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?