Success Story: Marius "Mimi" Kothor

Via Mary Ann Zehr at Education Week, I came across the story of Marius "Mimi" Kothor, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from her native Togo at age 10 and is about to graduate with honors from high school. If you're looking for a pick-me-up, this should do the trick.

I like these comments from Zehr:

What's interesting to me about the story is how it took a very long time—until high school—for Kothor to find her educational stride. More than a year after her arrival, Ellingwood said she was shy and seemed depressed and some teachers suspected she had a learning disability. Over time, she was able to catch up with her peers and excelled as a student. She didn't have a learning disability.

What struck me was the influence of Lyne Ellingwood, an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher assigned to Mimi. Ellingwood refused to believe that there was something wrong with Mimi that hindered her learning, as others asserted.

Ellingwood, meanwhile, took Mimi's education personally. She enrolled her in special weekend English clinics at Nazareth College, found a way to make payments and drove the little girl to her intensive lessons.

Mimi had two things that all struggling students need: a tireless advocate and plenty of time. You will enjoy the news story and Ms. Zehr's blog post, with a lengthy comment by Ellingwood herself.

Every Test Is A Reading Test

I was perusing Teacher Magazine's Blog Board and found a link to a great blog called Learn Me Good, written by "Mister Teacher," a 3rd Grade math teacher in Texas. He is preparing his students for their standardized tests and notes that after 3rd Grade, students may not ask for questions to be read or explained to them, even if they are English language learners. He notes:

So what it comes down to is that these kids are taking a series of reading tests. Some of them are ABOUT math or ABOUT science, but they don't strictly assess those subject areas as much as they assess whether or not the child can read the questions, some of which are highly complicated.

Mister Teacher is referring to the rules in Texas; I am sure they vary from state to state. In any event, his point has a lot to say about the importance of literacy and the pitfalls of assessing our students with standardized tests.

Again, Learn Me Good is a really good education blog; if you like math, funny t-shirts, or insights like the one above, check it out.

(Picture: "Testing" - CC)

826 Valencia - A Community-Based Literacy Solution

"What we really need is just more people, more bodies, more one-on-one attention, more hours, more expertise from people that have skills in English and can work with these students one-on-one."

This is what Dave Eggers kept hearing from his friends who were teachers. They could see that their efforts during the school day were not sufficient- they felt like they were fighting a losing battle.

But Eggers, whose novel A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, realized his life was full of the kinds of people ("writers, editors, journalists, graduate students, assistant professors") who could help improve the literacy skills of students outside of school hours.

In the TED Talk featured below, Eggers tells the story of 826 Valencia, the tutoring center that arose from this insight. Eggers is not an educator, but he seems to have understood intuitively what educators know about the importance of building community, connecting with families, providing one-on-one attention, creating real products, and bringing together learners with various levels of expertise.

Check out Dave's talk, and let us know what you think!

Further Reading

• Dave Eggers Makes His TED Prize Wish (Great comments and links about this talk.)
• 826 Valencia Hompage
• Once Upon A School - The site that sprung from this TED wish.
  

More Fun With Wordle - Submissions Needed!

Wordle.net is place where users can create free, eye-catching word clouds. On Feb. 11, I wrote about how word clouds could be used as a literacy aid. I'd love to hear your ideas on how Wordle could be used in the classroom!

I recently introduced Literacy Log to a class full of future ESL teachers, and word clouds seemed to generate the most excitement. I thought it might be a good idea to feature them once again. So, here are some word clouds depicting documents in a few different languages.

Literacy Log officially guarantees that you will enjoy playing around on Wordle. Send me a link you your creation and I'll feature it here!

• A speech by Eva Peron on May 4, 1950. (Original Document)
  

• The Beginning of Voltaire's "Candide." (Original Document)

• Chapter 1 of Marx's "Communist Manifesto." (Original Document)
  

• Story about a bombing (I think) on Al Jazeera. (Original Document)
  

• The Gettysburg Address (Original Document)
  

• All of Literacy Log's February Content (Original Document)
  

4/5/09 Update: Wade Roush at Xconomy interviews the creator of Wordle, John Feinberg.

...you get not only a picture of the relative frequency of words but you can get happy random juxtapositions of words that are conducive to associative thinking. It's generating ideas about something that otherwise wouldn't have occured to you. It's like a data toy. -John Feinberg


Brenda Dyck at Education World writes about potential classroom uses for Wordle. Highly recommended!