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.