Incredibly Far Behind their Peers
I have been home in Massachusetts since Saturday evening, and it's time to go back to Mississippi. The past two nights I've had dreams about my classroom and my students. In the first dream, they were taking my class away from me and giving it to some old woman teacher with no warning. I wasn't allowed to say goodbye or wrap up loose ends. I woke up in a panic -- how can I contact them? how can I make sure they are still learning? that they like the new teacher? that they know I didn't abandon them? This morning, I woke up with a zillion logistical thoughts spinning out of control -- centers and Mad Math Minute folders and rearranging the room and grading and what to do in centers about the three students I have that have no idea what is going on, who don't undrestand, remember, or follow any directions -- how can I turn them loose on orally explained but mostly "follow the written directions" centers?
I visited four of the first grade classrooms in my hometown. A huge shout out to those teachers -- they're doing a tremendous job. Their students were on task, could explain what they were doing to me, the classrooms were neat, colorful, and student-centered. They also each only had 16 students and rooms at least 1.5 times the size of mine. Their classes showed evidence of team planning and cooperation, their math curriculum was set for them, and they didn't have to turn in any lesson plans. And then there were the students. Not all of them were better in math than my students. In fact, they are probably on about the same level. In reading and writing, they were much more advanced, though. MUCH MORE. They were writing full-out stories about things that had happened in their lives. In sentences, almost correctly spelled, with details and appropriate pictures. They had clearly worked on each piece of writing for multiple days and it showed.
I thought quite a bit about why they might be able to do that when my students can't yet. It certainly could be the teaching. In part, I'm sure it's parental involvement in school and at home. But what really struck me was their spoken language development. I've writen several times about M--, who can't speak. But while he is certainly the worst in language development, most of my students are far behind their Massachusetts peers in SPEAKING skills. First, there is the accent. In Massachusetts, there is little to no accent. We pronounce all of the sounds in words, our vowels are the sounds taught in school. That makes it easy to sound out words such as "this." A Massachusetts child says "this" and breaks it into three sounds: /th/ /i/ /s/. Then, assuming the know the sound-spellings, they write down those three sounds: th-i-s. A Mississippi child says "this," and it sounds like "dih." If they break down the word into sounds and spell those sounds, they would write down d-i, or, in a better scenario (where they know there is a /s/, even if they don't typically say it) d-i-s. The same goes for most ending consonants. In Massachusetts, we say them. In Mississippi, they don't. And it's really difficult for a child to spell something that has sounds they can't hear. In Massachusetts, you can sound out. In Mississippi, you have to memorize.
Second, there is the sheer number of words heard and learned. By age 4, children from poor families have heard more than 30 million fewer words spoken than their counterparts from higher-income communities. An average child growing up in a low-income family receiving welfare hears one-half to one-third as many spoken words as children in more affluent households. At these rates the low-income child would know about 3,000 words by age 6, while the child of the high-income family would have a vocabulary of 20,000 words. My students, then, probably know about 3000 words, whereas the little boy from my hometown was talking to me about Star Wars told me that "Darth Vader was seduced by the dark side." And he wasn't just repeating -- I said, "Seduced? That's a big word. What does that mean?" and he told me, "It sort of means that he was taken over by them. They made him want to be on the dark side." He also told me (in his words) what he "anticipated eating" for Thanksgiving dinner (and then definined as "expected to have for dinner"). My students aren't going to learn that vocabulary at home. And yes, they can learn it at school, but their higher-income peers aren't cooling their heels, either. So while my children learn words that the higher-income children were learning at age four, those MA kids are learning words my children may never know or use.
All in all, the trip home was rejuvenating, but it was also infuriating, because I saw just how far behind my children are starting out. Incredibly far behind...
I visited four of the first grade classrooms in my hometown. A huge shout out to those teachers -- they're doing a tremendous job. Their students were on task, could explain what they were doing to me, the classrooms were neat, colorful, and student-centered. They also each only had 16 students and rooms at least 1.5 times the size of mine. Their classes showed evidence of team planning and cooperation, their math curriculum was set for them, and they didn't have to turn in any lesson plans. And then there were the students. Not all of them were better in math than my students. In fact, they are probably on about the same level. In reading and writing, they were much more advanced, though. MUCH MORE. They were writing full-out stories about things that had happened in their lives. In sentences, almost correctly spelled, with details and appropriate pictures. They had clearly worked on each piece of writing for multiple days and it showed.
I thought quite a bit about why they might be able to do that when my students can't yet. It certainly could be the teaching. In part, I'm sure it's parental involvement in school and at home. But what really struck me was their spoken language development. I've writen several times about M--, who can't speak. But while he is certainly the worst in language development, most of my students are far behind their Massachusetts peers in SPEAKING skills. First, there is the accent. In Massachusetts, there is little to no accent. We pronounce all of the sounds in words, our vowels are the sounds taught in school. That makes it easy to sound out words such as "this." A Massachusetts child says "this" and breaks it into three sounds: /th/ /i/ /s/. Then, assuming the know the sound-spellings, they write down those three sounds: th-i-s. A Mississippi child says "this," and it sounds like "dih." If they break down the word into sounds and spell those sounds, they would write down d-i, or, in a better scenario (where they know there is a /s/, even if they don't typically say it) d-i-s. The same goes for most ending consonants. In Massachusetts, we say them. In Mississippi, they don't. And it's really difficult for a child to spell something that has sounds they can't hear. In Massachusetts, you can sound out. In Mississippi, you have to memorize.
Second, there is the sheer number of words heard and learned. By age 4, children from poor families have heard more than 30 million fewer words spoken than their counterparts from higher-income communities. An average child growing up in a low-income family receiving welfare hears one-half to one-third as many spoken words as children in more affluent households. At these rates the low-income child would know about 3,000 words by age 6, while the child of the high-income family would have a vocabulary of 20,000 words. My students, then, probably know about 3000 words, whereas the little boy from my hometown was talking to me about Star Wars told me that "Darth Vader was seduced by the dark side." And he wasn't just repeating -- I said, "Seduced? That's a big word. What does that mean?" and he told me, "It sort of means that he was taken over by them. They made him want to be on the dark side." He also told me (in his words) what he "anticipated eating" for Thanksgiving dinner (and then definined as "expected to have for dinner"). My students aren't going to learn that vocabulary at home. And yes, they can learn it at school, but their higher-income peers aren't cooling their heels, either. So while my children learn words that the higher-income children were learning at age four, those MA kids are learning words my children may never know or use.
All in all, the trip home was rejuvenating, but it was also infuriating, because I saw just how far behind my children are starting out. Incredibly far behind...
posted by Jessica at 10:08 AM
1 Comments:
I share your sentiments, Jess. In truth, I find that the most effective way to improve the educational outcomes of our nation's children would be to improve the well-being of the families that they come from. Of course, it is a vicious cycle, as the only way for a family to achieve the relative comforts of middle-class status in the 21st century is to be decently educated... its quite the dillema.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
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