Unlearning the Myths...

I must say that this article fit incredibly well with the education I received at DePauw through my Education Studies degree.  Much of the Ed. Studies degree includes discussions of the importance of diversity, deconstructing stereotypes, defying gender norms, etc.  This article encouraged all of these things as the author examined past and present fairy tales and the way in which they often encourage children to conform to society's expectations of gender, sexuality, and race.

I took a particular interest in this article because my senior thesis was a study of violence in children's literature and how these instances of violence could be used to create a curriculum about resisting domestic violence.  While Christensen does not specifically talk about violence, I found this article to be closely related in that the themes and motifs that our children read in literature are what they mimic in their own lives.  Whether the character is depicted as strong because he is a man or the character is being abused because she is female, both of these ideas teach our children that this is how society should be.  I even included gender prejudice as a form of violence in my study because the two are closely related.  I think Christensen's points are valid, and while I do not agree with everything in the article, she reiterates the idea that what children read in their stories becomes very real to them, and if these stories are so real, why wouldn't they mimic what they see?  It should make us as adults hold ourselves accountable in how we discuss and read these books to our children, if we choose to at all.

Multi-Modal Literacy and Teaching Immigrant Students

Prior to the doing the readings for today I was a bit confused why we were reading them in the same week, but after doing them, it made complete sense to me.  I loved reading "The Silent Stage" because it was such a vivid description of hope.  I felt like I was able to really watch Dennis transform from a shy, ashamed, immigrant child to a confident, well-adjusted student.  It was amazing to me that the instructor was able to develop the idea of the film strip with him in order to engage him in his learning.  Not only did Dennis exceed expectations academically through the film strip, but the pride it gave him as a person was incredible.  I never would have guessed that the film strips would have benefitted Dennis so much!  I did have a question, though.  How could teachers go about helping immigrant students if they do not have as much one-on-one time with students as this instructor had with Dennis?  Dennis was able to be in a different classroom working on his own assignments for the majority of the day, but what if schools don't have these types of resources?  How can we tap into kids interests if our time with them is more limited?

Along the lines of resources, I felt the readings about Multi-Modal literacy and the importance of technology were critical to address in this class.  In today's world, technology is surrounding us and incorporated into most aspects of our lives.  It is important that children have access to this technology because not knowing how to use a computer, for example, could be detrimental in today's "real world."  However, what happens when schools don't have the resources to provide for their students? The classroom that I do my field experience in has four computers in it, and students have assigned days to go on the computer every week or two.  But this is a wealthy school where students who don't get a chance to get on the computer regularly at school have time to get on at home.  What about in schools where this isn't the case and then the teacher tries to take her students to the computer lab and few students are familiar with basic functions on the computer?  I think it is critical to teach students how to use technology, but I worry about schools with very few resources and how they can accomplish these goals as well.  I don't mean to be a downer, but I do think it's a very real problem!

MGRP Reflection

It's done!  I've posted pieces of my reflection because I think they explain my feelings pretty well after finishing!

The idea of the Multi-Genre Research Paper was completely foreign to me until this class.  Not surprisingly, I have written many research papers throughout my school career, but I have never been asked to represent my findings in such a unique way.  While I knew that writing could take the form of many genres, I never considered the inexhaustible amount of possibilities for genres.  For example, I still find it fascinating that a list can be considered a genre. I grew to appreciate many more types of writing through my exploration of this topic and very much enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone to write from multiple perspectives and represent writing through various forms.  (I guess I should clarify by saying that I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone toward the end of the project, but was a bit intimidated at first). 


This experience will shape my teaching in a tremendous way.  I plan to use the MGRP in various ways throughout the year.  I think the idea of the multi-genre can be applied to all types of subjects.  I plan to assign topics for specific units and let students choose for other units (within reason of course) but I don’t see why the MGRP cannot be incorporated somehow into every unit.  Letting students have a choice in how they express and represent their information seems to me to be the most powerful form of education because it says that we value their ideas.  What is more important than that? 

Chapters 5 and 7 in MGRP and Seedfolks

5 & 7 MGRP

I came away with two main ideas from the assigned chapters for the week in MGRP.  The first idea: The importance of showing, not telling.  Allen provides us with multiple reasons why showing is more compelling than telling and ways to incorporate this idea into class activities.  Through showing, the author "describes the scene as something is taking place with plenty of description" (Allen 58).  Telling, however, "lets the writer sneak into the text with interpretations and conclusions" (Allen 58).  If we are trying to educate children to write for an audience, it seems important that we teach the importance of not always including our own ideas in our writing.  Of course there is a time and a place to allow for our own opinions as writers, but not all the time.  Showing seems to be an important way of teaching students to write without filling pages with their own opinions and let the readers form opinions for themselves.

The second idea:  This is nothing profound, but I'm constantly grasping the idea of the importance of letting children share information in a way in which they are passionate.  For some children, a traditional research paper is comfortable and worthwhile, but for other children, a research paper is absolute torture.  As a teacher, it seems critical that we allow for all types of assignments for students to display what they know or what they've learned.  This could include anything from computer programs to drama to a traditional research paper.  However, if we, as teachers, stick to one or two types of assignments, certain children will struggle to stay afloat.  It is our job to explore with our students, so if we are not as comfortable with non-traditional forms of expression, we can assign these types of assignments and learn with our students as they participate!

Seedfolks


This story provided me with a wonderful example of Allen's "showing, not telling."  I loved the way Paul Fleischman created all thirteen characters through a strong depiction of their voices.  While each character did not always re-appear, I left the book feeling like I had a deep understanding of who each character was, even if their story was only five pages.  I attribute much of this to Fleischman's ability to capture the character through their personality and voice, not simply tell us about them.  This book really was quite charming...I loved the idea of such a dark and desolate neighborhood being completely transformed through a garden and the relationships that the garden helped to foster :)

Poetry in MGRP and "Invitations"

POETRY

I was at first struck by Allen's statement that poetry is "a great way to ease into writing."  As someone who sometimes struggles to write poetry, I found this statement a bit hard to swallow.  But after reflecting on what poetry actually is and continuing to read Allen's chapter, I definitely see her point.  If students are intimidated by writing, poetry can be great, if only in the sense that it's often short in length.  Students will not be bogged down trying to reach a certain length or have their mechanics just right.  It can be appealing to all students because it seems to me that poetry can have as much or little structure as the writer wants.  This could be great for students who need structure (you could provide a specific structural outline for a certain type of poem) and students who tend to be more confident with poetry and are comfortable writing their own poems with little prompting or structure.  I have come to appreciate the actual act of writing poetry and the value of the creative process it involves after reading this chapter!

INVITATIONS

There is no denying that invitations are a wonderful teaching tool that help students foster their own learning through questions and discussions. I love how interactive invitations are--that they require students to build community through their discussions with one another.  If a student is really engaged, it seems impossible that they would leave a discussion without learning something new and relating it to their lives, and isn't this the goal of most of our lessons as teachers?  To teach students to think creatively and for themselves?  What a wonderful way to engage students in literacy! 

The one issue I have with invitations is the time commitment.  It seems like a huge undertaking for teachers to create these invitations for students.  While I think they are a tremendous learning tool, I would worry about the amount of time teachers would spend preparing them.  I would love to do invitations often with my class, but I just don't know if that is realistic for a teacher?

Powell and Davidson article

I lived the elementary school dream with field trips ranging from the zoo to apple orchards to fire stations and even to Camp for a few days where all of the fifth graders stayed overnight!  I was fortunate enough to be able to expand my learning outside the classroom, and it was not allowed; it was encouraged.  My elementary classes allowed for much exploration through various field trips, however, I do not think we benefitted as much as the class with the donut shop.  Perhaps since this class wasn't able to go on as many field trips, they milked this one for all it was worth. I was amazed by the teacher's dedication to making the donut shop field trip the most educational experience possible.  And field trip doesn't even begin to do it justice.  These children ultimately created their own business, learning about loans and collateral, in kindergarten!  The teacher gave them the opportunity to see a business in their own neighborhood and then create their own business patterned off of it. She struck a wonderful balance between creativity and actual content teaching, allowing them to name their store and make donuts themselves, while still teaching them to spell and write more accurately.

As Powell and Davidson write, students from low income neighborhoods often have a poorer sense of self-efficacy so allowing these children to create such a detailed, organized business as their finished product was perhaps the greatest thing the educators could do.  Students not only felt accomplished and proud at the end by what they made, but enjoyed and learned in the process as well.

I must admit that my elementary school field trips were no where near as in depth as the donut shop.  While we would occasionally discuss a few things before we went on the trips, they were more for enjoyment than education.  This teacher gave her students a remarkable gift--the ability to learn through creating and taking pride in their work.  How wonderful!

Progress on MGRP

I was originally hoping to research dyslexia and literacy (Tentative Title: Deconstructing Dyslexia: Aiding dyslexic students in literacy).  I have found a number of articles, however, some do not seem to be as much about dyslexia in particular, and more about learning disabilities in reading in general.  I'm currently working on finishing up and finding the "meat" of all my articles and constructing an outline for where exactly I want to go with this paper.  I must admit that I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, but hopefully once my outline is complete, I'll feel like I have a little more direction!  This topic is vast, but I'm hoping it will prove beneficial for my future career as a teacher :)

Crafting Writers, Chapters 10-12

As usual, I found quite a few rich suggestions from Hale in her final chapters of Crafting Writers.  Instead of trying to conquer it all, I would like to highlight a few segments I found to be particularly helpful.  The first important notion I took from Chapter 10 was the idea that students must feel emotionally secure in order to succeed as writers.  While I think I always assumed this in the back of my mind, I read this part of Hale's description and thought, "Oh my gosh, that is so incredibly important!" Hale gives credit to Gay Su Pinnell and Patricia Scharer and their idea that "the emotional aspect of teaching can either impede learning or cause it to flourish" (Hale 161).  Hale goes on to explain, "Reaching one's potential to learn depends so much on the relationships between the people involved, not so much the content of what is being taught" (Hale 161).  This passage has continued to resonate with me for the past couple days because it provides so much hope, both to the teacher and the student.  By taking some of the focus off of the actual content, the teacher can also learn to nurture and encourage her students before teaching them the content they are supposed to be learning.  This notion also relieves some pressure for the students, although they might not recognize it, because they are not expected to be masters of the given task right away, but instead are encouraged in their learning as a gradual process.  As a future teacher, I took comfort in this passage because it recognized that there are other aspects of successful teaching that go far beyond teaching students content mastery.  I was left with a question though...What is the proper level of emotional security and the proper level of content mastery?  How do we, as teachers, help our students feel emotionally ready to learn while still pushing them to achieve greatness?

Another small detail I noticed and particularly liked in Hale's writing was the "Next Steps" she demonstrated in Chapter 10.  Hale gave three examples of ways teachers can make statements when they are conferring with students who need some improvement in their writing. Hale listed one way to phrase a sentence that I especially liked.  She said, "One thing I think you're ready for as a writer is..." (Hale 165).  I loved this phrasing because it gives the student a challenge to work on, while still encouraging them of their strengths.  It says...I acknowledge that you've mastered this, and now I'm confident that you're ready to move on to this.  What a great way to give suggestions in a positive way!

While I feel like I could go on for a long time about Hale's suggestions, for the sake of time, I'm only going to highlight one last idea that really jumped out at me. I loved Hale's recommendation of letting students assess writing samples from previous years with a given rubric.  To me, this does two great things: 1. It gives students a sense of responsibility; they can see that their teacher trusts them enough to move on to the next step as writers--evaluating others' work, and 2. It allows students a chance to become familiar with the rubric that will be used in the grading of their papers.  This way students will gain a deeper understanding of the concepts being graded on the rubrics and will be able to become stronger writers in the future.  I'm sure that this exercise has many more benefits than the two I mentioned, but these two seemed to really jump out at me.

Crafting Writers, Chapters 7-9

I especially enjoyed this section of Crafting Writers because I found it to be easier to digest and applicable to all kinds of teaching.  There were a few parts in particular that stuck out to me:

First, the idea of lessons as described by Hale.  Since we are talking about mini-lessons and doing our own in class tomorrow, I found Hale's description of a lesson to be especially helpful as I think about teaching my craft lesson to our class.  Hale says, "But I do think that reserving the label of lesson for those times when we teach new material or skills will help teachers keep themselves accountable for teaching lessons that are aimed at growing students' independent skill sets in writing" (Hale 98).  I like that Hale used the phrase accountable.  I think that oftentimes teachers are worried about being accountable to the state standards, which are important as well, but teachers should also strive to be accountable to themselves and their students.  Hale's two main questions: What exactly am I teaching and Why am I teaching this? How will it help my students as writers? are critical questions for teachers to ask and a concrete way to hold themselves accountable to the lessons that they are teaching.  Hale says, "My true test of a craft lesson is how well my students can hold on to what I teach them and bring what they learned into their writing independently" (Hale 99).  Once students can directly apply the lesson to their own writing and continue to do so, the lesson has been fully taught.  Hale's way of assessing herself seems effective and a strategy I aim to follow in my teaching writing.

A second part of Hale's writing that I found particularly important was the emphasis she placed on finding strengths in each student's writing when learning specific craft.  Hale writes, "Specific craft, because it is so precise, can be done by students at many different levels.  I am looking for who exemplifies the lesson, not who wrote a 'beautiful piece of writing" (Hale 110).  I found this statement to be incredibly encouraging because I often worry about how I will find strengths in students who appear to be struggling in their writing.  Specific craft lessons seem to be a great way to encourage students who aren't necessarily the best writers because you, as the teacher, are simply searching to see if they understand the specific craft, not writing as an entirety.  Focusing on one small thing that a student does well seems much more manageable than trying to encourage every student on his or her piece of writing in general.  This section, along with the discussions we've been having in class about students attempting to spell big words, etc. have both proved very beneficial to me in my ability to encourage ALL students in their writing.

Crafting Writers, Chapters 1-6

I know I commented on titles in my last post, but I find titles to be crucial in reading and writing.  I particularly liked Elizabeth Hale's title, Crafting Writers (perhaps more than her actual writing), because of the play on words...yes, the craft of writing is critical, but we are also creating children to be good writers as we teach them; we literally play such a critical role in literally crafting the kind of writers and thinkers they become.  What a responsibility! I know that's a bit off topic, but I thought it was interesting.

Now on to the actual writing.  I found Hale's book to be a bit dense in parts.  I got frustrated at times when I felt that she repeated herself, however, I did pull out some useful information.  The first piece of Hale's writing that I liked was the excerpt about multiple ways to bring description into a child's writing.  Oftentimes, children are simply taught two ways to write descriptively, similes and metaphors.  I know I was only taught these two.  However, Hale states, "...when teaching, you want to give students many different and specific ways to bring description into their writing" (Hale 12).  You must not only give them a variety of ways to descriptive writing, but also be specific in modeling these ways.  Along the same lines, it is important that we do not just teach children to insert details when they feel necessary, but that these details and descriptions should be a welcomed part of their writing, embedded as they go, and not a quick afterthought.  Hale states, "...but squeezing in details is also a different skill from using details as you write" (Hale 11).

I also enjoyed Hale's section of writing on the five senses.  While she acknowledges that certain senses, such as sight, seem to play a larger role in writing and developing craft, that each sense can be used differently to assist the reader.  Hale writes, "I begin with just the basic ideas that adding sound can help make a memory or story come alive for the reader" (Hale 36).  I liked this idea because it is simple and can be explained to students at a young age.  It also gives the child a concrete way to see how writing using senses can really help their reader capture a memory, something to which the child can relate.

Are Those Really Mistakes?: A Response to "Every Mark on the Page" and Sound Systems

The title of Kate Cusumano's article "Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing" definitely intrigued me.  I love that she included community members in the subtitle because it assumes that teaching children to read and write, and learn in general, is a group effort, not the responsibility of one parent or teacher.   This title sat well with me because, in a sense, it takes the pressure of me, as a future teacher and potential parent as well.  While I of course want to aid and help the children in my classroom learn literacy in ways that are beneficial to each of them, I love that teaching can be viewed as a team effort.

But now onto the actual article...I was shocked when I read about the mother who was convinced her child was having seizures during writing workshop time because he misspelled "there" and "their" a few times.  These few misspelled words had his mother in such a tizzy; she couldn't accept the fact that her son was still intelligent and capable, despite a few instances of word confusion (p. 9)  I liked this example because Cusumano used it to further explain childrens' capabilities in writing, and how their mistakes should not always be viewed as mistakes, but, in fact, are often strengths.  On page eleven, Cusumano uses a kindergartener's writing sample to explain a way to analyze a child's writing in a way that helps us see the strengths of the piece.  When discussing the use of pictures in order to help children's writing, Cusumano explains that children often confuse pictures and writing because both "convey meaning" (p. 12).  However, this particular child's writing is much more detailed than her picture, "demonstrating that she is moving on to a higher stage of development" (p. 12). In addition to the detailed writing, the child also demonstrates an understanding of periods, spaces, and writing from left to right.  I was amazed by all of the strengths that Cusumano was able to find from this child's writing piece, because when I first saw it, I noticed the spelling mistakes and had trouble deciphering the words.  Cusumano proved a critical point about teaching children to write: we must take into account children's understanding of words and their uses in society when reading their writing, and not just hunt for mistakes.

Anna Lyon and Paula Moore discuss children's understandings of phonetics when reading their writing, which seemed to connect largely to Cusumano's article.  They gave the example of a child who spelled "dragon" as "jagn."  Upon first glance, the reader may have no concept of what word the child was attempting to spell.  However, with an understanding of how the words are spoken orally, the reader can make the connection that "dr" and "j" make similar formations in the mouth when spoken (Lyon and Moore, 14).  This background understanding when reading children's writing helps us make connections to why children spell the way they do, and proves Cusumano's point that children do, in fact, know much more than we often give them credit for.  

After reading the assigned chapters in Sound Systems and Cusumano's article, I feel like I am starting to better understand children and their ways of writing.  At twenty-two, it's often hard to go back in time and try and understand why a child would have spelled a word a particular way.  However, it is crucial to do this because otherwise, we simply view the word as wrong, making it much more difficult to help children spell in the future.  I also love the way that Cusumano, Lyon, and Moore all emphasized the connections between reading, writing, and speaking.  It's almost impossible to separate the three, and, in a way, detrimental. If we understand how children speak, we can then aid them in becoming much better readers, and in turn, great writers too.

Food Court Fun (Literacy Dig Report)

Our fabulous team, including Lynne, David, Nicole, and myself chose to observe a local mall food court for our literacy dig project.  While it was, at times, harder to be stealth in our observations because we were indoors and didn't want to appear creepy, we did manage to come up with a wealth of information that helped us draw conclusions about literacy in this place.

I was in charge of observing the actual people, what they looked like, how they were acting, etc.  While I did observe a few people walking around and ordering food at various restaurants, I focused mainly on those people sitting at the food court for various reasons.  At 5:30 on a Tuesday evening, the food court wasn't packed, but did have plenty of people to tactfully observe...key word being tactfully ;)

The first people to capture my attention were a young couple...I'm guessing mid to late twenties.  They were nearing the end of their meal of pizza and coke, and looked exhausted.  They were married, at least I assumed because both were wearing rings.  They didn't exchange much in the way of conversation, but their facial expressions read extremely tired.  When they stood up to leave, I noticed the wife was pregnant.  Now that explains a lot!

The second crew of people I noticed was a group of three college-age girls.  They were all blonde, with shopping bags and were munching on Auntie Anne's pretzels.  They finished the meal, but stayed for awhile after to discuss issues of shoplifting and such...I'm guessing some of them had worked in a retail setting before.  They were boisterous and excited to chat and spend time with one another.  Verbal conversation seemed important to this group.

The next group of people I noticed were two Asian women.  Both looked to be about thirty.  One was holding a baby, and the other was speaking quickly and using lots of hand motions.  While I couldn't understand the language they were speaking, one woman appeared to be telling an animated story or discussing a serious issue, and the other woman took on the role as the intent listener.  This conversation told me a lot about what you can observe from simply body language and hand gestures, even when you do not understand the actual words being spoken.

The last group of people I chose to focus on were two middle-aged women, who appeared to be doing some sort of interview.  Upon closer examination, I realized the women were participating in an evaluation.  One of the women had her laptop out, was typing, and would occasionally turn the laptop and show the other woman information.  They were engaged in conversation about the woman's progress at her job, and it was evident that the boss was pleased with her employee's progress.

While not all of my observations involved literacy directly in the form of reading and writing, I did find literacy to play a large role in the goings-on at the food court.  The aforementioned people were simply the people I chose to focus on, but the entire time I was observing, people were coming and going to each restaurant, reading the menus, ordering food, signing receipts, etc.  Even non-English speakers could order food with the help of the large pictures on each restaurant's menu.  Literacy seemed to be crucial to the success of this particular place as people spoke to one another at counters and then also once they sat down.  Even through non-verbal communication, people were finding ways to talk to others.

During my observations, I made several assumptions about people because it was easier to make sense of the situations. For example, I observed the young husband and pregnant wife.  Although they did not say they were tired, it was evident from their body language and the way they spoke to each other.  I couldn't jump into their minds to see what they were thinking, but I made assumptions due to what I witnessed.  The customers and employees did the same thing.  While food court workers did not always know what the customers wanted, they understood that it was their job when a customer walked up, to ask them what they needed.  These kinds of spoken communication seem to be imperative to the success of our society; we rely on other people to pick up on social cues and body language to help us with what we need, and literacy is no exception.

Response to "That's online writing..."

Blogging is a new adventure for me.  While I love reading my good friends' blogs and find them to provide wonderful insights into peoples' lives, I have never taken the initiative to create my own blog.  I think I'm partially intimidated by having, what I think of as such personal thoughts, open to the public eye.  However, I'm excited to start this blog, even if it was required for an academic setting.

Although I've never blogged, I feel like I can relate to students' feelings in "That's online writing...".  There seems to be a certain untamed level of creativity that exists in blogging, and it's clear that the students in the Talkback Project found a sense of freedom in their blogs.  For students like Cassandra that found tremendous pressure trying to write in the classroom, blogging was a great way for expression and formulation of thoughts.  Since the classroom often brings with it pressure to perform to a certain level or achieve specific goals, writing often forces students to feel that they have to conform to a teacher's expectations.  However, blogging allowed students in the Talkback Program to express freely, even though they were still being slightly monitored.  It eliminated pressures to have correct grammar or the perfect sentence, and students seemed to thrive.

While blogging is new to me, I can relate to students' experiences.  I don't feel nearly as much pressure to write perfectly, and it feels great!