Bats, Community, Colonies, Speech Utterances, and Connecting Kids with Graduate Students

 The practice of bringing students into graduate courses to co-teach effective literacy practices continues. Tonight, the readings were on a wide variety of studies presenting the ways animals communicate. In one activity, we discussed Jerome Harste's use of visualization for comprehension, and paired it with a scientific report about the ways that bats pick up accents within the colonies they belong, despite the ways the mothers teach them to communicate. The pitch changes according to the communities in which they belong, despite the nurturing of the primary caregiver.

A mother matters, but the communities the bat belongs to matters just as much (One student made a connection to "Howdy, Y'all" for a bat, after listening to too much country music).

Dialects are regional, as is communication. Brilliant observation from a graduate student at Fairfield University. We followed the visual activity with a fish bowl conversation, and the artwork was a great catalyst for getting a conversation going about our own biases with dialects.

I will say it every Tuesday. I can only go so far with my instruction if I do not have the expertise of young people co-teaching with me. They authenticate all the theory presented in our course textbooks, and they help my pre-service (and in-service) teachers to realize that all the research is BUNK until it is utilized with kids, their interpretations, their expertise, and their insight.

After the bat readings, the 2nd class arrived and we workshopped student writing according to national rubrics, hosting conversations with the presenters and learning the art of one-on-one conferencing. A young woman in the group said, "I'm bringing an essay from last year, because none of my teachers have assigned writing this year."

What? She's a senior! She wants to go to college. How are teachers not assigning writing in school? Everyone was amazed.

And with my graduate students I witnessed something miraculous. As feedback was given, conversations were held, and ideas were shared, the youth simply picked up their pens and began writing. They wanted to improve, to expand their thinking, and to try the suggestions given to them by my students.

I would never be able to get to this level without having kids in my room. I'm ready to start a college program that ALWAYS puts young people in the same "activity system" as graduate students setting out to teach them.

To undo what doesn't work, we need to listen to the power of youth voices. I'm sold, but I always have been! The National Writing Project taught me this1