What happens when a teacher does not share a cultural background with her students? In this thoroughly engaging account, one North American teacher describes her three years teaching Haitian children in an inner-city preschool. Using classroom research, Cynthia Ballenger explores how teachers who listen closely to children from other cultures can understand the approaches to literature that these children bring with them to school. Practitioners will identify with Ballenger, who struggles to find the academic strengths of children whose parents do not read them bedtime stories or otherwise prepare them for school in ways that are familiar to her. Focusing on three areas crucial to early childhood education (classroom behavior, concepts of print, and storybook reading), this book will challenge many widely held assumptions and cultural perspectives about the education of young children.
Foreword vii Courtney Cazden Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1(7) The Children 3(2) The Teacher 5(1) The Book 6(2) Traditions 8(7) The Legacy of the 1960s 9(3) Steves Question 12(2) Conclusion 14(1) The Setting 15(16) Beginnings 16(1) The School 16(4) Attitudes Toward Education 20(1) Language 21(1) Literary 22(2) The Haitian Family 24(6) Conclusion 30(1) ``Because You Like Us: The Language of Control 31(10) The Problem 31(2) Texts 33(1) Discussion of the Texts 34(3) Practice 37(2) The Wider Context 39(2) Learning the ABCs: The Shadow Curriculum 41(11) The Problem 41(1) My Curriculum 42(3) The Shadow Curriculum 45(4) Social and Intellectual Lives 49(3) Storybook Reading 52(17) Books and Catalogs 53(4) Storybook Reading 57(12) ``Now the Robbers Is Nice 69(13) Talk Around Books-My Students View 70(3) Talk Around Books-My Communitys View 73(2) The Sources of Interpretation 75(3) Conclusion 78(4) What Is Teacher Research? 82(19) Texts 82(19) References 101(4) Index 105(4) About the Author 109
Cynthia Ballenger is an Early Childhood Specialist currently on staff at the Cheche (add accent) Konnen Center, A National Science Foundation-funded center for science education reform and linguistic minority students.
