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THESIS

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This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled
Moving to Whole Language:
Change Narratives in
One New England School District

presented by

Sue Frances Johnson

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D . degree in _EngliSh__

 

Major professor

Date August 9, 1995

 

MS U i: an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

 

 

 

 

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Michigan Statei
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To AVOID FINES Mum on or before date duo.

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MSU Is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Intuition
Wan-“1

MOVING TO WHOLE LANGUAGE:
CHANGE STORIES IN ONE NEW ENGLAND
SCHOOL DISTRICT

BY

Sue Frances Johnson

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of English

1995

 

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ABSTRACT
MOVING TO WHOLE LANGUAGE:

CHANGE STORIES IN ONE NEW ENGLAND
SCHOOL DISTRICT

BY

Sue Frances Johnson

In the last twenty—five years public education has
seemed to be in a decline according to the many calls for
reform, restructure and change from the public, government
leaders, business leaders, and education leaders. Despite
all the rhetoric and attempts to create change in education,
we do not seem to be succeeding. During this time a
grassroots movement called whole language has risen which
could quell these outcries.

Perhaps the difficulty of successful educational change
may lie in the fact that those who will be expected to
implement and thus be most affected by change-the classroom
teachers—have not been clearly represented nor heard by
those proposing change.

The purpose of this study was to explore, through in-
depth interviews, three teachers’ perceptions of the process
and reality of change in becoming whole language teachers.
These teacher narratives reveal that a move to a whole
language classroom is a very complex process which occurs
gradually and involves the need for teacher commitment,
development of a community of teacher learners, teacher

autonomy and collaboration, time for reflection, principal

support, and parental support. Impediments to change are
often the system itself, standardized testing, and the

teachers themselves.

Copyright by
Sue Frances Johnson
1995

PL.

..:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Although many people contributed to the success of this
project and my sanity during writing, the following
individuals helped make the idea a reality. I want to thank
them for their patience, suggestions, energy and support.

The participants in this study were willing to reveal
their lives to me, and gave me much more than just their
stories.

Members of my guidance committee each taught me
something very special. Steve Tchudi gave me the
opportunity to find my interest in the history of teaching
and teachers and showed me how to listen to their voices and
question. Marilyn Wilson cheered me on when things looked
impossible and encouraged my thinking. Philip McGuire
inspired me to pursue my own reflections and to dig deeper.
At times when the distance made things seem impossible, and
the ideas unattainable, Diane Brunner was always there for
me. Her guidance, patience and ability to listen helped me
to put this dissertation into a format that allowed for my
voice.

As in all absorbing projects, there are those special

friends who make the process work. Chris Standefer believed

vi

in me and encouraged me. Tammi Flint without whose typing
assistance the transcripts would have never been completed
was invaluable. And especially I must recognize my friend
and colleague, Helen Walker, who sat up nights with me and
avidly read drafts and reassured me when I was ready to give
up and helped me to believe in myself. She is and always
will be "an uncommon friend" and "an uncommon teacher."

And finally to my children who put up with an often
distant mother who sometimes tried to do it all. To Jill

and Nick I offer my apology, my love and my thanks.

IQ.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: CONTEXTS

Chapter Page
1. The Search ........................................... 1
2. The Problem ........................................... 8
Calls for Reform ..................................... 8
What Do We Know about Educational Change? ........... 10
The Influence of Tradition .......................... 16
Educational Change and Behaviorism .................. 21
3. The Silence of the Teachers .......................... 27
4. Challenging the Traditions:
The Place of Whole Language ......................... 33
New Understandings about Language ................... 34
Basals and Reading Instruction ...................... 38
A Grassroots Reform ................................. 4O
5. Methodology .......................................... 49
Theoretical Base .................................... 49
Researcher Background ............................... 52
Choice of Research Site ............................. 53
Selection of Participants ........................... 55
Interview Process ................................... 56
Profiles ............................................ 58

PART II: TEXTS — Change Stories

6. Voices of Teachers ................................... 61
Joyce ............................................... 62
Marilyn ............................................. 65
Winnie .............................................. 67
Voices from the Past ................................ 69

7. Joyce—The Importance of Education .................... 72

vii

viii

A Sense of Community ................................ 75
Marking Time by Books ............................... 77
Becoming a Teacher .................................. 82
Steppingstones, Transitions, and Decisions .......... 84
Give Them Wings and Let Them Fly .................... 90
Coming to Know ...................................... 93
Commentary .......................................... 98
8. Winnie-Compassion and Questions ..................... 103
Bad Beginnings ..................................... 105
Feeling Important .................................. 107
Questions .......................................... 109
Secrets and Acts of Wisdom ......................... 110
Limitations ........................................ 112
Purposes and Connections ........................... 114
Confusions ......................................... 119
Disaster ........................................... 122
Independence ....................................... 125
Lessons ............................................ 127
Changes ............................................ 131
Commentary ......................................... 132
9. Marilyn-It’s In the Blood ........................... 135
Constraints ........................................ 136
Choices ............................................ 139
Reading Traditions ................................. 141
Changes ............................................ 147
Focusing ........................................... 152
Isolation .......................................... 154
Hidden Awards ...................................... 155
Commentary ......................................... 157
10. Marilyn-Towards Change: Making Sense ................ 160
Making Sense ....................................... 162
Just an Accident ................................... 163
Differences and Common Ground ...................... 164
Owning a Living Curriculum ......................... 168
On Writing and Risk Taking ......................... 171
Bringing Reading to Everyone ....................... 172
On Hiring New Teachers ............................. 175
Reflections ........................................ 176
11. Joyce-Theories, Reflections and Questions ........... 178
Questions .......................................... 178
Awakenings ......................................... 182
Misconceptions and Abrasions ....................... 185
Values and Identities .............................. 187
Models ............................................. 191
Rebels and Models .................................. 192

On Change and Changes .............................. 196

.5-

 

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ix

Politics and Equity ................................ 201
It’s the Questions that Are Important .............. 203
Winnie the Pooh and Metaphors Too .................. 205
On Whole Language .................................. 209
Challenges and Supports ............................ 210
Winnie-An Uncommon Commonsense Teacher .............. 213
Sameness ........................................... 216
And A Child Will Lead .............................. 218
Partnerships ....................................... 220
Money Talks ........................................ 223
The Importance of the Grant ........................ 225
A Day in First Grade ............................... 227
Progress ........................................... 231
Change Is Inevitable ............................... 234
Making Strange the Familiar ........................ 236
What Parents Want .................................. 237
On Whole Language .................................. 240
Change Again ....................................... 243
Tell Me a Story .................................... 248

PART III: SUBTEXTS - Reading Change

World Making ........................................ 250
The Teaching Identity .............................. 252
Joyce ......................................... 252
Winnie ........................................ 256
Marilyn ....................................... 258
Perspectives on Whole Language ..................... 262
Shifting the Hierarchy ............................. 265
Keys to Change ..................................... 269
The Vision .................................... 269
Timing ........................................ 271

The Grants .................................... 272
Changing Relationships ........................ 274
Between Teachers and the System .......... 275

Between Teachers and Principal ........... 277

Between Teachers and Teachers ............ 278

Between Teachers and Parents ............. 278

Between Teachers and Students ............ 280

A Consciousness of Possibility ...................... 283
Leaders Not Followers .............................. 286

AFTERWORD ............................................... 289

x
Implications for Further Research .................. 291
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ 293

GENERAL REFERENCES ...................................... 299

Part I:

CONTEXTS

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Chapter One

THE SEARCH
"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not
sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware
of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.

Not to be onto something is to be in despair." Walker Percy,
from The Movieqoer.

As an English teacher for more than twenty years, in an
inner city middle school and in a high/middle school for
highly motivated and gifted kids, educational change has
never seemed to be problematic or unique for me. My
teaching colleagues would often tease me about what I was
going to do next. What new book was I going to use? Why
did I not use all the standardized tests? Why did I have
all that stuff hanging in my room, all those books?

They could never understand that I had to change; I had
to try something new. Often I changed because it was simply
boring for me to do the same things over and over. I was
always a different person as were my students different
people, and each class had a different personality and
different needs. How could I do the same things over and
over again?

I was always searching for something: something new
that would spark my students' excitement about language;
something new that would involve everyone, including me.

Sometimes the changes I attempted to make evolved from my

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2
own learning in the classroom. For instance, I clearly
remember the day that fourteen—year-old Marcus asked me why
we had to do grammar books. As I looked at my classroom of
inner city kids, I realized that I did not have an answer
that would hold any meaning for them. So we stopped using
the grammar texts and began to explore, creating our own
texts to work from. No one told me that I could not do
this; it just felt right. When my principal would come in
to observe my class, he would simply praise me because my
students seemed to be involved in whatever we were doing.

I also discovered that my students responded with more
enthusiasm and excitement to paperbacks instead of our
reading books. So I searched garage sales and other
classrooms to bring as many trade books into my classroom as
possible and pitched the regular textbooks. Again no one
said that I could not do this. Instead, I was again praised
for the fact that my students were reading and their tests
scores were going up.

Sometimes I learned through teacher development. We
sporadically had a variety of workshops in our district
sponsored by the state. I always made an effort to go to
all of them in search of new ideas. But very often I was
left with more questions than answers. The workshops
presented cute ideas and new ways of doing things, but I was
not sure how to connect them, and I could not always see how
they would connect with my students.

It was finally through my formal education that my

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search gained meaning. I formed more questions and started
to think about the why of all these ideas and began to
collect my thoughts and discover what my own philosophy was.
In my masters program I learned more about what learning
was. I had decided to take my masters in elementary
education because I wanted to be certified K-12 so I would
always have a job. In that program I began to question how
what I was doing in the classroom connected with how I
believed students learned. I was briefly introduced to a
number of new ideas about reading and writing, and about
teaching math and science, but it was the learning theories
that got most of my attention. I began to realize that my
teaching practice and philosophy at the high school and
middle school levels were closely aligned with the
philosophy of some elementary teachers.

It was shortly after I finished my masters that I
joined a number of professional organizations (NCTE, ASCD,
ALAN) and began to follow the current trends and research in
the teaching of reading and writing. I began to read
journals and newsletters and found a forum where I could
seek out answers to my questions and where I found others
who had similar questions. I even discovered that I could
attend the meetings of the Michigan Council of Teachers of
English.

When I went back for my doctorate, my search led me to
read Louise Rosenblatt, Constance Weaver, Frank Smith, the

Goodmans, Steve Tchudi, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Harste, Graves

 

.sn

4
and Hanson, Atwell, Pearson and Tierney and others. They
spoke to me, and I responded. I found answers to some of my
questions and formed more questions. I had not been crazy
for wanting to do things that were meaningful to me and my
kids. It was okay for me to get off track with the students
if something interested us. I was not alone in my belief
that my students were at the heart of my teaching, not the
curriculum nor the text. My search broadened. I discovered
that I had been developing a whole language philosophy of
learning.

Some changes I attempted were accomplished easily, some
with great difficulty, and some were never fully realized
because of many external and internal forces encountered.
And some of those changes, I have discovered, were not
"real" changes at all.

Even though to me change had almost always seemed to be
an inevitable part of good teaching, a constant that some of
us come to expect if we are in the field long enough, change
is not and has not always been considered to be appropriate
and valuable to many others in education and outside
education. Also, as I have grown in my understanding of
education, of teaching and learning, I have learned that I
really did not understand the process of change, since my
own personal implementation of change came so easily and
naturally to me. Thus I began a new search.

Today as an assistant professor of English Education

and an inservice teacher of English language arts teachers

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and a classroom observer, understanding, implementing and
observing change is an even more important part of my
profession. Since I work with teachers to help them affect
changes in reading and writing classrooms, I keep up with
research and reports that suggest new and "better" ways of
doing English. So in many respects, I have become an agent
of change for language arts teachers. I have also come to
realize that my fully understanding how teachers define
change and most successfully accept and implement change
would make me a better teacher of teachers and would allow
me to more effectively affect change myself.

Along my own educational journey, I have evolved more
strongly into an advocate of whole language philosophy. For
me this was the most critical kind of change to make. It
involved not only making changes in classroom practices, but
making major changes in what I had been taught to believe
about what education was and who my students were and what
my real role as "teacher" meant. I had to come to terms
with my experiences, beliefs and practice.

Sometimes I see teachers making changes that are
successful, but at other times I see teachers who have no
interest in trying something different, which concerns me.
Sometimes I see teachers making changes which are not good
for them or their students. Although I tend to think change

is good, I know from my own teaching experiences that

 
 

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sometimes it is not,1 and sometimes it costs too much in
other areas. But I still get frustrated when teachers
choose not to change or give up on a change attempt too soon
and then revert back to old ways after a few months. And I
continually ask the question, "Why does this happen? Why
was this teacher able to change successfully and not this
one?"

I have a vested interest now in how and why teachers
change in their language arts classrooms and a strong belief
that the principles underlying whole language, clearly
supported by an overwhelming amount of research (see Chapter
Three), are the philosophy that should support classroom
practice at every level. This interest in the questions
surrounding how change occurs and what impedes change,
especially as it relates to a whole language philosophy in
teaching, is the impetus for this new search.

Michael Fullan (1991) argues that "an understanding of
what reality is from the point of view of people within the
role is an essential starting point for constructing a
practical theory of the meaning and results of change

attempts" (144). In this study, then, I will explore the

 

1Fullan (1991) states that "many decisions about the
kinds of educational innovations introduced in school
districts, are biased, poorly thought out, and unconnected
to the stated purposes of education.... Change is not
necessarily progress. Change must always be viewed in
relation to the particular values, goals, and outcomes it
serves (8).

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reality of change2 from the point of view of three New
England school teachers who have successfully changed from
very traditional approaches and beliefs in the teaching of
language arts to a whole language philosophy of teaching.
In doing so these teachers have not only changed themselves
but have affected change in their entire school and have

touched others in their district.

 

2The term "change" will be defined by the teachers
themselves, as one of the purposes of this study is to
identify what their perception of change is.

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Chapter Two

THE PROBLEM

"It is teachers who, in the end, will change the world of
school by understanding it." Lawrence Stenhouse

Calls for Reform

As I began to review literature on educational change
and reform, some things became more clear to me. In the
last twenty-five years or so, public education has seemed to
be in decline according to the many calls for reform,
restructure and change. "Johnny can’t read or write,"
"Johnny can’t think," "Johnny can’t add" were the rallying
cries of many. In a 1983 sobering report, the National
Commission on Excellence in Education declared that we were
"a nation at risk." This report not only set the tone for
the educational reform that would mark the 1980’s and
1990's, but it also brought a focus to education that had
never happened before (Nowell 1).

I discovered that the loudest voices heard for
educational reform have been raised by government, education
and business leaders (Carnegie Forum on Education and the
Economy, 1986) and a consortium of education deans ( The
Holms Group, 1986). In general the reform documents

produced by these leaders

 

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have envisioned a professional teaching environment in

which the teacher assumes a decision-making and

leadership role and has the opportunity for career
advancement.... Despite the abundance of literature
suggesting visions for school change, as we begin the

90’s, Shanker asserts that public education is still at

the edge of disaster.’" (Dana 1)

Regardless of the rhetoric and the attempts to create
change in education, it does not ’seem’ that we are
succeeding. The reports of problems in education continue;
state and national scores are published regularly with cries
about what students don’t know; the government is taking
action with Education/America 2000; and states are revising
and creating new tests for teachers and students to force
change in education. Perhaps the difficulty may lie in the
fact that those who will be expected to implement and thus
be most affected by change--the classroom teachers--have not
been clearly represented or heard by those proposing reform
--government, business and education leaders.3

For example, when we look at the representation on the
above commissions themselves, there are more business and
government representatives than classroom teachers; in fact,
classroom teachers are conspicuously absent. The National
Commission on Excellence in Education, which prepared A

Nation at Risk, gave only one slot out of thirty-three to a

classroom teacher. The Holmes and Carnegie Commissions,

 

3Ravitch (1985) asserts that "educational reform
movements have taken teachers for granted and treated them
as classroom furniture rather than as thinking, possibly
disputatious human beings"(19).

 

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which have pressed for an increased voice and status for
teachers, do not have any classroom teachers on their task
forces at all (Fosnot 12). Isn’t that like a parent telling

a child, "Do what I say, not what I do"?

What do we know about educational change?

At first, one might think that we do not know much
about educational change, but, in fact, we have an enormous
amount of research available about educational change.
Since the post-Sputnik crisis in the 19605 which produced
many curriculum innovations and fostered inquiry—based and
student-centered instruction, there have been hundreds of
studies on educational change.

Many of the changes that resulted from the wave of
reform in the 19605 and 19708 were funded directly by the
federal government and indirectly through state and local
reform projects spurred on by government support.4 Some of
the early studies simply looked at the purposes of the new
reform effort.

In one of the most prominent studies on federally
sponsored educational programs by Berman, McLaughlin and

Associates (1977), 293 change projects, including 29 field

 

4Sputnik contributed directly to the passage of the
National Defense Act of 1958 and fostered scores of projects
at the national, state and local levels to strengthen
curricula, to upgrade the quality of teachers and teaching,
and to develop new instructional resources and materials.

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studies, were researched. Berman, et al. concluded that
school district decisions to engage in certain reforms were
of two types: those reflecting opportunism, in which
districts were motivated by the desire "to reap federal
funds," and those characterized by problem solving, in which
the main motivation emerged in response to locally
identified needs. As might be expected those which were
motivated by need were much more successful in achieving the
desired outcomes and in continuing the changes after the
funds ended.

Studies were also conducted on why change was or was
not successful. For example, some studies revealed that the
importance of relating need to change decisions is essential
for success.5 Rosenblum and Louis found that "the degree
to which there was a formal recognition within the school
system of unmet needs" (12) was one of the four readiness
factors necessary for implementing change. Huberman and
Miles (1984) also suggested that the people involved in the
change efforts must perceive both that the needs being
addressed are significant and that they are making some
progress towards them.

The people most closely involved in educational change
are teachers. Regardless of who decides that there will be

a change, it is the teachers who must see it implemented and

 

STeachers frequently do not see the need for changes (NEA
report, 1979; Goodlad, 1984; Nias 1989). Those who do not see
a need for real change are generally satisfied with the system
as it is or are uncomfortable with trying to make changes that
require a fundamental alteration in their belief systems.

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provide results. Thus they should be involved in
identifying the need for change and seeing the progress.
However, Loucks and Hall’s (1979) research showed that "the
assumptions of introducers of change are out of [sync] with
the 'stages of concerns’ of teachers" (qtd in Fullan 35).
And, Sarason (1982) studying the experience of the "new
math" concluded that motivation for this change had not
involved teachers, students or parents. And as we all know,
the change to the "new math" lasted only briefly.
Silberman’s review of education (1970) concluded that the
reason for the failure of the educational reform movement
was "the fact that its prime movers were distinguished
university scholars"; what was assumed to be its greatest
strength turned out to be its greatest weakness (qtd in
Fullan 22). The scholars knew a great deal about theory and
research, but were too distant from the real, everyday
realities of school.

More recently directives for change from state
legislatures to increase teacher and school accountability
to improve student achievement may in reality be
contributing to a decline of teaching and curricula. For
example, McNeil (1987) found in a study of magnate schools
in one district that reforms meant to upgrade the quality of
instruction had an opposite effect: i

By applying standardized, reductive formulas to content

and pedagogy, (the reforms) undermine the integration

of teacher, student and subject; they intentionally set

in motion a de-skilling not present in the pre-reform
days of the magnet school... (6-7).

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Corbett and Wilson’s (1990) study of the impact of
statewide testing in Maryland and Pennsylvania also found
that new statewide testing mandates caused action at the
local level in ways that narrowed the curriculum and created
conditions adverse to reform:

Coping with the pressure to attain satisfactory results

in high—stakes tests caused educators to develop almost

a "crisis mentality" in their approach, in that they

jumped quickly into "solutions" to address a specific

issue. They narrowed the range of instructional
strategies from which they selected means to instruct
their students: they narrowed the content of the
material they chose to present to students; and they
narrowed the range of course offerings available to

students. (207)

Other research on educational change has found that
substantial change efforts that address multiple problems
are more likely to succeed and survive than small-scale,
easily trivialized innovationssiand that important changes
can’t be mandated because "they require skill, motivation,
commitment, and discretionary judgment on the part of those
who must change [schools and teachers]" (Fullan and Miles
746).

Research on the change process also reveals three broad
stages. The first stage, initiation, consists of the
process that leads up to and includes a decision to adopt or
proceed with a change. Adoption decisions are most often
generated from administrative offices and usually have as

their focus district or school-wide change. Adoption

decisions are often related to needs, assessments, or

 

6Huberman and Miles, Innovation Up Close.

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recognized areas of weakness. Yet in most areas of life,
improvements build on strength, not weakness.

Stage two, implementation, (usually the first two or
three years of use) involves the attempt to put an idea or
reform into practice. It is the most difficult and complex
stage of the process, which is surprisingly taken for
granted by many policymakers. Implementation can be
positively influenced if previous change efforts have been
successful; if there has been careful consideration of the
decision involving the individuals who will be affected; if
enough time is allocated to implement the innovation; and if
there is strong support from district and school
administration.

Stage three, continuation or institutionalization,
refers to whether the change gets built in as an ongoing
part of the system or disappears. At this stage a shift
from the personal to organizational needs occurs. A change
is likely to take hold in a system if there is some strong
administrative pressure; if there is minimal local
resistance; if there are sufficient funds to continue; and
if there is leadership and staff stability.

The list of the research and reports goes on and on.
The point is that we do have a tremendous amount of
information about what makes successful educational change,

and yet we continually have unsuccessful change projects.7

 

7Educational change in many instances is good, but not
always. For me change is successful if its purpose, which
should always be about improving learning, is clearly

 

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One of the most comprehensive studies on educational
change is that of Michael Fullan. Supporting what much
research points out, Fullan states that "Educational change
depends on what teachers do and think-~it’s as simple and
complex as that" (117). No matter what reforms, mandates or
new gimmicks are presented to teachers, no significant
change will occur unless it reflects what teachers believe
about teaching and learning. Teachers are the key to
successful change efforts.

Larry Cuban suggests that revising teacher practice is
a matter of changing teacher beliefs. Since "the crucible
of experience and the culture of teaching" (Lester and Onore
100) has been formed and perpetuated for over one hundred
years, teachers need to unlearn in order to learn. Genuine
learning and change come about from questioning or
reassessing our existing beliefs about the world.

As Stephen North (1987) explains, teacher knowledge, or
"practitioner’s lore"

is driven, first, by pragmatic logic: it is concerned

with what has worked, is working, or might work in

teaching, doing, or learning.... Second, its structure

is essentially experiential. That is, the traditions,

practices, and beliefs of which it is constituted are

best understood as being organized within an

experience-based framework: I will create my version of

lore [knowledge] out of what has worked or might work——

either in my own experience or in that of others-~and I

will understand and order it in terms of the
circumstances under which it did so. (23)

 

identified; if it is supported by well researched theories
of learning; if teachers are involved in the planning as
well as the innovation stages; and if it is viewed in
relation to the values, goals, and outcomes it serves.

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In other words new experiences are always initially
reacted to in the context of some "familiar, reliable
construction of reality" which people (teachers) must be
able to attach personal meaning to, regardless of how
meaningful they might be to others. For teachers, that
meaning can take many forms depending upon what their
initial purposes or goals were in attempting the new
experience and their prior experiences and knowledge.

Often for many, the familiar equates with tradition.

The Influence of Tradition

Historically, a number of traditions have driven
education.8 At the turn of the century as the United
States changed from a rural, agricultural society to an
industrialized, growing urban world, it became increasingly
evident that the traditions of literacy learning and the
current traditions of schooling could no longer serve
society to develop productive citizens for the twentieth
century (Shannon 1990 6), and change was necessary.

Shannon (1990) reports that according to Kliebard there
were four distinct groups vying for control of education at

the this time: the scientific managers;9 the social

 

8See Shannon (1990, 1989) and Applebee (1974) for a
discussion of these traditions.

9The scientific managers sought to develop curriculum
which would use exact measurement and precise standards to
determine the most efficient ways to train children to
become useful citizens. Their central purpose was to use

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reconstructionists;10 the humanists;11 and the child-
centered proponents”(7-14).

The most persuasive and powerful of these groups was
the scientific managers. As early as the turn of the
century Frederick Taylor’s scientific management system,
lauded as "the only means for raising productivity in both
industrial and social institutions," was adapted from
industry as the model for establishing a scientific
curriculum (11). Taylor and his followers insisted that it
was possible to scientifically analyze tasks performed by
individuals in order to discover those procedures that would
produce the maximum output with the minimum input of

energies and resources.

 

schools as the primary socializing agents for intellectual,
social and moral development to ensure that American
standards were upheld.

10The social reconstructionists wanted to develop a
curriculum which would create an educational system that
would help solve the social problems created by rapid
industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. They
wanted a curriculum that would focus on the social issues of
the time: poverty, crime, political corruption,
unemployment, etc.

11The humanists wanted to maintain as much of the
status quo as possible by preserving many of the curricular
traditions of the past such as the focus on classical
languages and literature, development of reasoning power and
a sensitivity to beauty. The school curriculum would be
driven by college requirements.

” For the child-centered advocates, curriculum was to
be formed around a child’s natural development and
interests. Through observation and systemic analyses, the
child—centered teacher would develop a curriculum which
would allow students to develop and use their literacy
skills through natural communicative and self-expressive
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By 1911, scientific management was so well accepted in
the United States that the National Society for the
Study of Education’s Department of Superintendents
appointed a Committee on the Economy of Time in
Education to make recommendations to eliminate
nonessentials from the elementary school curriculum, to

set minimum standards for each school subject, and to

improve teaching methods through scientific research.
(Shannon 1990 11)

Seeking the most effective methods and materials with
which to teach children, scientific managers, directed by
the report of the Committee on the Economy of Time in
Education, planned to develop the report into "a handbook
and guide for the use of teachers and supervisors who are
interested in planning classroom procedures with due regard
for both economy and efficiency in teaching and learning"
(qtd in Shannon 11). In the language arts curriculum these
materials translated into the commercially prepared basal
reading materials and the lessons they prescribed.

The central focus of the basal lessons is on the

systematic, even standard, delivery of instruction

along a fixed sequence of reading and language skills

with periodic use of standardized tests to monitor
student progress through the materials (14).

The continued use and influence of the basals has preserved
the scientific managers’ hold on the literacy lessons and
curriculum of the public schools.

Since the 19508, educational tradition has been heavily
influenced and supported by the behaviorist movement,
inspired in large part by the work of B.F. Skinner. The

behaviorists added weight and strength to the scientific

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management program because they too promised clear and
immediate measurements of learning. The behaviorist
movement claimed that educators could break down all
learning into discrete, observable outcomes that could
become objectives of teaching. These concepts have had
enormous appeal to a society which still held the clear
pragmatic goals of industrialization and wanted a focus on
product and "quality control."

This traditional "factory" model of education has been
given a variety of names in education--"top-down,"
"transmission of knowledge" and "knowledge acquisition"
models are three. It promised that learning could be
measured accurately and that the public could know exactly
what and how much had been and could be learned. Its
emphasis on accountability has clearly undergirded and
driven educational programs for the last fifty years.

Any time that there has been a perceived crisis in
education, this scientific/behaviorist model and its
measures for "quality control" are summoned. Frank Smith

(1986), an opponent of this tradition, states in Insult to

Intelligence:

Tests are always required when administrations decide
to take charge of some aspect of education. There can
be no educational problems without tests. And
instructional programs are required to help children
take tests. The programs and tests are expected to
ensure "quality education" and to solve educational
problems. (238)

No part of education has been left untouched by this

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scientific/behaviorist tradition. For example, in her
unpublished dissertation Brinkley (1992) shows that from the
beginning of this country’s history, evaluation of English
language arts curricula and teaching practices has been
consistently linked to evaluation of student performance and
that "objective tests are the most frequent means by which
English language arts student performance assessment
occurs." Even in the field where creativity, the making of
meaning, is often seen as an outcome, behavioristic
principles govern. "English language arts professionals
[believe] that testing drives curriculum. Historical and
current data reveal that testing, to a greater or lesser
degree, has almost always driven curriculum" (Brinkley 215).

Roland Barth (1980) observed that

the lives of teachers and students in this country are

closely wedded to an implicit, persistent

’transmission-of-knowledge’ model of learning.... The

proper business of teachers is to transmit this

knowledge to students as efficiently as possible.

And the student is expected to assimilate this

knowledge as quickly as possible and to display it

upon demand. Students are evaluated according to how

much knowledge they have acquired and how fast and ably
they can demonstrate it. (8-9)

Scientific managers supported by behaviorists have been
able to dominate American education because of the American
public’s fascination with business, science, and behavioral
psychology and social, economic, and political circumstances
of the times. Clear behaviorist and scientific management
principles and practices, including the belief that

knowledge and learning can be broken down into manageable

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21
parts and accurately measured and controlled, have driven
and underpinned educational practice for a long time.
These traditional principles are the "familiar and
reliable construction of reality" that many have used to

judge the need for and effectiveness of educational change.

Educational Change and Behaviorism

Educational change itself has also been affected by the
behaviorist tradition. In answer to the question, "How can
it be that so much school reform has taken place over the
last century yet schooling appears pretty much the same as
it has always been?" Cuban defines two different types of
change: first—order change and second-order change. First-
order changes are those that improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of what is currently done "without disturbing
the basic organizational features, without substantially
altering the way that children and adults perform their
roles, [without substantially changing beliefs about
learning]" (qtd in Fullan 29). First order changes, that
is, change in curricula, approaches or textbooks that have
been implemented to improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of existing programs, have been somewhat successful because
they did not substantially alter the structure of the system
nor require real change in teacher/student roles or belief
systems. And most importantly they could be tested within

the conventional and familiar standard forms.

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For example, basal reading series have been changed to
a certain degree to reflect sexual equality and minority
representation, and "real" literature in the form of revised
basals and trade books has been introduced into the
classrooms. These two changes reflect a changing view about
society and an awareness of new theory about literature.
But these innovations in many cases are simply first—order
surface changes when they are used in a traditional way in
the classroom, when they are tied up with standardized
tests, objective questions and specific outcomes:

Most so called innovations in American education accept

and only tinker with the transmission—of-knowledge

model. The ’new curriculum’ selects new details from

the accumulated wisdom; team teaching [only] changes

the transmission agents, as do instructional TV,

computers, programmed instruction. Non-grading, like

ability grouping, rearranges students so they can
become better knowledge receivers. (Barth 10)

The very philosophy of behaviorism itself is built upon
faith in first-order change, in changing external stimuli as
the basis for changing human behavior. It dictates an
insistence upon the use of these externally driven changes--
correcting visible structural flaws such as teacher
evaluation and reward systems, unclear goals, or decision
making authority, therefore overlooking more substantial and
stable cultural values and mindsets behind and beneath
everyday behavior.

Second-order changes, according to Cuban, seek to alter

the fundamental ways in which organizations are put

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23
together, including new goals, structures, and roles. This
view of change is not a view behaviorists would or could
believe. This concept of inner change is part of another
tradition, the child-centered proponents’ view.

Second-order changes, changes in classroom cultures, in
the roles of teachers and students, have not succeeded as
well because they require substantial changes in beliefs
about learning and teaching, establishing new goals, and in
the structure of education itself. Knowledge or learning
was not so easily tested and measured or failed to produce
the results required precisely because "objective
measurements" were not altered to reflect new goals.

The Experience Curriculum in English and the
"electives" curriculum are two examples of second-order
change that did not succeed. Most changes since the turn of
the century have been first-order changes, changes aimed at
improving the quality of what already exists to maintain the
status quo. Second-order changes essentially have failed.

One of the reasons it may be difficult for teachers to
make second-order changes is that many have never
articulated what their belief systems are. They simply
follow the directions for teaching given to them by mandated
curriculums, teachers manuals, etc. developed out of the
scientific management tradition. As Farrell (1991) points
out, teaching practice in this country tends to be
atheoretical, that is, oblivious to theory.

When change in classroom practice does occur, it comes

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about in two ways. Teachers will often try new techniques,
and if they work, they may then change beliefs. Sometimes
teachers will believe in an idea or strategy first and then
will attempt to put it into practice. However change is
begun, success is what will drive it, and a belief system
will support it. But teachers need more than just
successful experience. They need time to reflect on that
experience, support from administration, communication with
colleagues and ultimately the ability to make other changes
because change is multidimensional. If "real" change is to
occur, it seldom happens in isolation.

Studies also show another factor essential for second-
order change. This is the principal, who can be the most
powerful source of help or hinderance to the teacher who
wants to attempt "real" change (Weaver, Fullan, Connelly,
Onore and Lester). In order for any type of change to take
place in the classroom, administrators as well as teachers
must be involved. Teachers take their cues from their
administrators. The principal must create a supportive
environment so that teachers feel safe taking risks, making
mistakes, and experimenting. A principal, implicitly and
explicitly, reflects the philosophy of the school towards
learning and what teachers should be doing. Whether she or
he overemphasizes the district’s standardized testing
program or encourages and provides time for teachers to find
and refine the artistry of their own teaching, her or his

"actions serve to legitimate whether a change is to be taken

25
seriously..." (Fullan 76).

Research on change is finding that significant
educational change [second-order change] consists of changes
in beliefs, teaching style, and materials, which can come
about only through the process of personal development in a
social context (Fullan 133). To implement educational
change successfully, teachers and those who promote change
or attempt change must recognize that innovations should not
be taken for granted or as ends in themselves. What values
are invo1ved? Who will benefit from the change? How much
of a priority is it? Which areas of potential change are
being neglected? All are continuing important questions
about the sources and consequences of change.

Fullan concludes in his 1991 study by stating that for
significant educational innovation to occur, the cultures of
schools themselves must change.13 Everyone involved must
work to create new values, norms, skills, practices and
structures. He quotes Goodlad:

Renewal——whether of ponds, gardens, people, or

institutions--is an internal process, whatever the

external concerns and stimulants. It requires
motivation, dedication, systematic and systemic
evolution, and time. A second or third reform wave
calling on teachers as the prime actors will be no more
successful than a first wave pushed by policymakers if

the conditions necessary to renewal are not developed.
(352)

 

13Lieberman and Rosenholtz (1987) conclude that the
staff and the culture of a school are simultaneously both
the major barriers to reform and the major bridge to
improvement and change.

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But changing the cultures of schools will take time.
Schools are supported by and protect many cherished myths
and traditions. Schools will become different only when we
are willing and capable of challenging some of these myths
and traditions; when we stop correcting surface errors and
begin to look at all that we know about change and
education; and when we involve everyone who will be involved
in the process--especially teachers.

It is becoming more and more evident from research that
teachers must recognize and be recognized as the experts in
the process of change and education. Teachers must have the
opportunity to make the decisions necessary to promote
change and reflect on their beliefs about teaching and
learning. Teachers cannot wait for others-—policymakers and
administrators--to become experts in the change process and
the educational process. Policymakers have organizational
power, but not educational power, and in schools things do
not get done through organizational power. As history has
shown, traditional decision-makers, scientific managers and
behaviorists, can make organizational and curriculum change,

but still not make progress toward real change.

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Chapter Three

THE SILENCE OF THE TEACHERS
"... until teachers can jointly recognize that curricular
control is their most important right and responsibility,
schools will continue to be run without substantial concern

for the educational processes which should be their only
real mission" (Mayher 20).

Recently a colleague and I had been developing our
teacher education program, and we wanted to develop new
experiences in the schools for our pre-teachers. We
intended our project to benefit both our students and the
teachers themselves. We asked a number of middle school
teachers if they would like to have a student from our
classes come in and tutor, read with students or in any
other way help out in the class. Almost all the teachers we
asked hesitated because they first needed to get
"permission" from their principal, who needed to get
permission from the superintendent before they, the
teachers, could decide. We were only successful in
initiating the project when we went through the
superintendent’s office and the principal first, who
eventually gave their permission.

Also, in the same system, the system in which I would
be doing my research, the reading curriculum for the
district is simply the scope and sequence guides from the

basal series publisher that that system had adopted.

27

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Teachers are expected to follow it to the letter. The
system supports the use of the basals and the guide by
demanding that basals and the accompanying materials are
used at least 40% of the time in the classrooms. Those
teachers who do not follow the guide or use all of the
materials often feel guilty that they aren’t teaching what
students need to know, and their colleagues who do use them
constantly point out what they are not doing.

In this system curriculum is also subtly dictated by
state and national testing. Last spring when teachers and
districts were notified that the state assessment tests were
going to be modified, we, the university, set up a meeting
for local educators with the State Department of Education
to answer questions. Over one hundred educators and
administrators showed up expressing a clear sense of panic
about how they were going to fit in teaching what was needed
for testing while still covering the material they needed to
cover in their texts.

All students in the system take some form of national
standardized test to make sure that teachers and students
are held accountable for their learning. Teachers are "said
to not have the distance and detachment necessary to make
these important judgments [about the learning of their
students]" (Harman 117). Although there is a tremendous
debate going on about the issue of testing, it is not
relevant for this study, so I won't delve into it any

further. What does seem relevant about the issue of testing

29
is that these tests are all published by the same companies
who develop the basals.14 The question becomes, where is
the supposedly necessary distance and detachment that sets
these tests apart from the decisions and classroom
observation of teachers?

Those outside the classroom, driven by the scientific
management advocates, have historically dictated the
curriculum, goals and materials for most schools. Teachers
are not heard by those proposing change because they are
often viewed as powerless, powerless against "the strength
of tradition, ignorance, and complacency" (Vinz 3) by both
those outside the system and those within the system,
including teachers themselves. Teachers frequently
perpetuate this sense of powerlessness by confessing that
"they won’t let me do it," not recognizing that they are
often the "they."

Teachers are silenced by the belief that they
themselves need to be told what is good practice or bad
practice or what texts and curriculum they should use by
"higher ups," sustaining the belief that teachers are not
able to make these important decisions themselves.
Publishers, texts, teachers' manuals, and curriculum

mandates all serve to perpetuate this belief that teachers

 

14The California Achievement Tests, the Comprehensive
Test of Basic Skills and the S.R.A. are published by
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill; the Metropolitan Achievement Test and
the Stanford Achievement Test are published by Psych Corp,
which is owned by Harcourt Brace; and the Iowa Test of Basic
Skills is published by Riverside, which is owned by Houghton
Mifflin (Harman 118).

 

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30
need to be shown what and how to teach.

One of the most remarkable examples of this comes from
Shannon's research (1983) on basal texts. Shannon
discovered that both teachers and administrators believed
that basals incorporated the best scientific knowledge on
teaching reading from research and that everything in the
basal materials is sequentially organized for scientific
reasons. Therefore basals and the teacher manuals and
student workbooks that accompany them should be carefully
and mechanically followed by all teachers and learners. The
basals’ prescribed skills, strategies, materials, and use of
time control teachers and classrooms. This control provides
not only teachers but administrators and parents with a
sense of confidence that literacy learning is occurring
effectively and consistently.

If teachers believe this, then they have little
incentive to develop their knowledge of reading, instruction
and students because others will do it for them. They need
only to be concerned with the management of surface skills
control. This giving up control into the hands of others,
of course, leads to a loss of real control over their work
of educating and further silencing.

Another example of teacher dependency can be observed
when a system decides to change time periods to either
shorter or longer blocks. Many teachers will complain
because the material or lessons they were supposed to cover

are either too long or too short for the new period. And

 

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31
because of their dependency on the manuals and texts, they
do not know what to do with the extra time.

The educational system is designed as a hierarchy based
on the ‘factory model’ in which those who make decisions,
states, districts, superintendents, and publishers, are at
the top and those who follow those decisions, the workers,
teachers and students, are at the bottom. When changes are
made in the state or districts, teachers are very seldom
part of the initial process except as implementers of
changes mandated by those outside the curriculum and
classroom. Romanish (1987) explains why this creates an
unhealthy forum for change:

the educational system...is paralyzed by structural

features that prevent policymakers from envisioning...

fundamental reforms. The policymakers’ reality
consists of schools as they are currently organized,
and the visions embody a very narrow gaze of teaching

itself (quoted in Fosnot 14—15).

The ‘back to basics’ and conservative movements of the
last few years and the local resistance to programs that the
public perceives as innovative and therefore somehow
threatening, because they do not fit into their "familiar
and reliable construction of ‘educational’ reality," also
demonstrate this continuing influence of non-professionals
on public education.

In one way or another, then, educational decisions are
and have been made from the top down and the outside in, and
teachers continue to present educational programs designed

and mandated for them by others. Two of the underlying

32
assumptions of these outside groups is that teachers cannot
make informed decisions on their own, and that all children
and classrooms are alike. Roland Barth (1980) states it
this way:

The "from-the-top-down" model of school district

organization appears to be based upon certain

assumptions about school people: They [teachers and
students] have a limited capacity; they will behave

responsibly and productively only when objectives are
specified for them and when they are held accountable

by others for achieving these objectives (11).

In spite of the strength of this established model of
education, a new tradition has been gaining momentum in the
last few years. This new movement--whole language-—views
teaching and learning in a very different way. In a
classroom based on a whole language philosophy, teachers and
students make decisions which reflect the context of their
situation at that particular moment in time. Teachers are
valued as experts in "kid watching" and learning in their
classrooms. Diversity, in classrooms and individuals, is
recognized and expected. But, misunderstandings about whole
language and the issues of control and tradition have made
it difficult for teachers to adopt the philosophy and
practices that evolve from it. To affect change towards

whole language philosophy and practice becomes an

increasingly complex issue.

Chapter Four

CHALLENGING THE TRADITIONS:
THE PLACE OF WHOLE LANGUAGE

"Whole Language is a professional theory, an explicit theory
in practice. That is, it is neither theory divorced from

practice nor practice that is blind to its own theory"
(Edelsky, Altwerger, Flores 7).

If you were to open almost any educational journal
today or even a newspaper you are likely to find an article,
pro or con, on whole language. At many of the local and
national teacher organization meetings, NCTE or CCCC for
example, you will find sessions devoted to whole language
debates, practices and discussions. Whole language is the
most recent and most potent challenge to the
scientific/behaviorist model of schools and learning.

Challenges to what has become a well entrenched
educational model of American schools are not new, but the
scientific/behaviorist movement has continued to have a
strong hold on American education. Chapter Two identifies
three other movements, the humanist, the social
reconstructionist and the child-centered, that vied for
control of the American schools. However, the child-
centered advocates have demonstrated the most persistent and
‘most vigorous push against this established model.

From the early efforts of Francis Parker in developing

33

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34
the Quincy Method in the 1870s,15 through the work of
Dewey’s Laboratory Schools at the turn of the century,
Kilpatrick’s child-centered project method of the 19203, the
language experience programs of the 1950s, to the free
schools of the 1970s, these progressive educators and their
ideas have tugged at the scientific/behaviorist traditions
of American public schools.16 The progressive movement,
however, never really caught on until research began to
support what the early child-centered proponents had been

instinctively suggesting.
New Understandings about Language

In the mid-fifties researchers began to look at
language and language acquisition more closely. It had been
readily believed that children passively learned language by
imitating sounds and words in their environments. Educators
and parents assumed that they directed and supported this
imitative behavior through some form of "positive
reinforcement." We began to move away from this naive

explanation of oral language development through the work of

 

15The tenets of the Quincy method reflected a child’s
right to be himself or herself, the primacy of natural
learning, a concern for democratic justice, and the
responsibility of the teacher to discover the balance
between teacher intervention, environment and student
motivation. (Shannon 1990 39-41)

16The predominant argument concerning literacy and
literacy learning has always been between the scientific
managers and the child-centered advocates. (Shannon 116)

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35
Noam Chomsky (1957) and other linguists. Chomsky
demonstrated that "language is based on a complex set of
syntactic, or grammatical, rules for relating sounds of
language and meaning" (Newman 1985 9). From his work,
researchers began to see children as actively engaged in
generating language, in creating rules for language use, and
researchers began to look for how children created these
rules.

The work of M.A.K. Halliday (1975) led to the
understanding that children create language through a
process of social engagement with other language users. His
work also led to the recognition of the complexity of
language in use, that every utterance serves several
functions at once, and that the context of the language
situation influences the meaning being created. Halliday
contends that at the same time learners are using language,
they are learning language, learning through language, and
learning about language. Not until we were able to
appreciate the complexity of children’s oral language
development did it become possible for us to consider young
children’s awareness of and interactions with written
language.

Detailed studies of young children’s behavior provided
compelling evidence that learning language and literacy is'a
constructive, purposeful, active process (Bissex, 1980;
Clay, 1975, 1979; Y. M. Goodman, 1986; Harste, Woodward, and

Burke, 1984) and that many children engage in literacy

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36
learning well before they enter school. Clay concluded that
literate environments were associated with young children’s
later successes with school literacy. Bissex’s case study
of her son’s literacy learning showed that it shared many of
the characteristics of oral language development--it is
functional and communicative, and it follows certain stages
of development. Hartse, Burke and Woodward discovered that
the processes and strategies young children use to make
sense of written language are the same as those used by
adults--text intent, negotiability, risk—taking and fine—
tuning language with language.

Donald Graves’ work (1983) with writing found that
children learn to write and that their writing continues to
develop when they have opportunities to write in a
supportive environment. Graves(1983), Caulkins(1983,1986)
and Dyson(1984) discovered that creativity, risk taking, and
hypothesis testing frequent in other forms of language
development also occurred when children wrote. They also
determined that writing like reading was a social process.

We have come to understand reading as a
"psycholinguistic guessing game" based primarily on the work
of Kenneth Goodman, who coined the phrase, and Frank Smith.
Smith and Goodman, working separately, developed the theory
and research which validated the concept of a unified single

reading process as an interaction between the reader, the

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37
text, and language.17 These researchers and their research
challenged the behaviorists’ explanations concerning how
language was learned.

The psycholinguists accused the behaviorists of
ignoring basic linguistic principles in order to fit
language theory into learning theory. They proposed that
language learning and use, both oral and written, were based
on the creative and interpretive efforts of the user to
produce and comprehend meaning through his/her experiences
with language instead of being mechanical and imitative as
the behaviorists suggested.

Behaviorists relied on the concept that the surface
levels of language represented the user’s real meaning. But
the psycholinguists showed that not all significant features
of language had physical representation, that meaning is
more than just a linear summation of the words in a
sentence,18 that the rules of language are too complicated
and numerous to be taught, and that humans learn language by
using it in purposeful, meaningful situations.

Echoing and supporting many of the early child-centered

 

17Much earlier Louise Rosenblatt had postulated the
transactional view of reading (1938/1976) whereby she was
the first to describe reading as a transaction between the
reader and the text, establishing the rights of readers tO‘
their own meanings.

18Noam Chomsky’s distinction between surface and deep
structure was of tremendous significance in paving the way
for the widespread recognition that meaning does not lie in
language itself but rather in the relationships that a user
of language intuitively knows (Weaver 1988 33-34).

38

proponents,19

research into language and learning showed
that children are capable, active learners under the right
conditions. Children learn language rules through
hypothesis testing, rather than through enforcement.
Language learning is dependent only on a meaningful
environment in which language learners can experiment with

language elements in order to determine which features are

necessary to communicate their needs and messages.

Basals and Reading Instruction

In essence the research leading to what has become
whole language philosophy has called into question many of
the beliefs and practices of teaching our children to read
and write in the traditional educational system. Nowhere is
this more evident than in the ’part-to-whole’ logic of
conventional educational wisdom in the teaching of reading
through the basal reading programs.

A part-to-whole logic has been the guiding principle in
the design of reading programs in American schools since
colonial days. With the publication of The New England

Primer in 1683, the prototype of the basal reader was born.

 

19Shannon (1990) summarizes that "The idea that
children construct the rules of language and use it
creatively was essential to many early child-centered
progressives’, freeschoolers’, and open educators’
conceptions of how school should be organized to support
students’ learning. Language learning in many progressive
schools had long been a psycholinguistic experiment" (134-
35).

39
In 1919 contributing to the principles of scientific
management, William Gray published the "Principles of Method
in Teaching Reading, as Derived from Scientific
Investigation" in the National Society for the Study of
Education’s yearbook. In his article Gray articulated the
key criteria20 on which basals are still constructed.
These principles, together with Thorndyke’s laws of
learning, have dominated reading instruction through the
basal reader ever since (Cuban 1984).

Basal series are based on behaviorists’ part-to-whole
logical notions of learning to read. Goodman (1986)
describes the predominance of part-to-whole instruction this
way:

It seems so logical to think that little children could

best learn simple little things. We took apart

language and turned it into words, syllables, and
isolated sounds. Unfortunately, we also postponed its
natural purpose-—the communication of meaning——and
turned it into a set of abstractions, unrelated to the

needs and experiences of the children we sought to
help.(7)

Not only is language fragmented into little pieces for
instructional purposes, but the processes by which children
learn language have been cleaved into bits of behavior

called "skills" which are believed to occur in a

 

20Gray outlined "forty-eight principles covering skill
knowledge norms for student progress throughout the grades,
suggestions for oral and silent reading,.... Gray stressed
the utility of skills and standardization of practice...the
use of standardized tests to determine students’ competence,
and the scientific development of curricular
materials...(Shannon 1990 12).

4O
hierarchial fashion. The purpose of the basal programs is
to teach the skills of reading through a comprehensive scope
and sequence scheme that includes provisions for readiness,
phonics, word identification, comprehension, and study
skills development through texts, workbooks, assessments and
teacher’s manuals. To learn to read, children must master
these skills in the stated hierarchial progression. This
belief does not take into account what research shows that
readers naturally do to comprehend texts or to develop

literate behavior.

A Grassroots Reform

Yetta Goodman (1989) tells us that in the late 1970s, a
number of educators21 began using the term whole language
to describe and talk about new ideas about language
(generated by the knowledge explosion surrounding oral and
written language development and the reading and writing
processes) and about teachers and learners, and what these
meant in terms of implementation. She stated that "We
needed language to express our new meanings"(115). Although
their intention was not to name a new belief system or start
a reform movement, that is exactly what happened.

When teachers began to develop new knowledge and

insights about language learning, they realized that

 

21Harste and Burke(1977); Watson(1978); K. Goodman and
Y. Goodman(1979).

41
"students needed to use language to solve problems that were
significant and meaningful to their daily lives in order to
take charge of their own learning" (K. Goodman, Smith,
Meredith, and Y. Goodman 1987). At the same time, the
teachers realized that they had to change their views about
how language was learned, and their roles as teachers of
language. A grassroots reform movement, called whole
language, began.

Although the scientific managers saw learning as a
mechanical, sequential, scientific process whereby the
learner is a passive receptacle which receives knowledge
which can be measured, whole language advocates base their
ideas on the current research which suggests that learning,
especially literacy learning, is an active, constructive,
integrative, social process.

Judith Newman(1985) defines whole language as a
philosophical stance:

It’s a description of how some teachers and researchers

have been exploring the practical applications of

recent theoretical arguments which have arisen from
research in linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociology,
anthropology, philosophy, child development,

curriculum, composition, literary theory, semiotics,
and other fields of study." (Theory 1)

The principles of teaching and learning derived from
the research that whole language teachers follow are
outlined by Constance Weaver(1990):

1. Children grow and learn most readily when they

actively pursue their own learning.

42
2. To foster emergent reading and writing in
particular, whole language teachers attempt to
replicate the strategies parents use successfully to
stimulate the acquisition of language and the "natural"

acquisition of literacy.

3. Whole language teaching is based upon the
observation that much of what children learn--such as
functional command of structure of their native
language--is learned with little, if any, direct

instruction.

4. Recognizing students’ incredible ability to learn
complex processes by engaging in those processes, whole
language teachers conceptualize direct teaching much

differently than traditional teachers.

5. Whole language learning——and the teaching that
stimulates it--proceeds more from the whole-to-part

than from the part-to-whole.

6. Knowing that language and literacy are best
developed through functional use, whole language
teachers thus engage students in reading and
writing, speaking and listening, for a variety of

authentic purposes.

43
7. A whole language philosophy asserts that in order to
grow and learn, teachers and children must all be
learners, risk-takers, and decision makers, taking
significant responsibility for learning within the

classroom.

8. In whole language classrooms, learning is often

fostered through social interaction.

9. In whole language classrooms, children are treated
as capable and developing, not as incapable and

deficient.

10. In whole language classrooms, typically there are
few behavior problems, not only because students are
more actively involved in learning, but because
students are given the opportunity to develop self-

control rather than merely submit to teacher control.

11. In whole language classrooms, assessment is
intertwined with learning and teaching; though periodic
assessment may be preplanned and structured, daily
learning experiences also provide opportunities for
assessment-~which in turn leads to modification of

teaching, as necessary.

12. A whole language philosophy reflects and encourages

44
a far different concept of literacy than that reflected

in traditional classrooms.

13. Whole language classrooms foster the kinds of
attitudes and behaviors needed in a technologically

advanced, democratic society. (Understanding Whole

Language 22-26)

Whole language, Frank Smith (1992) says, is a way of
thinking about teaching, not any one method of teaching.
Whole language teachers have "respect for language" and
"respect for learners," and these teachers intend to
translate this respect into "meaningful and productive
activities" (440).

To that end Judith Lindfors (1984) suggests that what
and how we teach ought to be derived from what and how
students learn. Thus whole language teachers believe that
knowledge is the active creation of meaning by each learner.
They recognize that there is a distinct difference between
learning and teaching, that learning and teaching are not
mirror images of one another. Whole language teachers focus
on the learner’s processes of coming to know and derive
their teaching strategies from these observations. To that
end, whole language teachers must first see themselves as
learners. Then through the understanding of their own
learning, teachers are able to help students become active

learners.

45

For the teacher who subscribes to this philosophy, the
impetus for change is great: they see literacy in a new
light, and they see new roles for themselves and their
students.

Whole language is often defined as many things to many
people which in itself can be problematic as Connie Weaver
(1992) suggests. Lee Gunderson (1989) writes, "There are as
many manifestations of whole language instruction as there
are whole language teachers"(4l). This is because whole
language is not a specific approach or textbook series; it
is not one single method or particular practice; it is not a
pre-packaged program of specific learning activities. It is
a belief system-—a belief system based on a plethora of
research about how children learn; a belief system that is
articulated by those who practice it. Rhodes and Shanklin
(1989) assert that

What whole language teachers have in common is a

theoretical underpinning about literacy learning and

instruction and a commitment to a continued exploration
of theory and practice. The classroom implementation
of whole language philosophy may be very different from
teacher to teacher and evolves as teachers continually

reflect on their evolving philosophies of learning and
teaching (qtd in Weaver 1990 8).

At the core of a whole language belief system is the
concept that decision making must be placed in the hands of
teachers and learners. This belief system "’challenges many
of the fundamental tenets of classrooms as we know them’"

(Fulwiler qtd in Weaver 1992 41), and it clearly challenges

46
the traditional "factory model" of education. To embrace a
whole language philosophy requires what Larry Cuban calls a
"second—order change," a shift in authority: students as
primary makers of knowledge are listened to and teachers
serve as fellow learners. Students and teachers are
empowered to make day-to-day decisions based not on stated
curriculum or questions at the end of texts, but based on
their observations of what children are trying to
accomplish.

This whole language movement seems to have all the
elements needed to reform education--making teachers
decision makers and also creating reading/writing and
thinking classrooms. It is supported by teachers well aware
of the need for changes; who are not satisfied with current
curriculum and approaches; who have informed themselves
about research in language and learning; who are ready to
make changes; and who do not want to be silenced.22 The
difficulty is that this movement challenges the traditional
scientific/behaviorist model of education.

Movement or change towards a whole language philosophy

has often met with resistance and difficulties for three

 

22The force and power of this movement can be
demonstrated by the many TAWL (Teachers Applying Whole
Language) groups which have arisen since 1978 and numerous
publications such as Breaking Ground (Hansen, Graves,
Newkirk 1985), Whole Language: Theory and Use(Newman 1985),
The Whole Language Evaluation Book (Goodman, Goodman and
Hood 1989), In the Middle: Writing. Reading and Learning
with Adolescents (Atwell 1987) , Transitionstrom Literature
to Literacy (Routman 1988), and many others.

47
reasons. First, the nature of whole language assumes a
decision making role for teachers. It threatens those in
traditional decision making positions--government, school
boards, parents, administrators, textbook publishers and
others-—by taking away the control that these groups have
had over classrooms. It challenges school and state
educational systems structured on the principles of
scientific management.

Secondly whole language teachers have the difficult
task of establishing an environment that will provide
support for all students’ whole language growth in
educational systems which are primarily based on principles
of behaviorism. Although there are many examples of
suggestions about how to accomplish this in books and
articles, "most of these efforts ignore the antagonistic
context in which teachers must conduct their child—centered
work" (Shannon 142).23

Finally, few teachers today have experienced learning
in a whole language classroom and have the difficult task of
modifying and changing their "familiar and reliable
conceptions" of what the roles of students, teachers, and
schools are, and what they believe learning and teaching
are. Thus, even those teachers who wish to take control of

their classrooms framed by a whole language belief system

 

23See for example Routman (1988), Hanson (1987), Vacca
and Rasinski (1992), Newman (1985) and Goodman (1986).

48

find the change attempts to be very difficult.

Chapter Five

METHODOLOGY

"Because whole language teachers operate on the basis of
well-developed theory and use it to plan their teaching, one
cannot usefully study or evaluate whole language classrooms
outside of the theoretical context whole language derives
from. Reductionist, experimental paradigms are of limited
utility in studying whole language classrooms."(K. Goodman,
1989 211)

Theoretical Base

To investigate the problem I propose here, discovering
teachers’ perceptions of change towards a whole language
directed classroom, a quantitative experimental study would
not tell me what I really want to know: the realities of the
experience of teachers other than myself and how those
teachers think and feel about that experience. Knowing that
I can never "know"--in the same sense that I l'know" my own
thoughts and feelings--what another person’s experience is
"really" like, I want, nevertheless, to get as close to that
knowing as possible. I have, therefore, chosen as my
principle research instrument in-depth interviewing.

A basic assumption in in—depth interviewing research,
according to Seidman, is that the meaning people make of
their experience affects the way they carry out that
experience. To observe a teacher, student, principal, or

counselor provides access to his or her behavior. But,

49

SO
interviewing allows the researcher to go beyond, to put
behavior in context, and it also provides access to
understanding their actions.

Fullan’s perspective that "An understanding of what
reality is from the point of view of people within the role
is an essential starting point for constructing a practical
theory of the meaning of change attempts"(130) is especially
important with respect to whole language teachers.

A significant part of this study on teachers and change
is based on the assumption that it is possible to discover
motives and meanings of other persons through our
connections with them, through their own words as they
communicate with us, and through our knowledge of our own
words and actions as we see them reflected in others. As we
find support through our own experience and through hearing
the repeated experience of others, we come as close as
possible to knowledge about other human beings.

Gomez(1992) points out that research based on cognitive
psychology indicates that it is not only what is known that
is important for teacher learning, but how this knowledge is
processed, i.e., personally organized and mediated. There
is increasing evidence that the personal experience
individuals bring with them to teaching exerts a powerful
influence on how the professional knowledge is understood
and used. More importantly these personal perspectives
serve as a major driving force for pedagogical decisions in

a teaching career (Crow, 1988; Mayher, 1990; Vinz, 1991):

51

...there is no doubt that our holistic ways of knowing

are best exemplified by and rooted in our personal

stories. They create the space with which we explore
our own place in the world. They not only help us
consolidate and frame our knowledge of the world, but
our own stories and those we hear from others are
particularly crucial in helping us understand human

motives and actions. (Mayher 99)

Not only must we hear others’ stories, but we must hear
them in their own words and in their own ways. To that end
I have chosen to allow the participants to tell their
stories in their own words and in their own way beginning
with Chapter Six, with minimal explication, saving the
majority of my comments until the final chapters, breaking
with some academic traditions. I want them to be heard.
Ruth Vinz(1992) responds to the same concern when she asks:

Where are the voices of those less powerful, including

the teachers, who are often silenced? If there is a

belief, as the rhetoric portrays in democracy in

education, those who research teachers’ work need to be
silent if they are to hear what teachers say.(177)

When we work with personal narratives, we must keep in
mind whose voice we want to hear and are hearing.24 Too
often research has a way of also silencing those being
researched simply through the power of the voice of the
academic/scholar/critic who is choosing and organizing what
is to be heard and who comments so thoroughly and

conclusively on the meaning of what is being said.

The very virtue of the position of the academic can negate

 

24For a further discussion of "Whose voice?" see
Interpreting Women’s Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal
Narratives, edited by The Personal Narrative Group (1989)
and Narrative Analysis by Catherine Kohler Riessman (1993).

52

the position/voice of the teacher/practitioner.25

Patti Lather writes of this research/researcher
dichotomy, giving voice to the voiceless, heeding the
unheeded, committed to making a "space from which the
unvoiced/unheeded can be said/heard"(124). Lather is
concerned with the fact that in conducting narrative
inquiry, we literally turn a life into a text for our own
gain, not theirs. Lather suggests this new approach (which
she calls "praxis-oriented research") allows for the

knower and the known [to be] brought together in

representational form...that startle[s] complacent[cy]

comfort with older forms.... Disallowing claims to

certainty, totality, and archimedean standpoints

outside of flux and human interest is to tell a story

that retrieves inquiry as a ’way’ that is always

already beginning, always already ’on the way,’ a

’different story that makes a critical difference’ not

only at the site of thought but also at the site of
sociopolitical praxis. (150-51)

Researcher Background

Although I was relatively new to this community, where
I would be conducting my research, information about my
holistic approach to learning travelled fast. The
university had not had an English education person for three
years. I had been hired in that position to not only
develop the university programs, but also to develop the

university’s connections with the schools.

 

25See Brunner for further discussion of this issue,
especially Chapter Two.

53

Although many of the schools and teachers were
tentative about what I would be doing with them and for them
as the English Education Coordinator, some teachers were
pointed out to me as people I might want to connect with. I
was very excited to find so many people interested in
language and a holistic philosophy.

However, my past experience and practice had taught me
that interest and knowledge did not always compute into
practice. I spent a year visiting classrooms and leading
teacher workshops and listening with a critical eye and ear
to seek out classrooms which put a holistic philosophy into

practice.
Choice of Research Site

The local school system that I would most often be
working in had been initially identified through many
channels as an exceptional school system with respect to
variety of teaching styles, teacher expertise, parent
involvement, administrative support, class size, and
facilities. The teachers regularly are offered a variety of
staff development opportunities and are expected through
state and local mandates to make changes in their reading
and writing programs. Reading Recovery is expected to be
part of the program in the future. Whole language
approaches are being encouraged, and portfolio assessment is

taking hold in a number of the schools.

54

At the same time that these positive forces are at
work, this state is experiencing extreme financial
difficulties, and school funding has been and is being
severely curtailed as new programs are expected to be
implemented. Resources are dwindling, and class sizes are
growing. Many outside forces were and are contributing and
forcing changes in this system.

As I explored classrooms and met with teachers, I did
discover a number of teachers who were actively pursuing
holistic education and practice. The system has been
involved with a number of whole language groups and has
actively sought out whole language summer workshops led by
New Zealand faculty and has supported teacher attendance.

I also discovered that although these opportunities for
change in teaching practice were readily offered and
teachers were encouraged to grow, there were limits. The
system, as most systems do, looked to local, state and
national standardized tests as evidence of successes.
Anything new was acceptable as long as the standard
curriculum was followed. It was mandated that basals were
to be used at least forty percent of the time, and
everything new had to be cleared by the superintendent.
Clearly there seemed to be a contradiction in language and
Ibehavior. However, one school in this system did not follow
the norm.

North Park Elementary School sits up on a hill about

sevrn1ndles out from the city. It is a relatively new

55
building (sixteen years old or so) compared to the other
elementary schools in the district. All the classrooms in
the school open onto a central area which has a small
amphitheater in the center and a lab area complete with
counters and sinks.

Basals are nowhere to be seen in this school. Instead,
every nook and cranny of the building is filled with books,
paperback and hardcover. Children’s artwork and writing are
on every wall. The teachers’ lounge is filled with
professional journals, and on the wall is a chart
identifying the characteristics of each teacher from a
Myers/Briggs test next to a calendar which identifies what
workshops teachers have gone to, which ones they will be
leading and what workshops are happening in the near future.

This school has a local and state reputation for being
innovative and independent. It has recently won a number of
awards statewide. This school piqued my curiosity because
of its uniqueness in a system that did not seem to value
diversity. It is in this school that the participants in

this project work.

Selection of Participants

Seven elementary teachers, K-5 from three different
schools in this district, were initially interviewed. These
teachers were identified through whole language teacher

workshops, conferences, and other informal channels. They

56
have taught from three to twenty-seven years. However, as
the interview data was developed, it became obvious that
three of the teachers, located at North Park, were central
to the changes all were making. The newer teachers were
being motivated and guided by the experiences and practices
of these three. Because of the volume of data and the
leadership of the three, I determined to focus just on these

three main teachers for the purposes of this study.

Interview Process

The process of the in-depth phenomenological interviews
to be used in this study followed closely the methodology
developed by Seidman (1991). The process is generally
opened but focused. I did not use a specific interview
guide, but the interview was neither casual nor open to
infinite length. The sequence was for the participant to
review the constitutive factors of her life as a teacher
before coming to the decision to become a whole language
teacher, the details of her experiences as she has evolved
into a whole language teacher, and, finally, to reflect on
her past and present experiences and talk about the
meaning(s) that this experience has for her.

The purpose of this method of research is "meaning-
making." My task was to listen to each teacher as she
reflected aloud on past and present experiences and

cxonsidered them in relation to significance in her life as a

S7
teacher.

Each participant was interviewed three times, each time
for a length of a ninety-minute tape. Each interview was
spaced at least one week apart to allow for reflection but
no longer than three weeks. The interviews were held in a
place mutually agreeable to participant and interviewer.

The three interviews were held at the participants’
classrooms, offices or homes because of time constraints for
a number of the interviewees.

Prior to the interviews, contact was made by phone, a
confirmation letter sent, and a date set for the first
meeting. This initial first short contact was made to
explain the purpose and nature of the research and to have
the participant fill out a brief information form and
consent form. Dates were then set for the next three
meetings.

Interviews were transcribed verbatim (I shared the task
with a typist.) resulting in manuscripts of sixty to ninety
single spaced pages per participant. Because of the volume
of this work, some compromise with the totally verbatim
transcript has been made: for example, abbreviating or
eliminating interviewer statements and omitting management
details that are unrelated or unimportant to the focus of

the interview.

58

Profiles

The interviews in transcription form which were strong
in all three sections (each section represented a taped
session), complete in the sense of not missing significant
material (so that there are no puzzling omissions in the
story), and compelling in the story—telling and meaning-
making, were selected for "profiles." A profile, as
developed by Seidman (1991), is composed from the transcript
of an interview series. The words of the interviewer are
omitted, and the participant’s story stands alone. The
words are entirely those of the participant unless it is
necessary, for reasons of clarity, to add a word or phrase,
which will then appear in brackets.

The profile was constructed in the following manner:

1) Read the transcript, underlining words and phrases

which should not be omitted from the story.

2) Retype, or cut and paste, the manuscript, which
should now be reduced by one-half to one-third the

original length.

3) Edit, punctuate, paragraph, and rearrange for
coherence and flow of the story, coding and otherwise
disguising identifiable material and prOper names,

omitting repetitive passages and awkward expressions

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59
that might do damage to the dignity of the participant,

or that add nothing to the story.

4) Use ellipses to show breaks in time, speaker and

theme changes.

The interviews were also read (in transcription form)
to identify overlapping themes, phrases, and experiences of
the participants. Texts were annotated with respect to
these connections and collated accordingly for quick
reference. Annotations may appear after each profile. (The
mechanics of this process required more than one copy of
each transcript.) The total process is both analytical and
aesthetic; the words "construct" and "compose" are both
needed in the description of the profile-making process.

The important goal is that it is the participant’s voice we
are hearing.

Because of the importance of maintaining the integrity
of the participants and their voices, the transcripts of the
final profiles were returned to the participants to read to
make sure that their voices were clearly and correctly

represented.26

 

26Laslett and Rapoport (1975) "urge ’giving back’ to
respondents a picture of how data are viewed, both to return
something to research participants and to check descriptive
and interpretive/analytical validity" (937).

6O

* A note about organization: A brief commentary is included
after Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 concerning each participant’s
early life stories. However, I do not comment on the
stories related in Chapters 10, 11 and 12 until Chapters 13
and 14 because the stories reflect each teacher’s version of
the events that occurred when they came together at North
Park School. For these teachers to accomplish what they did

required a collective effort.

Part II:

TEXTS

Chapter Six

VOICES OF TEACHERS
"Their story, yours, mine—-it’s what we all carry with us on

this trip we take, and we owe it to each other to respect
our stories and learn from them" (Coles 30).

Not all teachers have been silenced. There are many
good teachers who actively engage in their own learning, who
observe students, who reflect on their own teaching and
classrooms, who read and consciously make efforts to create
better learning environments, and who attempt to grow in
their profession. These teachers are often praised for
their good teaching and innovations, but just as often they
are viewed as rebels or subversives because they do not
follow with tradition or the system or submit to outside
authorities easily. Often these teachers are whole language
teachers.

It seems incredibly important that we explore how some
teachers have made the move to whole language in that there
are no teachers today who were students in whole language
classrooms. As teachers move away from the traditional
scientific management classroom towards a holistic one, they
are moving into unexplored territory. This study will help
explore this move to new territory.

This story is about three of these teachers--Joyce,

61

62
Marilyn, and Winnie.27 They work together at North Park
Elementary School in a small northern New England community.
All three have lived in this community for most of their
lives. They have grown and changed over many years of
teaching in a number of schools. Their candor, their sense
of humor and the love for their profession and their
students don’t necessarily make them different from other
teachers. But their struggle to create not only a
classroom, but a whole school based on whole language in a
system guided by traditional behavioristic/scientific
management principles, their unwavering tenacity against
many obstacles, and their successes and their devotion to

learning do.

******

Joyce

The first of the three that I met was Joyce. Joyce, a
tall dark-haired woman, has taught language arts for twenty—
four years at the fifth, seventh and eighth grade levels.
She has been involved in state and national activities and
has recently finished her masters degree. Currently she
teaches fifth grade in their school and has just been asked
to teach Children’s Literature at a nearby university. She
is often the spokesperson for the group. One of the

questions that I asked her was what she thought a good

 

27All names of people and schools are pseudonyms.

63

teacher was. She replied,

It is my goal as a teacher to know my students
well enough; to know the methods and the materials well
enough; and to know how and when to match those three
things together. I think that’s what teaching is...
knowing the approaches, knowing the resources, and
knowing the learner. What I think a teacher does is to
find the point at which that learner is ready to learn
that next thing.

I don’t think that somebody stands up and gives
all kinds of information. It’s the ability to assess
the students that they’re working with. I’ve thought
about this with my own coming to believe in whole
language. I worked through this process without ever
having a theory--without having a teaching/learning
theory because I don’t ever remember learning in
college, or anyone even discussing a teaching/learning
theory.

And the other thing is that they [teachers] see
themselves as learners too. They don’t have all the
answers. I think that’s a real critical piece. That
they [teachers] are life-long learners and they are not
afraid to say, ’I don't know. Let’s figure out where
we are going to go to find that answer.’

I think about what I do. What was the theory

behind what I did? Why did I do it? What did I set

64
out to accomplish? How does that fit into learning
process? How does that fit into how people learn? You
know, looking at it in a deeper way, not cursory, not
across the top of it. If something is not working,
then which of the conditions for learning am I not
putting in place?

******

From Joyce’s answer several things are apparent. For
Joyce decision making is a critical part of being a teacher.
The decisions she deems most important reflect her ability
to choose resources appropriate for her students. She
suggests that she is not tied down to one approach, one
resource, but knows many approaches and resources, and the
ones she chooses to use are reflected by the needs of her
students. This decision in turn implies that she sees
students as individuals, with unique needs and abilities,
not as part of a larger group. And we also get a sense that
the decisions she makes for her students are based on her
observation of her students.

Theory also is something that she thinks is important.
But true to many teachers’ experiences, theory was not
central to her learning to become a teacher. Instead she
suggests that her theory developed out of her experiences as
a teacher. Her final focus on the fact that she believes
that teachers need to be learners supports her own theory

building.

65
What appears central to Joyce is the fact that
reflection, ("I think about what I do. What was the theory
behind what I did? Why did I do it?") seems to be the way
she learns and builds her theory for teaching and learning.

For Joyce learning is inquiry, not answers.

******

Marilyn

Marilyn has taught early elementary for sixteen years
and says she likes to look at classroom practices through
research. At present she has developed and is teaching in a
multi-age classroom, first through third. She radiates an
energy and excitement in every move and smile. She is well
read, and the others consider her to be a theorist. Marilyn

begins,

I just always need to be learning, I guess
because I am a reader. If you are a reader, you are
always learning.

It’s exciting to see the first graders get excited
about books, about writing, to watch them become
readers and writers. With the research I’ve read in
the last few years, looking at your student, knowing
that they are developmentally going to go through
stages, I am able to point to that and say, ’Aha,

when I see this happen, I know what’s going to happen

66
next.’

I go into my classroom and get it all set up and
it looks so nice, and then, [I ask myself] Why? It’s
for the kids that are coming. You might someday feel
like, ’Ooooh, it’s time to get up and go to school
today, but I don’t feel that well.’ But, by the time
you get there and these little kids come bouncing in,
then you know this is why I’m here. It’s because of

them!

******

Marilyn, in her brief words, emanates an excitement
about learning for herself and her students. She teaches
because of her students and the excitement she feels when
they are learning. One could speculate that because she has
a sense of being a learner herself, she models that
excitement for her students.

She also exudes a confidence in her ability to observe
her students and know what they are about and where they are
going. She implies that being a teacher requires keen
observation of her students and an expectation that they all
are learners. Her confidence, she tells us, is based on the
research she reads.

For Marilyn learning seems to be based both on her

reading research and experiential.

******

67

Winnie

Winnie has taught for thirty years primarily at the
first grade level. She loves teaching, and she defines
herself, as do the others, as the practitioner. She says,
"Probably I am an uncommon teacher. I forget the
[theoretical] vocabulary and carry the meaning. I won’t use
it with my first graders anyway. I would rather see on my
tombstone ’She was a good practical teacher rather than she
could sling the lingo’." On my first visit to her classroom
she was twirling a soup can on the end of a long string with
all her might to demonstrate sound to her students. She is
a grandmotherly woman with a gentle smile and a twinkle in

her eye. Winnie states,

I want to go into my classroom everyday with a
positive attitude and help a child along the way. I
want to try to have every child not work to my
expectations, but to be able to do the best that he or
she can. I will accept them if I feel that they are
working to the best that they can. It irritates me
to have a child sit back and say ’I can’t’ when they
don’t try. I think we need expectations for our
children, and this is part of becoming a kid watcher,
knowing what a child is capable of and trying to help
them achieve as much as they can. I am here to help

them. To help them through life’s terrible moments

68
like leaving their mother for the first time, to give
him understanding, to cuddle her and mother her if it’s
needed, and to teach. Compassion is a big part of
being a teacher.

I don’t feel that I am a giver of knowledge. I
want to instill in children where they can go find that
knowledge and that nobody is going to give it to them.
They need to know where to find it themselves.

We affect children in different ways. I thought
it was mandatory when I grew up that a teacher kept her
hanky in her bra. There were a lot of facts my
teachers gave me, but I have forgotten most of them,
but I do remember every one of them that kept her hanky
in her bra. Things that children remember are very
eye-opening sometimes. Teaching is definitely not
routine. You do not know what is going to happen from

one minute to the next.

******

For Winnie the student also is at the core of her

teaching. She sees her role as guiding and encouraging

students to go as far as they can. Although she says she

ignores theory on the surface, we see much theory in what

she says. Harste tells us that whole language is a

"practical theory" of learning, and Winnie seems to reflect

and accept this concept.

In Winnie’s definition she also gives us a glimpse of

69
how a past experience has helped her develop her ideas about
how a teacher influences students manifesting Janet Emig’s
(1983) summary of the teaching-learning relationship:
That teachers teach and children learn no one will
deny. But to believe that children learn because

teachers teach and only what teachers explicitly teach
is to engage in magical thinking (135).

******

When these three teachers came together about sixteen
years ago, some very exciting things began to happen in
their school.

In the next chapters we will hear the stories of these
three New England educators who have not been silenced, who
have gained decision making positions, who have transformed
their classrooms into whole language classrooms. With the
weaving together in their own voices their memories of their
own schooling, their first years of teaching and their
changing perspectives on teaching and learning, their
stories will illuminate the realities of one group of

educators’ transition to whole language.

******

Voices from the Past

"Learning from the past, finding who and what helped us is a
medium for change." Ruth Vinz

Little research exists to show that teachers draw on

personal experiences to form their pedagogical and

7O

ideological theories about teaching, although
autobiographical inquiry, as a source of knowledge for
teachers, has recently gained the attention of educational
researchers. For example, in Stories Lives Tell(1991)
Witherell and Nodding present a series of research inquiries
into teachers’ experiences. Also in Ruth Vinz’s recent
dissertation she explores how "the stories we tell of our
formative learning experiences may offer insights into the
roots of our current beliefs and practices" (52,53). John
Mayher(1990) suggests that

...the processes of stories provide a powerful way to

understand how we think and feel, how we develop and

sustain our identities, how we come to understand

others as individuals and as part of our culture, and
how we come to know the world (100).

And Jerome Bruner(1986) suggests that
We know the world in different ways, from different
stances and each of these ways in which we know it

produces different structures or representations, or,
indeed, realities" (105).

Their stories, the realities, which Winnie, Marilyn and
Joyce share reach back to their early lives in school and
family. Their experiences and reflections on these times
set the stage for how they would perceive their roles as
teacher and student in later life and how they would
approach the process of change and specifically change
toward whole language.

Thus they begin at the beginning with their memories of

their early lives, their families and their schooling.

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71
Their stories and their reflections bring to light some of
the reasons for their perceptions of their roles as teachers

today.

******

The implications of their stories for teachers and
policymakers and change agents will be the possibility for
new connections, insights, and understandings for other
teachers and administrators who are considering a change
toward whole language and what a change toward whole

language means.

Chapter Seven

THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

Joyce
"...getting an education was the most important thing.
We were totally surrounded by it, and we grew up in a

community where there were very few people who had a
college education."

my'interviews with Jche took place in her comfortable
living room filled with books and pictures of her daughter
over cozy cups of tea. She was the most difficult of the
three to pin down for our talks as she had just taken a new
position as a literacy consultant for a whole language
publishing company and had been travelling in all her spare
time to take and give workshops. Her energy and excitement
about learning and teaching kept the conversation moving at

breakneck speed.

******

I’ve written this story about fifteen times, I think,
for different things that I’ve had to do. I started school
in Allagash, Maine, in a one room schoolhouse. My
grandmother was the teacher, and my mother was teaching
about five miles up the road in another school.

When I went to school the first day, I hid under the

bed and my father took me out from under the bed and carried

72

73
me about half a mile up to school and put me in my desk in
my grandmother’s classroom. Then he left and drove thirty-
two miles to go to high school. From that very first moment
when I knew I was afraid of it, I realized the absolute
importance of education because here was my father who was
thirty-years-old and going back to get his education. He
worked nights and drove thirty miles one way to go to high
school.

My dad had started out working for the forestry
service. He had quit school when he was in the sixth or
seventh grade. His father was killed, and he had four or
five brothers and sisters, so he went to work and then he
went into the Navy and came back and went to Allagash to get
his eighth grade diploma. Then he went nights for his
freshman and sophomore classes, and then traveled to another
district to graduate. After he had gotten his diploma, he
went to work for a land company. He was a land manager. It
was a good job; it was a good promotion for him.

But I remember him telling me that if he had his life
to live over again, he would become a teacher because it was
the most important job in the world. He did not need more
education for his profession. He just went back to school
because he thought it was important.

Two years ago my daughter did an interview with my
father--just taking records of his life and things like
that. When she asked him why he had moved us, he said that

we had moved because they [my parents] wanted us to have a

74
better education. They chose to leave that area because
they wanted us to be closer to a college and to a bigger
school system; and they felt that we would be more apt to go
on to college and get a better education if we were in a
larger school system.

When I heard that on the tape, it was so indicative of
the way we grew up because getting an education was the most
important thing. We were totally surrounded by it, and we
grew up in a community where there were very few people who
had a college education. As a matter of fact, my mother’s

family, obviously, was the one who had the education.

******

I stayed in that one room schoolhouse for about three
months because they were building a new school. My father
was the chairman of the school board at that time and had
spent a lot of time trying to get the state to build a
school where all the kids could come together. I moved from
the one room schoolhouse where my grandmother was the
teacher into the consolidated school. When I moved, my
mother became the principal, and my grandmother was the
kindergarten teacher. I had an aunt who taught sixth grade
and another aunt who taught third grade, and my mother also
taught eighth grade. I was surrounded by teachers.

When I graduated from kindergarten, my father
graduated from high school. He was thirty-two. I remember

going to his high school graduation. I also remember my

75
mother’s college graduation because she had gone to the
Normal School when they gave you your certificate to teach
after two years of college. She went back weekends and
summers to get her four-year degree. My sister and I
started college when we were five and three when Mom went to
school because everything she did, we did with her.

I remember going to college with her. Once she took a
nature course where she had to go out and collect specimens
and things like that. We went with her. It was a whole
family project; everybody went and collected and learned.
That’s where I got to learn about identifying different
kinds of trees and flowers and things through that course

that she took.

******

A Sense of Community

It was 1952. I was five, and I remember sitting in
that one room schoolhouse before I was in the consolidated
one and just being overwhelmed by all those students and
trying to listen and learn everything that was going on
around me. I can still picture it in my mind, exactly what
the set-up of that classroom was, even though I was five. I
think it has real implications of why I believe in multi—age
classrooms today because I really have good memories of it.

I also remember moving into the separate classroom and

feeling isolated, losing that sense of community. I had

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76
thought I was more mature when I was with those older
students. I somehow viewed myself as more a part of that
community. I think that has something to do with why I tend
to look at multi-age classrooms and think that their
philosophy can work.

It was crowded. There were probably fifty or sixty
kids. It was just one room. There was a well where we got
the water, and there was a coat closet--all those things
they talk about, we had them.

I remember more math than I do reading which is
interesting because I don’t really care that much about
math, to be perfectly honest. I remember seeing math
problems on the blackboard, and that the kindergarten kids
were sort of in the middle of the class. I was surrounded
by kids who were learning different things; I was
fascinated by what was going on around me. But I don’t
remember any subject matter. And I remember the hustle and
the bustle of trying to move from that school into the other
classroom and the excitement of having a large school.

It was a brick building. It was really exciting. I
also remember peg boards. We did a lot of things with
geoboards and stuff like that, which is kind of interesting
because we’re into math manipulatives now, but I remember
doing a lot of that and really enjoying making designs with
.pegboards.

In the consolidated school, we had tables and we sat

together at tables. I remember sitting at my table, which

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77
was by the window, and having those Dick and Jane books and
continuing to work on the pegboards. For some reason, that
really sticks out in my mind. I don’t remember coloring or
cutting out or things like that. It was more academic than

it was developmental and very work oriented.

******

Marking Time by Books

I learned to read in my grandmother’s classroom, but I
think I already knew how. I had a Sally, Dick, and Jane
book, and when I was ready, my grandmother sent someone up
to my mother’s office to get her, and I read outloud to her.

My grandmother was just an incredible reader. She had
eight children of her own. She had three sisters who were
teachers too. One of her sisters died, and she adopted the
children, so there were four more——so she had twelve. They
were very, very poor, but they were always in books. As a
matter of fact, I still have a lot of my grandmother’s
books. I have a first edition of The Five Little Peppers
that was hers.

As a child, I remember visiting her and going into the
bedroom where those books were and sitting on the floor and
reading. So, when I got to her kindergarten class, I
already knew reading was really important to her. She read
to us a lot, although she’s not the teacher that I remember

reading to me.

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78

It was my second grade teacher whom I can remember
reading Hiawatha. I can remember it just as plain as
anything. As I came up through the grades I remembered
teachers by the books they read to me, not by the kinds of
things that they did with me.

My third grade teacher, who was my aunt, read a Roy
Rogers book, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I
remember reading Little Women and The Bobbsev Twins and Call
of the Wild. But, I especially remember that Roy Rogers
book. It was such a stupid book. I’ve looked for it
because I’d like to own it. Roy was chasing a bandit and
there was a tunnel under the Rio Grande River. I could
never figure out how the bandit got to the other side and
everyday I would just wait; I was so curious to figure out
how that happened. I remember that book most vividly. I
think about that today. When I read to my students, I try
to end a story some place where it’s a real cliffhanger
because I remember how excited I would be for her to read
the next day.

The only basal reader I remember using was in first
grade. We had gotten new basal readers, and when you opened
up the book, there were two white pages. I drew a snowman
on one. It was such a perfect snowman; it had three great
big circles. But, the teacher got very angry with me. She
said I had defaced that book, and she said, "How could you
do that? Your mother is the principal, and your father is

the chairman of the school board, and you’re wasting tax

79
payers’ money."

I couldn’t understand it because all I thought I had
done was to draw this beautiful picture. That wasn’t a very
good memory, and that's the only memory I have of that first
grade class. I guess it points out how careful you have to
be. You don’t really know what kids will remember. I’m
sure she wasn't aware that she was traumatizing me.

I left there when I was in the fifth grade. One of the
first things I had to do in my new school was take an IQ
test and an achievement test. I got my first B in science,
and it was very traumatic.

We hadn’t wanted to move, but it didn’t take very long
to adjust. My mother, who had always taught, didn’t teach
that first year. It was kind of nice to have her at home
for a change. Then she got a job and started teaching in
the same school where I had been. I went to the junior
high, and my sister went to the school where my mother was

teaching.

******

One of the first sets of books that we got was a set of
Childcraft. My father was gone during the week to work at
the lumber camps, and he would come home on weekends. When
he would come home, my sister and I would immediately want-
him to read; she would ask him to read a story called Johnny
and His Mule and The Little Engine that Could, and I would

have him read one about a Russian girl who had a hen, and

80
she wanted that hen to lay eggs so she fed it all kinds of
vegetables that were different colors. It was just a stupid
little story, but I loved it.

The other set of books I remember is the complete set
of The Wizard of Oz. The principal and his wife in Allagash
came from Alaska, and they had a complete set of The Wizard
g£_gz books. They were the big ones with the original
drawings on the front, and I remember going to their house
and looking at them. Finally, my mother bought us that set
of books. We were probably in third or fourth grade then.
My parents read them to us outloud. It was wonderful. The
best thing, though, I remember about moving was the library.

I’d never been to a library. It was upstairs over the
fire station. It had two rooms. It was summer time when we
moved, and I would go to that library and get three or four
books and take them home and read all day. I’d take them
back the next day and get more books to read. It was

wonderful to have access to all those books.

******

Books were always the most important things to me. I
mean, reading was the thing that I really enjoyed the most.
I had a young man for a teacher in high school, and he made
us do Shakespeare. I really liked the challenge of what we
had.to do. I remember--I’ll never forget this--he gave us
book reports to do, and one of the books that I read was

Ivanhoe because it was my dad’s book. I still have it too.

81
He gave us a set of questions and one of the questions from
the book report was, "What is the essence of the struggle
inherent in the plot?" This is ninth grade. I don’t
remember anything about Ivanhoe, but I do remember that
question; I knew that was a pretty stupid question. Isn’t
that incredible? What is the essence of the struggle
inherent in the plot? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

We did Merchant of Venice with him, and as a sophomore
I did Julius Caesar. We had to do a term paper. Even
though I didn’t have a clue how to do a term paper, I did
one on Reconstruction after the Civil War. All I remember
is that I stayed home from school the day before it was due
to write it. I basically copied it out of the encyclopedia,
and I misspelled the word "separate" about seven times. I
had to write it 200 times because I had misspelled it.

Since then I have learned that there is a rat in the root of
"separate," and that’s how I learned it--not from the 200
times. I teach all of my students there’s a rat in the
middle of "separate."

When I got to be a junior in high school, I had a
teacher who really made a big difference in my life. His
name was Mr. Peltbender, and he was Jewish. His whole
family had been killed at Auschwitz, and he had scrapbooks.
He formed a book club, and we met after school. We read
choks, and he would assign specific things for us to
analyze, and he would pit one student against the other-~not

in a bad way, but, you know, this is your opinion: you

82
interpret this way and you interpret this way and you defend
it.

We read books by Leon Uris that had to do with the
holocaust like Mila 18 and Exodus. We also read Catcher in
the Rye, and many more. I couldn’t wait to get to his
class. It was really, really exciting. We read books in
class and in the book club afterward, and we did a lot of
writing, analyses and stuff like that. It was wonderful!

If I could go through my life and mark it, I mark it by
the books that I read, by the different books. Learning
came very easily for me. I had really good grades in high

school and in elementary school.

******

Becoming a Teacher

Right after high school I went to college. I didn’t
want to be a teacher, and I didn’t want to go away from home
either. I was very stuck at home. But, I just went to
college to go to college, I guess. There was never any
question that I wouldn’t go. But from the minute I got
there, I loved it. I remember I cried for days before I
left. When it was time to go, I didn’t want to go, and then
when I got there, I didn’t want to go home. It was so
wonderful; I loved it so much! I didn’t like the academics,
but it was the first time I’d been free.

Oh God, I didn’t do any work. The only work I did was

83
in English classes. My parents were horrified. I had
graduated at the top of my class in high school. I think I
got a 2.7 the first semester in college, and I got a 1.9 the
second. I never opened a book. I had a great time, and I
wouldn’t take it back. It was wonderful.

I have very little memory of learning anything that
freshman year other than in English class reading "The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." I loved that. It was such a
wonderful poem. I don’t even remember who the teacher was.

One of my most vivid memories in another English class
was reading Winesbur L Ohio. I told the teacher that I
didn’t like it. He said, "Well, why don’t you like it?" I
said, "I don't know, I just don’t like it." He told me that
I couldn’t come back to class if I didn't give him a reason
for not liking it. He said, "You may as well leave, if you
can’t think and tell me why you don’t like it." I was so
horrified! But I came back and said this book is depressing
and that’s why I don’t like it, and he was happy. I did a
term paper about it based on the symbolic use of hands in
Winesburq. Ohio, and I ended up really liking the book and

learning a lot from the work.

******

I was in an English program, but after my freshman
year, my mother died, and then I decided it was time for me
to settle in and smarten up and stop fooling around. I

decfided.to go into teaching. I think I realized after her

84
death, when people came to her funeral, what an impact she’d
made on people’s lives. I sort of fell into education then.
It made sense. I went back to getting good grades again. I
actually graduated in three years. I took 18 hours and 21
hours and went summers, so all I had left was my student
teaching in that fourth year. I ended up with a major in

junior high English and a minor in history.

******

Steppingstones, Transitions and Decisions

"I had no idea what I was doing. But, I knew it was
right and I knew the kids wanted it and I knew that was
right."

I did my student teaching in a ninth grade English
classroom. While I was there, the special ed teacher was
transferred. So I did five weeks of student teaching, and
then they moved me into that special ed class for two weeks,
and then I finished. Teaching in that special ed classroom
was hellish. It was tough, especially for somebody who
hadn’t really finished student teaching, and I had had no
courses in special education.

I had gotten married at the end of my junior year, and
my husband was a teacher too. We went for five job
interviews and got five contracts, and took the one that
IMide the most money, which ironically was back home. I went

bacmzhome to teach in the place that I had graduated from.

85

I taught junior high English for two years.

****‘k*

I taught seventh and eighth grade English. It was
ability grouped. When I went there to teach, the principal
said to me, "This is the textbook you’re going to use." It
was the Roberts’ Linguistics Series. "My wife looked at
this series and she really likes it. This is what you’re
going to use." The series was never finished. Roberts
died, and nobody else could figure it out. Anyway, it was
interesting because it had the literature and the grammar
kinds of things in it.

But I wasn’t going to teach with that book. I chose
novels. I got multiple copies of texts. We read. We did
Evangeline; we did To Kill a Mockingbird. Nobody had ever
told me, but I just knew that that Roberts’ book wasn’t the
thing to use.

I didn’t have a clue that I couldn’t do that. One of
my groups of eighth graders, who were really smart, were
angry because they didn’t have any basketball or anything
like that at the school. So we spent one whole nine-week
ranking period in which they contacted all the coaches in
the county, did statistical analyses of schools that had
basketball teams, did bulletin boards, interviewed our
principal, did all kinds of writing, and ended up presenting
a proposal to the school board and got basketball back in!

I had no idea what I was doing. But, I knew it was

86

right and the kids wanted it and I knew that was right. I
did not get any flak. But I had gone back into a situation
where my mother had been, and people thought she had walked
on water because she was such a wonderful teacher. Those
would be the kinds of things that she would have done, and
so I went in on her coattails, and people just expected that
what I did would be good whether it was or not. They didn’t
really measure me, I don’t think, by what I was doing. It
was more by her. I really didn’t have my own identity. I

was somebody’s daughter.

******

To me, the classroom was always an extension of my
home. It wasn’t a different place. It wasn’t foreign to
me, and I don’t remember struggling that first year. I’m
sure I must have. Now I listen to my daughter who is
teaching this year, and she’s fretting and fuming. I didn’t
think there was anything I didn’t know. I didn’t think
there was anything I couldn’t do. Teaching today is a lot
more complicated. I mean, new teachers have so many more
things that they have to teach.

One of the things that I remember so vividly that first
year of teaching was that we had to have planbooks, and we
had to have them set up in a certain way—-TRA, teach,
review, and assign. Teach, review, and assign, and the
teach and review were written in blue, and the assign was

written in red so you could pick them out just like that.

87
And that’s how you set up your planbook. I could do
wonderful planbooks.

The principal was always coming up with something. He
came in one day and said, "These are some records that I’ve
gotten on study skills, and you’re going to do those." They
were horrible! So, what I did was at the top of the
planbook, I wrote in the first fifteen minutes of class
these records or whatever it was, and then I did the rest of
my assignments. So, when the principal came in to observe,
I handed in my planbook and my class list, and he went to
the back of the room. He sat down and looked through the
class list to make sure it was right, and he went through
the planbook.

When he gave me back my planbook at the end of the day,
he said, "These are nice plans. Why aren’t you teaching
them?" Oh, I was so angry with him because I had taught
them. He had only come in for fifteen minutes when I was
doing the records. So, I took the planbook and went down
and said, "I want you to write down here that this is where
it is, and I want you to correct it in my planbook. I want
you to change what you’ve written in here because I don’t
want this kind of evaluation."

I just can’t imagine asking teachers to do that today,
although there are systems that do. I’ve had student
teachers who have come to me with that stuff. It’s
frightening.

I had my daughter at the end of that first year, so I

88
decided that I was going to be a good mother and stay home
and take care of her for a year. But, I just couldn’t do
it . I mean I loved being home with her, but what I found
was that the quality of the time wasn’t any better. It was
just quantity and I was not very happy, so I started subbing
again, and then I looked for a job and went to North Park,

and I’ve been there ever since.

******

That was 1973 in the fifth grade. There was only one
fifth grade at that time, and I had a self—contained fifth
grade classroom in the old building. I had twenty-nine
Students my first year. We were at this stage of open
education. We had a superintendent who was very much into
progressive education. He wanted projects and kids doing
their own thing. There was educational renewal and all this
kind of stuff under him. I felt comfortable doing that. It
Wasn’t foreign to me. It was foreign to a lot of people,
but I enjoyed it. I remember doing plays with my students
and we had the Scott Foresman Reading series.

I’m still marking my time by books-—by reading books.
The third grade teacher was getting her masters in reading
at that time, and she was very much into reading outloud,
and there was the fourth grade teacher who did a lot of
reading outloud, and both of them talked to me about how
important it was to read outloud. So, I started doing it

because I remembered what it was like.

89
I was in that building for two or three years before we
zncyved into the new building, but I only taught self-
<:cn1tained for one year. Then they had two fifth grades, and
.JjJn and I started switching. He did math and science, and I
did the language arts.

******

During that period of time Sesame Street was just
hmeginning, and I had four students who could hardly read at
aa].l. I had a television in my classroom, and they watched

£3€zsame Street and Electric Company. I had it up on a file

 

(:Eibinet in the corner so they could watch, just the four of
‘tllem, and they just loved it. They really learned a lot
Iflrom it, too. They just hadn’t gotten to read.

One of them had a real severe speech impediment, and
arrother was a little Indian boy who was so sweet. I must
hirve been working with him on nouns. Come to think of it, I
kilow I was, and I was asking him to give me proper nouns; we
tuad.talked about common nouns and proper nouns. I said,
"(Sould you give me a proper noun?"

He said, "Yes, Mic Mac."

"Oh, what a great word, Evan. Is that the tribe you
belong to?"

He said, "No, no, Mrs. Thatcher. Mic Mac, like you get
at McDonalds. "

It was so cute! He was such a sweet little fellow. I

I‘emember I brought him home with me and took him to

9O
McDonalds. He had never been to McDonalds before, and he
brought home his napkin and the container that had had his
french fries in it. He saved all the paper because he

hadn’t ever been there.

*‘k'k‘k'k'k

Give Them Wings and Let Them.F1y

Then I got a new student from Washington D.C. We had
this Slosson word list that was one of the things we had to
use to identify a student’s reading level. I gave this kid
this Slosson Word Test. He was a fifth grader, and he came
out at about third grade or something on that test. He
couldn’t sound out anything. But when it came time to read,
he could read everything.

At that point I decided there must be something wrong
with the way I’m looking at how kids read-~if here’s this
kid who has taken this basic phonics test, and he can’t do
anything, but he’s still this brilliant kid. He was
brilliant too. He graduated at the top of his class and
went to one of the Ivy League schools. But at first I
thought he couldn’t read because he couldn’t do that Slosson
Word Test. That was when I really started looking at what
reading was and started the kinds of things that had to do-

with comprehension rather than just attacking skills.

******

91

When I began to figure out that I didn’t know
everything there was to know about reading, I thought that
I’d better get on the ball because maybe I might want to
teach high school English. I went back and got certified in
high school. I took some courses in linguistics and things
just so I’d have a better background.

I went back and took Teaching of Reading, Developmental
Reading, and Remedial Reading on my own. When I look back
on it now, they were just wasted courses, but I did start
reading because of them. The courses were just making
little cards and word games and those kinds of things. That
was basically what the Remedial Reading course was. But
then I took Teaching English in the High School, and I took
that from Dr. Smith. He had gone away to get his doctorate.
I can’t remember where he went, but in the process of going
away, he came back a whole new man. He had a new hairstyle
and he had sandals and he wasn’t half as conservative as he
had been when I had first had him in college; and he came
back with new ideas.

He came back with thematic units. I thought, "Well, if
you can do that with high school kids, why can’t you do it
with fifth grade kids?" The first thing I did in my
classroom was to take our reading book and take the units
and make charts. If there was a unit on adventure and there
were five stories, I would put adventure and five stories on
the chart and put the kids’ names down, and as they read

them, they just checked them off. I just let them work

92
through it on their own, and at the end of the unit we had
roundtable discussions. I didn’t know why I was doing it or
whatever was happening, but I knew that these kids weren’t
reading books and that seemed to get them reading. That was
the first step to get away from that basal reader.

Then in 1975 The International Reading Association was
held in Fredrickton, New Brunswick, and our district sent
four teachers. I was one of the four people. The Goodmans
were there. Can you imagine? John Poeton was there. The
people who were beginning in whole language were there. I
don’t even remember the word "whole language" used, but I do
remember that John Poeton gave a workshop that was entitled
"Give Them Wings and Let them Fly." It was based on
children’s literature. That really was what made the
difference for me.

What he said made sense. I was able to relate it to my
life and how much I had cared about books and reading.

Then John Poeton came to our university and spoke to a
migrant convention--a Chapter One convention. I was so
excited when I heard him that other people started going. I
think I heard him talk three or four times, and then Jim
Trelease came and others. That was how it started. It
really was out of how I learned rather than what somebody

else said to me.

******

93

Coming to Know

I haven’t had my masters that long. I got it through
the outreach program. Actually, I was about halfway through
when I had my daughter, Kelly, and I couldn’t do it. I was
taking the curriculum course and Adolescent Lit and things
like that, and it was just too much. I didn’t finish it up
until after she had graduated from high school. Then I went
back and did it.

The first time around in the program, I don’t remember
being really excited, but the second time the program for my
masters was really wonderful. It was excellent. The first
course I took was a statistics course and I thought, "Oh my
God, I must be crazy. What a terrible thing to start with."
But you know, it ended up being one of the best courses that
I had.

Not because of the content, but because by that time I
had already taken some whole language courses. I had taken
Reading Process and Writing Process, and I looked at it as
how a student would come to reading something they didn’t
know. All the time I was taking it, I was able to relate it
to what was happening in my classroom. Look, I have to
learn this vocabulary; look, I have to learn this this way.
By making that correlation between the kinds of things my
students were doing and what I was doing, I really learned a
lot about how kids learn.

I had done a lot of work on the state assessment test

94
by then—-I had worked on designing the reading section, and
we had done a lot of work with mean and mode and the whole
bit, and I knew what P scores were and things, so I had some
prior knowledge to bring to it. I was actually better off
than most of the students who were in there because I had
practical knowledge. I mean in designing the test and
figuring out which questions were appropriate, and I knew
about reliability and stuff like that. But it was still
terrifying!

I finished my masters in 1990. I started just on a
whim in January. Everything I had taken before, I threw
out. Kelly had gone to college, and I had just gotten a
divorce, and I was somewhat bored so I took two courses, and
I finished it in less than two years. But I went during the
summer. I went down, and I took some of those integrative
curriculum courses also.

That first year, I think there were nine teachers who
went from here. They weren’t all from our building. It was
just a week long course, but we got so much done. You know,
to go there as a team and work like that was just
incredible—-just amazing! That is how we created all of our
environmental units. We did all the planning that week. We
worked all day and all night. The district got their
money’s worth.

I guess that’s the thing that I got out of my master’s.
First of all, I took some great courses. They made sense as

far as education was going, and there were four or five of

95
us who started at the same time and who were all teaching,
and so we had a study group. We met one night a week just
going from home to home; we studied and did our group work
or whatever it was that we were doing; we really formed a
close group of people.

I had a hard time when I was done because those people
were really interested in education issues, and I had
somebody to talk to, so when I finished up I was lost for a
while. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I had that in
North Park, but it wasn’t the same level as it was when we
were delving into curriculum change and models of teaching.

It was very hard for me when I was done.

******~k

I am hoping my new job will help. I'm going to be a
literacy consultant for a publishing company and basically
what it means is training teachers in the New Zealand model
of literacy. I know that I will get challenged because a
major part of this now is teacher development for the
facilitators. We have to decide on our own action plan.
One of the things that I have to do, which I didn’t do in
the school years, is a video of me working with kids, and
then after we’ve done our facilitating or whatever, the
facilitators meet with the leader. We actually look at our
videos, and we work through the kinds of things that we’re
doing, and come up with an action plan on how we’re going to

change our teaching. It really focuses not only on

96
teachers, but on growth for the facilitators too.

I have some reservations about the idea of trying to
commercialize it [the New Zealand model]. In order to do
that, you have to somewhat limit what’s happening. All I
can think of is an oral workbook, you know, the program part
of it. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but obviously
the company is out to make money and they have the
distributorship for it.

But I think in order to get it here, you have to do
that. You have to be realistic. Obviously I’m going to get
a lot from doing it because the concept of teaching in that
way, I really believe in. But I still believe you have to
adapt it--there’s a different culture; there's different
students.

I think the model’s just incredible, but it’s like
anything else, you need that contact with it to maintain it.
It’s real easy to slip back into the old model of teaching
if you don’t have someone for support.

The thing that I like about this model—~and those
things that I like about it are in other models: it’s not
just The New Zealand Model that’s child centered; it’s not
just The New Zealand Model which sees assessment as
something you do all the time, not something you do at the
end of things. Those are the things that make The New
Zealand Model work-~that continuous assessment; knowing your
learner; knowing your resources; and knowing how to put them

together. To me there’s no way that you can argue with

97
those kinds of things. However, you can argue with the
materials. I don't believe you have to use The Ready to
Read Books to do it or, well, we have to do it this way.

For example, I think The Ready to Read Books are
wonderful, but I think that the school journals that they
use in New Zealand are not very wonderful. I ordered them
and tried to use them in my classroom, and my students were
just up in arms. They complained about the quality of the
artwork; they complained about the quality of the paper;
they’re just not going to accept that. I mean, anyway you
look at it, picture books—-good trade books-—are superior to
those journals, and my kids weren’t willing to accept them.
So in New Zealand, where they don’t have access evidently to
the same kinds of tradebooks that we have, maybe the kids
look at those and say, "OK, this is fine." But from an
aesthetic point of View, my kids didn’t want those books.

They know better, and the other thing is that many of
the stories have cultural connotations in them. When you’re
talking about the tribal people, or you’re talking about
animals, you’ve got to do so much work with prior knowledge
to teach those kinds of things. That is fine, but if you
have only so much time, it isn’t practical. That’s not
necessarily the best way to do it. In order to do that,
you’re teaching all kinds of geography, history, and things
that have to do with New Zealand, and you don’t need to do
that for five years in our school system. I could be wrong.

The things that I do like about it are that they give

98
kids time to be comfortable at their level. They don’t push
kids on. What we [Americans] do is based on that basal
model--going through things quick, quick, quick, and when a
kid learns to read at a particular level, you push them to a
higher level and never give them time to read comfortably at
that level where they are. So they’re constantly working
and struggling to read rather than it being pleasurable or
being able to practice it enough to do it well. I think
that’s a problem.

******

Commentary

Moving towards a holistic philosophy seems to be a
natural evolution for Joyce. Several of the basic
principles supporting whole language appear in her early
experiences. Joyce recounts in her story events which she
believes to be important and significant to her, events that
have left an imprint on her life and drive many of her
beliefs today.

One of the most interesting things she says is that she
saw school as being "no different than home." At home books
and learning were valued as well as cooperation and
collaboration. Her parents modeled the importance of
education through their actions and careers and shared their
learning experiences. She delighted in her early learning
experiences with her mother, who took her to college when

she was only five.

99

She was totally involved with books both for enjoyment
and information. She focuses her early experiences both at
home and school on books. She could not get enough of them.
As a teacher books are fundamental to what she remembers in
her classroom. It seems to be no coincidence that they
would become central to her later teaching life.

Her first formal school experience was in a one room
school house which mirrored her home experiences. She was
fascinated by all the learning that was going on around her,
and she felt a strong sense of community-—a learning
community. When she moved to the consolidated school, that
loss of community was what she felt most: "I remember moving
into the separate classroom and feeling isolation and losing
that sense of community." She also notes that besides the
loss of community, she somehow felt disenfranchised,
demoted, because being with older kids had made her feel
more mature.

She relates very few negative school experiences as a
student. She tells of her feeling of isolation when she
moved away from the one room school; when she was
reprimanded for drawing in a new basal; and when things did
not make sense to her. She expresses the same complaints in
her college years.

Interestingly, when the teacher reprimanded her for
drawing in a book, the reasons the teacher gave reflected
the teacher’s fear of crossing those in power--Joyce’s

mother the principal, her father the head of the school

100
board, and the community. The teacher may have thought that
because they were her parents, it would strike fear in her.
Indirectly, this power that her parents had in the community
may have influenced Joyce’s sense of her own power in the
classroom as a student and teacher. In making her own
decisions she says that the choices she made reflected the
"kinds of things my mother would have done."

Her earliest teaching experiences show a strong sense
of personal efficacy and confidence. She exhibits
confidence about what she should do in the classroom and
surprisingly little fear of not following the authorities
when it felt right for her and her students. Risking and
making decisions on her own based on her beliefs about what
was right for her students seemed to come easily and
naturally to her. When she succeeded once, she became
stronger and continued resisting authority without any
hesitation.

She found it easy to resist the basal and use
literature. She knew the profound and wonderful affect
literature had had for her. She rejected the basal model
for pushing kids too fast and not allowing them to enjoy
reading, echoing Rosenblatt. She was skeptical of the
standardized test for reading she was supposed to use when
she observed her student reading well despite his score.
Many choices were made on her instinctive ability to allow
her observations of her students direct her thinking and

teaching.

 

w

l.‘

101

Giving up control of the curriculum was one of the
first things that she did in her first year of teaching. It
seemed so easy, when in most cases it is the last thing that
many first year teachers would dare to do. Giving students
choice was natural. She observed the concern that her
students had about basketball and turned their frustration
into an action curriculum, allowing their learning to become
authentic.

Her observations led her to be cautious about believing
standard assessments when her own observations suggested
something different: her strong sense of herself as a
learner. In the one room school she says, "I was surrounded
by kids who were learning different things; I was
fascinated...." When she wanted to learn, she did.

Her observations and questions led her to go beyond the
method and discover the why, the theory behind the method.
Her approach to her masters program reveals her need to
understand her students. She says that it wasn’t the
content that was important, but the how and why. She
learned and reflected on what she had learned as to how it
applied to how her students learned.

Reflecting on her first year at North Park, she says
that she felt comfortable with the new progressive reforms
occurring in her school. Her own progressive ideas had been
developing all along. Joyce seems to be one of those
teachers who has always had an intuitive feel for teaching

1J1 a way that connects with whole language.

102
In reflecting on the events that Joyce relates, I can’t
help thinking of something that Mary Catherine Bateson
(1990) writes,
Those who move beyond discouragement are those who
start out with a core of confidence and strength and
who are lucky enough to continue to grow through

environments that do not exploit the residual
vulnerabilities everyone brings from childhood. (37)

A love for literature and reading encompass all of
Joyce’s memories as well as a belief in the importance of
education and teaching. Joyce’s belief system is clearly
centered in her earliest memories of school, family, the
books she loves, and a sense of and understanding of
community.

One wonders why she at first did not want to become a

teacher. Was it adolescent angst?

******

Chapter Eight

COMPASSION AND QUESTIONS

Winnie

"To be theoretical is to be down to earth, utterly
practical, and fully in touch with reality" (Ruddell 18).

When Winnie first talked to me in her classroom, we sat
on the tiny first grade chairs. She was concerned that she
would not be able to tell me anything, that she was not a
storyteller. But as she began to talk, her sense of humor
and that twinkle that betrays her to her students emerged.
Later she would finish her story situated in her comfortable
living room with a majestic View of the countryside and a

story about a moose.

*‘k'k'k'k'k

This is my thirtieth year of teaching. I was an
elementary education major in college. I ended up with some
minors, but it was classified differently then-—elementary
education majors, junior high education majors and physical
education majors. Those were about the only three
categories that Milliken State Teachers College offered at'
that time.

All through my normal schooling, I leaned towards

liking children. But I didn’t know I wanted to be a

103

104
teacher. I had other thoughts. I had a sister who was an
RN, and I thought I wanted to be a nurse like my big sister
until I discovered the truth about nursing.... It involved
blood. So, actually, I think I went through school not
really knowing what I wanted to do and went through most of
high school, and then maybe in my junior year I finally
realized what I was going to do with my life. We [women]
didn’t have very many options-~there was nursing or
teaching.

We didn’t have the options that kids have now, and so I
started thinking about teaching. Previously I had worked
with children at a summer camp for underprivileged children,
and all along without realizing it, I think my tendencies
were leading in that direction, but I wasn’t sure until my
junior year. During college for summers, I worked at a
girls’ camp in Vermont for very rich spoiled children from
New York.

I discovered there that I had some leadership
characteristics because I worked up to head director of
Junior Row which was an honor at that time. So then, I just

evolved into teaching.

******

It was an unusual event for me to go to college. My .
parents were not educated people. My father had to leave
school when he was eight years old to help support the

family. If you think about it, he’d be ninety—five today,

105
so it was another era. My mother did go to the eighth grade
and quit before graduation and didn’t have the opportunity
to go through high school. My sister is the oldest, and
she went through nurses’ training. I have a brother who is
inbetween us who didn’t like school at all and left high
school and joined the Air Force. Now he has a very, very
successful business because he was self-made, and then there
was me. I was the first to go to a four-year college.
That was a big step in our family and one that probably made
my parents very proud.

I had an aunt who would have been my father’s sister—
in-law. She was a very loving person and a good teacher,
but she didn’t quite fit into the family. She was very
reserved. My uncle had a very good job, and they had a
little bit of money which no one else in the family had. I
always respected her, but I couldn’t say I was very close to
her, and I don’t think that she was an influence on my

deciding to teach. I was a little bit afraid of her really.

******

Bad Beginnings

I’m from downstate originally. My first year I went to
a Catholic School. All my friends were going. My parents'
didn’t want me to go, although we were Catholics and we were
in that parish. I wanted to go, so they said okay. It was

an awful year, just a terrible, terrible year. The nuns and

106
I didn’t agree in philosophies even at that age.

They were so very strict. Lunchrooms were segregated.
There was a boys’ lunchroom and a girls’ lunchroom, and, of
course, we had to bring our own lunches as there was no hot
lunch program. The punishment for anybody was to eat in the
opposite dining room, and I ended up eating with the boys
quite a bit. Now I wouldn’t mind, but back then as a six-
year old it was traumatic.

And then there was this other thing. We were poor back
then, and a dime or a quarter was a lot of money. Everyday
my mother would give me a dime to buy an apple or a snack at
recess time. That was one of my mother’s priorities. I was
sickly, and my mother thought that if she could put some fat
on my bones, I would be healthier.

The nuns had a system that just before recess you were
allowed to go to the bathroom. They would assign someone to
be bathroom monitor, and after everybody had gone to the
bathroom, the monitor had to go in and flush all the
toilets. It was my week to be bathroom monitor. I hurried
to flush all the bathrooms because I was going to do my
duty, and I was in a hurry to go buy a snack. On my way out
a nun caught me by the nape of the neck and accused me of
stealing somebody's dime. Somebody had lost their dime.

She didn’t know that I had money everyday, and she would not
listen to me. She was not very compassionate. The nuns
really gave me a terrible, terrible time that year. I was

much happier at public school, much happier.

107

******

Feeling Important

The next year I was put into public school in the inner
city. I call it inner city because the town is not a very,
very large city compared to New York or Boston-—but it was a
city school. We lived on the outskirts of the city, and so
we were bussed to school. I remember all of the teachers I
had.

My first grade teacher was Ms. Banks, and even though
she retained me...well, actually, she didn’t retain me. I
was retained from Catholic School, but it wasn't because I
was not able to do the work. I had missed a lot of
schooling that year due to illness. Possibly, I had made
myself sick because I didn’t like the nuns.

Mrs. Banks was quite a contrast to the nuns. She was
kind and compassionate and made me feel important. It’s
funny because I just had a thought that the next teacher
that I remember the most was my fifth grade teacher. I was
just making a contrast. I teach first grade, Joyce teaches
fifth grade, and of course, my opinion is that those are the
two most important grades in the world. Those were the two
people, I guess, that understood me the most.

The superintendent’s office was probably a mile away
from the school, and every Friday there were monies to be

delivered to the superintendent’s office. They used to give

Vpeil

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F.“
1 f‘.
:49“,

108
me the money and off I trotted. I was just a first grader,
but off I trotted to the superintendent’s office to deliver
the money. My mother was quite concerned about that, and
she called the principal and asked him. The principal said,
"Well, nobody would suspect a little kid going down the
street with a paper bag under her arm." So my mother let me
do it.

There was a bar and grill down the street from the
school. At lunchtime the teachers ordered their lunches
from the bar and grill, and they used to send me to go get
them. I used to go into the bar and sit on the stool and
wait for their lunches to be ready. I guess I must have
been more mature than some of the other kids. Maybe some
leadership qualities were showing, or else I was such a
hellion that they wanted to get rid of me. You know, find a
way to get me out of my classroom. Maybe that was it.

My fifth grade teacher was also the assistant
principal, and she had a phone in the room. I was thought
responsible enough to answer the phone when she was out of
the room.

In middle school I was involved in athletics and band.
I had a good time. It has good memories. Academically, I
don’t remember much. I must have done everything I had to
do because I don’t remember ever being chastised for getting

poor grades. So I must have been on the right track.

*‘k'k'k'k'k

109

Questions

I was a pretty good student, but I was a lazy student.
I was a procrastinator, and I didn’t understand the reason
for doing a lot of things that were assigned. I wanted to
know why, and I questioned a lot and saw that some of the
things were asinine, and I wasn’t going to put much effort
into them. I think that carried me all the way through
college because I wasn’t the greatest student in college,
not at all.

No one [teachers] wanted to answer my questions. If it
was in the curriculum, you had to do it. I also found out
too that if I asked too many questions about why we were
doing such a thing, that probably I wasn’t getting the
highest rank I deserved. If I’d shut my mouth and not
questioned, I would have done better. I probably was
labeled a rabble rouser.

Especially in college, I didn’t put the effort in that
I could have. I was there to have a good time, and I had a
good time, although things kept surfacing. I became
president of what was called The Student in Education
Association, and I was even asked to organize a field day
through the Physical Education Department, and I wasn’t even

a Physical education major.

******

I have difficulty taking tests, even today--written

110
tests or any kind of a test; although I appear to be a very
calm person, my insides shake like an old washing machine at
times. So I really had difficulty taking tests. Sometimes
I didn’t test the way that I responded in class or even
equivalent to the work that I did.

I had an English teacher in high school, I think it was
my junior year. She was very compassionate and concerned
about her students, and she helped me a great deal. I think
she’s probably the one that really gave me the encouragement
that I could go to college because I think, basically,
college was something I felt was not in my future.

I was very, very strong in chemistry. I really enjoyed
that subject. Don’t ask me anything now because when you
don’t use it, you lose it. But I was very, very interested
in chemistry. At the time, although he wasn't very strong
in his influence, the chemistry teacher thought I should
investigate that field. But then again, opportunities
weren’t out there for women. And I wish, probably, they had
been because I probably would have investigated that

further.

******

Secrets and Acts of Wisdom

My father was a construction worker and did everything
you could imagine from working with dynamite to.... Even

though my father did not have the education, when he was

111
working on construction, they often made him foreman of the
crew. He had an innate ability to lead. Part of his duties
were to keep his peoples’ time and to keep track of
materials that they used on the job.

However, my father had a secret. He couldn’t write.

He could read the newspaper, but he couldn’t write.
Instead, he would carry this information in his head all
day. When he got home, he would dictate it to my mother,
and my mother would write it in his notebook. He kept that
hidden.

All through his life, I don’t know if it was actually
hidden, but his bosses never revealed that that’s what he
was doing. So he had that innate leadership quality, I
think, without education. He knew how to get things done,
and he did them.

My mother went to the eighth grade. My grandmother,
had begun work in the woolen mills at age nine. When my
mother was young, her mother owned a boarding house for the
people who worked in the woolen mills. My mother would help
serve breakfast to the boarders before leaving for school in
the morning. Then she would come home at noontime and help
serve lunch and then be home for dinner. My mother was a

worker all through her life.

******

When I was growing up, my mother worked in a shoe shop

stitching shoes. After I had gotten my driver’s license in

112
high school, she would have me take my father to work and
then keep the car. I’d say to her, "Well, what time are you
getting out of work?" and she’d say, "Three or four." So
I’d go to the shoe shop at 3:00.

She wasn’t ever ready to leave until 4:00. She’d say,
"Sit down here," and the noise in the shoe shop was
absolutely terrible. The whole work area was not a good
place. She would say, "Now you sit here and you watch what
I have to do day after day after day. You’ll do something
better." My parents believed that what we wanted to be we
could be, but they weren’t going to influence our direction.
My mother was really wise. That was her way of saying, "Do
you want to do this all your life?"

My mother--and I’m still amazed at this——my mother
would spell words that she had no meaning for, but she was
able to spell them. We used to play a game with her. We’d
get the dictionary and try to trick her. When I was home
from college, and I’d be writing papers, I’d say, "Mom, how
do you spell this?" She would spell the word, and then
she’d say, "Well, what does that mean?" My philosophy about
spelling is I think that you’re born to be a good speller or

you’re not. But that was my background.

******

Limitations
We had limited books around the house because of

economics. I was born during the war--at the end of WWII,

113
not WWI, WWII. I was seven months old during Pearl Harbor.
Moneywise, there wasn’t any money to buy books. I grew up
reading comic books and trading comic books in the
neighborhood. I spent a lot of time reading comic books at
a very young age. I loved the Classic comics, especially
during junior high when we had to do book reports. We
didn’t have Cliff Notes then.

I was always very worried about going into the library,
and I still don’t have much of a knowledge about libraries
for that reason. I think I still have a fear of them. The
library in my home town was a great big ornate thing--
cement, very, very high ceilings. When you went in, it was
a Shhhh! absolutely! You had to tiptoe across the floor,
and that would echo. It was so loud. I was just in
complete awe, and the discoveries that I made at the library
were entirely on my own because my parents were not ones to
go to the library. They didn’t have time.

My school didn’t have many books or even a library.
There were Nancy Drew mysteries in the room, but I don’t
remember being surrounded by a whole lot of books, and the
teachers never brought us to the town library. Part of my
philosophy now is to just show kids what books are and
really show them that there’s information out there and that
they can go and find it somewhere themselves.

Fourth grade was my first adventure with books. I read
a lot of biographies and the Nancy Drew mysteries. The

biographies were the most interesting. I read every one

114
that I could get my hands on. Those were the type of books
that were in the school. In junior high we did have a
library. I am an avid reader today, but probably because we

weren’t influenced by television.

******

I don’t ever remember writing in school except the
first day of school. You know, what did you do this summer?
And doing the outlines and doing the reports, the book
reports, but I don’t remember ever doing any free writing.
Teachers just said here’s what you’re going to write. It
seemed to me that there was always some evil purpose in
writing, meaning a book report or that type of thing. To
me there was an evil purpose because I didn’t like doing it,
and I still don’t like doing it.

In college I only remember writing in one class—-The
Writing of Short Stories. That’s the only place that I can
ever remember writing and writing something that was my own

choice. Freshman writing was only grammar.

******

Purposes and Connections

I had to take a lot of methods courses in college,
Health Teaching Social Studies, Teaching Science, Teaching
This, Teaching That...all very textbook-oriented things.

They thought they were giving us great formulas. You know,

115
we had to read this, this, and this, and then we’d become
great teachers.

I don’t really have a lot of recollections of what I
learned about teaching in college because I saw no purpose
in what they were doing. They just gave you formulas. This
is going to make you a good teacher, but there was nothing
that we could put our hands on—-no hands—on experience. It
was all out of the textbook. They showed us how to make
great schedules and great lesson plans, but they didn’t tell
us that a child might vomit and ruin our schedule because we
had to tend to that. Or they didn’t tell us that the child
might come to school very upset because Mommy and Daddy had
had a fight, and we would have to spend half an hour
cuddling that child while trying to keep the rest of the
class going, and the rest of the day that we would have this
child clutching at us. They didn’t tell us those things.

They didn’t tell us that there are a lot of things that
can go wrong and how to use common sense to get out of those
situations. It was all very textbook-oriented, and the
people who were there teaching I don’t think had been in the
classroom themselves for umpteen years.

It just didn’t make sense to the true life situation.

I had worked with children at camp, and that was kind of in
a teaching capacity because we had athletics and arts and
crafts, and we did some tutoring and that type of thing. I
had already worked with children one-to-one or in a group,

and here I was trying to listen to them [professors] tell me

116
how to do it by the textbook method, and it just didn’t make
sense. And, again, when you’d say, "What happens when...?"
and they’d fluff you off because that wasn’t on their
agenda. Oh, they had an agenda to meet for that particular

class, and it wasn’t practical.

*‘k****

The very first day of student teaching was the first
time I went into a classroom. That’s when I almost didn’t
become a teacher. Yes, my first experience in the
elementary school was my first day of student teaching. I
hadn’t met the cooperating teacher beforehand. That was not
necessary because the college told us where we were going.

I hadn’t been in a school until that first day.

The first day, my boyfriend let me use his car. My
roommate and I were both going to the same school. When I
got to the school, I froze. I still have the same thought
whenever I go to Hillside, and I go to open that front door.
I absolutely froze, and my roommate said, "What’s the
matter?" and I said, "I can’t do this."

I was ready to go back to the dorm and pack my
suitcases and leave. It was a good thing she was there to
push me because I did go through...and, of course, it was a
great experience. I think I’d come to where I wanted to be,
working with children, and that’s a long time ago and I’m
sure that I didn’t do anything right and I’m sure that my

cooperating classroom teacher probably had long discussions

117
about things that I needed to improve in, etc., etc. But I

worked very hard at student teaching.

******

That was the first time that I ever did [work hard at
school], really-—I burned a lot of midnight oil that year.
I did work very hard at student teaching and stayed up many,
many hours doing lesson plans and trying to be creative-—to
bring in things that were different into the classroom.
That was the first time. There’s actually a picture in my
yearbook of me in the library. They [teachers and friends]
were shocked that I was in the library studying.

Then the second part of student teaching was at what
they called The Taylor School. I was in the third grade,
and I had a little cooperating teacher. She was about four
feet tall, but she was full of energy.

The first day she didn’t tell me very much. She just
said, "Follow me." I went around all day right at her
heels, and she dug her heels in and ran everywhere, and I
was right behind her. I thought, "Oh my God, what am I
doing?" But they were good experiences. Those were my
first introductions to the classroom because even though we
had all these methods courses, we did not observe in any
classrooms as the kids do now. So we really didn’t know
until that final student teaching if we really wanted to

teach.

******

118

I guess the thing I remember the most about Taylor was
the day that Kennedy got shot. That’s the big thing in
everybody’s life at our age. I hadn’t had control of the
classroom very much at that point, and the principal came in
and whispered something to the teacher and she left. She
didn’t even say, "Take over" or anything. She just left and
she didn’t come back for an hour. I had to jump in and
become very creative, right then and there, and handle the
situation. Your common sense plays an important part. I
figured that the classroom would function very well with my
direction at that point. When she finally came back, it was
announced that all the children were being sent home early.

Everybody thought that the Russians were coming.

******

When I’ve had student observers, I’ve always asked them
to circulate with the children and talk to the children
because they have a tendency to come and sit and not do
anything, and that’s not useful. But I still maintain that
college doesn’t do enough to direct people who have no
aptitude for teaching in another direction, and that’s a
shame, especially now when there aren’t very many jobs out
there. People can’t be choosing the very best with so many
people getting hired when they should have been told a long
time ago that maybe they should put their energies in
another direction. And that’s too bad.

If you can’t associate with the children, if you can’t

119
get down to their level, then there’s no point in going into
the classroom. And that is not easy for everybody to do.

I was also assistant house mother at the dorm when I
was student teaching. Think of this—-I’m a poor student,
gradewise, but our housemother had had a heart attack, and
they needed somebody to do her chores. Ms. Fredel
recommended that they make me assistant housemother. Here I
am a senior, probably a hellraiser and that’s most likely
why they did it because I knew what the kids were all up to.
I managed to get along well with the kids. I mean,
obviously, I wasn’t a dictator and I kept them in line, but

I wasn’t a dictator.

******

Confusions

I had to go to summer school one summer because I
'wasn’t going to be invited back to college. The day before
sxraduation about eighteen of us were called one at a time
iJito the President’s office and told that we were not going
t3) graduate, and we would not get our degrees. Imagine-—the
day'before graduation.

For various reasons some of the courses that shoulfii
thave been offered weren’t offered, and some of us did INN:
get the quality points that we needed. An "A" offered four
quality points besides four credits. We also had to have a

. . . . d
grade point average, but it involved quality pOints too, an

120
you had to have so many quality points. Well, I didn’t have
enough quality points. That was really upsetting. Parents,
family, and everybody were coming to graduation, and their
[the university] timing was not very good.

They told us that they could even stop us from walking
down the aisle and participating in commencement, but they
were going to be kind. They would give us a blank folder
with no degree in it. That was even more upsetting.

When I was in the President’s office, he said, "Do you
have a job?"

And I said, "Yes, I do have a job."

And he said, "Well, you know, they won’t want you
unless you come to summer school here this summer."

And I said, "I can’t come to summer school this summer.
I have a contract at camp—-Head Counselor."

He said, "Well, you’ll just have to break it."

I said, "Wait a minute. I’ve sat here for four years
in college, and you people have advocated that we should be
lyrofessional, and it would be very unprofessional for me to
lmreak this contract at this time."

"Well, then you won’t be able to teach next year. The
Shiperintendent down there won’t want you."

I said, "Well, I’m just going to have to take that:
<3hance." And I strutted out of there.

I didn’t tell my parents. They came and my sistenf came

from Massachusetts and my brother came, everybody came . I

Ciidn’t show my diploma to them when we got outside. MY

121
fiance knew about it, but he was the only one. I had an
awful time that weekend. I didn’t tell my parents until two
weeks later, after I had done some investigating.

To tell you truthfully, there must have been a great
need for teachers. I don’t know how I got hired. My
college ranks didn’t speak for me very well, but I had been
hired by this school system to teach in China, Maine.

After I got home, I went right away and talked to the
superintendent. The President had also said that "If the
superintendent takes you, you will have to take a drastic
drop in pay because you’re not degreed." Pay? My pay was
$4,100.

Anyway, I went to the superintendent right away and
told him the situation. He kind of fluffed it off and
laughed and said, "That’s no problem. You’ll just teach
your first year on a provisional certificate and take a
course during the year and everything will be resolved."

I also told him that I was told that I would probably
take a drop in pay. He laughed and said, "Drop in pay?
You’re not making much money to begin with." It was
traumatic, and it was an awful way to go through graduation
weekend and think your whole career was on the line, but I

took a course, and it was resolved and there was no problem.

******

122

Disaster!

My first years of teaching were a disaster. At the
time I thought I was an excellent teacher, but when I look
back at my first three years of teaching, I think, "My God,
what did I do?" I was in a rural school in China, Maine,
which is a farming area. My assignment was first grade.
There were two first-grade rooms. The rest of the faculty
were older ladies, nice ladies, but a little older.

They had grown up in that area, and their families had
grown up in that area, and everybody knew about the area
except me. They took me under their wings. But the new
teacher gets a lot of stuff dumped on her. I was asked to
do girls’ softball, and I said, "OK," and I was asked to do
a girl scout troop, and I said "OK." I did not know that I
could say no. We had a principal who was a nice man. He

was younger. His name was Mr. Johnson, and actually he

helped me out of a lot of scrapes. It was a nice, friendly
little school. I was going to do my very best.
******

One day we were doing a farm unit, and I thought it
would be a good idea to make butter. I got all the
ingredients and had the kids shake the jar and shake the jar
and shake the jar, and it turned into butter, but it was
white. I couldn’t understand why it was white. So I went

down to the other first grade teacher and asked, "How come

123
this butter is white?" Well, she laughed and she laughed!
She went next door and got her sister, and they laughed.
She said, "Winnie wants to know how come the butter isn’t
yellow," and they laughed and laughed. It was really funny.
I didn’t know that you had to put a little dye in it. I was
this naive little girl. Another time the teachers were
talking about somebody who was cutting the lambs’ tails.
"Why did they do that?" I asked. They thought that was a
funny question-—a very humorous question. I didn’t know
that the lambs get their tails all messy so they cut them
off.

They thought that was very funny. But, I managed to
get through the year. I only stayed there a year because I
found out that if I came to the Air Force Base, I could get
$1,000 more. I brought this up to the principal and he
said, "I don’t blame you." I could get a $1,000 raise, so I
applied at the base.

I have another confession to make about that first year
of teaching. We had to do permanent record cards, but
nobody told me I had to do permanent record cards. The last
day of school we had a gathering. Everybody was all done
with end of the year records. I thought I was done too.

We were having a little party, and somebody said to
somebody else, "Well, did you finally get your permanent
record cards done for this year?" He laughed and said,
“Yes, I got them done. I don’t have to come back and do

them later." You know, I left without doing them because I

.b

124
didn’t dare ask what they were. I thought it was something
that was going to take me three weeks to do. So, somewhere
out there there’s a group of people who would be about
thirty-six years old who never have had first grade entry
level permanent record cards. I apologize for that. They
never called me back, and they never caught it probably

until the next year, and it was too late.

******

The next year I started at the air base. It was the
Hampton school system, but it was on the base. There were
two schools there then. The school I was in has been closed
for a number of years now. I taught first grade.

When I had made the application, I was living down
state and expected to be called for an interview. One
Sunday afternoon I was doing lesson plans for the next week.
My living room coffee table was full of textbooks. I had on
an old sweatshirt and jeans. There was a knock on the door,
and I went to answer it. It was the superintendent of
schools from Hampton. He explained, "I just happened to be
in the area, and it would save setting up an interview time
and you wouldn’t have to travel up there."

All I could think of was I’m not dressed properly.
You don’t dress like this for an interview. So he came in,
and there was that glass of beer standing there, so I said,
"Can I offer you some refreshment?"

He said, "I’d like a beer." So that was easier.

125
I taught at Hampton for two years and then transferred
to North Park because I was living in North Park. The last
year that I was at Hampton, I had a child so it was easier
to be in North Park. I had gotten married during my third

year.

******

Independence

My husband and I were engaged when I was in college. I
had had a student loan. I had borrowed money, and at that
time it was a lot of money in comparison to the salary I was
making.

But I broke the engagement two weeks after I graduated
because I wanted some independence. I didn’t want to get
married having bills over our heads, and I wanted some
freedom. So I broke the engagement, and we did not
communicate at all for two years, and I guess he waited for
me. He kept the engagement ring in his coffee pot the whole
time.

I was teaching at Hampton, and a friend and I happened
to be in North Park one day. I had been very careful when I
did come to North Park. I didn’t want to run into him. I
was chicken. We were shopping, and I saw him drive by, and
it bothered me. About six months later I wrote him a letter
because I was too chicken to talk to him. I wrote him a

note and said if you’d like to talk to me, meet me at the

A»

ND

126
coffee shop at 1:00 Sunday afternoon or something like that.
I got there at 12:00, and he was waiting for me. Within two
weeks we were engaged, and then we were married in

September.

******

Teaching at Hampton on the base was interesting. The
population of the base was much larger then, and the school
that I was in had just first and second grades. There was
no kindergarten at that time. First and second grades and a
few third grades and there were ten first—grade rooms, and
they were big classes. There were 250—300 first graders.
There were very few civilian teachers.

We [teachers] were separated because one principal
couldn’t have a faculty meeting with twenty-eight teachers,
so we always had our faculty meetings with just the first
grade teachers. Therefore, we didn’t get to know the second
grade teachers. It was like a little first grade school
almost. We all had the same things in common including a
very dictatorial principal.

Back then there were very few women principals, and
when they did achieve that level, they would be very, very
dictatorial. Ours was no different. And she did some funny
things. She would run around and peek in the door window.‘
She’d just peek with one eye to see what you were doing, or
she’d listen in on the intercom system. It had a click to

it, and she would click it on and listen to what was

127
happening in the classroom and say nothing, and then you’d
hear it click off.

I had a system going with my little first graders that
when they heard the intercom go click, they’d all point to
it and none of us would say a word until we heard the click
off again. She was quite sneaky, but we were sneakier.

Most of the teachers were base personnel. Their
husbands were in the service, and so they came and went
quite often. I did form some nice friendships. We seemed

to work together well.

******

Lessons

But, again, at Hampton and at China my first year, it
was a learning process for me. We were very, very textbook-
oriented. It was more important to fill out your planbook
than to actually teach. That was the most important thing.
You followed your planbook to the "T," and you followed your
schedule to the "T." It didn’t always matter that some
child needed your personal attention. I mean, it was time
to go on to something else, and you did. And I floundered a
lot, I’m sure, especially one year at Hampton.

I had thirty-three first graders, and that was a
nightmare. It was absolutely a nightmare! I don’t think I
taught anything to those children that year. I played

policeman all year long, and I look back and I think, "Oh my

128
God, how many real lives did I ruin those first few years?"
I haven’t dared go back to China. I’m afraid somebody might
remember that I haven’t done those permanent record cards.
I’m sure it must have been sufficient because I was rehired.
I couldn’t have made too many drastic errors, but I

don’t remember getting much help either. The help that I
did get was from my fellow teachers. I went and questioned
as to what was their idea about something, their method; I
don’t remember the principals as being very supportive and
observing very much. Their idea of observing was to walk by
your door, and if everything looked under control, then it

was OK.

******

I went back to the Taylor School to another woman
principal. First grade. Yes, I experienced first grade
until probably 1969 or 1970, but then they were going to
bring in learning problems classes, classes for children who
had learning problems. This was a completely new thing in
the system. There wasn’t even anyone who was trained.

They did hire a psychologist to set up the program and do
some training, and they needed some teachers to do it, and I
was asked if I would consider it.

At that time I thought maybe that would be good, and
I’m sure it was probably because of my successes with
students in my class that they thought that I could do this.

So I said yes, I would try it out for a year, but I wanted

r\

A:

-14
4M

129
assurance that I could go back into the classroom if I
didn’t like it, and I got that in writing. I was smart
enough for that. I did that for a year. I enjoyed working
with the children, but quickly lost track of what was
normal. I worked with children all through the school. They
were a special class, but they called it learning problems
class, and I worked with K-5 students.

I worked one-to-one basis for a half an hour with each
student. I enjoyed working with the kids and maybe giving
these children a chance to relate to someone because that
was part of the problem back then. They didn’t get enough
of it. But I missed the classroom.

I would stand in the hall in the morning, and the
children were coming in, and I greeted them, and they all
went to their rooms, and the room doors closed, and I stood
out in the hall until I started getting children twenty—
forty-five minutes later. During Christmas parties or other
eventful times, I had no class to call my own. So, I said
no, this is not for me. I had taken nine credits that year
in special ed and went into it wholeheartedly thinking that
maybe, yes, this would be a career change for me, but I
didn’t like it.

It wasn’t for me. I still had my letter from the
superintendent promising me that I could go back into the
classroom, and so that was when I made my move to North
Park. There was a teacher retiring in the second grade

there, and in the meantime we had purchased a house here, so

130
it was my opportunity to come closer to home.

I taught two years in second grade in what we called
the old building. It was a wooden structure. Some of the
teachers were here then are still here. I think it was
1972, maybe, somewhere in that area--1971-72. I taught
second grade in the old building, and then this building was

built.

******

When we made the building transfer, a first-grade
position opened again. I thought, "Oh, here’s my chance,"
and I came back into the first grade and have been here
since then, and that was about nineteen or twenty years ago.
So, I’ve been in this room for about nineteen years. In
thirty years of teaching, I taught twenty-seven in the first
grade and two in the second grade and one in special ed. So
I’ve been in the first grade twenty—seven years.

The physical structure of my room has changed over the
years. The first year we were here the desks were in
straight rows facing the blackboard because we did a lot of
writing on the blackboard--the children did. There was no
carpeting. It was very structured at that point, still.
That was still the way, although at Taylor, before I did
move here, I had played with the open classroom concept a
little bit and had probably been "avant garde" in that
building.

A lot of teachers scratched their heads and said, "What

131
is she doing?" Yet, I didn’t jump into it fully. When I
came to North Park, it was very structured, and I didn’t
dare do the other things in this room for a good many years.
It was a very structured atmosphere, but through the process
of change, you change. You pick out the good things, and

you throw out the bad things.

******

Changes

I did not do a lot of changing initially. I don’t
think that I did because administration dictated what you
did. You didn’t stray too far because you were always
afraid that you would not be doing your job, and you could
lose your job. I did always try to make things more
interesting and try to move away from or enhance the
curriculum. I was a rebel in a lot of ways in that respect.

Over to Hampton I had instigated a fun day for the ten
first—grade classrooms, and that was the first time that
they had ever done anything that was outside the curriculum
the last week of school. I mean there was no fun about it.
You worked right up to the last day of school. I had gone
to the principal and said we could have a fun day and color
code children from each room so that they ended up on teams,
but not with their particular class, and they could go from
activity to activity, you know, that kind of thing. But

that was a big step for them to go through and for me to

132
have the courage to say "Let’s do this" because it was
really new. I was also still a new teacher.

And of course the last twenty years here, many of us in
this building have been labeled "rebels." I found the right
place for myself. With experience you grow more secure, and
you can go to your principal or you can not go to your
principal and say I’m doing this whether they like it or not

because it’s what I believe in.

******

Commentary

Winnie is a concerned, caring and competent teacher.
Unlike Joyce, as a student Winnie was confronted with a
model of teaching and learning that did not seem to value
the student, a model based on scientific management.
Curriculum, school agendas, rules and texts always seemed
more important than the student. She never seemed to feel
valued as a learner. She blames herself for not doing well
describing herself as a lazy student, a procrastinator. The
reason she gives is that she wanted things to make sense.

If they didn’t, she would not do them.

From the very beginning, she was obviously not
satisfied with the status quo. She wanted to learn and she
asked questions. Her persistence in asking questions served
only to irritate her teachers. Students are not to ask

questions in this model, only take in what the teacher and

133
texts tell them. Her fear of testing not only reflects her
resistance to this model, but also its effects on some
students.

As a student Winnie learned that questioning was not
valued. Knowing why was something that only the higher ups
were allowed to know and that sometimes even the teachers
themselves did not always know why things were done. She
felt strongly that she was devalued for asking questions,
and the response or lack of responses from teachers affected
her performance as a student. But she never let that stop
her. She still questions often and realizes that to
question why is not only important for the student but for
the teacher too.

The constraints on and resistance of Winnie as a
student seem to be reflected in her early teaching life.

Her undergraduate methods courses attempted to socialize her
into a profession that prized the values she had resisted as
a student. She says that they tried to teach her formulas
for teaching, but she felt strongly from her own
experiences that they would not work. She intuitively
understood that students are individuals with feelings and
experiences that formulas could not take into account or
anticipate.

As a young teacher, however, she felt obligated to
follow all the rules of teaching and mandates of the
district for fear of losing her job. And yet she tells

stories about pockets of resistance to this authority also,

134
which reveal her desire for some autonomy and her need to do
the best for her students.

The teachers whom she remembered most clearly were
compassionate teachers who "took a little bit of time to
interact personally so that you became a student in a class
that had a name rather than just another person who was
filling a seat" (J2—1-3), and she also says that

I think that I remember the things that I would do if I

ever became a teacher rather than the things that I

would not do because I tuned out the teachers that I

would have said I will never do that. The teachers

that had qualities that I liked——I probably picked

up those qualities from them saying this is what I
would do. (J2-1-3)

Winnie, in resisting and reflecting on her own
experiences, is a teacher who recognizes that children need
to feel good about themselves and about their ability to
learn. For Winnie, the sense of compassion for students is
the main lesson she carries with her, and a need for a
purpose for learning and teaching are at the heart of her
role as a teacher today and are the driving forces for her
decision—making in the classroom and are her impetus for

change.

******

Chapter Nine

IT'S IN THE BLOOD

Marilyn
"Teachers teach most profoundly what they are at the core.
The lasting lesson is the demonstration of self as it

handles its authority and those under its authority" (Boomer
1988, 31).

My first meeting with Marilyn was in her classroom.
Actually it was two huge classrooms with dividers which were
open to accommodate the multi—age class she had just piloted
that year. The theme had been nature, and surrounded by
books there were aquariums, terrariums and a tree and a
large variety of learning stations. Marilyn talked to me as
she was sorting books. It was difficult for her to talk
about her past as she seemed intent on looking forward. As
we talked, I discovered that that was Marilyn. Learning and

changing were central to her concept of teaching.

******

I think I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was in
kindergarten. My mother was a teacher and her mother was a
teacher, so I’m the fourth generation of teachers in the
family. It’s kind of in the blood whether you intend to be
a teacher or not.

My grandmother took care of me. She had a two-story

135

136
house with four bedrooms upstairs and all these doorways.
I would play school up there pretending I was going from
classroom to classroom teaching music. We had a music
teacher that did that. She’d come in and shut the door and
teach her lesson and leave, so this is what I was pretending
up there--making all these doors close and I’d trot across
the hall to the next room and go in.

However, when I started college I started in the
:nursing program. That’s what I thought I wanted to be then.
IBut in my second semester of college, I had my first child,
:so I came home and continued my education through the
<:ontinuing education program at the university. The classes

wvere held here on the local campus, and the courses that

tliey offered were for teaching.

I was kind of forced to become a teacher because that’s
mflnat was offered. The courses were offered evenings and
Saturdays on television, so it was convenient for me.
'Tkuat’s how it happened. Probably if I had continued in
nlirmsing, I would have become a teacher of nursing because I
jllsrt think that teaching is in my blood. My daughter is
also a teacher. She teaches primary, and she has her

masters in early childhood.

******

Constraints
In first grade I remember sitting in the little wooden

Chitirs and the teacher sitting or standing up front. You’d

137
go up for your reading group, and she had those big books—-
Dick and Jane and The Boat. There was one little girl who
didn’t stay in her seat very well, and the teacher tied her
in her seat one day. That was really quite horrible.

I also remember that I had to stay after school one day
and learn to make my "8’s" because I was making "snowman
8’s." I had to learn how to make "8’s" correctly, so I had
to stay after school to do that.

In first grade I learned to read--all of a sudden.
WOW, I can read this. I was so excited. I wanted to read
that page to the whole class, but the teacher said I
couldn’t. There wasn’t time.

In second grade I had a teacher I just loved. One day
I was mad at my mother, and I was going to run away and be a
hobo down around where she lived so I could be with her. I
can’t remember exactly why I liked my second grade teacher
so much. She had an aquarium, and I had never had an
experience with an aquarium before, and she was a happy
person. She was always "up." I knew her for a long, long
time because she became the elementary supervisor, and she
was one of my mother’s friends too. That’s the same school
my mother taught in.

The next year we had combined grades-~second and third
grade, and I was in the third-grade class. That teacher
would leave me to read with some of the second graders—~to
listen to them read. Maybe that was another step in my

beginning as a teacher. Because I could read and I was one

138
of the older ones and probably one of the ones that did what
I was told.

I had my mother as a teacher in fourth grade. She and
the other fourth grade teacher swapped classes. My mother
could not teach music, so the other teacher would teach her
music class and my mom would teach penmanship or health or
something for the swapped classes.

I sat in the back row because I was always one of the
taller kids in the class. I was a back row kid, and if she
[my mother] would call on me, everyone would turn around and
look at me. So we avoided that situation. She had a
reputation for being one of the best and one of the
strictest.

I was not a great student, not a super achiever, just
enough to get by because I don't remember anything being
very exciting.

I don’t know if it was in second grade or third grade,
but we had new books and one of the pages had such a
beautiful picture of the Northern Lights on it that I kissed
the page and cut my lip on it. But I don’t remember really
ever reading. I don’t remember a lot of books in my classes
nor do I remember much writing. No, not until high school,

in English composition—-that’s the only writing.

****‘k*

139

Choices

Middle school was different. I remember the anonymity
because in elementary I was the daughter of one of the
teachers. I was well known. I had been selected to be the
lieutenant or the captain of the crossing guard patrol. I
was in charge of them all. So I lost that recognition going
to the middle school, and there were kids there from all
over town. That was the biggest deal.

At the elementary all of my friends had been
neighborhood friends. In middle school I had a new best
friend every year, and that kind of bothered my mother-—that
I switched friends so often. But, it was exciting. My
first year in middle school was the first year that we had
harvest break. We had had harvest break all along, but that
was the first time we were old enough to do it.

One of my first best friends was a farmer’s daughter.

I picked potatoes with her and her family that fall. You
really do a lot of bonding in the potato field. The next
year my best friend was someone who skied. That was the
year I began downhill skiing. She had twin brothers that
were just a year younger and a brother that was older, so we
had a lot of fun. In eighth grade all that social stuff
took priority.

In eighth grade I had a writing assignment that I had a
lot of difficulty with. The teacher wanted us to read a

novel and then write a play based on that novel with no

140
teaching or training or how to do it--just do this. I was
always-—and still am--a last minute under pressure person.
I can remember not having that done and staying up to get it
done. It was a very complicated story.

In middle school Mr. Adams, the science teacher, had us
read an article and summarize it or something, and I didn’t
do that assignment. I got an "incomplete" on my report
card. Shameful! I was always just a few points shy of

making the honor roll.

******

We had my grandmother from the time I was in fifth
grade on as a bed patient. So Mom was pretty busy. She was
also doing her own course work. She had three degrees.
First of all she had a one-year teaching degree, and then it
was a two—year teaching degree, and then finally they
required four. So she kept going to school all that time.

Hospitals still hold a fascination for me. I have
always liked science and caring for people. Helping people
has always been important to me.

I think part of the reason I veered away from teaching
for a while was because I was not going to do what my mother
did.

******

141

Reading Traditions

My father has always loved kids. He’s the neighborhood
grandpa now to everyone. He was a potato inspector, and he
also read to us. He was the one who had time after supper
to read to us because my mom was always studying. That
tradition of reading came from his side of the family
because he had a lot of portraits of his mother that show
her reading. His sister, my aunt, would be the one that
gave us children’s books as gifts, so it seemed to be a
strong tradition. My mother is a no-nonsense reader. You

always read for a real specific purpose.

*‘k'k'k‘k'k

We had a lot of books around the house. Every night
that was part of the bedtime routine. I had an older
brother, so I listened in on his stories, and some of them
frightened me. My father would read one story, and we both
would listen, but it would be for my older brother. Lost on
a Mountain in Maine--I remember that one, and I remember the
trauma of being separated from your mom for ten days. I was

scared.

******

I don’t remember reading being promoted in the middle
school, and writing was pretty much non—existent. And then

in high school, in English composition, we usually read

142
short stories and summarized them. That was all.

In high school I just sort of got by. When we were
told to read a novel, I read Nancy Drew. I was royally
scolded when I passed in my assignment because it was not
appropriate. The level wasn’t high enough. I had to redo
the assignment and read something else. The teacher finally
gave me a list or sent me to the bookshelf in the library.

I read The Citadel. I can remember it was like WOW, this is
really a good story. That was probably the first adult

novel that I read.

******

We visited the library on a regular basis. We walked.
I remember The Bobbsev Twins and The Hardleoys and Ngggy
Drgy and Grace Livingston Hill books. I probably read every
book in there. We didn’t have television. Some of the
neighbors had TVs, but they weren't prevalent. I had a
cousin in junior high my age, and he liked to play with me
because I knew how to play like a boy. I wasn’t like other
girls, whatever that means.

One summer I had a collection of seashells. I would go
to the library and scour through the stacks out back where
the non-fiction was to find out about my shells. I knew
right where they were on the shelf. I loved studying those.

books so that I could identify those shells.

******

143

We had to do this research for English comp on a famous
artist or something, but you couldn’t check those books out.
You had to use them in the library. So there would be
everyone from the class around the big table in the reading
room, sharing information or downstairs in the stacks. You
weren’t allowed down there without supervision. I had four
male cousins that were about my age, so we were allowed down
there together because they were my cousins and not my
boyfriends. I remember being downstairs and using the

newspapers to find out stuff.

******

Our biology teacher, a well-known teacher throughout
the state, had this special program. It was a self-paced
program, and you did worksheets, and you had to examine the
specimens, and he gave you no answers. He would refer you
to the book or say, "The information is here in the room.
Find it." It was an excellent program because you were in
control of your own learning. It was not a lecture class.
My cousins were in that class too, and they helped me out.
They were a little faster than I was, so they’d have the
answers before I needed them.

In English we had an old matriarch for a teacher my
senior year. She got sick halfway through the year, so we
had a substitute come in. It was just like a breath of
fresh spring air to have him. I remember reading

biographies in that class because there was a little

144
bookrack of them that were close to my seat, so I could just
reach out and read one while he lectured. I read a series
of biographies on women--Amelia Earhart and Marie Curie.

I didn’t read about or do sports, and that was a
disappointment to my mother. Neither of us, my brother nor
I, played basketball. She was a basketball star in her day,
but my brother and I preferred individual sports—~skiing and
swimming. I did lifeguard training and spent my summers
swimming. I taught swimming but never for pay. My friends
worked at the pool, so I would help out. I clerked in a

clothing store during summers in high school also.

*‘k‘k'k'k'k

When I went to the local college here, they brought the
professors in. I cheated a little. They accepted some
things from my nursing program because other required
courses weren’t available. I never had a Teaching of
Reading course, and I never had to have a course on how to
teach arithmetic. It was a special program, and they ran
that program for a long time. It was answering a need
evidently for people who were non-traditional students.

Many of the courses were on television-Public Broadcast
Television. We would watch them. They were on a
Tuesday/Thursday schedule, and then you would meet once a
month on Saturday live and in person for discussions.

We did have the Teaching of Language Arts, and part way

through that, the teacher realized that that was going to be

145
our only course about reading, so she focused a little more
on teaching reading than she was. That was it.

I don’t know what that means because all you were ever
expected to do was open the teacher’s manual and follow
those directions anyway. We had the traditional classes:
the American School and Learner and the Learning Process,
Teaching of Science, Teaching of Social Studies, Teaching
Art, all those things. We had quite a concentration of so-
called English courses because those were required. English
courses like very early English novels. Just what an
elementary teacher needs. I had also had some comp classes.

I was a better student by then. I had a friend whom
I’d known since my early, early childhood. We hadn’t had
the same group of friends, but we ended up finishing our
last two years of college together. She was the kind of
person, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it and
do it the best that you can. So it was a challenge for me.
When I graduated, I graduated with distinction. I can’t
remember my grade point average now, but it wasn’t

important.

******

I did not get a job right away. My third grade teacher
had become the elementary supervisor. I had graduated in
January of 1971, and she called me soon after that. She had
a student that needed tutoring. So I began tutoring. I had

three students. I tutored them for five years. They were

146
students that had special needs, and that’s how I got
started. I started in the evenings and went into their
homes. That suited me because I had my daughter.

I did that for five years in the system, and then they
had programs in the schools for those kids. One was
autistic. One was learning disabled. It was which came
first, the chicken or the egg, a learning disability or a
perceptual problem. And one boy had a bone disease. He had
brittle bones. I was also substituting.

I hadn’t had any special training. But, I was still
studying--independent study. I liked doing that.

I had started tutoring in 1971, and two of those students
could have been in school if the schools had had the special
programs, but they didn’t have them, and by the end of that
five years they had them in place.

I think that when you teach in special ed, you really
focus on the learning process, and you use so many
directions, you know, kinetics, auditory, visual-—you tap

them all.

******

My first job was a one-year position for a teacher who
had a leave of absence for maternity at Oak Valley School in
second grade. The classroom had nothing in it. Everything-
had been removed. I think it had the reading series
textbooks, and that was it. It was a tough first year.

There was also a set of music books, but another teacher had

147
the records. I’d borrow the records and use them first
thing in the morning so she could have them back in the
afternoon.

I went to my first conference when I was teaching
there. It was the County Right to Read conference, and
there I met Joyce Thatcher. Actually, we had had some
college courses together, but I didn’t really know her then.
We were in a class called Books for Use with Gifted
Children. That was really exciting. We were using
children’s literature. That was a beginning. The second

year I taught, I moved to North Park.

******

Changes

I taught kindergarten for one year. The next year they
cut eight teachers, and I was bumped by a teacher who had
seniority out of that kindergarten room, or I might still be
there. I loved the little kids. Anyway, I happened to be
downtown one day. I didn’t know that I had lost my job, but
someone downtown said, "Marilyn, we’re so sorry to hear that
you don’t have a job next year."

And I said, "Oh, I don’t? I didn’t know that."

They said, "We know how hard you work, and we’re
sorry."

That same year a first grade teacher was retiring. I

went right straight home and called our principal, and said,

148
"I just heard that I don’t have a job next year. So I’m
telling people that I’m going to be teaching first grade."

He said "OK," knowing that that teacher was retiring.
I slipped in there, and I’ve been in first grade ever since.
Everything kind of fell into place.

I had started teaching in 1978, and I’ve been here
since 1980, that’s fourteen years. I will probably be here
fourteen more years. It all depends on the conditions. The
change that we had this year, the 1—2—3 multi-age class--
that came along at the right time. I’m not tired of first
grade. I like it. But, I like change too. It is never
boring because there’s always been change happening.

I just think change is good for the blood, you know, to
be learning something new. Learning to manage three grades
is a challenge.

If I were in a basal reader, reading those same
stories, I would not have lasted fourteen years, and that’s
the way Winnie feels too. She’s just really energized by
making the change to using literature. You take the
interest of the children and collect books around that, so

there’s always going to be something new.

******

I do a lot of independent study too. We’ve always gone
to the County Right to Read and State Reading Association
conferences. That was in the fall. That makes a good fall

trip before the snow sets in. At those conferences we have

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heard Charlotte Huck and Frank Smith and Jim Trelease. The
consortium--The County Consortium--too, also had great
people: Don Graves and Frank Smith.

I took The Writing Process from a new university
professor. She really brought change, a fresh approach, to
the area. Prior to that, the university didn’t have new,
fresh—ideas people. If you had taken them in college, you
didn’t go back and take courses from them again. I get many
of my ideas from reading. I’m a compulsive reader. I
subscribe to The Reading Teacher and The Arithmetic Teacherl
ASQQ, Educational Leadership and Language Arts.

Then the year getting the grants--The Innovative
Education Grant--we had to do research. We had my writing
professor work with us for a year, so we essentially had
another writing process course and reading process. People
don’t think they had it, but they did. They just don’t
recognize it.

Joyce did work toward her masters, so through her, we
all have ours. Just the sharing. We meet on a regular
basis for reflective practice. We call it our Whole
Language Study Group, but we decided not to use that word
anymore. Others in the system would also come when we could
coordinate the schedules because every school has its
faculty meetings at different times. When we have our
summer retreat day, if we remember, we invite others to
come. That’s essential for us, meeting and sharing. You

can’t take a summer course and then come back and keep it up

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without support. You soon fall back into the old ways.

The female contingency from the school does the
retreat. We go to our cottage at the lake for a day and
plan what we’re going to do for a school-wide theme the next
year and what goals we want to set for ourselves. We

attempt to accomplish everything for the next year.

*******

I was just thinking, the people that I work with are
interested in learning, too, and we feed off each other.
"I’ve read this, you read it and see what you think of it"
or "Let’s try this and then we’d like to give it a try." We
have the closeness, we have one teachers’ lounge; we have
the openness of the school. You see each other. You know
what’s going on. Maybe I do more than others because I’m at
the end of the building, and I have to walk by everyone
else. They don’t know what’s going on in my room because
they don’t pass by. Like I say, I am a compulsive reader,
and so if it’s there, I’m reading it.

I have worked at some other schools, and I know that
that oneness isn’t there. They’re off in a wing, and it’s
you're on your own. There’s always a leader in a group, and
that can be a positive force or a negative force, and if

it’s negative then you don’t make changes.

******

Our principal is a real help. Lots of times we will

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meet during the day for an hour, and he supervises the
students through his "meetings with the principal" program,
and at recess so that we can have an hour of school time to
get together. That seems to be one of the ways he will

support us, and he’s very supportive of us.

******

Our becoming a whole language school started in 1986.
We wrote our first innovative grant. We did that because
we had worked with the same basal reader for about eight
years and, knowing that soon the school system would be
buying new ones, we wanted to be a little ahead of it so it
wasn’t dropped on us all of the sudden--choose one [basal]
in the next two weeks. So we did a little research. We had
been attending conferences and we heard Frank Smith say,
"The wrong way to be doing it is if you don’t like to read."
The research all seemed to be pointing to "whole language."

When the innovative grants were made available from the
State Department, we applied. That was the year I was
taking the writing course, and so we wrote right into the
grant that we would have my professor work with us that next
year. She had planned to leave, but because we got that
grant, she stayed. She did that with us. Our interest in

knowing what was going on, being informed, led us to that.

******

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Focusing

When I came here, at the first faculty meeting of the
year, our principal asked, "Our main purpose is to teach
kids to read; does everyone still agree with that?" He asks
that every year. So we’ve always had a focus on reading.

We applied for the grant because we wanted to learn
about whole language so that we could do a better job
teaching reading. It was for our professional development,
for implementation of materials and dissemination of
materials--to share what we learned. We thought we would be
a pilot school for the rest of the district and what we
learned would be shared with them. That didn’t happen.

We read lots of articles. Our whole goal was to get
away from the basals and introduce the writing process, too.
The New Jersey Writing Project had been offered one harvest
break, and there was a corps of teachers who took it. I
think that was my first year here, and then those teachers,
they then had to teach writing process to the rest of us.

So Winnie, Joyce and I did that together. So that was
the beginnings then. That was in our grant. It was a
$10,000 grant. About half of it went to our professor and
half of it went to the materials, the books. We started
collecting, through the book clubs.

We put in for bookclub money. That is the cheapest
way to get books, and we earned bonus points to get more.

Whenever a new basal series is purchased by the district, we

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ask, "Can we have our share that would be spent on those
consumable workbooks? Can we have that for paperback
purchases?" The system always tells us that we can’t.
The system can’t give us money for paperback books because
they use Chapter IV monies or whatever to buy them.

We still buy a lot of books, but we wouldn’t have to.
I’ve cut way back. It’s like how much of this do you really
need to own? You need to add on to your house so you have
more room for your books. But we do--we spend a lot. You
see new books, and it’s "I’ve got to have that one!"

We don’t have to use basals because after that first
year of the innovative grant, we wrote for a second year to
write the curriculum based on the learning that we had done.
We wrote a language arts curriculum, and we have that
curriculum in place. Therefore, we are "allowed" to
continue as a whole language school.

Our principal has been an advocate for us. We were
given a five-year grace period to pilot that whole language
study the first two years with the innovative grant, and if
our standardized test scores did not drop, then we could
continue.

I don’t know, maybe because we are the school that we
are, seven miles out of town and it’s the community that it
is-—we’re ignored by most of the others. We’ve always had
the reputation out here as being special, different, rabble—
rousers, radical. We see ourselves as a school that teaches

kids to read. Reading is our focus. That was never

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announced or discussed at the other schools I worked at.
They never articulated a focus, a central focus for the
entire school.

Our principal is a leader and respected. The other
schools I worked at had weak principals. Weak in
management. There seemed to be teacher aides that were more
in charge. Or teachers...and I imagine the positive and the
negative--and it seemed to be the negative ones were the
ones in charge, and the people who might have had ideas and
would want to do things weren’t in charge.

Yes, and we know he does battle for us, but he never
mentions the pressure that he’s taking, but you know it’s
there from some of the things that he says, but he never

shares that with us. We have the community too.

******

Isolation

For a few years we met at the grade level on our own
because there were other teachers who were interested in
talking about learning and books. We put our own grade
level meetings together and did that a couple of years.
Then, the district got the news that we were meeting and
decided they’d do them districtwide. We lost ownership of
it. They dissipated, and even the district ones have
dissipated. We didn’t have any this year.

When we set the agenda, we discussed what we wanted to

155
discuss. It was fine. But then when someone dictated it,
when the curriculum director was there at the meetings we
discussed different issues. Report cards became a big issue
because that was something he could do something about.

We had difficulty meeting with other teachers.
Teachers from other districts could come and visit us, but
within our own district they weren’t allowed to visit.
We’re no longer a pilot; we’re no longer an experiment.

There was a lot of interest in our multi-grade class.
A lot of people seem to be thinking about doing that: some
for the reasons of cuts and declining enrollment and others

for its real value.

******

Hidden Awards

A notice came to this school that an award for
excellence in education was out there, and we were asked to
apply. Our principal passed it to Joyce and said maybe
we’d be interested. Joyce and I had written for the
innovative grant that we had for this year, and a lot of the
background work was already done, so she said, "Sure, I can
do that." She wrote it up and mailed it in. We won.

But, it hadn’t been passed by the superintendent that-
we were applying for this recognition. The district was not
pleased because the superintendent doesn’t want the focus to

be on only one of the schools. Everything needs to have

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district recognition. So it was kind of kept low key.
When it was presented to the school board, it was presented
in the way that even though it was North Park School, it was
for all of the district.

We were gung ho. We wanted to do this, and we wanted
to do that, but he keeps saying, "I have to think of all
five elementary schools. I can’t favor one." Well, we
didn’t get the reprimand, but our principal did.

It is interesting because way back the first year we
did the grant, there was the opportunity to apply for a Blue
Ribbon School. It was a 1632-page application that was very
involved, and the superintendent wanted us to apply.

But we just said, "We've got too much going on. There are
things that we don’t have a handle on yet; we don't want to
put our focus on completing that report." But he wanted us

to do it then.

******

Giving up that teacher control and giving the students
the control was more important to us at that time. Our
facilitator had started us on the writing process, and I
don’t know if it was her plan or if that’s what was
convenient for her because that was where we started. I’m
not sure. That training for the writing process and allowing
the students to choose their topic gave us training in
giving up control. You know, that the kids can do this, and

that you don’t have to spoon feed them.

157

So the next step was letting them choose their reading
material. They can do that too. Yes, and you know, now
it’s a real battle to give the students an assignment. They
really resist. "We don’t want to do this." "Can’t we do
such and such?" We’ve come a long, long way. Yes, they’ve
taken the ownership for their learning. They're learning
the real world.

We have kids come back: "Haven’t you got some books I
could read?" "We don’t have any books to read."

"What’s new?"

******

Commentary

Marilyn is constantly focusing forward and sees change
as an essential consequence of learning. She actually
relates very little about her early school experiences.

What she does reveal reflects very controlling teachers,
teachers who would tie a child to her seat to teach
obedience, teachers who assume a child knows what to do
because they tell them to do it or the curriculum says so.
The one experience that she feels rewarded for, reading with
her younger classmates, occurred because she did what she
was told, not necessarily because she was a good reader.

And reading was not an experience that she picked up in
school. She remembers very few books or any reading being

done in school accept for summaries. When she learned to

158
read, there wasn’t time for the teacher to let her read to
the class, and it seems even less likely that the teacher
would have called her mother down to hear her.

In high school her story of reading biographies while
the teacher lectured hinted that it was not expected and to
do it was almost a subversive act. Her love for reading
seems to have been developed at home. Reading for a
purpose, to find information, was modeled by her mother.

The joy of reading for pleasure and reading outloud was
cultivated through experiences with her father. She says
that she is a compulsive reader and that’s where many of her
ideas come from. For reading to be the central focus of her
teaching seems only natural.

She, like Winnie, says that she was not a very good
student because nothing seemed very exciting. And yet
through her stories we see that she is learning all the time
and that learning was/is important to her. In her first
teaching assignment she was in a new field, but it did not
bother her because she was still studying independently.
When Joyce got her masters, she too got hers.

The fact that her first teaching experiences involved
working and learning independently, outside a formal school
and classroom atmosphere, was probably a critical event. It
allowed her to develop her teacher autonomy, focus on how
children learn, and develop a wide range of strategies and
supports for her beliefs. It gave her time to reflect, and

reflection is important to her as is sharing information.

159
Sharing is central to developing the support she needs for
growth and change as a teacher.

Even though teacher control was central to her early
memories, except for her one biology class which she loved,
giving up teacher control, giving students ownership of
their own learning is a central focus now—-possibly building
on her own need to know and to own her own learning. She
credits learning about the writing process as a motivator
for and model of releasing students. She obviously has been
successful. She says "Now, it’s a real battle to give the
students an assignment."

She equates change with learning, and she likes it. "I
just think change is good for the blood, you know, to be
learning something new." It’s quite easy to see that
Marilyn is an innovator and a leader. She is focused,
energetic and confident.

For Marilyn controlling one’s own learning is at the
heart of all that she is. She is determined to share the
joy and excitement of reading and learning she feels herself
with her students. Marilyn seems to be a teacher in
transition, always in the process of becoming. Her strong
desire to learn, to inquire and to grow have brought her to

where she is now, and also leaves the future open.

******

Chapter Ten

TOWARDS CHANGE-MAKING SENSE

Marilyn

"I can remember talking to Joyce lots of times saying, ’The
way we do school doesn’t make sense for kids. There’s
something wrong with what we’re doing.’ I just always
sensed that, and knowing how active kids are, asking them to
sit in a seat all day. That’s just so contrary to the way
kids learn. I was always trying to find a way that made
sense to kids."

We had done some research and realized that instead of
a basal reader, most reading authorities were recommending
real reading from real texts rather than the basal reader.
That was when the innovative grants became a real
possibility. So, we wrote an innovative grant to help us
study and implement whole language reading and writing.
That’s how we got started. We had a consultant work with us
for a year. She came two afternoons each month, and we had
release time. The grant paid for the substitutes.

What she did was introduce the whole staff to writing
process the first semester, and then the reading process the
second semester. None of us had had recent courses in
teaching of reading, so psycholinguistics and all of that
was new.

Whole language was the term that was being used, and I

160

161
think what we entered was the book flood where you make all
these tradebooks available for the kids to read, and they
make a choice for reading, and we did realize we needed
accountability.

We had kept records of what the kids had read but
really not anything that showed what they were doing as they
read. I think we still had kids that we were losing——
falling through the cracks and that kind of thing. We
looked at whole language thinking we were looking at
speaking, listening, reading, and writing, not sure that we
focused very much on the listening and the speaking part.
It was a school project, and all of us agreed. In the
beginning everyone did it because we had the release time.
It was easy to buy in, and you know, we had the consultant
there leading us. So if your substitute’s coming in this
afternoon, you’re coming to the meeting. Philosophically
people weren’t opposed to trying something new. But not
until the grant did we really have the time. And our
teachers were always there.

It was mostly writing and reading--making the
transition to giving up teacher control and teaching the
kids to take control, to make choices. I think we had
always been a literature-based school because we had a
migratory teacher who was well versed in children’s
literature. She’d go to conferences and come back and say,
"Hey take a look at this book," and it would go around to

all the rooms and everyone would read it. I had often

162
listened to my students tell me as we were doing basal

reader work, "Mrs. Lakers, this doesn’t make any sense."

******

Making Sense

I can remember in one book, for example, there was a
picture of geese on the page, and the word that the child
was having trouble with was "guess." There were white geese
on the page and the word that she needed help with--support
with--was "guess." So she tried goose because that’s what
was pictured, and it didn’t make sense.

When I began teaching, I taught kindergarten. I guess,
really, when I began my career I was a tutor, a tutor for
special ed students, so there was nothing there except to
study what these kids needed--and the same with
kindergarten. There was no curriculum developed at all. It
was always theme-based.

That was an easy way to do it and logical for little
kids, and that kind of transferred to first grade when I
began teaching first grade--try to keep things together and
connected rather than a basal reader that had nothing to do
with what you’re studying. So I guess these are all ways of
making the transition to theme-based, student-centered
literature and writing, and looking for ways that it worked
for kids--what made sense to them.

I can remember talking to Joyce lots of times saying,

163

"The way we do school doesn’t make sense for kids. There’s
something wrong with what we’re doing." I just always
sensed that, and knowing how active kids are asking them to
sit in a seat all day. That's just so contrary to the way
kids learn. I was always trying to find a way that made
sense to kids.

Working with special ed kids, you always try to use all
the modalities so they can get the message, and if it’s good
for them, then it’s good for any kid. That’s the way I

felt. You have to actively involve the kids.

*******

Just an Accident

The grant had to be signed by the school board, and we
were right at the deadline. Our principal called the
curriculum director to have him sign it, and he said, "I
can’t do it. It has to be signed by the school board. Too
bad."

That night we were having a parent organization
meeting at our school, and the superintendent had been
invited to join us. One of the other teachers said, "Ask
him, Marilyn." So I presented the problem to him--that we
had been writing this, and the curriculum coordinator had
said we couldn’t put it through because the school board had
to sign it first. He said, "Oh, that’s no problem, I can

sign that for the board and they will back me on that. You

164
go ahead and finish writing it."

The next day we were down to the budget. We got the
budget written and sent it in. He signed it without reading
it. In the grant was the release time, and that’s something
that he usually does not approve. He wants the teachers
with the students. He hasn’t sanctioned release time or any
other time off for teachers during school time.

In the fall when we started and the request for subs
started coming across his desk, he wanted to know what was
going on. But, because we had the grant, he allowed it.

The next year, however, when we wrote for the second year of
funding to develop the curriculum, he said no release time
in the next one. However, due to that release time in the
first year, we were able to make the change that we did. It
gave us the chance to be together when we weren’t totally
exhausted. After school everyone had sports activities to
take their kids to, and other commitments. The release time
was essential.

It was by accident. He believed teachers should always
be with their students, quality student time. Now faculty

development time can only occur when we don’t have students.

*‘k'k‘k'k‘k

Differences and Common Ground

It [the grant project] was presented as a pilot study

to look at reading-teaching reading in a different way. But

165
there are five elementary schools in the district, and he
[the superintendent] would like them all the same. But, I
think we have a different philosophy than the other schools,
and that’s kind of a thorn; we are a thorn in his side
because we’re different. We work hard; we’re different in
that way. We have a sense of unity; we share a philosophy
which was developed with that grant and with everyone’s
input.

We’re different in that way and we write grants, and we
go to conferences, and we’re constantly trying to improve to
make school better for kids. We get a lot of criticism from
other schools in the district, you know, all those North
Park teachers--what are they doing now?

Others think that we get special treatment. We get
whatever’s new and going. But we get it because we give up
other things. If we have more computers or better
computers, it’s because we’ve given up ordering supplies for
our classrooms in order to have that computer, or to have
these books--we give up other things so...well, we write a
grant. The others do have the option. But I don’t think it
would ever happen unless they did something like we’ve done.

You have to build that common ground.

******

I think that the lack of support or the feeling that
the lack of support was there was an obstacle. And yet, if

I mentioned it to the superintendent, he’d say, "What do you

166
mean we don’t support you? You’re doing it, aren’t you?"
He has to view the district as a whole in this. Having one
school different is politically incorrect.

But we had the support from the parents. We kept them
informed from the beginning. We had newsletters; we had
meetings; we had state department people and other respected
teachers come in to present the theoretical background so
that it was solid and not an experiment, but research based.
The parents-just from the attitudes from their children-knew
the kids were happy, and if their kids are happy, they’re
happy.

We’ve always had lots of parents in the school, so
they’re there and they’re aware. They see what’s going on.

We have an open door policy.

******

The report card is an obstacle because there was
nowhere on the report card to show what we were doing, so we
petitioned the superintendent for the right to make a change
in the report card. We had a meeting with him, and again,
trying to keep everyone consistent, the same, he said "No."
We were required to use the report card but could have an
appendix. So in the Language Arts area, we have a "See the
attached sheet" note. We had a checklist for a few years.‘
It was one that we had borrowed from another school--made
some changes--revised it--until that, too, was inadequate.

Then two years ago we went to the anecdotal records and

r?

L!

167
notes. We didn’t ask this time. We just assumed it was OK.
We just revised it.

The parents loved the anecdotal records. What we
haven’t developed is a consistency in what we report or how
we report it. From the beginning, that’s been one of our
major obstacles——assessment and evaluation. And again, I
think it’s the lack of time to focus on that and really
develop it.

That’s what we tried to do with the grant this year,
but that was frustrating getting the state consultant here
because she had to run the state test scoring. That’s her
baby, and we ran into weather problems one time and we were
closed. But anytime she came we really got work done. A
facilitator is a key--it really is. You can’t step away

from it and do it yourself.

***‘k**

Another way that we handled the time problem, too, was
that we hired two substitutes for the day with the
understanding that they would move from class to class so
the teachers from the first grade were released for an hour
to go and work with the consultant, and then they would go
back to their room and the substitute would move on to the
next grade. When we did some grade level work, that’s hOW'
that was handled, and that worked. That got by somehow
because he [the superintendent] had to give permission. But

when you have a grant, you can say, "Well it’s in the

168
grant." It’s because of the grant and that’s accepted.
There’s power in a grant. It’s not even the money.
It’s the commitment to it that’s more important than the
money because we’ve spent money, but we could have done
some of it anyway. The grant makes you clarify what you’re
going to do, or define it, and it gives you more commitment

to it.

******

Owning A Living Curriculum

Our second year grant was devoted to developing our
curriculum. That’s an area that we really had no training
or background in. We had to learn all about curriculum.
Fortunately, the State Department had just done the exact
same thing, and they had developed a framework for
curriculum design which we had a draft copy of. We could
use that to refer to, and we had a consultant. One of the
State Department consultants would come every once in
awhile. Again, I think that’s one of those things where you
don’t understand it until you’ve done it, and then you can
look back and say, "Oh, well, that’s what we were doing."

And we tried to include everyone in the writing process
for the grant. However, we learned you can’t do that
because you have six people hassling over what word to use.
You never get anything done. You need to have people giving

you the input, but have one or two writers. Joyce and I

169
worked on that throughout the year. It took us a long time
just to get the philosophy done, and then come summer and it
was time to sit down and get some real writing done. Then
Joyce’s husband sprung the divorce on her. It wiped her

out, so I ended up being the primary writer.

******

I think if we were to go back to that [the curriculum]
and look at that framework now, it would make perfect sense.
The curriculum has, first of all, a whole language
philosophy. That language is a natural learning process,
and that as children learn to speak, they also learn written
language through the same process—~approximation and
consolidation and so on. As far as what the curriculum
looks like--it’s been a while since I’ve looked at it.

It’s very student-centered. We have a section in there
where a child, a novice, has these characteristics; a child
that is independent has these characteristics, and so on.

A curriculum should be a living document, not static.

We got it out and looked at the philosophy this year,
but we really haven’t looked at it for a while. Maybe we
don’t look at it because we wrote it, we know it, we own it,
so we don’t have to refer to it; and it’s not just a list of
subjects or objectives and outcomes, or philosophy. It’s

organic.

*******

170

There is a section in the curriculum where each of us
developed a theme and webbed it. We did a lot of webbing.
Each person did one, so there’s one for each grade level,
each subject area, each person’s perspective. It’s
interesting. That was a way to make the transition--to have
a web of that theme gave you a framework so that you knew
you were covering your subject areas.

When we had developed this curriculum web, we included
science and social studies, and music and art. We would get
together, a couple of people, and work on them together and
collect all the books that would support the theme. We do
that now. We do one school—wide theme a year. In fact I
think what’s in the curriculum is our round—the-world web
where we each studied a different country.

We did one on the sea. We did a Mother Goose theme.

It gives people a sense of the way you’re changing your
thinking of integrating all of your reading and writing
rather than having separate subjects and disconnected. It’s
just the way we do things now. We don’t have to think of it

consciously.

******

Everything’s in transition. When we started, we tried
to gather all the books on eight topics. The sea might be‘a
topic. We might read some non-fiction books about sea
animals and habitats. Students would write about those

animals. In reading we might use a fairy tale like "The

171
Magic Fish" and use that in poems, in songs, and in art
projects just all based on the sea theme.
I can remember "Six English Fisherman." There’s always
a rhyme or a chant or a little poem. I’m talking first
grade level again. Students also would write word problems,
that they knew to use vocabulary. That’s how it would work

into math. Kids write their own word problems and answers.

*****

On writing and Risk-Taking

Writing process, journals-—everyone adopted journals,
everyone did journals. That was the first change, and
accepting inventive spelling in whatever, phonetic spelling.
Doing that, you take a look at the way the child is
thinking. That was a major study for us-—figuring out the
way their [students’] brain is working.

Maybe as a first grade teacher, it’s just more
prominent. I don’t know. I think you tend to be at the
ground level. And to have it in kindergarten too. There
was a time when we didn’t have the kindergarten teacher that
we have now. The previous kindergarten teacher didn’t
believe that kids could write, so she didn’t have them
write. When we got the good teacher that we have now, she~
said, "Yes, they can. They can be writers."

I used to have to take about six weeks in first grade

to convince them [students] to take the risk, to try

172
writing: "You can do it." Now they come that way. We don’t
have to overcome that. They start in kindergarten-—learning
to be risk takers. They just accept it.

I think as teachers, too, we’ve got to learn to take
risks. I can remember we had a discussion on the concept of
risk-free learning. Well, we decided that nothing is risk-
free. You have to take a risk. It’s OK to take a risk.
There’s no such thing as risk-free. It’s what do you think?

Tell me what you’re thinking, so....

******

Bringing Reading To Everyone

After that we bought a lot of tradebooks to have the
tradebooks available, and we used our bookclub bonus points
to get even more. There was a lot of grant money. I think
then we went to a lot of whole group instruction-—sharing a
book, discussing a book together as a whole group, using a
poem in large print so that everyone could see it, and
teaching reading process that way--whole group, and then
independent practice.

In the past, we had reading groups, and, I think that
once a student is in a group, she doesn’t move out of that
group. Students don’t have the exposure to the better
readers and the things that they do. This whole group
instruction brought the conversation about reading to

everyone. It wasn’t just at your level anymore.

173
I remember we had a visitor once. She came and

observed and said, "Well, I see that you do independent
reading. I thought I was going to see something else." I
said, "No, we have the whole group instruction, and then
independent practice." This was the pattern that we had
developed anyway. A lot of people who have been around a
long time remember independent reading. Way back in the

’60s, there were a lot of tradebooks by Scholastic.

******

Just by trial and error we discovered the books kids
would read. We used the bookclub offerings like SeeSaw and
Lucky. Someone would get one, and it would go around the
teachers’ rooms and, "Look at this, this is a great one,"
and we’d see what appealed to the kids. Then we might buy
multiple copies of it so we could have a handful of them
instead of just one each.

I think I’ve refined that now from buying one of
everything to realizing what beginning readers need--books
with patterns and books with everyday experiences in them,
large print, two words on a page--those are the kinds of
books I select now. I guess we had booklists of pattern
books that we shopped from. We used wordlist books—-
comparative wordlist books where the kids used the book and

developed their own stories from it.

******

174

Another activity that we began was readers reading
together. Everyone joined in in partner reading. We
created cross~grade/cross-age-mixtures. That was one of our
steps——readers reading together. We would match a fifth
grader and a first grader, and have a third grader read with
a kindergartner, a fourth grader read with second grader.
It was just free choice of books, half an hour a week. That
was one of our steps towards the change.

I noticed that when we’d go to the library, the kids
would pick a book off the shelf and say, "My reading partner
read this book with me." It’s a neat way of getting to know

books.

******

One of the changes is having the students involved in
what they’re going to study and learn about. Giving them
some options and then choosing one, giving them more
control. We might say to them, "These are some things that
we could learn about next," or "What are you interested in
learning about next?" and then brainstorming a list of
topics with them and then sorting through that and finding
one that’s common for everyone. Any time we start a new
section, we work through with the kids--what do you already

know about this, and what do you want to learn?

******

175

On Hiring New Teachers

Our principal does try to find someone that will share
our philosophy and will be willing to work on developing it.
He’s been accused of that, hiring whole language people. We
do have a whole language curriculum which we are allowed to
use because we have that written curriculum from the grant.
We’re allowed to say we’re a whole language school, so yes,
you're going to hire whole language people. It makes sense.

It is nice to have someone who shares the philosophy
and has the theory——not just who can do the activities, but
have an understanding of why. That’s the key-—knowing why
you’re doing it.

The teacher I am working with now in the multi—age
classroom is new. She wanted to make the change because she
had worked with Joyce. Both of them were fifth grade
teachers, and so she had used Joyce as a resource on using
tradebooks in the classroom rather than the basal reader.

So she did have that. She did change from fifth grade to
second grade when she came, and that was an adjustment for
her.

She doesn’t have the background even though she
recently earned her masters. It was from a school that is
curriculum-oriented, not from a school that's process—
oriented. So she hasn’t had the writing process or the
reading process or that background yet. But she is

learning. She shares the philosophy and believes in it.

176

******

Reflections

Obstacles are time, support, and to some degree
material, but not to a great degree. We can have just about
anything that we want. But time and support I think are the
biggest problems with change--and will it continue? As long
as some people are still there, as long as our principal is
there we will move forward.

Our principal’s philosophy is that if you are
interested and it’s valid, go for it! His main focus is
that the students are in control, disciplined, and learning
the basics, so any way you want to teach them that, that's
up to you.

He’s always been criticized for not keeping his

teachers under control. But he just isn’t that kind of
person. He doesn’t have that attitude, "I’m more powerful
than you." It’s almost a shared decision making. It’s
always, "Do you agree?" He doesn’t make a unilateral

decision usually. It’s just, "This is a problem. What do
you think we can do about it?" We discuss it, and it’s a
group decision. So we’re kind of used to that. He always
supports the teacher. If a parent comes in with a
complaint, there’s no question whom he supports.
Curriculum doesn’t tell you what to use: it tells you

what to do. So he’s critical to it, and I don’t think one

177
teacher can do it either. You need a corps of teachers that
are supportive of each other and interested in learning,
teaching, and studying.

I think another critical piece is that all of us have
presented workshops. One of the components of the first
grant was dissemination——sharing what we’ve learned, and so
we took turns doing that at different times. Some people
still continue to present, and when you do that, you have to
clarify what you’re doing so you can articulate it.

Having the confidence and the understanding and the
guts. When you’re standing up in front of someone, they
think you’re the authority and you always clarify that:

"I’m not the authority. I’m just stupid enough to say, yes,
I’ll do it." It’s kind of a reflective process, and that’s

what makes it valuable.

******

We’ve been left alone because our standardized test
scores have been good. I think there’d be a real battle if
we were told we had to use basal readers. All we want is a

better school for the kids. That’s all we’re trying to do.

******

Chapter Eleven

THEORIES, REFLECTIONS, AND QUESTIONS

Joyce
"It’s very hard for me to look at theory separate, without
looking at it with a child. I’m so much better if I’m

looking with kids as I’m doing it. That makes a lot more
sense to me."

It has been eight years since we began. We haven’t had
a continuous grant, but we did for about three years. Once
we were studying, then we were developing curriculum, and
then we took a pause in the summer. But we’ve always had
something that we were working towards.

As I look back on myself, there are definite stages
that I went through. I think for me it’s different than it
is for most people because most people move from writing to
reading, and I moved from reading to writing. I’m not sure
why it is. Possibly it is because kids always read, but

kids didn’t always write.

*******

Questions

One day we were talking about how, as we moved towards
using theory to teach reading; we have a lot of terms that

we bandy about, like strategies and skills and prior

178

179
knowledge. And we questioned whether we really know what
those terms mean in terms of reading.

One of our discussions was that perhaps we needed a
definition like a glossary of terms. But we came to the
conclusion that that was not so, because all you're doing
then is providing a definition, and you need to come to a
working definition by actually knowing what you’re doing,
and by being able to use terms interchangeably.

For example, not to always use the term "prior
knowledge," to know that prior knowledge is background. So
when you ask, "What strategy are you using here?" kids don’t
say "prior knowledge." The question came up, "Is prior
knowledge a strategy or is the strategy activated by
knowledge?"

What’s the definition of strategy? What is the
definition of skill? Can you teach a strategy? No, but you
can teach a skill to make it so that the process of using a
strategy becomes automatic, a reflex-~raise a hand in front
of your eye and you would blink, so as you’re reading you
would automatically activate prior knowledge. But I haven't
worked that out yet. But it does make sense to me that the
strategy is an in-the-head process.

Someone said that the word "technique" was
interchangeable with strategy. Now, I don’t see that at
all. A technique might be something that I, as a teacher,
would use, but a student wouldn’t. But it certainly points

out the need for really understanding reading process. It's

180

easy to give labels to words but not really understand them.

One of the things we have in our resource book is
what’s supposed to be a schematic guide on reading process
which shows the interaction of text and reader, and then it
has predicting and sampling and searching, and a whole
definition like that. What happens for me is that I see the
diagram as very linear. But it [reading] is recursive and
depends on the difficulty of text and what kind of

background knowledge the reader brings to the text.

******

I think it’s pretty obvious that we make it [the
teaching of reading] too complicated by segmenting. I was
rereading Constance Weaver last night. There’s a list in
there [Reading Process and Practice] of just the rules for
phonics and then the percentage of accuracy. It was scary.
I don’t understand how people could buy into that, myself
included fifteen years ago.

It has something to do with valuing math and science.
We had to be able to make it [reading] into something
concrete and testable. It also has to do with what’s
happening in society. People don’t look at teachers of
reading and literacy as being as intelligent or as valuable
as people who are involved in math and science. Just look
at the endowment monies to get teachers to go and study.
You can get all kinds of money to study math or science, but

not literacy.

 

 

181

In order to buy into that [public perception] and to
make ourselves more valuable, we attempted to do that to
teaching of reading and writing. We tried to make it as
concrete as math and science. Isn’t it ironic, though, that
now the math and science, especially the math, are coming
around to the process part of it too?

I think it comes down to how pure your theory is,
whether you can accept it or not. That’s basically what it
is-—how much can you adapt what you’re doing to [your]

theory?

******

I talked with an old friend last night. She had found
a grant that we had written which was the very first one we
used to get books. I think it was the first big grant
they’d ever had to process. From that, we brought in kids
who were not in the top reading group to a program which had
started out as the GT [gifted and talented] program. Kids
could apply no matter what, and we found that kids who were
not in that top book could work just as well as the others
and could make some good starts and were improving. They
were actually wanting to read and being involved in reading,

and they hadn’t been that involved before.

******

When stuff hits you in the face, you have to think

about it. I had used novels the first couple of years when

 

 

 

182
I was teaching in the middle school. I thought, what would
be different about using them in the fifth grade? Then I
moved into read alouds, and looked at read alouds as a part
of the curriculum rather than something to entertain or keep
students quiet.

That was a big step. I mean, people have always read
out loud. I don’t think we always looked at it as a part of
the curriculum-~as being something productive for the
reader. So, to me, that was a big step. When I really
started choosing the kinds of things that I read out loud to
enhance kids’ understanding of reading, I really began to

look at reading.

*******

Awakenings

When I did my masters project, I did it on reading
aloud. I wanted to investigate read alouds in our district.
I knew what I wanted to do, but when I talked to fifth grade
teachers about the kinds of things they wanted to do, it was
very different because their understanding of reading was
different from mine.

I met with the other fifth grade teachers in the
district and told them that I was working on a project, and
that I was going to be looking at the kinds of books that
people were reading aloud in their classes to see if I could

make some correlation between content areas and read alouds.

183
For example, if you were teaching the American Revolution,
you could read aloud My Brother Sam is Dead.

They all wanted to know how many multiple copies people
had of books, and what study guides people had, etc. It was
so far from what I wanted to do. But, by the same token,
the purpose of my masters project was to make a change in
curriculum in the district, and I had to demonstrate that I
was working within my district.

So I got lists from everyone who was teaching fifth
grade. They gave me the titles of the books they had
multiple copies of, and I developed a database of the
multiple copies and what study guides there were to go with
them-if there were audio tapes or if there were movies too.

I’ll never forget one of the things that somebody said
to me when we were meeting. Someone said, "Well, I do
Johnny Tremain with my fifth graders."

My question was, "Do they like it?"

She said, "Oh, I don’t know whether they like it or
not, and I don’t care--I like it and I’m going to do it."

I was stunned. I was just absolutely shocked.

I backtracked and did a lot of research. And you know,
there wasn’t any research. I used ERIC and found there was
very little research on reading aloud in the fifth grade,
(intermediate) classroom and the impact of it.

I ended up going into story telling kinds of things,
and I did use some Shirley Brice Heath. That’s where I

first learned about her and the kind of research she had

dc

th

g:

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(‘1‘

184
done-—but I looked at what makes a good read aloud; what are
the qualities of a good read aloud; what is the purpose of a
read aloud; how do kids interact with reading aloud?

I don’t know if it made any impact on the teachers or
not. I think they [the teachers] were more impressed with
getting a database. I was just amazed. I would say, "How
did you choose that book?" and most often the response was,
"Well, it was a Newberry Award winner," or they chose it for
the resource rather than for the student.

Their choice was never based on the needs of the
student, and most often it was because they had heard
someone read it some place, or somebody had said to use it.

A lot of them were using Summer of the Swans. Now, I
grant you, that’s a great book. I like it a lot, and it did
win a Newberry, but I don’t know that it has a lot of
relevance to kids who haven’t been involved with having a
brother or sister who has some kind of disability. There
might be three or four kids in a class, but to read it to a
whole class. What’s your purpose in reading it outloud?
What are you trying to do? And their objective was only to
read a class novel. You know, that’s it.

Very surface kinds of things. What I found was many
times people would be reading books out loud that don’t have
very many challenges at all: books students could read on-
their own and enjoy. I read books that have more challenges
than supports, and so I’m building on that knowledge for

students as I’m reading out loud. Knowledge about reading

185
itself seemed to be a real problem.
You need to be careful not to get away from that, but
by the same token I think you ought to know what book it is

that you’re choosing and why you’re choosing it.

******

I’m excited because we bought a new video camera, so we
have one for each wing of our building, so we can really do
lots of learning videos. The kids do it themselves. Fifth
graders can do the work themselves. Then they can be aware
of the kinds of things they do when they read. I think kids
learn in isolation so often because we do things to them,
and we expect them to do things, and we never talk to them
about it. They spend weeks taking tests, and they never
have those test scores discussed with them or how they do or
what the purpose of it is. They never see them, and so they
have no basis for where they are as a learner. They have no
idea. They all think they’re "A" students or....

They need to be involved in evaluation: that’s all
there is to it, because if they don’t know where they are,

they don’t know where they’re going.

*******

Misconceptions and Abrasions

In the district itself I think there’s a lot of

misconceptions about what’s happening in our school. Seven

186
miles is a lot of distance. It shouldn’t be, but it is. It
keeps us out of the politics of what happens in the school
district. So we are always trying something new--the group
of us who are always together. We are always going to
conferences or something, and that’s scary for people who
have busy agendas already. They say, "Oh, God, they’re at
it again."

I think that they think that we think we have the one
right way of teaching, and that we’re trying to get everyone
to buy into it, and that we feel elite because we have the
funding. It goes far beyond what we did with literacy
because we’re into other things. We’re really into
computers. If you were to go into our building, you would
see that we have many more computers than they do in other
schools. We have Prodigy; we have a laser disk; we have
Renaissance Signs; we have the modem hook ups in the
classrooms, and there’s not another elementary school that
has that kind of thing.

They have the same choice. They don’t choose to do it,
but they complain because we’ve done it. They say that we
get preferential treatment; it's a new building. We just
have some diverse interests. I mean we have a couple of
people who are really, really strong in computers, and
somebody else is strong in another area or whatever, and
they pursue their own thing. They don’t have to just sit
back and complain.

Two years ago when the district instituted writing

187
grants, teachers could get up to $500. Well that year alone
I think four or five of them went to North Park. Nobody
else bothered, and that’s not to say that teachers in North
Park are one bit better than they are anyplace else. It’s
just that when you get a little piece of that pie, you want
more of it. Success breeds success. I just think that
we're go-getters and risk takers. Generally teachers aren’t

risk takers.

******

Values and Identities

I definitely think there’s a problem. The
administration created part of it, and I think we created
part of it in the beginning because we were so gung ho. You
can’t have five elementary schools and have them all the
same. They all have their own identity. I understand where
the administration comes from in their intent to do that,
but by the same token, I’m sick and tired of hearing it.

I’m sick and tired of hearing, "Well, you can’t do that
because the other schools feel like you’re getting
preferential treatment." Go and do it. It has nothing to
do with the schools. It has nothing to do with the
teachers. It has to do with what’s best for kids.

We’ve become so aware of it that now we try to hide
what we’re doing, or try to keep it quiet. That’s not such

a bad thing because the kids are still benefitting from what

188
we’re doing. We have a sense of community and support, and

that is so important for anything.

******

Winnie is a very strong part of our group. She is a
practitioner. She’s not the theorist of the group. Marilyn
is the pure theorist. She knows a lot of theory. She’s
very laid back, but if you look at Marilyn, and you talk to
her, she really knows the theory very, very well. I turn to
her often. I don’t think she realizes how much of it she
knows, and she is the purest of any of us.

The only reason why people would say that I would be
the leader is because I’ve had the contacts with outside
people, and I’ve had more outside contacts than they have.
That’s why. But I think that underneath it...I’ve really
learned a lot about it by working with Marilyn because our
relationship is very frank and each of us has different
strengths.

Our district doesn’t understand that. A few times
others have asked to do things with literature or curriculum
and our coordinator has told them that I am the only one who
can do it, for whatever reason. That has made me so angry.
That’s exactly what the curriculum coordinator said. A
couple times he has said it to me. He said, "Not
everyone’s a Joyce Thatcher. Not everyone can do this."

It was so awful that I went to our principal, and I

said, "John, I know that he thinks he’s complimenting me

189
when he’s saying that, but he is really making it difficult
for me to work with people in this district when he does
that." It was just a really horrible thing to do. It
really was!

One of the problems is that most of the people won’t
stand up to him. You know, they’ll complain, but they won’t
say, "Look, I’m right and you’re wrong. You don’t know
anything about reading and I do." But, it has nothing to do
with what I know. It has to do with who I am.

Teachers are not valued, and that’s real clear. I
mean, that’s clear in any setting. I mean, this is just
another example that we’ll find just about anywhere we look.
There’s not enough written about it. They don’t have
models. Teachers, like everyone else need models, need
heroes, need whatever, need to know that they can be in
power. We don’t value teaching enough.

The idea is that anybody who teaches elementary school
is not bright enough to do something else, and once you
start getting your masters, there's this real elitist idea.
Clearly, they don’t understand how important elementary
teachers are and how much we need to value them, and how
much they can teach us about how kids learn. There’s nobody
else in the profession who knows as much about our kids’
learning as elementary teachers.

Their job is to observe and to encourage. And it goes
right back to the concept of tangled readers--the tangled

readers that people have in the elementary school or the

190
high school or the middle school have to be untangled in the
same way you would untangle primary readers. And therefore,
we should all be reading teachers. We should all be reading
and writing teachers. It doesn’t matter even whether we’re
teaching math or science. So we really, truthfully, need to

do something about the system of educating teachers.

******

I’m still not sure I have a definition of "strategy,"
although it is an in-the-head process that we use to make
meaning. So, for example "prior knowledge" is something
that’s involved with reading strategies. But what is prior
knowledge? So lots of times when people would do a case
study, one of their objectives would have to do with prior
knowledge. So is prior knowledge a strategy? Can we teach
kids that? No, they already have prior knowledge, but can
you teach them to activate prior knowledge? That would
become your objective. Does that make sense?

When you’re working with students in guided reading,
what would be some of the ways that you would get children
to activate prior knowledge, and can you teach prior
knowledge or is it just there? That would be an in-the—head
process. That makes sense to me. But you could give them
the skills--you can teach the skills to activate it. So
then you come back to was it a skill or strategy?

But if you think of prior knowledge, and if you think

about sampling and predicting and those kinds of things as

191
strategies, the kinds of things that are going on in your
head, then you can know what kinds of skills you can teach.
I’ve really started thinking about what do I know about how
kids read? I think that I do know something, and I use the
words, and I talk about them, but do I really understand

them?

******

Models

To me if I’m going to work with a model like the
teaching/learning model that I’m working with this summer,
then what I employ in my classroom, the same model, is part
of the process. When I’m working with the teachers, then
that same model should be used by me, and when I’m working
with the lead facilitator and the New Zealand person it
should be used with me. So that model, if that is the model
that you believe in in teaching, and that’s the model that
we’re trying to present--then we ought to use it anyplace.
It should apply to all learners, not just those in the
classroom. But I don’t know that everybody believes that
way. I think people say they do, but I think that the
learner is in the best place to evaluate that model. If you
understand that model, you have some responsibility yourself

to figure out what’s happening with it.

******

192

My idea of a teacher is someone who, I hate to ever use
the word "facilitate" because I think that’s overused. It’s
almost like you’re ready to give them [students] a little
push to make them go that next step to do whatever it is
they need to learn so that it becomes continuous. I think
about it a lot. I’ve seen people who don’t have a masters
or don’t even have a college education, and they’re
wonderful teachers.

I’m sure they would be even better teachers if they had
more information, but I’m not sure what it is; I’m not sure
it can be learned; I don’t think the best teachers in the
world are taught to be the best teachers in the world. I
think they may hone their skills, but there’s something
there to begin with.

I don’t know, but I think it’s the ability to assess
the students that they’re working with. I’ve thought about
this with a lot of my own coming to believe in whole
language. I worked through that process without ever having
a theory-—without having a teaching/learning theory because
I don’t ever remember learning [one] in college, or anyone

even discussing a teaching/learning theory.

******

Rebels and Models

Our principal has said to me that he looks for people

who have strong beliefs. He doesn’t care if everybody has

193
the same ideas. And I think that’s very true in our
building. We’re all considered to be rebels. That’s true
because we are.

He looks for people who believe in something and care
really deeply. To me that was a very interesting comment
about hiring. It says something about what he values and
also says something about the model that he wants to set for
students. You talk about what you want kids to think and
that you want kids to be whatever, but as a whole teachers
aren’t allowed to think. Everything about education
prevents people from thinking.

We believe that kids learn from the model that we give
them. Kids are smart enough to figure out that we’re
feeding them information from a teacher’s manual. I mean,
you’re sitting at a table with that in front of you.

It’s interesting, though, because I’ve looked at that
from a new perspective as I’m working on this new job this
summer. Whatever I’m doing, I’m looking at myself as a
learner and how this applies to what’s happening in my
classroom. During the first week I wasn’t even
facilitating. I was just sitting and going through the
concepts. I’m really low man on the totem pole.

I thought, "Wow, this is kind of interesting" because
when I’m at home and I’m talking to teachers, people value
what I say because people think that I really know what I’m
talking about--that I’m experienced and that I’ve done this

before. I have this feeling of worth as I’m working in my

194
classroom. Whether I’m at a teachers’ meeting or at a
conference, I measure what I say because I know people are
going to be listening to me because they think I know what
I’m talking about whether I do or not.

But as I move into this new job, nobody knows me from a
hole in the ground, and they don’t think I know anything.
It’s very difficult for me to sit at the bottom and realize
that these people are way ahead of me; these people know so
much more than I do as far as theory goes. I have practical
experience in my classroom, but I’m working with people who
have worked for three or four years using this model.

So I’m thinking, "Mmmmm, this must be how my students
feel in the classroom. I’ve got students who want to be
members of this club, who are working real hard to know
what’s going on." It’s a real new perspective for me. How
am I going to get to this as fast as I can? What can I do
to facilitate my learning, or do I just take my time? But
we don’t allow kids in our classroom to take their time. We
don’t ever say to them, "Just a little teeny bit—-get this
right today." That doesn’t happen. But if people were
saying that to me, I’d be overwhelmed and totally stressed
out.

That’s been real different for me as a learner and as a
facilitator. To say at the end of the day, "Well, I've
screwed that up in good shape. Well, that worked and I
wondered why." For example, one day I had just had a

horrible day, and at the end of it we were just talking

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about running records. I didn’t feel particularly
comfortable with running records, and I went through the
conventions of running records and broke them [teachers] up
into groups. For maybe forty-five minutes the groups went
really well, and I just kind of walked around and talked to
them individually. Then I got into this discussion with
somebody.

It was a very one—on-one discussion, and I knew that I
was losing the other four groups, but I didn’t know how to
stop the discussion and to bring them back into it. So
people just kind of got up and left, and there was no
closure to it. I thought I should have brought closure to
it, but I wasn’t experienced enough at facilitating to
disengage from the conversation that I was in and to bring
the group back.

When we had our facilitators’ meeting that night, we
talked about it, and people were saying, "Oh well, these
people, they’re not interested, and they’re not this, and
they don’t want to do that." But I couldn’t say that in
that case because I knew that I had not taken care of the
learning situation. I had not made it easy for those people
to stay. As a matter of fact, I made it easy for them to
disengage.

For me those are really strong learning kinds of
things. My kids aren’t going to get up and walk out of my
classroom, but they’re certainly going to disengage from

what they’re doing if I do not know how to keep them

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engaged.

******

On Change and Changes

I think that when you say the word "change," you
automatically think of it as being big change, a radical
change, systemic change. To me it’s not that at all. It’s
just taking that next little step, the next step, one step,
one little step. And if you don’t continuously evaluate it,
it might look like big change, but it really isn’t. It’s
just working to make things better, hopefully.

My reason for change is to be the best teacher I can
be, or to be the best person I can be, or to grow or....I
think as I get older I keep thinking, well there’s not that
much time left, I’ve got to get this right sometime.

I would be bored if I did the same thing over and over
again in my classroom. I would be very bored. I don’t ever
use the same thing. I don’t ever save papers. I don’t file
activities. You see teachers that have these big files, and
they go to them regularly and say, "We’re going to do that."
Not me. I might use the same thing, but chances are that I
wouldn’t depending on what the students wanted or needed.

Even if I used the same thing, it wouldn’t be the same.

******

What I would have considered a roadblock or an

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impediment to change two or three years ago, I would not
consider to be the same thing today. It's real easy to say
things are impediments and say they’re in your way. That’s
something that I’ve really had to learn. There are some
things you can change, and there are some things you can’t
change. If you look at that, it’s just a problem to solve
and there’s a way to get around it. It might be a lot
longer road, but you get there sooner or later.

I used to get really angry with our superintendent
because I felt we were trying to do something really
wonderful, and he was impeding us from doing what we wanted
to do. I used to think, "This is his fault," but I’ve come
to see that it’s not his fault. He has a different job than
I have. And we still do it. We have accomplished a lot,
and he has not stopped us.

We would like to say that it’s his fault if we don’t
change. That would be easy. But we need to look at the
faults within ourselves. I’m not talking about personal
faults: I’m talking about the fact that we were go—getters.
I’m trying to think of what the term is that Fullan uses or
Russ Qualia uses: "Yabuts"--the people who are the Yabuts.
I used to get really angry, but the Yabuts are the ones who
really make you stop and think about what you are doing
because if you can’t define what you’re doing to the Yabuts,

then you don’t really know it.

******

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The greatest impediment is not understanding change, as
far as I’m concerned. If you want to change, you’ve got to
understand what's going to happen; you’ve got to understand
what happens to people and how different people react to
change, and that it’s not linear, that you go so far and you
come back. If you understand that, then you’re already on
your way.

When we first made changes, we did not understand that.
We went into changes in curriculum, looking at how kids
learn but did nothing with the change process, and that was
the biggest problem.

I have learned that change takes everybody and that
some people are going to do work and some people are going
to sit back and say, "Yeah, but," and that’s just as
valuable as the people who are out making the changes.
Change is really hard work. It’s not easy. It’s like
throwing a pebble into the water and those little ripples
come out, and they just keep coming out and coming out, and
they touch other ripples. It affects everybody.

I learned you’ve got to have parent support--it’s
critical-~and that the change that you make, you have to
understand the research behind it--there has to be a reason
for it. It’s real easy to make changes, but you’ve got to
know why you’re doing it, and you’ve got to be able to say,
"Look, I can prove to you that this works." And then
there’s always going to be somebody who says, "Well, yes,

but statistically, I can give you another statistic that

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proves that."

But this is more than statistics. This is "Look, see,"
and when they see it, they can’t argue with it. They also
have to relate it to their own learning. They have to be
able to see it from their own perspective. You can’t just
tell them about it. They have to buy into it. Everybody
knows how to teach. That’s what was hard about change in
education because everybody has gone to school, so they all

think they know how to be a teacher.

******

If you’re going to change, you need time to think about
it, and educators don’t have any time. When we want time,
we always have to go do something, or that time has to be
active time. You’ve got to be prepared now, so you’ve got
to be going to the library to get the books, or whatever.
You need time to just figure out why this worked and why
this didn’t, and that’s not built into our schedules in any
way.

If you were keeping a journal or you were dialoguing
with somebody else, you’d feel guilty that you were wasting

your time. You wouldn’t be thinking that that was

productive use of time at all, when it is. It’s necessary,
and I don’t know how you change that. But, I don’t think
anything’s impossible. I don’t.

*‘k'k'k'k'k'k

200

Eight or ten years ago when we started this whole
language in our school, we fought really hard to get what we
wanted. We were lucky we got the grant to do it. But, we
didn’t see any progress whatsoever. We felt what we were
doing was not valued. But, if you look around the district
now, you find little pockets of it happening all the time.

Wouldn’t it be nice, however, if we were all based on
the same theory-—we all knew what it was we wanted kids to
do, and if kids were on a continuum so when they came from
the class before you, you were able to say, "Yeah, look,
this is where they are, right here, and I’m going to pick
them up exactly where they are, and I know what the next
step is going to be"?

But there’s no philosophy about teaching in most cases.
Even in our school where we say there is, there really
isn’t. It’s not a continuum. I mean, there’s you and them
and us.

I think that just like there are students in your
classroom who are at different stages of the learning
process, here and there, there are teachers the same way.

It used to make me very angry and think that we are cheating
the kids. I still think we are: however, I know that it’s
very unfair to expect everybody to be at the same spot you
are in your development. Especially when I would like our
students to be the best.

I think they deserve to get the best there is, and I

don’t think there’s an excuse for having poor teachers.

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There are too many good people who want jobs to keep around

the people who are not.

******

Politics and Equity

Everything’s political, especially teaching and
learning. That’s one of the reasons that whole language is
so threatening—-because of the politics-~because of the
model that we have for school districts. I mean, because of
that old industrialized model, teachers have to be
controlled, and if you have people at the very bottom of the
hierarchy making decisions, that’s pretty threatening.
That’s pretty political.

It comes back to what your definition of "equity" is,
which is a word that’s getting thrown around lately. What
is equity? Is equity everybody taking the same courses?

Not in my mind it isn’t. Is it equitable when you assign a
homework assignment for kids to go home and look up some
information on the states, and those kids who have parents
who are teachers or professionals have a set of
encyclopedias, and those kids of parents who might not have
a job or whatever don’t even have enough to eat, let alone a
set of encyclopedias? Is that equitable? It’s something we
need to look at, as teachers--to think about what is equity
in the classroom?

I’m not sure that we’re looking at it in the right way

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at all. I’m not sure I am, but it’s something that I
certainly want to think about. We talked about it as far as
equity for girls and boys in the classroom, you know, equity
in sports or whatever. But what about equity in education?
What about equity in what we require from kids? I think
it’s a real important issue, and one that’s not really
talked about.

I was reading something in the paper yesterday. The
state scores are in the paper, and they were writing about
the difference between the girls’ and the boys’ scores in
writing. The girls scored higher than the boys in writing.
The state coordinator commented that a good paper was about
2 1/2 pages long, but the boys were only writing about a
page. Therefore, they weren’t scoring as high as the girls
were.

I wonder why that is. What’s the reason for that, and
if that’s the way it’s happening, should we be expecting the
same number of pages from the boys? Do our expectations
have anything to do with equity? I really need to sort that
one out——figure it out. For some reason it really bothered
me when I read it, and I cut it out to think about for

later.

******

I had a little boy last year who’s LD behavioral. I
was reading his scores, and they were two point something.

When I did a running record on him with his books, he zipped

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right through them.

But he was such a pain in the neck. He and I decided
that if he could go two weeks and he didn’t have any
checkmarks on his behavior modification book that came from
the learning class, I would take him to McDonalds to eat.

So he made it, and we went to McDonald’s.

It was a horrible day. It was one of the worst storms
of the winter, but I made that promise, so I figured I’d
better go. Going in, he started talking about trucks. He’s
talking to me about engines, and he’s talking about
combustion. The learning disabled person was me! If you
had evaluated us at that point, this kid would have been
gifted, and I would have been learning disabled, and I
thought WOW! Just think about this. Just think what we do
to kids in the name of education. That’s pretty scary!

This kid can’t behave, this kid can’t learn, but he’s saying
"Look at that truck. Now that truck gets so many miles per

gallon." It isn’t that he can’t learn.

******

It’s the Questions That Are Important

The theory is necessary because I think I came as far
as I could and I couldn't take my students that next step.
I didn’t know what it was I had to do. I think that’s why,
even though I experimented with whole language. I think

that’s why when I look at this New Zealand Model, it was

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based on research and it was theory based, but I knew "I can
do this." I could keep building on this, and I can
understand this, and this makes sense. So I came to theory
from practice. I think there are some people who come to
practice from theory, but I know that I didn’t.

As I look around and I see the people like Janet Allen
whom I think is an extraordinary teacher, or Mary Gierard,
or Winnie-—those people came from practice to theory. They
had something to begin with. That ability to look at their
students and see what they need, or to say, "This isn’t
working-~what I’m doing is not working; these kids aren’t
learning; there’s no relevance in this to their everyday
lives, and they’re not becoming readers and they’re not
becoming writers."

When they see a student is having difficulty, they do
not blame the student. They look at themselves and see what
they might not be doing or seeing because they know that the
student is capable. They see themselves as learners too.
They don’t have all the answers. I think that’s a real
critical piece for being a teacher. That they’re life-long
learners, and they’re not afraid to say, "I don’t know-—
let’s figure out where we’re going to go to find that
answer. What is it we need to do, or who are we going to go
to?"

****‘k*

This is not going to be my summer of answers. I think

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it’s going to be my summer of questions. The fact that
teachers don’t always have answers and are willing to admit
that they don’t have answers, but they’re not afraid to
raise the questions, is really important. It seems to me
that that is what is valuable, maybe even more than having
an answer. I’m not sure. I like to question. That’s one
of the reasons I like teaching.

I really do like those questions, and I like thinking
about them, and going through and coming to those great "ah
hahs"--going "Ah hah, yeah, that’s it. That makes sense.
I’ve got it." And I like the challenge of it. I can’t
imagine anything that could be more challenging.

To me, it’s ridiculous to think we have the answers.
It’s the questions that are important. Teaching is like
being a doctor and having a patient that comes in and they
have this really strange disease, or something that’s really
wrong, and you’ve got to figure it out. What is it, you
know, and what am I going to do with this stuff? I love the

term that they use in New Zealand—~"the tangled readers."

******

Winnie the Pooh and Metaphors Too

That’s like kids who are struggling. They call them.
"tangled readers and writers." I just love that picture--
that metaphor of just unraveling that whole thing and

finding where it is, picking at it and working at it, so

206
that you come up with a way so that it’s untangled. I think
it’s such a nice picture as opposed to some of the other
ways we have for describing kids who aren’t really ready, or
doing the same kinds of things that we think they should be
doing as readers and writers. I love it.

Some of the greatest learning we’ve done in our school
as professionals, and actually as students, was this year
with what we did with that Winnie the Pooh metaphor. It was
incredible to watch what people did with that and to relate
it to their own experience, and then relate it to Winnie the
Pooh quotes. It was amazing.

People could buy into it at their own level. They
could extend that metaphor as much as they wanted to, or
they could do it as little or as quick as they wanted to.

It was really neat. And it was interesting too, because
I’ve seen people use a garden as a metaphor for education,
and those kinds of things, but this one was different.

I like the concept of exploring. I think that’s really
what we’re doing in education, and we sure have a lot of
exploring to do. We looked at education as exploration or
teaching as exploration, maybe not education but teaching.

I think it’s real important to think about how kids
learn and putting those conditions for learning in place. I
think if you use those conditions for learning that Brian.
Cambourne talks about, and you have kids who take
responsibility--who are engaged—-and you have those other

conditions and approximations, and all those kinds of

207
things, that we’d be a lot better off. But who talks about
teachers teaching teachers? Who talks about teachers as
explorers?
It goes back to that question, "When does learning
occur?" I know for me that I learn most when there’s some

kind of "abrasion."

******

Something I’ve been thinking about too is what we do
with words. For example, we talk to parents about inventive
spelling, and we talk to kids about it’s OK to use inventive
spelling. What is the connotation of the word "inventive"?
What is the connotation that when you invent something,
you're creating something new?

In fact, what kids are doing when they’re writing is
approximating because they’re using the knowledge that they
already have. What they have down there is an approximation
of the accepted spelling. It’s not inventive; they’re not
creating something. If you look at it, there’s something in
it that they’re approximating, and you need to show that to
children, and you need to show that to parents because that
goes right back to if you’re looking at this as an
approximation, what are you doing next—-moving closer to
that accepted spelling or that accepted writing; and if you
really think about writing process, and if you really think
about the way kids learn, then you should say what you mean,

and you don’t mean inventive spelling.

 

208

Or what do you say when you say to kids that this is
your "sloppy copy"? It’s a cute little phrase, but they
take it literally; and when you say, "I can’t read this,"
"Well, it’s my sloppy copy." Why wouldn't you say, "This is
your draft?" The connotation of "draft" is very different
from the connotation of "sloppy copy".

If you truly believe in writing process, and if you
believe that spelling is a tool for kids to write, then why
do you give them an eraser when they’re doing their draft?
Right? If their approximations are an indication for you to
move them to the next step in their writing or the next step
in their spelling, therefore to make their writing better,
why don’t you just have them draw a line through it? And
then you can see the process that they’re working through in
their approximation. I mean, if you’re really going to
believe this stuff, then you have to do it. You can’t just

talk the talk. Well, that really makes sense to me.

******

This year in our reflective practice group, we did Egg
School Run. It’s great--a wonderful, wonderful book. It’s
about change, and it talks about school culture. Where is
the center of power for being individual schools, and would
all schools in the district have to be the same? It’s very
readable. Everybody in our school has a copy of it, and
then a couple of other people like the GT teacher and the

itinerant people picked it up too because everybody was

209

talking about it.

******

On Whole Language

I do have a problem with the term "whole language." I
have a real problem with it because what we’re doing, I
think, has gone way beyond whole language. It’s basically
student—centered learning. Not that whole language isn’t.
When we started, we were talking about doing literacy kinds
of things, reading and writing, but now it’s more. It’s
affected how we teach math and science; it’s affected how we
teach other things.

There are so many definitions of the term whole
language that it doesn’t mean anything. It’s like saying
"stuff." I’ve got a lot of stuff, whatever stuff is.

I know a lot of people refer to us as whole language
teachers, but I think that’s wrong. The thing that bothers
me about the term, and there are lots of arguments, [is]
it’s exclusive or many people see it that way. When you use
the term "whole language," that is exclusive of other
learning theories or other ways of learning. Automatically
when you hear the word "whole language," people who don’t
know that much about it say, "Oh, well, they don’t teach
phonics."

It becomes exclusive of that; it becomes exclusive of

textbooks; it becomes exclusive of—-you think of the things

210
that the term whole language excludes for people. It even
excluded some teachers from the rest of the school.

I think that that’s indicative of our understanding in
our school. At one time we used the term "whole language",
and then we moved from "whole language", and we said
"literature-based" and "writing process." Still, look at
what you’re doing when you say that. I just like that
child-centered learning a lot better.

That doesn’t exclude any kind of thing. When you say
child-centered learning, what does that exclude? It doesn’t
even exclude a basal reader, if that’s what you want to use.
It certainly would change my definition of how I’m going to
use a basal. I would use it as an anthology, and I’d base
it on the needs of my child. But I wouldn’t not use a basal
reader. If that was what I had, then that’s what I’d use.
I’d just look at it a different way.

The resources do not intimidate me. If I were told
tomorrow, "This is the reading series you’re going to use,"

I’d still teach the same way.

******

Challenges and Supports

I don’t think I’ve always had confidence. I might have
thought I always had it, but I didn’t. I think it comes
with experience, and I think it comes with reading and

talking to other people and looking at how kids learn, and

211
how kids read and write, and knowing the learner. And
knowing the resource. That’s where it comes from. I could
look at that basal reader and say, "Oh well, look at this
story; there are lots of challenges in this story that my
students can’t overcome without me really working with
them." I would never have done that five years ago or ten
years ago. I never even looked at challenges and supports
in texts, or challenges and supports in classroom set—ups or

stuff like that. That’s very different now.

******

I think that we need a rest. By a rest I don’t mean
that we’ll stop growing individually or whatever, but we
need a rest from the grant—-from the rigor of having to
follow it, to document it, to do whatever it is, even though
I think that’s an incredibly valuable process. It’s only a
valuable process for those who are buying into it and those
who really feel that they’re part of that club.

I think what has happened is that there have been three
or four of us who have carried the burden of it. It hasn’t
been a burden for us, but for those people on the outside
who have looked at us and said, "I don’t know what they’re
doing," or "I don’t understand that." I think that we will
become more tolerant of where we are, and those of us whO-
are involved and believe strongly in what we’re doing will
try to manifest change by really working with our students

so the peOple won’t say, "Good Lord, what are they doing

212
now?" but will say, "Gee that’s working. What are they
doing? Let’s go do it," or "I think it’s time for us to do
it."

******

Marilyn strongly believes that we have to have a change
agent from outside, and I agree with her a hundred percent.
But there are other ways to implement change than having
grants. For myself, or for Marilyn, or Winnie, we could
have some kind of grant that applied to our own classrooms,
where we would be more teacher researchers. We would
actually be looking at the theory rather than the change.

I think to a certain degree we focused more on the
change rather than on the theory. And I don’t think we've
done a bad job. I think we’ve done a real good job. I
don’t think everyone knows it and can understand what we’re
doing, and I don’t think the test scores necessarily
indicate what’s happening, but I think if someone came in
and looked at the kinds of things that were happening in our
building, they would really be amazed, because those kids
are readers. There’s just no question about it in my mind.
They think they’re writers, and that’s really important, but

I think they’ve got a longer way to go in that.

*‘k'k'k'k'k

Chapter Twelve

AN UNCOMMON COMMONSENSE TEACHER

Winnie
"There are doers in life--there are people who do, and there
are people who hold back, and there are people who never do.
I am probably a doer. I am not saying that I always do the

right thing, but I do things! I really believed that what
we were doing was right, and I still do."

As a student I questioned a lot. Why were we doing
things? Why were we studying things? What was the
relevance? That’s what made me such an unproductive
student, and that probably has helped me in the classroom
because I question often. Why are my children doing this?
Is it because I have a need for them to fulfill, or is it
because they can use it in their daily life and their lives
for the future, or is it something that they’re interested
in? As teachers we have to stop and think of that very
often. We have a certain curricula to meet: we have goals
that we have to meet because they’re written down somewhere,
and in that process we can meet the child’s needs, and we
can know why we’re doing things.

Looking back in my schooling, even through college I
questioned a lot of things. Will I ever have to use this?
What good is it for me to learn this now not needing it now?

I may never need it. I’m more of a practitioner. I want to

213

214
get out there and do it. I don’t want to hear a whole lot
of theory.

However, I do think you have to formulate theories
before you start. Once I formulate a theory, I don’t want
to beat it to death, and I don’t want to get into the
theories so deep that I never can get out and put it into
practical use. I think a lot of people do that. They’re
great theorists, but they don’t ever do anything that’s
practical. They carry a lot of information in their heads,
but they don’t use it. Kids don’t learn by theories alone.

You have to have a foundation for what you’re doing,
and you have to have a direction, but you can sit back and
talk about it and talk about it and never do it. I’m not
that kind of a person. Once I formulate something in my
mind, I’m going to go ahead and do it. Sometimes I don’t
always take enough time and think it through, and sometimes
I jump to things faster than I should. But I feel that
that’s OK too because you learn in the process of making

mistakes.

******

From my years as a student, I remember the things that
I would do if I ever became a teacher rather than the things
I wouldn’t do because I tuned out the teachers that I would
have said, "I’ll never do that," "How can she do that?
I’ll never do that." I tuned them out. I picked up on the

teachers that had the qualities that I liked. The ones that

215
I liked the most--the ones that I got the most out-of--were
those that took a little bit of time to interact personally
so that you became a student in a class that had a name
rather than just a person who was filling up a seat.

I’ve earned a lot of names from my students, like the
crazy woman. The things that they [students] remember I’ve
forgotten. When they come back, what they remember are the
things that showed that I touched them personally rather
than "I remember the day you taught me that 2+2=4." Nobody
has ever told me that.

But they come back and they say, "You gave me such and
such a book to read, and I remember that," or "I remember
the day that you said...." For instance, Joyce had her
fifth graders write about things that they remembered about
their experiences at North Park, and one of them remembered
something I had done.

Every year I bring my class up here for a picnic at the
end of the year. We were up here for the picnic, and one of
my first graders was kind of sitting on the lawn, not
moving, not enjoying himself, and I couldn’t figure out why.
So I went to him and asked him why he wasn’t participating,
and he said very quietly, "I wet my pants."

I knew that this was a terrible situation for him to be
in. I didn’t want to say, "We’ll go call your mother, and
she can come pick you up or bring you some clothes" because
that would have drawn immediate attention to him. So I

said, "It’s a very hot day, and I think we need someone to

216
play a joke here. I’m going to go over to the hose, and I’m
going to turn it on, and when I do, I want you to get up and
run. I will hose you down with the hose to be funny. I’m
going to really water you down."

It went according to plan. I really wet him down. He
was the only one that I really wet down, and we left it at
that. He was all wet, but that was okay, and he was okay.

Before school got out Joyce was asking them about their
best memories at North Park, and he told that story about
how I had saved face for him. That's personal contact with
a kid and not reacting as a teacher. As a teacher I should
have said, "Oh, you’ll have to go call your parents to come
and get you to bring you a change of clothing" and not acted
like a fool, turning on the hose and watering down the
child. But that’s the way I react to things-—help the child
and sometimes act foolish myself. A lot of kids remember

those things a lot longer than theory or lessons.

******

Sameness

When I came to North Park and the second grade, we were
using basals, and everybody used the same basals. Those
two years don’t have many memories for me because I don’t
think that’s where I wanted to be. At the end of the
second year, there was a first grade opening, so I jumped at

that and decided that’s where I wanted to be. I didn’t

217
notice a big difference between first and second graders,
except that second graders didn’t seem to show the same
progress that first graders do. First graders come to you
as emergent readers, and they develop into almost
independent readers. And second graders kind of stayed on
the same level all the way through. I didn’t see the same
progress, and that’s where I lost some of my motivation. I
think most of what I did my first two years of teaching was

experimentation.

******

First grade at North Park wasn’t any different than
first grade anywhere else I had taught because we were all
tied to the same basal, the same reading series; we had to
get through the same set of tests, the same set of criteria,
so there wasn’t much difference. The only thing that made
it special here in the first grade my first year was that we
did go into this brand new building.

We felt like we were in heaven when we moved over into
the new school. It was the first time that the faculty was
really united. Even though I had taught two years in the
older building, they were on one side of the building, and
we were on one side, and we didn’t really get to know each
other.

It wasn’t a very close faculty in the old building
because of the physical structure. Then when we moved into

the new building, things opened up in a lot of ways. It

218
brought the faculty closer together. My method of teaching
wasn’t any different because we were still tied to the
basals, and we were tied to the science series, and we were
tied to all these other things, and I still was a firm
believer that we had to go by what the district had

prescribed.

******

And A Child Will Lead

That first year in first grade at North Park, Kelly was
a student in my room, and she was not the norm at all.
That’s when I began to see that children definitely came to
school with things in their minds, prior knowledge, and that
they weren’t just empty receptacles to be filled up. She
helped me to see that. She was a delightful child, but she
made me sit back and take a look.

I knew Kelly had ability far beyond any of the other
children, and I was trying to give her materials that were
more appropriate for her. But Kelly wanted to be part of
the group. I had my three reading groups, and she said, "I
want to be with them."

I said, "Well, Kelly they’re doing things that you
already know how to do, and it’s going to be kind of boring
for you to have to sit there and go through the books and do
the worksheets."

But she said, "I don’t care. I’ll pretend I’m

219
interested because I want to be part of the group."

That was when I realized that you can’t do the same for
all kids. I mean here’s Kelly who is willing to pretend
that she was interested. How many other students had I had
who pretended to be interested?

It makes you start to think. When we put them in those
reading groups or those other levels, how many pretenders
did I have when actually they were sitting there really
bored to death?

Teaching out of the basal, three groups sitting there
in a circle around the table was boring. There were
afternoons that I even had to fight sleep. I was terrible
in the afternoon, but I still had to have my hour of
reading. My God, it was painful sometimes to try to stay
awake to listen to these poor little kids try to read. I
think maybe that was the beginning. Kelly did it.

Probably having had second graders for those two years
and not really being enchanted by the whole thing, maybe
that caused me also to stop and question, "What's happening
with these first graders when they go into second grade? Am
I doing the same things to them that I see happening that I
was doing in second grade?" That’s when it began, but I
didn’t really do too, too much about it then because we
didn’t have that empowerment or didn’t feel that we were!

empowered to go beyond the basals yet.

******

220

Partnerships

Long before it was fashionable, Joyce and I had
arranged a program of partner reading where fifth graders
read with first graders and first graders read with the
fifth graders. This was long before we’d ever read about it
in any books because I think basically we knew that that was
a good thing to do. The structure of the building also
played an important part again. I had taught with Joyce two
years before that and didn’t know that she was at the other
side of the building. I think the physical structure of the
building put us closer together as people, and we were able
to communicate a lot of things and found out that our
philosophies were the same.

We started that program, and then before the grant was
even written, we started to attend a lot of workshops
because then the term "whole language" started to come into
focus. We started to attend a lot of workshops basically
with writing and using children’s literature in the
classroom.

That was fuel for the fire. Most of the faculty were
willing to drop everything and go to workshops, probably
moreso than any other faculty that I had worked with before.
You get caught up in it. You almost don’t dare say, "No, I
don’t want to work at a workshop." Somebody says that
there’s a workshop Saturday, and we’ll say, " Yes! Where is

it? How much does it cost? We’re going." It’s not

221
questioned as to who’s going or do you want to go. You’re
just kind of caught up in the movement. So we went to a lot

of workshops.

******

This year the week after school got out on Thursday
and Friday, we had a two-day workshop. This was entirely on
our own. The six of us sat with the consultant from the
State Department for two days. Nobody had to do it, but we
wanted to do it.

We started off on the premise that we were going to go
through—-we had set some outcomes working with parent groups
and student groups and teacher groups and community groups,
and we were going to kind of talk about where we were going
to go from there. We got into a lot of other things that
were good. It felt good being together for two days. One
day we had it at one person’s house and the next day we had
it here. It was kind of fun just being relaxed and being
able to discuss a lot of things that we don’t always have

time to discuss-—educational things.

******

Going to workshops was one of the starting points. We
all sat back and realized, whew, there’s a different way to
go. Then, of course, came the grant, and I think the grant
was the big thing. When you have monetary help, that’s

power, and I think having the principal that we have helped

222
too. He sat back and let us talk and let us become
empowered. We weren’t given free rein. I think that’s
good, too, because when I think of the things that we might
have done had we had free rein....

At the time you’re trying to grow and change, you
grumble at administration, and you grumble at others because
"We want to do this and they won’t let us." But, they’re
sitting back, and they’re watching, and they’re probably
being more practical than we are. Although we have had a
lot of power and a lot of chances to change things, we
didn’t have full rein. Now I see that as a positive thing
rather than a negative thing. But when we were going
through it, I thought it was negative--they were holding us
back.

When you jump on a bandwagon, you’re gung ho, and you
think, "Oh, yes, this is going to change the world; this is
going to change education," so you jump on—-you really
believe in what you’re doing and what you’re doing is good.
There are a lot of good, positive things, and at that point
you expect that there would be no obstacles in the way. We
wanted to change the reporting system, and we wanted to do
this, and we wanted to do that. Of course, the district
always maintained that we were going to do things as a
district and not as individual schools, and we got enough
rebuttal from other places saying, "Well, North Park School-
-who do they think they are?"

I think the administration was protecting us in a way

223
because there are things that we did that we’ve changed
already, not that we did them wrong, but we learned that
there were still better ways of doing things. We’re still
learning. I think if we had been given free rein, we might
have made a lot more mistakes and gone down the wrong road.
Looking back, I think maybe those things weren’t negative

although they seemed negative at the time.

******

Money Talks

I wasn’t in on the actual writing of the grant. We all
offered information. We all offered input, but not in the
actual writing. I was giving them [Joyce and Marilyn]
encouragement to go on. I would bring them the snacks. I’d
give them a pat on the back, that type of thing, but I
didn’t want to be involved in the writing specifically
because I think Marilyn and Joyce do that extremely well
together. They can put down ideas and tear each other’s
ideas apart and not get angry at each other. It takes
special people. If I wrote something and somebody tore it
apart, I'd probably tear them apart. So I didn’t want any
part of writing the grant, but I was there to be supportive.
So anyway, that’s the way that it developed. As an
outsider, I thought that developing the grant and it being
accepted was fairly easy. Now Marilyn and Joyce might tell

you something different.

224

******

I didn’t actually go through the blood, sweat and tears
of it. It was not difficult after the grant was written to
get the school board to accept it. The school board meeting
happened to be here. I was asked to say a few words to them
about whole language (we were using that term) and how it
made a difference to us. I did, and the school board
accepted it very quickly. I think they did because we were
out there trying to get $10,000, and anytime that you get
$10,000, you’re going to save some money in the district
budget.

Maybe we convinced them. There was printed material
that they had read before the meeting. But, I don’t think
school board members know enough about educational policies
to make a judgement. They’re in the business end of things,
and I think that the school board listens to the
superintendent, and decisions are made a long time before
they come up on the agenda. I’m not faulting them. It’s
just that they’re elected from the mass of people out there,
and they’re there to save money. They’re not too concerned
with policy making. I don’t think they really knew what was

going on. They just thought that it was $10,000.

******

225

The Importance of the Grant

The most important aspect of the grant was the fact
that we could hire outside people to come in and work with
us. One thing that we’ve learned is that you do need
somebody from the outside to keep a group together. The
minute that you don’t have an outsider, you begin to
question others’ abilities. If there’s somebody else
facilitating the meeting, you don’t question your peers
because this person knows how to run the group and keep them
focused.

During that first grant, we focused on writing and
reading with a state facilitator, and that bound us
together. We had a lot of outside contact. There were
people who were not as quick to jump onto the bandwagon, but
they did. They gave it a try, and many of them--I’m not
going to say succeeded——but many of them became involved in
it.

It drew other outside people. There was a big interest
about whole language because, as people say, we were doing
"it." There’s no doing "it." But because we were doing
"it," people were interested, and people came to see what we

were doing.

******

For me personally, it [the grant] really gave me the

freedom that I had wanted all the time but didn’t dare do.

226
It gave me the freedom to put the basals away and the
textbooks away and say, "Okay, the children are going to
read--they’re going to learn to read by reading and they’re
going to learn to write by writing." It was fun to delve
into all these great children’s books. Every other day
there was somebody bringing in a book that they had picked
up at the bookstore, saying, "This is a great book," and
then everybody would run down to buy it. There was
wonderful, wonderful interest, and I think that interest is
still going. We’re excited about books. We’re a faculty
that has become excited about books, and I think that’s
important.

I tried to make what was going on in the classroom more
relevant. The most important thing that I discovered about
whole language was the fact that learning can’t be broken up
into little pieces. I had done that for years and years and
years. We had fifteen minutes for phonics and twenty
minutes for a penmanship lesson and an hour in the morning
for reading and an hour in the afternoon for reading again
and writing. It was in response to worksheets and that type
of thing. Maybe if something real exciting happened, then
we might write about it.

I discovered that to learn to read and write, you have
to do those things. The children have a lot more freedom to
read what they want to read and write what they want to
write. And it was a joy to see what I thought was a big

transformation in children in just those first couple of

227
years.

In my previous years of teaching, I had held children
back because they were good pretenders. When we did go to
the whole language concept, I discovered quickly, very
quickly, that children had a lot more to offer than I
thought they did. They were really progressing, and they
were being more creative, and they were able to do so much
more because I didn’t have any reins on them. I was letting
them show me what they could do before that thirty-second

week of school where it was supposed to be shown.

******

A Day in First Grade

We always start the day with sustained silent reading,
and sustained silent reading in first grade is anything but
silent. It can’t be because they’re sharing books. They’re
sharing picture books, they’re sharing other things, they’re
sharing knowledge, and they can’t do that silently. So it’s
a period of time where they explore books in our classroom,
and it’s supposed to be a fifteen-minute period the first
thing in the morning where the whole school does this
activity. Many times I can’t interrupt that activity at the
end of fifteen minutes because they're completely involved.

There are other days where fifteen minutes is too long,
and you have to have a feeling for it. If after five

minutes you know that it isn’t going to go right that day,

228
then you kind of stop and start something else.

I’ve seen my silent reading time go into forty-five
minutes to an hour, and I won’t stop it because of the good
things that are happening. You might say, "All children
aren’t interested during that time," and no they aren’t.

But those that aren’t will look around and see other kids
really involved in books and, rather than get into trouble
or cause problems, they’ll look around. They’ll join those
two people over there because they are so involved in that
book. And you’ll see them go and sit with them and become
involved, or they’ll look around and they’ll say, "Gee,
everybody else is reading, so maybe I should." They’ll go
get another book or sometimes the whole class will kind of
migrate to a corner where some child has gotten involved in
a book or has discovered something in a book and the whole
class direction has gone that way, so sometimes I have to
pick up from there.

If I get a chance after that, after sustained silent
reading, we usually have a period of journal writing.

Again journal writing in first grade just consists of them
telling some newsy event. I have three children share their
journals. We do that by lottery. I’ll draw names out of a
hat, and if they want to share, they can, and if they don’t
want to, they don’t have to.

When we first started doing this, we were told that the
children should ask questions like, "What did you like about

my writing?" and, "What do you need to know more about?"

229
There was another, but I can’t even remember what it was.
Over the years you realize you’re getting pat answers.
"What do you like about my writing?"

"I like your printing or I like your drawing, or you
did this." There’s no meat to it at all. So I’ve moved
away from those three questions. We get into more of a free
discussion about the person’s writing. If a child just
says, "I went to the mall yesterday with my mother," then
obviously that can be developed into more writing, and with
the passing of time and the more depth that the children
get, they are able to say, "Why did you go to the mall? Did
you buy anything?"

All these questions show the writer other things he
should have included. They’re getting more in depth with
their questioning, and there is more reason to question
rather than those three basic questions.

After that journal writing, we usually do a directed
reading lesson where I read a book and there’d be discussion
about it. I might have some other activities involved with
that book that have skills-oriented things with them. That
is the purpose of a directed reading lesson. Then we would
probably go into that part of our theme that would involve
science and work on science activities. That just about
takes care of the morning because we’ve got other activities
like gym during the morning.

In the afternoon we’d have a writers’ workshop.

Students have a writing folder, and they are working on

230
their own pieces, anything that they want to write. Through
the year, their writing gets lengthier, and they’re able to
do some editing and some publishing. During that writing
time in the beginning of the year, it’s very hectic because
you have most children coming to you and saying, "I don’t
know what to write," and others saying, "How do you
spell...?" for every other word. They don’t think they have
that freedom to try and use inventive spelling. They have
to get over all those humps in the beginning.

It takes a long, long time for them to realize that
they can write; they can use inventive spelling; they can
use their peers and read their story to their peers; and
their peers will offer suggestions or questions. Then they
go back, and they know after a point that they can do some
editing themselves by drawing lines under words that they
know they’ve misspelled; and many of the words that they’ve
misspelled they know that they have references in the room
that they can go to, so they do a lot of this stuff on their
own, independently. Then they publish this on the computer
or by hand. But that process takes a long, long time
because in the beginning their attention spans are probably
ten minutes. Towards the end of the year we can have a
writing workshop the whole afternoon, which is an hour and a
half.

Sometimes when I say, "Put your writing folders away,"
they moan and groan. This makes it worthwhile. This is

where you see your progress.

231

******

Progress

The year before this past year, I started to take
samples out of their journals. The faculty had agreed that
we would take four samples of their writing during the year
and put them into a folder to be filed, to be passed on to
the next teacher. We’re getting great accumulations of
pieces, if you lay them all out from grade one to grade
five.

Joyce was saying that she can pick out their progress
by laying them all out and seeing what kinds of things
they’re doing. But, I felt that if I put in four samples of
their writing from first grade and passed it on to the
second grade teacher, I’m not sure that she would look at
them at the beginning of the year. By the time they got to
the third grade, I don’t think the third grade teacher would
begin by looking at eight pieces of each child’s writing.
There needed to be something a little bit better.

On my own I started to take their first journal entry
at the beginning of the year. I reduced it, photocopied it,
and put it on a sheet with comments about what they had done
in writing. During the year, I may have six-twelve pieces
from each child in a folder with comments about how their
writing has developed. Then I copy it and send a copy home

to the parent at the end of the year, so they also get the

232
same information.

If the second grade teacher wants to pick it up and
look at my comments from the first day to the end of the
year, she can see the writing process the child has gone
through and the development she has made. It takes a little
more work, but it’s made me notice more things about their
writing, and helped me to be more of a kid watcher through
that process.

I would like to start something with reading this year.
We tried, at one point, to get into running records. Some
of us know how to do running records, but the point was that
we didn’t know what to do with them after we did them. So,
Joyce is learning all about that this summer. She’s gone
equipped with our questions to her workshops, and she’s

going to get the answers for us.

******

I think there’s going to be more done with the reading
portfolios, whether it be audio tapes or what this year. We
just found a new video camera for the school, so now we have
two. Although we used one a lot, there were times we didn’t
use it because it was being used by someone else. Now we’ll
have one for each end of the building. I would like to get
enough tapes to start an individual tape for each child and
have them tape some readings during the year so that you not
only get the audio, but you get a visible product—-because

the way a child reads in the first grade or early primary

233
grades shows a lot about what they’re doing physically as
well as on audio.

There are a lot of things that kids do physically that
you don’t get on the tape; you just don’t capture them. I
mean just the way that children wiggle while they’re
reading. On an audio tape you don’t see what cues they’re
getting from the page. They may be reading here, and
they’re looking over here at the cue from the picture. You
don’t see that on an audio tape. You get a pause. What is
the child doing during that time? But with the video, you
can see exactly; they may be going back to investigate the
picture; they may be turning the pages back to investigate
something else, rechecking; they may be going ahead to see
if they can get some help from what’s happening further on
in the story. I think that’s really important.

I’d like to start something like that so that when they
go into second grade, they’ll have their very own tape, and
the second grade teacher can add to it. By the time that
they leave fifth grade, they’ll have a portfolio in writing
and reading and some other things. But you can’t do it all
at once because then it becomes mind boggling and there just

isn’t enough time. So you work into it gradually.

******

There are doers in life—-there are people who do, and
there are people who hold back, and there are people who

never do. I think I’m probably a doer. I’m not saying

234
that I always do the right thing, but I do! I really
believed that what we were doing was right, and I still do.
So, I’m going to do it whether anybody else does it or not.
Like I just said with this writing folder, no one else is
doing it. Others know about it. They’re not doing it
because maybe they don’t see that it’s worthwhile. I don’t
know, but I’m not going to wait for them because I feel that
it’s worthwhile, and I’m going to do it.

If somebody doesn’t want to learn how to run the video
camera, well, that’s their problem. If they want to come to
me and ask how do I do this, fine. But I’m going to go
ahead and do it, and I’m not going to try to convince them.
I will help anybody, but I’m not going to waste time trying

to convince other people that it’s a good thing to do.

******

Change is Inevitable

Change is definitely something that you cannot do
without, and that’s not only in education; that’s in your
whole life. Without change you become very stale. You need
change. Sometimes change is positive and sometimes it’s
not. But you do need change. For me, what's been
happening, the change that has been happening in education,
has been following my philosophy. I’ve enjoyed it. The
onset of whole language was like a booster shot.

I had probably come to a point in my career where I

235
wondered whether I wanted to do this [teaching] forever.
That might have been ten—twelve years ago, and at that point
it was a booster shot. It was a good change, and it was a
positive change, and I became energized by it. I don’t
think that you can say that all change is good because
sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it develops into something
that isn’t quite right, and you have to turn it back and
that’s where the change comes in again. But we can’t sit
back and say--in education or anywhere else in life—~well,
this is the way it’s been for the last ten years, so we
continue to do it that way.

I see a lot of people who graduated with me in college
doing the same things that we did our first year of
teaching. That’s scary. I’m sure that they would tell you
that they’ve been through a lot of changes, but, for
example, I think that anybody who still clutches onto the
basal at this point in time and can’t see the pitfalls of
the basals hasn’t allowed too much change to happen in their
lives. I just read a book this week that I would like all
of these people to read: Basal Readers--A Second Look.

It is wonderful. That was another book that belongs to
Joyce. Of course she laughed and said, "Here, read this."
She just handed it to me. But, it’s amazing...they took a
first look at basals a few years back before the onset of
whole language, and of course they had a lot more to tear
basals apart. Now, they’ve taken a second look at them, and

even though the basal companies have made some strides, they

236
haven’t made enough.

In the 1930’s there were over 100 companies that were
writing basal reading series. Now there are only six major
companies that are writing all the basals; and you know the
money that they bring in every year? $400,000,000—-six

companies--$400,000,000.

****'k*

Making Strange the Familiar

We were reviewing some new reading textbooks a few
years ago, and even though we weren’t using the textbooks,
we had to review them. They [the other teachers] were
saying, "Look at this company; they’re beginning to use real
children’s literature in them." But, I pointed out to them
that they were watered down so badly and changed so much
that they were terrible. Just so they would fit the
criteria of their textbook. It was ridiculous.

In one of the chapters of Basal Readers. Mem Fox says
that a company asked her to write a story for their basal.
She kind of backed down and said, "No, I don’t have the
time; I’m busy." She didn’t really want to write a story
for them. They said, "You must have something that hasn't
been published or has been in a drawer that you could dig
out." Well, she decided to write something, and she wrote a
very short story; she calls it, Yeah. So What? After

children read it, they say "Yeah, so what?" She wrote a

237
"Yeah, so what?" story for them, and she was turned down.
The publisher actually turned her down. She was elated that
they didn’t take it. But anyway, it’s a fantastic book!
Well, they’ve made changes, but they’re [basal companies]
still questioning teachers’ intelligence by offering

prescribed lessons...and kids’ intelligence.

******

What Parents want

We have a group of parents who, as long as we keep them
informed, don’t give us too much negative feedback. You’re
always going to have people who are going to say things, but
we try to keep parents informed right from the beginning
about what we’re doing; and that’s important, that's really
important. We had people from the administration--higher
up, not our principal——saying that people [parents] are not
going to want that. They’re still saying that.

When we talk about changing the reporting system
because we don’t believe in it, they’ll say, "Well, that’s
not what parents want." They tell us that all the time.
I’m sure that Mrs. Smith down the road doesn’t call the
superintendent’s office to tell him what she wants in a
reporting system. We’re supposed to sit back and take that
and say, "Okay, if that’s what parents want, then we’ll do
it."

Again, I stepped out of bounds a little bit. The first

238
reporting term this year I sent home a survey along with
report cards. We had started to write long and involved
notes with the report card. That takes a lot of time, but I
feel it says a lot more than symbols on a report card. So,
I sent a survey home asking the parents what part of the
report card they liked the most. On the left hand side of
the report card are the academics-—math, writing, reading-—
and on the right hand side are the social skills--behavior--
and then we added on the narratives.

I asked the parents which they liked better. More than
half of the parents responded. Most of them liked the
narrative much better because they said it helped them to
understand. One parent even said, "I like it a lot better
than the alphabet soup that we have to wade through in the
regular report card." That’s exactly what it looks like
because you’ve got S’s and VG’s and VS’s and NI’s and all
these other symbols, and what reading level they’re on. It
ends up looking like alphabet soup; that was a wonderful,
wonderful statement for her to make.

Letter grades don’t tell them a thing about what their
child can do either. A parent looks at a grade, and yes,
the parents goal is to see all VG’s on their child’s report
card so that they can tell their neighbor over coffee that
"My child got all very goods."

They’re not saying things like, "The teacher said that
Johnny is an emergent reader, and he’s picking up books on

his own; he’s beginning to read, and he’s doing this or that

239
in his writing; Johnny used periods last week and formed
complete sentences." Those aren’t the things that parents
are talking about. They’re talking about how many VG’s
their child got in comparison to yours, and that’s not what
we would like to have parents talking about. With a
narrative you can change people’s thought processes, using
terms like "emergent readers" and "emergent writers." Maybe
years down the road, then, parents will take a different

look at it.

***‘k**

When we took the whole language workshop here, there
was also a parent workshop. Our parent’s organization
bought the packet, and Joyce and I presented it to the
parents. We ran it for about six weeks, and we had an
average of fifteen to twenty—five parents there each night,
once a week for six weeks. That was very good, and through
that process, I think that we were able to show a lot of
parents that reading is not taught the same way as it was
when they were taught--that this is a more practical way or
a far better way to teach reading and that how children
learn is the important facet.

I think we haven’t had too much flak because we’ve
gotten parents involved and keep them tuned in to what is
going on; I think that’s an important role. We have parents
walking in and out of that building all the time, and

volunteers coming in and out. Often parents will walk in,

240
and it’s a while before we even realize that they’re there.
As a parent that’s the way that I’d like to visit the
school-—just to drop in whenever I wanted to. I think if
you give parents that freedom, they will feel comfortable

about what we do.

******

On Whole Language

It doesn’t bother me to be called a whole language
teacher. The name has gotten a bad reputation. When it
first started being used, everybody was using it, and then
various groups attacked it, and so the word itself got to be
a "no-no" word. So you changed it to a literature-based
classroom, and, you know, it just had a lot of other names.
I don’t care what they call it. They can call it Winnie’s
philosophy if they want, if they want to come into my
classroom because I think it’s pretty well set in place, and
I’m not going to change my philosophy. So I don’t care what
they call it. They can call me a whole language teacher. I
just hope they don’t call me a non—teacher.

As far as the word "whole language" goes, that doesn’t
bother me because I think the people who are attacking it
are going to attack it no matter what it’s called. If they
wanted to say, "Alright, we’re going to change the name of
it to traditional classroom," they can--they can if they

want to, but it’s not going to change my philosophy.

241

******

Whole language is not a method. It’s a philosophy.
When whole language came around, it probably matched my
philosophy closer than anything that had come along before.
That’s why I really liked it, and it was easy for me to kind
of swing into. Although there are a lot of things that I’m
still not sure of that I haven’t been educated in, I’m kind
of feeling my way. But, it was what I thought teaching
should be, what learning should be, and the relationship
between the teacher and the student should be.

It’s a philosophy that lets children be more
themselves. And it allows me to be aware of where the
child was, and where the child is going, and to help her
along the way, not for me to think that I was the authority
or the person who knew it all in the classroom and had to
fill this little empty receptacle with knowledge. I’ve
learned a lot from the children themselves, and this is
probably something that I, as a teacher in the years past,
probably didn’t take the time to do because I had an agenda
to follow, and I didn’t take time to listen to the children
as well as I should have. I think this affords me that

opportunity to be a kid watcher, and that’s very important.

******

Even though in the past I’d deviate from my plan, I

don’t think I felt like I had complete freedom because I had

242

to get through those three pre-primaries, and I had to get
through the 1-1 book, and I had to get through the 1-2 book.
Heaven forbid if they went into second grade, and they
hadn’t been introduced to the 1—2 book and [weren’t] at
least half-way through. That was grounds for retaining a
child, if they hadn’t finished the 1-1 book, and then went
on half-way through, at least, the 1—2 book. We could
retain a child, and that was really playing God. If I
didn’t give them the chance to be exposed to that because we
had run off on a side road, then it was my fault that these
children were going to be retained.

I spent a lot of time pondering if I was doing the
right thing, and probably there were times when I didn’t.
It was just something that I thought was right, and it
probably wasn’t. But you spend a lot of time thinking about
it, and so if I had any guilt feelings about maybe not
pushing those children enough, or maybe we just didn’t put
our noses to the grindstone enough and they still didn’t
make the grade, it was my fault. I guess I felt that more.

I don’t feel that now because I feel like I’m doing the
best I can with the children. We believe more in letting a
child develop at their own level, and since we don’t retain
anymore, then nobody has to take that blame. And I see the
children progressing much further.

If the child becomes interested in something, or wants
to expand on something we’re studying, I can give them that

time to do it. It gives children a chance to be curious

243
about things. Before, your day was cut up in little boxes,
and you had to move from one time limit to another. You
just didn’t have that time. We’ll say, "Well maybe someday
we’ll look into that." Well, maybe someday--that’s an idle
promise just to pacify the child at that particular moment.

But it wasn’t really honest.

******

Change Again

It [change] has to be honest right from the top down,
meaning the administrators, the parents, and then right down
to the child because the child is the one that’s going to be
most affected by that change.

I have been changing. Change is going to happen in
spite of you. I don’t care if you dig in your heels, change
is going to happen, and I don’t feel that I have to go along
with every bit of change that happens because every time you
turn around, there’s something new out there that you can
jump on--even "Hooked on Phonics." You can jump on that.

I’d like to think that I would still be able to weigh
out and take from something that they’re calling "change":
the things that I feel comfortable with, the things that I
agree with, and eliminate that that I don’t agree with., You
don’t have to take it all. I hope that I can be flexible
enough to admit that something isn’t working, even though

you thought it was great, and when you admit that something

244
isn’t working, you need another change.

That’s part of what we’re trying to instill in
children, that if you’re using the scientific method of
investigation and you try things and they don’t work, it
doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong because you’ve
investigated it. So with some of these things that are
happening in change, yes, weed out the good and the bad, and
keep the good.

Change seems pretty natural, but I’m afraid of some
change. I mean some of the things in technology are a
little bit frightening. But I am adaptable to change.
Sometimes I get dragged into it by others.

The biggest changes that have occurred have been
because of our group readings and workshop attendance.
Unless you do those things, if you do not know what is new
and inviting out there, then you are certainly not going to
change. We need to concentrate in this age more on staff
development; school districts need to offer more good staff
development; they need to give us release time to learn, not
just expect us to do it on Saturdays, after school or on
vacations. They need to realize its value. Without staff

development there isn't much change.

******

The larger administration actually discourages change.
They want control. Change is okay for them if they

instigate it, if it’s the kind of change that they want.

245
They have to be the one that disperses that authority. They
don’t want it to come from the bottom up. Because then they
can’t take credit for it. That’s the way it’s been forever
and ever and ever.

They’re still running it [the school system] the way
that factories were run many years ago. There was a person
who was in charge—-the head of the factory--and he delegated
everything that was done in that factory, and even now
that’s changing in the workplace. But education is not
moving along with that. They’re still on the factory model.
As you go down further and further, we’re the peons, and
we’re expected to do what they say.

I don’t think that they’re purposely doing it. And
there are times that there need to be constraints and there
needs to be somebody who’s really in charge and says, "No,
you can’t go any further right now." I think there has to
be a cap somewhere. But the administration has to start

changing too.

******

We have a reflective practice group once every other
week. Through some manipulation we’ve gotten some time
during the school day to share. Previously we met every
other Tuesday. Tuesdays are faculty meeting days, so
everybody kind of leaves Tuesday free after school. So we
:Eigured it would be a good time to have a reflective

Lbractice group. And this last year we have started doing

246
some things with the principal.

Every Monday he has a "Meeting with the Principal" for
a half an hour with grades one, two, and three. Working
with that one half hour and then allowing our children to go
out for a half hour recess, and his having the second group
for a half hour and allowing them to go out, we were able to
have an hour during the day once a month. It involved the
whole faculty. Then we’ve snuck in a few more during the
year, and we’ve even had some parents come in to do some
substituting in the classroom and taking over the recess
period, so that we can do this.

But we have to be careful as to how many times we do it
because the higher-up administration frowns on it. They
think we’re wasting our time. They think that because we’re
not in the classroom with the children, the children are not
being educated, and that’s so sad. Here we are doing more
work, actually. If I do have somebody come into the
classroom during that period, I have to organize the
activity before they get there. The children are still
working; they’re still learning, and we’re learning in the
process too. Just because we’re out of the room doesn’t
mean that the children aren’t learning something. But the
administration thinks that we need to be right in our
classroom with those children for them to learn.

When I say administration, I don’t include our
principal. I’m including the higher-ups. I don’t look at

<our principal as being an administrator, although yes,

247
that’s his job description because he’s been on our side, so
to speak, and he’s been a friend, so I don’t place him under

that umbrella.

******

I think there’s a difference between a pragmatic
teacher and a theorist. You have to have some common sense
when you’re working with children. You can’t just take
something you’ve read and say, "Well, it’s got to work
because it says so in the book." It doesn’t.

But, I’m like other people. I do a lot of reading, but
I don’t have the vocabulary; I don’t carry it on, and I
don’t know if that’s teaching first grade for thirty years,
you know, but you think about a lot of the vocabulary now
that is in books. Part of the theory is the same as it was
twenty years ago, but they’ve got a new word for it. If you
look at the amount of writing that is done now in comparison
to twenty years ago with a different vocabulary, I can’t
stay ahead of it; and so I think, "Well, what is it they
mean?" So, I forget the word and carry the meaning instead-
-the practical things that I gain from it: so therefore, I
don’t carry the vocabulary to throw around because I’ll
never use it in my first grade anyway.

It took me awhile to figure out, for instance, when
people started using the term "reflective practice groups."
What the heck is that? I thought, "Hey, that’s still in."

In my vocabulary it used to be called a "rap session." But

248
they seem to have to tack other names onto it. So you try
to stay ahead of all this lingo. That’s part of the change-
—the power, authority—-they’re there.
And I think on my tombstone I’d rather see, "She was a
good, practical teacher" rather than "She could sling the
lingo around." You know, there are people who can sling the

lingo but can’t do very much else.

******

Tell Me A Story

We have Olympic Day at the end of the year, and all the
children in the school compete at various activities, and
they win ribbons, and they win trophies, etc., at each grade
level. Of course not everybody wins a ribbon; not everybody
wins a trophy, and that’s a fact of life. At our final
assembly, which we call our fifth grade graduation, the
ribbons and trophies are handed out.

I was sitting with my class, and there was a little
first grader from Marilyn’s room behind me. Marilyn was on
the other side of the auditorium; two rows behind him was
Sheila who, because of the multi-age classroom, is
responsible for this child too. They passed out the ribbons
for first grade, and six children in the two rooms won _
ribbons, and this poor little fella didn’t. He kinda slunk
down in his chair, and he had big, thick glasses.

I looked back and there were big tears running down his

249
cheek. So I said, "What’s the matter Michael?"

He said, "I didn’t win a ribbon."

I said, "Well, Mike, we can’t all win ribbons."

I reached over as far as I could and patted him. Then
they passed out trophies, and he didn't win a trophy of
course. If you didn’t win a ribbon, you didn’t win a
trophy. So I looked back again, and he was really, really
upset, and I said, "Mike it’s OK, we don’t all win
trophies."

I indicated to Sheila that he was upset, and she said,
"Yeah," she knew. I looked, and she was all red—eyed
because she was feeling what Michael was feeling. So a few
more minutes passed, and I looked back again and he was
really upset. Poor little fella! I felt so bad--he had me
crying!

I’m looking at him and I’m saying, "It’s OK Mike, we
don’t all win trophies," and big tears were coming down.
Then he saw the tears in my eyes, and he stopped crying
because I think he realized that other people had
experienced what he had experienced--that we’re not all
winners of trophies in life. And I think for Michael this
is something he’s going to remember——the day the teacher
cried with him because he didn’t win a ribbon and a trOphy—-

and that’s what teaching is!

******

Part III:

SUBTEXTS

Chapter Thirteen

WORLD MAKING

"Stories are our tools for world making. When teaching and
learning focus on world making, narrative may hold limitless
possibilities. Narrative is more than a way of knowing; it
is a way of knowing that we know something and that we have
a right to know. It is not necessarily knowing that is
filled with certainty, but it is, at the very least, knowing
that we have the right to puzzle over situations in a quest
for understanding. It is a way of bringing to the surface
what was once inarticulatable.... Locating our own stories
is the key" (Brunner 187).

As I read the stories that Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie
have told, my initial response is not analytical nor
critical, but reflective. I make connections to my own
story(ies). The response is powerful, emotional and
personal, so I am uncertain about analyzing them in a
critical sense because I know I cannot do justice to
them.28 I am certain, however, that what is their story
will become part of mine as I make connections from my own

learning and life.29

 

28I also know that I run the risk of creating a world
that will pigeonhole them, categorize them.

29Rosenblatt, in The Reader. the TextL the Poem(46-47),
assumes that the reader’s role is active not passive. There
is a transaction between the reader and the text as the
reader brings prior knowledge and experience to the text and
the text offers the reader new insights, ideas and
experiences. Both change as a result of the transaction,
and a poem (a new text) is created. These primary or
personal responses to texts lead the way for more critical
analyses or evaluations.

250

251

I am concerned that to preserve their stories is akin
to preserving Marilyn, Joyce and Winnie’s teaching lives.30
But by sharing them, by interpreting them, by making the
private public, I can give voice to the power their lives
and stories tell since stories are a way to discover the
truth(s) of things. As I reflect on their stories and write
down some of my reflections, I create space for more
contemplation by others who would read them differently.
Together we create another version of a world that has yet
to be explored; we open up possibilities for change stories;
we raise questions about what some consider to be the real
world of teaching, a world often defined by society as
narrow, sterile, invisible and powerless. Therefore I make
their stories yours and mine by suggesting possibilities and
other world versions in a quest for understanding. I will
highlight key features in each teacher’s story and make
connections between them to especially look at the features
of change as a complexly collaborative whole as it must be

in the institution of American education as it stands today.

******

 

3oAs Coles states, "When we interpret a story, we are
interpreting a life"(7).

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The Teaching Identity
Self is a construction, a result of action and
symbolization.... Self is a text about how one is situated
with respect to others and toward the world-—a canonical
text about powers and skills and dispositions that change as
one’s situation changes from young to old, from one kind of
setting to another. This interpretation of text in situ by
an individual is his sense of self in that situation. It is

composed of expectations, feelings of esteem and power, and
so on (Bruner 130).

It seems so natural for most of us to share our
experiences through narratives that we often do not even
notice them as we organize our experiences to make sense of
our world. Stories about school, about family, about work
and social lives produce common and unique meanings to us
all. In fact Bruner (1986) suggests that a common core of
stories is what defines a family, a community, a culture and
even the teaching self.31 The teaching selves of Winnie,
Joyce and Marilyn have developed from their earliest
experiences as children, as students, and as teachers.

******

Joyce

For Joyce the world of school and teaching were no

different from home. Literature and learning were highly

 

31If as Fullan suggests that "educational change
depends on what teachers do and think," and that no
significant change can occur unless it reflects what
teachers believe about teaching and learning, then to
understand change one must discover where beliefs about
education and learning come from.

253
valued by her family. Learning was often experiential. She
had strong teaching role models in her mother, her aunts and
her grandmother. Her mother was well known for being an
excellent and innovative teacher. Her family was looked up
to because they were formally educated. Her father modeled
the importance of education for her and led the town in
creating a better educational environment for the community.
Her mother and father had powerful reputations--reputations
based on innovation, independence and leadership--in the
community for promoting education.

In her first year of teaching we see these three
qualities emerge in the decisions she made. She refused to
follow the assigned text because she knew it wasn’t right
for her students. She instinctively knew that to allow her
students the freedom to explore a problem that really
bothered them was somehow more right. She succeeded because
people assumed that she knew what she was doing because she
was her mother’s daughter. She did not know explicitly why
she did not use the text the principal gave her; it simply
did not seem right.

Her confidence to pursue choices for her students
outside the traditions of schooling was patterned after
years of experience with her mother and family, a family
that gave her confidence and esteem as a learner and reader,
and modeled power and leadership roles in education. She
was, after all, her mother’s daughter.

For her, school is about learning, learning to be a

254
learner for both teachers and students. The teacher’s role
is to remove all obstacles to both their abilities to learn.
To do this she must understand why certain materials and
methods are being used. Why this book instead of that one?
Why use this word? What does the student need? What are
his purposes as a learner? She is always asking these
questions. She used her experience as a learner in her
statistics course to test and explore her beliefs about her
students’ experiences.

She was surprised to learn that these questions were
not the reasons behind the choices of other teachers when
she began her masters project on read alouds. It bothered
her that decisions were made that had little to do with the
learner, that they were so shallow. She had naively assumed
that all teachers questioned why and made decisions based on
the needs of the student.

Another choice she made that diverged from the
traditions was using literature in her classroom. Using
literature was what she knew best. She had grand memories
of the power and importance of reading books and of being
read to. When she first learned to read, her grandmother
called her mother down from her office to the classroom to
hear her read, and her mother came. It was important.
Other things could wait. Literature was so important that
she marked and still marks time by books. It seems only
natural that she would see using literature as a

characteristic of good teaching.

255

One of her earliest memories of school was the pleasure
and excitement she felt in the one-room school house which
she remarks "was like being home." The sense of a learning
community, her confidence as a learner and the possibilities
and absolute importance of education to her own life
directed her thinking about teaching.

Questioning and reflection are important to Joyce as a
teacher and learner. Many of the questions she asked
herself were the result of experiences with students that
contradicted what she thought she knew about learning. When
a new student did poorly on a phonics test that was supposed
to identify his reading level, but he was able to read and
comprehend anything, she began to question how she was
looking at reading. Furthermore an experience with a
special student labeled "learning disabled" led her to
question who was really learning disabled.

Change for Joyce comes about in little steps. The
purpose of change is to better her teaching or to grow,
herself. It is continual and hard work. Although she
doesn’t explicitly say change is good, she equates it with
learning and bettering herself. She also recognizes that it
is recursive like learning and that there has to be a
purpose for it. Change for Joyce seems to be internal
change before external change.

For her teaching and learning co-exist. A good teacher
is a learner, and a learner can be a teacher. She says she

teaches because of the questions, not the answers. She sees

256
teaching as exploration:
I like the concept of exploring. I think that’s really
what we are doing in education, and we sure have a lot

of exploring to do. We looked at...teaching as
exploration.... Who talks about teachers as explorers?

******

Winnie

Unfortunately Winnie, from her earliest memories, was
not allowed to explore because of the many constraints
imposed upon her. She remembers that women had no real
choice in professions. They could be nurses or teachers,
and that was it. But her mother’s wisdom in pointing her to
possibilities seems to have had a strong influence. Her
father’s strength modeled persistence to do whatever she
wanted to do.

In her early schooling she associated questioning with
disruption and control. She always had questions. She
always wanted to know why, but her teachers did not have
time for her questions and silenced her. She saw herself
always being controlled by someone else’s agenda, someone
else’s time frame, but she kept searching for a purpose in
learning, and she continually resisted conformity. She also
remembers, however, teachers who respected the child, who
trusted kids, who took time to know the student, and who,
were truly compassionate. Her best memories of being a
student center on experiences when she was given

responsibility, independence and leadership positions.

257

Her first years of teaching reveal this struggle for
independence and her fear of not knowing how far she could
go. She constantly struggled with a system that had tried
to control her as a student and then as a teacher. Since
she did not have a clear teaching role model to follow, she
took small steps. We see a glimpse of rebelliousness in
some of her early teaching stories--her initiation of the
field day for first graders; her conspiracy with her
students against the peeping principal. In each of her
stories, she allies herself with and for her students. She
focused on what students felt and needed, and she recognized
the hidden agendas of schools that made no sense to kids.

For many years Winnie had been doing "school" for the
sake of doing school. One very special student, however,
provoked her initial reflection and new understandings about
what was going on in her classroom and made her begin to
really question her classroom practice and what she thought
she was teaching. She was forced to reassess her beliefs
about who her students were and what they were doing. But
she didn’t feel free to learn and to allow students to learn
until they got the grant, and she discovered her whole
language philosophy.

She says that it gave her a sense of freedom that she
had never felt before. It released and gave authority to
her beliefs that had been hidden beneath the surface of her
life as a student and a teacher that there was nothing more

important than the student in the classroom. When Winnie

258
tells her story about watering down the little boy who had
wet his pants, she says that "That’s personal contact with a
kid and not reacting ’like a teacher.’" Her early
experiences had let her feel that to be compassionate with
children, to care more about them than the curriculum, was
somehow wrong. Intuitively she had known that she was
different, and she was right in her difference, but some
"authority" had to free her. Whole language freed her.

It is interesting to note that Winnie makes a point of
letting us know how fearful she is of taking tests and how
her tests results did not always show what she knew. Now it
is Winnie who seems to be the leader in seeking out new ways
of authentically assessing what students are learning.

Change is inevitable, a part of life, she tells us.

And for schools and teachers not to change "is criminal."
She doesn’t believe that all change is good and exercises
her confidence in making decisions about what she should
choose and what she should not choose based on her
experience. She now has moved beyond following others’

ideas and begun making her own choices.

******

Marilyn

Similarly, Marilyn like Winnie felt she had no
professional choices but teaching or nursing. She would

have preferred nursing because she liked the science and the

259
caring for people, but outside forces brought her into
teaching, and, as she says, "Teaching was in the blood."
Like Joyce she also had teaching role models—-her mother and
grandmother were teachers.

Like Winnie’s experiences, school often did not value
learning and the learner. She doesn’t remember it being
very exciting. She remembers that good teachers were
equated with being strict. Unlike Joyce’s beginning to read
experience, Marilyn’s teacher would not call her mother to
the classroom to hear her first attempts at reading. It
wasn’t in the time frame.

However, reading at home was important. Her father
read aloud to her and her brother, and books were often
prized gifts. Her mother was always studying and reading,
and, as Marilyn notes, her mother believed that reading
should have a purpose. Today Marilyn sees herself as a
learner because she is a reader.

Marilyn found that when she took control of her own
learning, she was happiest. The assignments she remembers
she enjoyed the most reflect this. She was always a reader
and remembers reading biographies, especially of women who
were instruments of change. She says that change seemed to
be what she was always striving for. To be learning
something new, trying something new, seemed to energize her.

Learning and change for Marilyn are synonymous. She is
always learning and thus change is always happening.

Knowing why is the key. Knowledge for Marilyn is process,

260
learning is process, and change is process.

Because her earliest teaching experiences were outside
the school, she was able to explore individual learning
needs and behaviors through tutoring her special students in
their homes. Working outside the school cultivated her
independence and focused her student-centeredness. She
said,

The way we do school doesn’t make sense for kids. There

is something wrong with what we’re doing.... I was
always trying to find a way that makes sense to kids.

******

One would expect or assume that the place to explore
teaching would be in formal education courses at college.
But all three indicate that what they valued in teaching was
not found in their early education courses.

They criticized these courses for being too textbook—
oriented, too teacher-centered and not experiential enough.
Winnie especially recognized that she did not learn about
what was most important to teaching, the student, from her
program. They also all felt that they had not learned to
think or were even expected to think in their education
courses. Frank Smith (1983) concurs with what they
discovered when he said,

Many teachers are trained to be ignorant, to rely on

the options of experts or ’superiors,’ rather than on
their own judgment." (5)

Instead, these teachers use their experiences as

261
students and as teachers to define what they think is
important in teaching, to develop their own theories of
learning, and they are not afraid to challenge other
sources. They have learned to trust themselves. They do
not just read about theory and practices written by
"experts" or scholars and try to apply the ideas to their
classrooms. They sort through ideas and integrate them,
throw them out or build upon them and create their own
theories and practices for their own particular classrooms
and school. There are no maps or signs on the road to
change because each is idiosyncratic.

These teachers have embraced whole language because
they have been on a personal journey of discovery, through a
constant process of self—directed inquiry. They have
continued to learn and grow by questioning what they believe
and practice. Their questions "why" and "what if" stand out
above the "what" and "how" questions of many traditional
educators.

Although their backgrounds and early lives are
different in many ways, their independence and their
willingness to question tradition in seeking their own way
seems to be what sets them apart and connects them.

Each journey of exploration begins at a different location
and requires risk-taking. Each journey is individual; each
takes courage to confront the challenges and obstacles on

the road.

262

PERSPECTIVES ON WHOLE LANGUAGE

Frank Smith says that whole language is a way of
thinking about teaching, not one particular method. Judith
Lindfors says that whole language teachers focus on the
learner’s processes of coming to know and derive their
teaching strategies from these observations. Whole language
teachers must first see themselves as learners, and, through
the understanding of their own learning, teachers are able
to help students become active learners.

For many reasons Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie can be
called whole language teachers. They allow their
observations of how children learn to direct their teaching
and thinking about teaching, not texts, tests nor
traditional curricula. Kelly, Winnie’s special student,
opened her eyes about pretenders; Joyce’s special student
led her to question what she thought she knew about reading;
Marilyn’s early experiences with special students helped her
to focus on individual learning processes. They make their
teaching decisions on "what makes sense to kids."

These teachers involve students in the creating of the
curriculum.32 Marilyn tells about how they develop their

unit of study by asking students what it is they know about

 

32Whole language requires not merely that teachers use
new activities or materials, but also that they understand
learners and learning in new ways, that they interact with
students and develop curriculum in new ways, that they
modify their roles as teachers, and that they hold new
expectations for students and develop new means of
assessment accordingly (Weaver and Henke 5).

263
the subject, what it is they want to know about the subject,
and what it is they want to learn. These teachers’ view of
curriculum is organic. Marilyn says that it, the
curriculum, must be a living document; it can’t be static.
All of them, teachers and students, take responsibility and
ownership of it.

They have integrated curriculum around literature,
writing and language. They encourage and model
collaboration and risk taking. They have explored new
methods of assessment which reflect their beliefs about
learning and involve students. They have evolved from not
only using writing portfolios, but also reading portfolios
and video portfolios. They have changed the ranking cards
to reflect more than just letter grades.

Winnie’s story about a day in first grade reveals what
is important to her and all of these teachers. Winnie is a
teacher who recognizes the importance of teachable moments
and flexibility and who recognizes that the concerns
children bring to her classroom are the curricula of the
moment. This awareness and flexibility seem to be at the
heart of how Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie are defining their
version of whole language.

Interestingly, their political astuteness has carried
them beyond the term "whole language." Joyce points out
that the term can be considered exclusive--exclusive of
textbooks, exclusive of other ways of learning, even

exclusive of some teachers—-which may be some of the reasons

264
for it being a political issue. She prefers to call them
what they are--child-centered teachers. Marilyn, Winnie and
Joyce focus on what the child knows and needs and their
model of literacy learning. They will use whatever
resources are available, but the way they use them is in
response to the learner and the learning situation, not the
text nor the curriculum.33 For them it is the theory and
the research and the children which drive their everyday
practice.

They realize that they must be very careful not to set
up an orthodoxy that suggests that there is only one way to
be a whole language teaCher. To suggest that one can only
be a whole language teacher if he or she does not use basals
is dangerous. If whole language companies continue to
produce texts and materials with manuals, etc., they are no
different than the current basal companies. Materials and
methods are not at the center nor are they the enemies of a
whole language classroom. They are resources. Being a
whole language teacher has little to do with the tools one
has at hand, and a great deal to do with the teacher’s
theory, based on sound research and observations, of how
children learn.

Joyce believes that they have gone beyond what many
would interpret whole language to be. Since their beliefs

affect more than just the way they teach reading and

 

33Joyce says that she would use the basal if that was
all she had to use. But she would use it in response to her
students’ needs, not the teachers manual.

265
writing. Their beliefs affect the way that they teach math

and science and all the other subjects as well.

SHIFTING THE HIERARCHY
Or Rebels with a Cause

"...nothing blocks change as effectively as the perception
that the reins of power are in the hands of others, others
with whom one has little contact, respect from or for, and
whose decisions are arbitrary, punitive and atheoretical"
(Lester and Onore 34).

The changes that these teachers wanted to put into
place required relinquishing traditional beliefs about
teaching and learning not only for themselves, but for the
system itself. The system in which they function by all
outward appearances is a very traditional, hierarchial
system clearly based on behavioristic/scientific management
principles. To create a school based on Joyce, Marilyn and
Winnie’s holistic beliefs would require changing the
structure of the system itself. It was clear that the
system was not going to willingly give its support.

For example, traditionally the teachers’ place in the
hierarchy of schooling makes them powerless in decisions
about curricula, staff development, building management and
materials. This is clearly true of the North Park system
which marginalizes teachers in many ways. Every change,
every deviation in this system, has to be approved by the
superintendent. It must/they must fit into his model of

schools. All schools are expected to be carbon copies of

266

each other.34 State tests are used for teacher/school
accountability, and teacher time is regulated in that they
may not be absent from their classrooms for inservice.35
As well, texts and reading curricula are regulated by the
official system publisher.36

But at the same time that the teachers are marginalized
in the system, the system promotes their importance in the
classroom as transmitters of knowledge, according to system
guidelines. The regulation of teachers’ time suggests that
no learning will occur if they are not in the classroom.
The knowledge they control and are expected to transmit to
students is mandated by standardized tests which reflect a
standardized curriculum dictated by publishers and others
quite distant from the classroom and students.37 Learners’
intentions and knowledge seem to be of little consequence in

creating this curriculum. What seems to be important is

keeping the system intact.

 

34In every encounter with district officials, these
teachers at North Park are continually told how important it
is for all the schools to be the same. This was an obstacle
the system saw and so did the teachers.

35In fact all professional development must occur when
teachers do not have students, and teachers within the
system may not visit each other’s classes.

36The system requires all the schools to use the same
basal, and the reading curriculum is defined by the scope
and sequence charts from the publisher, called the Blue
Book.

37Even with the changes they eventually made, Marilyn
tells us that they can continue their new program only as
long as their students continue to do well on these
standardized tests.

267

The purpose of all schooling in this district (as in
many others) is the maintenance of a particular static world
view.38 In this case a very hierarchial blue print of the
world. Knowledge is divvied out in particular doses for
particular people. For example, this system has a strong
emphasis on tracking; a child is identified in elementary
school according to family connections and his or her
ability to regurgitate information on a test to determine
what track is appropriate. Teachers are rewarded for their
ability to control and to maintain the status quo which
continues to be dictated by those outside of the classroom.

The kinds of changes that Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie
wanted to make required that they would have to question
some of these conditions in the system such as the system’s
view of learning, view of time, View of the teacher’s role,
and view that all schools must be the same. The teachers
would need to free themselves from some of these constraints
and demand more professional autonomy.

Unfortunately, when someone questions authority by
suggesting a change not sanctioned by those in authority, he
or she is viewed as a rebel, and change which questions

institutional hierarchies and power relationships becomes

 

38Conformity is seen as a method of control. By
insisting that all grades and all schools are alike, the
district insures control over content and world views and
maintains the status quo.

268
political.39

Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie are well aware of the power
issues. They are constantly called the "rebels," outsiders.
In fact Joyce remarked that they always feel "on the edge,"
and that they are never in sync with the rest of the system.
However, the image of "rebel" does not seem particularly
disturbing to them because the images that suggest that they
are rebels are also the images they respect. They are
professionals who have resisted being defined as simply
functionaries of the system, simply doing what they are told
to do from above. They continually read, participate in
workshops and accept accountability for the choices and
changes they make.

They are risk-takers who through the act of resistance
are not afraid to try something new. In fact Marilyn says
all teachers should be risk-takers.

To be risk takers they recognize the importance and
need for community and sharing and support. They reject
being isolated and demand spaces to be heard. Consequently,
they find ways to meet and share ideas and to grow
professionally. They do not rely on the system to do it for
them because it is not really a priority for the system.

They refuse to be silenced and resist conformity to a

system that tries to silence them. They are rebels because

 

39Mayher states that "Teachers at all levels...need and
must demand higher levels of professional autonomy....
Achieving this change will require political action of a
sort which American teachers have traditionally shied away
from" (20).

269
they are resisting and attempting to change many of the
accepted conventions of their system.

The fact that they make other teachers in the system
uncomfortable seems to be viewed as positive by them. Joyce
explains that the tension and the "ya buts" make them
continually reexamine themselves. Through persistent
critique, reassessment of goals and reflection, the "rebel"
image works for them. They are attempting to redefine the
definition of teacher, of the teacher’s role and position,
and of learning in their system.

Finally, they are examples for their students. They
know that what they do as learners, thinkers and decision

makers is the model they are creating for their students.

KEYS TO CHANGE

From their stories a number of events and actions seem

to have been critical in their ability to make changes.

The Vision

Each year at North Park begins with a clear statement
of purpose. "At the first faculty meeting of the year, Mr.
Holmes always asks or says, ’Our main purpose is to teach

kids to read. Does everyone agree?’ So we have always had

270
a focus" (Marilyn 1—1-36).40 Their focus is and has always
been to teach children to read and to love reading; reading
is at the heart of everything they do in the classroom.“
Having a vision seems to be the key to many kinds of
change.42 It is the driving force which focuses all
activities and decisions. Russ Quaglia (1991) states that
As change agents, we need to be in front of the change
process, not trailing behind, hanging on for dear
life.... We must learn to have a vision. Not just
into the future, but a vision which allows us to see

organizational needs, individual needs, and most
importantly, student needs (6).

But as Connelly suggests, a vision must not be possessed
only by the leader(s) if it is to be successful. A
universal vision, held by both the administrator and the
teachers, is necessary to unite restructuring projects which
promote real educational change and reform. The vision must

be developed and owned by everyone in the organization even

 

40Marilyn said that she had never been in another
school in her system that seemed to have a clear vision as a
group of what their purpose was. Not that they say that
they do not, but that one is not clearly and succinctly
articulated for and by all the teachers in the school.

41Even before they made the major change towards whole
language, Winnie noted, "We were excited about books. We
were a faculty that has become excited about books" (J2-1—
18).

”"Without exception, all the schools we’ve worked with
have lacked a unified sense of purpose and discussion of a
school mission.... Lacking a mission or philosophy of
education, schools are vulnerable to others making
educational decisions for them and to changes in educational
fashion." (Lester and Onore 31)

271
though a leader facilitates, guides and supports the
process.43
Miles (1987) summarizes:

The need for a vision of what the school should look
like is affected by two preconditions: the principal
must exercise leadership in promoting a vision, but the
staff must also be cohesive enough to be willing to buy
some shared set of goals. Having a vision leads
directly to good implementation by creating enthusiasm
that increases willingness and initiative, but also by
creating an environment in which a long term vision of
the future permits program evolution that is always
purposive, but reflects growth of activities rather
than limiting implementation. Putting it another way:
a good vision provides shared criteria for judging
movement. Such evolution also leads,
characteristically, to organizational change: new
structures and procedures that in turn promote
institutionalization. (7)

Timing

The time for change is critical if that change is to be
successful. Sometimes the opportunity to initiate change is
serendipitous, and the agent must be ready and focused.

This is what happened to the teachers at North Park.

This vision which was the focus of their teaching was
the reason that they initially decided to make changes. And
their backgrounds both personal and professional had
centered them in their belief that a change was necessary,
and they were ready.

They were aware that the district was going to get a

 

43Connelly also supports the fact that educational
restructuring and change is a systems issue, and vision
building should be bottom—up for successful educational
reform and change.

272
new basal series. As in many systems, teachers would
eventually be consulted on which series to pick. But
because the North Park teachers had been going together to
workshops and sampling new ideas about the teaching of
language arts and reading, they had decided as a group that
they did not want to get a new reading series. What they
wanted to do was find out more about what was happening "out
there" in the teaching of reading and do something new
that would promote their vision.

At the same time they had read that the state was
offering innovative grants to schools to explore new methods
in teaching. As a group they put together a proposal to
investigate whole language. The change away from basals and
the grant offering were both serendipitous. The school was

focused and ready. Thus the timing was right for change.

The Grants

Although the teachers had been going to workshops and
exploring new ideas, one factor was very critical for them
to make the changes that they wanted-—the grants. The
grants gave them the real impetus and power that they needed
for change in this system.

Because of the money the grants provided, they were
able to achieve the political clout they needed with the
superintendent and school board. Marilyn’s story suggests

that the superintendent saw only the money, and Winnie’s

273
experience with and comments about the school board meeting
supports that view also.

The first grant gave them the money they needed to pay
for a facilitator“ and materials. It also gave them the
time that they needed to learn and reflect together so as to
develop their own understandings about learning, reading and
writing. Because the money and time were written into the
first grant, the superintendent could not say no to their
release time and substitutes the first year. Even though he
said no to them the second year, they had gotten the start
they needed. With the help of their principal and some
creativity, they were able to continue their reflective
practice groups in the following years.

After the second grant and the development of their
language arts curriculum, the superintendent could not say
that they could not continue. Or in Marilyn’s words, "We
are ’allowed’ to continue as a whole language school."

Marilyn, however, sees that the real power of the grant

was in the commitment they all made.

There’s power in a grant. It’s not even the money.
It’s the commitment to it that’s more important than
the money.... The grant makes you clarify what you’re

going to do, or define it, and it gives you more
commitment to it.

 

“They all felt that an outside facilitator was very
important to help them focus on the issues. Although
systems will often bring in experts to promote change, the
key for them was that they chose the facilitator.

274

CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS

The traditional boundaries established in schools with
traditional beliefs are not only about education, but also
control and power.45 The kinds of changes these teachers
were attempting to make required the blurring of many of the
traditional boundaries, thus making the change political.46
Changing the power relationships between teachers and the
system, teachers and administrators, teachers and teachers,
teachers and parents, and teachers and students disrupt
traditional boundaries, and this is the definition of
"political."

Winnie, Marilyn and Joyce saw change as more than just
trying out a new method. Rather they saw change as
necessity, as well as recursive, as inevitable and as about
blurring boundaries. Boundaries that were not immutable,
that could be interrupted. Power could be redistributed,
and that is what change in education is about and why there

is so much fear about real, second order change.

 

45Michael Apple (1982) suggests that three types of
control operate in schools: simple, bureaucratic, and
technical. For example, state mandated competency tests
exemplify bureaucratic control; they also carry technical
control in that curriculum may be adjusted to fit the test;
and administrators will demonstrate simple control by
insisting teachers make the changes needed.

46Joyce remarked that everything in education is
political and becomes threatening to those in control when
decisions are made by those at the bottom of that hierarchy.
Marilyn understands the political correctness of the
superintendent’s desire to keep all the schools the same but
knew that it did not work for learning.

275

Between Teachers and the System

"Teachers are the only people who have the power, the
commitment, the desire, and the capacity to be leaders in
the process of change. But to take on such leadership roles
we [teachers] must substantially change our conceptions of
the nature and processes of schooling" (Mayher 1).

Changing teachers’ relationships with a school system
was not an easy task. It could not happen overnight.

First the teachers needed to understand the relationships.
They needed to understand how their dependency had come
about and find places to break it or renegotiate their
positions and work within the system. They needed to
understand that it was not just the system which held them
back from changing, but themselves.

The school system that they worked in put many
constraints on them which could have become real obstacles
to change. However, they were able to remove some of the
obstacles through the grants as noted above. Some of the
obstacles they were not able to remove, but they found ways
to work around them. They were willing to give up some
things for others that they felt were more important. They
were able to put themselves in a negotiating position with
the system whereby they created some autonomy and
flexibility for themselves.

For example, in the first grant they were able to get
substitutes to come in to cover for them, so they could at

least meet in their building for reflection and intellectual

276
growth. When the superintendent would not allow that to
happen in their second grant, they got the help from their
principal to continue meeting and also began their retreats
at the end of the year.

Although the superintendent said that the reason was
that they needed to be in their classrooms for children to
learn, one could surmise that his real purpose was control,
to not allow too much thinking and real discussion for
learning, which is central to change.47

A key mechanism for maintaining the status quo of a
school system is silence. If issues that might rock the
boat are never brought out into the open, then changing or
correcting the problem does not appear as a difficulty.
Everyone becomes responsible for perpetuating the system.

Their actions and their ingenuity and success, whether
officially recognized by the system or not, has gained
respect from the system. We see that Joyce has a powerful
reputation in the story that she tells about when other
teachers in other schools in the district ask to do new
things with curriculum or literature: "Our coordinator has
told them that I am the only one who can do it.... ’Not
everyone’s a Joyce Thatcher. Not everyone can do this,’ he

says."

 

“This superintendent might agree that "The ideal
teacher is one who would control the children and be
controlled by her superiors" (Madeleine Grumet qtd in
Brunner 132).

277

Between Teachers and Principal

The most powerful source of help or hinderance to the
teacher who wants to attempt "real" change is the school
principal. Teachers take their cues from their
administrators. These teachers have a great deal of respect
for Mr. Holms, their principal. Mr. Holms works diligently
at allowing his teachers time to take leadership roles and
time to reflect and work together. To do this he himself
will often take the students during the week for an hour to
allow teachers time to meet and discuss what is happening in
their program.

Marilyn says he insulates them often from controversy
at the district level by supporting them without bringing it
back to the school and classroom:

We know he does battle for us, but he never mentions

the pressure he’s taking. You know it is there, by

some of the things he says, but he never complains to
us. He just supports us. (MLP1—1—44)

Mr. Holms seems to define his role in a very different
way from other administrators. His leadership style is one
of sharing power with his teachers and providing time for
them to exercise that power. Instead of controlling what
the teachers do, he directs more power and influence to the
teachers to make decisions about what happens in their
classrooms, what types of materials they use, what methOds
they choose. He gives them time to meet together and

develop information and strategies and to develop their

vision of where their school is going.

278

Between Teachers and Teachers

From their stories we see that these teachers have
developed relationships with each other that go beyond what
most teacher-teacher relationships are. They see themselves
collectively as "go-getters" and "risk takers." They are a
community of learners.

They see each other as learners whose learning, like
their students', is on a continuum. They share their
learning and questions and support each others learning.
They collaborate across disciplines and grade levels. They
are leaders and readers. They share responsibility, ideas,
books and leadership.

They have created for themselves a democratic learning
environment which values critical thinking and literacy. As
Susan Church (1992) suggests, through their exploration of
whole language philosophy and practice they have created
democratic environments for their students, and they have
also come to realize that they, like their students, need
greater control over their own work--what and how they teach

(243).
Between Teachers and Parents
Like in most schools parents are always invited and

euncouraged to visit and observe at North Park. But these

tleachers have involved parents much more than most schools

279
do. When they were beginning to make the ’dramatic’ changes
in materials and curriculum and assessment, they brought
parents in to explain and clarify what they were going to
do, to make them part of the change process.

They taught a class for parents once a week over an
eight-week period on the reading and writing processes and
explained to parents what they could do to support their
children. They invited parents in to read to students and
to help in a variety of ways to individualize their
classrooms.

When they changed the report cards, Winnie surveyed the
parents’ responses to the narratives. Her reasons for doing
this were two—fold. First, she wanted to make sure that
parents were pleased, as the superintendent had told them
that parents only wanted letter grades. Parents
overwhelmingly saw this approach as positive because they
could understand what their children were doing. Secondly,
she saw it as a way to educate parents into the language of
learning and teaching, so that they would not only
understand terms, but begin to be a more significant part of
their child’s learning.

Parents’ support is central to any kind of change in
(education. Parents need to not only feel a part of it, they

UNJSC understand it as well.

280

Between Teachers and Students

The most powerful stories these teachers tell reflect
their changing relationships with their students as they
learned to listen to them.48

Marilyn said, "You have to stop talking so you can
hear. You have to stop being the teacher in front of the
class and talking and stand back and listen." They learned
to give up control and responsibility of the students’
learning to the students.

How did we make change into it-—giving up teacher

control and giving students control? ...training
for the writing process and allowing students to choose
their topic gave us training in giving up control. The

next step was letting them choose their reading
material. They can do that too. They have taken the
ownership of their own learning. They’re learning the
real world (Marilyn 1-1-51).

These were all critical pieces in their change efforts.

As Joyce noted,
Everybody knows how to teach. That’s what is hard
about change in education...everybody has gone to

school, so they all think they know how to be a
teacher.

They had to change not only their own beliefs, but those

"familiar and reliable educational constructs" of many

 

48As Ken Goodman notes, [whole language] is a way of
bringing together a view of learning; and a view of people,
in particular two special groups of people: kids and
teachers (5).

281
others who felt they knew what teaching and school were
supposed to be like.

Although possibly the norm for most teachers, none of
these three teachers ever really accepted any of the
constraints imposed on them by their school system as
teachers and students. Joyce began teaching with different
beliefs/constructs about what a teacher’s role was
altogether; Marilyn continually looked to change as a
natural part of learning and teaching; and even though
Winnie followed many of the constraints, she always had a
sense of discomfort. I do not think that any of them would
have ever argued that the established system was/is the way
schools should be.

At the conclusion of Marilyn’s stories in Chapter Nine,
she began to tell about the events which led to changing
their school to a whole language school. Within her story
of these events the philosophy driving the school system
becomes quite clear. The system, led almost exclusively by
the superintendent, functions on the belief that all schools
must be alike. As a corollary to that belief, one would
also assume that teachers and students were and must be
alike. Collaboration among faculty, essential to growth and
learning, is not defined as a professional necessity.

After all, collaboration would not be necessary in a world
where everyone has the same like view.

Control is still central. When the system wanted them

to apply for a grant, it was great; when they wanted to

282

apply for one, it was not acceptable. When the district
teachers organized and met to discuss important issues, the
meetings were well attended and valuable. When the system
took over the meetings, issues the teachers wanted to
discuss were not relevant because, as Marilyn suggests, the
coordinator could not control the outcomes.

These institutional practices at work in this system
thwart the ability of any individual to fully enact or even
develop his/her personal beliefs, especially those that are

at odds with the established traditions.

Chapter Fourteen

A CONSCIOUSNESS OF POSSIBILITY
"To recognize limitations as well as possibilities does not
take away from the concept [of empowerment], rather it
strengthens the argument Maxine Greene makes with respect to
teachers having a consciousness of possibility-—that is,
having the capacity to see obstacles to one’s freedom, to

name obstacles as problems, and to find a public arena in
which to pose alternatives." (Brunner 50)

Marilyn, Joyce and Winnie operate within possibilities
and constraints. The system, the language of education, and
the entire educational community provide the constraints.
They, however, have created the possibilities by their
willingness to question power and authority.

In reality the question of change to whole language in
this system has more to do with power and control than with
learning.49 The system works to maintain the system
supported by scientific management and behaviorist beliefs,
which then also function to maintain the status quo. In
contrast, these teachers work towards finding out and doing
what is best for each individual student.

The system is interested in promoting teaching, and the
teachers in promoting learning. The two ideas clash.

"Teaching doesn’t make language learning happen; it supports

 

49What Mamchur(1990) says about some teachers that
"much of the inflexibility on the part of teachers [systems]
in terms of curriculum is not as much an issue of curriculum
as an issue of power"(634) also describes many systems.

283

284
its development...effective teaching supports and extends
learning; it can never control it" (K. Goodman 1986). The
dominant curriculum theory treats knowledge as something to
be managed and consumed. Whole language practitioners see
knowledge as something to be understood and analyzed within
forms of experiences that students bring to school.

The North Park teachers’ view of learning empowers them
just as it empowers their students because it allows them to
see many opportunities, ask many questions, and make many
choices. Their teaching/learning world is not sterile,
narrow, invisible or powerless. Because the system sees the
world from a behaviorist point of view, it has few choices:
responses are conditioned, fitting into predetermined paths
of behavior.

In collaboration with their principal, these teachers
have created an environment in which their desire to be in
charge of their own teaching and learning flourishes. They
push against a system which assumes they will not, cannot,
think. They are "transformative intellectuals,"50 in

charge of their own destinies and capable of creating

change.

 

50I use this term as defined by Mayher as one who
recognizes that issues affecting teaching and learning are
political issues directly concerned with "the struggle for
meaning and the struggle over power relations.... TeaChers
who assume the role of transformative intellectuals treat
students as critical agents, question how knowledge is
produced and distributed, utilize dialogue, and make
knowledge meaningful, critical and ultimately emancipatory"
(Giroux and McLaren 1986 215, based on Aronowitz and Giroux
1985, especially Chapter 2, qtd in Mayher 291).

285

To create change in their school, they had to recognize
what the obstacles they faced were. They themselves were
one of the obstacles to change. They needed to clearly
understand learning theory. They had to recognize that
support, time and materials were necessities of change.

They had to learn that change is not and cannot always be
big. Sometimes it was the little steps that were important.
And sometimes change was recursive: they needed to
understand change itself. They had to recognize the effects
of change and that change affects everyone in the
educational system. They had to take charge of the
change process. The initiation process of change for these
teachers began as a need for them to become more
knowledgeable about what was the best way to teach reading.
Their initial plan to find out about the theory and research
was a move to discover whether their proposed change would
meet the need they wanted.

They controlled both the initiation and implementation
of the process itself. The strength of their success stems
from this fact. When change is initiated from the outside
as in state and government mandates, the goals of and
procedures for change are not often clearly defined for
individual schools. This lack of clarity can result in a
school system oversimplifying the process of implementation.

All the participants--teachers, students and the
principal--have been learners, risk-takers and decision

makers taking significant responsibility for their own

286
learning and change in their school. Although the system
has balked on occasion, the teachers’ tenacity and the
principal’s support have enabled them to do something very

remarkable.

Leaders Not Followers

Teachers must become the professional agents of change.
No one else can do change for them nor dictate it to them.
For too long teachers have been "cogs in the educational
factory" (Allen 249), prisoners of systems that see them as
just part of the machinery, as empty vessels to be filled
with "how-tos." In order for teachers to be other than
functionaries in the system, they need to see themselves in
charge of their own destinies and capable of creating change
and as creators of patterns made up of webs of individuals,
each perfectly unique.

Change is a political act when teachers begin
questioning institutional hierarchies and all power
relationships.“ Joyce, Marilyn and Winnie refuse to be
automatons in the system. They question the schools’ View
of knowledge as cultural/traditional transmission. They are

not led; they lead.

 

51"Their [teachers’] inattention and lack of
[political] action perpetuates the status quo: policymakers
and educators with vested interest in current practices and
programs accept their silence as tacit endorsement of
current practice and use it to argue against change."
(Shannon 1992 2)

287
What do other teachers need to do to be able to
accomplish what these teachers have? I can only suggest
possibilities from these teachers’ stories since all

teachers, systems and circumstances differ:

1. Recognize your own potential for change and
your limitations.

2. Place students’ learning at the center of the
school agenda.

3. Reclaim control over the processes of
teaching and learning. Take the leadership
and responsibility. Don’t expect someone
else to do it.

4. Have a coherent plan for change.

5. Take a collective initiative towards change.
Groups of teachers have more power than the
individual.

6. Listen to your students and trust what you find
there.

7. Explore the basis of your beliefs. Bring in an
outside coordinator--not necessarily an
expert—-to facilitate your learning and help
guide your reflections.

8. Make time to talk and work together. Share
your learning with others.

9. Educate parents and community to develop their

support and give them ownership in the

10.

11.

12.

13.

288
change.
Understand what change really means.
Recognize that real change towards whole
language requires not only changes in
beliefs, but in the school structure itself.
Find a supportive principal. This is
essential.

See change as a process of self-directed

inquiry.

Joyce remarked that "Teachers, like everyone else, need

models,

need heroes, need to know that they can be in power"

(Joyce 168). These three teachers are models for others of

what teachers are capable of doing.

I give them to you, through their stories.

AFTERWORD

As I reflect upon and relisten to these stories of
change, I am reminded of a conversation that I had with my
colleague Helen Walker about metaphors, especially the
manufacturing metaphor for teaching, which is the dominant
American metaphor for getting things done. It is so
pervasive that I hear the participants make use of it as
they struggle against it. I also have referred to it
earlier as the central structure for most educational
systems.

But what is most apparent in my work for this study is
that these teachers have been living through a different
metaphor--what Parker Palmer calls the ’agricultural’
metaphor. The key features of the agricultural metaphor are
these:

(a) the farmer must prepare the ground and plant and

tend the seeds with no guarantee that they will grow,

no way of forcing the outcomes;

(b) the process involves both shadow and light; it is

not neat and clean but, on the contrary, involves decay

and death;

289

290
(c) what happens is highly dependent on factors such as
weather that are totally beyond the farmer’s control,

so "letting go" becomes a virtue;

(d) the health of the entire enterprise depends on
finding and honoring one’s place in the larger ecology,
in a "web of being" upon which all of us and our work

are dependent;

(e) the emergent reality is organic, not mechanical;
when treated mechanically it dies, but when respected

as a life—form, it gives nourishment;

(f) the farmer’s work does not proceed onward and
upward in a linear fashion, but continually recycles in
a seasonal pattern; it is a work of "eternal return."

(Palmer 2)

My purpose in this text has been to uncover these
teachers’ stories, not to cover them nor to force the
outcomes, but to help prepare the ground and plant the seeds
for change. I hoped to reveal possibilities, to raise
questions, to pose problems.

The seeds of change were planted very early on for
these teachers, but not truly cultivated until they all came
together that first year and began turning over the earth of

their ideas. The year of the grant allowed them to

291
establish a nourishing atmosphere of trust and openness to
inquire into who they were and what they were doing, to then
come into touch with their true selves-~real teachers and

learners.

Implications for Further Research

It seems to me that what these teachers' stories
suggest is that we need to look at successful teachers in a
very different way than we have in the past. Learning
change is very complex. There are no real recipes, real
certainties like traditional quantitative approaches might
suggest. Each teacher comes to new beliefs through their
own individual experiences--as students and as teachers. To
learn change we must look at and listen to individual
stories to unearth possibilities.52

We need to begin to ask different questions. How
strongly does a teacher’s experience as a student reflect
her decisions in the classroom? How strongly does her
experiences at home affect her actions in the classroom?
Can we realistically expect an entire system to change
towards current holistic approaches to learning and
teaching? Is it realistic to think that education could be

changed because the traditions of education are almost a

 

52"When examining stories of schooling, we need to look
at the schooling that goes on outside of the classroom also
if we are to begin to understand teachers as well as
students"(Brunner 219).

292
cultural phenomena? Who really needs to be in control?

We need to look at teacher stories through a different
kind of research lens, a qualitative lens. Teacher stories
humanize the process of educational change; through them
change and specifically change to whole language becomes
more realistic by dealing with the challenges faced daily by
classroom teachers. "Stories are the most powerful ways we
have to envision human potential and to value each stage of
life as a time of worth" (Mayher 101). For teachers, future
teachers, and administrators listening to teacher stories
can open possibilities for exploration. After all education

is an exploration, not a destination.

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968

MICHIonN STATE UNIV. LIBRARIES
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