Although I am now the high school language arts coordinator for Portland Public Schools and should know how to talk right, I still have to watch my words because when I get emotional, home slips out. I say "chimbly" instead of chimney, "warsh," and "crik" when I least expect it. I frequently substitute words because I can't get my tongue around the correct pronunciation.

My brother and sisters chuckle when our mother talks. Her mouth, grown and raised in Bandon, Oregon, has a hard time acquainting itself with foreign words that have become part of our daily language — burrito or futon. As her children, we struggle too, but our language — which has caused us shame in the outside world — bonds us when we're together, deliberately mispronouncing words and conjugating verbs the way Mom does.

These days, I'm frequently called into schools to "fix" students' grammar and punctuation errors. I admit to feeling churlish about using conventions — punctuation, grammar, spelling — as the entry point to student writing. I believe writing must begin in students' lives and be generated for real audiences. However, in recent years I've witnessed too many low-income students, students of color, and immigrant students who have not learned how to use Standard English — the language of power.

Sure they can write great slam poetry; some can even write killer stories; a few can write essays, but they are often riddled with convention errors. Failing to learn these skills handcuffs students. Their lack of fluency with the language of power will follow them like the stench of poverty long after students leave school — silencing them by making them hesitant to speak in public meetings or write their outrage over public policy because they "talk wrong."

So how do we both nurture students in their writing and help them learn the language of power? We start by telling them what they're doing right.Too many students are scarred by teachers' pens in the margins yelling, "You're wrong. Wrong again. Ten points off for that comma splice. Where is the past tense?" Language arts teachers become accustomed to looking for errors as if we will be rewarded in some English teacher heaven for finding the most. I know this from experience. I still remember the day when in a frenzy of doing my job right, I corrected every error on Lamar's budding paper and witnessed his transformation from eager to dejected student. I had to turn that practice around and look for what the students do right.