Transcript wheeler-dialect-vsra.. - Virginia State Reading Association

How to factor dialect
into
Reading Assessment & Intervention
© Wheeler 2011
Rebecca S. Wheeler, PhD
[email protected]
Anchor: a true story
A teacher reads dialectally
diverse literature
‘Twas the night before Christmas
An’ all t’ru de house
Dey don’t a t’ing pass
Not even a mouse.
(The Cajun Night Before Christmas. Rice, 2001)
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Anchor: a true story
A teacher reads dialectally
diverse literature
‘Twas the night before Christmas
An’ all t’ru de house
Dey don’t a t’ing pass
Not even a mouse.
‘Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
They don’t anything pass
Not even a mouse.
19 words; 5 errors
Accuracy score: 14/19 (73.68%)
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Reading A Cajun Night before Christmas
Teacher’s Accuracy score: 14/19 (73.68%)
Does this mean the teacher…
 Is a struggling reader?
 Is failing reader?
 Needs phonics instruction?
Of course not!
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Reading A Cajun Night before Christmas
Interpreting the Teacher’s
Accuracy score: 14/19 (73.68%)
The reader is unfamiliar with
 Cajun Pronunciation (an, t’ru, de, dey, a’ting)
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Expect language transfer
with unfamiliar grammar
De chirren been nezzle
Good snug on de flo’
An’ Mama pass de pepper
T’ru de crack on de do’
The children were nestled
Good snug on the floor
And Mama passed the pepper
Through the crack on the door
Unfamiliar vocabulary: chirren
Unfamiliar grammar: been nezzle, pass
Unfamiliar pronunciation: de, flo’, an, t’ru,
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Our home dialect
influences
our reading performance
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Shift our focus…
…Reading assessment in schools
By 2050, current majority
minority
With cultural diversity comes
Linguistic diversity
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HOW can home dialect
influence
a child’s reading performance?
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 Pronunciation
 Vocabulary
 Grammar
Count as dialect influence
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Features from a child’s
first language or dialect
transfer into his/her reading
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Language transfer
Definition:
Language transfer occurs …
…when the patterns of one’s first language or
dialect transfer into reading and writing.
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How do we assess achievement of
our linguistically diverse readers?
Note: What we consider reading
performance inextricably reflects
instruments of reading assessment.
Wheeler, Cartwright, Swords & Savage
(2010) “Factoring Dialect into Reading
Assessment and Intervention,” Reading in
Virginia
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Look at the effect
Assessing Vernacular speakers
With
Standard English instrument
But without awareness of dialect
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
4th grade student, Tidewater, VA
September reading level:
DRA2 38
Level 38: grade 3, month 8
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 The
school year passes…
In April, time for reading assessment
 Teacher administered Level 40 (on-grade)
 Accuracy Score: 21 miscues; 184/205 (89.76%)
Teacher stopped test
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April
reading assessment:
 Next, teacher administered Level 38 text
Accuracy Score: 23 miscues; 204/227 (89.86%)
Teacher stopped test
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April
reading assessment:
 Next, teacher administered Level 34 text
Accuracy Score: 14 miscues; 199/213 (93.42%)
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September level:
April level:
DRA2 38
DRA2 34
DRA2 assessment indicated Brandon
 Had made no progress in year of instruction
 Had regressed 4 months in reading
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Something’s not right!
 Level 38 in September,
 A year of instruction,
 Level 34 in Spring?
Dialect was
NOT factored
into reading assessment
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September level:
Revisit April:
DRA2 38
DRA2 Level 40
Factor dialect into reading assessment
 Result? Of 205 words, Brandon scored
 92.2% accuracy (16 errors)
 not 89.5% (21 errors)
Recognizing 5 dialect transfers:
Brandon was an ON-GRADE reader!
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September level:
DRA2 38
Revisit April:
DRA2 Level 38
Factor dialect into reading assessment
 Result? Of 227 words, Brandon scored
 91.6% accuracy (19 errors)
 not 89.8% (23 errors)
Recognizing 4 dialect transfers
Brandon succeeded at level 38!
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September level:
DRA2 38
Revisit April:
DRA2 Level 34
Factor dialect into reading assessment
 Result? Of 213 words, Brandon scored
 93.89% accuracy (13 errors)
 not 93.42% (14 errors)
Brandon succeeded at level 34
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Sound contrasts
 [f] for [v]: “Woof” for “wolves”
 [ar] for [ere]: “Thar” for ‘there”, “shard” for
“shared”
“Dogs and humans shared a common home”
Grammar contrasts
 Verb “be”: “That why” for “that’s why”
 Past time”: “Look” for “looked”; “walk” for “walked”;
“start for “started”
 Plurals: “nose” for “noses”; “sound” for “sounds”
(“They have very good noses”)
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Allows us to correctly assess
Students’ reading performance
 Discuss with your neighbor?
 Notice?
 Wonder?
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Not factoring dialect into
reading assessment
Depicts low, low frustration level reader
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The case of Rajid
Not factoring dialect
into reading assessment
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Factor dialect into reading
assessment
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Not factoring dialect into assessment
 Result? Of 161 words, Rajid scored
25 errors: 136/161 = 84% accuracy
Factoring dialect into assessment
 Result? Of 161 words, Rajid scored
 16 errors: 145/161 = 90% accuracy
Recognizing dialect allows us
To recognize a successful reader
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Grammar contrasts: VERBS
 Was/were (2 instances)
 Past time: The pines post guards
 Other verb:
 Have + past participle: Had took
 Have + bare verb: Had hide
Grammar contrasts: NOUNS
 Plurals: The guard...; their place (2 instances)
 Pronouns: theirselves (2 instances)
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What is the effect of factoring
dialect into reading assessment?
We see an on-grade reader
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PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy
Screening) manual clearly states that
"[d]ialect substitutions are NOT counted as
errors. It is not an error, for example if a student
says "ax" for "ask" and you know that the
student normally says "ax" for "ask" in his or her
oral language."
(Invernizzi, Meier & Juel, 2004, p. 21).
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Grammar contrasts: VERBS
 Was/were (2 instances)
 Past time: The pines post guards
Other verb:
Have + past participle: Had took
 Have + bare verb: Had hide
Grammar contrasts: NOUNS
 Plurals: The guard...; their place (2 instances)
 Pronouns: theirselves (2 instances)
These dialect substitutions
SHOULD NOT
be counted as reading errors
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Now what?
How to teach the Standard English
Expected in school?
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Identify dialect influence:
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar
Use linguistically informed
insights and strategies
to teach Standard English
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Linguistically informed response …
Wheeler/Swords 2006 NCTE
Wheeler/Swords 2010, A FirstHand
Curriculum Imprint, Heinemann
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When students write or say…
“Mama walk to the store” or
“I want to play on Derrick team,” etc.
They are not
Making mistakes inside Standard English
Instead, they are CORRECTLY
following grammar patterns
of the community language variety
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That one linguistic insight…
transforms classroom practice
Build on student’s
existing knowledge
of their own
community
grammar patterns
“My goldfish name is
Scaley”
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To add new
knowledge of
Standard
English
So students are
empowered to
make grammatical
choices
“My goldfish’s name
is Scaley”
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Transforms
teaching & learning
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Code-switching:
Choosing the (language) style
to fit the setting
(time, place, audience,
communicative purpose)
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Discovering
AAVE is
patterned…
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Seeing
student writing
as data
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Seeing
students’
strengths.
Modeling
additive
approach.
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Modeling linguistic ways of talking …
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Modeling linguistic ways of working …
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Unseating the correction impulse
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From an African American college student:
“I never knew there were rules to my
language.”
“Now with code-switching, I can lay down my
shame, feel good about myself, my home, and
switch up my language to suit the setting.”
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Transforming teacher practice,
… through pattern discovery
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Unseating grammar blindness,
… seeing the student as writer
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Chat with your neighbor?


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What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
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Code-switching
Choosing the language to fit the setting
Vernacular? In Narrative?
 Standard? In analytic essay?
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We must factor dialect
Into Reading Assessment &
Intervention
For an accurate picture
of our children’s abilities
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Rebecca S. Wheeler, PhD
[email protected]
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