Module 2: Instructional Challenge

Take a look at the following examples of children's dialect-based miscues while reading and the difference between the child's original response (OR) and expected reponse (ER). Then answer the questions that follow.

OR: It my little monkey here.	ER: Is my little monkey here?
OR: We got to tell.	ER: We've got to tell.
OR: Frog look at Toad calendar.	ER: Frog looked at Toad's calendar.
OR: A word what sounded good.	ER: A word that sounded good.
OR: hisself	ER: himself
OR: I can come to your party?	ER: Can I come to your party?

I think that the miscues in this example actually show that the students are proficient readers.  Despite the fact that the original responses from the students are not what most adult proficient readers would say, the students that made these particular miscues are actually showing evidence of understanding and meaning.  This is how many young children talk, so it is reasonable that it is how they read too, at least when they are young readers.  No, these students aren’t reading each word in the sentence, or maybe they are reading all the words just out of order.  I think that in nearly every example, if asked, the student could tell you what he or she just read.  While I feel that this is okay for beginning readers, I do believe that the students should learn some strategies to “code switch.”

The example from Wheeler & Swords (2006) makes a great point about dialects.  I was born and raised in Georgia, and there are certain words in particular in which I show my roots.  For example, I use the word “y’all” nearly every day.  Typically, whenever I am speaking to more than one person, I will refer to the group as y’all.  In the classroom, I often times address my students as y’all.  I have, however, made the explicit point many times to students that although I use that word all the time, it’s not a word I would include in my writing.  I would never write y’all if I was writing a paper to be read by one of my professors, my principal, parents, etc.  The students learn that this is “slang” for me.  I don’t use the term code-switching with my students, but I do think that this is a direct model for them of how to code-switch.  In the same way, I encourage students to think about the words on the page that they are reading, or like in my example, the words they are writing.  When we are in educational settings and being asked to do some sort of work, we need to read and write in the ways that are appropriate to that task.