Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Some of you may remember that I recently posted Translanguaging: What In The World Is That?  After that was posted, I heard from a friend and colleague, who had more resources to share with us.

Translingualism Resources from David Schwarzer

David Schwarzer, Ph. D., Professor, Montclair State University

schwarzerd@mail.montclair.edu

David continues to work on translanguaging and translingualism.

Thanks, David, for sharing with us.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

This post is really for a group of friends/colleagues on Facebook, but this is just the easiest way for me to get this information to them. Stay with me; you will understand.

First, I posted this on my FB page.

“Paper or pixel? That is the question. I just was contacted by a teacher, who works for a district which will be going all digital for all kids; she teaches in primary. Yes, they have a lot of kids who come from families where languages other than English are spoken, and yes, they have high levels of poverty. The teacher understands that all kids will have to read digitally, but she wants books also–particularly for the younger children. I have provided her with information, as the district says they will listen IF she can provide support for her views. I opined that perhaps they should provide support for their views…..

Both the teacher and I would love to hear your thoughts and knowledge of specific citations. Thanks in advance. Let the dialogue begin.”

Next, the dialogue took off, and it was wonderful. The colleagues shared a lot of information.  I took the information and made a little bibliography, which I wanted to share back with this FB group.  However, I seem to be able to post videos and photos to FB, but not a Word doc or a pdf.  I read all of the Google/YouTube/Apple instructions, and the easiest/fastest option was simply to post the bibliography here and then share the URL with the group on FB.

Help yourself if you want it, too otherwise I am sorry to bother you.

Here you go, FB friends, who generated these citations.

paper-or-pixel-citations-9-20-16

For those of you following Ruthie Wienk and her discussion of Linguistics, the 2nd installment will soon be coming.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

In the last WinkWorld, I mentioned to you that we would begin a short series of selected videos from Ruthie Wienk who is teaching a linguistics class.  The videos were all created for this class.  To learn more about Ruthie and this class, just click here.

Enjoy Linguistics and Ruthie!  Thank you for sharing, Ruthie.

Hello, WinkWorld Readers,

A few of you are as excited about translanguaging, as I.  In this post, I am including some resources which have come to me.

First, my friend and  colleague, Ruthie Wienk, of South Dakota State University will be sharing selected videos, which she has created for  a linguistics class, which she teaches for Black Hills Special Services (BHSS)/Technology in Education (TIE).  Thank you to Dr. Joe Hauge for permission to share these videos, and a special thanks to Ruthie.  I will begin posting Ruthie’s videos in a few days. And, no, she is not related to me.  In this class, she uses the following text:

Freeman, D. E., & Freeman, Y. S. (2014). Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, and grammar 2^nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Second:

What Is Translanguaging? by Francois Grosjean and Ofelia García.

Third:

Translanguaging: Practice Brief for Educators, from Joanna Yip & Ofelia García, Ph.D. of The Graduate Center, City University of New York.   In addition, a quick search on Google will lead to many other resources.

Fourth:

I believe I found this photo on Dr. Chris Faltis’s Facebook page.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Forgive my absence. Let’s just call it my summer vacation.  But, I’m back.

In this WinkWorld, I want to share a bit of magic, which I experienced yesterday when the University of Arizona and the Grambling State University marching bands were practicing on the UofA campus.  They will be doing ONE formation together tonight at the game.

Here is The Pride of Arizona Wildcats Marching Band.

Here is the Grambling State University Tigers Marching Band.

Here are members of both bands: red t-shirts are AZ students and white t-shirts are Grambling students–hundreds of students listening carefully and following the directions of the UofA band director.

At one point, the young UofA band director asked all students to hit the e major cord, and the older (okay, about my age) Grambling band director whispered in his ear, “Tell them the final cord in “What Goin’ On” by Marvin Gaye.

When the practice session was nearly over, both directors spoke from their hearts to the students about the power of music to bring love and unity.

When practice ended, the Grambling band director said that his students had a song to sing and play to honor the UofA students.  The Grambling students started to sing and then play “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers.

I walked away in the hot Tucson sun, with tears in my eyes.  About an hour later, I returned and all of the kids from both universities were huddled in groups talking, laughing, singing, and dancing.

Keepin’ the faith.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

On my morning walk today, I realized that the cathedral was on my right, and…

and, the Mediterranean Sea was on my left.

Next, I walked by some of my favorite windmills, which take me immediately to the famed novel, “Don Quijote de la Mancha.”  I love the old windmills with the busy road running directly below them. Note the bus in the foreground.

We even have an old castle right up above the hotel where we stay.

The students are all teachers, who are working in countries around the world. Most are working on their masters degree or an advanced certification.

Yes, I am lucky: A great gig, indeed.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

The series of chapter summaries on my book-in-progress has now been interrupted by my teaching international educators in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

This peak into my class is specifically for the teachers in my classroom today.  The YouTube was created previously by a group of students who had never, ever created a video.  When they played it on the last day of class, I was moved to tears at their collaborative and creative summary of their learning.  You will also see that they were not afraid to dig around somewhere on the web and find an old photo of me.

Tove, Alma Flor, Jim, Steve: Heads up–you will find your influence.

Thank you, Eduardo and colleagues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3qzR8gUmWQ

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

The peak into my book-in-process continues. Briefly,  I have given you a glimpse into Chapter 1 (literacy), Chapter 2 (stories), and Chapter 3 (literacy stories).  In Chapter 4, I take on standards with stories about the dreadful effects of such mandated and controlled teaching and learning. We live in an age when the policy-makers want to standardized students.  As some of you know, I started teaching 50 years ago, and I have yet to meet a “standard” student.  Look at your own children–I am guessing that they, too, are unique individuals.

Not only do we have policy-makers h*ll-bent on standardization, but we also have corporate ‘reformists,’ claiming to be experts, whose goal it is to corporatize public education and make money on it.  Always follow the money. Thomas Jefferson and his beliefs in free public education must surely be rolling over in his grave.

Please note that the policy-makers and the corporate education folks have one thing in common: They are far away from the classroom, both in miles and in years.  The closer you are to actual kids in classrooms, the better  you understand teaching, learning, and students.  The farther you are from a classroom, the less  you understand about teaching, learning. and students.

I will open this chapter with a story about the big ideas of teaching and learning which ebb and flow through the decades.

100 Years in a 1000 Words

After this, I will bring in a few of the grass-roots warriors, who continue to speak truth to power: Thank you, Diane Ravitch, Ken Goodman, Steve Krashen–I really should not even begin this list, as there are so many scholars and teachers today who are daily contributing to the struggle to save public education.

Following this, I will have a couple of stories, which hopefully capture how kids and teachers suffer under these mandated outside influences.

Please note the Katie Knox illustration which will be in this chapter.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

In the first two chapters, we looked at literacy and stories, and now we are moving on to the 3rd chapter with some examples of each–surprising examples, I hope.  The purpose of chapter three is to highlight diverse paths to literacy, by focusing on kids reading to animals.  This is not anything I ever did, but I keep bumping into readers, who do read to their pets: So let’s think about it.  One section of this chapter will present a counter view:  Yes, Steve, this will be  you, and in addition, I will add Audrey, who choses to read and to tell stories to real people, and not animals.

Here is Audrey telling stories to a group of adults at her Mom’s coffee shop.  (In chapter two, I mentioned how she reads to the kids in the coffee shop.)

And, here is Sabrina reading to her dog, Belle.  Her mom had no idea that she was doing this, until she looked out the window and quickly snapped this photo.

Apparently, there are multiple paths to literacy.

Some of the animal stories, which will go in this chapter, have been posted previously on WinkWorld.

The first time I ever witnessed kids reading to animals was when I visited the Black Stallion Literacy Project in Tucson AZ.  Hundreds of little kids, who live in some of the poorest communities of town, poured off those busses on that hot day, and ran with their books to sit quietly as each child individually read to these horses. It was at this time that I begin to wonder if maybe this is just another path to literacy.

Black Stallion Literacy Project

Here is another connection to fictional animals, which made me marvel at the power of literacy.

Literacy and Love Last: Darcie, One of The Benson Kids

Finally, chapter three will also have a story about a Chicabrary.  Yes, it really exists.

If you go to WinkWorld, August 2012 and scroll down a little, you will see photos of the Chicabrary and the books on the shelves.

Katie Knox, the illustrator for my book-in-process, recently captured this illustration of the Chicabrary.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

If you are following along in this series of blog posts, you will remember that Chapter One, Loving That Literacy focused on literacy stories. In this glimpse into Chapter Two, Loving Those Stories, I focus on the value of storytelling, and I use stories to answer, “Why Stories?”

Many of the stories, which will be used in this chapter, have previously been posted on WinkWorld.  For example, you may remember the story of Violet, who had to find a compelling story in the book about numbers before it made sense for her. See “4 Questions about Stories.” You may also remember Violet’s mom, Ruthie, who was struggling in her doctoral class on statistics until she learned to find a story in the numbers. At that time on WinkWorld, I used the title “Why stories? Ruthie and Regression Help Us Understand.”

Hidden within the stories of Violet  and Ruthie are also other stories: First, you already met José, who wanted to read the huge Tucson phone book, just to challenge me and my ideas about teaching reading; and, second, the story about Grandma Mary’s fudge recipe–and, oh, if that were only about fudge…

You might like the chalk story, too. Yes, it really happened.

Again, I am sharing one illustration from this chapter, which I particularly like, as it is based on a photo of Katie Knox (the illustrator) and her Dad.