Jim Cummings on language learning

DailyKos has a great diary up summarizing a presentation Jim Cummings gave recently at the California Teachers of Other Languages meeting. I’ve never heard Cummings in person, but have enjoyed reading his books. This post suggests he must be quite an engaging speaker, too. I particularly liked these excerpts:

"In a simultaneously scathing and humorous talk, 'I’m not just a coloring person,' Cummins laid out a case that what is happening now in the schools is not science but ideology, with federal and state policies imposing a pedagogical divide in which 'poor kids get behaviorism and rich kids get social constructionism.' In practice, that means skills for the poor and knowledge for the rich. That ideologically based approach ignores and rejects research into the way students learn, particularly how they learn language and how to read, he said." [my emphasis]

"Sprinkling the findings of researchers throughout his speech, Cummins repeatedly pointed out that when students’ identities are affirmed in the classroom, they feel comfortable investing their identities into the literacy activities and practices, and they learn more. When they are encouraged to share unique personal experiences, when use of their first language is not discouraged, when 'decoding"' techniques are not the end-all and be-all of instruction, when students feel they have a voice in the classroom and that people want to hear what they have to say, when 'shared inquiry,' 'critical literacy,' 'grand conversations' and 'social justice' are accepted parts of the teaching process, students learn better and become engaged with their own education. 'I haven’t been able to find those terms in No Child Left Behind,' he said."

The whole summary is definitely worth reading -- and sharing with all of your friends who have a hunch that something is wrong with NCLB, but don't know how to counter the right wing arguments.