Subj: [talk-kitchen] Re: [ncte-talk] Honors Students

Date: 4/5/00 1:55:48 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: patter@voyager.net (Nancy Patterson)

Sender: owner-talk-kitchen@ncte.org

Reply-to: talk-kitchen@serv1.ncte.org

To: ncte-talk@serv1.ncte.org

About five years ago, Marcia Tanner and I met during a summer invitation

institute of the Red Cedar Writing Project at Michigan State (who whomped

Gloria Pipkin's alma mater last night, but we won't go into that). In that

summer institute were a couple of teachers from The Dewey Center in Detroit,

a Detroit Public school that uses whole language philosophy as it's

theoretical base. One of the teachers was Toby Kahn Curry, a phenomenal

teacher who frequently presents at ncte conferences and conventions and

whole heartedly believes in democratic practices in the classroom. The

Dewey Center is right in the middle of Cass Corridor, a rough part of

Detroit. There is usually no soap in the bathrooms, or toilet paper.

Students on their way to school pass drug dealers, burned out buildings, and

sometimes blood stains left over from some violent act the night before. 50

percent of the students are African American. Five to ten percent are

homeless. Ten percent have been identified as learning disabled. EAch

classroom has between 30 and 35 students.

I picked up a book this weekend called Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts:

Reading in the Secondary Content Areas by Reade Dornan, Marilyn Wilson (my

committee chair), and Lois Rosen. It was published in 1997 by Heinemann. I

thought I would share the opening paragraph with folks here.

"The wooden door to 103 with the old-fashioned opaque glass is held open by

a rubber doorstop to prevent the crossventilation from blowing it shut.

It's 8:03 a.m. on a Steptember morning in this urban school, just before the

eighth graders will start trekking in for their english/social studies

class. Toby Curry has been there since 7:15, getting organized for the day

ahead. Toby's desk is located in the corner of the room, almost obscured by

the students' desks and tables that fill the room's center, and by the

amount of material on the walls: students' creative writing prominently

displayed on the bulletin board in the "Are You a Poet and Didn't Know It"

corner; student-written booklets developed from their I-search papers tacked

to the bulletin board; artwork, time lines, and illustrations of the stories

and books the students are reading. Stacks of student folders are piled on

the filing cabinet and the adjacent table, and shelves lining the walls are

filled with children's picture books, young adult novels, biographies and

autobiographies. A spinning book rack in the corner holds the books that

don't fit on the shelves. Two computers sit on a table againdst the far

wall under the windows, along with cardboard mailboxes for each person in

the room, including the teacher. The room abounds with reading and writing

and student energy.

"On a tour of the classroom for the visitors, Marcus shows off his

illustrated and bound I-Search paper on Italy; Ebony talks enthusiastically

about the genre groups in romance, science fiction, and sports, in which the

students dicuss their reading; Densie talks about the writing they all do in

response to their reading, including work in their reading journals.

Surveying this activity, the intern teacher concludes, "I've never seen a

class where there's so much reading going on." Not all the classrooms in

this school are this actively literate and energized, but the majority are

similar to Toby's."

Later in the introductory chapter, the authors write: "These classrooms

(they also describe a science classroom) exemplify the transactional model

of teaching, with teachers as facilitators, rather than lecturers, who

create the environment and structures that permit students to become

independent learners. In the transactional classroom, learning is an active

process in which students, often working collaboratively, become risk-takers

as they explore areas of study through reading and writing. Learning is

approached holistically and skills learned in context" (3).

All this seems to bring us back to that interesting discussion we had

several months ago about constructivist vs. traditional classrooms. I think

it was Louann who pointed out that she prefers to use the terms

transactional and transmission model. Generally speaking, in a classroom

that views literacy acqusition as a social transaction, room for various

ability levels is made and encouraged. And all students thrive, not just the

traditional high achievers.

Nancy

Nancy G. Patterson

Portland Middle School, English Dept. Chair

Portland, Michigan

"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can

learn.

--bell hooks

patter@voyager.net

<http://www.msu.edu/user/patter90/opening.htm>

<http://www.npatterson.net/mid.html>