Payne's Chapter 9 was some pretty heavy stuff. While I was reading it, I was reminded of every time I interact with my wife's colleagues (her colleagues are scientists). They get these ideas and then they all sit there and expand on them, and where does that leave me..... "So, how about that rain, eh?" Ugh, it's so awkward.
Anyway, before I get into Chapter 9, let me briefly cover 2. Like Luke said, a lot of this stuff were things that I have heard in various classes over the past year. For those of us who have had the pleasure of taking a class with Dr. Shields, you know what I mean. This is a topic that has begun to fascinate me. I love the idea of dividing the English language into parts. What I like even more than that is the idea that we can tell our students that there are multiple ways to use our language. The idea of "right vs wrong" drives me nuts. The way our students speak is perfectly fine; they just need to speak differently in certain situations. I really liked the example at the end of Chapter 2, where Payne said to have the students write in their casual register and then show them how to translate it into formal. In relation to poverty, kids shouldn't be ashamed of the way they speak and speech should never take a role in alienating a child if that child has no knowledge of speaking in any other manner.
Back to Chapter 9, I loved how Payne put that students often point to relationships as the key to their elevation from one level to another. This directly relates to what we have all been saying in all of our classes; that standardized tests cannot possibly be the end all, and that relationship-building is something that cannot be rivaled...
Quick random thought here: did anyone watch the GOP debate last night? One of the candidates was saying that the parents are the most important people in education and that they should be the focal point. They argued that teachers need to get out of the way of parents because parents are the ones with the knowledge needed to educate our children. Bananas
.... And back to Chapter 9 (sorry, I am done with the tangents). The deposit and withdrawal charts are fantastic. It just goes to show you how quickly a teacher can lose a student..... but more importantly, how a solid relationship can change a student's life forever.
GOP...wrong...if we were permitted to teach the way Bob Fecho and Tim Shea and Penny Kittle, et al show us, the kids would be so much more able to grow. I see kids check out everyday. You can call them "graphic organizers," but they're worksheets.
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