Week 4 Readings

The article I enjoyed the most was "Theories and Practices of Multimodal Education". I love picture books because they can hold so much meaning. A picture book can tell a story without words, and this article goes into detail about that. In TE348 I did a project on one picture book in particular called "Flotsam". I loved this book because it had no words but told an amazing story. It told a story through pictures and the arrangement of those pictures on the page. These types of picture books, the ones that involve more than text, enable a more meaningful discussion surrounding it. The article said that, "in children's books today, written language is no longer central," and that more importantly are the "conversations that can happen around the text as meaning is made." Having a books that includes features beyond the actual text allows for so much more interpretation about the story which leads to more discussion. This kind of book is more interactive and brings out different opinions and viewpoints. Each reader can interpret a book differently that involves so many modes. After reading this article and from my own experiences in and out of the classroom, I think multimodal picture books are more beneficial to the reader. Reading a book with more than one mode ("paper, size, point of view, framing, arrangement, medium...") allows for the reader to be creative and use their imagination. It gets the reader thinking more than just simply reading the words and looking at a picture that goes with it. Multimodal texts get kids engaged and hopefully will allow them to gain more from the book itself.

Week 4 Readings

When looking at where I want to teach questions it really got me thinking about and questioning where I want to teach. The type of school that I want to work at is one where the community sees the importance of each student and each student’s education. I believe this in return will reflect on the school and the learning done by the student. Not every area can be 100% supportive and that is why it is my job as a teacher to create an environment where each student can feel supported. The course is going to help me use literacy as a tool to build an environment that they can be comfortable in. I want to learn how to use Literacy as a tool in not only helping a child develop but also in making them feel comfortable helping them in their everyday days in and outside the classroom.

The reading that really stuck out to me was the Leland 2005 Critical Literacy in the first grade classroom article. I first found in interesting because it talked about some of the topics I had d answered in the question about what we want our classroom to look like for the week. I talked about literacy as a tool for making a classroom setting. The reading however talked about the setting of the classroom as a tool to helping or guiding literacy. Critical literacy as they talked about was something that the teacher in the article was unsure about as an effective tool for literacy. I related to her in the sense that when asked in TE 402 class this semester if The Lady in the Box was appropriate for first grade I had no idea. Just like the article I looked (and have been taught) at literacy as teaching how to read and understanding parts of literacy as beginning middle and end. I had never thought about the social aspects of literacy in an elementary classroom. After reading the article I realize how important it is to use critical literacy as a tool to making the student feel a connection with literacy. Over the years that I have spent in elementary classroom you very quickly realize that not every child loves to read. Not every student will go home and read a book or for 30 minutes a day. A lot of students actually do not always want to read. A way for students to see the importance of literacy is by making a connection and see how literacy relates to them as the article said. This is just one of the ways the article talks about the importance of critical literacy there are so many more ways that support it. The talk about student’s’ being able to read between the lines, developing a better understanding of the language, students developing a way of looking at things differently and these different views affecting not only their reading but the way in which they write as well. Although I have no relation or experience that I can compare it to I really like the way they showed the connection that critical literacy has with children’s art. It showed pictures of the art that students did I response to a book about the Japanese American War. The students art was in great detail, which the article talks about how this is a great tool in showing students development of critical awareness. Mainly what I take away from this article is that as a teacher you can never look at things in one way or just one sided. Literacy as an example is just not developmental books and education about begging, middle, and end. It is about expanded a students mind and giving them all that they deserve to take out of it and develop. I know that that is one of the many things I will gain from this class and am excited to do so.

Week 4 readings

     The article I chose to write about is the Multimodal article. The article explains multimodal literacy instruction as “combining the modes available in a text with the modes available through sociocognitive reading processes.” The article explains how there is more to a text than simply the words. When reading to students the words alone may not be the  most important thing. Other things that need to be considered are the messages that the book may send. These messages may be sent through illustrations or even colors. An example from the article was when one of the students said a bird was angry because its words were in red.  The article went on to say that there were no textual cues saying that the bird was actually angry, it was just the child’s interpretation. As others have mentioned TE348 and TE448 discussed the importance of looking over texts before giving them to students because of the messages it may send. I know in my class a lot of time was spent looking at the illustrations in different children’s books and examining the different things students could interpret from the text such as racism and social roles.

            I liked that the article mentioned that the way a teacher presents a text can affect the way students respond to it. This made me think about how when reading to younger children teachers often change their voice for the different characters and act out the different sounds. From what I have noticed students generally respond better when literacy is introduced in this way. I think this is important to keep in mind when introducing any subject. A teacher needs to make the subject interesting and try to get the students involved.  

Week 4 Reading

These readings also reminded me a lot of TE 348. In these classes we had to write a paper for each book we read based on a specific perspective. These different perspectives included textual response, personal response, critical response, inertextual response, and artistic response. I liked having to write papers in different perspectives because it focused my thinking and allowed me to notice different aspects of the book that I would not have otherwise. This is very similar to the Langer article that discusses the four major process of interpretation. These four process are being out and stepping in, being in and moving through, being in and stepping out, and stepping out and objectifying the experience. I think students may do these four types of interpretation without knowing. If teacher’s would isolate these ways of interpreting and correlate them with discussion and writing activities students may be better at looking at texts in a variety of ways. I was not introduced to this form of thinking until late high school and college. I think that if I were introduced to this way of thinking earlier in my schooling then I would have looked at texts more critically, which is a very important skill to have. I learned and practiced this skill in TE 348 and now do not look at texts so literally. I try to find the deeper meaning or connect what the main idea from the book is saying to its reader. It is important to find books that will bring out this critical way of thinking.

It is also the teacher’s responsibility to choose texts that allow the students to challenge their way of thinking. I think it is important to note that these books do not all have to be award winners and sometimes it is good to read a book that might have some critical flaws because students can discuss them. In TE348 not all of the books were excellent reads and some of them were really bad, but it gave the class a chance to discuss the main points and question why the author did the things the way he did. In the Leland article it stresses the importance of using books that introduce social issues that are relevant to the students lives. It gives many examples of the students thinking more critically about the texts and asking questions. I saw this briefly in my kindergarten class when my teacher was reading a book about Martin Luther King Jr. one of the students asked why blacks and whites used to be separated. This was the first time that I have seen my teacher read a book that introduced a socially important topic. I was surprised that the students had questions and really seemed to be interested. This opened my eyes and showed me that I can introduce books of social importance and if done correctly even young students are capable of questioning and criticizing.

Week 4 Readings

When reading the Langer article, they mention this point of "stepping in". I wondered how many readers actually allowed themselves to "step in" because I know when I was a young reader, if I had to read something I didn't find appealing from the start, I never let myself step in and just stayed on the surface. Another question I have is how do you push a less proficient reader to see past the "superficial" points? Or what do you do with those kinds of readers? Because if you just let it happen, then eventually it is all going to build up and they aren't going to be learning anything. This article also made me think about why these "strategies" can't be mixed. Why is there one strategy for a particular type of reading and another for a different type? Could switching the strategies prove to be more useful for different readings?

As others have stated, the Hassett article did remind me of TE 348. This article was a good reminder to the importance of other aspects and elements in literature besides the literal "text". I think it is really important to keep these elements in mind when dealing with a variety of readers because the more textual elements that are present, the more some struggling readers might be able to not fall as far behind. I see these textual elements used in a beneficial way a lot in my classroom because we do have some readers who really struggle with reading actual text, so they are very reliant on elements such as the font type, pictures, spacing, etc.

I think the Lelan article brings up some really good points about critical literacy and gives readers the image that serious topics can be brought up in the classroom and have benefits. It takes the "scary" edge off of the literature being tolerable for young students and makes it less intimidating. I thought it was really interesting to see how well the students responded to these issues because honestly, I wouldn't have thought they would have been capable of it.

Week 4 Readings

Multimodal Education – Hassett et. al

When I first entered my 301 classroom and we started talking about genre I had a pretty specific idea of what the term meant and how it applied strictly speaking to different types of movie, literature and music categories. After taking the class I realized that it also included different categories that I had never even thought of like street signs, labels, etc…

“Although possessing traditional print literacy skills continues to be sufficient for many communication tasks, the demands of digital media and visual texts within a multimodal culture require complex new ways of coding and decoding image–text relations.” (pg. 1)

The article talks about books (that, in my opinion are still the most tangible form of learning how to read because the child literally has to manipulate the book in front of them) and how over the past few years authors have become a bit more avant garde in their writing styles. It also talks about how different forms of media are influencing children as well. In adopting new forms of print culture into the classroom the teacher has to learn how to assimilate her or his teaching style to those new forms of print. Students have to learn how to read texts differently since they are not necessarily restricted to the confines of a tactile book.

“Consequently, being able to navigate the Internet, use digital media, or read a children’s book involves being able to decode and comprehend alphabetic print in conjunction with other socially and culturally shaped forms of representation, that is, in conjunction with multiple modes.” (pg. 3)

Understanding Literature – Langer

“There has been little research to help literature keep pace with what we’ve learned about the processes of making meaning in reading or writing. There is little to guide educators about what it means to come to understand literature, nor about what the teaching of literature has to offer to the intellectual development of the growing mind.” (pg. 1)

Just as with the Hassett article above, there is a different way of looking at things. With Hassett it was different modes of writing whether it be print-based text or technology-influenced-based text. Here, Langer calls for the need to change how we view literature and how it is taught. How it seems to only teach to the cannons and teach that which we already herald and champion in elitist circles. But her writing calls for “envisionment” which allows the reader to interact with the text, bring in their own personal knowledge, and reflect on how the reading might apply to them. When you make the literature reader-based rather than forced historicity or cannon essentials then the reader has much more motivation to read as well as sees more value in the education they are receiving.

Critical Literacy – Creighton

“Developing simultaneously with who language instruction, the publication of children’s literature over the past twenty-five years has resulted in the widespread use of picture books, novels, and informational texts in the classroom as an integral part of the curriculum. As teachers have moved away from the linguistic, laboratory-style approach to reading, which utilizes graded texts with a focus on systematic phonetic development, we find instead anthologies of real literature in the classroom, drawing from a variety of genres by classic and modern-day authors.” (pg. 2)

Critical literacy – like the Langer article above – helps to bring to light what the reader brings to the text. Not all of our students are going to be upper middle class white kids who have faced very little hardship in life so by integrating books that speak to issues that many students face into the curriculum, you allow that student to interact with the text as well as see themselves in that text. And, just like Langer’s “envisionment” theory it allows students to find motivation in their reading by seeing themselves represented by the author.

Week 4 reading

I think my post is going to be a lot like Sarah's in that I wanted to mention TE 348 too. Especially after reading the Hassett article-- all I could think of was that these were principles we were taught in TE 348. One thing that will always stick with me from that class is that we can't hold ideologies about our students; we can't just assume that they won't understand something or it will go over their heads. This is why we need more instruction on the multi modal aspects of literature. Before I had taken 348, I had never realized that picture books could be so complex. I just thought of them as this thing that had pictures and a couple of sentences at the bottom. But it was after I had 348 that I had realized that the font, size of the text, the colors used, the artistic design, and the point of view had so many meanings. Not only that, but each part adds something special to the story. If we can get our students to start considering every element in their reading, their analyzing ability will increase tenfold. However, I'm not totally sure how I feel about students shouting out ideas throughout a reading. I believe that could potentially get too distracting and also disruptive. Maybe if some base rules were set before hand. Or maybe the teacher could read the story one time though without interruption and then another time through while having the students calling out what they think.

What I love about these readings is that it's not about the student being right or wrong. It's very much based on the opinions and thoughts from the student. Each individual student will come up with something completely different and unique from the other. In the Langer reading, Being out and stepping in, Being in and moving through as well as Being in and stepping out all encourage each student looking back on their prior/background knowledge to make connections with the text. I like this idea because the students will be learning more by building off of ideas they already know.

The only problem that I have with these articles are that it's unclear about what we should do if our students are not responsive. What I've found in my placement was that the Advanced readers will have tons to say about the reading or story. They will back connections with other texts, with their daily lives, with their school projects and experiments. But what about the Strategic Intervention (S.I) readers? When I'm reading to them and asking question, I often find myself hearing crickets. It's like they don't hear me. If I ask a critical thinking question, they avoid my eye contact. There's a major lack of rich discussion. What do we do? How do we make the students responsive without it feeling like pulling teeth. It can get really exhausting trying to force kids to talk.

If I could work anywhere I'd work...

I'm placed in a Montessori school in Okemos and I'm not totally sure if Montessori is right for me but I would definitely say I'd want to work in a similar community and environment. The parents often volunteer to come in and help with big projects, the teachers are all friends and exchange ideas with each other, they promote peace and having a peaceful environment, and there's no worry that the students are going to be safe and being taken care of. Plus, they never give up hope on their students. If someone is below reading level, they will do everything in their power to change that.

This course will hopefully help me find multiple ways to present literature in my classroom. Hopefully it will show me various ways as to how to make language arts, especially reading and writing, a fun and enjoyable experience to each individual student. This class will show me that each student is different and we must assess them and find what our approach will be so they can learn to the best of their ability.

In my placement, we have a range of gifted students to students that are being considered for special education. One student in particular comes to mind. I'm not totally sure what is going on with him but he's...distracted easily. I wouldn't call it ADHD though. Anyway, his strength is that when he gets on task, there's no stopping him. It's surprising how one day it'll take him an hour to finish a worksheet and the next it takes me 15 minutes. He is also eager to learn especially when it comes to science. He is, however, extremely below reading level. In order to improve his scores (and everyone else's in the class) my CT has them practicing everyday. No exceptions. They read all day long and every day. I think I've said before, our entire mornings are spend on reading mostly. With each reading comes questions about analyzing the story, summarizing, difficult vocabulary, critical thinking, author's purpose, drawing conclusions, etc. After giving them a semester of practice, the students had improved immensely (even the ones below grade level).

Readings for Jan. 31

After reading both the Langer and Hassett/Curwood articles what stood out most to me was how literature is changing, and how we as teachers need to change our methods and the way we go about introducing and approaching literature in our classrooms. The Langer article focused more on the way students approach certain literature and how they use their background knowledge and reflect upon and relate different texts. The Hassett/Curwood article focused much more on the multimodal characteristics of texts which includes things such as font, color, graphics, etc.
This reminded me a great deal of TE 348. In that class we spent a lot of time analyzing different children's literature. We learned how important the color choices in books are as well as font and the meanings they carry. Frequently these aspects of children's books are just as important as, if not more important than, the words themselves. We also learned the importance of illustrations and subtle textual clues found in the pictures. Before taking that class I never considered how important every aspect of these books are. This was especially seen in books that had minimal words and mostly illustrations. It is important to show children that the illustrations can carry more meaning than the words in the story and it allows creativity from the reader.
Something else that I took away from that class and have experienced first hand with children is not underestimating children's ability to pick up on textual clues and notice subtleties. Even with very young children it can be amazing what they pick up on in books. Sometimes this includes things you as the teacher did not notice. This also goes along with the idea from the Hassett/Curwood article of "teachers as coconstructors of knowledge" which is very important to keep in mind when presenting and discussing literature. It is important to point out and discuss the illustrations and aspects of the book as you go along to facilitate a more meaningful discussion and reflection of the story.

Literacy Definition

When I think of literacy I think about reading and writing. If someone is literate, they are able to read and write fluently. To read and write fluently, you need to understand all that goes in to them. These include things such as phonetics, grammar, and decoding. To be truly literate, I also think that someone needs to understand all of the cultural influences on reading and writing. You need to understand different types of writing and which is appropriate for certain situations.

Literature Autobiography

Reading and writing came easily to me when I was growing up because it was something I enjoyed. I enjoyed reading fiction books and writing fictitious stories. I guess I always enjoyed being able to escape through reading and writing. If I had the opportunity to read a really good book, I was able to completely lose myself in it; reading for hours and hours at one time. My mom is the one who influenced me the most in this area. She was constantly reading, so naturally it made me want to read too. It helped that she knew which books I might like and could recommend some for me to read. My love for reading lead to my love for writing. I loved reading captivating books, so when I was young I thought I would try to create some stories on my own. This affinity towards reading and writing at an early age is from my mom mostly, but I also enjoyed reading and writing short stories in school. In elementary school I was always good at coming up with stories to write or reading for the Accelerated Reader program. I liked reading and writing because it was something I enjoyed doing in my free time, but it also came easy to me so it didn’t frustrate me like other subjects did.
I don’t remember one specific teacher in elementary school that impacted my love for reading and writing, but I do remember one teacher in middle school. My seventh grade language arts teacher is one teacher I will always remember. She was very challenging, but patient and nice. She pushed every student to do better. I don’t think I ever learned so much in one year than I did from that teacher. I always enjoyed reading and writing, but my seventh grade teacher made me feel good about my reading and writing skills. She gave me the confidence to do better in the future.
Like many others I’m sure, my love for reading and writing diminished every year as it got progressively harder through high school and college. I still love to read in my free time, but I rarely get the chance to. Throughout high school and college reading and writing became more of a chore than a leisure activity. I had to read and write so much for school I didn’t get to do it for enjoyment anymore. That is when reading and writing started to have a negative connotation to me. I began to associate the things I used to love with deadlines and guidelines. I can’t read a book for pleasure without trying to find the underlying meaning or themes threaded throughout the book. When I read a book for pleasure, which is rare these days, it reminds me why I used to love reading so much. As a teacher in the future I need to keep these experiences in mind. I hope that I can try to make reading and writing an enjoyable experience for my students so they don’t dislike them or become discouraged at an early age.

Week 3 readings

The Fleming article on teachers in CPS really got me thinking about my next few years as a teacher and honestly scared me a little bit. The part that really got to me was trying to be realistic when thinking about students backgrounds, especially with literacy. I think I am still so naive in thinking of these perfect classroom settings where I can relate to every child and they will all be at the standard level. This article helped me realize that it is not always that simple and that you have to be able to adjust and go with what you are given. This article also really stuck out to me because I will be teaching in the CPS next year and could easily be in some of these situations the participants were describing. The Lenski article also helped me consider potential ELL students in my future classroom. Similar to the Fleming article, it got me thinking about students backgrounds and how to handle different literacy practices from other places. One question that came to mind when reading the "Silenced" article was how do you reach a common ground where both sides can but their guard down and truly try to place themselves in the others position? Or maybe it cannot be done, but I think both sides need to give it a shot.

Week 2 Readings

As I did the readings for this week one really got me thinking and that was the Fleming article on teachers in the urban schools. Instantly I thought back to someones definition of literacy. One detail they included was about the relationships children had as well as their home life being a big influence over their literacy. This is so true and tiring it into the reading they talk about the low income families of the urban schools. This most likely means less at home involvement of the parents in progressing their children. This in return has shown low scoring in areas such as literacy in urban schools. What does this mean? It means the responsibility of the teacher is greatly increased. It means that teachers are not just teachers but their responsibilities become so much more. The problem then comes with the expedience of these teachers. This then lead me to think of another problem that connects to this. I realized the importance of students feeling the confidence of their teachers. The article talks about the overturning of teachers in urban schools. As teachers leave and new ones constituency coming in what message does that show to the students? They may feel unimportant or not as important. They will then lack a confidence in themselves that teachers are their to provide for them. So not only are we going to be teachers we are going to be motivators, supporters, and so much more. You realize everyday more and more how important we are in the students lives. I see it in my classroom this year every week. They come in and seek your approval, they confide in you, and their home lives are brought to school everyday. One student comes in every morning normally pretty upset. Every morning she wants a hug and tells me about her night and how hard it is for her to do her homework because of her little sister and mom yelling at her. She has been struggling in school and lacks the confidence that what she is doing is right and not to give up. This was one of those moments when you realize how many different roles you have as a teacher.

Literacy in the classroom

     I observe a lot of literacy while I am in the classroom, during the time I am there the students have writers workshop and story time. My CT puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of writing, every assignment the students do has to contain a complete sentence at the end explaining what they did. Right now my CT is trying to get the students to wrote in complete sentences so she has stars all over the room which represent the different parts of a complete sentence. Every day the students have to spend at least 45min writing in the writers journals about a topic of their choice. They also have story time at the end of the day where my CT reads to the whole class, and during independent work the students are encouraged to read on their own. The students in the classroom are 1st and 2nd graders so many of them are beginning readers and writers.
     While reading over our Literacy definitions we all agreed that literacy contains reading and writing but that it is also much more. The majority of us also mentioned things such as vocabulary, phonology, communication, forms of print, etc. I noticed that a lot of us used to terms learned from TE301. I think it is our experiences from that class as well as our other TE classes that influenced our definitions and caused them to be similar.

Week 3 readings

For this weeks reading I chose to write about the Flemings' article. I found this article to be very eye opening and informative. I like how this article gave advice from actual teachers who are going through/ have went through what we will be doing in the next few years. This article really made me think about the importance of having good teachers in urban schools. A quote that really stuck out to me was when one of the teachers said that “the role in the classroom is not only that of a teacher but also a mother, nurse, counselor, social worker, etc.” Reading that made me stop and think about how any actual teaching is able to get done. The students in those school systems need so much more than what can be planned in a lesson plan. As a teacher in an urban school you would have to find a way to somehow balance all of the students’ needs as well as do your job of teaching them.

The article mentioned how often times teachers’ cycle in and out of the schools, this made me wonder if they weren’t just becoming burnt out from all of the unknown they were faced with. As the article mentioned these classrooms often have few materials or resources and the students in them are usually of a different background than the teacher. I can only image the stress that would place on any teacher especially a new teacher who is still trying to find their footing in the profession. In teaching programs we’re told about urban school and we are able to talk about different teaching strategies but we are not given any advice on how to handle all of the emotional turmoil that goes into teaching students who may be hungry, cold, homeless, etc. I worry that if I were to teach in a school similar to the ones mentioned, I would have a hard time not becoming too attached or involved in the lives of my students. I would want to help them and “make everything better” but in reality that wouldn’t be my job and there isn’t enough time in a day for that to be done as well as lessons.

Overall I really enjoyed this article, it got me thinking about some of the issues I may be faced with as a teacher and it pointed out the importance of teaching in an urban school. 

Autobio

I can honestly say that reading is not something that I generally enjoy doing. When people mention reading being a luxury, I see it as a lot of work and not something that I would want to do in my free time. I am not sure if I have this mindset because reading was hard for me or if it is just that we are “forced” to read in school, but either way it is just something that I would rather not do.

Reading time in class was always my least favorite part in school. We always had to sit quietly at our desks and read for a certain amount of time and it just seemed so boring. We also had to keep reading logs and have a certain amount of hours and books read by certain dates. Again, this all felt very forced and too structured for my liking.

Writing on the other hand is a little bit easier for me. I always enjoyed writing in class, especially when we would write stories. I know literacy is made up of both reading and writing and I think it is interesting that I only enjoy one part of literacy and not the other. I think that I like writing so much more because you have more freedom with writing.

The biggest thing that stands out in my mind about literacy was from when I was in elementary school. I had a harder time with reading and was slower than some of the other students in my class, so I would get taken out of class and work with someone one on one with reading. I would start with simple books and repeat those for a few weeks and then move up to harder books. I think this was really helpful because it kept me from falling behind. The teachers in this program really had an influence on me because they helped me to make reading easier and more enjoyable for myself.

Having had a hard time with reading and having helpful teachers really made me strive to make literacy more enjoyable for others. My goal is to make reading and writing fun for my students because I do not want them to have the same boring experiences that I had. I also want to make sure that I reach out to all students and they all have the same kind of help that I had. I do not want them to fall behind or feel embarrassed if the have difficulty with literacy.

Week 2 readings

The reading all had to do with literacy in the classroom and effective teaching methods for teachers. I liked how there were many aspects of literacy represented and not just reading and writing. I found the Tompkins article useful in how it gave the eight steps of effective teaching. I also liked how it contained information on literacy and technology. We are obviously in a very technological world and a lot of students have the majority of the interaction with literacy through technology.
The Gibbons article caught my attention right away with the students quote. I found the whole article to be very interesting and it made me think more about how a student can use a language fluently but still not be comfortable with it. I liked how the article focused on the importance of making meaning explicit and how it said "it's not simply the matter of getting the basic grammar correct, but of knowing the appropriate  language to use in the context."
Of all the articles we read the Leland article was my favorite. I thought the article brought up a lot of great points about how students work improved and had more meaning when they read books that may be thought of as controversial. I found it interesting how the article mentioned the gap between students instructions and cultural understanding. The students in the mentioned classroom were exposed to different issues that surround them and then were given the opportunity to discuss those things. By doing that the students were able to make connections to their own lives and were then able to better reflect upon the book. When reading those books and making the connections, it made the text meaningful for the students, which then motivated them gain a deeper understanding.
The most important thing I took from the Cambourn article was that "engagement is the key to literacy learning, not immersion." The article pointed out the importance of allowing learners the opportunity to use what they are learning in a stress free way. They need to be able to practice and become comfortable with literacy. The article mentioned how babies learn language and how when doing so every advancement they make is met with praise. I think that is an interesting way to view literacy learning and by looking at it in that way a teacher may be able to have more patience which will in turn put the learner at ease and lead to a higher literacy understanding.

Comparing Definitions/Literacy in the classroom

It seems that most of us have similar thoughts on how to define literacy. A lot of us agree that it can be used to generally describe reading and writing, but after digging a little deeper we found that there are more layers to this definition. The layers get in to the specifics of reading and writing and most of the points that were mentioned had to do with things we learned from TE 301. All of these definitions seemed to have had some "reconstruction" as people gave it more thought. These definitions show compilations of multiple meanings and interpretations, all of which I am sure will be under construction for a while. I think defining literacy was important for us all to do because it keeps us in check with what we need to focus on and what things we consider important.

I think I see a lot of literacy in my classroom. Yes, I do see them do literacy lessons, but even reading directions out loud as a class or writing observations for science can be considered incorporating literacy. Lately, the students have been writing stories on half sheets of paper and then drawing a picture to accompany it. This is one of the most direct forms of dealing with literacy that I have observed. This is a really good way for the CT and I to gauge where they are at with their writing. I have also observed them read to each other and read to me. Again, this is a great way for me to see where they are at with their reading skills, specifically when they come across a word they do not know and I take note on how they figure it out. I also notice what kinds of books they are reading and get to have a sense of all of the different reading levels that are present in the classroom when they sit down and read with me. My ideal literacy learning environment would consist of incorporating literacy in to all subjects because I feel it is really important for students to learn and the more they work with it, the easier it will be for them. I think incorporating it in to all subjects is good to because then they do not even realize they are doing literacy activities. I think there might be some students who do not prefer literacy, so if it is disguised it might make it less intimidating.

Digital Native

I would definitely consider myself a digital native. I have grown up with technology and will be the first to admit that I am very dependent on it. The term emergent would really apply to my own digital literacy because I am constantly learning more from or about technology and I am seeing my own development with technology grow. I think it is important for children to be brought in to technology because even as the article states, our generation, and I'm assuming the following generations, will be extremely exposed to it so they need to learn now. I think that digital learning is similar to ELL's literacy learning needs because both are really important and essential for personal "progression". I think they can also be similar because both can be somewhat intimidating if you are unfamiliar with them.

Literacy in the Classroom

I think literacy is such an important part of a student’s day and it is interesting to see how other teacher candidates define literacy. All of our definitions agree that literacy includes more than just reading and writing. Many definitions of literacy included aspects of literacy like fluency, vocabulary, phonics, letter sound awareness, morphology, etc. Many definitions also say that literacy is the ability to understand and communicate through reading and writing. I am in a kindergarten classroom this semester and it is easy to see literacy learning throughout the day. In the morning my students do morning message, which includes reading and writing. The teacher starts out by writing “Good Morning children. Today is January 20, 2011.” Then the student says two simple sentences, for example: “I like to play with my sister. I like to play house.” The teacher then asks the student what different words starts with. The teacher then reads it aloud and then the class reads it out loud. My teacher also does reading groups that helps the students learn how to read and write. My class also has read-to-self time and a writing journal. These language arts activities are done daily in the morning. My ideal literacy environment is a space that has many different types of texts that can be used to challenge student’s thinking and make them think critically. I would also like a space where students feel comfortable discussing with each other and the teacher about their reading and writing.

Literacy Definition

When I think of literacy, I initially think of reading, but I think it covers a lot more than that. I see it as the general term for talking about reading, writing, and all things that pertain to them. These things could include aspects such as grammar, punctuation, etc to reading fluency, tone, etc. I think another important part to mention would be that literacy has a high importance in ones life and is an essential.

Comparing LIteracy Definitions

In comparing definitions of Literacy I thought the easiest way was to put them all together and look at them.

1.) Literacy is more than the standard definition of knowing how to read and write. It is important for a literate person to realize what the main concepts are incorporated into reading and writing. These concepts include comprehension, fluency, phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, writing, and many more. If a student is struggling in one of these aspects then they may have trouble advancing in the skill of reading or writing.

2.) When asked for the definition of literacy I think the majority of people asked would say it has to do with reading and writing. I typed Literacy into Google and it gave the same definition. I agree that literacy is the ability to read and write, but it is much more than that. It is also the processes involved in reading and writing and the things you can do with each. such as communicating through both words and a written form. The UNESCO gave a definition i found to be much more appropriate. They defined literacy as "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society."

3.) I think we can safely assume that most people would define literacy as the ability to read and write. I also think that we (everyone in TE 402) would agree that there's so much more to it than that but it's hard to put into words. Literacy is not only the ability to read and write but it's the ability to communicate an idea overall whether it be reading out loud, giving a speech, or writing a story. There's also concepts of print, book genres, morphology, phonological awareness,fluency, vocabulary, spelling, sight words and a plethora of other aspects to literacy. It's such a complex thing. To me, being literate is to be aware and recognize each aspect I just listed. If one excels at each, they are sure to be considered literate without a doubt.

4.) If you had asked me before I took TE 301 this past summer (which, I would never recommend anybody doing over the summer term, but I digress...) I would imagine that my definition of literacy would have been invariably different than the one I have now. While I would still say that I think literacy is the ability to perform the acts of reading and writing I would also now expand my definition to include the substructures of each of these categories that I learned about in that previous class. I would say that under each of these headings I would include the sub topics of genre, concepts of print, phonological awareness, morphology, motivation and vocabulary. Under reading specifically I would include comprehension and fluency. If I had to make a definitive one-sentence definition of the term literacy, however, I would probably say that literacy is the ability to read and write which comes with very specific substructural components assigned in regards to be reading and writing respectively.

5.) Literacy is much more than simply reading and writing. Literacy is the basis for all content area learning and without a strong understanding of literacy and what it includes, content area learning is very difficult. There are many aspects of literacy and outside factors that effect literacy learning. Sound letter relationships, morphology, phonological awareness, concepts of print, and genre knowledge are all necessary aspects of beginning to learn to read. Outside factors such as motivation, home life, access to literature, and ability all play a role in literacy learning as well. Literacy is being able to read, write, understand, and comprehend different genres of literature in a school setting as well as in your day-to-day life outside of a school.

After looking at all of them including my own and comparing they are all very similar. We all agreed that Literacy is defined as writing and reading but that we each know and see it as so much more. A lot of people included great ideas such as things outside of writing and reading that effect ones relationship with it. I found this very interesting seeing that outside factors played a role in the definition but it so does! Everyone’s definitions also included factors within literacy such as concepts of prints, sound letter relationships, morphology, phonological awareness, and so much more. I believe our definitions are so similar because of our inner teachers and experiences that we have had with literacy.

Lit in the classroom

After taking a look on everyone's personal definition of literacy, I'm finding that we all pretty much agree that literacy includes many aspects such a fluency, decoding, spelling, vocabulary etc. Every single one of us stated that there was more to literacy than just defining it as reading and writing. We all know there is so much more to it and a lot more work involved in achieving literacy.
I see literacy all day/every day in my placement. Every project, activity, worksheet, subject has reading involved. Their entire mornings are spend doing various reading and writing activities including grammar, summarizing, reading from science books and social studies books, and doing reading activities online. In the second half of the day, my CT often reads to the class after recess to settle them down and usually it will have something to do with the science lesson that she is about to teacher. She really gets the students interactive while she reads out loud to them by stopping and asking them comprehensive questions throughout the book.
I actually want my the literacy environment in my classroom to be a lot like my placements. She has the class split up into reading groups with students that are at each others levels but gives each group tasks in order to encourage better reading. I work a lot with the lower leveled readers. One of the students in that group has the case of the "ums" which means that every time she reads and stops for a second she say "um." My CT made it a goal for her to cut down her use of "um." She also has the group act as the "Reading Police" And when a student makes a mistake the group has them stop and read the sentence again so they can correct themselves. This helps them improve their fluency and comprehension overall because they are reading the sentence correctly the second time. Basically, I want my students to be exposed to reading as much as my CT exposes her students. She makes reading an essential part of those students daily lives. They will never go through a day without reading something and discussing questions from the reading or summarizing what was just read or writing a paper on it.

Week 3 Reading: Teaching Students in an Urban Setting

The readings for week three discuss different groups of children that at some point throughout our teaching careers we will all be teaching. The article I would like to discuss is called Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting. The group of children discussed in this article are from urban schools that come from low socio-economic homes. I found this article particularly interesting because they discuss the challenges and strategies that are necessary to successfully teach reading to students in urban schools. I relate to this article because I have volunteered in several Lansing public schools, which is an urban district. This semester I am in a kindergarten classroom in Lansing public schools where my students are learning how to read, so I can relate to several topics discussed in this article.

The first topic is the impact of poverty on teaching and learning. This is very relevant in my kindergarten class because one of my students is homeless and several students get their food for the weekend from a program that was set up by the school. This program sends home a backpack full of non-perishable food items, so the students have food to eat for two days. The students that qualify for this program are the students who also receive free school lunches. If I would have not experienced some of these situations in my kindergarten classroom I would have been blindsided as a first year teacher. My coordinating teacher says it is important to try and give kids what they need because for some students school is where they get a roof over their head and their only meal. My teacher looks in the lost and found and good will for coats, snow pants, boots, sweatshirts, etc. for students who can’t afford these item, so they can still play outside in the snow. One quote of the article that caught my eye was, “…balance--how one attempts to address children’s physical and emotional needs while also getting to the task of teaching and learning.” I think this is important to think about for any teacher because we have to take into account the students home life and incorporate this into how we teach these students.

Another issue that this article discusses is the lack of resources in urban schools. The article suggests that many teachers spend a lot of their own money on their classroom and that new teachers should expect to do this frequently throughout their career, especially in schools that have limited resources. My coordinating teacher has also commented on how she spends a lot of money on her classroom. She buys books, crayons, stickers, notebooks, blocks, etc. Her philosophy is that if she thinks it will be beneficial to her student’s learning then she does not mind buying it. The article gives good advice when it suggests that beginning teachers put money away for their first classroom because they will end up spending a lot of their own money.

The last aspect discussed in the article was a situation where teachers are working with students who are at variety of literacy levels. This scenario puzzled me and has opened my eyes to the variety of teaching strategies I still need to learn in order to teach readers of different levels. The article warns beginning teachers of the range of students that they will encounter in their classrooms. My teacher splits up her students into five different reading groups and does reading centers at least once a day, so she works with each group at least once a week. The article discusses how urban schools have a lack of resources for struggling or special education students. This is frustrating to me because I think all schools should have the resources to help students who are struggling the most instead of pushing the to the back. This article has opened my eyes about how lucky I am to have an experience in an urban school, so I have the background knowledge to teach students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Delpit, Lenski & Fleming Readings

What I got from the readings is that in order to teach or assess literacy in our classrooms, we need to be aware of each student's cultural backgrounds. I enjoyed Fleming's article the most because it addresses some of the issues that beginning teachers aren't aware of when they first come into an urban classroom. The article discusses ideas of ways teachers can be prepared so they are not blind-sided by the culture shock of the classroom. The article states that many teachers are not aware of what they are getting themselves into and therefore have trouble with classroom management due to a lack of respect and the students having to be "the person in charge" when they're at home. This article made me very much aware that schools are not preparing teachers for the many different types of cultures they will come across in their classrooms. Future teachers need to be better trained in order to handle their classrooms with confidence.
I also agree whole-heartedly with Nate's blog about Delpit's article. Honestly, I couldn't even read it all the way through. I guess I understand where she's coming from. I'm sure there are white people out there who just don't seem to get it or are too stuck in their ways that they can't adjust. But there is so much generalization in this article about how "white people just don't understand" or "white people listen but they don't hear." But despite the fact that this article is racist against white people, I think the point is that all teachers need to be aware of the culture background of their classroom and that not all students learn how to read the same way that white, middle class students read. Delpit points out that black students are told to do things differently at home than they are at school and this can become confusing for students when a teacher asks them to do something. The student may end up not doing what the teacher told them too because the teacher phrased it, "would you like to start reading now?" so they thought it was an option. This could lead to that student getting disciplined when it was all just a misunderstand and miscommunication. This is why teachers need to be aware of the cultural difference between school and home. The students may have not learned how to code-switch yet.
Just like the others, Lenski's article says that we have the be aware of the culture backgrounds of our ELL's in order to assess them properly. We must recognize that each ELL has their own cultural background; even the students that speak the same language will have different experiences with literacy in their own homes. I really liked the idea of the predictability log because it "helps teachers understand
their students’ prior literacy experiences and the factors that helped shape them," (p. 26).
Overall, very interesting and controversial readings this week. I'm interested to see what everyone else posts in their blogs.

Week 3 Readings

While there were three readings that we had for this week, I would like to take time to comment specifically on two of them. "The Silenced Dialogue" (Delpit) and "Teaching All the Children" (Fleming, et al) They both speak on the subject of race. One is inflammatory to the point of being almost reverse racism (Dialogue) and the other actually has laid-out goals and structures and ideas of how to bridge the gap between schools with inadequate access to not only good teachers, but teacher retention and teachers who can understand that the social lives of the students can greatly affect their learning even at the most basic level (Fleming). I will start with the latter.

Teaching all the Children – Fleming

Most of what this article talks about is how urban school districts are suffering not only from a lack of teachers in general but also a lack of decent teachers who can teach fundamentals of literacy in various ways that affect the students most immediately.

“Most of the greatest challenges to teaching in city schools noted by practicing teachers had less to do with the adequacy of their preparation for teaching reading and writing than with understanding and adapting to the urban contexts in which they were working and recognizing the impact of the urban context on teaching and learning in the classroom.” Pg. 5

The article also calls for really understanding the students who are taking up the seats in your classroom and understanding how issues like socio-economics and race play a very important part in the everyday classroom. Students coming from these situations have very real and very immediate issues that they face on top of the pressures of simply just coming to school.

The Silenced Dialogue – Delpit

The silenced dialogue refers to the idea that people can talk and talk and talk and that white people just don’t seem to listen. Or, they listen, but as one quote the author uses, they don’t “hear”. White people like to cite education and references and academia and never give a thought to the overwhelming power of experience. It’s kind of like the idea of having two different kinds of smarts: street smarts and book smarts. Rarely do they exist together on equal levels in one person, rarely do they make sense for two people talking from the two different backgrounds when they are trying to have a conversation.

“My charge here is not to determine the best instructional methodology; I believe that the actual practice of good teachers of all colors typically incorporates a range of pedagogical orientations. Rather, I suggest that the different perspectives on the debate over ‘skills’ versus ‘process’ approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and thereby an understanding to the ‘silenced dialogue.’ Pg. 3

I could drill holes in this article all day long – counter-arguing almost everything the writer says. But, then, I would just be a white guy listening but not really “hearing” what she has to say. I’m just so narrow-minded and prejudice that I’ll just never understand. I wouldn't be truly understanding what she has to say and in my position of power as not only white but also male (the most evil form of human being on the planet, no doubt) I wouldn't even recognize that I HAVE the power (I'm too blinded by my own lofty ambitions as a middle-class liberal) and that I use it without even really knowing that I do. But, then again, did I really read the article and understand what the author was saying? Or, like most white people, did I just shake my head, nod and pretend to listen and only hear what it was that I truly wanted to.

The entire 18 pages of the article reference certain middle-class ideologies/statements that the author tries to debunk from a realist perspective, maintaining, essentially, that people of all color who hold the shared ideas live in a fairy land of self-delusion and that the actual reality counterbalances and juxtaposes these delusions at sharp angles. Delpit's "Kumbaya"-like call to arms at the end of the article is a flagrant disregard and an ostensible contradiction to what she has been trying to argue the entire article. To initiate understanding and listening the people with the power need to take the first step. We need to understand each other and: "To do so takes a very special kind of listening, listening that requires not only open eyes and ears, but open hearts and minds..." (cliche) "...We do not really see through our eyes or hear through our ears, but through our beliefs." (pg. 18) How warm and fuzzy. Rarely have I hated an article more so than I did this one.

Literacy Autobiography

As a teacher I am very interested in the best ways to teach reading and writing because I am a special education and language arts majors. I think reading and writing are the building blocks for the rest of a student’s academic career. The experiences that students have early on with reading and writing can affect them for the rest of their schooling. It is important that teachers teach reading and writing in a way that emphasizes its importance but is also fun. I was lucky enough growing up to attend Lakeview School district in Battle Creek, MI. My elementary, middle, and high schools were composed of very fun, motivated, and skilled teachers. I can still remember specific examples from my schooling that have helped shape my views about learning and teaching reading and writing

From a young age I have viewed myself as a good reader. It all began in second grade when I was in a second-third grade split class. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Heffner and she made reading interesting and fun for me. At the beginning of second grade I was reading at grade level, by the end I was reading at a sixth grade level. I believe there were several reasons for this increase in skill. The first reason was that for homework every night we had to read for at least twenty minutes and have our parents sign our reading log. We were held accountable for what we were reading because we also had to write in our journals about the book we were reading. The next aspect that spiked my interest in reading was the huge library that Mrs. Heffner had in her classroom. She had many different kinds of books at varying grade levels because the range in reading level was so wide. You could check out books from the classroom library to read at home and you couldn’t take another book home until you brought that one back. Another reason I was learning how to read better was because I saw that there were third graders reading chapter books like the Boxcar Kids and Babysitters Club and I wanted to read those books too. I started to read more difficult books and over time I could comprehend them. The last aspect that influenced my love for reading was that my parents supported me by reading with me, buying me books, and encouraging me to read with them. Throughout my schooling I enjoyed reading for school and as a hobby. I get to share my love for reading by teaching students how to read. I am observing in a kindergarten classroom where the students are learning how to read. I like teaching them their letter sounds and watch them sound out words and read picture books. I like that they are so excited about being read to and learning how to read. I hope that when I am a teacher I will inspire students to love reading, just like my teachers did.

I also like writing and was influenced by my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Busler, and my twelfth grade teacher, Mrs. Olett. Both of these teachers used different strategies to teach writing and make it fun and interesting. Mrs. Busler used strategies like peer conferencing, class brainstorming, one-on-one conferences with her to discuss our writing, and publishing our work in a class portfolio. The main thing I liked about Mrs. Busler’s class was that the topics we wrote about were interesting and there was freedom in what we could write about. Mrs. Busler helped improve my writing because of all the conferencing we did and because I was taking more time to work on my writing because it was being published for the whole class to see. I also learned a lot about writing in Mrs. Owlet’s twelfth grade English. Mrs. Olett taught me how to write an analytical essay, which has helped me a lot in my college career. In this class we mad arguments about books and articles and used evidence throughout the text to support our claims. The strategies I learned in this class have helped me immensely in college. If it weren’t for this class I would still be struggling to write a good analytical essay. Mrs. Heffner, Mrs. Busler, and Mrs. Olett were great teachers and made me like reading and writing. They used strategies in their classrooms that made reading and writing interesting and fun, so I wanted to do it more often. When I am a teacher I hope I can inspire my students just like my language arts teachers did for me.

Literacy Definition

Literacy is more than the standard definition of knowing how to read and write. It is important for a literate person to realize what the main concepts are incorporated into reading and writing. These concepts include comprehension, fluency, phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, writing, and many more. If a student is struggling in one of these aspects then they may have trouble advancing in the skill of reading or writing.

Readings

I really enjoyed the Leland article, "Out of the Box". It is a good article to think about when approaching the issue of reading books on tough social issues with young children. I feel like many people make assumptions about younger children. The Leland article focused on a classroom of first graders. Their responses to literature on social issues was surprising to me. For my placement I am in a kindergarten class and I might not think to introduce something a book like "Out of the Box" to them so young, but this article showed me that children are more capable of understanding than I might think. This article made me realize how important it is to think about the culture of your classroom and the culture of each individual student. Depending on those factors, these types of text may need to be approached differently. In the classroom in the article, reading books about social issues really stuck with the students. They went from being competitive in the food drive to realizing the purpose behind it and the good deed they were doing. This exposure to a different culture through reading not only changed the students' attitudes, but it changed how the students interacted with each other, the quality of their writing, and how they responded to books. Reading culturally diverse books changed the students' view of books in general; they went from seeing books as a source of entertainment to looking at them critically by looking for the author's meaning and the book's intertextually. This article showed me how exposing children to culturally diverse literature and having them look at it critically impacts their reading, writing, and analyzing skills on top of changing their viewpoints which will make for more literate students. I have been in classrooms with varying diversity and dynamics. I feel that this type of critical reading and exposure to culturally diverse literature would be extremely beneficial in some cases.

I found the Cambourne article very useful. I never thought about it but Cambourne brought up in interesting point when he said that he noticed some children have a hard time learning the simplest concepts associated with reading, writing, spelling, or math but they were able to learn much more complex knowledge and skills in their everyday lives. This brought up a good point that students are more apt to learn if they are interested, motivated, believe they can learn, believe the content has value, and are not anxious. This will be very useful to me in my placement, next year, and in my future as a teacher. It is important for me to give the students a reason to learn so they realize how important it is. Also, especially for struggling students, I need to make them confident in what they do. Positively reinforce them and intermix difficult material with material the student might be good at so they do not get discouraged. It is crucial to remember how students best engage to ensure that they are learning to the best of their ability.

The Tompkins article made me realize how complex learning is. It is not all about the student or teacher and there is not one moment learning occurs. Learning is a process that involves parents, classmates, and teachers. There are many factors that must be taken into consideration when teaching to each student, such as their background knowledge, culture, parental involvement, and relationships with teachers and peers. One thing from the article that I will surely take in to my own classrooms in the future is making my classroom a community, establishing relationships and having everyone work together as a team. I liked how the article talked about combining instruction, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent reading and writing in a balanced way to maximize learning. Varying these teaching and learning styles will help students learn to work together and independently, and also help the teacher reach different sets of students based on their learning styles. I found the eight principles of effective teaching extremely useful and they are something I will consider when making lessons and teaching in the future.

Readings for Jan. 24th

I found the readings for this week to be extremely helpful and applicable for me because of my current placements. Because I am about to start my ESL placement next week for my TE 494 course, I found the Lenski article to be helpful. I think it is important to consider alternate assessments for ELLs because they provide more of a complete picture of student progress in a more natural setting. Also I thought the idea of modifying teacher written tests for ELLs and not modifying achievement tests was important to remember because sometimes it can be challenging to determine how much extra help with assessments ELLs should receive. As a teacher you want your students to have the best chance for success, but you do not want to hurt them in the long run for providing too much assistance.
Furthermore, I found the ideas in the Fleming article (and also some in the Delpit article) to directly relate to my other placement. My 401/402 placement is in a 4th grade classroom at Wainwright Elementary in the Lansing Public School District. I found the statistic that "only 16& of low income 4th graders were considered proficient readers" to be staggering. This is a very low percentage and it is clear from the time I have spent in my classroom that this seems to be true. In the Fleming article the lack of resources and effect of poverty on literacy learning were very interesting. In my particular 4th grade classroom there are at least three students that live in homeless shelters and others that I am sure do not get enough to eat at home or have a very rough home life. This has a great effect on their performance in school and because a lot of them may not have access to literature at home it can be difficult to progress at grade level in literacy. The lack of resources is also a problem at my school. They have a math textbook and social studies textbook, but no other textbooks to work with. When I taught my science lesson I had to find all of my own resources and materials because there were none available for our class. The article also discusses the challenges of working with a wide range of readers. This is definitely seen in my classroom, and while some are at or above grade level in their reading ability others struggle with basic sight words that should have been mastered in 2nd grade. I have worked one one one with several of the students in the class with reading and it is shocking to see the range of different levels the students are at. This is a huge challenge for teachers to be able to address each level of ability and can be extremely time consuming. Overall these readings brought up great points and I found them to be informative and helpful in regards to my placements.