Literacy Moves On II

Throughout the course of the semester I have learned so many new ways to incorporate fun into literacy and writing. It is very important that students enjoy educational activities so that they have drive to improve their basic skills and continue to take part in these literacy activities. Even with our literacy invitation, we are incorporating many aspects of literacy that most people do not consider the same old way of teaching about reading and writing. I am curious to see how actively engaged students become in literacy activities and which ones are more effective than others. I am also curious to see if students learning styles are obvious through these activities. Because there are three different learning styles, visual, audio, and hands-on, I hope to use lessons to target each one of these styles so that all students get the opportunity to learn in the way they obtain information the best.

Literacy Moves On

After reading Janet Evans Literacy Moves on I realized how much literacy has evolved in the way it is perceived by others. There was definitely a lot of information presented in the chapters I read, but I was definitely able to extract some very important points. I had previously thought that literacy strictly consisted to words, written texts, book, etc. After reading these chapters and having other conversations with other professors I have realized that I am very wrong. Text can be read from an infinite amount of places, situations, objects, etc. For example, a person can be read as a text based off of the clothing that is being worn. So many things can be read as a text and can be considered literacy if analyzed closely enough. I found it very interesting how many of the children were observed in the studies presented. I found it absolutely amazing that four year olds were able to use and navigate their way around a software program that creates animation clips. I found it stunning that Sophia was able to construct an animation pattern with movement and sound on her own with barely any guidance. I also think that it is eye-opening that all the responses of the children that involved their favorite out of school activity included some aspect of pop culture. I think this shows the importance of incorporating new ages things and activities into the classrooms today.

MGRP Reflection

After completing my mutigenre research paper on parental involvement and after reading about how to conduct these within the classroom throughout Camille Allen’s book I realized that I have learned a lot. Since conducting my own research and putting together my paper didn’t involve interaction with elementary aged children, I focused on Allen’s book a lot. I realized that an inquiry project can be fun and it can be effective for all grade levels throughout elementary school. One preconceived notion that I had that I’m sure a lot of other educators have had too, was that elementary school children are too young to conduct such an involved and advanced research project. I have realized this is very untrue. Due to my lack of experience in the classroom, I often find myself underestimating the abilities of elementary students. They are capable of so much more than I give them credit for.

I realized that it takes a lot of thinking and planning to pick a research topic that the writer is passionate about. These projects take a lot of time, so if the writer is not fully invested and interested in the project, their final project will not emit their full potential. Therefore, I learned that it is helpful to guide the children to find a topic they are very interested in and to inform their parents of what is going on in your classroom so that they are able to help as well. After all, parents are children’s first teachers and know them better than anyone else so it would be very beneficial to have them give forth their input.

There are many things that I liked about this project. I think it is great how this project is made up of so many different components and that it is stretched along such a wide time span. I really like how this project requires students to go through a process to reach the final project. They must plan, research, analyze their research, write their paper, and then focus on a more creative aspect of research with the genres. I feel that with all of these parts, students will start to realize their strongpoints while also realizing what they need to work on. As for things I would change, it is hard to pinpoint these things because I have not instructed and observed this project in an elementary school setting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and definitely plan to implement it into my elementary classroom in the future. This project will challenge students and will show them if they work hard what they are capable of. I feel that this project will be a true reflection of work ethic and students will be able to take pride in their completed project.

Seedfolks and Allen Chapters 5 and 7

Seedfolks really opened my eyes to all the diversity and possible ethnic and cultural differences in my classroom. Seeing all the different perspectives from people of various ages, races, and social classes really made me realize the power of written words and literacy. Some of the lines had such power that I realized that as a classroom teacher I will never fully understand some of the things that my students are going through. I realize that I need to be very understanding and genuine because I will not be able to know the secrets of each of my students that make them who they are.

Reading Allen's book of Mulitgenre Research Papers I realized there are so many ways to enhance a research paper that are very fun and challenging for students. I really enjoyed the way that classes enhanced the quality of a simple work into such a advanced, descriptive piece of writing. It was amazing to me how fun the pieces became with all the questions and tying together the answers to the questions in a piece of writing. I thought it was amazing how the verbs could be enhanced so much and how students learned how to identify the differences between "showing, not telling".

Introducing different ways to add enhancement to a students paper really provides creativity to the students. Giving them freedom to express themselves through the many different types of art allows them to be proud of the work they created and to make it colorful and appealing to readers. Allowing them the freedom to bring in different types of music, or dress up in the costumes they want allows them to feel proud to present their work to an audience. There are many ways for them to play around with their work on different computer programs and designing programs that really increase their confidence and make them feel more proud of the hard work they put into such a long project.

Poetry and Setting Up Invitations

Poetry has always been a subject that has posed difficulty for myself. In no way do I believe that I am a good poet because I always feel that I have to make my poems rhyme and be a stereotypical poem rather than just as a means of self-expression. As Allen says, "When we begin to speak in the language that is ours and tell our own stories and truths, we are surprised that this too is poetry." Introducing this idea to students and encouraging them to write poetry will be a large focus in literacy in my classroom. I feel that poetry has a lot of power and reveals students' individual voices and writing styles as well as helping them express themselves through literacy. I really enjoyed all of the writing strategies that are demonstrated in the chapter, particularly the "six-rooms poem". This strategy really helped to further poems and make them sound very reflective, descriptive, and influential. I am concerned on how I can introduce poetry in a fun way and help students realize that it is very enjoyable and doesn't have to seem intimidating.

Invitations were somewhat confusing and perplexed to me. I thought it was very interesting that invitations could be performed individually for students when they had extra time on their hands. I thought the organization of invitations in their folders is a very good idea, so that the students know what is expected of them when it is time for them to complete one. Engaging in group discussions after these invitations seems very helpful so that students can gain multiple perspectives on the same topic and invitation so that it benefits the whole group.

MGRP Chapters 1,2,3,6 and “The Donut House” Article

Reading the four chapters assigned from, “The Multigenre Research Paper” I learned a lot about how to assign a research paper to elementary students and how to follow through with it. Originally, I thought it to be near impossible to have elementary students conduct a research paper. I realized through this reading how to make a research paper a fun project for elementary students. I was actually very shocked with how the book portrayed these 5^th graders as being so immersed in this project that they lost track of time. I think this is absolutely wonderful, but I know that I never had one of these experiences myself going through the elementary and immediate grades.

I really enjoyed how this project was consistent over a three month period and how weeks were designated to instruct certain topics of instruction. I also found it interesting how much different genres were used as examples through the text. Since I am currently writing my own research paper, and trying to think of pieces of genre work that I can incorporate into it, it was very helpful to see examples such as award certificates, obituaries, interviews, poems, diary entries, etc.

I love how the text described how emotionally involved the students were throughout the course of this project. By students becoming emotionally invested in this project they strived to do their absolute best in all areas. I love the quote in the text, "We know emotion is important in education - it drives attention, chick in turn drives learning, and memory." I thought giving the students freedom to select a topic of their own choice was a great idea because it let students explore an area that they were interested in. This aspect of the project in general helped get students emotionally involved in their topic.

After reading “The Donut House” article I was very inspired. I found it very liberating in some ways to see how excited the children were about this very fun, creative activity. I realized how important real world literacy is in some student’s lives. I was surprisingly shocked at how much these kindergarteners were able to understand about real life occurrences. I realized when reading this article how much I may underestimate the abilities of children. I thought it was very clever that they were able to go to an actual donut shop and take notes on all of their observations, I also thought it was very interesting and fun that they were able to see inside of a back and her about loans and stockholders. I definitely think that I would have been very excited to participate in an activity like this one as a kindergarten student. I feel like this activity made them feel empowered, like they had the capabilities to make a difference in the community. This activity also proved how much literacy is present in everyday life, and in everyday places. By doing activities such as “The Garage” their teacher was able to present literacy to them in unusual, fun ways so that students didn’t necessarily view it as learning. By taking part in these activities, students were able to roleplay, one of children’s favorite playtime activities. They were so caught up in their actions, that they subconsciously were learning all different types of literacy skills. The most empowering piece of information that I gathered from this article was how literacy can have a huge impact on students that come from high-poverty families. These children need to know that their words and their lives can make a difference—that literacy, their literacy, can be used for transformative ends.

Crafting Writers Chapters 10-12

"Success builds emotional support, confidence, and the willingness to try" (Pinnell and Scharer 2003, 58).  

This quote was said in the beginning of Chapter 10 and it is one that has hit me the most as a future educator.  I think it is so important to build confidence in students so that they challenge themselves to try more difficult tasks.  As their teacher and role model, I hope to be a source of emotional support for them and a source of constant encouragement.  One of the characteristics about my favorite elementary teacher is that she was so encouraging.  She absolutely never made me feel stupid if I incorrectly stated the answer in front of the whole class, or did poorly on a graded assignment.  She was always there with a loving, warm smile and encouraging words for next time.  This is so important so that students do not become discouraged, therefore prohibiting them to excel.  As stated in Chapter 10, "the emotion aspect of teaching can either impede learning or cause it to flourish.  

Since these chapters were focused on mini-lessons and improving craft through conferences, it was nice to pay attention to specific detail in the examples so that I could start to make a mental routine of how one should sound.  I thought it was really important when Hale pointed out that if someone is too bust noticing the gap between what students are doing and where they are "supposed" to be, it will be harder to see strengths.  I have realized that there are going to be rarely few times when my whole classroom is around the level where they should be.  Therefore, I need to take into consideration the fact that they are all their own individuals with different capabilities.  While my ultimate goal will always be to have every student be on the level they are "supposed" to be one, I know that this goal is a longshot.  More important than this however, my hope is to help each student excel and understand more than what they first did when they entered my classroom.  I know that the speed at which students start to comprehend certain knowledge varies greatly.  Therefore, it is important to give each student as much individual attention as possible to be able to gather information vital to their ultimate achievement.  

In the examples of what a teaching voice sounds like in a writing conference, I really liked the idea of complimenting student of what they are doing very well that other students in the class may not have caught on to yet.  I think that these are words of encouragement that really make the student feel special, maybe even elite in a way, which will give them an emotional high to keep challenging themselves.   I also thought it was important that in there conferences, teachers do not talk out their students next sentences, but rather get their thinking ready.  I also thought the accountability factor at the end of any conference is vital to make sure that the conference was beneficial.  I never want any of my students to walk away from a conference without picking up something from it.  Therefore, the "say it back to me" aspect of the conference may be the most crucial.  When students start to understand the routine of these conferences, they will know that the question, "Can you say back to me what you are doing well in your writing?" question is coming, so they will be attentive throughout the conference to pick up on these things.  

One very helpful classroom management tip that was explained in these chapters was the idea of group conferencing.  I understand that it is most beneficial to work with students one on one, but group conferencing is a way to get the most out of a small amount of time if there are several students who need extra attention in a particular subject.  At first, I questioned this method, but realized that it is a great resource if there is lack of time.  I also found that the "mean what you say" method is extremely important to point out to future teachers.  I feel that there is definite lack of respect towards teachers to do not mean what they say.  I had those teachers growing up who would always threaten certain things upon us, but would never follow through.  Since as a class we started to pick up on this, we became oblivious to these threats.  

There was so much information in these chapters that it is hard to talk about everything that stuck out to me.  These are the most important aspects that I thought would make the largest difference in my classroom, and therefore will implement them in my future classroom.