BLAB: Changing the Way that We Look At Students

Educational labels frequently impede student success rather than empower student success, as the labels become the defining attributes of each student and define the expectations of student failure or success. The classroom teacher must adopt a new paradigm that focuses on the whole child rather than on an educational label. The BLAB paradigm emphasizes that each child must be considered on the basis of social, educational, familial, & cultural heritages (B); proficiencies in English language and academic language recognizing that all students are on a continuum of language development in both dimensions (L); academic abilities that can differ from one content area to another (A); and behavior, whether that behavior is that of the perfect student or the disruptive student (B). The paradigm emphasizes that the interrelationships of these dimensions is dynamic and are influenced by both the content and classroom context of the classroom