Readings for Week 2 (MLK Week)

This week we had five readings to do. These five readings were all very interconnected but I found that there was one theme that connected them all very nicely. I thought that the readings really focused on exposure. This exposure can be to different types of media (the internet reading) or to different worlds other than that which emerging readers are already familiar (like the book Woman in the Box). Here are a few thoughts on each of the readings and how they connect with that idea of exposure.

"Out of the Box" - Leland

“This box positioned her [kim the teacher] to choose ‘happy’ books to read at story time and to focus book discussions more on story elements like beginning middle and end than on more absrtract topics like equity and social justice.” (pgs. 1 and 2)

The dilemma Kim faces as a teacher to choose books that might be more controversial for her students was met with great acceptance by her audience. And while being able to read is important – the foundations of literacy are necessary – what needs to be focused on more once those foundations are in place is making sure that students are exposed to material in which they can read about cultural problems and cultural awareness.

"Toward an Educationally Relevant Theory of Literacy Learning" - Cambourne

"Many of the children I taught found school learning extremely difficult (especially reading and writing). However, within this group there was a significant number who seemed capable of successful learning in the world outside of school. I was continually surprised and confused by students who didn't seem able to learn the simplest concepts associated with reading, writing, spelling, or math, who nevertheless showed evidence of being able to learn and apply much more complex knowledge and skill in the everyday world." (pg.1)

Bringing in concepts that actually affect the students outside of simply the classroom is one way in which your students can find value and motivation to continue working in and around different concepts of literacy. This kind of blends into the first chapter of "Scaffolding Literacy" which talked about, at the beginning of the chapter, a student who was having trouble in school but not with her peers outside of school.

"Scaffolding Literacy"

"It requires more linguistic skills to use language for academic purposes than it does to use it in everyday conversation. Similarly, if we are using a second language, it is often easier to talk to people we know well and with whom we are at ease than to converse more formally with a stranger.” Pg. 1

There is a comfort and an ease in talking in situations in which we do not have to be as routinely formal such as is the opposite of academic situations.

The internet post on page 7 talked briefly about different types of literacy that can be found on the internet and different ways that students can play with literacy which was awesome!

"Literacy for the 21st. Cantury"

The pages 5-12 readings I thought matched this above idea of different types of exposure when it talks about Constructivism. It says: "Learning isn’t observable because it involves mental processes. It occurs when students integrate new knowledge with their existing knowledge…Instead of being dispensers of knowledge, teachers engage students with experiences so that they construct their own knowledge.” (pg.5-6)

This chapter also briefly went into something called the transactive theory which I thought was just a direct rip off of the reader response theory which gained cultural gravitas in the 60's and 70's.

Our book says: "Louise Rosenblatt’s transactive theory explains how students create meaning as they read. She describes comprehension, which she calls interpretation, as the result of two-way transaction between readers and the text. Students don’t try to figure out the author’s meaning as they read, instead they negotiate an interpretation that makes sense to them based on the text they’re reading and their knowledge about literature and the world. Their interpretations are individualized because students bring different background knowledge and experiences to the reading event.” (pg. 11-12)

This is simply just the reader response theory only mapped out onto little mini-humans.