My Literacy Journey

Literacy has come to be a controversial issue in schools.  School districts are asking teachers to bring literacy into the classrooms of all content areas and teachers are finding issues with this.  I have heard teachers say in the past that they feel it is the ELA teacher’s responsibility to teach literacy but I think the problem is the misunderstanding of literacy.  While school districts want teachers to find ways to get students to use literacy skills in classes other than ELA, they are not really showing teachers what literacy can be.  Teachers may think that they are using literacy by having students read textbooks or write essays but literacy is so much more than that.  

          This semester has taught me that being a literate person means being able to communicate, read, write, and create in different social contexts.  Something that has stuck with me through our readings is the focus on making content material relevant to students’ lives.  It is difficult to motivate students solely with grades or punishment.  Kids need to see that what they are learning is useful to them.  Whenever I start a unit I always try to have a list of real-world applications that use the math I am teaching.  I find as I teach I can talk about these applications and it keeps students’ interest while teaching them different aspects of math they may not have thought about.

          I enjoyed writing my literacy blog because it challenged me to analyze different readings and videos while at the same time gave me the opportunity to write in my own voice.  I liked that a blog does not have to be a formal essay that gets graded on technicality.  A blog is a place to bring your own view of any topic to the world that people can see if they choose to.  This will be my final entry in my literacy blog but I do think that I would in the future create another blog where I can share my personal experiences, thoughts, feelings, and insights on a multitude of topics.  Although this blog may be ending, my journey with learning and using literacy is not.  Right now I do not know what kind of class I will end up in but I feel that this course has given me the skills to be a teacher that can get students to excel academically while creating a generation of influential citizens at the same time.  Thanks for reading my posts and goodnight!

Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to become influential members of the community.  I think in order for someone to be truly literate, they should be well rounded in both academics and “real-world” applications.  Our education system recently has been more focused on “cramming” students with information rather than teaching them true skills that will be useful to them in their daily lives.  According to Frieire in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, students are being turned “into ‘containers’, into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the teacher” (1997, p. 53). 

            I feel that part of our duties as teachers is to create young people who are going to have positive impacts on our society.  I understand that we need to teach the essential standards given to us by the State Education Department but we can have such a bigger role than that in our students’ lives.  Many times teachers spend more time with a child than their own parents.  This means we have a responsibility to be more than people who give the information.  We need to be role models to these kids. 

            Unfortunately, not all education is created equal.  Schools do not have the same access to good technology, effective teachers, essential resources, etc. Because of this, a gap exists between schools based on the economic status of the community the school is in.  Students in poorer areas not only receive less of the materials they need, they also have a stigma attached to them that they cannot perform as well as students in richer areas.  I think these lower expectations that people place on these students impacts their success greatly.  Students in these communities are not going to respond well to lessons that consist of teachers basically lecturing for the whole day.  We need to find different ways to get students to learn the necessary information while at the same time, create critical learners.

            In “Algebra and Civil Rights”, Robert Moses writes about how mathematical literacy has become a civil rights issue for poor, minority students.  As we have read throughout this whole semester, students who are non-White and come from poorer communities usually perform significantly lower than students who are from wealthier communities.  Over the years it has become acceptable for students to fail in math but with so many colleges and jobs focusing on math and technology, we have to stop having this frame of mind that “we don’t need math”.  In order to reach the students who are consistently failing in math, we need to find ways to differentiate our instruction.  Creating lessons that show students skills that will benefit them in the ‘real-world’ is a good way to get students engaged. 

Robert Moses started the Algebra Project that teaches math with a lot of hands-on experiences.  Students are learning by doing as well as teaching each other the skills they learn.  This type of teaching is something that could and should be used in every content area.  Looking at numbers like dropout rates, number of students going to college, number of students getting good jobs we can see that what we are traditionally doing is not working.  We need to give students skills that make them become more than just students in a classroom.  We are always learning even when we are not in school but how we learn and decide to apply this newly acquired knowledge makes the difference in where our path goes in life.

           

I Don't Buy It!

            Lynn Gatto is an award winning teacher that refuses to bow to the standardized demands of the district she works for.  Many schools have adapted systems they require all teachers to use that claim to get students to do better on state exams.  These types of programs take away from the individual teaching styles of the educators.  In "Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs: I Don't Buy It!", Gatto gives examples of literacy strategies and techniques that she has used in her classroom that have been effective on her students.

        Gatto states “I make sure the children in my class have multiple opportunities for literacy events and practices within social context” (2007, p. 75).  I think this definitely contributes to her students’ success in literacy.  It reminded me of the reading by Gee, “Opportunity to learn:  A language-based perspective on assessment”.  Gee basically said in that reading that in order for students to be on the same playing field in terms of learning, students need to have equal experiences and opportunities. 

           We cannot rely on one system or program to teach all students.  Something that Lynn Gatto does in her classroom that I find beneficial for students is using a variety of texts that vary in difficulty level.  Many times the textbooks that we have for our students are above the reading level that our students are at.  Students cannot be expected to read and understand a textbook that is already confusing enough if it is not even on the same level as them.  Relying solely on one textbook is not going to be good for all our students.  I think we can give students choices with readings and this is one way to do it.  Also, having students discuss the different texts that they read makes the students become teachers of each other.  Even though the books are on the same material, no two texts are going t be exactly alike so students can get a little something from each of them.

           I am inspired by Lynn Gatto in how she chose to stand up for her teaching and students and refused to conform to the type of teaching programs that the district wanted everyone to use.  I feel that in order for our education system to get away from the standardized testing and teaching, more teachers have to do what Lynn did.  Unfortunately, being a new teacher I don’t think I could get away with this the way she did but I definitely will never give up my teaching methods or philosophies to satisfy an administrator.

Critical Literacy

This week we read about critical literacy learning.  In “Writing: Common sense matters”, Linda Rief explains that in order to get students to write, we need to get them to think.  She gives many tips to getting students to actually want to write.  Students need choice when it comes to writing.  Linda Rief states “We learn to write by writing.  We need to give students ample opportunities to write on a continuous basis, with choices of topic and genres that engage their interest and/or to which they can connect” (2007, p. 192).  As educators we need to find ways to incorporate writing without simply assigning essays for students to write.  Writing can include creating a blog, movie review, newspaper article, etc.  In this reading, Rief also gives examples of how she teaches students writing in her classroom.  Something that stood out to me that I would use is providing students with many examples of writing that she critiques with the students as a class.  By presenting models of both good writing and poor writing, she is showing students what her expectations are of them.  I also like this because instead of students constantly being critiqued on their own work, they are assessing works themselves.

            In chapter 15, Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith write about the power of inquiry and “the flow”.  The flow experience is “when we are experiencing something so intensely that nothing else seems to matter” (2007, p. 231).  Teachers need to find ways to create the flow experience in the classroom.   Although we would like to be able to gear every lesson to every student’s interest, it is hard when teaching a large number of students.  Teachers need to create something Wilhelm and Smith call “situational interest”.  They suggest that we first need to start with an essential question that gets the students’ attention.  This question should help focus the lessons so that students feel they are part of an investigation to find out how to answer the initial essential questions.  This should involve using different texts and media in the classroom and promote a more social environment in the classroom. 

            Something that stood out to me in “Making it matter through the power of inquiry” was a statement that a student made during a study.  He said “school teaches you how you are dumb, not how you are smart” (2007, p. 238).  This statement is sad but unfortunately many students probably feel this way.  Especially now with the focus in school being on standardized tests, students are constantly being told when they are wrong instead of being praised for when they do well.  We need to find ways in our classroom to encourage students and build up their confidence in the classroom.  

            In “Effective teachers, effective instruction”, Richard Allington writes about best practices that good, effective teachers use.  In the beginning of the chapter the author notes the differences between poor and minority students and rich, nonminority students.  He writes that “both poor and minority students at twelfth grade read at the same level as eighth-grade nonpoor and nonminority students” (2007, p. 274).  Like Robert Moses shows in his reading, “Algebra and civil rights?”, it seems that poor, diverse students are doing significantly worse in literacy than wealthy, white students.  They are not getting the same opportunities in their education that is causing a gap in reading, writing, and math.  Something that effective teachers use in their classroom according to Allington is literate conversation.  This entails using discussion-based lessons.  I think this could be used in teaching any subject.  Instead of being talked to all the time by teachers, students can actually talk with their teacher and each other.

Gender and Literacies

In the past two weeks we have read about multiple literacies and gender.  As we have discussed previously through other readings, our students are changing and evolving with the new technology available and as teachers we need to find ways to catch up.  I found the video by Michael Wesch on the “Visions of Students Today” to be pretty moving and accurate.  I have to admit that I myself have spent time checking email or browsing Facebook while sitting in a classroom.  I think that teachers lecturing on about material that isn’t relevant to our day-to-day lives and asking us merely to write papers or recall the information for a test is a waste of time especially for a college student.  There needs to be more technology in our classrooms and it should start way before students reach college.  Many teachers have the impression that using a Smart board, having students use computers to type papers, or creating PowerPoint presentations for lessons is the best way to incorporate technology in the classroom.  However, all though many students are pretty savvy with a computer, they are never really taught about programs or in depth computer skills that they may need when they get to the workplace.  They know how to Tweet someone but do they know how to create a spreadsheet or expense report?  With such an emphasis on test-taking and a lack of time in the classroom I fear that we will never be able to progress and become more technologically advanced in the classroom.

In the classroom students need to feel challenged but in some way feel invested in wanting to complete the challenge presented to them.  In the reading, “From Video Games, Learning About Learning”, James Gee basically explains how the way students approach video games should be the way students approach learning in school.  They should want to learn and critically think in ways that they are not used to.  The best video games require a lot of time and effort but people like to play them because they feel a sense of accomplishment.  In some way teachers need to present their class material in the same manner.  We should challenge our students to use different skills than they are used to in order to complete a task they find meaningful.

Gender is something that effects people as soon as they are conceived.  When parents find out they are having a girl, everything bought from that point forward is pink and rooms are decorated with flowers and dolls.  When I found out I was having a boy when I was pregnant, my son’s room was painted blue and all his décor was sports equipment so I know it is hard not to fall into the stereotypes of gender.  We assume that if someone is born with male genitals that they are naturally supposed to be masculine and someone born as a female should be feminine.  It is not always so black and white.  There are people who do not fit these stereotypes in some ways and then there are people who feel that although they are born to a certain sex, they feel their gender resembles the opposite.  I found the video posted about Richard/Riley to be very interesting.  I know this happens and that people can have a gender-identity disorder but hearing the words that a child told his parents about how he felt about it was amazing.  It must have been very difficult to accept their son’s differences but I could tell they had a sense of relief when they found that there was an explanation for his behavior and that making him happy by accepting him as a female was best for everybody.  I give a lot of praise to that principal who suggested Riley start dressing like a girl for school.  I think other schools or districts may frown upon something like this which is the opposite of how we should react as a community.

            When I first heard about the story about the runner, Caster Semenya, I found it disappointing that she had to go through a number of tests to prove her “femaleness”.  She set a world record and has a muscular physique so people felt they had to question her on her gender.  I feel that if this was a man who had done well in a sporting event but had characteristics more typical of a female there would never have been any mention of it.  Men are expected to do well in sports so when a woman does exceptionally well we doubt her sexuality?  It was later determined that Caster is a woman but unfortunately she had to sit out of races while this issue of whether she was a man or woman went on.