"An attendant assumption is that children will not succeed in literacy if their parents do not read to them. A further assumption seems to be that parents who do not read to their children are neglectful and, by not doing all that parents should do, are by implication "bad" parents. (G&H, p. 191)"
I find these assumptions to be very disturbing when trying to keep in mind the diverse communities in which our students are or will be coming from. I think that this is a way to blame "bad" parenting for the way that our students are performing within the realm of literacy instruction. When teachers say this, I say to them that they are taking the easy way out and blaming the parents. Isn't it our job as educators to, no matter what ability level our students are at, to adapt our instruction to foster their learning and progression in order to be successful students in literacy and other content areas??
The author of this chapter goes on to explain that there are many different ways to go about teaching children how to read and be literate. Due to socioeconomic status, it is, many times, a time issue to sit down and actually read to our children. Issues arise, however, that the amount of time that children are engaged in literacy activities. This should be the main focus of parents of young children. Whether it is sitting and watching educational programming, pointing out symbols and signs while driving, or participating in cultural and community activities, engaging in story-telling, etc. these are all ways in which parents can facilitate a literate environment.
I might go so far as saying that parents within a lower S.E.S. have to be more creative in their strategies to make a literate environment possible. In saying this though, the author also points out that in many ways, it is the schools' fault for the low literacy rate of today's students. Parents are using their own educational experiences as models for the acquisition of literacy with their own children. For example, if parents received great instruction in language arts they are going to be able to transfer that learning and teaching model with their own children and visa versa for the negative. It is the schools responsibility to be teaching literacy practices, engaging students in literacy, and continuing to build the "nation of readers" that is mentioned in multiple chapters in this book.
As a teacher, don't be so quick to point the finger to the parents, instead, reflect on your own teaching practices and help facilitate the next generation of good readers...No matter the S.E.S. of the community that you are teaching in. Find a way to make the connections between home literacy and school literacy. As the author said, this is one of the main concerns, students aren't learning because the instruction isn't meaningful.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
A Culturally Relevant Approach to Literacy Teaching
"The primary goal of culturally relevant teaching is to empower students to examine the society in which they live and to work for social justice (p. 142)."
Though this way of teaching can be a lot more challenging than traditional approaches, I think that for your students, this is the way in which EVERYONE should be teaching. It is so important for students to be making those connections between home and school; much research has been done that students that can make those connections are able to learn so much more. With the author talking about students working toward social justice, I can only think that she is talking about Banks' transformative approach to teaching (there might be another approach after that that I'm really thinking of); which lends itself to service learning. This in tern leads a teacher to go above and beyond what is expected of them.
What I really don't like is how when teachers are asked if they want to be the teacher that is involved with the community and the lives of his/her students they tend to shy away. "I'm not being paid to do those types of things." I feel that it is my job because I am responsible for the students I will be teaching. If I want my students to be literate and successful, I am surely going to organize a field trip to the library to get them all library cards, or go out of my way to make sure that my students' parents know how to set up a literate environment for their children. It is so easy to blame the parents when your students come into your classroom without being able to read, but it is lame that teachers won't go out of their way to help those struggling parents!
If you want your students to really learn something and have it stick with them forever, service learning is the way to go. If you want to teach content in your classrooms and can easily tie it to literacy practices then service learning is a great way to do so. Its a matter of how much you want to do outside of the regular 8-3:00 school day. Ask yourself this question; "How successful do I want my students to be?" Depending on how successful you want your students to be, then that is how hard you will have to work as their teacher; inside and outside of school.
Teaching is such an empowering profession (as this chapter states) because culturally relevant teaching enables students to take charge of their learning, instead of relying on the teacher to give them their knowledge. Instead the students own their learning.
Though this way of teaching can be a lot more challenging than traditional approaches, I think that for your students, this is the way in which EVERYONE should be teaching. It is so important for students to be making those connections between home and school; much research has been done that students that can make those connections are able to learn so much more. With the author talking about students working toward social justice, I can only think that she is talking about Banks' transformative approach to teaching (there might be another approach after that that I'm really thinking of); which lends itself to service learning. This in tern leads a teacher to go above and beyond what is expected of them.
What I really don't like is how when teachers are asked if they want to be the teacher that is involved with the community and the lives of his/her students they tend to shy away. "I'm not being paid to do those types of things." I feel that it is my job because I am responsible for the students I will be teaching. If I want my students to be literate and successful, I am surely going to organize a field trip to the library to get them all library cards, or go out of my way to make sure that my students' parents know how to set up a literate environment for their children. It is so easy to blame the parents when your students come into your classroom without being able to read, but it is lame that teachers won't go out of their way to help those struggling parents!
If you want your students to really learn something and have it stick with them forever, service learning is the way to go. If you want to teach content in your classrooms and can easily tie it to literacy practices then service learning is a great way to do so. Its a matter of how much you want to do outside of the regular 8-3:00 school day. Ask yourself this question; "How successful do I want my students to be?" Depending on how successful you want your students to be, then that is how hard you will have to work as their teacher; inside and outside of school.
Teaching is such an empowering profession (as this chapter states) because culturally relevant teaching enables students to take charge of their learning, instead of relying on the teacher to give them their knowledge. Instead the students own their learning.
Meaning Making Through Multiple Sign Systems
"In addition to the central role of reading and writing in their lives, they also explore personal understandings through music, art, and dance, often using more than one of these sign systems in a single literacy event (p. 224-5)."
I really liked this chapter because it went along with the "funds of knowledge" that we read about last week. Students all bring different knowledge and past experiences to the table. We as teachers need to be able to tap into those experiences and use them in our teaching. When the text talked about the Native American students, they had backgrounds that had a lot of music, dance and art; using those things to teach them only helps to legitimize and authenticate the instruction being done in the classroom.
The chapters for this week can really be related to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In this case, the Native American students were musically and body kinestetically learning the best. With literacy being the most important "thing" we teach in school (everything rides on how well a student can read), it is most important that we are able to make learning personal and authentic for each student. If teachers don't do this, their students are going to just be reading the words on the page and not comprehending them.
I really liked this chapter because it went along with the "funds of knowledge" that we read about last week. Students all bring different knowledge and past experiences to the table. We as teachers need to be able to tap into those experiences and use them in our teaching. When the text talked about the Native American students, they had backgrounds that had a lot of music, dance and art; using those things to teach them only helps to legitimize and authenticate the instruction being done in the classroom.
The chapters for this week can really be related to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In this case, the Native American students were musically and body kinestetically learning the best. With literacy being the most important "thing" we teach in school (everything rides on how well a student can read), it is most important that we are able to make learning personal and authentic for each student. If teachers don't do this, their students are going to just be reading the words on the page and not comprehending them.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Letting Go of "Letter of the Week"
"I was not going to look at my five-year-olds as non readers; I wanted to empower children with the knowledge that they were already readers..." (page 12)
I absolutely love everything that Donna Bell is saying about reading instruction, especially when dealing with young students as she is doing. She is making reading and writing instruction real or authentic to her students; instead of having her students "calling words or sounding out (page 12)" like many teachers have settled on doing with their students. Students are able to transfer what they are seeing and hearing outside of school and using them within a school context to help them learn to read. I think that that is a very powerful thing; it really gives each student ownership over how and what they are learning.
The problem I see with basal reading programs (i.e. Scott Foresman or whatever program you are using) is that students are learning things in a disconnected way. The books being used are not connecting instruction to students' "funds of knowledge." As Bell and Jarvis noted within their article, and through research that has been done within this topic, the more we as teachers can connect our instruction with our students' lives the more the students will learn because they are able to apply real life situations to it.
Going back to the beginning of this blog, (as we discussed in class) it is more important to start our students out on a positive note rather than a negative one in terms of reading or just school in general. Jarvis and Bell both talk about this in their article; when students' knowledge is valued and seen as a positive thing, students will then feel better about and gain confidence in what they are doing. Many times when teachers focus on a student "not being able to read" the student knows that they are struggling and often shut down because of it.
After reading this article, I found myself thinking that I want to be responsible for helping students gain the confidence they need EARLY in reading and writing instruction, by teaching younger students.
I absolutely love everything that Donna Bell is saying about reading instruction, especially when dealing with young students as she is doing. She is making reading and writing instruction real or authentic to her students; instead of having her students "calling words or sounding out (page 12)" like many teachers have settled on doing with their students. Students are able to transfer what they are seeing and hearing outside of school and using them within a school context to help them learn to read. I think that that is a very powerful thing; it really gives each student ownership over how and what they are learning.
The problem I see with basal reading programs (i.e. Scott Foresman or whatever program you are using) is that students are learning things in a disconnected way. The books being used are not connecting instruction to students' "funds of knowledge." As Bell and Jarvis noted within their article, and through research that has been done within this topic, the more we as teachers can connect our instruction with our students' lives the more the students will learn because they are able to apply real life situations to it.
Going back to the beginning of this blog, (as we discussed in class) it is more important to start our students out on a positive note rather than a negative one in terms of reading or just school in general. Jarvis and Bell both talk about this in their article; when students' knowledge is valued and seen as a positive thing, students will then feel better about and gain confidence in what they are doing. Many times when teachers focus on a student "not being able to read" the student knows that they are struggling and often shut down because of it.
After reading this article, I found myself thinking that I want to be responsible for helping students gain the confidence they need EARLY in reading and writing instruction, by teaching younger students.
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