Community - AFTER

My group ended up visiting seven different places during our literacy exploration in Novi. We visited the public library, a grocery store, a restaurant, a putt-putt and go-kart racing place, a middle school football game, a tutoring center, and a mall. We noticed that many of these places had literacies in common. For instance, all of the places we visited exhibited social literacy.
Something that surprised us was how each place we visited had so many types of literacy. When we began planning our project, we thought that it was going to be difficult to find places that shared each type of literacy. However, to our surprise, we had an abundance of literacies represented, no matter which place we went.
Driving around the community didn’t help me as much as the initial conversations that I had with my students about their community. I learned which places the students love to visit (like paradise park), and which places their parents drag them to (the grocery store). It allowed me to see all of the different literacies that my students are being exposed to on a regular basis. Even though they may not be consciously thinking that they are learning about/through literacy, they are experiencing and participating in multiple types of literacy at any given place.
Knowing that my students are using literacy in the community as well as at school will help me better reach their interests and needs. It will also help me remember that my students are getting access to literacy, even if they are not necessarily seeing books at home. As the Compton-Lilly article stated, it is common for us to blame students’ lack of literacy learning on the fact that our students’ parents are not giving them books at home. After discovering all of the places were literacy is hiding in the community, I can no longer use this as an excuse for my students not succeeding in literacy. I just need to push myself to include various topics from the community that my students are familiar with. If I include information in the classroom that is personalized for them, they will be more likely to stay engaged in my lessons and therefore be more successful at learning literacy!

Book Club Plus! and Literacy Instruction

I thought it was interesting, because before I even started reading about Book Club Plus! I assumed that it was going to be completely different than the literacy instruction I see in my classroom. My CT uses a variety of programs and combines them together to form her own personalized program that works best in her classroom. As she has told me, the programs work for her, she does not work for the programs. As I began reading Book Club Plus!, however, I realized that there are several similarities between the book and how literacy instruction is planned in my class.
One aspect that the book really stressed was the need to have time for students to read at appropriate age-level as well as instructional-level. I see this happening everyday in my classroom. “Listen to reading” time is dedicated for that age-level literacy that is too difficult for students to decode, but perfect for their comprehension. “Read to self” time is dedicated for the instructional-level literacy to help students with their decoding strategies. “Read to someone” is another time for literacy in my classroom that not only works on decoding strategies, but also comprehension. Book Club Plus! states that “Comprehension instruction should be explicit” (30). My CT agrees with this and uses “beanie baby strategies” to help explicitly instruct students how to both decode and comprehend what they are reading.
One aspect of Book Club Plus! that I have not seen in my classroom much is discussion. It is important to help students create and develop a meaning for a text by themselves. I wonder if because we are still in the launching phase of our literacy program this year if I will see more discussion as the year continues?
I have had the opportunity to test students on various aspects of literacy, but this Thursday will be the first time I get to actually teach a lesson to my students. I am so excited! I went to South Africa over the summer so I am setting up a pen-pal system with my students. This is going to be perfect because in social studies my students are learning about communities. We are going to read books about both places and use our pen-pal letters to do a comparison of the two communities. Therefore, I get to incorporate literacy into social studies and social studies into literacy!

Book Club Plus. 09-27-10

The literacy curriculum for my second grade classroom is dedicated to literacy and pushes literacy to be cross-curricular. Throughout the four weeks I have been in the classroom the main instructional time is literacy right now. The students start and end their day with literacy. This push for literacy is not only the curriculum, but also my mentor teacher. Many of our students need help with writing, reading, and speaking literacy. Therefore, my mentor teacher has decided to begin with whole class instruction instead of workshops. The students are responsible for daily oral language (writing sentences), weekly vocabulary, making meaning, and word study. As I was reading and reflecting on the Book Club model, I noticed a correlation between my classroom instruction and the model. There is an importance with reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing in my curriculum. My mentor teacher has discussed with my that she involves the students with all of those literacy aspects throughout the year and finds them all to be equally weighted. The literacy instruction started last week using the curriculum student workbook. There are six themes throughout the year that are composed of mini-stories and related activities. The students started the first theme by going through the vocabulary, reading the story as a group, listening to the story on tape, reflecting, and sharing with peers. This process of instruction related to the Book Club model. There is first word study and reading that is teacher-led, independent listening, writing time and finally sharing. I believe the writing and sharing component of the Book Club model is very important and I was glad to see that taking place in my classroom. My students are able to express their feelings about the books or summarize the text. This part of the instruction is silent and independent. Following is sharing where the students are held responsible for their own writing time and allow for students to interpret their peers thinking. These components are important because I am able to see how the students are writing with the text. The students have a choice to write into the text by expressing their feelings of the book or write out of the text by summarizing. During my observation of literacy in the classroom I see connections with the Book Club model. Importantly, "the students and the teacher work together to createa coherent literature environment by the weaving together of an array of literature practices" (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, and Highfield, 14). The students are held responsible to use their practices while reading and understand their own literacy strengthes and weaknesses. The literacy aspects are paired and individual during instruction, which is beneficial to the development of all these literacy strategies.
The student workbook directly follows the literacy curriculum. There are the four major curriculum areas: comprehension, writing, language, and literary aspects which follow the Book Club model. However, the curriculum is also based upon the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) standards. This involved inquiry as a main area and promotes students to think beyond the text. In the primary years, students are encouraged to explore beyond while they are reading, writing, and talking. Most prevalent is the process of "learning through the literature" by making connections with themselves, thier peers, cultures, and communities (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty, Highfield, 26). My classroom curriculum is closely paired with the Book Club model, but incorporates different aspects to benefit the students' content knowledge through their primary years and into the middle year programs.

Community Exploration After

The first observation my group made was a trip over to the Southfield Public Library. We were amazed to see the quality and expanse of this community development. There was a large area dedicated to children's literature and learning. The library has a wide range of books from Preschool to Adult. In addition, there were DVDs, Cd's, Audio Books, Chapter Books, Picture Books, and many more to suit all children's needs. We visited the library immediately after school, which didn't allow for us to see many students. There was a handful of parents and children that were reading and doing activities in the library. I spoke with one parent regarding some of the activities on the poster she was looking at in the main entrance of the library. She voiced to me that Southfield community is very involved with student literature development. There are activities after school and on the weekend designed by grade level. For instance, they have "Battle of the Books", "Reading Genre Month", and "Teen Read" that are promoted and encouraged by the community. The parent also told me that the community is split because some parents don't have the time to take their children to the library or do activities due to the fall of the economy. This brought some insight to me because I learned some information about the Southfield community that I can take back to the classroom. As Catherine Compton-Lilly wrote, "By listening to parents and children, we begin to conceptualize possibilities and solutions that recognize the strengths of families and the potential of children" (Compton-Lilly, 457). The library visit was important to my community research because I found the possibilities for my students. I know that I can attempt to involve my students in literacy activities in their community and encourage literacy at home.
In addition to the library, my group visited resources in our school. First, we visited the media center/library within Thompson-Schoenhals. The library is small, but accommodates K-8 students. The library is open 3 days a week when the librarian is present. The school librarian is wonderful and helpful with literature. She is willing to help students and staff when choosing books for pleasure or lessons. One surprising aspect about the library is that we still have not recieved our K-5 reading books due to the recent merge of the two schools. This alarms me because the students have library once a week, but have not had an opportunity to read or check out books. I spoke with the librarian about this matter and she voiced the same concern and told me they are expecting the materials this week. Despite the current situation, the library is a resource for the students to utilize. There are many literacy related materials that can be used by the students. Importantly, the students have access to laptops/computers. Technology have become a new literacy development that I feel educators need to respect and allow students to explore. Secondly, my group visited our own literacy room. This room is enclosed in the back of the school. The room is used for assessments, extra resources, and help from the literacy coach. Many of my second grade students are pulled from instruction time to seek individualized help in this room. The room is a wonderful place for students to receive the support they need and for teachers to seek help. The literacy coach is involved in all the K-5 classrooms and makes sure teachers have the resources they need. This room will be important and useful in my teaching because I can come here for ideas or to learn more about some of the students.
This exploration of the community and the school was a useful experience for my upcoming year of teaching. I learned about the community involvement and ways I can promote my students to utilize their community resources. In addition, this experience helped me think about my students as literacy users and learners. The students have a vast array of literacy in the community and school. There are individuals to help students with literacy and material resources for them to explore. I will be using all of these resources areas when planning my lessons and talking with my students about literacy. This community resource exploration has opened my eyes and connected me with the literacy component of the Southfield community.

Book Club Plus - 9/27/10

Literacy is a (if not, the) main component of my second grade’s curriculum. Much of our day is dedicated to the many aspects of literacy. Therefore, I have learned a lot about literacy this year. The way that my mentor teacher approaches literacy is with four elements: reader’s workshop, writer’s workshop, making meaning, and word study. I believe that these sub-parts of literacy directly correlate to that of the Book Club model. It seems that many of the crucial aspects (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing) have been incorporated in both. This is especially evident once reader and writer’s workshop are further explored. In reader’s workshop, there is a teacher lead mini-lesson, independent reading, partner reading, and then a large group share time about what they have learned about themselves as readers that day. Thus, much like the Book Club model, there is a teacher lead component, independent parts, and sharing. Writer’s workshop is similar as it begins with a teacher lead mini-lesson, independent writing time, and a sharing time. This also includes parts of the Book Club model – writing and sharing. Within the writer’s workshop my students are given the opportunity to write into, write through, and write out of texts. They display writing into a text by, for example, describing their own opinions about a subject. When we were starting reader’s workshop, we discussed “comfy reading spots.” So, before my teacher read The Best Place to Read, students wrote about their favorite reading spot. After we were finished reading they then described how their comfy reading spots were similar to the child’s in the book (writing through). Lastly, to write out of the text, the students wrote about where in the classroom could be their comfy reading spot for independent reading.

Making meaning and word study are two sets of scripted lessons used for comprehension strategies and expanding vocabulary. The first, making meaning, is usually a teacher lead read aloud paired with text related questions and partner/individual sharing. This can be related to the writing portion of the Book Club model as it too, “serves many functions, such as reflecting on reading, gathering and organizing information, practicing literary forms, and sharing ideas with other.” (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, George, Hasty & Highfield, 2004, p. 12). However, making meaning is more of a verbal activity. Word study is lead by the teacher, as well. She focuses on a certain pattern (i.e. the –ing ending) and then the students are given cards with beginning and ends of words on them and they have to create new words. Although they are very similar, these two models are also different. The Book Club model incorporates an actual Book Club element that does not exist in my classroom. We are also lacking a Literacy Block that would allow for certain groups to be pulled. However, even though these ideas are not present right now, my mentor teacher has talked about implementing them soon. We just have to get the noise of the classroom under control first!

Considering the Community - BEFORE

My group is going to visit restaurants, Paradise Park (putt putt and go-kart racing), and grocery stores. We chose restaurants because our students often talk about their favorite restaurants around Novi, so we know that students frequently go out to eat. Paradise Park was one of our choices because in the past two weeks we have seen multiple students write or share stories about how much fun it is. We chose grocery stores because I already ran into a student and parent at a local grocery store. These places are all areas that we know our students visit often and we hope to find out what they are learning during these visits. We expect to find that our students are being exposed to different literacies than they are being exposed to in school. We hope to learn ways in which we can incorporate these various literacies into our lessons to better engage our students!

Considering the Community

BEFORE-

I've decided to visit a local "summer's end" fair through a church in the White Lake community, which will be starting on Thursday (9/23) and ending Sunday (9/26). I have picked this location because children in my class have already been discussing it and are very excited to attend. Also, growing up in the area myself, I know that this fair is an event enjoyed many, and I am bound to see some of my students when I'm there! I also expect to see forms of literacy - from the names of the rides, to menus, there will be many opportunities for me to see different literary components. I also anticipate hearing music playing throughout the fair, the sounds of the rides, and voices of all the kids having fun. I know that I will see a lot of print literacy, but I am hoping to learn more about the different aspects of literacy and how they are displayed in the fair setting. Overall, I think going to the fair and looking at everything in a literary light will be a fun and interesting experience!

AFTER-

When I went to the St. Patrick’s Fair on Friday, I noticed kids ranging from babies to high school age having fun in the fair environment, many rides, a ton of food, and a variety of literacy! I was also fortunate enough to get to see many of my students and their families enjoying themselves in a carefree environment, which I found very beneficial. From this experience, I learned that Dublin Elementary is comprised of people who are very family as well as community oriented. Coming to this fair is a tradition that they take part in every year and something they thoroughly enjoy. It was very nice to see that many of my students came to the fair together, and their parents were friends with each other, as well. This also provided the opportunity for my students and their parents to see me as a part of their community and outside of the teacher role. In fact, I spent 10 minutes talking to two dads about the upcoming football games. Although it was a brief conversation, I felt that this was valuable in that I made a connection – the parents were able to see more of me and less of my “student teacher” role. I feel that by starting to communicate with parents now, it will definitely help me when I am lead teaching. As Catherine Compton-Lilly discusses in her article about a study of students and their families, “I developed a heightened awareness of the ways parents view schools and realized the extreme importance of demonstrating respect for parents.” (Compton-Lilly, p. 457). Thus, through taking the time to get to know the parents of her students, a relationship was formed that benefitted the parents, the teacher, and most of all, the student. In my case, although I didn’t learn about the literacy in their home environments, I made the initial connection with parents that will help me feel comfortable for future conversations.

In regard to the literacy aspect of the project, I was surprised by how prevalent literacy was at the fair. I know that there would be a lot of print literacy, but as I started to focus on different literacy elements, I noticed how easy it was to find. For example, a fair setting is a perfect place for students to learn and use new vocabulary or words that are not normally used in daily context. Such as: merry-go-round, fun house, raffle, cotton candy and elephant ear! There is also a lot of print literacy – the names of the rides, the directions to games, the ticket amounts on each ride, and the menus for the food stations all have a literacy element that is specific to the fair atmosphere. Lastly, oral language was a major factor at this event. Whether it was parents communicating with their children, children laughing and screaming while running around with each other, or teenagers on their cell phones, oral language was everywhere!

Finally, this resource is a great way for me, as a teacher, to incorporate elements of the students’ life within the school setting. Since students of all ages attend the fair, it is something that can be incorporated in every grade. For instance, it could easily become a writing activity (write about your favorite ride), or an oral language activity (having each student share their favorite part of the fair), etc. I thoroughly enjoyed attending this community event and feel as though I learned a lot about my students that will help in the future!

Questions for Community. 09-20-10

My literacy group plans to explore a few different places. We chose to visit a restaurant, the library, and the media center of our own school. We decided on these three places because our students frequently visit these areas after school.
We have decided to choose a restaurant near to the school to learn more about the students potential connections between literacy and mathematics. We choose to observe restaurants because our students talk about their weekend activities which include frequenting restaurants. Our group expects that students will be able to read a children menu and choose an item based upon what they would prefer to choose. However, we expect to see the children engaging in creative processes. For instance, we expect to see children coloring menus, solving word problems, and other items that a children's menu would provide. Secondly, we decided to explore the Southfield Public Library. The students should be exploring their own public library, so we felt that would be a beneficial place to explore literacy. At the library, I expect to see children engaging in literature and resources available. Lastly, our group has decided to examine the library/media center of our own school. We would like to understand what resources are available to students during school instruction.