Hello Friends,

Regular readers of WinkWorld will recall that last month (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/news0906-prairie.html), I shared mostly personal information and promised to return to the primary goal of this newsletter: to share ideas and materials with teachers. Thus, this month I am sharing (a) materials recently used in my foundations of education class; (b) an overview from the James Moffett: Keeping the Flame Alive Symposium sponsored by Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL), which is a part of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); it was held at Asilomar, www.visitasilomar.com, and (c) information about literacy education.

Foundations of Education Class
1. For Teachers to use tomorrow in class: I Am POEM (http://www.joanwink.com/charts.html
2. Timeline of education in the last 100 years: (http://www.joanwink.com/vov/Vov_Timelines.pdf)
3. An Open Letter to Future Teachers http://www.joanwink.com/openletter.html
4. Links we loved this week in class:
http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_sch/
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/alphabetical.htm

Janet Emig, AEPL in Asilomar
It was pure joy to hear Janet Emig, whom I have admired for decades. She introduced herself as a "unrepentant liberal" and listed her beliefs about teaching and learning. For example, she believes that public education has the potential to save the republic, and that literacy will save democracy. It is not too late. For more on Janet Emig, do a Google-search and relax and enjoy. None of the sites I found do her justice!

George Lakoff, AEPL in Asilomar
From the world of linguistics and cognitive sciences, Lakoff shared new knowledge regarding brain research. We have long known that the language we use is socially and politically grounded, but now it can be demonstrated in the data from new brain research. For example, he explained how language, such as "cut and run" frames thought and experience. In addition, if a frame is used again and again, the brain (synapses between neurons) changes. He is planning to create virtual "Speak Out Groups" around the US. Keep on eye on this guy. He has an absolutely enchanting story-telling quality, as he explains the most complex data and their effects. I find it extremely challenging to capture his speech in a tiny paragraph. The ideas in the speech are available at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml, or visit his homepage, www.georgelakoff.com.

Literacy Education
With so much news of corruption in Washington DC, it has overshadowed the fact that the same thing is taking place in literacy education. Listed below are four references to this outrage. It has been in all of the major newspapers, and even the Washington Post has acknowledged it.

Billions for Inside Game on Reading
By Michael Grunwald
Sunday, October 1, 2006; Page B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901333.html
"... an accumulating mound of evidence from reports, interviews and program documents suggests that Reading First has had little to do with science or rigor. Instead, the billions have gone to what is effectively a pilot project for untested programs with friends in high places."

Pattern of Corruption Revealed on Reading First
The Register-Guard, Eugene, OR
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/09/27/a1.readingfirst.0927.p1.php

NCTE(National Council of Teachers of English)
A recent student demonstrated serous concern regarding corruption and mismanagement of funds/programs, which are mandated.

Teaching all children to read well, regardless of the literacy skills they bring to school, is an enormous challenge. This is the daily work of more than 500,000 K-12 teachers in America today. These educators truly understand what it means to put reading first: the best instructional tools -- well-planned lessons grounded in research and tested by experience -- and the personal and professional commitment to instill students with a passion to know more, not merely to help them decode texts and comprehend.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of the Inspector General's report of the Reading First Program's Grant Application Process (http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/aireprots/i13f0017.pdf, a very large document to download) reveals a pattern of corruption and mismanagement that is an insult to everyone who takes literacy education seriously. It tells a story of how individuals in powerful positions manipulated the law to enforce a formulaic version of reading instruction skewed by their own view of scientifically based reading research.

"Ironically what the Reading First administrators brought into schools is the opposite of accountability," said NCTE President Kyoko Sato. "And unfortunately the real loss lies in the millions of children and their teachers who did not have access to what the full range of literacy research reveals about how children learn to read, write, and communicate fluently."

The Inspector General should be praised for doing a conscientious job of identifying blatant non-compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act and for publishing the findings. The investigation should continue, because the patterns indicated in the report were identified on the basis of a study of only eleven states. But the weight of responsibility is left to Congress, who must reconsider the legislation in light of the unfair implementation process that forces a narrow range of reading programs based on a limited set of research methodologies onto every state and school eligible for Title I funds -- even when those states, schools, and their educators know better. We all want schools to improve. As preparations begin for the reauthorization of NCLB, now is the time to listen to the educators who have been putting reading first -- every day.

For more see,
www.SusanOhanian.org
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/
http://sdkrashen.com
http://www.edaccountability.org/

To Reference This Web Page
Wink, J. (2006, October). WinkWorld: October 2006
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