Chuckie

During the Fall 2000 semester, I worked with a group of bilingual third-graders. One of their projects was to come up with a story, and then illustrate it in a book format. They dictated a short story, which I then wrote down.

They told it in English...
	...and in Spanish.

One group illustrated the English version while the second group illustrated the Spanish. The point of this activity was to engage in free-writing, and as an assessment of the students' skills. I was surprised that most of the students had troubles with creating complete sentences and telling a cohesive story. Looking back, however, what I've learned about formal and casual language applies to these observations. In the "casual register," as it is called in Payne's A Framework for Understanding Poverty, tells stories in an episodic manner, and not from beginning to end. Students sucha s the ones I worked with, coming from a poverty-striken environment, will have no knowledge of the formal register.