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Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms

November 20, 2007

Rebecca Wheeler professor, English & literacy, CNU

Catherine Snow professor, education, HGSE

Rachel Swords Title I teacher, Newport News, VA

Ronald Ferguson faculty director, Achievement Gap Initiative, Harvard

Rebecca Wheeler details how teachers can build on students' existing knowledge of everyday English, as a springboard to new knowledge: professional English. Typically, when students write "My goldfish name is Scaley" or "Mama walk to the store," teachers correct student grammar. Yet student literacy suffers. Wheeler explains how to avoid this using insights and strategies from applied linguistics.

Discussants include Catherine Snow, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education, and Rachel Swords, coauthor of Code-Switching and Title I Teacher in Newport News, VA. This forum is moderated by Ronald Ferguson, Lecturer in Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, and offered in cooperation with the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. Cosponsored by Time Warner, Inc.

Topics: Culture & Identity | Education

Tags: Achievement Gap | Classroom & Community | Education Reform | Literacy & Testing | Primary Education

Presented By WGBH and Harvard Graduate School of Education:

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Code-switching: Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms (Theory & Research Into Practice)

Author: Rachel Swords, Rebecca S. Wheeler

Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English (2006)

Binding: Paperback, 197 pages

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Author: Catherine Snow

Publisher: RAND Corporation (2002)

Binding: Paperback, 160 pages

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