Some features that overlap are: the use of titles in stories, use of generalized story schemas and literary archetypes like "Once upon a time...", summarizing the content of a story and setting a framework within which the story lies, and the use of "repetition and parallelism".
2. What are the features of Leona's specialized form of language?
Leona groups her lines into organized stanzas that share similarities in the layout of their content. Leona also cleverly "chunked" her story into "episodes" to help the story progress in a linear fashion and created a very recognizable rhyme scheme pattern into many of her stanzas.
3. Why is Leona's specialized form of language not accepted in school?
Her story doesn't follow the traditionally linear or step-by-step stories of her peers - her stories are seen as "ramblings" that take too much time to convey a point or "veer off topic". Her method of story telling focuses more on the details and ways in which the story is told rather than getting to the end of the story. Her approach not only differs from her peers, but provides a sharp contrast to the general objective of education.
4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998).
4. Explain the contradiction between the research conducted by Snow et al. (1998) and the recommendations made by Snow et al. (1998).
The research showed that children who received free or reduced lunches had reading skills (collectively) within a certain percentile at the end of first grade - but the gap widened and many "high poverty" students fell behind. The researchers concluded that "regardless of their initial reading skill level", children living in high poverty areas seem to fall further behind. This creates an interesting question: If initial reading skill level is not an effective determinant of reading proficiency, then why is poverty so strongly connected to illiteracy?
5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers?
5. What other factors besides early skills training will make or break good readers?
One predominantly discussed factor is "ensuring that people feel like they belong to and are a valued and accepted part of the social group within which their learning takes place." In other words, inclusion and culturally responsive education (or the lack thereof) can prove to be more important in terms of reading achievement than initial reading level.
6. Why do some children fail to identify with, or find alienating, the "ways with words" taught in school?
Children can find academic varieties of language alienating if their parents found them alienating, if the instruction of these language varieties seem "distant, irrelevant, or frightening" or is not motivating to them. That is, children don't always see these language varieties as fresh, fun, and exciting like they do in other forms of media.
I would say children don't find academic language varieties as relevant or accessible.
ReplyDeleteDid you find Gee analysis of Leona's story as consistent with structures associated with high-literature intriguing?
I hope this chapter contribute to your understanding of why it is important for teachers to value and understand their students "ways with words"!