Dori, who lives in Parker, CO, sent this today:
Hi Ben:
Yesterday our district had a job-alike day, so we had a workshop focusing on ACTLF’s three modes of Communication (curiously, no mention of the 90% in the language!). Anyway, I was struck by:
a. the number of people who have no idea what the modes mean. One school thinks they are doing the interpretive mode when kids interpret a painting, not even realizing that the interpretive mode is part of the communicative strand.
b. the number of people who feel it’s enough for kids to read and “get the gist” instead of using reading as a means of acquiring language. You know, the old “read this ad that’s too hard for you and see if it’s about a movie, a restaurant, or an amusement park.”
c. the vast number of hours making up inane activities instead of just talking to kids about kids. One woman had a stick figure with about 30 cut out pieces of clothing that kids could place on the stick figure, and she has each kid do this in class! Can you imagine? All that time wasted cutting out clothing items?