If I Said Something Wrong, I Was Afraid

0 Douglas B. Reeves 2004 If I Said Something Wrong, I Was Afraid Educational Leadership "A good deal of education research is informed by the relationship among the factors of teaching, curriculum, and student performance, but uninformed by the observations that students would provide if only we listened," writes assessment expert Doug Reeves in the latest issue of Educational Leadership (Dec-Jan 2005). Listening to the voices of elementary school students learning English can give teachers a new perspective, as Reeves learns during a visit to an ESL classroom. "As a researcher, I am easily seduced by quantitative analysis. But if I have learned anything as a student and teacher of statistics, I have learned that there is always a story behind the numbers." Reeves relates some of the messages he heard during his conversation with Lucineyda, Ivan, Jeismari and their friends. "Students have a way of caring for teachers as well as receiving our teaching, nurturing, and love. The...students gave teachers a strong message of reassurance: 'Don't worry so much. If we are new in the class, you are new, too. We both are going to learn. We are going to learn English, and you can learn some Spanish.' Few elegies to lifelong learning are as eloquent." Â Reeves, D.B. (2004). If I said something wrong, I was afraid. Educational leadership. (Dec 2004/Jan 2005 Vol 62 No.4). Retrieved from ASCD 7 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.c00a836e7622024fb85516f762108a0c/?javax.portlet.tpst=818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_viewID=article_view&javax.portlet.prp_818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_journalmoid=429c39beffdc0010VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD&javax.portlet.prp_818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_articlemoid=e2cd39beffdc0010VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=token&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=token http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.c00a836e7622024fb85516f762108a0c/?javax.portlet.tpst=818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_818d37ec925d82800173fc1062108a0c_viewID=article_view&javax.portlet.prp_818d37ec92