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The Boston Sunday
Globe Letters New Boston Pilot pupils sort gangsta from grimyA teachable moment I am a Boston College graduate, class of 2003. I started taking courses part time for my master's in social work at BC this past September. At the same time, I decided to become a Boston Public School substitute teacher. I had been substitute teaching in various schools, including the New Boston Pilot Middle School, when a sixth-grade humanities teacher was leaving, and they offered me the class until they could find someone else. I eagerly accepted. I teach humanities, which includes English/Language Arts and Social Studies. We are currently doing a unit on nonfiction for ELA and when I saw the article in the Sunday Globe (My trip to slang school, City Weekly, April 11), I knew it was perfect! It was short enough for the children not to lose interest, but engaging in that it dealt with something every one of my students could relate to! I want them to be active participants in their world and realize that they have the ability to do that. The invitation to respond was an excellent means to that end. I made a little handout with some vocabulary in the article (such as linguist) and added some content questions, and (ta-dah!) it became a lesson. We went to the computer lab and typed them up and I e-mailed them to you. All the students
are in my two classes of sixth-graders. It is a new school and they are
still working out the kinks, but I am inspired by the dedication of these
teachers and administrators to what can be a challenging group of kids.
Where
I live in my block, kids often use slang words, like "chill out,"
"I'm good," "I'm straight," "what up," "yeah
dog," "what's good," "don't sweat it." Kids mostly
use new words so they can fit in, and people think they are all that just
by using those words. I don't know why it really matters if you use it
or not, but if you don't people think you're a geek and you're a nobody.
I use words like "what up" and "what's good" once
in a while. It doesn't really matter to me if I do use those words or
not because I don't have to prove anything to nobody except for myself.
There are many words
on my street. Yes, I have much fav slang. Also some hated. My fav's are
"l.o.l."[laugh out loud], "d.m.y." [don't mess yourself],
"holla" [call/talk], "grimy" [that's rude or mean],...
"a.s.l." [age, sex, location], and "let me find out"
are my favorite slangs. I hate the word "gangsta" a lot. Yes
because it is fun for us teens to have a language that only teens make
up and know. We are capable of communicating without an adult all in our
grill [in your bizz]. The word on my street
is "5 star," "gangsta," and a lot of very bad words.
The favorite word ... is "stunt," "on dogs," and "I
am a gangsta." There is no problem with swearing in this culture
today. Even when people that don't live on the street, even around homeless
people, even if Spanish people were not talking about them they swear
at the person who is talking Spanish. My street is very ghetto. I'm in
the 6th grade. I think all this
slang is good for some kids. But not all the time. You can use it when
you are with your friends and family. If you say it in the street, some
people will take it like you want to fight. The statement around
my street is "crib." Crib means house. My preferred slang language
includes "mad cool" and "fire." They both mean that
something is in fact cool. I do not have any unloved slang language. I
think that it does not matter that slang is such a large fraction of today's
society for the reason that everybody says a slang expression. I am in the 6th grade.
I am 13 years old. 1 go to school at New Boston Pilot Middle School. It
is not important to use slang words, my mother would say. I say yes it
is important to use slang because when my friends use it I know what they
are saying, like "what's up cat?" That means "how you doing
girlfriend," or they be saying "what's up dogg?" That means
"how you doing boyfriend." I tell my mother that it is OK that
she does not know because I can teach her.
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