CHAPTER 5 A CLOSER LOOK AT CHILDREN

Chapter 5 A Closer Look at Children : 

Chapter 5 A Closer Look at Children Presented by : Isa López Rivera Meyer, R.(2002). Phonics exposed: Understanding and resisting Systematic Direct Intense Phonics Instruction Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. {LB1573.3M49 2002}

INTRODUCTION : 

INTRODUCTION “Acknowledging the complexity of early reading and writing development means that we must try to understand literacy from the child’s perspective, and that involves disciplined, systematic observation of children as they work at reading and writing in and out of classroom settings. - Taylor (1993, p.34)

FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE (Intro.) : 

FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE (Intro.) In this chapter the author focuses on trying to understand children’s learning during phonics lessons. Using a variety of analytical perspectives the author makes sense of the children’s experiences because they ultimately contribute to the children’s literacy identities.

CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR AND WHAT IT SUGGESTS : 

CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR AND WHAT IT SUGGESTS Let’s review some of the behaviors in which the children engaged during the phonics lesson:

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION : 

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION When we consider certain behaviors as self-stimulating, our understanding of the children's responses to the phonics lessons is focused within the child. Snell and Brown (2000) suggested that, “Many problem behaviors are attributed to specific pragmatic intents; that is, the behavior serves a specific function for the individual and is a form of communicating for the individual” (p.101).

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION (Continued) : 

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION (Continued) Within the context of the phonics lesson, the communicative intent of the children is something about which we hypothesize by looking at what the children’s behavior expresses or asserts. Communicative intent means that behavior functions to relate with and to others because behavior is social.

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION (Continued) : 

IT’S MORE THAN SELF-STIMULATION (Continued) When we act within a social setting, our actions have intentions because we want something, want to do something , or want something to happen in our relationships with others. Durand (1990) offered four functions for communicative intent. - Social attention - Demonstrate that he or she is escaping - Consequence - Sensory stimulation with another person

WHY CAN’T THE CHILDREN BEHAVE? : 

WHY CAN’T THE CHILDREN BEHAVE? The differences between activities that make sense and those that don’t have a profound effect on children’s behaviors and issues of classroom management. Self-control is a “response to internalized command{s} organized in rigid stimuli for behavioral responses” (p. 130). Self-regulation is “guided according to self-formatted plan{s}… changed … according to changing goals and situations…{and} uses aspects of the environment as tools and mediators to attain goals” (p.130)

STILL ANOTHER WAY TO ANALYZE CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR : 

STILL ANOTHER WAY TO ANALYZE CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR The field… refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place: What is it that the participants are engaged in, in which the language figures as some essential component? The tenor … refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their statuses, and roles: What kinds of role relations obtain among the participants , including permanent and temporary relationships one kind or another, both the types of speech role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships in which they are involved? The mode … refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation: The symbolic organization of the text, the status that it has, and its function in the context, including the channel (is it spoken or written or some combinations of the two?(p.12)

FIELD, TENOR, AND MORE DURING PHONICS : 

FIELD, TENOR, AND MORE DURING PHONICS The Field of the Phonics Lesson Addresses the question “What is happening?” (Halliday & Hasan, 1987,p 12) in a social sense during a language event. The Tenor of the Phonics Lesson The tenor is interesting during the lesson, because they sit and remain relatively passive. They are asked to assume the status of empty vessels to be filled. The script places the teacher in a position of authority about language. The Mode of the Phonics Lesson Symbolically, the language activity during the phonics lesson binds the children to the rug, but not to each other. It binds them to saying things that sound like language, but do not make meaning as language should.

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING : 

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING The Field of the Library Book Reading In a social sense, the book becomes a point of origin for much interesting conversation. The book is also the point of origin of social activity, in that we could map each turn at speaking that children take and to whom and what they are responding. There is a straight line from the teacher’s script to the children and from the children to the teacher. During the reading of the library book there is a flurry (outbreak, flood) of a social and language activity.

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING (Continued) : 

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING (Continued) The Tenor of the Library Book Reading The children’s relationships with each other, their teacher, and text change during the reading of the book. There is a shift towards mutuality in which language is a vehicle for exploring, explaining, challenging, and presenting. ( Such a context would more effectively support the study of sounds that letters make).

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING (Continued) : 

FIELD, TENOR AND MORE DURING THE LIBRARY BOOK READING (Continued) The Mode of the Library Book Reading Mode addresses “ what part the language is playing” in a language event. During the reading of a story, the children’s expectations turn to language as meaning-based and meaning making. The children’s move in to be closer to each other, the text and the teacher is a metaphor for the part language is playing. The book served as a reminder of a deeper humanity and of legitimate purposes of text by welcoming a variety of voices, multiples responses, and a change in the role of the teacher from transmitter to partner.

TWO CLASSROOMS IN ONE : 

TWO CLASSROOMS IN ONE Understanding classroom events through field, tenor, and mode helps explain why we see very different times of the school day. Karen’s classroom was two different classrooms. Both made assumptions about children, learning, the use and place of language, and the role of relationships in learning. One classroom, the one that was enacted during phonics, ignored the specific children at hand, their interests, their skills and their knowledge. The other classroom had a professional teacher who made decisions reflective of the children before her.

WHAT IS READING FOR KAREN’S STUDENTS? : 

WHAT IS READING FOR KAREN’S STUDENTS? The children in Karen’s class are learning what reading is : through the text that they are exposed to publisher’s idea or definition of reading The publishers of the program explain that these little books are needed because they are decodeable books. A decodeable book, (defined the publisher) has in it words that can be made from sounds the children have studied in isolation and in words (both real and nonwords) during phonics lessons. “Jail words”, “slippery words”, “tricky words” are words that are labeled as not phonetically regular and are taught as sight words (words the children must memorize).

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING : 

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING They Are Learning to Overrely on Phonics Their overreliance on letter-sound relationships gets in the way of predicting what is coming in a text because they are not constructing meaning as they read. They do not rely on the semantic and syntactic cueing systems because these have been sacrificed to the focus on phonics.

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) : 

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) They Are Learning a Limiting Definition of reading They are learning that reading is : a strange and strained relationship with text, which may bare meaning and may not. Vague, unpredictable, and unreliable. The children are each constructing a definition that will be enacted each time they engage with a text.

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) : 

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) They Are Learning to Comply Like their teacher, the students are learning to comply . They are learning : There are times during school and during life when we sit quietly and don’t necessarily understand what is going on or what we are supposed to learn. In many classrooms that take programs seriously and demand children’s “attention” that when they are told to sit and listen , that is exactly what they do. Don’t think too much Just demonstrate the appropriate behaviors Don’t ask questions , just follow orders. It confuses children’s understanding of what school is for.

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) : 

THEY MUST BE LEARNING SOMETHING (Continued) In Karen’s classroom the compliance that is requested is gentle because of Karen’s own sensitivity to what is an agent for when the class has phonics each day. Karen understands that what is at stake is greater than the sounds of letters. Each of her students’ identities as readers is in an ongoing formative process, and those identities are influenced by every activity she undertakes with them.

THE CHILDREN’S READING IDENTITIES : 

THE CHILDREN’S READING IDENTITIES A reading identity is what is in one’s life. It is: views, attitudes, uses, beliefs, joys, and sorrows of our reading lives. Where we stand in terms of reading, our view of it, our relation to the texts, and situations all contribute to our reading identities.

THE CHILDREN’S READING IDENTITIES (Continued) : 

THE CHILDREN’S READING IDENTITIES (Continued) Children and adults with healthy brains and developing minds develop reading identities. Good readers use phonics. They learn to read using phonics and the other cueing systems (K. Goodman, 1996). They learn above all else, that they are readers who rely on texts as meaningful, joyful, and informative. A narrow definition of reading imposed on our children will not promote a love of reading.

CONCLUSION : 

CONCLUSION The author states that it is in the spirit of reading identities ( what is in one’s life , our views, attitudes, uses, beliefs, joys and sorrows of the reading lives) that we must consider the consequences of curriculum. Moreover, we must evaluate ourselves and our instruction in order to make certain that we are conveying meaning and purpose in our classrooms. Hence motivating or pushing our students into self- stimulation or what some teachers may call behavioral problems. Let us take a closer look at the children.