Making room for students linguistic and cultural practices in the context of NCLB

1. 1 Making room for students’ linguistic and cultural practices in the context of NCLB Meg Gebhard With Drew Habana Hafner and Mary Wright. The ACCELA Alliance University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA TESOL 2006 Tampa, Florida

2. 2 The ACCELA Alliance Federally funded partnership between UMass and Springfield and Holyoke Public Schools Provides funding for Masters Degree and state license to 50 teachers (ESL, special-education, and classroom teachers) On-site; Inquiry-based (e.g., centers on developing teachers’ research questions, analyzing student learning, reading relevant literature); Data-driven (UMass faculty and 15 doctoral students support the development of research questions, data collection, analysis, and dissemination activities); Faculty include: Theresa Austin, Meg Gebhard, Sonia Nieto, Pat Paugh, Costanza Eggers XX, Fatima XXX, and Jerri Willett.

3. 3 ACCELA’s purpose is to respond to: Global social, economic, and political changes Demographics changes; shift from manufacturing economic base to “New Work Order” (e.g., Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Gee, Hull & Lankshear, 1996; Gebhard, 2004; New London Group, 1996). High-stakes school reforms: English-Only proposition in 2002; State curriculum frameworks; No Child Left Behind Legislation.

4. 4 Big idea: Curriculum Permeability Dyson (1993) see also Gutiérrez, et al., 1995; Kramsch, 1985; Lee, 2001; Moll & Greenburg, 1990; Solsken, Willett, Wilson-Keenan, 2000 Creates spaces for student voices; Supports students’ use of “unofficial” talk and print as a way of staking a claim on “official” academic language (Dyson, 1993, p.43): oral discourses, jokes, cartoons, genres from popular culture Approaches textual practices as “inroads” to academic literacy and as “crossroads” between home and school communities (Dyson, 1993, p. 133).

5. 5 Continuum of curricular practices Permeable/dialogic practices (Dyson): Knowledge and use of students’ “out-of school” textual practices; Authentic purposes and audiences for students’ texts (from student perspective); Fluid classroom participant structures (see Kramsch, 1985); Construction of dynamic roles/identities; Negotiation of meaning across differences through uses of talk and print. Institutional/monologic practices (Gutiérrez et al.): Students’ out-of-school textual practices not understood or devalued by teachers; Purposes and audiences for students’ texts primarily institutional (e.g., purpose=evaluation/accountability; audience=teacher); Classroom participant structures focus on controlling students behavior as opposed to teaching and learning; Construction of limited roles/identities; See McNeil, 1986; Gebhard, 2002.

6. 6 Context Mary Wright White woman in her forties; attended Holyoke Public Schools; experience with elementary ELLs, but new to middle school English Language Arts instruction. Transient Opportunity Program: New program designed to serve middle school students whose education has been compromised by unsettled family situations and the inability of schools to meet the needs of transient students (e.g., homelessness, Child Protective Services, Criminal Justice System). Focus students Typically speak “non-dominant” varieties of English; have a high suspension rate; not well prepared for grade-level academic reading and writing tasks; some officially designated as “ELL” or “Special Ed;” Class size in constant flux.

7. 7 Mary’s unit: Designed to introduce students to keeping a writer’s notebook and developing the disciplinary habits of writers (e.g., writing daily, reviewing, revising, getting feedback on emerging ideas); Student (“Julian”) suggests they model their notebooks after Tupac Shakur’s (2002) The Rose that Grew from Concrete; Mary’s original “author’s notebook” unit becomes a poetry unit focusing on how expert writers “show don’t tell” through their use of descriptive words, imagery, simile, and metaphor.

8. 8 Video clip Mary models “show-don’t-tell” practice on the OHP and makes hardcopies available for future reference; Students write their own description of an emotion. Through discussion, they guess the emotions being described; Four seventh-grade boys: Julian: Age 15, Puerto Rican, born in US, 29 suspensions in grade six; Mark: Age 13, White, homeless, has attended 15 schools, recently moved from Lowell, MA; Miguel: Age 13, Puerto Rican, born in Holyoke, moves between mother’s home in Florida and aunt’s home in Holyoke; Javier: Age 15, born in Puerto Rico, “ELL”, homeless and did not attend school for grades 5 and 6, history of drug abuse.

9. 9 Julian and Miguel

10. 10 Javier

11. 11 Challenges Differential risk Content knowledge Ability to analyze language