NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

My Christmas break, sad to say, was not all glamor and world travel. Alas, there were various things that kept me here. That in itself was not so bad, and I suppose most of my students were around too. One thing I had that they did not was homework.

Someone at UFT gave me two books about a month ago, One was Cultivating Knowledge, Building Learners, which I understand is behind a lot of the atrocious notions the geniuses in Albany have perpetrated against English Language Learners (ELLs or ELs). As I've been serving these kids the last few decades, I take that personally. I commented on that book, directly and indirectly, here and here.

This book, I understand, is the basis behind the state's push to look at ELLs differently, including the half-assed redo of CR Part 154 that resulted in a huge drop in direct English instruction for ELLs, ranging 33-100% in the high schools.

My other reading assignment was Teaching Academic Literacy Skills, which I went deep on just a few days ago. This book, I'm told, is behind the state's big push for curriculum and the city's insistence on Instructional Leadership Teams. Mulgrew has publicly criticized them for being a small part of what the state is calling for. I'd go even further, and say the entire notion is flawed.

One thing these books had in common was writer Nonie K. Lesaux, who must be rolling in dough from their sales. Another commonality is that, while both books acknowledged ELLs and paid them valuable lip service, neither bothered examining students at high school level. Cultivating Knowledge dealt strictly with elementary students, while, Academic Literacy Skills dealt with K-8 students. To me, at least, this not only explained but also exacerbated quite a few shortcomings.

Here, for example, is something Teaching Academic Literacy Skills puts forth as an "outdated guiding assumption and principle."

The strengths and needs of ELs and their classmates are distinct and necessarily demand different approaches.

Instead, they say this: CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead