Where Teachers Come to Learn American Montessori Society Fall Conference Irvine, California October 12 – 14, 2007
Where Teachers Come to Learn
American Montessori Society
Fall Conference
Irvine, California
October 12 – 14, 2007
Where Teachers Come to Learn
Words @ Work in the Classroom
Josh Thompson, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University-Commerce
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Words at Work in the Classroom
An exploration of spoken language in the Montessori classroom environment. Listen in on the pragmatic nature of language: how do directors prepare the language environment to provide communicative competence, and how do children learn to use language to do things?
(Infants &Toddlers, Early Childhood)
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Good Morning Songs
Good Morning to All (1893) by Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill
Good Morning, Good Morning (1952)from Singin’ in the Rain, by Brown & Freed
When Ducks Get up in the Morning by Nancy Stewart www.nancymusic.com
Thank-you, Lord, for this fine day
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ThanksThank-you, Maria Montessori
awaken my senses to the world around me
awaken my senses to the children around us
give me a place, a space, as a man in ECE
My childhood, my family
My mentors, teachers, friends, & colleagues
The Children
Turn to a neighbor, and express a thanks
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Oral Language Development
Foundations for literacy
Influence of home
Influence of classroom
Over-emphasis on literacy impedes oral language development (Dickinson & Tabors, 2002)
Turn to a neighbor, and express indignation!
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Pragmatics
Language to do things
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Linguistics overview
Language is a system of rules for using symbols for sharing meaning
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Linguistics overview
Six rule systemsphonology
morphology
semantics
syntax
pragmatics
prosody
(Gunning, 2008)
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Linguistics overviewTwo modes
many methodsReceptive Expressive
Oral Listen Speak
Written Read Write
Visual Appreciate Create
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Linguistics overview
Five big ideas of early literacy instruction phonemic awareness
phonics
vocabulary
comprehension
fluency
(National Reading Panel, 1999)
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Pragmatic Development
Communicative Competence - Knowing when to speak, when not to, what to talk about and with whom, when, where, and in what manner to interact (Hymes, 1972) Pragmatic Development
Language Functions – using language in various contexts to do things (Cazden & Hymes, 1972)
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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta
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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
Four Body Instrumentsclap pat stomp snap
ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta
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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
Four Body Instrumentsclap pat stomp snap
ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta
Keep a poem in your pocketAnd a song in your heartAnd you’ll never be lonely At home or in the dark (de Regniers)
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Oral Language ResearchClassroom Discourse (Cazden 2001)
Home-School Language Study (Dickinson & Tabors 2001)
Micro-ethnography (Bloome, et al, 2005)
Labov, Hymes, Heath
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classroomsTwo Montessori, two public school
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classroomsOne 3-6 year old class, one 6-9 year old class,
one Pre-kindergarten, one first grade
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classroomsOne male, three female teachers
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classroomsYears of teaching experience = 2, 8, 22, 27;
Average = 14.75
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classrooms All monolingual English classrooms
20% - 57% Spanish dominant in the home
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classroomsFive hours in each classroom
Audio and Video recording of teacher talk
Observer Effect
Transcriptions, marked by Speech Acts
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classrooms Speech Act – seminal unit of discourse analysis
(Hymes, 1972)
S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. form identifies boundaries – what constitutes a unique speech act event
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SPEAKING Observation Model Record Form
(Hymes, 1968; Wolfson, 1989; L. Thompson, 1996, W.J.Thompson, 2001)Setting: Date: ____/____/___ Day: S M T W Th F S Time: __________A.M./P.M.
Place: Physical circumstances: Psychological setting:
Participants:Speaker: Addressor: Audience: Addressee:
Ends:Purposes or Outcomes: Goals:
Act Sequence:Message form: Message content:
Key: Instrumentalities:
Channel: Forms of Speech (codes, registers):
Norms:Norms of interaction: Norms of interpretation:
Genres: Categories:
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Capturing Teacher Talk
Listening in on four classrooms Speech Acts
Range = 3 events per minute to one event in five minutes
Average = 100 per hour, 500 per day, 2500 per school, 10,000 total
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Language functions
Using language in various contexts to do things
– Jakobson
– Hymes
– Halliday
– Tough
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Five Language Functions
Affection
Control
Information
Pedagogy
Social Exchange
(Baron 1990)
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Five Language Functions
Listening in on four classroomsAffection
ControlInformation
PedagogySocial Exchange
(Baron 1990)
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What is language good for?
What good is language, anyway?
What makes language good?
What is good language?
What do you wonder about? Ask a question.
What language is good for.
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Table Talk
“To become competent conversationalists, children have to learn how to
1. Choose and introduce topics for talk
2. Respond appropriately
3. Tell a story
4. Develop an argument”
(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 3)
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Table Talk
Indeterminacy of Goals
Vocabulary Approximation
Extended Narrative
Metapragmatic Discourse
Non-immediate
De-contextualized
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Table Talk
www.MealsTogether.com
www.TableTime.com
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Table Talk
“Ordinary conversations are, at least ostensibly, not goal oriented… ‘[T]alking is an end in itself.’”
(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)
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Table Talk
“Family dinners are also familial WE events shared with children; as such they may carry important intentional socialization functions ranging from table manners to socialization of family values.”
(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)
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Table Talk
“This built in tension between sociability and socialization further sets dinners apart from both ordinary conversations and public events and has important consequences for the thematic organization of dinner talk.”
(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)
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Table Talk
“Dinners, like ordinary conversation, allow members to engage in conversation for social enjoyment only, with no visible outcome; simultaneously, they may have crucial outcomes, especially with regard to socialization.”
(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)
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Conclusion
Children learn to speak because they want to connect. The drive for relationship is stronger than any internal or external mechanics of language. Providing children, in classrooms, with rich potent language partners holds promise for extending language well into literacy, and on into communicative competence.
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Ancient Wisdom
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Book of St. James, chapter 3, verse 1
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Ancient Wisdom
2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. (NIV)
Book of St. James, chapter 3, verse 2
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ReferencesBaron, N. S. (1990). Pigeon-birds and rhyming words: The role of parents in language learning.
Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Bloome, D., Carter, S. P., Christian, B. M., Otto, S. & Shuart-Faris, N. (2005). Discourse analysis and
the study of classroom language and literacy events – A microethnographic perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1997). Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization in Family Discourse. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cazden, C. B., & Hymes, D. (1985). Language Functions in the Classroom. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Dickinson, D.K. (2003). Why We Must Improve Teacher-Child Conversations in Preschools and the Promise of Professional Development. In L. Girolametto & E. Weitzman (Eds.), Enhancing caregiver language facilitation in childcare settings (pp. 4-1 - 4-8). Toronto, Canada: The Hanen Institute.
Dickinson, D. K., & Tabors, P. O. (2001). Beginning literacy with language: Young children learning at home and school. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.
Dickinson, D. K., & Tabors, P. O. (March 2002). Fostering Language and Literacy in Classrooms and Homes, in Young Children, vol 57, no. 2, pp. 10-18.
Gunning, T. G. (2008). Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students (6th ed). NY: Pearson Education. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics
(pp. 269-293). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: Report of the National Reading Panel.
Available online at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.cfm
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