Johnston Quotes

I will take you through a short review of some of the quotes I underlined and/or liked that showed a lot of key points of the meaning and importance of Choice Words

• Pg. 1 "Some of us have to think more carefully about the language we use to offer our students the best learning environment we can"
• Pg. 5 " 'I like the way you figured that out,' attributes the accomplishment entirely to the student.  This final step offers the student a retrospective narrative about the event in which she stars as the successful protagonist."
• Pg. 7 "In other words, it is true that we are often less explicit than we might be, that we are confusing sometimes when we try to be explicit and that being more thoughtfully explicit can be important"
• Pg. 9  "Teachers can position children as competitors or collaborators, and themselves as referees, resources, or judges, or in many other arrangements.  A teacher's choice of words, phrases, metaphors, and interaction sequences invokes and assumes these and other ways of being a self and of being together in the classroom."
• Pg. 13  "This leading edge is where the student has reached beyond herself, stretching what she knows just beyond its limit... this is the launching pad for new learning."
•  Pg. 22  "Children in our classrooms are becoming literate.  They are not simply learning the skills of literacy.  they are developing personal and social identities."
• Pg. 29  "If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals.  I call this a feeling of agency."
• Pg. 34  "You really have me interested in this character because of the things he says, AND IF you show me how he says them and what he looks like, I will get an even stronger sense of him.
• Pg. 57  "This teacher's response, however, tells the child that not only is this acceptable in this classroom, but that helping others correct misconceptions is something to be encouraged."
• Pg. 77  "Teaching, like parenting, is, for much of the day, automatic."
• Pg. 78  "The teachers made individual personal contact with the students regularly as they arrived at school and during the day, learning what in their lives mattered and what could become relevant for them."
• Pg. 79  "The way we interact with children and arrange for them to interact shows them what kinds of people we think they are and gives them opportunities to practice being those kinds of people."