I have just launched a teacher-research project that is organized
around a discussion list - it is still getting off the ground,
as teachers work through the logistics of modems & email at
their sites. One of the participants (also a student of mine)
has raised questions specific to an inclusion classroom. There are
only a handful of us online right now, and none have expertise
with special ed. I plan to recruit someone to correspond with
Mary Beth. Can some of you out there pinch hit for now? Any
references to relevant literature would be much appreciated.
Mary Beth also has much to say that will be of interest to
many of you - the message deserves the sort of richness in
response that xmca can provide (Questions include how to
teach writing in an inclusion classroom.) Thank you
so much if you can help.
If you wish, respond to me personally, and I will repost to Mary Beth.
If you respond to xmca, I will assume that it's okay to forward, unless
you say otherwise.
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> First, I'm fairly obsessed with the fact that a number of my
>students simply do not participate. A good deal of the "silent" ones are
>classified (with perceptual/processing problems/Attention Deficit Disorder -
>whatever the hell that "really" means). I'm itchin' to create a more
>inclusive classroom that invites their participation. Then, I'm wondering if
>they don't participate because it takes them "longer" to process the ideas
>being discussed. Or, if they are reluctant to speak because of the risk
>involved - the terror of showcasing their "limits." Then, too, I wonder
>about how I'm creating a "school" speech community - one that is a bit
>unnatural in the sense that you raise your hand, wait your turn, try to
>remain "on task" and offer ideas that are relevant or on topic. So, I have
>this quest: I want very much for all my students to "talk." I guess I need
>to be more precise about what "talk" I'm after. These non-talkers are quite
>chatty outside of academic contexts. Some are very strong socially. What's
>so compelling to me (more & more) is this issue of CONTEXT (in the SFL
>tradition). What am I doing wrong that silences these kids? Am I corrupting
>or poisoning their social contexts where they speak and carry on without any
>inhibitions? Yet, I don't buy that simple, liberal knee-jerk clap trap that
>school is a necessary evil, an adulteration or corruption of children's
>natural, immediate, spontaneous speech styles. Maybe school is just a
>different context with different requirements and constraints. This might
>just bring me right back to Bakhtin and the whole ventriloquism
>schtick. The students are just code switching, finding the resources
>to appropriate in a new situation. Maybe I need to make this all
>explicit and talk about the talk ... the talk that seems easy and
>effortless & why ... the talk that's hard, unfamiliar, alien, daunting
>& why... I also have to restructure discussions so they offer a
>variety of formats - from whole class to pairs and small groups.
>
>I can't let go of the idea that "class participation" is so
>performative. The way students see this part of the school game as a
>way to demonstrate what they know ... as a final/polished draft of
>ideas ... as an all or nothing venue for their ego PAINS ME. I liken
>class participation to writing "informational" or expository
>text. Students must construct concepts / new knowledge / the content
>of each discipline in a coherent, conventionalized format so that
>their listening audience understands. They need to fully grasp the
>new information, make sense of it in their own terms, have the
>confidence, know the "rules" of school discourse (i.e. - make comments
>that are actually relevant to the ongoing discussion, situate one's
>remarks in the running text of others' remarks, refer to
>others'points, agree/disagree, advance an argument and rationale).
>
>Perhaps "class participation" issues can be a springboard for
>"expository writing" issue. The 2 seem to feed into each other. Maybe
>if I do an ethnography about participation / talking (according to
>field, tenor, mode: the what, the who, the how of being a talker in
>and out of school). I can talk about how our own speaking behaviors,
>willingness to talk varies along each dimension and within each.
>Later, as we write more and more, I can re-direct our ethnography to
>focus on writing. I could pick up on what I did last spring with
>"voicing" and so forth.
>
>So sorry to take up your time, but I had to commit these ideas to
>writing before I went on with my day. I wasn't sure if this letter
>could go on the discussion list so I just sent it to you. OK, one
>final comment or area of interest: How does one address expository
>writing with classifed students who have no command over the basic
>mechanics? Some of my students write in cuneiform - no spaces betweem
>words, no syntactic sense of a sentence (purely semantic like Noguchi
>suggests), "invented spellings." Issues like audience, purpose, power
>relations, world views, ideologies and so on are compelling ... but
>where do I start when these student texts are incomprehensible? We
>know that writing is far more than the words on the page and I'd never
>want to indulge a "slavish concern" for form / writing
>prescriptions. However, how can I just ignore or leap over this word
>level issue and arrive at the discourse level? Well, that's all for
>now (and probably too much for a sunny Saturday).
>
>Thanks and take care. Mary Beth
>
>
Judy Diamondstone
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Graduate School of Education
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903