The Specialized Registers of School

December 12, 2006

Kendra Winner

Agenda Course Administration

Preparation for next week Course party Next week second set of essays and course evaluations Some leaving early today

Solving problems in the real world and in school Academic Registers Classroom discourse APA … one more time

For next week Come prepared with your thoughts about at

least two practical implications are for some of the concepts raised in Language and Culture. These can be implications for education, social or public policy, or other areas you believe to be important. Be prepared to site evidence for your claims.

Agenda Course Administration

Preparation for next week Course party Next week second set of essays and course evaluations Some leaving early today

Solving problems in the real world and in school Academic registers Classroom discourse

Academic Language reading and lecture objectives Understand the principals of “situated cognition”

and “problem space” and how these relation to academic participation

Be familiar with how language varies at a variety of levels in academic disciplines.

Understand the implications of today’s readings for classroom discourse, including student funds of knowledge (Moje, et al.), teacher strategies (Adler, Lemke), and disciplinary Discourses (Ball, et al)

This page has no print on it.

This page has no print on it.

From Snow, Griffin & Burns (2005). Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading. Jossey-Bass; San Francisco, CA. pp. 22.

Conventions of text Psychology Research Articles

In your experience, to what extent do the sentences and text in this genre rely completely on themselves?

What kind of relationship between the author and the reader is generally invoked? For example, you might think about the distance between the author and the reader.

Psychology Research Articles Abstract Literature Review Methods Discussion Further research

Two cars that are 375 miles apart and whose speeds differ by 5 miles per hour are moving toward each other. They will meet in 3 hours. What is the speed of each car?

School Math

What processes did you use to solve the problem?

What is the relationship between the “language” and the “math” of the problem?

How did the language support or challenge your efforts to solve the problem?

Solving Problems in the Real World Sylvia Scribner (1985). Knowledge at work.

Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 16(3), pp. 199-206. Supports the notion of a reciprocal relationship

between knowledge and action. Goal directed action guides selection of

information and its organization for the task at hand

Real World Problems: Scribner, cont. Conducted research at a milk processing plant (a

dairy) A “bounded social system” Three groups of occupations

Office workers Warehouse assemblers Drivers

Utilizes order forms categorizing items by: Kind (fluid milk, cheese, fruit drinks, etc…)

Size Qualitative characteristics (flavor, fat content)

Real World Problems: Scribner, cont. What you learn is related to what you have to do:

Consumers organize recall of dairy items by kind of product

Office workers use primarily kind as well as size on occasion.

Drivers and warehouse assemblers used several dimensions more frequently

Warehouse assemblers utilized kind, size, and location. Individuals will engage in complex mental activities

to organize their own actions: Assemblers organize trips through the warehouse to

accommodate distance and weight

Solving Problems in the Real World Jean Lave (1985). Introduction: situationally

specific practice. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 16(3), pp. 171-176. Solutions occur in a particular context – the

“problem space” Hence, there is variation in:

What constitutes a problem The procedures used to solve the problem Success at problem solving by the same people in

different contexts

Murtaugh, Michael I just keep putting them in until I think there’s

enough. There’s only about three or four at home, and I have four kids, so you figure at least two apiece in the next three days. These are the kinds of things I have to resupply. I only have a certain amount of storage space in the refrigerator, so I can’t load it up totally … Now that I’m home in the summertime, this is a good snack food. And I like an apple sometimes at lunchtime when I come home.

Lave, Jean Tailor Apprenticeship

Observation Practice Inductive method

Formal Schooling Verbal Instructions Decontextualized

presentation of materials

Deductive method

Lave, Jean

The language of math problem solving Jim has three boxes. Each box has eight

books in it. He wants to put his books on shelves. He can put ten books on a shelf. How many shelves does he need?

Mathematics Register Syntax

comparatives greater than prepositions divided into, divided by passive voice x is defined to be … word order the number A is five less than

the number B logical connectors if … then, given that, if and

only if

Mathematics Register Semantic features

lexicon binomial, coefficient, polynomial, natural square, power, rational, irrational

vocabulary synonyms and, plus, combine, some, more than symbols = > < () [] strings least common denominator, negative

exponent

Mathematics Register Pragmatics

Conflict between real world knowledge and knowledge called up by the text problem

Degree of background knowledge

Lemke Classroom discourse

Conflict in activity structure … social interaction in the classroom that pits teacher and students against one another. … and conflict between two opposed thematic systems.

Lemke also talks about the conflict between our commonsense ways of talking about topics and the specialized patterns of science talk.

Transcript Analysis What inhibits the participation of girls?

What kinds of roles do male students take in the talk?

What big choices about lesson format favor participation by male students?

What micro-level moves by the teacher either sanction male student’s contributions or fail to invite contributions by girls?

Transcript Analysis Utilizing the work of the authors you read for

today, how do you re-write the interaction to make science talk a more inclusive phenomenon? Moje, et al Adler Lemke Ball, Dice & Bartholomae

APA … one more time Whorf (as cited in Bowerman, 1996)

concluded that, “language shapes children’s understanding of the world” (p. 146).

Bowerman’s (1996) work suggested that children’s spatial thought may be shaped by language specific principles of semantic categorization, “quote” (p. number).