Comments for readwriteteach

Comment on This Book Made Me Throw Up (in a good way) by Kathi V.

Kathi V. — Sat, 18 May 2013 02:11:20 +0000

Wonderful post. I think that allowing oneself to truly feel another’s pain and circumstances only serves to make us more well rounded and empathetic people. I have found the more hardships I endure and tough scenarios of life I encounter, the more they make me appreciate the good days and help me to better understand and help others in their times of need. Love your blog. You are a wonderful writer, teacher, mother, and friend. xo

Comment on What is College Level Reading? by Lori

Lori — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:31:50 +0000

My college roommate’s family was from Lubbock, TX! Small world!

Comment on Thoughts on Booing Arne Duncan at AERA by Jennifer Selwyn

Jennifer Selwyn — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:30:24 +0000

Great post. I share your sentiments, as someone who has taught public high school, taught college, and is a parent of a public school fourth grader. It’s probably not a surprise (even if disturbing) that so few public school teachers are encouraged to participate in educational research conferences, given budget constraints and the overall cultural mindset in the public schools over the last decades. but it obviously needs to change. As for Arne Duncan, I’m not sure what it accomplishes to boo him (though it felt good, I’m sure), but I don’t have any moral opposition to it. Perhaps the better, more effective strategy would be to confront him on the idiocy of comments such as the one that you cite about the dearth of excellent teachers at challenging, inner city schools!

Thanks,
Jennifer

Comment on Author Jean Kwok is amazing. by Get out of the classroom. | readwriteteach

Get out of the classroom. | readwriteteach — Sun, 05 May 2013 02:40:34 +0000

[...] I just wrote about two majorly wonderful events that I initiated in our House 4 of the New Community College. Here I wrote about World Book Night, and here I wrote about an author visit by Jean Kwok who wrote our Composition I book Girl in Translation. [...]

Comment on World Book Night 2013! by Get out of the classroom. | readwriteteach

Get out of the classroom. | readwriteteach — Sun, 05 May 2013 02:40:32 +0000

[...] about two majorly wonderful events that I initiated in our House 4 of the New Community College. Here I wrote about World Book Night, and here I wrote about an author visit by Jean Kwok who wrote our Composition I book Girl in [...]

Comment on Feed Them Books by Author Jean Kwok = Amazing | readwriteteach

Author Jean Kwok = Amazing | readwriteteach — Sun, 05 May 2013 02:01:45 +0000

[...] posted months ago about a young man reading our Composition I book in two nights here. This novel, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, was beloved by my students. It was one of those rare [...]

Comment on Feed Them Books by Lori

Lori — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:19:11 +0000

It has ended with him reading an additional six books this semester! He read Enrique’s Journey, The Namesake, Krik?Krak!, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Little Bee, and currently has The Rage is Back. Actually–that’s SEVEN!

Comment on My Privilege Can’t Save Me (or my kids) from High Stakes Testing by Teacher: No One Escapes High-Stakes Testing, Not Even My Child | Diane Ravitch's blog

Sat, 04 May 2013 17:30:35 +0000

[...] she was shocked to discover that her own children’s school–in an affluent neighborhood in Brooklyn–had succumbed to the same [...]

Comment on The Importance of Early Childhood Education by Pretentious Coffee

Pretentious Coffee — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:41:16 +0000

I don’t mean to say that pre-school doesn’t have a positive effect on children at an early level, particularly in early reading/writing skills (because i am sure it does put kids ahead of the game).

However, i guess to sort of re-iterate my correlation is not causation point- the graphic above describes a clear correlation between children who go to pre-school and being a successful adult (which i don’t dispute). The graphic also states that more pre-school for all children means a brighter future for all those children who attended, which implies that because there is a correlation between pre-school and successful adults, pre-school is the cause of it’s attendees becoming successful.

My claim is that attending pre-school, although correlated with children becoming successful adults (not going to prison or being on welfare, etc), is not necessarily the reason it’s attendees become successful. Rather, I think the reason children become successful adults is more likely the same reason they attend pre-school in the first place: They come from a more well-off community, and/or a positive family situation, with parents who want to ensure their child thrives. The motivation/situation of the parents who put their kids through pre-school (vs. parents who do not, or are not able to) is what has the positive effect on the children becoming successful all throughout their lives- from making sure the child is doing well in school, to disciplinary action, to being a caring parent, to being able to be around for the child, to helping the child apply for college etc.

If suddenly law required all children to go to pre-school (as law requires all kids to go to K-12) and the government payed for all children’s pre-school and getting them there etc, I think the statistics in the above graphic would dramatically change and you would no longer see that correlation between pre-school and success since it would no longer only be children from “good” life situations going to pre-school, but students with more difficult life situations as well. So, the statistics would balance out.

Hope that explains my spiel a bit better.

Comment on What is College Level Reading? by Best Seo Company Orange County

Best Seo Company Orange County — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:42:01 +0000

Hi! I’ve been reading your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic job!