Barb Rentenbach and facilitated Communication

I was not able to go to either of the Barb Rentenbach talks, so I watched the two videos on the internet. Some first impressions of Rentenbach. She impresses and surprises with her vocabulary and often flavorful prose. Her writing also seems like rambling. I try to follow some of her thoughts that appear to be more than skin deep, but I just get lost in it. The video has several people reading selections of her writing for her. She seems very interested in Abraham Lincoln and seems to be trying to form some kind of symbolism, but it is mostly lost on me. I certainly applaud her efforts though. Unfortunately it feels a bit like listening to that friend who has a complaint about everything, but never an answer or suggestion. I get lost in the non-sequiters. She may not be a Faulkner, but Rentenbach at the very least shows us that people who may look or sound simple can have very complex though processes.
Along this line, I got even more out of the other video, Here We Are World. This was very enlightening. I have seen devices like the one Stephen Hawking has that read text, but I did not know about the full potential in this kind of technology. It makes me wonder how many autistic people I have interacted with, thinking there was not much going on in their brain and yet they may have had the same or greater level of reasoning capabilities as I, just not the auditory processing abilities to vocalize their thoughts. I think this conference is very cool. When you think about human communication, and how much we take that for granted, a video like this really reminds you what a great gift we have. For these people to be able to communicate is aa wonderful thing, as our social abilities are part of what makes us human. I was struck by the sharp whit some of the guys had. It was truly impressive. I was also particularly interested in the guy who would write and then read his own writing. It makes my mind wander in thoughts of how our brain works, and wonder if reading his own writing was so helpful for him, what the same practice could do for other students. What I learned in this video made me happy, but it also made me sad to think about how many smart and mute people there are out there in the world that nobody knows about because they lack the technology to express themselves. I hope that the work people are doing continues and this knowledge becomes commonplace.

Group differences forum

The group differences forum was really great. I learned a lot from hearing everybody's information and opinion. While obviously if we had taken more time and all read each article we would know more, but with the time we were given it was a very effective way to explore a number of important topics. I had to restrain myself from speaking up too much because I'm the kind of person who normally has a lot to say. It was very informative to hear different perspectives and facts brought to the table. Of course, most of what we heard was not facts but conjecture, but I think it still made for some very good discussion. My goal, besides not talking too much, was to stay on topic with my contributions.   I think i was able to do this. In fact I was very impressed with the ability of the clas as a whole to stay on topic. It was much better than other discussions we have had.     

PLE 10

Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p.51), paying particular attention to the age tange that you are interested in teaching. Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students.

I will be a high school instructor probably teaching History or Geography. I looked at the what the chart said students in this age range should know and be able to do. They should understand an average of 80,000 different terms understand transitions and be able to comprehend more figurative language. We have been learning about academic language in another class and so I found this information particularly pertinent. Language is how we interact with one another, so it is central to who we are and what we as individuals are becoming. With that said, I cannot overstate the importance of language. One way in which I hope to enrich my students' vocabulary is by using a word multiple times, defining it for them, then continuing to use it in context to reinforce the definition. I will only do this if it is not too contrived. Repetition is a great way for students to learn material, especially if they are repeatedly using it. I think a writing exercise in which I give students a word bank they have to use will help them learn the proper way to use certain words so it does not sound awkward. I plan on teaching in a low-socio economic school for at least a few years and I know from my experience tutoring these students that their exposure to diversified language is extremely limited, but that does not mean these students are incapable of mastering academic language.
http://academiclanguage.org/Underprep_Students.html is an interesting resource. It offers data on studies that show the difference in students who have a grasp on academic language and those who do not. It also has ideas for helping students learn vocabulary and language structure.