Gee

I think that the story about the nurse becoming a part of a secondary discourse is a perfect example of what Gee is talking about. He seems to want his readers to understand that it's not easy to obtain a second discourse, so don't stress over it. Rather, he urges readers to learn by acquisition, experience the discourse, in order to fully know it and be a part of it. This actually reminds me a little bit of Haas case-study. Eliza (the student) felt more a part of the scientific world when she joined a research-assistant program where she worked side-by-side people who knew much more about science than she did. She was able to aquire an identity kit from the woman she worked under. Her identity kit included understanding of scientific terminology, no doubt ways of dressing, and also what is appropriate to discuss in lab and outside of lab.

I get the sense from Gee that he does want aquiring of a second language to, in a way, be fun. At the end of the "What is Literacy?", he very obviously pushes his desire for students to obtain a discourse via acquisition rather than just learning. He still mentions that learning is an element that can be used, but that it is not good enough without the practice of acquisition being integrated in as well.

Because I am going to school to be a high school Chemistry teacher, I take these sort of ideas seriously and hope to apply them to my own experience as a teacher someday. I remember my experiences of high school Chemistry as very vague and as something I could not relate to. (Who has time to think about that homework assignment when the homecoming game is tonight?) Had my Chemistry teacher involved acquisition in her classroom, the learning experience may have come easier and been interesting or even fun. For example, while we did have labs in high school where we saw "Chemistry in action", we didn't see chemists in action. Perhaps if we had taken a field trip to visit industrial parks where Chemistry is the main focus of product development, we could have more tangibly understood what we were studying. In addition, to perhaps meet and talk with scientists who regularly use Chemistry and chemicals, we may have had a greater respect for the subject in general. I hope someday to apply this sort of acquisition/learning combination in my own classroom.