DOCUMENT RESUME ED 306 549 CS 009 647 AUTHOR Oxendine, Linda TITLE Dick and Jane Are Dead: Basal Reader Takes a Back Seat to Student Writings. INSTITUTION Appalachia Educational Lab., Charleston, W. Va. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE May 89 CONTRACT 400-86-0001 NOTE 22p.; Revised version of a paper presented atan Appalachian Educational Laboratory Symposium (Louisville, KY, December 4-5, 1988). AVAILABLE FROMAppalachia Educational Laboratory, Inc., P.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325 ($3.50, prepaid). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150)-- Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Basal Reading; *Beginning Reading; Class Activities; Grade 2; *Language Experience Approach; Primary Education; Reading Attitudes; *Reading Instruction; Reading Writing Relationship; Regional- Characteristics; Rural Environment; *Rural Schools; *Student Developed Materials IDENTIFIERS Appalachia; *Beginning Writing; Reading Motivation ABSTRACT A second grade teacher in a rural Appalachian school draws heavily on familiar regional literature and the children'sown rich mountain heritage and culture to teach reading to herstudents, covering the required basal readings in onlyone day per week. Students use the basals on Mondays and retell the textson paper. They spend the rest of the week writing stories, readingthem, and sharing them with other students. Eve" week they havea real radio show where they read and tell their own stories, singsongs, and ask their listeners to write them letters. By the end of theyear they have written 11 different kinds of stories,as well as articles, letters, plays, books, and puppet shows. All the storiesare collected in a storybook which is retainedas an example for next year's students. Students keep track of theirown progress by referring to a list of essential reading skills insidetheir individual reading folders. The most important benefitof this approach is that student motivation to read is high,unlike the low motivation which accompanied the purely basal reader approach.Every student in the teacher's class is reading avidly,none is failing, and absenteeism is down. (RS) ********************************************S************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. *********P************************************************************* DICK AND JANE ARE DEAD: BASAL READER TAKES A BACK SEAT TO STUDENT WRITINGS BY LINDA OXENDINE "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED BY U.S DEPARTMENT OFEOUCATIOh and improvement Once ol Educational Research INFORMATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERIC) C This dOcuMent hasbeen reproduced as received from the personor organization Originating it have been made toimprove TO THE EDUCATIONAL O tAin,,r chancres RESOURCES reproduction duality INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)." Points of view or opinionsSiatedinthis doCu- repreSent °theist ment do not necessarily OEM position or poliCy PRODUCED BY THE POLICY AND PLANNING CENTER APPALACHIA EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY Cr- % - ' /9' 2 BEST COPYAVAILABLF The Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL), Inc., works with educators in ongoingR & D- based efforts to improve education and educational opportunity. AELserves as the Regional Educa- tional Laboratory for Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. It alsooperates the ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. AEL works to improve: professional quality, curriculum and instruction, community support, and opportunity for access to quality education by all children. Information about AEL projects, programs, and services is available bywriting or calling AEL, Post Office Box 1348, Charleston, West Virginia 25325; 800/624-9120 (outsideWV), 800/344-6646 (in W7), and 347-0400 (local). This publication is based on work sponsored whollyor in part by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contractnumber 400-86-0001. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of OERI, the Department,or any other agency of the U. S. Government. AEL is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. DICKAND JANE ARE DEAD: BASAL READER TAKES A BACK SEAT TO STUDENT WRITINGS BY LINDA OXENDINE MAY 1989 This paper contains a revised transcript ofa presentation by Linda Oxendine at a symposium, "Risky Futures: Should State PolicyReflect Rural Diversity?," sponsored by AEL's Policy and PlanningCenter on December 4- 5,1988, in Louisville, Kentucky. Ms. Oxendine isa second grade teacher at G.R. Hampton Elementary School in Knox County,Ken- tucky, and a member of the Eastern Kentucky Teachers' Network. PRODUCED BY THE POLICY AND PLANNING CENTER 1 APPALACHIA EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY 4 Dick and Jane are Dead Basal Reader Takes a Back Seat to Student Writings I want to show you something. I brought one of my most prized possessions with me today: A basal reader'. This is a MacMillan reader. It's called Secrets and Surprises, and it'sa third-grade basal reader. My sister teaches in Florida. She took the story that begins on page 186 to her principal and said, "I do not want to teach this story," and she told him why. And he said, "Well, I'm sorry but it's in the book and you have to teach it." So, I'm going to share some of this story with you. Then you can understand why my sister Dora Susan--named after my two grandmothers--felt so strongly against this particular selection. By the way, there are some articles about Appalachia in basal readers today: coal mining, broom making, and Granny's quilts, and there's a story called "Daniel's Duck". It's about a little boy who carves a duck he isn't satisfied with. Those are the only stories that I have found in today's basal readers that even barely resemble us. This story, written by Lawrence Swinburne, is being read by children all across the United States and in many t ceign countries. Thousands of children daily are reading this story in MacMillan's Secrets and Surprises. The story begins with a little girl and her father who have left the mountains and moved to a city. He's looking for better work and a better life. Now I'll read some of it to you. One day a new girl came to Rosie's class. "I think your name is Laura," said Mrs. Rogers. "Is that correct?" "Yes. Yes so, ma'am", said the girl. "But my folks back home call 2 me Laurie."And the kids in the class didn't know quite what to make of Laurie. Her ways were different. Some of the kids laughed at her, and others stayed away from her."I know the others think I'm funny," said Laurie. "I don't talk like them, and I don't know the answers to all the questions the teacher asks. But I've been living back in the hills and people don't go to school much there." "Aren't there any schools in the hills," said Rosie. "There are," said Laurie. "But Daddy didn't like to send us too much because sometimes we didn't have shoes or the right clothes to wear. Daddy came to the city, you know, to get work and try to change his luck."And then she even goes as far as to say: "I wish I could talk like you:" And then on over in the story, the kids make the comment that they thought Laurie would never learn. They thought she would never catch up. And it just keeps on going. It's really bad. She can't count money. The pictures/illustrations in this story are as degrading as the words themselves. She's got long, stringy hair--real unkempt; a homemade dress with ric rac trim. They go to this place called Pioneer State Park, and Laurie doesn't have the 3 that it take to go on this field trip. So she babysits and sells pop bottles. But she brings her money to school and she has more than 3 because she cannot count.And when they get to Pioneer State Park, there's some remarkable things that Laurie sees there--very remarkable things that make me know that Lawrence Swinburne has never set foot in the hills or the mountains anywhere, except maybe in a dream. 6 3 The first thing they saw was a wcman spinning on a spinning wheel. Remember, this is a modern day setting, and these things are supposed to be common today occurrences. Laurie says, "Why she's making cloth like we used to back home." And then they saw candles being made and Laurie said, "We did that a lot but I never liked that too much, though."And then there was a man making a broom. And Laurie says, "Boy, that makes me homesick to watch him do that. We used to make brooms like that back home out of a special kind of cornstalk."And then they find Mountain Laurel and chicory growing in this place, and Lauriesays they made coffee out of chicory back home every day. Next, they got lost. I knew this would happen because this story had to have a Granny Clampett-hero ending. Did you feel that coming, too? While they were lost, Laurie takes her shoe string and a safety pin, and she catches two fish and cooks them. The girls even say that's the best fish they've ever tasted. Before she fixes the fish, she rubs two sticks together and "had a fire going in no time at all:"Now that's scientifically impossible.Finally, they do .the only sensible thing that's believable in this story. They follow a stream -- downstream- -until they eventually come out of the woods, and there's a park ranger.And the park ranger says, "You're a smart girl. You know a lot about the woods."And Laurie says, "It's nothing much to know when you've been brought up in the woods.