Double Entry #9: Getting to Know your Students

Why is it important to encourage students to use primary language or code switch during literacy events?
So that the students are not pressured into having to use and learn the new language.  Writing in their primary language can be a useful tool to get them to write expressively and how they want to convey what they are thinking and feeling.  Once they are comfortable with their writing, they can then acquire new skills to translate their writings more effectively.  Then learn new vocabulary and sentence structure translating something that they can connect to.

Does this apply to children with Appalachian dialects? Why or Why not?


Yes, because even though standard speaking individuals may think of it as garble, it is a dialect, with its own rules and vocabulary.  And if someone grows up with a certain set of words and structure and that is all they know then who is to say that they cannot speak properly.  To them it is the proper way to speak just as any foreign language of a different country.  Different countries like America all have their own regions and dialects, like China, Europe, or Africa.  And like America there may be a 'standard' or more popular dialect, but we do not disregard foreigners different dialects, we work them and should use equal opportunities for them to learn.


What are the differences between reading aloud from a students centered perspective and a teacher centered perspective?

The teacher centered perspective seemed to focus on what the teacher felt was important to get out of the story.  She asked direct questions that were literal answers from the book, leaving little room for creativity or opinion.  Students were thought that if they were speaking they were not learning so they had to remain seated and quiet while the teacher read aloud to them.  I do not care for this approach, I think that the students even though they are quiet with their eyes forward are probably wondering in their minds about everything but the story.  And only the few in the front would be able to really focus and be able to answer the question at the end.  And they would also walk away from the story with no personal connection probably forgetting the next day.

Student centered perspective on the other hand takes the focus away from the teacher and puts it on the students.  This then becomes engaging and students must take responsibility for their own connections they make.  Students are able to ask questions and become inquisitive and think on higher levels of cognition.  The story then takes a step back and the focus is placed on the students really taking in the information and making the book a tool for learning.  I much prefer this approach, it allows the teacher to really see what kinds of connections are going on in the classroom and how students are taking in the information.  This allows more effective gauging of student level and how to revise lesson to meet the students actual needs instead of where the teacher would expect or think they would be.

This article talks about code switching and the research they are doing in Appalachian Dialect.