10/22 - Supporting Readers

This writing shows off several kinds of interesting diversity in Chicago. Historical, ethnic and in particular- linguistic. Being able to appreciate the nature and flavor of the varying languages around you is a boon for everyone and especially that of teachers. Spanish is an important language in Chicago, approximately 25% of the population speaks it, but there are many dialects within it, as well as ongoing hybridizations and creolizations. (Creolization is a relatively sudden emergence of a hybrid language, possessing a full vocabulary and containing a full set of grammatical rules.) Appreciating and responding positively toward others who may seem at first to “speak funny or badly” is critical for a someone in the role of a teacher.

English itself has had a long and varied history. There is a reason why English possesses Latin words and structure, including French and Celtic as well. This was true even before the voracious adoption of foreign words from the 16th century and on. When the Normans (a French speaking people) took control of the British isles back in 11th century, names of animals were primarily English derived- “Cows”, “Pigs”, “Lambs”, “Deer”, and so forth, but by the time the animal was cooked and placed upon the dinning tables of the Norman aristocracy they had changed into their old french names of “Beef”, “Pork”, “Mutton”, and “Venison”.

African American English, or sometimes referred to as Black Vernacular, is also not homogenous, it comes with influences from many different languages in Africa. There is an African creole language that is still natively spoken on some islands off the coast of the Carolinas. Gullah. It historically had greatly influenced Black Vernacula. To help appreciate it you need to understand one of the limitations in standard English. We do not have verb forms that can differentiate between several time duration cases, like when describing an action that began in the past and ended in the past, and an action that began in the past and will end at some time in the future. Gullah does have verb forms that differentiate this (and more), which has been passed on in part to portions of Black Vernacular.

Here is an example: “She sick.” (Began in the past, ended in the past.) “She be sick.” (Began in the past, will end in the future.) Though those two phrases sound ungrammatical to standard English, they are not a sign of low education or low ability, they are both meaningful and proper sentences from a different English dialect.

While the goal will most likely be to help students be able to read and write in standard and formal English, understanding language more broadly like this will help us appreciate students and respectfully help them achieve a greater level of literary ability.



Common core standards are an attempt to not only raise the bar of academic achievement of K-12, but to help colleges understand with more clarity what their incoming freshman know (or ideally should know). A key idea in the article is that it is incumbent on all teachers to be teaching literacy to their students. Gaining expertise with literacy is a skill that takes more than a dozen years to learn, and all teachers need to contribute to help students accomplish this daunting task. It is important for each teacher to be asking themselves what their contribution should be for their given students. Common core standards are a means to assist with this and gives a shared list of goals for all teachers to look upon.

As for the specific recommendations and focuses of the common core, I personally have my doubts. I am not standing opposed to any of the individual standards outlined as of yet, but I am not fully convinced that they are exactly as they should be, either. For example the shift from assigning less fiction and replacing it with non-fiction.

“The Standards require that 50% of the complex texts read by students at the elementary level be informational in character—shifting to 75% in high school—reflecting the role of texts in building students’ knowledge across K-12 disciplines and after high school.”

Like all attempts at making policy, policy-makers (should) try to understand the broad and far reaching effects of their policies. Looking at general shifts and large scale averages. They want kids to be “college ready” and in college a lot of textbook reading is assigned. It would be natural to seem that by having K-12 students do more “informational” text reading in primary and secondary school it will help them be ready for this. However, I have doubts that their rationale works as straightforward as they hope it does.

It is my belief that there is tremendous value in reading fiction. Narratives are almost always more natural in fiction than non-fiction and narratives have a privileged importance in our memory and understanding according to cognitive science. (“Cognition: The Thinking Animal”, 3rd Ed, 2006). Narratives allow us to juggle and handle more pieces of information at once, and gives us greater practice in understanding deeper abstract structures. Plot, theme, foreshadowing, to name a few of these structures. Fiction teachers emotional intelligence, it helps us to explore unfamiliar social viewpoints, it helps us improve our command of our own language and means to communicate which directly improves our own ability to handle more complex ideas. In short it makes us more intelligent. Fiction is usually more enjoyable and gives us a greater chance to find a love of reading and learning in general. The importance of reading fiction is not trivial, so the primary shift from fiction to non-ficition should not be done lightly if it should be done at all. What do you think?




There is a tricky balance between erroneously expecting students to think like scientists simply by telling them to do so, and providing encouraging activities and opportunities for them to practice scientific practices and inquiry. One of the fantastic things about this article is how much they emphasis that numerous examples are needed for students, but it also provides a lot of examples about how to teach science literacy.

Here is an example of them giving examples of how to give examples.

On obtaining, evaluating and communicating Information- “Students need multiple opportunities to write after they have been guided in examining examples of the type of writing that is required. For example, if students are to be asked to regularly use journals to develop and express their own understanding and to engage in metacognition about it, they need to see examples of such writing. Similarly, before they are expected to give oral presentations and written reports that demonstrate what they have understood or to describe an investigation or design project, they should be given examples of such presentations and reports.”


Other than being deliciously recursive, I think it makes explicit the importance of examples, which I wholeheartedly agree with. A majority of the advice in this article is talking about how important it is to reiterate and provide lots of pathways for understanding material. Science literacy is fairly rarefied but is certainly more important today than any point in history, and the trend of increasing importance is likely to continue. More and more means of communication and manipulation are coming out of our technology. Fake news and improved algorithms with the ability to swap faces onto speakers in videos is going to demand our citizens be scientifically literate to safeguard our democracy and freedom.