University of California Los Angeles What I Learned in The Class Reflection Essay

I asked my professor for a letter of recommendation, but he needed me to write a paragraph of about 100-200 words about what I learned in the class, if I became a good communication student, etc.I’ll give you some documents for this class, and assignments I’ve written

To learn more about the examples I presented in lecture, you can check out the following pages, videos, and book: Growing up intersex: httpsLinks to an external site.://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Links to an external site.Xpcci8mmZnwLinks to an external site.How Aaron Harvey was labeled as a gang member and underwent prosecution for a crime he didn’t commit (he was eventually cleared):  https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/jul/26/aaron-harvey-wrongful-gang-charges-uc-berkeley/Links to an external site.Links to an external site.Phoenix labels BLM protesters as a gang: httpsLinks to an external site.://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/protest-arrests/Links to an external site.prime-for-abuse-lack-of-oversight-lets-phoenix-police-add-protesters-to-gang-databaseLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.Ana Muñiz, Policing, Power, and the Production of Racial BoundariesAnd here is a story we didn’t have time for about how police in London used a gang injunction to arrest two rappers for a song they sang. Under gang injunctions, everyday, legal activities get restricted and therefore criminalized. Rappers Konan and Krept protest criminalization of their song:  https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/14/Links to an external site.rappers-konan-krept-condemn-police-criminalisation-of-drillLinks to an external site.Short film Konan and Krept made about being criminalized by gang injunctions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuwcr-M37Do

COMMUNICATION, THE PERSON & EVERYDAY LIFE
HOW LABELS ACQUIRE PEOPLE
COMM 100a | Prof. Irani | Week 1
OVERVIEW
PSA: Module survey helps a lot! Come to office hours too!
Thursday: Introducing assignment 1 and discussion time
Labels:
How do they acquire people?
How does this help us understand institutions and culture?
Examples: “girl” and “gang member”
YOU CAN’T DEFINE ME!
WHAT IS LEARNING DISABILITY?
…TO BE ACQUIRED
BY LABELS…
• Labels acquire people (e.g. learning
disabled, male, criminal, gifted and
talented)
• Acquisition happens through
(reinforcing) social processes
• Institutional categories,
infrastructures, classification
techniques (Bowker and Star help
us understand this!)
• Everyday social interaction, like how
people treat each other based on
assumptions about the label
BEING
“LD”:
4 SETTINGS,
4 ADAMS
Culture
Testing
Everyday
life
After-school
clubs
Classroom
work
IS READING SO IMPORTANT?
LABELS AS HISTORICALLY ARBITRARY
Today’s culture:
“learning disability”
ß tests of literacy, memory,
cognition
ß institutions that care
about reading, numeracy,
literacy
Pre-industrial culture:
Aristocrats in Europe not expected
to read
REVIEW: LABELS MATTER FOR HISTORICALLY
SPECIFIC REASONS
INSTITUTIONS AND
LABELS
INSTITUTIONS AND
LABELS
• Repeated, sustained organization
of social life through practice
• Examples of institutions:
Education and Medicine
• Examples of institutional
practices: getting medical
diagnoses, getting tested, proving
you need an OSD accommodation
CULTURE AND
LABELS
CULTURE AND
LABELS
“The term ’culture’ traditionally
refers to concepts, symbols, and
beliefs found among people, but we
insist that an adequate cultural
description must show such
concepts, symbols, and beliefs in
use and legitimately enforced in
local situations populated by real
people. America was ready for Adam
to be Learning Disabled”
(McDermott & Varenne, 1998, p. 27)
“ENFORCEMENT IN
LOCAL SITUATIONS”
• Enforcement happens in practice, interaction
• People often act on labels without talking about it:
“Coordination of everyday life” often goes unnoticed
• Institutions can “legitimately enforce” these labels
• As a cultural analyst, observe, listen, and ask:
• What do people do to one another?
• What labels (e.g. categories, words, talk) people use
in making sense of one other?
• What coordinated activities repeatedly acquire and
enforce the label or meaning?
• What labels do people assume as a basis for action?
MORE EXAMPLES OF LABELS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
LABELING: “INTERSEX” AND “GIRL”
• What do people do to
one another?
• What labels (e.g.
categories, words, talk)
people use in making
sense of one other?
• What coordinated
activities repeatedly
acquire and enforce the
label or meaning?
• What labels do people
assume as a basis for
action?
LABELING: “GANG MEMBER”
LABELING: “GANG MEMBER”
LABELING: “GANG MEMBER”
KEY CONCEPTS
culture
_______ acquires _______
(label)
institution
Practice /
interaction
(person, place, thing)
THURSDAY PREVIEW
Introducing Assignment 1: Labels in
Everyday Life
Breakout group time discussing Dope
RESOURCES(ALSO ON CANVAS)
Growing up intersex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpcci8mmZnw
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/jul/26/aaron-harvey-wrongful-gang-charges-ucberkeley/
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/protest-arrests/prime-forabuse-lack-of-oversight-lets-phoenix-police-add-protesters-to-gang-database
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/14/rappers-konan-krept-condemnpolice-criminalisation-of-drill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=226&v=nuwcrM37Do&feature=emb_title
Ana Muñiz, Policing, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries
SUCCESSFUL
FAILURE
The School
America Builds
Herve varenne and Ray McDermott
with Shelley Goldman, Merry Naddeo,
and Rosemarie Rizzo- Tolk
~lew
~~ ~:mber of the Perseus Books Group
Contents
To our fathers
List ofFigures
Preface
Acknowledgments
ix
Xl
xv
Introduction, Herve Vtzrenne and Ray McDermott
Schooling and Cultural Fact, 4
Culture in Question, 7
Culture and Context, 11
Adam, Sheila, Joe, and Others at Cultural Work, 15
Education in America, 19
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of Ameri~a. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright © 1998 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Published in 1998 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder,
Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid’s Copse Road, Cumnor
Hill, Oxford 0X2 9JJ
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Varenne, Herve, 1948Sucessful failure: the school America builds / Herve Varenne and
Ray McDermott with Shelley Goldman, Merry Naddeo, and Rosemarie
Rizzo-Tolk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-3165-X (hardcover) – ISBN 0-8133-9129-6 (paperback)
1. Education-United States-Evaluation-Case studies. 2. School
failure-United States-Case studies. 3. Education-Social aspectsUnited States-Case studies. 4. Educational anthropology-United
States-Case studies. 1. McDermott, Ray. II. Title.
LA217.2.v37 1998
370′ .971-dc21
Adam, Adam, Adam, and Adam:
The Cultural Construction of a Learning Disability;
Ray McDermott and Herve Vtzrenne
POD
ONDEMAND
10
9
8
7
6
5
25
Three Accounts of the House Adam Inhabits, 28
Making Banana Bread and Other Troubles, 33,
Making IQs in Public, 38
The Cultural Construction of Learning Disabilities, 42
,
(2’j The Farrells and the Kinneys at Home:
~/ Literacies in Action, Herve Vtzrenne and Ray McDermott
97-43850
crp
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
PERSEUS
PART ONE
The Makings of Some Educational Facts
45
Sheila and Joe, 47
Familial Literacy, 48
The Eye Ointment Scene, 49
Special Literacy, 51
Homework and School Literacy, 52
Variations in the Doing of School at Home, 55
Culture: A First Approximation, 60
v
1 Adam, Adam,
Adam, and Adam:
The Cultural Construction
of a Learning Disability
Ray McDermott
and Herve Varenne
If maturi
and development mean attunement to context, then . .. evalua–tion can be done only by t e grandchildrenofour grandchildren.
-A. L. Becker, Writing on the Tongue (1989)
When Adam started school he had a difficult time reading the same three-stroke “I”
that made life difficult for Maxine Hong Kingston. There was no confusion with the
seven-stroke Chinese character or with the demands of a culture that made “1”every individual’s very own ”I”-a constant focus of conversation. ~dam was born
and raised in a well-to-do fall!!ly. tie had no trouble with Ameri9b.. at least in the alliI!!P0rtant sense that he was comfortable with the details of Ameri