The final assigned post

This is the final post that I am required to write for class.  We have been posting once a week, and while this post is something that I would like to keep up with, I am not sure I will be able to maintain posting once a week. Instead, I will post whenever I find something that I think is interesting, something that I have questions about, or that I feel is a pressing issue that all teachers should know about.


Throughout this course we have discussed many different issues that effect literacy, how students learn and, more importantly, how we teach.  Through the various articles, videos and blogs that I was given the chance to experience during this course, my eyes were really opened to different ideas and strategies that can (and maybe should) be used to help teach our students.


One of my favorite things from this semester and something that I will never forget was the video that we had the chance to watch on Gladwell's discussion of Howard Moskowitz' pursuit of the perfect pickles, Pepsis, Ragus instead of the perfect pickle, Pepsi, Ragu.  What I took away from this was that Moskowitz made the discovery that not every single people likes, or in comparison, can successfully learn the same way.  Basically, he meant that while one style of teaching may work wonderful for one student to learn, it may not work for the next student, and if another strategy or technique does, it might not work for the next student.  We do not all learn the same way, and therefore, teachers need to be able to adjust and make arrangements to be sure that each child is receiving an equal chance to learn and understand, even if that means teaching every kid in the classroom differently.  Someone questioned, why doesn't this already happen? And the answer is simple, teacher's don't have enough time.  So how do we make this work?  This is still a question that I have that I hope to be able to answer through more research and personal experience in the future.   

Blog post #9

      "Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to do their own jobs and to create an image of a successful learning environment."

      I would like to take this quote and relate it back to Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed in which he talks about the banking concept of education.  Freire states that, "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing" (Freire, 53).  What he means by this is that students are seem as empty containers that teachers are supposed to fill.  In this type of system a teacher is assessed on how much information she can push onto her students rather than how much information they have actually learned.  One of the problems with this is that teachers do not feel obligated to make sure that students are understanding the material fully.  Another problem with this situation is that students are aware of how this system works.  They understand that they will have lots of information that they will have to be able to learn and repeat back on a test.  Therefore, students only learn things on a surface level so that they are able to sort of recite it back on a test and then quickly forget it to be able to store the new information that they will need for the next series of tests.       There is no one fostering long term learning of subject matter.

       In my own experience, I have seen injustice and diversity have a negative effect on literacy.  I have seen students who were treated unfairly and not given as much support and assistance as others because they were students who were learning English as a second language and because of that were not up to the level of reading that their peers were and the teacher felt that since they were already so far behind there was not much that she could do to help them.  Unfortunately, that is very unhelpful to students, especially those who are learning English as a second language and makes them fall even further behind.  This, in turn, contributes to illiteracy on that these students feel helpless and almost like they are not as smart as other students and incapable of learning because no one seems to want to help them.  Due to this, students become very discouraged and come to strongly dislike reading.

     One of the things that I thought were most interesting was how both Freire and Moses related their ideas back to the Civil Rights Movement and the way that during that time and in our education system today and the way that people are treated very differently in both of these situations.  Another thing that was really eye-opening to me was Gatto's writings and the way that she organizes activities in her classroom.  I think that having a set topic and allowing students to create the questions that were to be answered allows every student an equal opportunity to have a part and take their own interest in the activities in the classroom.

Blog post #8 - Gatto

     This week we read Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs by Lynn Astarita Gatoo.  In this piece of writing she discussed literacy and some of the things that she does to engage her students in literacy in her classroom.
   
     One of the biggest things that Gatto does to engage students in literacy in her classroom is by having implementing a program called silent sustained reading (SSR).  Gatto described SSR as an organized practice in which children spend a "...daily thirty minute period of time children read self-selected texts at their independent level while I pull small groups for direct instruction.  SSR meets various needs through numerous books on tape, Leap Pads, and a huge classroom library of leveled readers. SSR ends with a snack and "book talk," where children discuss what they have read with a partner or small group" (Gatto, 73).  She uses this method as opposed to other individualized stations that she may have used years ago because it has been shown that there are strong gains made in fluency, comprehension and attitudes towards reading and literacy when students participate in silent reading programs consistently.  This is a good way to engage students in literacy because students are allowed to choose their own text to read.  This seems like a good idea because students tend to be more excited to read when it is something that they have chosen to read.

      Another thing that Gatto says that she does is that she organizes her program into themes which is similar to the way many basal programs are arranged although hers are slightly different, "Unlike the basal programs, where the units are based on such themes as family, fairy tales, super sleuths, meeting the challenge, or immigration, my units are based on authentic activities centered around a theme" (Gatto, 77).  For example, one of the themes that Gatto used was a butterfly theme.  She engaged students by setting up books and articles about butterflies all over her room along with posters and various models.   Next, she explained to the students that at the end of their unit they would be able to build a real butterfly habitat with live butterflies.  All of the children were obviously very excited and eager to do this so the unit began with students asking any question that they had about butterflies and the teacher recording all of these questions on paper to be able to refer back to throughout the unit.  After this step, reading is immediately introduced.  This is where Gatto's program may differ from some others.  She chose James and the Giant Peach, which seems to have no "direct" connection to butterflies.  Gatto states, "They were searching for the link to butterflies.  The connection between James and the Giant Peach and butterflies was that all of the supporting characters are insects, which belong to the phylum of insects, as do butterflies.  Once the children made the insect connect, I introduced the animal kingdom classification system.  The mandated reading program just does not provide this kind of motivation or meaningful connect to content for reading" (Gatto, 79).  So her unit was reading quite student based by beginning with their questions and exploring many different texts that they think may or may not be directly related.

      I feel that a lot can be taken from Gatto's ideas.  I think that she has a good idea with SSR in allowing students to chose their own texts.  I have seen, in my own experiences, students who seem to hate to read, but once they are given the chance to select their own text, they can't put their book down.  Also, I liked that her themed unit began with allowing students to ask questions and recording them because it allows them the chance to know that they are reading and writing throughout the unit to answer their own questions rather than something that was just thrown at them that may seem like busy work.

Week Eight Readings

        Overall, I think all of our readings from this week touched on different ideas and strategies that can be used for teachers to make sure that the activities and lessons that are implemented in our classrooms are well structured and have purpose so that students stay engaged and active.  The reason behind this is that students who are actively participating and involved in the given strategy or activity are more likely to more easily understand and comprehend the topic s that are being taught.  Also, students who are interested and engaged seem to take a deeper interest in their learning and work harder and push further to understand more about the topic.  These ideas can be used throughout any subject area.  Teachers nowadays need to be aware that students not only need to be interested in reading and writing but that other subjects are important to make engaging to students to, and that literacy can be incorporated in those subjects.

        Robert P. Moses writes an article called, Algebra and Civil Rights?, in which he talks about just how important it is for students to not only be fluent in reading and writing, but math has also become extremely important.  As educators, we need to realize that the times have changed and therefore, we have to change the way that we teach.  Moses discusses how math and the need for our students to be ‘math literate’ has changed when he says, “… the older generation may be able to get away with it, but the younger generation coming up now can't—not if they're going to function in the society, have economic viability, be in a position to meaningfully participate, and have some say-so in the decision making that affects their lives" (Moses, 15).  Moses explains this by making the point that many years ago, math did not really seem to matter, and if you could not do math well, it did not seem to be a very big deal.  Nowadays, so much that we do seems to rely on some type of math base.  Everything that we are doing seems to be changing technologically right in front of our eyes, and the ability to operate many of these technologically advanced devices usually seems to require some type of math knowledge.  Because of this, without being ‘math literate’ in today’s society, one would be very limited in the things that he/she was able to do and it may even limit them in the job that they may be able to get.  Now, this does not mean that if someone isn’t a math whiz they are going nowhere in life and will never amount to anything, but for the most part, a decent math foundation seems to be a good stepping stone in today’s society and we as educators need to understand that to be able to create that foundation for our students by sparking their interest in it.

        In one of our other readings, Linda Rief seems to talk more about how we as educators can make writing more interesting for our students and how we can provide our students with more reading, speaking, listening and writing activities as opposed to teacher directed instruction.  Rief writes that she feels that writing should not just be used as a tool to assess and grade our students, but instead should be used as a way for students to have a chance to express themselves. My personal opinion is that by allowing students the chance to write for something other than an assessment, or even something as small as allowing them to pick their own acceptable topic for an assignment would really make the writing process to many students.  I feel that many students seem to hate writing because they feel like it is something that they are pressured into.  How can you enjoy something that you have no interest in and that you are being forced to write about?  Once students are given the chance to choose their own topic, I think that it would really expand their desire to write which, in turn, may make them more aware of their writing process, cause them to think about things more critically and analytically as well as help them learn about themselves and possibly even others….maybe this is where group work comes successfully into play. 

Collaborative Learning

Stop Limiting Our Boys

What really shocked me from this week’s readings was how much we really limit our male students.  Williams wrote a fantastic article called, Boys may be boys, but do they have to read and write that way?, that I truly loved.  I felt that it was so eye-opening and interesting and it really made me realize and recognize things that I didn’t before even though I now realize they are things that I have been seeing happen for years.

Throughout my schooling I did realize that most of the texts that teachers picked I found to be quite boring and I couldn't really fully relate to them.  I didn't realize until much later that this was probably because I was a female student.  Most of the literature that teachers pick to read with their students tend to be really aimed towards male students and therefore it tends to be much easier for them to relate to.  Through this, one would think that literacy in our schools is really catering to our male students, but this seems to be far from true.

It is true that male students tend to be more into video games and computers.  Because of this, boys tend to gravitate more towards liking action and violence.  This is not to say that these students are actually violent, but it is something that they have found that has caught their attention and really drawn them in.  This is something that seems to really frighten teachers.  They are scared to allow any type of writing about violence into their classrooms, but by doing that, are really limiting our male students.  I have seen teachers give assignments in which they allow students to write about whatever interests them (a pick your own topic type assignment) but they limit this and say that students cannot write about things that are violent.  Isn't that confusing?  If that's what interests these boys, and the assignment is to write about what interests you, why is that suddenly taken away from them?  Williams writes, "However, the conversations these researchers have had with boys ab out their reading and writing do indicate that, although boys are drawn to books, writing, and popular culture that emphasize action and sometimes violence, they can distinguish between the page and reality..." (Williams, 512).  This shows that our male students understand the difference and there seems to be little to no reason as to why the things that interest them shouldn't be allowed in the classroom.

Very similar to this, Jonathan Turley writes an article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301749.html) about why we shouldn't limit our boys during play.  This also has to do with violence and can relate back to literacy in that perhaps we don't get our boys enough credit, maybe they know the difference between what is real and what isn't and we just need to give them the benefit of the doubt and support their ideas to let them read and write about the things that they like.

Sameness as fairness

I thought it was very interesting that we had so many readings that each viewed "sameness as fairness" in our education system so differently. The first reading by Gutierrez and Purcell-Gates talked about how all students should be treated the same.  Everyone should be taught the same way and receive the same help.  In theory, maybe this seems good, all students are receiving the same amount of help and guidance, but in practice...no two students are the same and no two students learn the same.  That means that by just presenting things in one uniform way, not all students are going to understand and catch on.  This easily was explained in the video speech by Malcolm Gladwell about Howard Moskowitz.  Moskowitz was on the pursuit for the perfect pickle/Pepsi/Ragu b ut quickly realized that there was no such thing and that not everyone liked the same things, therefore, a group of people can't really be treated as one uniform mass.  This easily applied to teaching and the ideas that no two of our students are the same, therefore they cannot all be taught the same way.

The next reading was by Ladson-Billings and Carter, they discussed the idea that in order to achieve "sameness as fairness" in education we need to treat education the same not our students.  What I mean by this is, we cannot make the assumption that all of our students are the same, because they are not.  But we need to treat the way that we educate the same, and keep that uniform.  We need to understand that each child is capable of learning and most of them WANT to learn...we just need to figure out ways to present information to ensure that they are actually learning.

After doing all these readings, I am a firm believer that we need to create "fairness" in our education by allowing each child an equal chance and providing support where it is needed.  If that means presenting information a ton of different ways, making the same worksheet many different ways, or creating many different options for an assignment so that each student has the opportunity to understand things and do the best work in a way that easily relates to them, then that is what had to be done.  All students need to be given a fair chance to perform their best.  I think "fairness" takes a lot of work, and maybe that is why it is sometimes overlooked, but I think that to be sure that all students have an equal chance and are given the tools to succeed, that is what needs to happen.

What are students learning?

        "After all these years of common schooling, we still have no real way of knowing if students are learning"... I would have to disagree with this statement.  I think that we, as educators, know whether or not our students are learning without necessarily having to give out a formal assessment.


        I think one of  the biggest problems that we have created is that we focus way too much on numbers and statistics.  It is unfortunate (if it  is true) that teacher's salaries will begin to be based on the way that students perform on tests.  This is just going to cause more teachers to focus on numbers that the state says are acceptable.  This isn't the biggest problem though...this whole situation leads to many other underlying issues.


        Like Delpit states, we need to let students have a voice in the classroom.  We need to give them the opportunity to share and open up and be themselves to prevent them from feeling like they are just a bunch of uniform little soldiers or robots.  I was in a school where they were required to have a morning meeting where students all had to greet one another, then a couple of children each day would share something that was going on in their lives.  This was the most liked part of the day because, unfortunately, students came to realize that this was the only time throughout the day that they would be able to speak their mind and talk about things that they were into or that specifically interested them. 


        I feel that this also goes hand in hand with Luna's perspectives on creativity.  Students need to be given the opportunity to expand their minds sort of on their on.  Or maybe not necessarily on their own, but in their own individual way.  During one of my fieldwork observations, I actually witnessed a teacher who was insistent that each of the students in her class do things exactly the same way.  I asked her what he reason for doing this was.  In her mind, she was keeping her classroom organized and uniform but I think that in reality she was really limiting a lot of students.  Not all students learn and explore things the same way.  In my mind, I feel like, with most things, if they are producing the right outcome or answer, why does it matter how they get there and why should we limit that?


        Overall, I think that we need to track the progress that students are making and the growth that has occurred over a given period of time instead of simply being concerned about how they scored on one or two state mandated tests.  I think that we are aware and we know this, but we are so concerned by the things that are being held over out heads, are far as student performance in concerned, that we sort of ignore that or it at least definitely isn't the first thing that we look at when we consider an assessment.


I thought this website was a good example of some of the issues that I discussed and it had some interesting ideas about assessments and student progress:  http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/studentprogress.htm

Neoliberalism

Basically, what I've come to learn as neoliberalism is the desire to privatize things in the public sphere that are regulated by the government...our schools.  Obviously some people support this, but I feel that this is a very negative thing.  

Some may argue that privatization of our schools is a great thing.  Schools that have been privatized no longer have to worry about exams and student preformance for money.  That means that teachers are spending far less time "teaching to tests" and concerned with children's scores and more time teaching students things that they need to know in order to be successful at the next grade level and have time to spend ensuring that all concepts are fully understood.  The problem with "teaching to tests" is that students aren't being given the chance to spend time on things that they need to actually learn.  They are being pushed to know things that teachers feel may be on the test.  Not only is this bad because they don't have the chance to learn other things that they need to know, but they also probably aren't actually even learning these things.  They are being pounded into our students heads simply for testing time and if they don't remember the concepts after that, it doesn't really matter.

On the other hand, privatization of our schools, at least to me, basically means that our schools are being used strictly as money-makers.  If we get rid of all public education...what happens to our students? How does that effect the way that students learn?  And how does that effect their education and knowledge long term?  State tests are one of the major things that would be effective by the privatization of our schools.  This seems to be a good thing based on the fact that we seem to have determined that state testing is a bad thing because it causes teachers to "teach to tests" and not really teach students the things that they need to know.  Another seemingly negative effect of privatizing schools is that schools that are usually made this way are schools that are failing or not meeting certain requirements.  This is an issue because once these schools reopen as private schools they are much harder to get into and therefore the students who actually get into these schools don't tend to be lower-class minority students.  Then these students are forced into schools that are still open and are failing, therefore their education is compromised and maybe they aren't receiving as good of an education as some others may be receiving in other schools.

I unfortunately think that these education issues are like a pendulum  and will continue to go back and forth.  I don't think that one thing will be solidly settle upon, and therefore, our students will continue to suffer.  I feel that arguments will continue over what the best way for teachers to teach is and how and what students should be learning. 

Multiple Literacies

There were many great points made by Mari Haneda in her article, "Becoming Literate in a Second Language: Connecting Home, Community, and School Literacy Practices" but I was absolutely taken back by the story about a young Cambodian ELL student named Nan.  Nan was the child of two parents who were not considered literate in any language, but she was still able to practice her literacy and improve her English skills both at home and at school.  At home she would write and act out her own plays, the text being supported or sometimes altogether supplemented with pictures or oral narratives when she had things she wasn't able to express in writing.  But at school, even though she was able to do these thing at home, she was considered below the bar and less literate than she should be because she was not able to easily comprehend textbooks.

This was truly eyeopening to me.  It was clear example of how I feel about literacy and determining whether someone is literate or not.  I do not think that literacy is something that can be measured on a common scale.  In other words, I don't think that each child's literacy can be determined using the same book.  I think that each child's talents and different techniques need to be taken into account.  The problem with this is, teacher's cannot be at home with every student.  Therefore, teachers cannot see all of the things that students are doing at home to prove their literacy that they don't get the chance to show or demonstrate at school.

Personally, I think that it would be ridiculously fascinating to see how "literate" children are in school compared to how "literate " they are in school.  This makes me wonder if we're missing something or doing something wrong.  Nan isn't the only child I've heard of who seems to be more literate at home.  Some children need other ways to express themselves (like in Nan's case) and other children feel too pressured at school.  I think literacy is something that requires at least a little bit of freedom, even if it is as simple as allowing children to choose their own books to read rather than assigning one to them.  I think this is the case because like I said previously, I don't think literacy can be measured one single way, I think it is something that is very different student to student and there cannot be one set standard for it.

What's Worth Knowing

       E.D. Hirsch Jr. wrote a list of all of the things that he thought a literate American should know.  I consider myself and most of the people in my life literate, I went through this list with some of them, and many of them either had never heard of certain things or have heard of them but couldn't tell me a single thing about them.  Does this make them illiterate? Does this make me illiterate? I am going to come straight out with it and say that I absolutely do not agree with Hirsch.  While I think it would be great is someone knew about each and every item on his list, I definitely don't think that is is necessary in order to be considered literate.

       Here are some of the things that I think are worth knowing:

• Respect for yourself and others 
• Honesty 
• Integrity
• Discipline
• History - Enough to be able to talk about where your family is from and important aspects of their culture as well as how the country that they lived in came to be (basically..not every single date and detail)
• How to figure things out -  How to be able to answer a question on your own.  How to go to the library and find an answer in a book or how to search the internet to find accurate information.

       Overall, I do not think that there is a set list of things that people need to know.  I think that people should never try to stop learning and should take the chance to expand their minds and discover new things whenever possible but I do not thing that a list can be made that simply names things that people need to know to be required literate.  I think it is more important to have the basic life skills and certain personality traits to help someone be able to communicate with others around them and be able to learn and discover constantly.