[Xmca-l] Re: A request for assistance

[mike cole]

I am not seeing any cases here where Engelmann, who is behind a lot of the
direct instruction game, still, is quoted as saying that play is useless if
not bad for poor/different kids although it might be find for the
loquacious middle class.

There has to be a smoking gun out there on their website or some public
presentation.
mike


On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 1:24 PM, William Blanton <blantonwe@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Ageliki,
>
> You might take a read of some of Madeline Hunter's writing. Attached is two
> bibs on direct instruction. You might also take a look an Ken Goodman's
> argument against direct instruction. Another interesting challenge against
> direct instruction is Cole's idea of basic literacy activity rather than
> basic liter skills.
>
> BB
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 7:59 AM, Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Ageliki
> >
> > There was an approach called DISTAR - Direct Instruction Systems for the
> > Teaching of Arithmetic and Reading.  Their claim - 70's and 80's was that
> > this was the best way to teach working class children. But this was
> formal
> > instruction at K-6 or so. I cannot think that this could be moved
> > downwards. You can see examples on YouTube, noticing just what the
> > materials look like.
> >
> > Preschool children are building up repertoires of vocabulary and so on,
> and
> > this could hardly be done in a formal way. Reading stories and
> information
> > books would be done in Shared Reading formats.  That's the best I can do,
> > but I look forward to other views.
> >
> > Bereiter..
> >
> > Carol
> >
> >
> > On 16 August 2014 16:11, Ageliki Nicolopoulou <agn3@lehigh.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Dear XMCA community,
> > >
> > > I'm looking for a piece of information, and I wonder whether someone on
> > the
> > > XMCA list has it at their fingertips.
> > >
> > > I'm writing something that deals with Vivian Paley's storytelling and
> > > story-acting practice. Among other things, that activity is an example
> of
> > > child-centered, play-based, and constructivist approaches to early
> child
> > > education--the kinds of approaches that have been getting squeezed out
> by
> > > preschool practices that exclusively emphasize teacher-centered,
> didactic
> > > transmission of specific academic skills by direct instruction.
> > >
> > > A lot of people think that pushing down didacted/academic teaching
> > > practices into preschool education is a good thing in general.
> However,
> > > there are some people who might be willing to concede that more
> > > child-centered, play-based, and constructivist might be OK for young
> > > children from educated middle class families ... but that they won't
> work
> > > for poor and otherwise disadvantaged children. THOSE kids need direct
> > > instruction to transmit "basic skills", and giving them anything else
> is,
> > > at best, a distraction from giving them what they need for school
> > > readiness.
> > >
> > > My problem is this.  As we all know, a lot of people think that, and
> they
> > > say it in conversation, and they make written arguments that rest
> > > implicitly on that premise. In fact, this outlook is very widespread
> and
> > > influential. But I've found that very few of them seem to be willing to
> > > actually SAY it explicitly in their published work. I'm talking about
> > > academics and policymakers. There are pro-direct-instruction websites
> > that
> > > say it pretty straightforwardly. But journals want academic citations
> in
> > > articles, so I'm trying to find one.
> > >
> > > *So does anyone out there know of any published work where someone
> > actually
> > > SAYS that in writing?  That is, that more child-oriented, play-based,
> and
> > > constructivist preschool practices (however they actually describe
> them)
> > > might be OK for young children from educated middle-class homes, but
> are
> > > useless or even harmful for poor and disadvantaged kids, who need more
> > > teacher-centered, skill-based direct instruction?*
> > >
> > > I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Ageliki Nicolopoulou
> > >
> > > ________________
> > > Ageliki Nicolopoulou
> > > Professor of Psychology & Global Studies
> > > Personal Webpage: http://lehigh.academia.edu/AgelikiNicolopoulou/About
> > > Departmental Webpage:
> http://cas.lehigh.edu/CASWeb/default.aspx?id=1430
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Carol A  Macdonald Ph D (Edin)
> > Developmental psycholinguist
> > Academic, Researcher,  and Editor
> > Honorary Research Fellow: Department of Linguistics, Unisa
> >
>