Hello Friends,

This month in WinkWorld, I am sharing a few things, which have filled up my days. I'm finding ½ time retirement very much to my liking.

Every Child Counts
Ending the Gap Symposium (New York)
http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/index.htm

A Book Review Published on Teachers College Record by Joan and Dawn
www.tcrecord.org
http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=14677 (to read the review)
Title: Have You Ever Seen…? An American Sign Language (ASL) Handshape DVD/Book.
Authors: Adonia K. Smith and E. Lynn Jacobowitz;
ASL Rose http://www.aslrose.com/about.php
Now, we are doing another review for a new book on critical pedagogy by Peter McLaren and Joe Kincheloe.

Black Hills State University (BHSU) Advisory Board for College of Education
I was asked to serve on this committee and love meeting my new colleagues and hearing their perspectives.
http://www.bhsu.edu/Academics/TheColleges/CollegeofEducation/tabid/98/Default.aspx

Board of Regents
I was also able to take part in a town hall meeting with the South Dakota Board of Regents.
http://www.sdbor.edu/

TIE, Technology and Innovation in Education
http://www.tie.net
This organization provides great support for K-12 schools statewide.

The truth is that I have been very impressed with BHSH, Board of Regents, and TIE, and of course, I still think that the Sturgis Public Library is the best-kept secret in South Dakota, and I am finally a proud new owner of a library card.

Je Kan Adler-Collins, Ph. D. candidate at Bath, England
I am serving on his dissertation committee. Je Kan is a fascinating student, who lives in Japan and is doing his Ph. D. in Bath, England.

Clara Lee Brown of The University of Tennessee
I'm happy to be a part of her tenure/promotion review.

Ruby Payne (http://www.ahaprocess.com/) and Paul Gorski (http://www.paulgorski.efoliomn2.com/) have both spoken in Rapid City within the last year; thus, there has been a lot of conversation regarding Payne's work and the critiques of her work. Many of these critiques can be found at TCRecord.org. However, lost in all of this discussion are a couple of other factors:

First, many others are also making major contributions on the effects of poverty (See the work of others below.)
WinkWorld, June/July 2006
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/news0706-intro.html
Scroll down to The Effects of Poverty

WinkWorld April 2007
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/news0407-intro.html
Scroll down to Debra Schnieder's work on Poverty and Prosperity.

In addition, check Dan Agin in the Huffington Post,
Our American Tragedy: The Killing Fields of Childhood Poverty,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-agin/our-american-tragedy-the_b_70041.html

Second, in addition, others are demonstrating that teachers can be effective in leveling the playing field in class, for example:

The Ameliorating Effects of High Socioeconomic Status: A Secondary Analysis by Steve Krashen and Clara Lee Brown.
http://brj.asu.edu/content/vol29_no1/abstracts.html (scroll down)
or
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3722/is_200504/ai_n15715705

If you are interested, I encourage you to read this entire article, as the implications are significant, and the citations provide a broad base of knowledge of the effects of poverty and what we can do to enhance the learning of students who come to school with multiple languages.

This study fits into a larger research base, which demonstrates that higher socio-economic status (SES) can offset the effects of language proficiency on standardized tests in reading and math. These results suggest that to improve the achievement of ELLs (English Language Learners), teachers need to provide conditions of SES, known to positively affect school performance. This can be done by providing a very rich print environment and teaching students in a language which they can understand. Many aspects of poverty are beyond our reach, but books, books, books are something which all kids need. At the present, schools in lower socio-economic communities tend to have inferior school libraries than schools in more affluent parts of a community.

The question: What can we do?
The answer: Books, books, books in a language, which the kids understand.
For example, it will not help my literacy, nor my content knowledge, if you give me a book, for example, in Polish.

Last month in WinkWorld October 2007, I mentioned What is Academic Language Proficiency? by Krashen and Brown. In this article, they distinguish the differences between academic English and conversational English, which others have also done. However, this paper is unique in that they also distinguish academic language proficiency from subject matter proficiency and provide suggestions for how teachers can implement strategies for students to become proficient in each. When teachers are armed with this knowledge, they are also better able to level the playing field within the classroom and eliminate parts of the devastating effects of poverty.
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/news1007-intro.html

http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/Krashen_Brown_ALP.pdf

What's the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? Ahhh, the age old question. LeAnn Putney of UNLV and my co-author of A Vision of Vygotsky, recently wrote this to me in a spontaneous email about qualitative and quantitative.

"Qualitative research is patterned, not predictable; stable, not static; serendipitous, not controlled; contextualized, not void of context; situated, not universal; purposeful, not randomized." (October 17, 2007)

More on qualitative and quantitative.
http://www.joanwink.com/charts.html (scroll down to Assessment Overview)
More on A Vision of Vygotsky.
http://www.joanwink.com/scheditems/vyg-urls-june07.pdf

To Reference This Web Page Wink, J. (2007, November).
WinkWorld: November 2007
Retrieved ,
from www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/news1107-intro.html.