Readings for 4/25

The Scott article made me immediately think of the different schools that I have been placed at for Student Teaching throughout the past few years. I had noticed that in some "economically advantaged" school districts, students who were in lower grades were higher achievers than some of the upper grades at schools that were "economically disadvantaged". The article also mentions that the home life can play a part in why students might struggle with vocabulary and ultimately comprehension in school. I could apply this to the same schools that I had mentioned above, in that the "economically advantaged" districts tended to have parents who used the same, if not very similar, language that was used by the professionals at the school. I have also observed the opposite of the "economically disadvantaged" districts where the students speak in a language that educators might not find "correct", but it is apparent that it is spoken around the home because they continue to talk that way. The article mentions that use of child-adult communication early on can increase the literacy and vocabulary development, however, I wonder how hard it is to break children of the habit of speaking that way or using certain vocabulary when they have grown up around it and at the end of the day when they leave school, they go home to it. I have seen similar situations in my current CT's classroom. My CT has tried numerous approaches to correct some students' vocabulary, yet they still come back to school everyday using it incorrectly. I have also let some students read to me and sometimes if they are unsure how to say a sentence, they will make it in to their own sentence while using the incorrect vocabulary or language. I think this could potentially effect the students comprehension because if this problem goes unnoticed, it might just solidify their use of incorrect language.