon she will fully understand them.

Delpit: Rules and Codes of Power
-Being first graders, the students tend to be very rowdy and hyper. The teacher consistently is reminding the students of how they need to "Listen when I clap my hands together" or "you are no longer Kindergartens". Both of these statements relate to the rules of power because the teacher is consistently trying to maintain order in the classroom by reminding students that she has the authority. She also uses this whole reverse psychology effect when students act up, remind them that it may have been okay to act like this when you were in Kindergarten, but as first graders you are expected to follow the "codes of power" more now since you're older.