3351 Double Journal Entry 6

First Speaker

1. Why is this video helpful for teaching in West Virginia? This work applies to any student who speaks a variety different than Standard English.
2. What evidence is presented that supports the credibility of the speaker? She is associate professor of English Language and Literacy at a university in VA and is a literacy consultant. She is co-author of code switching, and has a BA, MA, PhD.
3. Describe the traditional approach to responding to student writing? The traditional approach is for the teacher to correct the students writing.  
4. Why does the traditional approach not work in improving student writing? This does not work because it focuses on what the student is not doing.
5. Name the three strategies associated with the linguistic approach to writing instruction? Scientific method, contrastive analysis, code switching
6. How do you know the cat and Taylor go together? The owner and what they own are right next to each other.
7. What is different between the two patterns of possessives for informal and formal English? The owner now has an apostrophe s and then what they own.
8. What strategy is being used for teaching the second grade students the different patterns between informal and formal English? The strategy used is code switching.
9. Describe how the scientific method is used to teach students to code switch. The teacher has them look at pattern and collect data, observe the data (what’s the pattern), state a hypothesis, then check the hypothesis and make any modifications.
10. What question is being asked to engage students in the comparison and contrast strategy? What changed.
11. How does code switching support meta cognition? Choosing language to fit the setting
12. What evidence is presented the code switching approach works? Describe one of the studies? Honey Taylor was an English composition teacher. Her African American students were struggling and failing. She decided to use the traditional approach in one class and contrastive analysis in another. She found that after one semester the traditional approach class there was an 8% increase in vernacular features in their student writing while the contrastive analysis class had a 59% decrease in those features.

Second Speaker

1. How did the students respond when asked how they felt about being corrected when they talked? They said they felt stupid, angry, and confused.
2. Give an example of a "fund of knowledge" the teacher drew on to help students learn to code switch? She described formal and informal language by using the knowledge of clothing. She compared formal clothes (uniforms) they wore to the school library and informal clothes worn to Walmart.
3. What are some added benefits aside from raising test scores that stem from using contrastive analysis? They recognize language differences and embrace them. They have command over their language.

On Your Own

Generating and Testing Hypothesis is an example of  contrastive analysis because the students are guided through the process of asking good questions, generating hypotheses and predictions, investigating, observing, and analyzing results. They are actively learning, which deepens their understanding.

Identifying Similarities and Differences is an example of contrastive analysis because it allows learners to see patterns and make connections. Then they classify by these characteristics and then develop a scheme to organize the objects. Students should be encouraged to link the new schemes with knowledge they already have.

References

Wheeler Rebecca. (Writer) (2007). Teaching standard english in urban classrooms in [Web]. Retrieved from http://forum-network.org/lecture/teaching-standard-english-urban-classrooms

Generating and testing hypotheses . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/gene.php


Identifying similarities and differences. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/iden.php