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What Happened to Ebonics?

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Turmoil in 1980s Oakland Leads to Continued Definitive Conclusions about Language’s Impact on Education in the 2020s by Matthew Bamberg Photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash The Ebonics debate has often been misunderstood. It refers to the dialect of AAVE (African American Vernacular English). This type of language is prevalent in the Black community and has also spread into popular culture through lyrics in rap music and similar genres. I be workin’ Yes, I be workin’ on this article. This can be defined as: I’ve been working on this article for a while, although not necessarily at this very moment. I begin here because using AAVE helps readers understand the importance of training teachers to use it in our classrooms. Before getting into the meat and potatoes of the point, AAVE is an important dialect and, therefore, should be treated with the utmost respect, especially when dealing with it as a teacher. Slavery was Brutal The history of AAVE in the United States began in the 17th and 18t...
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Understanding African American Vernacular English (AAVE): Definition, History, and Examples

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Photo by  Kiana Bosman  on  Unsplash First and foremost, when a child walks into the classroom, he/she comes with his language as it is, whether AAVE (African American vernacular, which is what Ebonics is) or Spanish. More than just African Americans speak Ebonics.  Everyone uses it at one time or another, and within popular culture, it's everywhere, from rap music lyrics to the sounds of hip/hop, expressions for some, which are a right of passage.  Its evolution from African languages to the current nonstandard English goes as far back as the time when slaves were brought to North America. First and foremost, any well-educated person knows this dialect is contained in classic literature, from books like "To Kill a Mockingbird " to Richard Wright's writings.  Put your hands together for a warm welcome to Ebonics in the classroom, as many programs teach it through literature within the context of its relationship to standard language.  "So go 'head, kno...
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10 Metacognitive Learning Strategies for Students and Beyond: Boost Your Learning Skills in Any Setting

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Photo by Matthew Bamberg   Generally, adults can figure out how to talk to themselves internally for optimum communication with others. The challenge of self-talk is remembering to use the strategy, even in the most stressful conversations. To increase the chances that I use self-talk and self-reflection to monitor my social and cognitive awareness, I intermittently teach myself learning methods for maintaining my responsibility to recognize that there are other people in the world besides myself. Those same learning strategies I use with my students for them to learn to think about their own thinking or metacognition. As a professor of education, my favorite course to teach was about the explicit teaching of learning strategies. When it comes down to it, many adults, myself included, believe that there are a few ideas on self-improvement that need to be learned…and relearned. My thoughts about learning to be a rational person lie in necessity. Without re-educating myself th...
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Heterogeneously Mixed Student Groups: Benefits, Strategies, and Best Practices for Effective Learning

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Photo: Vanessa Loring Photo: Vanessa Loring pexels.com   Remember when you learned to read in school? The teacher placed you in a group by your reading level. That was it for working in a group for the day. Some lower-level students stagnated because they weren’t challenged in the same way as those in higher-level groups. Consider that there are two types of groups, heterogeneous and homogeneous. Arguments exist that the former is better than the latter. The former consists of students of varying genders, English language proficiency levels, academic levels, and social skills. The latter includes students who are at the same academic level in a subject such as leveled groups which would be used for reading instruction in the elementary grades. In order for students to acquire language and learn academic vocabulary in useful contexts, they need to do a great deal of work in groups that expose them to peers of varying academic levels not just with peers who are at the same...
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DEI Understanding: Enhancing Learning for Every Student

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DEI by Matthew Bamberg Diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI is studying protests and so much more.  In days past, I looked forward to playing the harp of all people being created equal . I meandered around the classroom, giving each student equal consideration to their talents.  To be sure, each student was an individual in my mind — a heart and soul worthy of respect. In my desk-to-desk wondering, I was well aware of their cultural background, as the history of each of them was considered when planning, administering, and assessing lessons. From the signing of the Declaration of Independence by a group of Caucasian men with long white hair to the enunciations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s carefully recited speeches, I lamented the freedom, individuality, pomp, and circumstance of peaceful power shifts, and the paradox of resistance and division from social media.  Celebrations of a nation of one, where each culture served up recipes of food, dance, and smiles, along with th...
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Mastering Context Clues: Helping Any Reader Discover the Meaning of Unknown Words

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  This abode found on a sidewalk is a cute house.       Authors like to assist   emerging readers. What they do is give hints to what a complex word is, or help the reader determine the meaning of a word.   An author will chose to help by one or more of the following ways:         ·      Definition: An author sometimes give the definition in his or her own words that corresponds to one of the meanings of the words.   For instance: Donald Trump lugubrious tactics for getting attention is ignored by many people because he tells lies that are often ridiculous and makes some people sad for the state of American politics.     ·      Inference--The author gives the reader reasoning about the word after it's mentioned.   For instance: A Wifi signal has become ubiquitous in so many coffee shops that customers are surprised when they don...
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Philosophical Pondering--Aligning Common Core Standards to Critically Thinking about Election 2024

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                                Rodin’s “The Thinker” Photo by Matthew Bamberg For most Western philosophers, deep questioning is vital for comprehending many aspects of various communication.  The Election 2024 season can be aligned to Common Core ELA standards by implementing the following standards:  RI.6-12.1: Have students analyze primary sources such as candidate speeches, policy proposals, and news articles to support their analysis with textual evidence. RI.6-12.8: Evaluate arguments in candidates’ speeches, including the validity of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. An example of one of the most important issues today is climate change. The following standard relates to how Election 2024 can relate to the science of global warming. RI.6-12.8: Evaluate arguments in candidates...
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  Informational Text Reading Selection Lesson Plan Template for Elementary and Middle School Teachers In this template, you can create a one-period lesson plan in literacy and/or English/Language Arts for any informational reading selection. Simply choose a reading selection from the materials section of the lesson plan template below and apply it to each lesson plan template step. Standards:  Grade 2  Grade 3   Grade 4 Grade 5  Objectives/Learning Targets:  Grade 4 Learning Targets Informational Text Materials:  You can use a wide variety of reading materials for this template from websites to ebooks to textbooks. The following is a list of Internet informational reading selections for grades 2-5.  All grades  free  (sign-up). Current news articles from major publications/organizations   http://newsela.com  All grades  free  for a month then  $  at  http://www.readinga-z.com/commoncore/information...
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STEM Wildfire Education Necessity

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  California Wildfires Are Getting Worse. Why Schools Must Teach Fire Survival Now From science to social-emotional learning, a comprehensive approach is needed to safeguard communities from natural and man-made hazards Wildfire in the Inland Empire of Southern California as seen from the desert. Photo by Matthew Bamberg Communities in California and elsewhere have shown remarkable resilience in uniting to cope and heal after a wildfire. Yet wildfires will remain a critical challenge, especially during droughts. The future doesn’t have to mirror the past. To ensure a safer tomorrow, California’s education system must prioritize wildfire preparedness and mitigation as a core part of its curriculum. A New Interdisciplinary Wildfire Curriculum The current model of isolating academic disciplines is inadequate for preparing students to face the uncertain world shaped by climate change. A significant curriculum overhaul is urgently needed to equip students with the skills and knowledge t...
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Social Emotional Skills and Holistic Education

Holistic education focuses on students identity in order for them to become good  community members by teachers instituting appropriate  moral, social, emotional, psychological and academic goals for functioning as a productive member of society.  As a teacher, you have to consider what's going on in students' lives order to teach the students coping skills to deal with challenging situations. Holistic education can really help students who are falling behind. Creating engaging lessons that reach all students is the primary focus of planning for instruction in most schools.  You can combine this inclusion with extensive education in all areas. "All students will learn the skills they need to succeed across all domains, including social, cognitive and academic" (Schwartz as cited in Volk, 2013, para. 5). Students perform better academically when teachers address the social emotional needs of students Socio-emotional skills are for school, work and life. They inc...
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Writing a Personal Essay

Writing a personal essay doesn't have to be hard. One would think that the most important part of a personal essay would be writing a draft. This isn't so. While it is important, there are other parts of the writing process that are just as important for writing a focused "A" paper. One of the first tasks you do before you write the rough draft is to have a topic that is appropriate for a personal essay. As you may recall, a personal essay should be written in first person, usually about an account of an event, a story about a person, a travelogue of a place or  an illustration of an object (in words) that is or was special to you. Well, does that mean you should write about your mom, your childbirth (if you're a woman) or your vacation? Any of these topics are a good choice for a personal essay. Recall that the writing process: 1. Brainstorming--Create your topic. Narrow it down. 2. Outlining--Yes, this is necessary! 3. Drafting--Writing your draft f...
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