English Journal - And Language for All, Mar 2001

Describes how the author, teaching at a South Florida high school with many children of Mexican-American migrant workers, shaped his English instruction in scenarios that reflected students’ lives and cultures. Shows how class discussions and assignments probed the worthiness of the language used and the reason why it was successful. Argues that the key is not inculcation but participation.

Discusses what the author has learned in her job at an elementary school in Northeast Mississippi as liaison between English-speaking school personnel and Spanish-speaking students and parents, most of whom are recent immigrants from Mexico. Discusses what the author learned, through extensive talking and questioning of students and parents, about how cultural differences affect classroom activities and interaction.

Argues that it is important for Black students and for all students to understand that Black English is indeed a language with rules, beauty, and power so that they come to respect it, respect its history, and respect their own bilingualism

Describes the Linguistic Affirmation Program (LAP), a comprehensive nonstandard language awareness program for students not proficient in Standard American English, that facilitates the acquisition of Standard American English without devaluing students’ home language and culture. Notes its six research-based critical instructional approaches. Outlines four linguistic schools of thought regarding nonstandard language forms. Notes classroom applications for success in the LAP.

Presents a (fictional) conversation between a college English professor and a graduate student in English who is something of a purist about the language. Shows, in conversations across a semester and a half, her changing attitudes about the rules of good English, “purity” in the language, divided usage, and confusing grammar and usage.

Discusses the logic, elegance, and history of using they, them, and their as singular indefinite pronouns. Notes that, as a solution to the pronoun problem, the strength of this solution is its vagueness. Offers numerous real-life examples from publications or broadcasts and lists why it is counterproductive for English teachers to exclude this usage from the pronoun system they teach.

Argues that reflecting on important “marker” stories in people’s lives by using counting ropes (based on the children’s book “Knots on a Counting Rope” by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault) helps students and teachers make sense of their complex worlds. Describes how they are used in the author’s language arts methods course. Describes a student-organized Spring literacy conference.

Advocates concept-related vocabulary instruction, in which students link individual words with larger literature concepts. Outlines four steps to creating a concept-related vocabulary lesson. Offers examples of how concept-related vocabulary lessons can be conducted while reading, before reading, and after reading. Outlines web, weave, and thermometer structures for vocabulary organization. Discusses integrating vocabulary instruction into the literature curriculum.

Discusses how and why a pedagogy of overt comparison between students’ home language (vernacular dialects of English) and school language (standard English) helps students learn the more global features of academic writing and the more sentenced-level features of Standard English. Outlines a pedagogy of overt comparison. Notes it motivates students, helps them learn conventions of academic writing, and develop proofreading skills.

Argues that, in this time of teacher shortage, English educators must all reach out to encourage and help new teachers or struggling veteran teachers. Offers several examples of organized efforts (by professional groups, in districts and as individuals) to address this need.