References for Intentional Learning; Skills Acquired Through Case Studies of Literacy
Annotated References
Delpit, L. (2003).
The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom.
New
York, NY: W.W. Norton.
A collection of professional voices
from the fields of secondary education, collegiate, theoretical, and ethnography
analyzing the methods for developing language and literacy for multicultural
children in predominant white, American, English standard language culture. Chapter
essays by noted individuals presented the relationship of education and
language bias with analysis from case studies and classroom observations. The jurisprudence
of Ebonics is the focus of this sociolinguistic study of late 20th century
legal actions, government spending and personal experience. Scholars unable to concur on Ebonics as a
language or dialect consequently affected racial tensions and legislative
actions.
Essays similarly conclude that refusal
to acknowledge purpose and meaning of dialect or language leads unconscious
racism. Each scholar focuses on isolated
reasons for African American students’ failure and suggests purposeful actions
for present day education. Herbert Kohl’s insight moved beyond teacher
criticism and examined a multitude of approaches and the outcomes for changes
in instruction. Kohl concluded that there could be more instruction on teacher’s
language and styles. Teachers should not judge or correct dialect as language
misuse, as a result of laziness, poverty, stupidity need of remediation. Intellect judged on English Standard language
has been responsible for social castigation and less remediation is needed if
dialectic differences are recognized and integrated purposefully. Gloria Ladson-Billings criticisms of education
were less forgiving of educators. She demands that education change to allow
every child to succeed without failure. This thread holds throughout each essay, children
should not be allowed or able to fail. Differentiated
instruction should embrace cultural, linguistic style.
Epelbaum, D. (2007).
Multiple Intelligence Assessments give Insight into Reading Comprehension
Difficulties and Potential: A
Case Study. International Journal of
Learning, 14(5) 243-251. Retrieved from Education Research Complete.
This
research questioned how testing students’ reading comprehension with
assessments based on standard, isolated linguistic intelligence would compare
to an assessment that could be geared towards one of the individual’s other intelligences
(as identified by Howard Gardner’s research).
Qualitative Reading Inventories (QRI) does provide data to target
specific weaknesses in linguistic intelligence. However, QRI does not accurately measure student potential
or intelligence in other areas. The
focus of this finding looks at the consequences of mislabeling ESL students at
a lower level for reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension in the student’s home language is most likely
higher than it is in an adopted language and mislabeling students can effect
their placement. The research tested if an ESL student can be taught strategies
for excelling in reading comprehension practices by utilizing another intelligence
(interpersonal and spatial).
Epelbaum
relied on body language clues to determine student levels of frustration or
comprehension while utilizing literary strategies based on Harvery Daniels. This is a well organized case for Response to
Intervention (RTI). Assessment, diagnosis and a design for progress based on
individual needs of a student resulted in small, measureable progress. Only two
of Gardner’s intelligences were tested. This
research focused on the results of one student without repetitive practice
without recommended applications for a larger body of students.
Grandin, T. (2007).
Autism from the Inside: Educational
Leadership, 64(5), 29-32. Retrieved from
Education
Research Complete.
This article is an autobiographical
reflection of autism and specific educational practices that lead autistic
students to success. Her status as a university professor, a published author
and an industrial designed sets high expectations. She explains how autistic children learn
based on her own experience and how educators could teach to these strengths.
The article is direct and gives simple rules of engagement for educators and
their autistic populations.
Grandin’s autism allows her to
think in images and associations that are not sequential or linear. Educator’s should no longer make the mistake
of removing pictures from students’ thinking.
They should adjust to the strengths of the individual. Misreading
student responses to how educators insist that students learn interferes with
learning styles. Brain research concurs
that it is impossible for autistic students to understand nuance or non verbal
instruction. It did not benefit Grandin to learn many subjects at the same
time. It in fact would have impeded her
ability to learn at her higher level of intelligence. This concise, simplified research clarified
the dangers of not differentiating and should be read by every educator. While education should have vision, teachers
should not be alone in making responsible decisions about what is best practice.
Harvey, S. Ebonics
Dictionary. (2009, July 20). Steve Harvey
One Man. Retrieved from
youtube.com,
(2012, July 8)
This was a four minute clip of a
recorded show of a popular stand- up comedian. It was a necessary review for connections
to the Ebonics controversy because I live in a region of Vermont where this is nonexistent. Steve Harvey is renowned for his humorous
description of his own Black culture.
His use of Ebonics found appreciation with an audience that was predominantly
Black. Cameras panning the audiences’ reactions to his impersonations and
descriptions of how Ebonics and its culture are received by White American
culture highlighted receptive responses of hysterical laughter and enthusiasm.
His routine seems to both embrace cultural and dialectic differences while
making light of it being misconstrued. He challenges the view of Ebonics as
culture to be disregarded into a culture that is disregarded because it has
power and meaning.
Finding humor in an era of
contentious debate on the legality of Ebonics takes the edge off of uncertainties
about this linguistic culture. This clip was evidently posted and viewed by
more than 300,000 ending with “Ebonics
is the leading cause of white folks taking accidental ass whoopins’ during hold
ups…” and uncontrolled responses of laughter.
Oboler, E.S. &
Gupta, A. (2010). Emerging Theoretical Models of Reading through Authentic
Assessments
among Preservice Teachers: Two Case Studies. Reading Matrix: An International
Online Journal, 10(1), 79-95.
Case studies of preservice
teachers (PT) conclude that different tools for traditional reading inventories
and determining instructional reading level helped establish practices that
were intentionally mindful of students’ progress. Teachers did not use assessment as a final
cap on a student’s intelligence but as a means for developing a pathway for
continued gain in metacognition.
Teachers were invested in isolating causes of student errors, adjusting
teaching practices and addressing cultural factors that confuse learning. Teachers
engaged in the separate studies of common assessment were more accepting of
allowing others to grade subjectively and offer recommendations for specific
reading strategies to match the needs of students. This developed when 50% or more teachers reached similar
diagnosis. When educators in every field
of knowledge apply similar reading strategies, the consistency follows the
student as he/she attends to the daily schedule. This study concludes that when schools administer
assessments that they believe are meaningful and effective it works when there
is a clear objective (data) of how they will be used to inform instructional
plans for the student. The purpose of training a school to collect and
interpret data is to formulate hypotheses for linking outcomes to inform
appropriate instruction.
TEDEd, Lessons Worth
Sharing (Producer). (2009). Nina
Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color.
The idea behind TED ed is to take
the popular TED talks and to build a platform for the classroom use that does
not replace classroom learning. It allows students to take lecture as video and
view it wherever, whenever. Members can
access differentiated routine tasks such as multiple choice, short answer and
deep thinking questions. Students
receive an instant response to their scoring which can allow for recall,
retakes. Students can have their scores
and answers shared with their teacher.
Teachers have the ability to edit or exclude segments of the video and
the assessment tasks. They can add links and ideas of their own to the tasks which
is referred to as flipping a classroom. “Flip this video” link can be accessed
on every site.
Technology, education and design
are the key themes behind the TED acronym. A studio in California became host
to an annual conference which promoted the top innovators and motivators of the
world. The requisite was the limit of
the speech to eighteen minutes. The free access to these lectures was well
received and became popular in my own classroom.
Access to video removes some of
the teacher’s authority and responsibility for presenting a body of knowledge. On
one level, it depersonalizes the relationship that students and teachers have removing
some of the negative outcomes that come from controlling access to knowledge. This site encourages collaboration that
transcends cultural bias and allows an unstratified community to debate,criticize
and engage in all of the meanings available from one simple lecture. I chose this particular lecture for its relevance
to my other references on race and culture.
Robertson, S. (Show
Host) (2010, November 15). Ebonics in the Age of Obama. The Ink Spot. Chicago
State
University. Youtube.com(2012, July 8)
A recap of a recorded episode of
a critique of the issues addressed in John Baugh’s recently published book, Beyond Ebonics. Three notable guests
argue the necessity of recognizing Ebonics as a language. Points considered
include the concerns of encouraging a language that is “dummed down” or less
than standard and its short history of necessary usage in North America. It’s
roots in Wollof and Gula of West Africa justify patterns of usage and influence
on current Ebonics. Debate moved into acknowledging that there is no universal
Black culture in America but that regional dialect has universal patterns that
are established as language patterns of Ebonics. Regardless of the points of view all concur
that Baugh deserved a positive review of his work.
I needed to hear the debate after
reading Delpit’s, The Skin That We Speak. Because the controversy is about
language, I needed to find that language being discussed by notable African
Americans and not as this issue was examined by major American news
broadcasters. Not one critic argued in the language of Ebonics. All argued in standard English.
Vygotsky, L.S., & Kozulin, A. (2011). The
Dynamics of the Schoolchild’s Mental Development in
Relation to Teaching and
Learning. Journal of Cognitive Education
& Psychology, 10(2), 198-
211. Doi:10.1891/19458959.10.2.198.
Vygotsky’s
early 20th century work is referenced by several of the authors who
emphasize the necessity of developing literacy skills through ample experiences
with conversation and verbal communication. His work is considered a theoretical
foundation for backwards design and inquiry based learning. In this research the
relationships between the mental development of a child and the learning is
more complicated than imagined. In his theoretical Zone of Proximal
Development, relative and absolute achievement is separate. It is possible for students to fail an
absolute achievement but to gain significant relative knowledge and
achievement. Therefore a student has
accumulated gains in knowledge. This was
especially important to his study of underachieving students and those with
several mental disabilities. Tests can not alone expose the possibilities and
endless possible outcomes that children do develop.
ZDP
defines those functions that are not mature yet, but are currently in the
process of maturation, the functions that will mature tomorrow. There is an optimal distance and optimal gap
between the ideal age and the actual age lead to achievement. Therefore the process of learning is not
purely a mechanical process.
This
research is used in several of the language and linguistic arguments that both
validates the usefulness of common assessment and the need to develop
intentional practices in the classroom to allow for optimum students achievement
at their own individual pace in their own way.
It is mindful of possibility and potential that can be overlooked when
education focuses primarily on a given answer on a test.
Witte-Townsend,
D. L. & DiGiulio, E. (2004) Something from Nothing: Exploring dimensions of
children’s
knowing through the repeated of favourite books, The International Journal of
Children’s Spirituality, 127–142. (Guest Editor: Mark
Pike, University of Plymouth, Exmouth,
U.K.
Special issue on spirituality, literature and literacy.) Web
site:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This
is a reflective study of how emergent readers and educators develop continuous
relationships with certain pieces of literature. The experiences of the authors demonstrate
reasoning for why emergent readers should reread favorite stories and for the
purpose of silences that follow when children digest a story. They defend that individual progress in a
classroom is social, emotional and spiritual. This progress can not and is not
documented by standardized testing. In overlooking this development there is a
danger in encouraging educators and parents to forget about the value of
rereads or silent reflection.
Children
stories are crafted in order to strengthen developmental stages of learning.
Repetition, print structure, imagery, patterns & predictions are built into
the readings for the purpose of rereading.
“Students can’t always articulate the subtleties they sense and they
often pick up on overlooked complexity or new pathways” as they read and later
when they quietly reflect. This study emphasized the importance of never giving
children the impression that there is only one response to a complex issue.
conversations of depth across
educational communities, Johnson State College, Vermont, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38,
(3) 373-389.:
This
research advocates for a spiritual and communicative focus in classroom learning.
Children and teachers can achieve complex learning if teachers are aware of a
child’s depth of being. The author explores
the intuitive and perceptive nature of children and their ability for
thoughtful input into their own education.
Her own classroom experiences give evidence to Vygotsky’s theory for
lessons that offer variance in pacing, experimental play, modeling and
conversation as means for developing meaningful engagements. An argument for ‘reading for the sake of the
beauty of language or the wonder of a new idea,” is pitted against prescript
emphasis on mandated standardized testing.
This study suggests that standardization of the 1970s and the present
legislation can lead teachers, school systems to neglect important
transformation.
Whitney Kaulbach
EDU- 6210-
Administration of reading programs
Johnson State
College
Professor Darlene
Witte Townsend
Summer 2012
Comments
You have a fine writing style and a way of synthesizing your knowledge that I find very meaningful.
Thank you.