Hello Friends,

This month in WinkWorld, I am sharing an assortment of treasures, which colleagues have shared: Krashen at NABE in January; Hurd Family Reading Log 2005 and Shel's reflection on the value of reading; several good citations; a definition of a constructivist from a constructivist; Bo Wink's grad assignment on paradigms (plus a definition); the San Diego Language Arts Standards in Spanish document (thanks to Trish Lima and Silvia Dorta-Duque de Reyes); a peak at a Vygotsky weekly newsletter which Le Putney is doing with grad students at UNLV; and of course Prairie Pedagogy has family/friends news and pictures.

While at NABE, I was not able to hear Susan Ohanian (www.susanohanian.org), but Steve Krashen (www.sdkrashen.com) generously shared his introduction of her. Thanks for your courageous commitment on behalf of kids, Susan and Steve.

Steve's Introduction of Susan: The Perfect Resister,:

You can tell what Susan Ohanian stands for just by reading the titles of her books and articles. The first Ohanian article I read was "Smuggling books into the reading program." The first Ohanian book I read was One Size Fits Few. Heinemann publishers asked me to read and comment on it when it was in manuscript form. I intended just to read a chapter or two one evening, and wound up staying up late, reading the whole thing in one sitting. As they say, I couldn't put it down. I decided to reread it a few months ago when I was engaged in a discussion of standards with some colleagues. Once again, I read it in one sitting, once again, I couldn't put it down.

Listen to the titles of her recent books: What Ever Happened to Recess, and Why is Corporate America Bashing our Schools?, compelling books that nobody can afford to ignore.

Susan Ohanian has an award-winning website: Susanohanian.org. Her website is, in my opinion, the center of gravity for the resistance movement in education. It is our teach-in, the information and insights that we need to have to stop the abuse that our children are experiencing in many schools today. My conjecture is that when 100,000 people are on her mailing list, No Child Left Behind will fall.

Gandhi said that "One perfect resister is enough to win the battle of right versus wrong."

While at NABE, I was happy to get to hear Steve's new 100 Questions/100 Answers about Bilingual Education. Keep your eyes on his website, as it will be posted when ready for print.

Hurd Family Reading Log 2005
As I mentioned a year ago, Denise, the WebWizard of who posts WinkWorld and maintains www.JoanWink.com, also is a passionate reader. She and her family maintain a reading log: http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/samplelog.pdf. When I started WinkWorld, the purpose was to simply share treasures with teachers, but I knew that WW would develop a life of its own in surprising ways. One of the surprises has been how this one family's reading log has created intergenerational conversations about books with various people. This year, the family read: 353 books and over 100,000 pages.

Shel, Denise's husband, shares a reflection on reading.
http://www.JoanWink.com/newsletter/2006/shel.pdf

Some new citations of interest:

Sanchez, C. (2006, January 8). No child left behind fails to close achievement gap. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5134827 Four years after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, test results show progress in some areas. But many schools are not reducing the achievement gap between white and minority students, and closing that gap may take longer than the law's requirements. Also available from NCTE INBOX, January 10, 2006,

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas wanted to share the following link with you:
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_1102_en.html
Equality Now has just launched a campaign that I thought you should know about and join. The campaign highlights the election in 2006 of the next United Nations Secretary-General, a post that has never been held by a woman in the UN's sixty-year history. The campaign urges consideration of qualified women candidates, of which there are many, and support for the election of a woman to the United Nations' top position.To find out more about this campaign and what you can do, please go to: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_1102_en.html. For more information about Equality Now, go to: http://www.equalitynow.org.

An interesting quote: Kimmel, M. (2004). The gendered society. New York: Oxford University Press. "Our lives depend on social interaction. Literally, it seems. In the thirteenth century, Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, decided to perform an experiment to see if he could discover the 'natural language of man.' What language would we speak if no one taught us language? He selected some newborn babies, and decreed that no one speak to them. The babies were suckled and nursed and bathed as usual, but speech and songs and lullabies were strictly prohibited. All the babies died" (Kimmel, p. 94).

Kelly Russell, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Some readers of WW are involved in a dialogue about constructivist and constructionist. Kelly, a constructivsts, posts her draft definition of constructivism for a new edition of Jerry Aldridge's and Renitta Goldman's second edition of Current Issues and Trends in Education, http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0321079787,00.html

Kelly's draft definition of constructivist follows: There are many brands of constructivism (Aldridge & Goldman, 2001). While some educators refer to Vygotsky's work as social constructivism (Wink & Putney, 2001) and others speak of critical constructivism (Kincheloe, 2005), constructivism is most often associated with the work of Jean Piaget (DeVries, Zan, Hildebrandt, Sales, Edmiaston, 2001).

Constructivist teachers use Piaget's work as a guide to help them to understand how children learn through acting on and interacting with their environment. In a constructivist classroom, the teacher creates situations which allow children to explore and interact as they make relationships in their own minds. The teacher is a facilitator and challenger in this process. Knowledge that is created through the making of relationships is called logicomathematical knowledge (Kamii, 2000). It has been said that constructivist teachers emphasize logicomathematical knowledge "to the neglect of other forms of knowledge" (Aldridge & Goldman, 2001, p. 71), but Piaget did not overlook the importance of social interaction. In fact, Piaget (1950) stated that unless children are allowed to talk, there will be no development of logic.

Teachers who adhere to constructivist theory find it hard to navigate today's climate of standardized testing and rigid standards. Constructivist educators are committed to allowing their curriculum to be student driven, but a curriculum that is founded on the interest and strengths of children will be hard pressed to meet a ready made set of standards.

You also might also want to read an interview, which Kelly did with Connie Kamaii. I remember that I asked her about the biggest misconceptions about Piaget. http://www.odu.edu/educ/act/journal/vol15no1/kamii01.pdf

Le Putney, a constructionist, of UNLV shared a definition of constructivist from Citation: Huitt, W. (2003). Constructivism. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date], from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/construct.html

Bo-can-you-paradigm-Wink
Bo, our son, is working on his masters degree in science. He was recently asked to write a paper in which he talks of "paradigm." For this paper, he was to answer the following questions: What is a paradigm?, Is a paradigm beneficial?, What is the paradigm effect?, Give a personal example of paradigm paralysis., and What paradigm shifts have you experienced? Some of you might find this interesting.
http://www.JoanWink.com/newsletter/2006/bo-paradigm.pdf

Trish Lima of Stanislaus County Office of Education has recently been searching for a Spanish Language Arts Standards document and shared her findings with us.
To purchase, contact: San Diego County Office of Education, Graphic Communications Room #212, 6401 Linda Vista Road, San Diego, CA 92111-7399
Or, you can also email Silvia C. Dorta-Duque de Reyes, sreyes@sdcoe.net

Le Putney of UNLV; samples of her newsletters for students
http://www.JoanWink.com/newsletter/2006/lp-newsletter020506.pdf
http://www.JoanWink.com/newsletter/2006/lp-vygotskyvantage021306.pdf

To Reference This Web Page Wink, J. (2006, February). WinkWorld: February 2006
Retrieved ,
from www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/news0206-intro.html.