Double Journal Entry #10

Some children are exposed to features of academic varieties of language at home,  from an early age.  The social practices of these families include things such as reading stories and speaking in “literary” terms, the use of complex informational texts and dialogues, and asking children to explain their understanding of a subject.  Different cultures use different vernaculars and have distinct features of language.  Leona, for example, shared stories with her class in a way that was characteristic of her African American heritage.  Her oral stories were often recited in a similar manner as poetry, broken into 4 line stanzas that were marked with specific word choice and included an “evaluative” section.  Despite its complexity, Leona’s specialized form of language was not accepted in school because the structure did not align with the linear, narrative style commonly found there.  

The research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) indicated that children attending schools that were of a predominately low socioeconomic status would fall behind in reading skills.  Despite these findings, the research also suggested teaching reading through skills instruction (phonics, phonemic awareness, etc.) which has proven unsuccessful.   Children fail to identify with a school’s values and specialized language features when they feel their own are disregarded.  In addition, because children are increasingly encountering complex forms of language outside of the school, delivered to them in ways they find appealing (such as Pokemon), they are less motivated by the language used in schools.  
 
Sources:
Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.

Student Interviews

Interview with a struggling student:

Do you enjoy school?  No (responds quickly, he’s very sure of his answer). 

Why not?:  Because it’s boring, you have to do math.  Math is kind of hard. 

What kind of student are you?  A good one.  (seems hesitant)

What makes you a good student?  I don’t get recharges, and I help my teachers. 

What do you do for fun outside of school?  Play football or kickball

How would your classmates describe you? (takes a long time to answer, sounds somewhat upset) I’m not sure. 

Who are you friends with? Scott

What do you and your friends do together?  Play basketball, kickball, or football

What is a good memory you have about school?  P.E., Library, Music, Lunch.  In music you get to play instruments.  (when asked for a specific memory, the student had trouble understanding the question)

What is a bad memory you have about school?  I get bored.  At football, someone wouldn’t let me kick the ball and we yelled at each other.  I got in trouble. 

Describe a “good” teacher:  A good teacher has Fun Friday and lets you play on First In Math. 

Describe a favorite teacher you’ve had:  (current teacher) because she lets me be a helper.  (last year’s teacher) because he let us bring in toy cars to have  race. 

Did you measure the distance and stuff like that?  Yeah

What is one thing you wish your teacher this year knew about you?  That I really like computers and want to use them more.  I like to play Pop Trouble. 

During the school day, the student in this interview is commonly removed from the classroom to participate in special education services for mathematics and language arts.  When in the classroom, he rarely is able to participate in the activity or lesson that the class is working on, and usually he is off task and disengaged from the setting.  He is given modified assignments when in the classroom, and this modification has seemed to create a self fulfilling prophecy where he now only expects himself to be capable of that amount.  Even when the activity is appropriate for his skill level, he will insist that “he only does 5 questions.”   This stigma has obviously ingrained itself into his brain, and unfortunately made him doubt himself even in situations where he could be successful.  He struggles to fit in socially as well as academically and as reflected in the interview question, he does not have many friends.  

Interview with a high performing student:

Do you enjoy school?  Yes, it’s fun to learn.  For me at least. 

What kind of student are you?  A good student.  I like helping people to get better. 

What do you for fun outside of school?  Play board games.  I like monopoly

How would your classmates describe you?  (without hesitation)  That I’m a good student, everyone went nuts in class when they found out I was student of the month for 3^rd graders. 

Who are you friends with?  Kalieigh, Sarah, Abby, Tylee, Kenley, (wants to continue, I stop her.  Listing friends is much easier for her than the first student interviewed)

What do you and your friends do together?  Play tag, or play on the spider (a climbing piece on the playground)

Tell me a good memory you have about school:  Being student of the month

A bad one?  Getting yelled at by some of my teachers. 

Describe a “good” teacher/tell me about your favorite teacher:  A good teacher teaches me a lot about spelling, writing, math, listening.  I like all of the teachers that I’ve had.

What is one thing you wish your current teacher knew about you?   That I’m shy in front of a big group of people, or when I meet someone new. 

This student is very social and also very intelligent.  She is being referred to be evaluated and possible placed into a gifted program.  Despite this, she is not always on task in the classroom.  She often works ahead, or on something else entirely, while the class is reading a story or completing a worksheet.  Usually, she is able to finish this other task and return to the place the class is at as if she hadn’t been doing something else.  She will complete a worksheet, for example, while the class listens to a story being read aloud.  When it is time to answer questions about the story, she can do so.  Often, she seems uninterested in the current level of learning, possibly because it is too basic for her. 

The range of abilities within the classroom can be vast, as illustrated by these two students.  Compensating for this and engaging all students in meaningful learning is therefore an extremely challenging task.  One that, inevitably, I will not be successful with all of the time.  Speaking from experience, my second lesson was yesterday which was a webquest I had designed.  I felt that all students in the class would be able to participate regardless of ability level because the sites used were kid friendly and had minimal text.  I was wrong.  The students in the classroom with less computer literacy struggled greatly with just navigating through the links, let alone finding the answers to my question in the text.  Overall, the experience caused them (and me) anxiety and frustration.  Unfortunately, it is hard to ensure that your lessons will be both engaging and accessible.  Learning to do this will surely be a continuous journey. 

Double Entry Journal #9

According to Gee, a strange fact about children not learning to read is that while there is an apparent link between poverty and acquiring the skill, this does not mean that poor students aren’t as good at learning.  The school environment is supposed to be one that creates equal and accessible learning for all students, regardless of background and socioeconomic status.  The fact that educators and administrators accept the relationship between literacy and poverty as normal is evidence of how schools are failing to meet this expectation.  Because the school system places a great amount of importance on overt instruction in learning to read, rather than immersion in meaningful language experiences, the child who can learn regardless of his or her social class is transformed into one that will struggle to succeed.  

Traditionalists argue that this method of overt instruction is the best way to teach a child to read.  They follow a systematic approach, first teaching phonics and phonemic awareness, then moving on to oral reading and comprehension and see these steps as building blocks that must be completed one at a time.  A more progressive educator would adopt the Whole Language approach and see instruction as exposure to words in context and meaningful use.  Because oral language has been a part of our history since the beginning of human life, it has become ingrained and intrinsic.  We have evolved with the natural ability to acquire oral language.  This is not the case for written language and reading.  Gee points out that in addition to natural and instructed learning processes, there are cultural processes and reading is one of them.  Though it is clear that humans learn best through cultural processes, in which they are guided through new skills by a “master,” reading is still taught in our schools in an instructional manner. 

Gee points out that the fourth grade slump so often discussed by educators is caused by the switch from learning to read through instructional processes to reading to learn, using an information rich text.  Students who may have succeeded in learning to read despite the method in which they were taught, will inevitably struggle when the focus of reading becomes comprehension.   He argues that rather than assessing things such as phonemic awareness when making predictions about a child’s future reading skills, educators should evaluate “language ability.” This broad term encompasses vocabulary, expression, recall, comprehension, and interaction.  This early ability is developed through family, community, and school language interactions. 

Sources:

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.

Double Entry Journal #8

The challenge presented by Situated Language and Learning, A critique of traditional schooling, by James Paul Gee, is how to teach all children, regardless of their social class, the necessary skills to be successful in school and in an ever changing and complex world. 

The main argument in this book is addresses how language affects the many ways in which we learn.  The numerous types of specialized registers of language, such as those associated with science, mathematics, technology, internet, and video games, can either hinder or promote learning for a student.  This depends greatly on each student’s personal background, experiences, and unfortunately, social class.  Students with a lower socioeconomic status have less exposure to language and its diversity, and typically receive less support at home.  According to Gee, students will be most successful at learning these specialized registers when they do so through context and experiences that they find engaging and interesting.   I agree with his sentiment that the academic register of language is not enough and think that in order to create independent, successful citizens of the 21^st century it is essential that we educate children in a way that is accessible and achievable by all.  I love how the author invites the reader to think about the way that video and computer games accomplish this, through simulation and fantasy, and encourages making this connection to teaching. 

By “way with words,” the author simply means the way in which a person expresses themselves with language.  A person’s “way with words” may be very appealing or can completely disengage the audience.  Personally, I like the way this book is written.  The word choice and humor (so far) are interesting to me.  I can see how some people will not appreciate the author’s style, or as he put it, will feel like they are “about to fall into the black hole of “jargon” and “academic language” – language they don’t particularly like or care about.”

Outside of school I have learned several different “ways with words” for varying situations. As a child I played sports and was a cheerleader, all of which had unique language registers.  Throughout middle school I played musical instruments and participated in choir, which also have their own jargon and technical terms.  As an adult, I formally studied American Sign Language, and have become a mother… two new and immense forms of language specialties.  Currently, I am surrounded with the lingo of a teacher as I near the end of my Elementary Education degree. 

Sources:

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.

Double Journal Entry #7

While research strongly suggests that the use of inquiry-based learning is incredibly successful, the process of implementing this type of instruction holds many challenges. 

First, it requires an immense amount of planning for the teacher and cooperation between all staff members of the school.  In order for the experience to be effective, teachers must be well-versed in how to create them.  Choosing appropriate activities and designing units in a logical sequence using inquiry-based methods can be extremely challenging.  Many teachers currently in the schools have been using the same lessons they created 10 or 20 years ago. In an effort to save time and improve standardized test scores upon which the schools funding is dependent, most rely on prescribed methods of teaching such as Basal reader sets and Home Links mathematics sheets.  Several have little to no understanding of how to fully utilize all of the technological resources at their disposal.  Without training and in depth study of how to properly establish an inquiry-based environment, and with a self lack of 21^st century skills, it is very difficult to create these types of lessons.  Also, collaboration between teachers, administration, members of the community, and possibly a global audience must take place through the joint effort of everyone at the school.  Ensuring that the mentality of everyone in the school aligns (regarding inquiry-based learning, at least) is difficult, yet essential.

In addition to the teacher lacking the necessary skills, in some cases the students are also unprepared for this type of learning environment.  The thought processes required, and the investigation methods used may be ones that students have had no experience with and therefore will have trouble finding meaning in.  The background knowledge needed to pose solutions to complex problems, experience (or lack thereof) with tools needed for the project, and accessibility to resources can hinder some students learning.  

Reference:

Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Teaching for meaningful learning. In R. Furger (Ed.), Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching For Understanding. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf