dialogue winter 2011-12

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The Power of the Writing Project

A Publication of the San Diego Area Writing Project Winter 2011-12DialogueFostering Rebellious Readingthrough Young Adult Literature

Christine Kané, SDAWP 2004

In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, book critic Meghan Gurdon begins a

persuasive piece by introducing her readers to a desperate 46-year-old mother o three wandering around the young adult section o her local bookstore eeling thwarted anddisheartened. In a vain attempt to locate an appropriate book or her 13-year-old daughtershe is orced to wade through hundreds o lurid and dramatic covers that only oer depic-tions o vampires, suicide and sel-mutilation. She leaves the store empty handed rom thisexperience crying out in despair that there was "nothing, not a thing, that I could imaginegiving my daughter.” Gurdon uses this single example o a well-intentioned mother to sethe tone or her argument that today’s young readers nd themselves surrounded by im-ages o damage, brutality, and losses o the most horrendous kinds i they choose to delveinto or stumble upon the world o contemporary young adult (YA) literature. Gurdon paintspublishing companies in broad strokes as prot-hungry scavengers that hide behind ree-expression principles in order to spite good parenting and moral upbringings and bulldozecoarseness and misery into children's lives.

Gurdon begrudgingly acknowledges that YA literature may be useul or a small sector oteens and tweens that have experienced real-lie horrors o physical, sexual, and emotionaabuse that may create eelings o sel-loathing, induce sel-mutilation, promote eating dis-orders or suicidal tendencies; but only because it serves as some orm o validation thattheir experience matters and provides comort to these readers. However, she strongly ad- vocates that these same books in the hands o young people who have never been aficted with these experiences will lead them naturally towards sel-destructive behavior simplybecause they have now been exposed to it in a book. They may even believe that becausethe book has been published, it is popular or vogue to do so.

Following this incredibly naïve Gurdon-ion logic one would imagine that i the same well-intentioned mother o three caught wandering aimlessly through the bookstore had beenoered Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak it would be an appropriate book or her daughter toread i, and only i, her daughter had experienced rape itsel in real lie and her daughter was able to use the literary experience as a orm o therapeutic comorting and reassur-ance. Yet, i this mother exposed her impressionable young daughter to the content o Scars

by Cheryl Raineld it might actually lead her daughter to become a cutter who utilizes sel-mutilation acts as a coping mechanism. This is the same age-old argument that talkingabout bad things or dark themes will automatically lead to the downall o morality becauseit will “normalize” it and even go so ar as to encourage depravity. Maureen Johnson othe Guardian U.K. responds to Gurdon’s idea that "darkness" doesn't belong in stories byciting several historical authors that she wonders i Gurdon has ever had exposure to suchas Poe, Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Tolstoy or…almost any other author, ever. Orthe Bible, or that matter. Or the news.

The highly acclaimed YA author Laurie Halse Anderson wrote in protest o Gurdon’s articleon her blog by stating that books don’t turn kids into murderers, or rapists, or alcoholics

Inside... On Rereading Some ofGary Bradshaw'sWriting 4Frank Barone

while some settled intosentences 4Darren Samakosky

The Myth That Intelligenceand Hard WorkEqual Success 5Cherie Firmery

Why Should I Trust You?A Place to Begin 7 Jan Jarrell

Guiding Teachingand Learning:Rubrics in Action 9Becky Gemmell

Young Writers'Camp Authors 10-11

Ni de AquiNi de Alla 12Cynthia Cox

That One Kid 16 Barb Montfort

Also included:CongratulationsSDAWP Fellows 3 Project Notes 15Fall ConferenceHighlights 15Dialogue Call For Manuscripts 15Muse Box 19Calendar of Events 20



2

Dialogue

Fall 2011Issue No. 26

The Power

of the Writing Project

Editors: Stacey Goldblatt Jennifer Moore

Co-Editor: Janis JonesLayout: Janis JonesPhotography: Janis Jones

Marla WilliamsWriting Angel: Susan Minnicks

Published by theSan Diego Area Writing Project

Director:Kim Douillard

UC San DiegoSDAWP9500 Gilman DriveLa Jolla, CA 92093-0036(858) 534-2576http://sdawp.ucsd.edu/

Dialogue, Winter 2011-12

experience in abusive dating rela-tionships or sel-harm or eating dis-orders themselves but because theyeither know somebody who doesengage in these acts or will at somepoint in their lietime. YA literature helps prepare them to adequately handle big topics with grace and un-derstanding that adults oten won’tor don’t engage in oten enough.

Holmes acknowledges that sur-rounding children with books ull o joy and beauty is ne, but conningtheir reading to those things because we are araid that they cannot toler-ate being exposed to the things theyare already so oten exposed to doesthem a terrible disservice in lie.

Along with all o the many variedreasons to support the use, exposureand promotion o young adult liter-ature—dark themed or not—citedby reputable authors in the world o

YA literature that came in responseto Gurdon’s WSJ article, perhaps theone that strikes the strongest chord with me is that the same kids who arereading the scary, dark, and creepystu, the adventurous and weird anddirty stu in young adult literature,are the same kids who, i it wasn’tdark and creepy sometimes, wouldjust read dark and creepy books written or adults (Holmes, NPR).Recounting her own childhood, Hol-mes noted that she was always goingto read Stephen King, because she

was interested in the way he talkedabout hope and despair, about nd-ing salvation in other people, andabout things like eating your ownoot that were just plain reakingcrazypants cool.

Not reading scary, weird, dark, ordirty books wouldn't have made mea dierent kid. It certainly wouldn't have made me a happier kid. Itmight have made me a kid who read less, though.

Growing up I can honestly say thatI was an avid rebellious reader. Imade it a point to sneak anythingand everything that someone elsedeemed orbidden, o-limits or too"adultish." By third grade I had al-ready worn down a path travelingup and down the aisles o the verysmall children's section in our local library. Even Nancy Drew and hereisty courageous sel became re-petitive, predictable, and downrightboring.

(Not even the Bible, which eaturesall o these acts.) Books open heartsand minds, and help teenagers makesense o a dark and conusing world. Young Adult literature saves lives.Every. Single. Day.

Cecil Castelucci o the LA Review of

Books blog reminds us that teenag-ers (and children) live in the same

world that we adults do. And no mat-ter how much we try to protect them,they see the same current events,they live through the same havoc wreaked by foods, tsunamis, mur-ders, rapes, beatings, hurricanes,abuse, tornadoes, terrorist attacks,nuclear accidents, climate change,and more. And i they don’t expe-rience it rsthand, they might haveamily members who do or have. Orthey read about it in the paper or seeit on the news or the internet andthey seek to understand the incom-

prehensible. They struggle just likeadults do to understand and makesense o the world and o what itmeans to be human.

Linda Holmes, National Public Ra-dio writer, cites that some tweensor teens are drawn to YA literaturenot because they have any personal

I distinctly remember wanderingthrough the adult section o the li-brary one day out o sheer bore-dom when a book by Danielle Steelcaught my eyes. I took it out withoutpreamble and sat down in the aisleto read. By the time the rst chapter was through I had met characterthat were complex, lusty, and besto all, cussing up a storm when they

were passionate or angry. I was enthralled.

The characters were so real to methat I ound mysel glancing aroundnervously to see i anyone else hadstumbled upon the greatness o thisauthor. Would they want to ght meor rights to it? Page ater glorious

page, there were scenes that I may have not been able to ully comprehend, but man, was I devoted todevouring the written word. I wasengaged.

It wasn't until the library doors wereclosing and I rushed the book up tothe ront desk to check out that I wasmet with the reality o my chrono- logical age. I still remember thsteely disapproving eyes o the bald-ing man that declared that this wasan "inappropriate" book or some-

one my age and I shouldn't be read-ing things like this: Did my motherknow about this?

I remember fying past emotionso conusion, shame, and right intoabsolute indignation. Although hedidn't allow me to check out that oneisolated book, it became my missionto sneak in day ater day to read thatbook hidden in the dark recesses othe library. Eventually, I becamebolder and ound ways to cover up

Not reading scary, weird, dark,

or dirty books wouldn'have made me

a different kid. It cer-tainly wouldn't have

made me a happier kid.

It might have made me a kid who

read less, though.



3Dialogue, Winter 2011-12

the jackets o the books I would steal o the shel and hide behindmy homework binder. By the end o th grade I had a vast knowl-edge base o sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

My upper elementary teachers gushed about my reading testscores and reading levels. I didn't have the words to articulate itthen, but what I do know now is that I was bored to tears with thestupid stories and characters that they kept introducing to me inschool. The sheer amount o rebellious recreational reading I didon my own? That was a critical oundation to support my academic

reading in school. My vocabulary skyrocketed simply because Ichose to spend all my time reading. My writing was exceptional orelementary standards because I saw the printed word in complex ways all the time. I did not just read: I was a reader consumed bythe written word.

I you were to walk into my classroom tomorrow morning you would see a roomul o ourth graders who argue over books, ghtor the right to have it next, and sneak up to ve or six complexchapter books inside their desk hoping no one will notice thatthree is the limit. These books are oten rom the teen section inBarnes & Noble and denitely not predictable, boring texts whose lives don't mirror the ones that they endure daily. I consistently have about thirty-two students every year who devour the written

word. I spend a ortune on my classroom library every month. Imake sure our books refect real lie which is messy and complex.Our books include deep rich conficts that happen in real lie. Andsometimes a cuss word is thrown in there i the character is really,really upset. Ater all, isn't that what happens in real lie?

Parents are amazed that their children willully spend their reetime reading books now. They can't seem to gure out what hap-pened to them and why they are always asking to go to this placecalled Barnes & Noble? My parents are witnessing the beauty o rebellious readers at work. I've passed on my passion or readingeach year to a new generation and I hope like hell that one day theyrecognize this empowerment and pass it on to their own kids, too.

When the blogosphere blew up in response to Gurdon’s articlecondemning YA literature in June 2011, I was most grateul or thereminder rom author Sherman Alexie’s blog stating that books— violent and not, blasphemous and not, terriying and not—werethe most loving and trustworthy things in his lie. He doesn’t pre-tend to know the complexity o every student’s lie and he certainlydoesn’t write to protect them. It’s ar too late or that. He writes togive them weapons—in the orm o words and ideas—that will helpthem ght their monsters. He writes as an author in blood because he still remembers what it elt like to bleed.

My core values as an educator will never be based upon the stan-dardized testing that marginalizes my student’s lives or naïve wish-es to shelter them rom a world that is more complex than any

author could ever capture in words. I show up every single day todispel the myth that our youth—especially our Arican-Americanand Latino youth—are not engaged in school. Because i we are honest with ourselves and we truly want our students to be engagedin school we can not wait or state or national mandates to supportour students. It is up to us as their mentors in the classroom toprovide real ways to be engaged, inspire them to rebel against thiscurrent educational system, and exceed low expectations others hold or them in society and beat every roadblock put in their way.I'm planning on doing this one passionate, consuming, rebelliousreader at a time.

Nicole BradshawFlying Hills Elem

Cajon Valley Union

HolleySchooley-Calvo

Capri Elem

Encinitas Union

Jeni CassSan Diego Global

Vision Academy

San Diego Unifed

Cynthia CoxLexington Elem

Cajon Valley Union

Rachel CurtzeChild’s Primary School

Private

Cherie FirmeryDel Rio Elem

Oceanside Unifed

Holly FrenchCajon Valley Middle

Cajon Valley Union

Kim FruscellaHillcrest Academy

Temecula Valley

Jan JarrellSan Diego City College

SD Community College

Matt JewellAda Harris Elem

Cardi

Cynthia LarkinMorse High

San Diego Unifed

Amy ModyAlbert Einstein

Academy

San Diego Unifed

BarbaraMontfort

Quest Academy

La Mesa-Spring Valley

Zenaida MooreKing Chavez Primary

San Diego Unifed

Abby RoblesDel Sur Elem

Poway Unifed

Jacob RuthCajon Valley Middle

Cajon Valley Union

Congratulations SDAWP FellowsSummer 20011

DarrenSamakosky

Pt Loma High

San Diego Unifed




Writing ools. My riend Gary and I wrote like ools. At the sight or men-tion o a metaphor we would cap-ture that magic moment by splaying words upon the page and then watchas they ormed themselves into apoem. I we heard or saw a wordor thought o an idea that intriguedus, we would surround that word oridea with suitable companions until we had developed a short story, aone-act play, or an essay with a be-ginning, a middle, and an end thatsatised our curiosity and our thirst.

Like ools, we obsessed ourselves with words, searching or them inthe books we read, the movies wesaw, the dramas we attended, themusic we heard, the journals, maga-zines, and newspapers we scanned. We even ound words along thegreen airways o the gol courses we played on and discovered wordsin the mouths o guest speakers atthe conerences and workshop weparticipated in. Some words spoketo us rom within a soccer ball or abasketball and demanded we givethem a voice others could hear and

relate to. I ound quite a ew wordsin the moon and stars while Gary would ride the sur and paddle toward shore with words that clung to his body and hung rom his board.

We lived or words. They grew intoour passion and became our plea-sure. We had un watching themcrawl or race along the lines o our writing notebooks, seeing themshape themselves into castles andcaves, neighborhoods and back yards, and quite a ew classrooms.

Gary and I wrote prolically, to challenge the status quo, to solve prob- lems, explore possibilities, exposeinjustice, proclaim truths, and cel-ebrate the beauty that surroundedus. Our writing could be tinged with humor, or streaked with irony orsatire, but in every piece we wroteone could nd the joy that camerom putting imaginative and honest words upon the page.

Writing ools? Yes, we wrote like

On Rereading Some

of Gary Bradshaw's Writings

Frank Barone, SDAWP 1977

while some settled into sentences yesterday i wrote just to sound like mysel

i elt absent in my penmanship

like all these eathers in the ink

weighing me down so i could not y

but i shook o that black in splats

they landed at on the canvass

some slipped and dripped

curving to cursive making letters

while some settled into sentences

there is more being said that at frst is intended

i am all about stretching beore long walks

i am all about putting down all the talk

see actions make wordsand the movements a rotating world

all i have is this time beore—the damns ood again

i got a rushing eeling that in the drown there is a crown

and i’d like to wear it once just so that I can put it down.

Darren Samakosky, SDAWP 2011

ools, but more than that, we wroteas riends. And that riendship con-tinues every time I reread some o Gary’s writings.

In Memory o Gary Bradshaw,SDAWP, 1981.

(Pictured right, Frank Barone signs au-tographs ater speaking to a group ostudents during Young Writers' Camp2011.)



It was one o many activities that weparticipated in during SDAWP’s Sum-mer Institute; I knew the Monopolygame the other participants and I were playing was planned to teachus about “Systematic Unairness”— we had read several articles andparticipated in protocols designedto make us aware o the existenceo societal structures which breed

inequities. Many who are successulassume it is the result o their highintelligence and hard work and thatthose who have not achieved levelso success are less intelligent anddon’t work as hard. This notion isnothing new. It may have evolvedrom America’s earliest days whenpromoters o the colonies such asCaptain John Smith promised wealthin return or hard work. Neverthe- less the idea persists today.

The central protocol or the Monop-

oly game was that players did not be-gin the game at the same time. Twoplayers were chosen to start play-ing rst. They neatly organized thecommunity chest and chance cardsin the center o the game board. Themoney was distributed between thetwo and the properties were neatlyarranged in rows. The players rolledthe dice while three o us watched.Those o us who had played beorereminisced on past games played,noted how landing on ree park-ing could change the game, and

armed that Atlantic Avenue wasgood property to own.

Once the players had traveledaround the board a ew times andpurchased our or ve propertieseach, two more players were addedto the game. They jumped in opti-mistically and were eager to receivetheir startup money. The game con-tinued with players buying prop-erties as they landed on each newavailable space. Finally, once the

second group had begun to accumu- late a ew properties, the last player was added to the game and it wasme. I knew Monopoly well enoughto know that my chances o winning were slim. I quickly inventoried myoptions and my attitude, but beore I was allowed to buy any property, thegame was called to an end.

All players were instructed to makea mental note o the appearanceo the table. Properties and money were out or all to see, and it wasclear that those who had the longestplaying time were the most success-ul in terms o owning the greatestnumber o properties. The secondgroup amassed less wealth than therst, while the nal group had cash,but no properties. Monopoly playersknow that in order to win the gameone must have property, ree andclear.

Those o us who participated in thegame knew that the game paralleled what we had been reading aboutand what we observe in our soci-ety. The last player to join the gamerepresented the poor. The second

pair o players to join in the game was demonstrating the middle class,and the rst invited to play were the wealthy. The lesson was that thereare systems that allow some citizensaccess to success while others are let out.

Systems and institutions are orces which control access. And whilethey limit some, they benet others.An example o such a beneciary isone o the world’s wealthiest men,

Bill Gates, the ounder o Micro-sot. In his book Outliers, MalcolmGladwell asserts that a system o or-tunate events acted in Gate’s lie and helped him to achieve the position he holds today. The rst advantage he had was that he was born into a wealthy amily. His socioeconomistatus gave him access to privateschools with computers and resourc-

es lacking at other institutions. An-other advantage he had was that he was born at the right time in order toparticipate in the dawn o the com-puter age. It is interesting to note thatthree o the most recognized namesin the computer industry, Steve Jobs,Bill Joy, and Bill Gates, were all born within one year. Gates and Joy hadaccess to computers when almostno one else did; they each enjoyednearly unlimited programming timeand were able to log over ten thou-sand hours o programming time in

a relatively short amount o time, theequivalent o ten years o “practice”in seven years (Gladwell).

There is no question as to whetherBill Gates was hard working or ex-tremely bright, but he had advan-tages that ew others enjoyed. He was part o an elite group in which he admits, “I there were ty in the world, I’d be shocked” (Gladwell)Gates benetted rom a series o a- vorable events which helped to cata-pult him into superstar status.

It is rare or people to escape theiroriginal social status. Generally,the class that you were born intois where you will stay or lie (Co- lombo, 320). Intelligence and hard work alone are not enough to el

evate one to the next level o thesocioeconomic ladder; however, tomany o us this reality is in contrast with what we have learned to acceptas part o American culture: Wepride ourselves on being citizens oa country that people risk their livesto reach. We are a country o hopeand opportunity. We identiy withthe idea that anyone can pull him-sel up by his bootstraps and rise outo adverse circumstances. We thinkthat i we simply work hard enough,

Dialogue, Winter 2011-12 5

The Myth that Intelligenceand Hard Work Equal Success

Cherie Firmery, SDAWP, 2011

...children who live in poverty will need forcesworking in their favor in order for them to

transcend socioeconomic status...



6 Dialogue, Winter 2011-12

and are determined, we can achievesuccess. Yet, sadly, this is not true.It is a myth.

Some use the stories o individuals like Colin Powell, Oprah Winreyand Cesar Milan as proo that individuals are not static in their socialstatus, but able to change their lie’scircumstances through hard work.

However, on closer scrutiny, we o-ten nd that several avorable eventsacted on behal o these individuals.Stories o pulling onesel out o pov-erty are extremely rare and it takesmuch more than intelligence and

hard work (Colombo). The United

States views itsel as representinga mostly middle-class society. Thediculty with believing that intelli-gence and hard work are enough toposition us in the middle class is that when ailure ensues, we then blamethe individual and assume the rea-son or poverty is the individual’s lacking in some area. We over-sim-pliy both causes and eects o theorces that act on people in poverty. We maintain that Bill Gates is the wealthiest man in America because he is intelligent and hard working.

Conversely, we connect poverty withpoor intellect or laziness. We mini-mize or orget entirely about avor-able circumstances that made posi-tive dierences or individuals suchas Bill Gates, Colin Powell, Oprah Winrey, or Cesar Milan.

In the Monopoly protocol, I was lastto enter the game. I knew that theodds were stacked against me, but Icouldn’t give up. I I gave up I would have no chance to win, so my onlyoption was to try. Winning would

have required more than events working in my avor—I would need luck. I could have used the start-upmoney and negotiated deals to buymortgages or pennies on the dol- lar with people when they got intotrouble, but the game was called be-ore I could enact that strategy. I wassomewhat relieved when the gameended because I knew my chance o winning was a long shot.

We are reminded that students who

come rom poor amilies live with-in systems that keep them there.Society minimizes their strengthsand maximizes their decits: suchas socioeconomic status, ethnic-ity, language, gender, and citizen-ship. Colin Powell, Oprah Winrey,and Cesar Milan represent some o these perceived “decits,” but de-spite them, these individuals made

it. Was it because they were intelligent and hard working? I wouldsay no, because there are people just like them with similar qualities whodidn’t make it—they simply didn’t have the same good ortune. Nearly

one o every eight people, and one

in ve children below the age o six, live below the ocial poverty line.They are there because they havenot had opportunities nor good or-tune (Colombo, 2007).

It is clear that children who livein poverty will need orces work-ing in their avor in order or themto transcend socioeconomic status,and educational experiences play akey role. In his book The Shame of a Nation: The Restoration of Apart-heid Schooling in America, Jonathan

Kozol points to areas that need to beimproved. Added to Kozol’s ndingsare statistics rom the U.S. Depart-ment o Education, NCES, 2007.

Teachers with three or•

ewer years o experienceare twice as likely to be inschools with a high level o minority enrollment, than inschools with a low level.

Fourth-grade students who•

are Black or Hispanic are

much less likely to be inschools where the sameteacher who started the year were there when the yearended.

Black and Hispanic twelth-•

grade students are morethan twice as likely as Whitestudents to be in schools where six to ten percent o their teachers are absent onan average day.

Class sizes o minorities•

were likely to be larger,and yet receive the greatestbenet rom reduced classsizes.

Classes with higher percent-•

ages o minorities were less likely to assign research onthe Internet than students

with lower percentages o minorities.

Classes with higher percent-•

ages o minorities refecta lower percentage o stu-dents who have computersavailable in classrooms than when compared to schools with smaller percentage o minorities. It must be noted here that not all minorities live in poverty, nor are allstudents rom low socioeco-

nomic status (SES) minori-ties. While most agree thatsocial status and minor-ity status are separate it hasbeen common practice orresearchers to combine thetwo, and many minorities doremain in the lower portiono the socioeconomic spec-trum (Firmery, 2003).

To counter the above statistics, chil-dren living in poverty need dedi-cated, experienced, and seasoned

teachers. In order to break ree rompoverty, they must experience a- vorable circumstances, includina system o education that does not view them as being decient. They will need teachers who continuouslyseek out methods and resources toimprove their crat in the name ostudent achievement. Students needteachers who know that no matter how good their lesson plans arethere is no substitute or the qualityinstruction that the regular class-room teacher is able to provide; they

know the specic needs o each stu-dent in the room. Students will needadvocates who nd it unacceptableto or students to experience over-crowded classrooms. What would beunacceptable in a high SES schoomust be unacceptable in a low SESschool.

Finally, another point that must beaddressed is how high stakes testingis aecting the learning and achieve-ment o students in minority groups

They will need teachers who continuously seek out methods and resources to improve their craft

in the name of student achievement.




and he whispered, “I used to be hun-gry, too.” And, how years later, herevealed that when he rst moved

in, he checked our closet or belts.He ound some, but decided that weonly used them to look “ancy,” andnot or whipping kids.

Elijah has taught me about thepower o human emotion, the willto survive, and how our past expe-riences are present in our bodiesshaping our thoughts and reactionsI try to keep his lessons present asI teach my community college stu-dents, many o whom are wounded with challenges that would knock

most people down.

Marlena, an Argentine immigrant, withdrew rom class because heAmerican husband was beating herShe had decided to fee to a shelterinstead o nishing the semester. As a child, Christian’s mother hadmoved him to Tijuana ater the LAriots erupted in 1992. There, he wastaunted as a “rich boy” beore hereturned to high school in the U.S. where he was labeled “special ed.”and “a troublemaker.” Markos had once escaped a pack o lions in his native Ethiopia by jump-ing into a river.

Ivette immigrated to the U.S. as ateenager in the trunk o her pimp-boyriend’s car. It was years be-ore she could ree hersel and herdaughter. Kevin’s home was raided when he

was ourteen. The Migra ripped hismom rom the house while she wastaking a shower. He didn’t see heror over a year.

Sometimes students share theirstruggles through their writing or inconerences, sometimes not at all. Yet, I try to keep in mind the burdens that they may be concealing.Ater some o these experiencesone might think that college wouldbe easy in comparison. The reality isthat many students, even those who

A wild horse, his body tenses and buckseyes rolling,

seeking escapeor fesh to bite we hold him,takes two o us most nightsmy muscles squawk with the straino holding my baby,my scared little boyFear that looks likeeels likeisrage

When I rst met Elijah, my son, he was our years old. We were on theblacktop outside the Baptist church where his oster dad was pastor. He was carrying the scrapbook my part-ner and I had made or him. It intro-duced us, our home, and our bun-nies. “He’s been carrying it aroundall weekend,” the social worker toldus, “showing it to everybody.”

He looked up at us with his sweetbrown eyes and said, “You’re a mom-my, and you’re a mommy. That’s twomommies.”

“What do you think about two mom-mies?” I asked, nervous.

“I like two mommies,” he said. Then he took o or the jungle gym.

In adoption class, they tell you that you will get a honeymoon period be-ore your wounded child begins totest you, to see i you will really com-mit to him. With Elijah, that wasn’tthe case. We got tested rom day one.And I am not talking about some little pop quiz; no, his was a scream-ing, yelling, kicking, kind o test that went on or years.

I remember one time, early on, Caroland I huddled together, locked in ourbedroom, making desperate phonecalls to other adoptive parents, as heraged outside the door, pounding,demanding to be let in. Yet, I also re-member when Carol read The Little

Drummer Boy that rst Christmas,

Why Should I Trust You? A Place to Begin

Jan Jarrell, SDAWP 2011

A teacher riend once quipped, “Howmany times does a student need tobe told that they are not achievingbeore they quit trying?” Nearly tenpercent o our students in the U.S.are second-language learners and yet it is mandated that all studentsbe tested in English--even when theyare not yet procient in their second language. While the graduation rate

o the population as a whole is rising, high school exit exams are causingELL dropout rates to increase andgraduation rates to decrease; thus,the gap between the two groups is widening (Menken). It is more im-portant than ever or educators tostand up or all students, to recog-nize the inequalities that exist, andcreate ortunate events that students will remember as they navigate theobstacles between themselves andtheir utures.

Works cited:

American Psychological Association(2002). Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association

(5th ed.). Washington, DC: AmericanPsychological Association.

Barton, P.E. (2003, October). Parsing the Achievement Gap. Retrieved May15, 2003, rom www.eric.ed.gov

Colombo, G., Cullen, R., and Lisle,B. (Eds.). (2007) Rereading America;

Cultural Contexts for Critical Think-ing and Writing. New York: Bedord/St. Martins

Firmery, C. (2003). Strategies for Change for the UnderrepresentedGifted and Talented Student. Univer-sity o Phoenix

Gladwell, M. (2009). What the Dog Saw. New York: Little Brown

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers (1sted.). New York: Little Brown

Kozol, J. (2005). The shame of a na-tion: The restoration of apartheidschooling in America (1st ed.). New York: Random House.

Oprah Winrey Bio. Retrieved July17, 2011 rom http://www.essort-ment.com/oprah-winrey—biogra-phy-20433.html

d



have experienced success in schoolor lie, oten question whether theydeserve to be in a college classroom,i they have what it takes.

The opening line o my college’smission statement reads, “San DiegoCity College has as its highest pri-ority student learning and achieve-ment.” It goes on to state that ours is

“a multicultural institution commit-ted to providing open access to all who can benet rom instruction.”Furthermore, we aim to meet “thediverse and ever-changing educa-tional, cultural, and economic needso the urban core and surroundingcommunities o San Diego.” Ourmission is a wide embrace. It refectsone o the most important primaryreasons why community colleges were created in this country in therst place—to serve the community,to give all comers an opportunity or

higher education. The painul real-ity, however, is that most o our stu-dents ail.

This year, ater a six-year study o community college students, the In-stitute or Higher Education Lead-ership & Policy at Sacramento StateUniversity issued a report, which

contained a slew o shocking, even heartbreaking statistics. O the250,000 students tracked, only one-third had completed a certicate ordegree or had successully trans-erred to a university. O those whobegan with transer as their goal,23% had achieved their objective.The numbers or Black and Latinostudents were even more dismal;only 20% and 14%, respectively, hadtranserred ater six years (Bensi-mon, Dowd, and Wong). Across the


state and at my own college, on av-erage more than 30% o students who begin a course, any course, ail.For some courses and disciplines,that rate rises to 50% or higher. We have been living with this seeminglyimmutable reality or years. Why?Undoubtedly, the challenges andbarriers that our students ace aremany, complicated, and overwhelm-

ing. But, how can we accept this con-tradiction between our mission andour reality? Through the accredita-tion process, we recently rearmedthe principles and priorities that ourmission statement expresses. No onesuggested casting our net more nar-rowly. I we believe in our mission, how can we be complacent?

Rebecca J. Cox’s 2009 book The Col-lege Fear Factor: How Professorsand Students Misunderstand EachOther presents an interpretation o

the results o our studies detailingthe experiences o community college students and teachers. She con-ducted dozens o interviews acrossthe United States at 34 campusesover a ve-year period. Her conclu-sion is that ear is at the heart o stu-dent ailure. Early in the book, sheanalyzes the causes o this destruc-tive ear.

The many students who seriouslydoubted their ability to succeed, however, were anxiously waiting or

their shortcomings to be exposed, at which point they would be stoppedrom pursuing their goals. Fragileand earul, these students expressedtheir concern in several ways: in re-erence to college proessors, partic-ular courses or subject matter, andthe entire notion o college itsel— whether at the two-year or our-year level. At the core o dierent expres-sions o ear were the same eelingso dread and apprehension that suc-cess in college would prove to be anunrealizable dream (26).

According to Cox, many college pro-essors do not see ear as the coreissue. Rather, they see students whoare unprepared or the rigor o college, and who are unwilling, in somecases, to do what is necessary to suc-ceed. Kim Brooks, an English pro-essor, recently expressed her rus-tration in an essay or Salon.com;she “elt overwhelmed to the pointo physical paralysis by all the thingsthey [her students] don’t know how

to do when they come to college.”These “decits” within the studentsmake some question the inclusiveness o community colleges. YetCox’s research suggests that acultycomplaints about student preparedness are an old trope in higher edu-cation and not exclusive to the com-munity colleges. As a rst step, sheurges us to accept students as they

are and to acknowledge their earsand anxieties.

Cox goes on to argue that successucollege teachers exhibit three qualities that help to mitigate studentsear. First, these teachers inspirecondence because they are expertsin their eld. Second, they maintainrigor and high expectations. Thirdthey convince students that, indeedthey do belong in college. Studentsoten express this critical trait asteachers being able to “come down

to their level.” For me, this is theplace to start. It is the beginning otrust.

My son has taught me that trusgrows slowly, imperceptibly. But when you look back, it’s there.

So, every day I enter my classes witha purpose. I am working to earn mystudents’ trust. Small gestures. I learn their names in the rst weekI write a promising syllabus (as op-posed to a punishing one), thank

you, Ken Bains. I nd ways or themto experience success early on—a low-stakes writing assignment or acollaborative piece. We build com-munity. I make time or individualconerences. Mainly, I strive to showup with the belie that they all belongthat the class is better and richerbecause they are in it. My studentsMarlena, Christian, Markos, Ivetteand Kevin—all o them—challengeme to reject complacency, to ghor the beautiul (yes, beautiul and

Sometimes studentsshare their strugglesthrough their writingor in conferences,

sometimes not at all.

Yet, I try to keep inmind the burdensthat they may be

concealing.

My son has taught me that trust grows slowly,

imperceptibly. But,when you look back,

it’s there.



“When you’re watching Dancing With the Stars or America’s Best Dance Crew , howdo you know i a perormance is good?” I ask my beginning dancers a week beorthey take their rst perormance test.

First, they think about their own ideas and then discuss them with a partner. NextI ask or volunteers to share so that we can generate a class list. I use the thinkpair-share strategy to help support English learners and students in special education in my mixed class.

They rattle o answers as I rantically try to capture them all on the board:“I they know what they’re doing.”“I they’ve got attitude.”“I they’re doing the moves right.”

I ask, “Couldn’t we group some o these ideas together?” and as a class, we beginto categorize using dierent-colored markers.

“What I see here are three distinct categories that we’re going to call KnowledgeExpression, and Technique,” I observe, supplying them with the academic language that represents their thinking.

By building on students’ prior knowledge o TV dance competitions, through dis-cussing their ideas about eective perormances, and by introducing academic

vocabulary, students better understand the rubric that I provide, which means they will havea better understanding o expectations beoretheir assessment. As a result, they perorm better.

I use a similar procedure to introduce rubricin other classes. In journalism, or example we read and discuss a number o columns andeditorials beore going over the opinion-writingrubric and beore they write their rst opinionpiece. Models o successul outcomes and mentor texts provide concrete examples or studentto emulate; rubrics provide the descriptors orachievement on student assessments.

Rubrics help set clear expectations and guidestudents. By using rubrics consistently over thecourse o a year in conjunction with portolios

students can track their own progress. Formative assessment allows us—teacher and student—to ocus on continual and meaningul improvement.

Finally, students sel assess. Ater watching their videotaped dance perormancesor example, my students write about what they executed well and what they needto improve upon next time. They set goals or the subsequent unit and assessments. Their refections help them take ownership o their achievement and rubrics help me airly and accurately measure their progress.


Guiding Teaching and Learning:

Rubrics in ActionBecky Gemmell, SDAWP 2001

honorable) mission o the commu-nity colleges, to make it mean some-thing in my classroom today, rightnow. I have no magic toolkit, no easysolution. I do not believe I can “savestudents,” nor do I see that as myjob. I am simply working to rerame how I perceive my students and toreinvent the classroom dynamic. Fora ew hours each week, this is our

space, our time. You are not alone; your success is my assignment too.

Elijah is eleven now. Every day we learn to trust a little bit more inthis amily we’ve created together. We trust, we love, we heal. It takestime.

“Do my wings, Mommy.”

I rub the tight spacesbetween yourshoulder blades

sing songs,and you tell me what you wantor breakastThe hallway light is on,closet door latched,dog huggedunder your armand you sleep,my baby,most nights

Works Cited:

Bain, Ken. What the Best CollegeTeachers Do. Harvard UniversityPress, 2004.Bensimon,

Estela Maria, Alicia C. Dowd andLinda J. Wong. “Community Colleg-es Must Commit to Change.” latimes.com, 27 October 2010.

Brooks, Kim. "Death to High SchoolEnglish: My college students don'tunderstand commas, ar less how to write an essay. Is it time to rethink

how we teach?" Salon.com, 10 May2011.

Cox, Rebecca D. The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another. HarvardUniversity Press, 2009.




oung

riters’

amp

S

U

M

M

E

R

2

0

1

1

Y

W C

Writing is...

Writing is the gem

that the gold miner found

Writing is the gentle tide

splashing against the shore

Writing is the hummingbird

sucking nectar from the flower

Writing is the flower in bloom

Writing is life

—Colin Chamberlin

Dale Hallow Lake

You pack the supplies,Load them onto the boat,

Then motor on out To green waters vast.

The shale-covered shores,Broken up by trees,Great bald eagles nestIn their green boughs.

"Throw over a line!" You latch onto riends,Making a privateFloating RV park.

Take out the bread,Make a sandwich,Sit 'round and laugh

With your amily.

Dive into the lake, And swim to the shore, Amble up the rocks, And throw skipping stones.

Now the sun sets, And lights up the lake, You head back to the dock Water-logged,hungry and tan.

—William Grifth

Being fearless makes you invincible. —Aleksandra Skanlon

Always do more than you're told. —Jacob Li

Life doesn't fit in six words. —Anonymous




Fire

I spit sparks with ury

I devour wood with my faming touchI wave my fames o fickering danger

over the cowering coals

heated up by the blaze o my steel grip

breathing out remains o logs

while I dance to a sharp beat

My hair hisses when it touches wind

all ashes scatter and I expire

I leave only a pile o smoldering ash

I give you heat

but i you want to get rid o me

I have my secret

Water will vanquish me

—Lenni Elbe

Snow Globe

In a little glass world

perfect white snow falls

and is still.

Each precious snowake

is an idea.

The crystal liquid

they ow in is inspiration.

Icy glass encases them both.

Shatter the snow globe

and let the inspiration spill out

like a bubbling fountain.Snowy storyline glinting out

here and there.

Take shattered bits of glass

and meld them into a few bits

of porcelain character,

and let your beautiful sculpture

of novels and storytellingstep into the light,

wearing the silk of poetry

and the lace of the sky.

—Autumn Lane

DreamBy the windowsill

I lie dreaming,

my nal falling,

skyward bound.

—Jerey Huong




I have recently had an accumulationo experiences in lie where I hadto do some thinking about lie anddeath. Death was much closer thanever beore and sat next to me atmeals to chat or a while. How luckyI elt to have grown inside a culturethat played with, mocked, and joked

about death. Though we migrated tothe United States, my amily still hasseveral calacas, or skeleton gures,around the house. These are dressedin charro outts and play mariachimusic while the skinny Catrinasride atop equally skinny skeleton horses with theirridiculously largeeathered hats andtoothy grins. I adorethem all like I adoremy uncles who would crack jokes

at unerals becausethere was nothingmore one could doabout it. This cul-tural training was going to help mein the next months o thinking aboutdeath and the oundations o being human as I began to consider whatgoes into orming our identity and what makes us see things this way orthat. While death did not consumemy every thought it did prompt meto rame my thoughts in the simplestterms, to look or that which is oun-dational to all o us.

Having moved to the United Statesat age 10, I went through a processo assimilation that ultimately leta piece missing in the ormation o my identity. Every adolescent ex-periences changes and an identityormation when they reach a certainage.

Children and adolescents who mi-grate to a new country have par-

ticular issues in the process. Studieso adolescent identity show that,“...young immigrants experience very strong cultural conficts as aresult o their perceiving to need tochoose between two cultures...Be-cause o their experience in schooland the community, minority ado-

lescents conront complex physi-ological issues related to ethnicity”(Mejía, 2007). Interestingly Mejíapoints out that the process o ac-culturation has a dierent eect orchildren below 12 years old thanthose rom ages 12 to 20. While chil-

dren under age 12 tend to assimilateto the new culture, those that areolder and have rmer roots in their home culture tend to have a greateramount o dissonance and confict intheir identity ormation.

At the age o ten, I was uprooted romsub-tropical Puerto Vallarta andbrought to arid San Diego. My am-ily knew this was going to happenand we had been orewarned that bythe time my brother and I reachedan age where it was time to go tomiddle school and high school, we would move to the United States andcontinue our education there. It wasa good plan and my parents made usaware early o the culture in which we would be submerged when thetime would come. I was luckier thanmost immigrant students. Books andnovels were hard to come by and

very expensive in Vallarta. Ther was not one book store in town andthe shelves in the library were tooth- less grins; holes abounded. The library opened once a week. To makeup or this decit, my uncle, who would come visit rom Los Angeleonce every two or three years, would

always bring books in English. I wasraised on the Babysitters Club seriesThe Secret Garden and The Little

Princess. The only literature I hadin Spanish—and this did make upthe bulk o my reading—were comicbooks. These you could buy at the

checkout line inthe Super or thebig grocery store.

The English lan-guage was notentirely oreign

to me. I went to abilingual schoolater all, thoughmy brother re-

cently reminded me that the bilin-gual program was staed by what-ever English speaking teacher camein to town and wanted to work. Itcould be a math teacher one yearan art teacher the next. Basically whoever decided to spend a year ormore in the sub-tropics with a desireto teach would give us some Englishexposure. When it was nally time to pack upand head North, nobody was entirelysurprised. We had been orewarnedand my parents oresaw no issue be-cause we read in English, went to a“bilingual” school, were straight—10students (the equivalent to straightA's in the U.S.). My parents thoughtor at least wanted us all to believethat the process o acculturation would be quick, seamless, and easy.

I went to a bilingual school after all,

though my brother recently reminded me

that the bilingual program was staffed by

whatever English speaking teacher cameinto town and wanted to work.

Cynthia Cox

SDAWP 2011

Neither from

Here Nor

from There Ni de Aqui

Ni de Alla




ish. This usually came in the orm ojokes and sayings, slivers and rem-nants we held on to o our happychildhood beore we migrated. Ithink my parents and I were bothin denial. I was losing my ability tocommunicate with my amily and we had explained it away as part obeing a non-communicative adoles-cent. I was losing my ability to com-

municate with my mother.

Trips to Mexico rom then until thepresent have been awkward. Al-though I decided to study SpanishLiterature at UCSD as a minor, it was still evident to me that when was with my amily in Mexico mSpanish was nowhere close to beingup to par. I had also missed all o theslang and was stuck in an odd spaceo having academic Spanish, that othe Spanish Lit. classes, most readilyavailable to me. This register would

not fy well at am-ily unctions. I didn’tquite t in anywhereNi de aquí ni de alláNeither rom herenor rom there. I’ve heard this phradescribe me morethan once. Again I tried to orm

my identity through things that didnot explicitly consider my rst cul-ture and language. I wanted to know

the universal, that which is true orall o us. Because o this drive I gota degree in Human Developmenand was even a couple courses awayrom getting a minor in Arican Stud-ies. I was still tiptoeing around com-ing back to my culture; was it too araway now? Did I just want to be aninternational, universal being, eel-ing the same everywhere because Idid not entirely belong anywhere? The turning point came in my stud-ies at UCSD. I did begin to hear

about and read about identity issuesand systematic ways that certaingroups are prevented rom comingin to play the “American Game” eq-uitably. From my newound knowl-edge about why the other Latinos atmy high school were being groupedin remedial courses and why I onlyknew o one Latina who was in APcourses and she didn’t even speakSpanish, I started to gain someawareness and gather some eel-ing o camaraderie and empathy or

In we went with all hopes high toa school in Chula Vista, Calior-nia in 1990. I was 10 years old anddropped into an English-only sixthgrade classroom. I kept thinkingabout the word “easy.” My parentsthought this would all be facil. I wasan expert reader, mathematician,and participated in all perormancesat our school in Mexico. I was either

top o the class or second to top. Ishared the spot with my best riend.But now, I ound that my readingskills were mediocre at best. I had watched the Disney channel andcould ollow story lines rom TVshows, even sang right along withthe Disney movies, but school wasa completely dierent register andpace. In class I ound mysel initially leaning urther and urther orwardto try to pay attention and makemeaning. I became excessivelyaware o body language, change o

pace, and other’s reac-tions. What are we do-ing now? What are they taking out? Has thesubject changed? Why was that funny? What does the teacher needus to do now? The spo-ken language seemedrapid-re and was notgoing to help me, so I would survive with all that I knew o reading people non-verbally.

My parents love sharing with pridethe story that I got an award the veryrst month we were in the U.S. It was a citizenship award and I amguessing I got it or being so atten-tive; I could not be anything else. While struggling to make meaning,I was given the added assignment o helping my riend Beatriz. She hadjust arrived rom Mexico, too, butshe knew less English than I did. I had tested out o remediation classesbut Beatriz had not, so she would getextra help. This was the challenge in

ront o me and I was up or it. Withmy parent’s Do-what-you-can-to-succeed and I-believe-in-you attitudeand an acute awareness o how they had sacriced leaving amily, riendsand a great business, the challengeto succeed was on. This was all orus; we had better recognize that.

I would do whatever it took to survive, but I was looking or more thanjust survival: I wanted to succeed. I had grown accustomed to success in

Vallarta to know that I wanted to do well again. All the way up throughmy days at UCSD, I never reachedthe same levels. Whether it was my lack o language that I was not ableto catch up quickly enough or some-thing else, there was always a hur-dle and I had to push stronger thanmy riends. In high school, my bestriends were in the coupled English/

History AP course telling me abouttheir amazing projects and eld trips which I did not get to enjoy becauseI was in college preparatory courses,one level below AP. It was not untilmy junior year that I decided to lob-by or mysel because nobody else was going to do it. I walked into thecounselor’s oce alone and askedthat I be placed into the AP Englishcourse my senior year. I had jumpedthrough the hoops, I had assimilat-ed. Why couldn’t I participate at this higher level? I had done what was

required o me and nowhere neararaid o hard work. My adoles-cent identity was being ormed and

shaped based on academics, com-munity service, and my involvementin the tennis group. Passing the AP Spanish class was therst marker in my lie that signaledto me that I had lost something inthe process o moving to the UnitedStates. I did not get a perect scorein the AP Spanish course. My parentsand I had thought that the ounda-tion o Spanish or the rst ten yearso my lie would be there orever andthe minimal use o Spanish would

not have much impact. But I wasalling behind in my rst languageand I had noticed it when visiting with cousins in Mexico.

Where were my roots? They neverdisappeared entirely but they sure were suocated under the To-Do listo how to make it here. The only timeI spoke Spanish between the ages o 10 to 17 was to speak to my motheror to get a certain point across to mybrother better understood in Span-

While death did not consume my every

thought, It did prompt me to frame my

thoughts in the simplest terms,

to look for that which is

foundational to all of us.




these other students who had notmade it. This propelled me into theeld o education and in particular,the eld o bilingual education. It wastime to reconnect with my languageroots. Too much time had been lost,too much sitting quietly trying to tinto a system that did not entirely tme, and too much time hoop jump-ing and assimilating to what others

thought I should be. It was time toreconnect with my language and myroots.

I am currently employed in a schoolthat decided to honor primary lan-

guage instruction but only to a cer-tain extent. I you speak to the prin-cipal, to the bilingual acilitator, andother bilingual teachers here it willbe evident that we all wholeheart-edly want what is best or students. Where we have divergent view-points is in what we all think is bestor students. We house an early exitbilingual program at our school.This means that hopeully our stu-dents have been in the bilingual pro-gram since kindergarten to receiveprimary language exposure and by

the time they reach third grade, they will be taught in English about 90%o the school day. The ollowing year, when they are ourth graders, they will be in English-Only classrooms.Though the hearts o administratorsand teachers want this to be an ad-ditive program in which students learn to be biliterate and hopeullykeep their primary language andculture, the program is intrinsicallymeant to take the students as ar as itcan with their primary language anduse the primary language skills to

learn English, only English, or theremainder o their schooling. Thisis not true biliteracy. Parents as wellas students are receiving a mixedmessage about the value o their language. Yes, we want to preservetheir primary language but only asa bridge to get to English. In ourschool ater third grade that bridgecan be burned.

It very much hearkens to ChelaDelgado’s article, Freedom Writers:

White Teacher to the Rescue (2011)in which she bemoans movies thatshow the white emale savior gurecoming into a classroom o under-perorming, minority students. Inthe article she poignantly points out how the movie had students learn-ing Hip-Hop lyrics and music notor its own sake—its artistic intrica-cies and cultural signicances that

would resonate with the students—but as a way to get them to learnShakespeare. The study o Hip Hop

was the bait to hook the students andreel them into Western culture’s ide-

als o what good literature is, much like primary language instruction inan early exit program is the bait and hook to get student to learn English.

In an early exit program a child’sprimary language is strengthened so

that the mother language can helpin the acquisition o English. This isnot a maintenance program and bythat I mean that the program doesnot honor the language as some-thing that should be maintainedthroughout the student’s lie. Ratherit is a scaolding, a calaca, a step-ping stone to get students to English.Scaoldings and stepping stones arenecessary and primordial parts o learning something and some can,and should, be taken away later. But when we are talking about a lan-

guage, a culture, taking them awayis taking a person’s own identityaway and this is highly destructive. When we are talking about a per-son’s language, culture and iden-tity, education should be additive notsubtractive.

The systematic denial o a person’sprimary language can be seen aspassive aggressive coercion. A de-nial stoked by the res o a national legislature that ocuses on a single

high stakes test given indiscriminately to all students who have beenin the educational system or morethan one year, with no regard totheir primary language abilities, and with penalties or low perormanceregardless. In the case o earlyexit bilingual programs parents arepromised biliteracy or their chil-dren, but in third grade the bilingual

rug is pulled out rom under them tosee i they remain standing, to see ithey can keep their balance on theirown.

I we promise biliteracy that com-mitment is lielong. It is a commit-ment to honor a language, a cultureand an identity. The rug was alreadypulled out rom under my eet and Ialone made the commitment to rein-state it. With the help o others, as abilingual educator, it is now my turnand I have already made the com-

mitment to ensure that children whocome into bilingual education re-main standing with their languagetheir culture and their identities in-

tact. We should not allow the block-ing, stunting, replacing, or decimat-

ing o a language, most especiallyonce we have promised it through abilingual program. Such acts would lead us to ethical issues concerning deception and at worst, could beconsidered cultural genocide.

Bibliography:

Delgado, C. (2011) Freedom WritersWhite teacher to the rescue. Rethink-ing Schools.Vol

Mejía, G. (2007) Acculturation and

Hispanic Adolescents: Languaand Identity Cultura, Lenguaje y

Representación/ Culture, Languagand Representation Retrieved July16, 2011 rom HYPERLINK "http:// www.raco.cat/index.php/CLR/article/viewFile/106207/148048" http:// www.raco.cat/index.php/CLR/ar-ticle/viewFile/106207/148048

This is not true biliteracy.

Parents as well as students are

receiving a mixed message about the

value of their language.

But when we are talking about a lan-

guage, a culture, taking them away is

taking a person’s own identity away and

this is highly destructive.



DialogueCall for

Manuscripts

Spring 2012 Issue

Submission Deadline:March 1, 2012

Writing in the21st Century

e-Write: The Marriage ofTechnology and Writing

The union between writing andtechnology is a reality that some of

us have fully embraced, while oth-ers of us remain on the sidelines,seeing the nuptial between the twoas an oxymoron.

We’re interested in hearing abouthow technology has transformed

your classroom. How has technol-ogy enhanced writing in your class-room? In what ways does the useof technology hinder or amplifystudent learning? What have youlearned from your students aboutthe need to omit or integrate tech-

nology into your classroom?

Show us your concerns about theintermingling of the two or cel-ebrate how bringing technologyinto the classroom has supported

writing, manifesting a higher levelof the writing process. What wayshave you creatively imbued tech-nology in the classroom?

Dialogue would like to receive your work or the work of your students.Submit a story of student success,

a strategy for implementation, ora personal essay on your teachingexperience.

Email all manuscript submissions,suggestions, letters to the editorand/or Project Notes to

Jenny Moore at [email protected]

or to Stacey Goldblatt [email protected]


PROJECT NOTES

Kudos to Jacob Ruth! Cajon Valley Middle School teacher Jacob Ruth(SDAWP 2011) has been known to engage students by rapping history lessons,and this unique teaching method earned him an Inspirational Teacher award fromNBC San Diego He was featured along with his students in a recent broadcast

Congratulations to Warren Williams (SDAWP 1984) who recently retiredfrom the Sweetwater Union High School District after 35 years of teachingThroughout his career, Warren taught English, history, and photography, andhe also coached football In retirement, he plans to golf, fish, read, write, traveland coach football at Oceanside High School, his alma mater! In addition, War-ren wants to develop a web site that will serve as an education watchdog andwill provide information that will help inform the public about public educationHappy retirement, Warren!

Stay in Touch The SDAWP website has been updated!! And we have a newURL: http://sdawpucsdedu Come check us out and let us know what you thinkIf you are an SDAWP Fellow and would like to get regular updates about upcom-ing SDAWP and other local education events, please send us your email Visit ourwebsite and go to the 'Contact Us' link, or email us at: sdawp@ucsdedu Wewould love to add you to our eList!!!

"Like us" on Facebook for SDAWP news and event information Links towriting resources and research articles are posted daily, offering a wealth ofideas for curriculum design and implementation www.facebook.com/SDAWP

Fall Conference—2011

Creating Possibilities for Today's Student

NNnNnN

The SDAWP conference committee hostedits largest audience yet when close to 120fellows and friends joined us in September.Co-director Christine Kané opened by chal-

lenging participants to think about the rapidpace of educational change, emphasizingthat teachers must be life-long learners.

There was something for everyone in thebreak out sessions. Susan Minnicks sharedher work with mentor text while MindyShacklett discussed strategies for writingacross the curriculum. Laura Smart met theneeds of teachers of younger students asshe talked about fluency, and Janet Baumshared ideas for conferring. Co-presentersDivona Roy, Jason Parker and Heather Biceengaged upper grade teachers with their

talk on academic writing. A Writing inthe 21st Century strand offered a technol-ogy twist. Janet Ilko, Jacob Ruth and HollyFrench engaged participants with iPods,and Valentyna Banner, Janis Jones and AnnZivotsky had participants making one-takemovies with Flip cameras during their ses-sion on digital media.

Our next conference event will be held inMarch when Fellows from the 2011 SI willshare their inspirational work. Look for in-formation about all of our upcoming eventson the SDAWP's website and Facebook page.



i they want to” and imagine insteada “kids do well i they can” model(Greene, 11). Assume, i you willthat this child is motivated. Ater all, he’s at school every day, right? As-sume also that he understands rightand wrong. He’s been told time andagain what is expected o him. Andnally, let’s agree that i punish-ment worked or him, it would have worked by now. I this student could, he would be doing exactly what weasked o him, and punishing him

urther isn’t going to change that.

I’ve seen the hairs on the back oteachers’ necks stand straight up onend at this thought. They sputter andshake their heads. They eel guiltand stress and maybe a little de-ensiveness. It takes a push to viewthe situation rom this new perspec-tive. Perhaps his unwillingness tocomplete the reading worksheet is aorm o communication. Perhaps hedoesn’t know how to do what he issupposed to do—either academical- ly or behaviorally—and he reverts to what he knows gets him attentionPerhaps, and this is a tough one,this kid demands so much attentionbecause acting out is the only way he knows how to get it. We havethrough our “kids do well i they want to” thinking, put so much timeinto their challenging behaviors, we have inadvertently sent the messagethat it is poor behavior that gets at-tention. Good behavior gets a staron the chart, a pat on the head, or atoy rom the treasure chest. Poor behavior gets fushed cheeks rom theteacher, re-directions oten accom-

I’m going to throw down a challenge.I’m willing to bet every one o you has seen, met, or taught a student who thwarted you, challenged you,maybe even made you wish, justone time, that they would be absentor a day. We’ve all had that student who makes us question our ability toteach, who demands our attention,disrupts the learning o their class-mates on a daily basis, and is never,ever absent. O course we teach ourtootsies o or them. O course we

give them extra attention and time whenever we can. O course we want them to succeed. But when,or one reason or another, we havea break rom them, we can’t help butbreathe a small, perhaps guilty, sigho relie.

In classrooms less loving and or-giving than ours this student (we’llreer to him as male or simplicity)might be asked to sit in the corner,or away rom the class—either to help him ocus, or to keep him romdistracting others. He may be given work to complete and consequencesor not completing it. Ater we’vetried everything we can think o to help him change his behavior, wemay have to resort to sending himto the oce. He continues to get outo his seat without permission, not have his notebook at his desk orjournal time, all out o his chair, andfick his neighbor’s ear during silentreading time.


A philosophy termed the “kids do welli they want to” philosophy, denedby Ross W. Greene in his book Lost at School, guides us to design interventions directed at motivating suchstudents, providing incentives andrewards or desired behaviors andconsequences and punishments orundesired or maladaptive behaviors.Greene observes that we create elab-orate systems, plans and contracts toconvince him to behave appropriately. These plans oten involve more

work or the teachers (point sheets,tally marks, detention), and despitethe extra time involved, oten shownegligible results. These types o in-terventions rely on the principle thati the student could be made to un-derstand right rom wrong and couldbe motivated to complete the workgiven to him, his behavior wouldturn around.

Taking Greene’s “i they want to”model urther, our most challeng-ing students end up missing ourbest teaching, our best work. Theyare oten given shortened tasks tocomplete, set apart rom the class-room activities, or even sent out o the room or “refection.” While theclass as a whole is engaged in richand ullling activities or muchneeded social interaction at recess,our “misbehaver” is counting talliesand earning stars, trying desperatelyto be the version o himsel he thinks we want him to be. Once he realizes he can’t be that person, he may be-gin to dey the expectations set or him. He knows the rules by heart, heknows exactly why he’s in trouble, hejust doesn’t know how he got there.His behavior escalates as he ghtsthe system that he could not master.This leads to more interventions andmore eelings o inadequacy—orboth the student and the teacher.

This is a sad illustration to be sure.However, I’d like to encourage youto fip your lens on this picture. Setaside the construct that “kids do well

That One Kid:The Struggle to Provide Quality Instruction

for Your Most Challenging Students

Barb Montfort, SDAWP 2011

...we have inadvertently

sent the message

that it is poor behavior

that gets attention.

Good behavior gets a

star on the chart,

a pat on the head,

or a toy from the

treasure chest.

If this student could,

he would be doing

exactly what

we asked of him,

and punishing

him further isn’t going

to change that.



panied by a lecture, laughter rompeers. Sadly, all o the time we putinto the misbehavior o these stu-dents leads only to more time spentdealing with urther misbehavior.

Instead o assuming that we can cor-rect his behavior by paying attentionto his misbehavior, let's assume that he simply does not have the skill set

he needs in order to be the student we are asking him to be. That leavesus with two choices: We can eitherteach him the skills he needs, orchange what we are asking o him.I suggest both—a radical change in how we deal with misbehavior, anda change in the behaviors we expectrom all students.

Dealing with Misbehavior

Strategic Ignoring

Strategic Ignoring is based on the

idea that, to a high degree, behav-iors to which we typically react canbe ignored or nearly ignored. Ratherthan give extra attention to poor behaviors, thus reinorcing the idea

that poor behavior gets attention, we ignore them. We show throughour non-attention that poor behaviordoesn’t work. When there is no mis-behavior, the student takes part inthe regular class routine. When the

student uses misbehavior to meettheir needs, the behavior is ignored.

Does this mean it is okay or a studentin your classroom to misbehave? Todistract others? To make poor choic-es? No. I am suggesting that at themoment o the misbehavior, you canignore it. Or, i absolutely necessary,give the least obtrusive redirectionpossible considering the severity o the misbehavior. Rather than givethe bulk o your attention to a stu-


dent or his misbehavior, and ratherthan give the next largest amount o your attention when he shows mo-ments o appropriate behavior, giveall o your best attention and skillsto the students in your classroom.Assume that he wants to be wherethe learning is, where the atten-tion-grabbing, interesting, ulll-ing activities are. Create a learning

environment so inviting that he will want to be a part o it every secondpossible. Show him that maladaptivebehaviors aren’t a part o your class-room environment, and that exhibit-ing those behaviors simply leads toNOT being a part o it. Exhibitingpro-social behaviors means he getsto join in the extraordinary learningthat is going on around him.

I the classroom environment isstimulating, provides rich learningexperiences, and is a sae and sup-

portive place to be, he will want tobe there. As I'll discuss later, all behavior meets a need, and while theneeds and behaviors won't magical- ly come to a halt, you have started tocommunicate clearly through youractions that misbehavior is not aneective communication tool in yourclassroom.

The next most obvious questionmight be, when is it okay NOT to ig-nore misbehavior? I’m going to pushthe envelope on this one too (are you

sensing a pattern here?). I call themthe Three Ds—Danger, Destruction,and Disturbance. First, danger—i there is imminent danger o injury,stop that rom happening. Second,destruction—i the student is caus-ing actual destruction, jump right in.Third, disturbance—i the behavior you see is well-known to cause a large disturbance later (either by es-calating or by inciting other studentsto take part) then react. Otherwise,ignore, ignore, ignore.

I a student is tapping his pencil,ask yoursel i anyone is in danger.Is pencil-tapping known to escalateinto dangerous behaviors? Is thepencil-tapping simply bothering youor someone else? Then distract thepencil-tapper with something elseor the time being (more on this later). Don’t give undue attention tothe tapping. Attention to the behav-ior communicates exactly that: mis-behavior begets attention.

Imperceptible Interventions

What do you do i the behavior can’tbe ignored? I the one o the ThreeD’s pops up, or i you simply can’tignore the pencil-tapping a mo-ment longer? You take the smalleststep necessary to alter the behaviorThink small. Think tiny. Think im-perceptible.

Let’s go back to our pencil tapper. Heceased tapping his pencil when youasked him an intriguing questionabout his new shoes (ImperceptibleIntervention #1). Now he is leaningback in his chair. He is certain toall. You think o the Three D’s. Youagree with yoursel that this behav-ior might be dangerous. What is thesmallest step you can take to stop it? You ask the student to go get some-thing rom the book shel. He doesand is no longer leaning back in hischair (Imperceptible Intervention

#2). Take it one step urther. On the way back to his seat he leans downto tap the head o a particularly largeand angry classmate. Danger? Yespossibly. What is the smallest thing you can do? Call his name, ask orthe item he picked up rom the shel(Imperceptible Intervention #3)The student will nd himsel back in his seat, not leaning, not tapping hispencil, and having done a avor orthe teacher. It’s a win all around.

Incompatible Direction

Okay, I’ll admit it. Sometimes thesmoke-and-mirrors approach othe Imperceptible Intervention isn’tenough. Either the student catch-es on, or worse yet, he just doesn’tcatch the nuance. In these cases, goor the Incompatible Direction. Ask him to do something that is incom-patible with the behavior he is ex- hibiting. For example, let’s say thaour pencil-tapping, chair-leaning head-ficking student has returne

Instead of assuming that

we can correct his

behavior by paying

attention to his

misbehavior, let's

assume that he simplydoes not have the skill

set he needs in order to

be the student we are

asking him to be.

If the classroom

environment is

stimulating,

provides rich learning

experiences, and is

a safe and supportive

place to be,

he will want to be there.



to his seat and resumed the tappingand leaning. You try to redirect withan Imperceptible Intervention andthe tapping and learning continues,only now augmented by the pokingo a peer in the arm. Tapping. Lean-ing. Poking. This is only going to get worse. Here is where you give theIncompatible Direction. Give a di-rection that will, by the very ollow-

ing o it, stop the behaviors. Ask himto run an errand or you. Ask him toopen his book to a certain page. Ask him to reach up and grab a book o the top shel. Whichever you choose, he is no longer tapping, leaning, orpoking. This gives you time to eitherredirect him or change the environ-ment. Incompatible with what he was doing beore, he has now ol- lowed your direction and again, it’sa win.

Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence

[ABC]

Behavior is, quite simply, a responseto stimulation or the environment.More than that, behavior is commu-nication. The behaviors o a studentgive you inormation. I a student isquiet, his eyes are ocused on you,and he is intent on what you aresaying, that behavior tells you heis engaged. I a student sharpens his pencil, that behavior shows youthat his pencil needed sharpening. I a student sharpens his pencil, then

sharpens his pencil, then sharpens his pencil, that tells you somethingelse. This is when you apply the ABCmodel. Antecedent—what happenedright beore the behavior occurred?Behavior—what was the behavior inactual terms? Consequence—what happened as a result o the behav-ior? Notice this is not a punishment.It is simply what happened as a re-

sult—acts only. Let’s apply this tothe pencil-sharpening student:A—The student was handed a math worksheet.

B—The student went to the pencilsharpener, sharpened his pencil, re-turned to his seat. He did this mul-tiple times. He did not talk to anyoneas he did this, and returned to his

seat.

C—The student had a sharp pen-cil. The student did not work on hismath worksheet.

We now have an idea that the math worksheet may have impacted hisbehavior. I we deal with the math,the pencil sharpening may lessen.

Let’s look at this same situation withone small change. The student is handed a math worksheet, he com-

pletes the math worksheet, then pro-ceeds to sharpen his pencil repeat-edly. While doing so he stops andtalks to his classmates. Each time hesharpens his pencil, he chats with apeer or a moment while sharpening.The consequence o his behavior looks dierent now. Now it appearsthat by sharpening his pencil he isaccessing peer interactions. Our in-tervention or this will be dierent. We might assign him as a helper oranother student, or engage him in atask with peers. We are showing him

how to meet his needs eectively.

Teach Replacement Behaviors

So, the behavior has been identied,the Three D’s have been assessed,the Imperceptible Intervention andthe Incompatible Direction havebeen utilized. There is an importantnal step: Provide a replacement behavior or the student. I you take abehavior away—a reaction to a stim-ulus—you cannot reasonably acceptthat the student will cope without the

satisaction the behavior provided. You need to teach the replacementbehavior. For example, imagine youare trying to quit drinking caein-ated soda. You’ve realized it is bador your health, it keeps you awakeat night, and it makes you grouchy. You decide to quit cold turkey. Eachtime you are thirsty you tell your-sel “no” in a very stern voice, and you rerain. You do this successullyor…a day? Two days? A week? Then you convince yoursel you are go-

ing to die o thirst and crack openan ice-cold caeinated soda. Yourplan didn’t work because you didn’tprovide a replacement behavior or your soda drinking. You orgot thatall behaviors meet a need. Caein-ated soda satised your thirst, kept you awake, and made you eel re-reshed. You tried to deny yourselall o that in one go. Next time, try

a replacement beverage. Perhaps arereshing sparkling lemonade?

Apply the same principle to ourpencil-tapping, chair-leaning stu-dent. He is accessing something bytapping his pencil and leaning in hischair. Perhaps he is accessing atten-tion; perhaps he has a need to keep his body moving; perhaps he cravessensory stimulus o the tapping and leaning. Use the ABC model to identi-y what unction his behavior serves,and identiy an appropriate replace-

ment behavior, tapping on his leg,using a sot koosh ball, sitting on acushion that allows him to lean hisbody. Try them out! See what works.Take the time to teach the new behavior, and provide opportunity topractice it. Change won’t happen inone day.

Changing What We Expect

The tide is shiting rom the tradi-tional attitudes o teaching—the ideathat students need to conorm to the

teacher’s expectations toward thecertainty that we are, in act, respon-sible or educating every child. Wemust challenge our thinking and ourown memories o what school was like (chances are we were success-ul students who played the game well and t neatly into the boxes) as well as look at whether what we aredoing is working or not. The strate-gies I describe are a common coreo best practices agreed upon by behavior analysts—with a little tweak-

The tide is shifting from

the traditional attitudes of

teaching—the idea that

students need to conform

to the teacher’s

expectations —toward the

certainty that we are, in

fact, responsible foreducating every child.

Give a direction that will,

by the very following

of it, stop the behaviors.

Ask him to run

an errand for you.

Ask him to open his book

to a certain page.

Ask him to reach up and

grab a bookoff the top shelf.




ing and renaming o things as I haveused them in my own classroom. Inorder to meet the needs o our stu-dents, we must not only change the ways we deal with misbehaviors, but we also reexamine our classroompractices and attitudes.

We expect students to sit when theyare told, We expect students to listen

when we talk, no matter how long we talk. We expect students to ollowour directions. We expect them toraise their hands, to listen when oth-ers speak, and to play nicely on theplayground. To be sure, we expectan awul lot out o kids, and mostkids will meet our expectations. Butsome kids, and I would argue moreand more kids, nd themselves un-able to adhere to these expectations.Their brains demand more input,

their hands call out or action, theirbodies dey stillness. No matter how hard we might try to mold them intoour classroom structure, their verybeing resists it no matter how muchtheir hearts want to please you.

For me, at this point in my career,the students that exhibit these behaviors are my daily norm. They have been sent to me as a last-ditch

eort beore sending them to courtschools, day treatment programs, orexpelling them rom school. They have not yet entered high schooland they are aced with the clearmessage that what they are doingis not acceptable (truthully, it prob-ably isn’t). What did I do to deservethis? I asked or it. Begged in act.These students have a richness o character, a zest or lie, and a re-silience that will make your heartbreak. I work to provide them a

place to learn to navigate the systemthat wasn’t made or them.

I you walk into my classroom, youmight nd it chaotic. Oten, it will bea little loud, there may be studentssitting in odd places, there may bestudents working on dierent proj-ects, and there may someone sit-ting o to the side, hood up, arms

crossed—clearly and deantly notdoing what he’s been told. Someonemay have a koosh ball at his desk,and many will be tapping while they work.

Visitors oten give me suggestions:

“You know, I always require my stu-dents to sit in their chairs with botheet on the ground.”

“It’s better i you make them raisetheir hand beore talking.”

“You should make him take his hoodo.”

“You should remove them rom theclass so they don’t disrupt the learn-ing o others.”

“I he was more motivated, he woulddo the work.”

“You need to tell these kids that they won’t always have it so easy.”

To them I say (calmly, and rerainingrom climbing high onto my soap-box): I those things worked, thesestudents wouldn’t be here. I punish-ment and strict rules o engagement worked or them, they would bsitting in a classroom in their ownschool. I we want something dier-ent or them, we need to try some-thing dierent.

I those visitors stay longer, theybegin to see. They begin to see that learning is happening. Students aredeveloping their innate skills andconnecting with their strengths. Yes, Jimmy likes to sit sideways on his chair with his eet on my urni-ture. True, Vinnie has a fair or thedramatic and can be ound with his hood up in the back o the room on adaily basis. Absolutely, Aaron likes tosit in a box while he works. Eventu-ally, Jimmy will learn when eet-on-

urniture sitting is okay, Vinnie willuse drama appropriately, and Aaron will… well... he’ll still sit in boxesHe really likes it.

Resources:

Greene, Ross W. Lost At School. New York: Scribner, 2008

c MUSE BOX Jenny Moore,SDAWP 1999

One of our colleagues asked her 7th grade Humanities students to write

letters to themselves that she would then mail back to them ten years

later This past summer, with the help of Facebook, she was able to

return letters to about forty 23-year-old former students She heard from

many of them after they read their own correspondence One young

woman wrote, "If I wrote a letter today to my 13-year-old self, it wouldsay in it that I am doing exceptionally well and I am happy, healthy, and

thriving That I would eventually find confidence in my looks but more

importantly in my brains, my talents, and my ability to be independent"

What would you include in a letter to your 13- or 18- or 25- or 40-year-

old self? How would you reassure or update an earlier version of your-

self? What wisdom would a more youthful you impart in return?

For me, at this point

in my career, the students

that exhibit these

behaviors are my daily

norm. They have been

sent to me as a last-ditch

effort before sending them

to court schools,

day treatment programs,

or expelling them

from school.




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Tuesday evenings January 10, 2012 January 24, 2012

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$19500 for the three sessionseries or $175 each for teams

of three from the same site

For SDAWP applications, registration materialsor additional information regarding our programs,

please email us at sdawp@ucsd edu or visit http://sdawp ucsd edu/

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DirectorKim Douillard

teachr0602@aolcom

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kealoha2006@yahoocom

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