Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

This week the reading was “Citizenship in School:  Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome” by Christopher Kliewer.  In his essay, Kliewer analyzes “the meaning of school citizenship for students with Down syndrome as it relates to (1) literacy development and (2) friendship formation” (pg 74).  Kliewer uses research by Kozol, Freire, Gardner, Vygotsky (to name a few) as well as his own field research to prove that children with Down syndrome not only can have meaningful relationships and be productive members of society, but that they can learn.  The best part of this essay was that Kliewer proved that people with Down syndrome could live meaningful, productive lives.

           

At first I was disappointed because the essay was written in 1998 and some of Kliewer’s research was rather old; however, as I read the essay, I realized that his research was actually timeless in a way.  People with Down syndrome have always been special people, with special strengths and weaknesses but “normal?” folks just did not “get” them years ago.  I am almost 50 and I remember at my high school, the “retarded” students (as they were called in the 70s) were stuck in a special room and rarely left this room.  Every now and then we would get a glimpse of them but for the most part they were not a part of mainstream education and they did not socialize the other students.  How sad and lonely it must have been for special education students during that time.  Obviously they can learn and they have feelings, this has been determined over the year.  I was thinking about the Rodriguez reading when Kliewer says, “democracy can only occur when no person’s voice is deterministically silenced” (pg. 72).   Once I had my daughter and she was going through the school system, I realized how absurd the special education students were treated years ago.  Mandy was part of the Pals program in elementary school where the school paired a special needs student with a regular ed student.  It was one of the best exeriences because Mandy was quite shy.  This program allowed her to be a leader and to help another student.  It was a win/win for everyone.

In Gerri August’s essay “Making Room for One Another”, she says, “Vygotsky determined that the higher psychological functions of human beings originate in social interaction and then are internalized.”  This is so clear in Kliewer’s case study on the student John Mcgough.  John was in a segregated school, had little contact with the community outside his Down syndrome world, and was considered uneducable.  It wasn’t until John moved to a community that embraced him for the competent human being he was that John was able to find success and happiness.  Amazingly, John found art through his community connection and his paintings are sold in shows around the country.  This social interaction with the community gave John models to look up to, admire, and emulate. Just like my daughter, another win/win on both ends.  As we read in Johnson’s piece, Kliewer also says, “We have got to learn to get along as individuals and as citizens” (pg 74).

But I have a question I hope we can chat about tomorrow night.   Why can’t the public have trust in what most teachers know is right for our students?  On page 78 we see the teacher, Shanyne (Isaac and Anne’s teacher) use the curriculum as a guide.  She knows her students so well and has such a good instinct for what they really need that she makes necessary adjustments that have huge impacts on her students lives.  I just don’t know why the public (or whomever) does not trust educators to know what is best for students.

Please take a few minutes to read this timely article posted Saturday from a CNN writer who is the dad of a child with Down syndrome.  Excellent article and exactly what I think Kliewer was trying to tell us 14 years ago …

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/16/opinion/perry-down-syndrome/index.html

Collier, "Teaching Multilingual Children"

Collier argues how important it is that teachers of bilingual students try very hard not to lose site of their students' cultural identity.  It is not all she writes about but it is what stood out to me the most.  My school does not seem to fit the schools I think Collier is talking about, but I think Shea High School in Pawtucket would most definitely fit the population.  I don't recall the numbers but I do know that the school has a very transient group of kids and a high bilingual population.  I wonder under what literacy development curriculum they use to teach their students?

I struggled with my response this week because I do not have a clear or strong feeling as to which way is the best way to teach bilingual students.  It is clear that Collier feels the "most successful long-term academic achievement occurs where the students' primary language is the initial language of literacy".  This bothers me because I was always under the impression that the right thing to do was to dismiss the home language in literacy development and force kids to think, speak, socialize in the dominant language.  Isn't that the goal?  Isn't the goal to make sure all kids can function in the American culture, which is an English speaking culture?  Until this class, I didn't really think about what actually gets lost when students are forced to leave their first language behind.  Richard Rodriguez made it clear that his relationship with his parents changed drastically when Spanish was left behind.  I know many, many of my students speak Spanish, Columbian, Portuguese, Russian, etc. at home.  They talk about it a lot but we do not have a large group of kids that come to our high school not knowing English.  Of course, there are some and our one ESL teacher works with them but he has an average caseload.  So, this brings me to another question:  If the research shows that students are more successful under the curriculum I mentioned above, then why don't we follow the research?  I know it is all very political, but come on.  The research shows they will be more successful which means better retentions, standardized test scores, we could go on and on.  Just so frustrating.  Not to be cynical but I wonder if politicians want less people speaking Spanish.  It further oppresses people which maybe is the goal of the dominant culture.  However, I think my students that speak more than one language (many speak three or more) are brilliant and I wish I had been taught a second language when I was younger.

I thought about Freire (part of the Finn reading) when I read this article.  Finn says that Freire “saw that literacy campaigns were bound to fail as long as the ‘students’ viewed literacy as part of a culture that was alien to them”.   It makes sense to me that if I was a young child, I would feel more comfortable and successful knowing my home language fairly well before I took on a new language.  But what about the high school kid that only has a few years to catch on to the English language?  I don’t think we have much time to have a kind of dual curriculum where the student can be taught both in English and their home language.

So, through all of this I think of Mr. Tom (as the ESL kids call the ESL teacher at my school).  He has the entire League of Nations in his room and if you walk by you would be amazed at what he accomplishes in there.  He never speaks anything other than English and somehow the kids learn the English language.  Most students that come in as an ESL student have Tom 4 times a day and then he slowly gets them into the mainstream classes where they just need him once a day.  When these students graduate, they cry when they say good-bye to him.  Honestly, I think Mr. Tom is a magician … 

I am on snack ...

As I mentioned on Geoff's blog, he did a great job responding and summing up the texts ... I have been struggling as far as my response ...  but I wanted everyone to know I am snack girl tomorrow.  I will post my response momentarily to the readings ...

M

NEATE Conference 11/3/12

I attended the New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE) Conference on Saturday, November 3rd, and it was by far the best professional development I have attended in a long time.  I think what I liked so much about the conference was the fact that I was with people that were all part of the discipline I teach.  Most of the other professional development sessions I have attended have been interdisciplinary and really more focused on teaching strategies and writing in the content areas.  I know this will probably sound really geeky but I was so happy to be with my peeps!!!!

The focus of the conference was Common Core/Common Cause (of course, I guess) and the breakout sessions I went to were "Teaching Non-Fiction:  Increasing Comprehension  and Improving Writing", "Close Reading Procedures and the Common Core" and "Stasis Theory".  The close reading session gave me some new ways to annotate text which was invaluable because the common core is so focused on informational text.  It is one thing to read a novel or short story and analyze the themes, characters, etc.  It is another to analyze the Article of the Week that I require in ways that keep the students' interest and mine.  Also, as I think I have mentioned before, one of my goals this year has been to add argumentative discussion into my lessons.  I have been debating more in my classroom and allowing more time for discussion, however, the session on "Stasis Theory" I went to gave me some tips on persuasive writing that I will definitely use in the third quarter when my students write their research papers.  Lastly, and probably the most important, was what I received from the Non-Fiction session.  The English department at my school has opted to write our own Common Core scope and sequence which has been scary for all of us.  My district does not have the money to pay thousands of dollars for a consultant to come in and tell us what we need to teach or should be teaching, like many of the schools in Rhode Island (which I don't think any of us really want anyway).  I was so happy to see that what we are doing is exactly what we need to do in order for our students to be ready for both College and Career, as well as the new PARCC standardized test.  I was able to go to my department meeting this past Wednesday and talk about what I learned (and my colleagues that were also at the conference).  We all felt so much better.  I don't know if any school in RI really feels "good" about what they are doing because we have not seen any PARCC test examples yet, but we are at least on the same page as other schools.

So, I was very happy for the opportunity to attend the conference.  Another good thing is that my principal paid the fee for the conference so that left me with money to spend on books!!!

October 23 Seminar Facilitation

Hello everyone ...

The following are the supporting documents/notes that went along with the October 23 Seminar Facilitation.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Digital Kids Prezi

4:10-4:30       Check In

4:30-5:15       Silent Conversation

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

o   PowerPoint Slides

·      Short bio on Marc Prensky

o   Founder and CEO of Games2train, invented many learning games

o   Expert on the connection between learning and technology

o   Focus is on designing better pedagogy and curriculum for the digital generation

·      Silent conversation … Read excerpts from the article:  “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” by Marc Prensky

5:15-6:15       Text Talk  - Anti-Teaching, Michael Wesch

·      Short bio on Wesch

o   Dubbed the “explainer” by Wired magazine

o   Cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture

·      Text Talk – Important Quotes from the Text

o   "Students are trying to find meaning and significance in their learning."

o   “Focusing on the quality of learning, rather than the quality of teaching transforms the entire educational agenda."

·      Wesch YouTube Video – Knowledgeable

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8

  

6:30-7:15       The Flipped Classroom Videos  - 3 videos approx. 8 mins total

·      What is it?

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aGuLuipTwg

·      What if students don’t do it?

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1MKpyVPilI&feature=relmfu

·      What if students don’t have access?

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNlL3Plx-g&feature=relmfu