"In order to infer, readers must lift up the words and go beneath them."
~ from The Mosaic of Thought Keene and Zimmerman (1997)

The CLUE students and I had an interesting discussion today about the use of dialect in a novel we are reading orally in class.

We spent a period reading from "Money Hungry" by Sharon G. Flake.

http://tinyurl.com/yi3y


We have been reading this book for several weeks. It's about a girl name Raspberry who lives in a housing project for the poor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Raspberry and her mother (a single parent) spent some time living on the street and the experience has caused Raspberry to be fixated on making and saving money. She is terrified that some day she will end up on the street again so she is always cooking up ways to make more money. She has $600.000 stashed away in her room at home. The students have been very taken with this story and they authentic way in which it is portrayed.

When I finished reading today, one of the students commented on how much she was enjoying the book and how she didn't think she'd enjoy it as much if she had to read it to herself, due to the dialect. There is a significant amount of dialect in this book. Raspberry's language is full of slang, southern dialect and colloquialisms. It is actually a bit of a challenge for me to read it out loud. The rest of the students agreed but added that it was the dialect that made the story so believable and intriguing. Someone said that the dialect is what makes Raspberry, Raspberry. This started a discussion about the use of dialect in novels and even the use of "thee" and "thou" in the King James version of the Bible. The students talked about how dialogue often stopped them from reading a book. I told them that in Grade 10 they will be reading "To Kill a Mockingbird", a novel set in the deep south and full of southern dialect. As I said this it occurred to me that Money Hungry is a good preparation for a book like "To Kill a Mockingbird" or even Shakespeare and that perhaps we don't "work up to" giving students reading containing dialect, slang or colloquialisms so that when we do, they are overwhelmed (my Grade 10 daughter found the southern dialect so tough to understand in To Kill a Mockingbird, that she rented the movie!).

Today I photocopied two chapters from "Money Hungry" for the students to read on their own. (note: photocopy law allows photocopying of 10% of a book...which in the case of "Money Hungry", is three chapters). I have posted some thought-provoking questions on the students' Blogs- they will respond to these questions on the Blogs as well. I think the students will find the dialect easier to read because now they are used to how Raspberry speaks. I periodically stop while reading aloud to the studnets, to clarify an unfamiliar word or slang phrase. In one of these chapters it will address how Raspberry's mother is trying to eliminate the slang from her talk so that she will fit into a higher class world. This will make for some interesting discussion about the assumptions we make about a person's intelligence or social position based on how they speak. It reminds me of the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" in which one of the main characters tells someone that "just because I speak slow, doesn't mean I am slow".

Listening to these students interact with each other is interesting. Yesterday they were doing some Internet research for our upcoming debate on the criminalization of the homeless. Talk about collaboration. They were hanging over each others' shoulders helping locate info and discussing the search terms that would get them the most useful sites. One girl ran off an extra copy of an article she found that asked the question "Is Panhandling Moral?". She thought one of her CLUE peers may be able to use it in their debate preparation.


Yesterday, one student asked what my opinion was about the criminalization of the homeless. When I told him that I had several seemingly opposing opinions (and shared why) the student said "so there's not a "right" answer to our debate question?" (the debate question is: should homeless people be fined for loitering or panhandling?). One of the students who was listening to our discussion said..." And that's likely why we are doing the debate- so we see there are valid parts to everyone's point of view."
That's exactly why...the students need to understand that solutions come from scanning (to borrow a Matt Taylor term), all aspects of an issue.

Two boys presented their Advocay Project last Friday. It wa san especially meaty Powerpoint. I was very impressed with their ability to not only include powerful data in their PowerPoint, but to communicate it in sucha moving manner. Their questions didn't allow the viewer to passively watch the data...it called for action. I often hear how "PowerPointlessness" is rampant in our classrooms...this was truly was Powerpoint...with a point! Here's a link to it (note:
use the full screen view icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen so the animation works).

http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Homeless/Studentwork/Calgary/Advocacy/James/What%20If..final%20copy_files/frame.htm

These students love to discuss. They frequently bemoan the fact that CLUE will be over for them at the end of January. Yesterday they talked about why they feel this way. They said they have felt their thinking challenged. They haven't necessarily felt they've had to work harder, but that they've had to "think" harder. Maybe that's why Tom March says that effective technology integration is actually thinking integration.
Interesting...