Literacy Blog, Week 3

This week’s readings focused on writing in the classroom and it was hard for me to mentally switch gears from a reading focus.  I am fully aware that literacy has to do with both reading and writing, but I have had so many reading ideas floating in my head that I found it hard to think of the writing aspect of literacy.

I first read from Bird by Bird about writing from the adult writer’s aspect, though I know that most of her ideas will be applicable to younger students, though the phrasing will definitely be cleaned up.  While I was reading about Lamott’s experience as being a writer, and her suggestions for becoming a better writer, I was thinking of the capacity that writing has in my life.  I have to admit that I rarely write for pleasure because I don’t hold it as a high priority when I do have free time.  The only time that I do write for pleasure, for the past 10 years, has been while traveling.  It is only during that this time that I keep any sort of a journal (or now a blog) and that is even inconsistent.  My main thoughts in keeping a journal during this time is because I’m afraid that I will eventually forget some important things that I’ve experienced, and because I would like my friends and family at home to be able to feel like they are somewhat experiencing the same things that I am.  While journaling, since I am doing it for more personal reasons (taking into consideration the audience), I never find myself going back over the first draft and editing it for perfection, but I never feel the anxiety that Lamott expresses about first drafts and the way that others may perceive the writing.

Being able to take the ideas of writing and applying it to the classroom setting was laid out by Regie Routman in Writing Essentials.  Routman talks about the importance of writing and states that it can be successful when approached in the appropriate manner.  I noticed that Routman’s book has a copyright date of 2005 and I wonder how much of an impact that the strict state and district requirements have on her ideas of teaching.  I could not help to think that Routman’s ideas were good, but are they too idealistic?  Is it possible to approach reading in an individualized, personal way when it’s hard to find time to fit social studies and science into the curriculum?  It seems that now days teachers are dictated what they will teach and how long they will teach it, almost to the point where their whole day is scheduled for them.  These ideas, as well as many of the other ideas that we’ve learned about in the program, seem like they are ways to supplement the district mandated curriculum, but we don’t have time to supplement EVERY lesson with alternative activities and approaches.  I know that one of the ways to work around this is to integrate writing with other subjects, but then doesn’t that take away with what Routman is saying about writing for pleasure?

In reading Writing Essentials, I was thinking about ways to incorporate individual writing into the day.  There were a few ways that I thought of helping students with their writing: helping them outline and organize their thoughts, give them time to independently write (free writing), and showcase their work.  When it comes to helping students outline and organize their work, I was thinking about a worksheet that they could fill out before they started their writing (and it could be used for assigned/project based writing and for personal writing).  On a worksheet, students could write down their ideas, state their audience, topic, and fill out an outline.  This could help streamline students’ thoughts when it comes to writing that is not for pleasure/independent.  With this approach students can organize their thoughts, help get them on track, and hopefully ease some of their writing anxiety. 

In addition to helping students organize and outline their work, students would be given a short amount of time for free writing at the end of each day.  Routman states that students will be more engaged when they can choose what they write about, but then she gives ideas that are all personal stories (nonfiction).  I believe that many students would be interested in writing fictional pieces, so would it be ok to allow students to choose this genre of writing?  I would like students to either think of their own topic to write about or have one student think of a subject for the whole class to write about that day. 

Lastly, I would like students’ work to be showcased.  Many of the examples Routman gave were about showcasing them among teachers, but I would like them to also be showcased in the classroom.  In order to do so, each week one student could read one of the things they wrote about, and then the class could draw a picture to go with that story.  Doing so can help students take pride in their writing, have some fun will illustrating, and also go home with a memento of their work (the other students’ drawings).

Of course, these ideas can be consistently explored and executed when there is enough time in the school day to be able to do so.  It will take careful planning and scheduling to be able to fit these ideas into a typical school day.  It would be most helpful if I was able to integrate these ideas into other lessons/subject areas, but it seems like that would be hard to do in the way that Routman is suggesting.  It would be nice to not have all of the state and district curriculum requirements, but until that day, supplementing the curriculum in the most effective way will be the only option.  Or will it?

Literacy Blog 2

This week’s readings were very interesting and useful, especially after meeting our kindergarten buddies last week.  As I was reading through Word Identification Strategies I kept on thinking of my kindergarten buddy and thinking of approaches that may work for him.  Additionally, I was thinking how some of these strategies may work for older students with a lower than average reading/writing level.

The first chapter, an overview of word identification as a tiered like system, made me think of how children learn how to read and write.  Of course, most of this reflecting was based upon my own learning experience, but I don’t remember too much of it.  I can understand the tiers presented on page 5, figure 1-2, in that a student must have the fundament components of phonemic awareness in order to reach a fluency level of word understanding.  My main concerns, though, is when these levels aren’t reached by an age that is older than 2^nd grade, when the authors state that most of these levels have been (or should have been achieved).  What should we, as teachers of higher grades, do in order to not have our students separated from the rest of the class during language and literature study times, since tracking may not be the best option for students?

Phonemic awareness, as presented in chapter 2, intrigued me the most because this is something that my kindergarten buddy is struggling with the most.  The kindergarten class is on the letter M in their learning of letters, but my buddy is still struggling with the C sounds, thinking that C is present in most words that we had him sound.  Should we be offering assistance to this student in regards of phonetics or just assessing his abilities?  I do know, though, when I am writing things out around him that I plan on sounding out the words as I type them, so he may have extra exposure to the process.

Using pictures to introduce students to language is a very widely accepted practice.  Similarly, I believe that children have an introduction to language through logos.  Is it acceptable to use logos in the classroom as a teaching tool?  Where is the line between teaching and introducing advertising (that can separate a class based upon socioeconomic levels and also influence their influence in family purchases – especially in regards to food)?  I can see the benefit from bringing in familiar logos/words into the classroom, but can see that there could be ethical issues surrounding this practice.

In any case, this week’s readings made me think about two things: how to help young readers (specially our kindergarten and first grade buddies) and how to help older students that may continue to struggle with fundamental principles of language.  I am excited to get more feedback from my peers, experience in the classroom, and further readings that may help me in developing my thoughts and strategies.

Lastly, I attended the WAETAG conference this past weekend and one of the keynote speakers’ presentations was the use of Greek and Latin roots as a tool to teach language.  In his speech, he mentioned that teaching students 100 root words could give a student a 5000 word vocabulary.  Would introducing roots to young readers/students be appropriate?  For example, teaching the smaller, basic roots, like un-, dis-, pre- along with some sight words could extend their vocabulary and show the young learners a pattern within the language.  Or, would this concept be too advanced for primary aged students?  What are your opinions on this matter?  Like my other concerns, the age appropriateness of this concept is something that I am unsure of.

I look forward to another week with my kindergarten buddy, to evaluate him, and see how we can help him succeed with his literacy skills.

Literacy Blog 1

This week’s readings were very interesting and made me look at many aspects of literacy in different ways.  I kept on finding myself resort back to the mind frame that I had to have when I was in a Children’s Literature class last year, so you may notice many references to some of the discussions that we had in that class.

Council of Interracial Books for Children

While I was reading the article, I was torn between views that we have learned about in this program, the concepts of both respecting and celebrating diversity and also equality.  I still come back to some of the same questions that arose in my Children’s Lit class, though, especially when it comes to stereotypes in children’s literature.  I understand that it is the responsibility of teachers to look out for stereotypes in literature, but could some literature be viewed as stereotypical by the teacher, when it is not actually stereotypical?  One prime example of this is in books written by Gary Soto, a Hispanic American author that grew up in barrios of California.  Though he has credibility because of his background, his characters and storyline in both “Chato’s Party” and “My Little Car” show pictures that I, as a non-Hispanic community member, would view as stereotypical.  Could his books be based on the true culture of the community and are not actually stereotypical?  Who is to decide this?  Is it the same as the intended message being interpreted incorrectly by the end reader?

I would also like to bring up the point of stereotypical literature being used to address controversial issues that may be facing students.  Should literature be used to open the lines of communication about these topics?  Nancy Pearl, the author of “Book Crush” puts this into perspective when she says that the inclusion of stereotypical literature a difficult decision, but can be used as tools when the literature is well written and justified.

Emergent Literacy

This article was very informative, though it seems rather common sense.  The authors were able to make more connections between everyday activities and reading and writing than I had though of as being tools of literacy, like morning messages.  Thinking about every class activity makes me more aware of their importance and planning on ways that I can help my students build their literacy skills in every aspect of the classroom.  One of the main questions that popped up for me was about the age range that these concepts would be most effective.  Would some of these concepts only be good for children in primary grades, or should we be practicing similar activities in all grades, just alter them for the appropriate age range?  I can definitely see the benefits of the being incorporated in classrooms of all ages.

Another question that I had about this article stemmed from the idea of having writing centers placed in classrooms.  Specifically, Teale and Sulzby state that one of the benefits of writing centers is to have students share their work and receive a response from others.  This idea is a hard one for me to think about, since we have learned about the importance of not publicizing the abilities and skills of other students, in fear that they will be classified and criticized by their peers.  I can see how writing centers can help students improve and gives them access to further reading, but could it also be negative to the students that are not performing to the level of the rest of their class?

As I was reading this article, especially the beginning, I was thinking about how the authors and researchers in young child literacy view the “My Baby Reads” program that is frequently advertised on TV, either through commercials or infomercials.  I’ve always wondered about that program when the commercials pop up on TV.

Bringing the Ice Maiden to Life

I chose to read this article, since my dyad placement is in a middle school classroom.  Ever since we were assigned the read-aloud at the beginning of the quarter, I’ve been trying to think about how I would be able to incorporate a read-along in a 6^th grade math class.  After reading the article, I still have the same questions, though the example in the article was successful. 

The main problem/question that I have with this idea is purely logistical.  Currently, our math class curriculum is state mandated, where lessons are dictated for 163 out of the 180 school days.  Additionally, there is going to be time used for state testing.  Each lesson is planned for 70-90 minutes even though the school’s class periods are only 45 minutes long.  As it is, middle school math teachers have very little room to supplement their curriculum, so how feasible is it to include a 20+ minutes read-aloud session?  It seems that, at this point, read-alouds in this setting is more of an idea that teachers would implement in their dream worlds.

I was originally skeptical about the way that read-alouds would be perceived by middle school aged students, but the more I read the article and thought deeply about the students’ reactions, I realized that the only thing that is different between middle and elementary students is simply a year.  This could be a beneficial, informative tool to use, but also help students in this transitional period.  At that point in their lives, most students will feel comfortable and familiar with read-alouds, only adding to the benefit that they bring to students’ lessons.