Word Wise Wednesday - July 17, 2018

Pseudoscience, Fringe Theories and MESMERIZED

The July 2019 issue of the ASHA Leader, a publication of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, has a very insightful article by Nancy Volkers about why pseudoscience is often more popular than statistics and real evidence. The article is entitled, “Does Truth Have A Future?” It looks at why fringe theories are so popular and what to do about their growing influence. 

Volkers points out that one of the reasons for the popularity of fringe theories is that blogs seem as credible to the unknowing reader as peer-reviewed research articles. Blogs are certainly easier to digest. As someone with a master's degree in science, I still find it a challenge to plod my way through research articles, even in my field. They are filled with statistics and jargon I can't always decipher. 

Blogs, on the other hand, can present ideas that make sense on a gut level, even when there is absolutely no science backing their claims, which means that we must all exercise caution when determining their value.

To counteract the effect of pseudoscience in social media, Volkers suggests that researchers (and the rest of us who appreciate real science) should be more visible on social media, which is the reason I'm exploring this topic on my blog. It’s also important to admit that science can be full of bias. Even deciding which hypotheses to test is a form of bias. 

Another article in the July issue of the ASHA Leader, “The Research Translation Problem: A Modest Proposal,” by Meredith Harold, suggests that clinicians (SLPs and audiologists), scientists, business owners, and leaders should use “Empathy-Rooted Problem-Solving” to bridge the gap between research and its practical application. Dr. Harold points out that the expected audience of a typical research article is other scientists, NOT therapists or teachers and certainly not the general public. She suggests that spreading the information in these articles in a way that others can understand could be done much more effectively than it is happening now. Also, more research should focus on the needs of the people in the trenches - the therapists, teachers, administrators, and publishers of educational resources who are responsible for putting research to practical use.

I recommend that anyone who has access to the ASHA Leader articles look these over closely. It is available to SLPs and audiologists who are members of ASHA. 

On this topic, I believe it's crucial to teach children from a young age how to understand the scientific process and how to recognize bias so that they will grow up to be wise consumers of the growing sea of information coursing through the internet.

One book that does this brilliantly but simply in a fun but compelling non-fiction narrative is Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France written by Mara Rockliff with illustrations by Iacopo Bruno. 

Benjamin Franklin travels to France to ask King Louis for financial assistance with the revolutionary war. While Franklin is in Paris, Dr. Mesmer creates quite a stir by claiming to have discovered a mysterious, new, invisible force with the power to cure any kind of illness. Benjamin Franklin exposes Mesmer for the fraud that he is by running experiments using the scientific method. The author and illustrator do an excellent job of explaining terms like hypothesis and placebo effect in a way that is both humorous and accessible.

I will be discussing Mesmerized at length along with several other non-fiction narrative picture books in my upcoming educational book, Story Frames: Using Narratives to Improve Reading Comprehension, Writing, Executive Function Skills and More (Brookes Publishing, October 2020).

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Word Wise Wednesday - July 10, 2019

Special Announcement: STORY FRAMES Coming October 2020!

I'm excited to announce that Brookes Publishing has offered a contract for my educational book, Story Frames: Using Narratives to Improve Reading Comprehension, Writing, Executive Function Skills and More. Publication is scheduled for October of 2020. Even more exciting, they have agreed to use the illustrations created by my very talented brother, Chris Jochens. Here's a sample of his artwork:

In Story Frames, I combine my understanding of story structure (from my perspective as a young adult author) with my years of experience using narratives with struggling students in the public schools working as a speech-language pathologist. I have been fine-tuning this approach for years. A detailed description of the twelve story elements along with examples of stories I have analyzed using this method may be found on this blog at the tab for  The Secret Language of Stories.

Free activities may be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers Page HERE.

If you want to keep up with news and other free offers, sign up for my free newsletter on my CONTACT PAGE.

Thanks to everyone who has offered support and encouragement for this project. It has been quite a labor of love. I couldn't have done it without you!

BETTER SPEECH AND HEARING MONTH

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month and the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association has developed many free resources to educate the public about what speech-language pathologist do as well as the nature of speech and language disorders. The following resources were developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

1. Communicating with Baby - Tips and Milestones from Birth to Age 5. Check out this free toolkit for parents with downloadable PDFs in English and Spanish. It outlines the communication skills you should expect your child to have at each age and gives helpful tips for encouraging development through reading aloud and other activities.

2. Signs of Speech and Language Disorders. Learn the signs that a child or adult may be exhibiting if they have a speech and language disorder. There is a link to find a speech-language pathologist in your area.

3. Signs of Hearing Loss. Sometimes hearing loss comes on slowly. It's not always easy to know what the problem is. These signs for adults and children are red flags that the difficulty may be due to a hearing loss.

4. 21 Day Reading Challenge. Reading with your child for just 15 minutes a day can have a profound effect on later reading and learning. Find small, practical tips for enhancing this experience in a reproducible PDF.

CELEBRATING POETRY MONTH

It's poetry month, my favorite time of year. Spring is in the air, school is almost out, and people everywhere are celebrating in verse. Here is a fresh take on a popular format, the cinquain. A cinquain is a five line poem traditionally written with a syllable structure of 2, 4, 6, 8, 2; however, a popular form with students uses word count instead of syllables as follows: 

Line 1 - one word title (subject of poem)

        2 - two adjectives describing the title

        3 - three word phrase or 3 gerunds

        4 - four words related to the subject

        5 - one word relating back to the title

I used a variety of poetry forms, including the cinquain, in my verse novel, Forget Me Not. I chose the cinquain to create brief character sketches to give the feeling of introducing a cast of characters.

Ally

afraid, alone

hurting, hiding, biding

never can go back

me

Elijah

brave, bold

knowing, helping, showing

he risks it all

friend

 Copyright 2012 Carolee Dean

If you are a teacher, consider having students do a fresh take on the traditional book report by incorporating character sketches written either in this format or the traditional 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllable structure of the cinquain. This is an activity that can be fun for all ages. 

If you are a writer, think about using the cinquain to create sketches for your original story characters.

Another poetry form I used in Forget Me Not was the pantoum. It can feel constricting and circular since the beginning of the poem often comes back around again at the end. A pantoum consists of four-line stanzas with the second and fourth lines of one stanza repeating as the first and third lines of the next one. Traditionally, these rhymed in quatrains of a,b,a,b. In many pantoums, the first and third line from verse one repeat in the final stanza.  The poem below from page 221 of Forget Me Not is an example of a pantoum.

In nice straight lines

He sets up pens

He orders life

He schedules plans

He sets up pens

the black, the blue

He schedules plans

For both of us

The black, the blue

Words on the fridge

For both of us

Tell where to go

Words on the fridge

Our whiteboard week

Tell where to go

The clock is king

Our whiteboard week

Filled to the brim

The clock is king

And I comply

Filled to the brim

A tight-run ship

And I comply

But it can sink

A tight-run ship

A neat abode

But it can sink

If there are holes

A neat abode

Is not enough

If there are holes

It fills up fast

It's not enough

He thinks that if

It fills up fast

He'll keep us both

He thinks that if

He orders life

He'll keep us both

in nice straight lines

Copyright 2012 Carolee Dean

The theme of this poem is fairly dark. Ally's father is a tightly wound and highly controlling man. Consider, though, what fun you could have with this poetry form if you had students take turns writing stanzas about a story they had read or perhaps a humorous subject or theme with the requirement that they need to repeat the second and fourth lines of the previous student's stanza as the first and third lines of their own.

While we are on the subject of poetry, consider using verse novels for your next class project. They are great for struggling readers because there is a lot of white space on the page. Also, if you are working on having students understand the main idea of a reading passage, you can focus on a page talk instead of a chapter. A page can be a much more manageable amount of information for many students.

Here are a few of my favorite verse novels:

May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (ages 8-12)

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (ages 10 and up)

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (ages 10 and up)

Girl Coming In for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland (ages 12 and up)

and my own Forget Me Not by Carolee Dean (ages 14 and up)

Last but not least, I was very excited to learn that Bethany Hegedus has a book coming out in August of 2019 about the life of Maya Angelou. That one is definitely going on my "to buy" list. See her post on the Nerdy Book Club page about Rise! From Caged Bird To Poet of the People, Maya Angelou (Lee & Low/ August 6, 2019). Maya's grandson, Colin Johnson, writes about her childhood in the foreword of the book.

WHERE I WENT ON MY EIGHT HOUR SOUTHWEST LAYOVER

Last weekend we flew to Texas and had a brief layover at Love Field in Dallas. At least we thought it was going to be "brief." As it turned out, our flight was canceled as were most of the flights that afternoon, for reasons that remain a mystery. One Southwest Airlines employee told us it was because of high winds. Earlier that day, flights had been diverted to Austin because of hail in Dallas, but when we arrived, the skies were clear and blue.

Another Southwest employee told us it was because of mechanical issues. Apparently, there has been a labor dispute going on with the mechanics union since 2012. CBS News reported that last Tuesday the airlines sewed its mechanics for a "bad faith bargaining tactic." Southwest claims that their mechanics are deliberately grounding planes which is resulting in massive numbers of flight cancellations and that they are doing this because of the contract disputes. Southwest is claiming that the union's actions are resulting in an "operational emergency" that is costing them millions of dollars per week. The mechanics claim that Southwest has terrible safety standards and they are deflecting by blaming them. See the CBS News article HERE. Either way, I have an upcoming trip to Vegas planned and I'm wondering if I'll ever make it there.

I always say, "When life gives you lemons (can airplanes be considered lemons like cars are?)- make lemonade, or go to the Galleria Mall."

My husband wanted to stay at the airport for the next eight hours until our rescheduled flight. My shoulder had gotten out of whack from carrying my laptop case all over the place. I said I'd only stay if they had one of those massage places like we have at DIA (Denver International Airport). Alas, they did not, so I took emergency measures and called Uber.

Needless to say, we ended up in a rather seedy part of Dallas, looking for a spa that seemed totally legit online, so I redirected our Uber driver to the Galleria Mall. We found a nice little massage place there and then had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Oceanaire. It was delicious AND I racked up a bunch of points on my Landry's Select Club card, so all's well that ends well.

While we were in Texas, we missed the bomb cyclone that hit Denver and trapped cars on the interstate for hours. By the time we returned, it was sunny and warm. We took United Airlines back to Denver, and it was a direct flight. No layover, no delay, no nasty "operational emergency."

NO STORY.

As a writer, I know that any story worth telling has conflict, anticipation, or at least some excitement.
The same is true for the personal stories we tell about our lives. It's the juicy ones that get people excited around the water cooler at work. No one walks around repeating the uneventful tale of good service and fair weather. See my tab for The Secret Language of Stories on this blog and read about Problems, Prizes, and Plans.

My problem was an eight-hour layover and a sore shoulder. The prize was finding a massage. The plan was calling Uber. Our midpoint attempt was disappointing but the climax of our story was a lovely dinner at Oceanaire. Our reward for our ability to look for the good in every situation was this amazing dessert.  It's a huge piece of peanut butter chocolate pie with caramel and chocolate sauces to pour on top. Then we made it back to Love Field with no TSA line and an uneventful flight to our final destination.

Does anyone else have tales to tell about their experience with Southwest Airlines? I'd love to hear them. I'd really like to know if I should reschedule my trip to Vegas. The hostess at Oceanaire told us she had been there the week before and her Southwest flight got canceled and rescheduled three times before she finally made it back to Dallas.