Closing the Achievement Gap

1
Closing the Achievement Gap

• Powerful Pedagogy For Advancing Learning In
  Underachieving Students

Educational Seminar Lemon Grove School
District Presenter Noma LeMoine,
Ph.D. noma.lemoine_at_lausd.net
2
School ReformNo Child Left Behind

• Schools are being asked to redefine and
  restructure themselves to provide education to
  individuals previously ignored
• 
  Berliner Biddle (1995)

3
Whos been ignored and Whos IN THE GAP?
4
Standard English Learners
5
MAJOR DIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGE
PRAGMATICS The level of language as it functions
and is used in a social context.
Language in Communicative Context
SEMANTICS The level of meaning of individual
words and of word relationships in messages
Language as a Meaning System
SYNTAX The level of combination of words into
acceptable phrases, clauses, and sentences
MORPHOLOGY The level of combination of sounds
into basic units of meaning (morphemes)
Language as a Structured, Rule-Governed System
PHONOLOGY The level of combination of features of
sounds into significant speech sounds
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Hawaiian American SELs
7
Mexican American SELs
8
Native American SELs
9
African American SELs
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Common Experiences of SELs

• SELs
• Have been told systematically and consistently
  that they are inferior and incapable of high
  academic achievement.
• Are often taught by teachers who would rather not
  teach them and who have low expectations for
  their success

11
The Uniqueness of the Cultural Experiences of SELs

• Experiences are not equivalent though oppression
  is common to all
• The displacement and forced removal of indigenous
  people
• Native Americans
• The forced immigration of people for the
  expressed purpose of labor exploitation
• African Americans
• The colonization of people
• Hawaiian Americans
• Mexican Americans

12
The Silence of the Literature

• The culture of SELs is not viewed as a useful
  rubric for addressing their language, literacy,
  or learning needs.
• their cultures are deligitimized in the classroom
• their cultures are treated as if it is a
  corruption of the dominant culture
• schools and teachers treat their language, prior
  knowledge, and values as aberrant
• teachers often presume that their job is to rid
  SELs of any vestiges of their own culture.

13
DECLINING ACHIEVEMENTReading and Math scores for
predominately Black schools in Philadelphia
(1995)
age of students below the 16th ile
Source Labov 1995
Rickford 1997
14
Difference vs. Deficit

• Language Variation, Literacy Acquisition, and
  Learning SELs

15
Carter Woodson on AAL-1932

• Carter G. Woodson in 1933, wrote in The
  Mis-Education of the Negro
• In the study of language in school pupils were
  made to scoff at the Negro dialect as some
  peculiar possession of the Negro which they
  should despise rather than directed to study the
  background of this language as a broken-down
  African tongue - in short to understand their own
  linguistic history(p.19, italics added ).

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OFAFRICAN AMERICAN
LANGUAGE
DEFICIT PERSPECTIVE
DIALECTOLOGISTS VIEW
DIFFERENCE THEORIES
CREOLIST HYPOTHESIS
ETHNOLINGUISTIC THEORY
17
WEST AFRICAN (Niger-Congo) LANGUAGES THAT
INFLUENCED AAL
Bambara Ewe Fanta Fon Fula
Hausa Igbo Ibibio
Kimbundu Longo Mandinka Mende
Twi Umbundu Wolof Yoruba
Source Turner, Lorenzo Africanisms In The
Gullah Dialect 1973
18
Ebonics - A Definition
Ebonics is the linguistic and paralinguistic
features which on a concentric continuum
represent the communicative competence of the
west African, Caribbean, and the United States
slave descendants of African origin.
Williams (1973)
19
African American Language (AAL) - A Definition
(African American Language) refers to the
linguistic and paralinguistic features of the
language that represents the communicative
competence of the United States slave descendants
of African origin. Adapted from
Williams (1973)
20
LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA RESOLUTIONExcerpt
from Resolution Issued, January 3, 1997

• The variety known as Ebonics. African American
  Vernacular English (AAVE), and Vernacular Black
  English and by other names is systematic and
  rule-governed like all natural speech varieties.
  In fact, all human linguistic systems... are
  fundamentally regular.
• The systematic and expressive nature of the
  grammar and pronunciation patterns of the African
  American vernacular has been established by
  numerous scientific studies over the past thirty
  years. Characterizations of Ebonics as slang,
  mutant, lazy, defective, ungrammatical,
  or broken English are incorrect and demeaning.

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CHARACTERISTIC PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF AFRICAN
AMERICAN LANGUAGE
PHONOLOGICAL VARIABLE
AFRICAN AMERICAN LANGUAGE
MAINSTREAM AMERICAN ENGLISH
CONSONANT CLUSTER / TH / SOUND / R /
SOUND STRESS PATTERNS / L / SOUND
DESK, TEST, COLD THIS, THIN, MOUTH SISTER,
CAROL PO LICE, HO TEL ALWAYS, MILLION
DES, TES, COL DIS, TIN, MOUF SISTA,
CAOL POLICE, HOTEL AWAYS, MIION
22
CHARACTERISTIC GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF AFRICAN
AMERICAN LANGUAGE
LINGUISTIC VARIABLE
MAINSTREAM AMERICAN ENGLISH
AFRICAN AMERICAN LANGUAGE
LINKING VARIABLE POSSESSIVE MARKER PLURAL
MARKER VERB AGREEMENT HABITUAL BE
He is going Johns cousin I have five cents He
runs home She is often at home
He going John cousin I have five cent He run
home She be at home
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Third Person Singular

Mainstream American English
Irregular Third Person
Singular Plural
I swim we swim you swim you swim he
swims they swim

African American Language Regular Third Person
Singular Plural I
swim we swim you swim you swim he
swim they swim
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Past Tense Copula Verbs
Mainstream American English Irregular
Past Tense
Singular Plural
I was we were
you were you were
he was they were
African American Language Regular Past
Tense
Singular Plural
I was we was
you was you was
he was they was
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Reflexive Pronoun

Mainstream American English Irregular Reflexive
Pronoun
Possessive Objective Reflexive
My Me Myself
Your You Yourself
His Him Himself
Her Her
Herself
Its It Itself
Our Us Ourselves
Their Them
Themselves
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Reflexive Pronoun
African American Language Regular reflexive
pronoun

Possessive Objective
Reflexive
My Me Myself
Your You Yourself
His Him Hisself
Her Her
Herself
Its It
Itself
Our Us
Ourself
Their Them
Theirself
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Spontaneous Language Sample 5 year old African
American Child
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Language Sample 5-year-old African American
Child

• Where is her shoe at?
• She pick it up
• those cookies
• She rub it on her hands.
• He see hisself
• I been known how to count.
• She want to know can she ride her bike.
• She jump rope
• The mother dress
• The mommie purse

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Written Language Sample Middle School African
American Student

• Jonny is a hero
• Johnny was iniallgent. He was iniallgent
  by taking people to his house so they can be in
  wone house. And they pick Johnny house. Johnny
  was intelligent because he trick the aliens from
  winning and taking over the world. Johnny is
  inteligent, and, brave no body else would of did
  what a eight year old boy did. People were so
  afraid of the aliens but not Johnny. I think
  Johnny personality is nice.

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Written Language Sample High School Mexican
American Student

• Well, what I have learn there are good things and
  there are bad things. Well the good things I
  say is that there are stuff that doesnt bore me
  to death some classes are very educational and
  some are very interesting. Well to tell you the
  truth I feel some of the teachers dont do as
  good of a job than other teachers do. Some
  teachers get more into there work than others.
  To me older teachers starts to just go into a
  different worlds when it comes to teaching. Well
  most of them. Why? Because it makes me feel like
  they been through this already a thousand times
  and dont want to go through it again.

31
Quote from Atlantic Monthly William Labov

• There is no reason to believe that any
  nonstandard vernacular is itself an obstacle to
  learning. The chief problem is ignorance of
  language on the part of all concerned . Our job
  as linguists is to remedy this ignorance
• Teachers are now being told to ignore the
  language of black children as unworthy of
  attention and useless for learning. They are
  being taught to hear every natural utterance of
  the child as evidence of his mental inferiority.
  As linguists we are unanimous in condemning this
  view as bad observation, bad theory, and bad
  practice.
• That educational psychology should be influenced
  by a theory so false to the facts of language is
  unfortunate but that children should be the
  victims of this ignorance is intolerable.

32
Moving SELs Toward Academic and Career Success
Facilitate shifts in Educator Attitude toward
non-standard languages.
Facilitate shifts in language instruction
strategies.
Second- language
acquisition
Deficit Difference Cognitive
Linguistic
Corrective
Eradication Additive
33
Cultural Proficiency

• A way of being that enables both individuals and
  organizations to respond effectively to people
  who differ from them

34
Non-productive policies, practices and behaviors

• Cultural Destructiveness-See the difference,
  stamp it out-The elimination of other peoples
  cultures
• Cultural Incapacity-See the difference, make it
  wrong- Belief in the superiority of ones
  culture and behavior that disempowers anothers
  culture
• Cultural Blindness - See the difference, act like
  you dont Acting as if the cultural differences
  you see do not matter
• Cultural Precompetence See the difference,
  respond inadequately-Awareness of the limitations
  of ones skills or an organizations practices
  when interacting with other cultural groups

35
Healthy policies, practices and behaviors

• Cultural Competence- See the difference, and
  understand the difference that difference makes
• Cultural Proficiency- See the difference, and
  respond positively and affirmingly
• Cultural Responsiveness- Adjust how we teach to
  the needs and experiences of students
• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy- Center
  instruction in multiethnic cultural frames of
  reference - encompasses curriculum, content,
  learning context, classroom climate,
  student-teacher relationships, instructional
  techniques, and performance assessments.

36
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

• Educating Other Peoples Children

37
What is Culture?

• Culture is to humans
• as water is to fish

38
Culture

• A groups preferred way of perceiving, judging,
  and and organizing things they encounter in their
  daily lives (Maehr, 1974)
• A set of invisible patterns that become normal
  ways of acting, feeling, and being (Edward Hall
  1989)
• A collective consciousness or a group state of
  mind, a common way of speaking, acting, thinking,
  and believing (Shade 1997)

39
Why should Teaching be Culturally Responsive?
40
Traditional pedagogy has always been culturally
responsive.

• To students who are primarily middle class and
  European American

41
There has always been a profound and inescapable
cultural fabric of the schooling process in
America

• This cultural fabric (primarily of European and
  middle class origin) is so deeply ingrained in
  the structure, ethos, programs, and etiquette of
  schools that it is considered simply the normal
  and right thing to do. Boykin
  (1994)

42
Culturally Responsive Teaching

• Adjusting how we teach to the needs and
  experiences of diverse students in
• appropriate and effective ways

43
Purpose of Culturally Responsive Teaching

• To maximize learning for students who are
  traditionally failed by the American educational
  system. Villegas (1991)

44
What happens to students when their culture is
rejected or not recognized by schools?

• Miscommunication
• Confrontations between the student, the teacher,
  and the home
• Hostility
• Alienation
• Diminished self esteem
• School failure
• (source Irvine 1990)

45
Educating Other Peoples Children

• A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand,
  essentially, is that the child repudiate his
  experience and all that gives him
  sustenance Baldwin, 1997

46
Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching

• Instructional Strategies

47
Principle 1
Principles responsive to the needs of students
Source Carol Lee

• Learning is optimized when students are able to
  make connections between
  what they already know and what they are expected
  to learn.

48
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY Contrastive Analysis
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A Communication Instruction Program

• In a communication instruction program there
  should be three major foci
• underlying thought (the idea or message to be
  shared)
• communicative function (the purpose, audience,
  and context of the communication), and
• the linguistic structure,( the form i.e.
  grammatical, syntactical, and lexical choices).
  

50
Linguistic Competence

• Knowledge of the form or the structure of a
  language
• (subconscious and conscious)

51
Metalinguistic Awareness

• The conscious awareness and manipulation of the
  rules of language
• (awareness of morphology syntax)

52
Contrastive Analysis

• The skill and ability to compare and contrast the
  linguistic differences between the home and
  school language to build linguistic competence
  and metalinguistic awareness

53
Contrastive Analysis

• Systematic Use of Contrastive Analysis
• Affirms, and accommodates the students home
  language culture
• Facilitates linguistic competence in SE
• Supports Written Language Development in SE
• Supports Oral language acquisition in SE
• Facilitates cross cultural communication
  competence
• Increases Metalinguistic awareness

54
Mainstream English Language Development (MELD)

• The use of standard English for educational, and
  career purposes (acquiring listening, speaking,
  reading writing skills in SE)
• Implies competence in SE at levels of
• Phonology
• Grammar
• Lexicon
• Pragmatics (communication behaviors)

55
Strategies for engaging in Contrastive Analysis

• Linguistic Contrastive analysis
• Contextual Contrastive analysis
• Situational Contrastive analysis
• Elicited Contrastive analysis

56
Linguistic Contrastive Analysis

• Using literature, poetry, songs, plays, student
  elicited sentences, or prepared story scripts
  which incorporate examples of specific SAE and
  AAL or SAE and CE form contrasts, the student
  performs contrastive analysis translations to
  determine the underlying rules that distinguish
  the two language forms.

57
Contextual Contrastive Analysis

• The student reads or is told a story that is
  heavily embedded with the target form (standard
  English) and is then required to tell the story.
  The students story retelling is taped and
  compared and contrasted with the language of the
  text.

58
Situational Contrastive Analysis

• Students contrast and analyze the mainstream and
  non-mainstream versions of targeted language
  forms with an emphasis on situational
  appropriateness, i.e., communication,
  environment, audience, purpose, and function.

59
Elicited Contrastive Analysis

• The teacher elicits spontaneous
  verbalizations/responses from students about
  material read or presented and creates teachable
  moments for conducting contrastive analysis of CE
  ans SAE or AAL and SAE.

60
Contrastive Analysis vs.Traditional English
Dept. Techniques
Traditional Techniques
Contrastive Analysis
8.5
- 59
Source H. Taylor. 1991. Standard English,
Black English, Bidialectalism
61
Reflection Debrief

• VIDEO CLIP

62
Principle 2
Principles responsive to the needs of
students Source Carol Lee

• The meaning or significance that learners impose
  on experience shapes how and whether knowledge is
  stored in long term memory

63
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGYDeveloping Academic
Vocabulary

• The Personal Thesaurus of Conceptually coded
  words

64
Development of Academic Vocabulary

• Personal Thesaurus of Conceptually Coded Words
• Prior Knowledge
• Synonym/Antonym Development
• Word Parts
• Culturally Specific Vocabulary

65
Personal Thesaurus

• Students place words that they already know (ex.
  mad) in the word box area above the synonym
  lines. As synonyms that are not an active part of
  the students vocabulary are encountered in
  stories, vocabulary-rich literature, and other
  language intensive activities and instruction,
  they are listed on the lines beneath the familiar
  word, preferably in a different color.

66
The Personal ThesaurusBuilding Academic
Vocabulary
T
Tattletale
Instigator
inciter
Provocateur
67
The Personal ThesaurusBuilding academic
vocabulary
H
hatin
hating
abhorring
jealous
envious
loathing
invidious
detesting
loving
68
Principal 3
Principles responsive to the needs of
students Source Carol Lee

• Learners can demonstrate competence in
  non-traditional ways

69
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY Building on the Learning
Styles Strengths of SELs
70
The cultures of schools and different ethnic
groups often are not compatible

• Congruence between how the educational process is
  ordered and delivered, and the cultural frames of
  reference of diverse students will improve school
  achievement
• for students of color.
• (Spindler Spindler, 1994)

71
How Children Enter Classrooms

• As members of different cultures
• As persons with language and thoughts about how
  the world is working
• With ideas about how to behave
• With their own way of thinking and learning

72
The Teachers Job

• Developing a connection between the culture of
  the student and the culture of school
• Become knowledgeable of childrens cultural
  orientations (learning styles and strengths or
  ways of thinking and learning)
• Linguistic style
• Communication style
• Social interaction style
• Response style
• Use that knowledge to develop a bridge that
  provides students an equal opportunity to learn
  and grow

73
Wade Boykin Research

• MOVEMENT
• LEARNING
• ENVIRONMENT

74
Source Asa HilliardLearning
styles valued by the Learning Styles
ofTraditional School Culture SELs

• Standardized and rule driven
• Deductive, controlled, egocentric
• Low movement expressive context
• View environment in isolated parts
• Precise concepts of space, number, time
• Respond to object stimulus
• Dominant communication is verbal
• Emphasis on independent work

• Variation accepting and improvising
• Inductive, expressive, sociocentric
• High movement expressive context
• View environment as a whole
• Approximate concepts of space
• number and time
• Respond to people/social stimulus
• Communication is non-verbal as
• well as verbal
• Responds to Collaborative Effort

75
Reflection and Debrief

• VIDEO CLIP

76
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY Culturally Relevant
Classroom Library
77
LITERACY ACQUISITION

• Educational Change Strategies

78
School Literacy Experiences

• Literacy is an extension of natural language
  learning
• Must be built around the language of the child.
• Must draw upon the experiences of students for
  learning to be meaningful and relevant
• Provide linguistic and cultural benefits to
  children.

79
The Home Language and Literacy Practices of SELs

• Being read to is often not a part of the SELs
  early literacy experiences
• Storytelling may be part of SELs early literacy
  experiences
• Narrative discourse patterns do not match school
  discourse patterns
• Phonological sound pool may differ from the
  sounds of school phonics

80
Access to Books

• Many SELs come from home environments where being
  read to is not part of the literacy experience
• Young children who are read to before formal
  schooling are ushered into an understanding of
  the relationships between oral and written
  language
• For SELs who have not had exposure to books
  before school, classrooms must become the venue
  for building the relationship between oral
  language and print.
• A holistic approach to literacy acquisition may
  eliminate barriers created by cultural and
  linguistic differences.

81

• The research documents that authentic literature
  in the classroom, time for reading, and
  opportunities to be read to enhance reading and
  writing skills

82
Increased Reading equals improved literacy
development

• In 38 of 40 studies, students using FVR did as
  well as or better in reading comprehension tests
  that students given traditional skill-based
  reading instruction
• Students who read more do better on tests of
• Reading comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Writing
• Grammar Krashen, 1993

83
Cognitive and linguistic benefits derived from
interactions with literature

• Enhanced critical thinking skills
• Enjoyment of the creative uses of language and
  art
• Exposure to a variety of linguistic models
• Increased knowledge about oneself and the world
• Models for solving conflict or problems
• Harris (1993)

84
American Indian Titles
85
African American Titles
86
Mexican American Titles
87
Hawaiian American Titles
88
VIDEO CLIP

• REFLECTION DEBRIEF

89
Classroom Conversations

• Socratic Practice
• Allows students to learn academic material more
  effectively through the development of habits of
  thinking and conversing.
• Instructional Conversations
• Classroom conversations that consider cultural
  and linguistic diversity and support the
  development of academic language, and higher
  order thinking skills.
• Accountable Talk
• Classroom talk that is accountable to the
  learning community, to accurate and appropriate
  knowledge, to rigorous thinking and that supports
  learning

90
Classroom Conversations

• Classroom discourse offers opportunities for
  students to adopt authoritative stances
• A persistent prejudice is that intellectual life
  is elitist and habits of thoughts/mind do not
  need to be cultivated for all children
• Such discussions (Socratic practice, Accountable
  talk, Instructional conversations) happen with
  low frequency in classrooms with African American
  and other SELs.
• How do we address the differences in discourse
  patterns?

91
Classroom Conversations

• SELs can both learn standard English structure
  and engage in complex entended discourse around
  texts.
• Students can become bi-discoursal and bi-dilectal
  given equal status interaction with peers

92
Reflection and Debrief

• VIDEO CLIP

93
Resources for Teaching SELsPeoples Publishing
Group1-800-822-1080
94
Between Teacher and Child
Dr. Haim Ginott
I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am
the decisive element in the classroom. It is my
personal approach that creates the climate. It
is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a
teacher I possess tremendous power to make a
childs life miserable or joyous. I can be a
tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all
situations it is my response that decides whether
a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a
child humanized or dehumanized.
95
Reading References Culturally Responsive
TeachingCompiled by Noma LeMoine, Ph.D.

• Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating Identities
  Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society.
  California Association for Bilingual Education
  Ontario
• Delpit. L.(1995). Other Peoples
  ChildrenCultural Conflict in the Classroom.New
  PressN. Y.
• Delpit. L. Dowdy, J. (Eds) (2002). The Skin We
  Speak Thoughts on Language and Culture in the
  Classroom. The New Press New York.
• Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching
  Theory, Research, Practice. Teachers College
  Press. Columbia University.
• Hale, J. (1982). Black Children their Roots,
  Culture, and Learning Styles. The John Hopkins
  University Press Baltimore, MA
• Irvine, J. Armento, B. (2001). Culturally
  Responsive Teaching Lesson Planning for
  Elementary and Middle Grades. McGraw-Hill New
  York, N.Y..
• LeMoine, N. (2001). Language Variation and
  Literacy Acquisition in African American Students
  (p. 169-194). Chapter in Harris, J., Kamhi, A.,
  Pollock, K. (Eds) Literacy in African American
  Communities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
  Mahwah, New Jersey.
• Lindsey, R., Robins, K., Terrell, R. (2003).
  Cultural Proficiency, A Manual for School
  Leaders. Corwin Press, Inc. Thousand Oaks
• Shade, Kelly, Oberg (1998). Creating
  Culturally Responsive Classrooms. American
  Psychological Association. Washington, DC.
• Tauber, R. (1997). Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, A
  Practical Guide to Its Use in Education. Praeger
  Publishers Westport, CT
• Villegas, A. Lucas, T. (2002). Educating
  Culturally Responsive Teachers A Coherent
  Approach. State University of New York Albany,
  N.Y.

96
Reading References Linguistically Responsive
TeachingCompiled by Noma LeMoine, Ph.D.

• (Adger, C., Christian, D., Taylor, O. (Eds.)
  (1999). Making The Connection Language and
  Academic Achievement Among
• Baugh, J. (1999a). African American Language and
  Educational Malpractice Out of the Mouths of
  Slaves. Austin University of Texas Press.
• Berdan, R. (1978). Dialect Fair Reading
  Instruction for Speakers of Black English. Paper
  prepared for the Sociolinguistics of Reading
  Session, Sociolinguistics Research Program,
  Ninth World Congress of Sociology, Uppsala
  National Institute of Education, Department of
  Health, Education and Welfare.
• Cleary, L. Linn, M. (1993). Linguistics For
  Teachers. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New ork.
• Crawford, C. (Ed.), (2001) "Ebonics Language
  Education". Brooklyn, NY Sankofa Publishers
• Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary
  language development in promoting educational
  success for language minority students. In
  Cummins, J. (1996) Negotiating Identities
  Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society.
  Ontario, California Association for Bilingual
  Education.
• Dandy, Evelyn (1991) Black Communications,
  Breaking Down The Barriers, African American
  Images Chicago, Illinois.
• LeMoine, N. (2001). Language Variation and
  Literacy Acquisition in African American
  Students. In J. Harris, A. Kamhi, K. Pollock
  (Eds.), Literacy in African American Communities
  (pp. 169-194). Mahwah, New Jersey Lawrence
  Erlbaum Associates Inc.