The end of the beginning...

I found that blogging was not as easy for me as I thought it would be. The free format of it had me wondering if I was on the right track or not. My tech savvy students would tell me just to go with it and not stress out. None of them blog, but they are significantly attached to Facebook and would be "lost" without it. When I brought up the idea of using blogs as a manner of writing for class they were interested, as well as disappointed because it wouldn't be their class that got to start the process. I told them they should try it out anyways. With that being said I have been back and forth about maintaining this blog after the course ends. I am still trying to decide. Maybe by the time I finish this blog I will be able to give an honest answer.

I am extremely excited to say that I registered to attend a workshop being presented by Kyle Beers and Robert Probst!!! I got the email notification last week and contacted my supervisor immediately. It is in October but I already got my spot reserved!!! I have never been so excited and I have been to several workshops in the last year. I just had to share that with you.

As I have completed this course and blog I have found myself transforming from a Hirsch disguised as
a Delpit, to a true Delpit/Gatto/Gee mix. I have become excited about teaching history with literacy as a foundation in it. I have learned both new and obvious ways to give my students more of a voice in their learning as well as our classroom. I think the real theme of my blog as been my growth and understanding of who I am as a teacher. Howard Moskowitz is also now one of my new inspirations, and I have taken to keeping a Pepsi label on my desk as a reminder that nothing and no one is perfect.


 Students and educators come in a variety too!


I have found myself carrying my journal again, writing while my students are just as I read when they have DEAR time. I have talked with my students about the difference between the typical old school
writing because the teacher says you have to for the test and writing to communicate so that they can express their thoughts,  persuade someone to hear their opinion and so much more. I have enjoyed knowing that there are ways to teach the standards without having to teach to the test.

I have learned that as a teacher I don't have all the answers, and it is okay not to. That I can learn along with my students. I have become comfortable with that. I can't wait to see what my students want to learn and to discover it with them.

I think that I will maintain my blog to help me with my discoveries. To assist me in my being open to learning and to remind me that even "old dogs" can learn new tricks. Maybe I will create an Edublog and link the two so that I share my learning from this class with my students. I am thankful for that ability.

Critical literacy is a response to...

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to... Well, what exactly?
 
That is a seriously tough question to come up with only one anwer to. But maybe one answer isn't enough and shouldn't be enough. Because what is it that teachers really should be doing? It isn't what Paulo Freire considers "banking" knowledge into students. Teachers do have a gift, it is less about "filling the students with useless information and more about challenging them to see beyond the problems they have to relate to. Teachers should be guides and supports to their students. They should open up dialogues that students then continue with each other that allow them to work out the problems that they face both in the classroom academically and outside the classroom socially. 
 "Students are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge" (Freire, 1997). 
Freire goes on to say "Education as the practice of freedom-as opposed to education the practice of domination-denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people" (1997).  

Some of the ways I think the sentence should read are as follows:

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to problem solve.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to create a safe environment for students.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to help students define their own destinies.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to break the cycle of illiteracy.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to end the culture of power.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to open the dialogue between students and the world around them.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to allow teachers to reach at risk students.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to help teachers be more open and understanding of the culture of their students.

I feel that based on the reading from this past week as well as throughout the course would allow me to complete that sentence in an infinite number of way. Now I need to focus on how I will follow through with them.

As I think about the reading from this past couple of weeks I find that I drawn to Lynn Astarita Gatto and her determination to make teaching about supporting the critical learning of her students. She plans an outline of how she wants her themetic units to go, but it is all based on how her students react, the questions they ask, the things they want to know, to do. It is just so amazing to me that other teachers are resistant to what she is doing. I think more educators and administrators should embace this. Hearing Gatto's ideas just makes me that much more enthusiastic to teach, to open the world to my students. It makes me want to find my own way to do what Gatto has done.

Literacy cannot be bought!

As I read Lynn Astarita Gatto's chapter Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs: I Don't Buy It! I absolutely was inspired by her. I admire the fact that she uses open source learning with her fourth grade class. I also love that she starts and ends the school day with 20 minutes of silent sustained reading for both her students and herself (2007).  
But these aren't the only things I took away. I found myself wishing that I knew more teachers like her, even just one to talk with and have as a guide or mentor. Her ideas and point of view are very similar to the way I would like to create my classroom. "My approach is to provide experiences and problems that engage students in expanding their existing literacy practices in order to construct and use new ones" (Gatto, 2007). I know that not every teacher, teachers the same way, but shouldn't we all want to give our students this kind of real life education? 
That leads me to wonder, why are we  giving up "over fifteen hours of instructional time each year"(Gatto, 2007)? That is basically two whole school days that teachers aren't in the classroom with their students because they have to attend mandated meetings to discuss student progress. Here we are pushing more "learning" and accountability with high stakes testing, and on top of that taking time away so that we can sit around and discuss whether it is working or not. The fact that Gatto questions this as well really presses the matter more for me. Gatto takes a lot of flack for her view on things. But when someone is a multi award winning teacher,whose students score as well if not better on the standardized tests as those of school and district norms (Gatto, 2007).  Honestly don't fix something that isn't broken. 
Gatto focuses her classroom activites on student questions that have arrisen throughout the twelve weeks the unit lasts. She points out that the literacy programs that districts buy don't provide that kind of motivation for students. They revolve around predetermined questions from the publishers, and guidelines that the publishers feel will teach the students what they need to know. In Gatto's classroom every student has a part in what happens with the unit. Her classroom is filled with their work, their journals are filled with their thoughts and ideas about the unit.
Her manner for dealing with the weekly spelling test interests me as well. "Does knowing how to spell all the words on a test once a week exemplify being a good speller? If a child consistently spells well throughout his/her daily writing, then I would consider that child a good speller" (Gatto, 2007). She doesn't use the weekly word lists, and though each student has a paperback-spelling book, each is different because the students will add words that they have struggled with and need to know.
Gatto's class is active and participates in critical and creative learning. The kind that will prepare them for higher education and positions in the job market.
Gatto points out that her students make it past the fourth-grade-drop-off problem, which Gee previously explains to be the time when students first begin to read to learn (2003). Because she knows that her method works she is going to continue to resist the trend of buying literacy.
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, poses similar ideas as Gatto. He explains that there is a relationship between teachers and students that is comparable to banking. And this banking concept "anethetizes and inhibits creative power"(Freire, 1997). This mirrors how Gatto feels about participating in the perscribed literacy programs, and solidifies her feelings that literacy cannot be bought.

Ken Robinson talks about how creativity is being hindered in and by schools...I liked it and thought I would share it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Critical Learning....

 I was looking at various videos from TED and came across this one by Deb Roy who works at MIT. His talk is on charting the language development of his son over the course of five years. The work that went into collecting, analyzing and then presenting the data made me think about Moses and the need for students who are literate in mathematics that could create the code that went into developing the program that allowed Roy to present his research. When I was collecting graphic organizers and forms for my class I came across one that said "You have the right to...." it is a fill in form that the teacher presents as a contract to the students. It the original page explained it as a Right to Read contract. I think it should be used for the content areas, because every student has the right to a education that will allow them to successful in life. Moses compares the lack of mathematical literacy to the deep south in the 1960's. I had never looked at the issue quite that way before, but now, now I can't help but see it.
  As for writing, it really is commonsense to remember that all writers don't write the same. And the best way to learn to write and write well is to write. We need to write daily so that we truly grasp writing and all that it does for our ability to think and create. Writing allows us to open up our thinking and explore ideas more. Linda Rief writes that "understanding the process in which students engage in order to craft a piece of writing is as important as the final product" (Rief, 2007). Also Rief explains that students need to keep their writing in a special notebook.It gives students a sense of "security and comfort so they can write more freely and honestly"(Rief, 2007).
     Also Rief reminds us that writing doesn't just happen with words, much like Einstein, some students think in "visual images"(2007). We as educators need to give students the key to their voices, as writers and readers of writers. That key will allow them to think critically about their writing,and the things they are reading. Even more importantly it will allow for them to think critically about their learning.

It really is an interesting 19 minute presentation.
  Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com

This above all to they own self be true...

Where the confusion begins...

As I was going through week seven's reading I thought about the book and the movie He's Just Not That Into You, especially this scene which is the introduction to the story line.

I find myself questioning the role of gender identity in the classroom. While as educators we pat ourselves on the back for girls doing so well in both literacy testing, are we neglecting them because of gender stereotyping. Bronwyn T. Williams quotes Sanford's work "By quietly doing their work well, girls also may find that they do not receive as much of the teacher's time and consideration"(Sanford, 2005).  All too often we focus on boys because as the saying goes, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Boys act up and the teacher focuses on them, they behave and we praise them for it. Girls do as accepted seeking approval and maybe get a pat on the head.
I thought about my own literature choices and found that even as a young reader I was more interested in books similar to what the researchers have found. Even in my own writing, when I have created short stories. I always thought it was so that I could work out on paper the issues I was having. But I question now if it was really just my following a stereotyped role I didn't realize I had been taught.

As I have matured I have found more interest in books that take a new twist on the female and male protagonist. Recently the 9th grade class I worked with used Ellen Hopkins novels as both independent reading books and a class read-aloud book . Both the five boys in the class and the lone female were taken by the stories and the characters. The books lead to some interesting and at times uncomfortable discussions about the life of adolescents and what the class could relate to.

I want to question the concern for not wanting books that bring sexuality, and violence to the fore front of classroom discussions.  For years, even when I was in school myself one of the concerns was that if parents or teachers didn't talk about such things with students, they would talk about them with their friends. That will lead to misguided ideas, which will then only lead to greater issues for those adolescents.

I was among the thousands who were jumping up and down rejoicing Abby Wambach's goal for a number of reasons, first my own daughter plays soccer and I think it is great to be able to show her that females can achieve such heights in sports. Secondly, I am from Rochester and so is Abby. The comparison of Abby to Landon Donovan is both great and forehead slapping. Great because it shows that women are just as amazing as male athletes. And the forehead slap because even with amazing women like Abby and her team mates, the gender stereo typing with only be more intense. If the US team doesn't continue on, or even possibly win the World Cup will it be because they aren't as good as male athletes? If they do win will it be more of a pat on the head and a "Oh good job girls."

When I was working on my graduate program I had to do a presentation on gender stereo typing in the classroom. I put together a class activity for my professor and classmates to do illustrating the fact that we are more aware and educated about male figures in history, science and math. Also those males, are all white, with a handful of African American exceptions. All in all of the faces that I presented, the class knew about 5% of them. This activity made me more aware of the gap and that girls need to have more positive role models presented to them as well role models of minority groups.

I know that saying let boys and girls read whatever is going to get a book in their hands so that they are reading, I worry about continuing the stereotypes. I think about my daughter and son, do I want them feeling they have to fall in line with these standards? Will my trying to encourage them at home to be themselves be enough to counter the gender identification issues adolescents face?

Sameness as fairness and finding the perfect anything

I am not sure what happened that my orginal post didn't go up but I am retrying. Cross your fingers.

I found as I read the chapters on Sameness and Fairness, Permission to Fail, Issues of Literacy and Power and Building Success with Underachieving Adolescents, I found myself drawn to parts of the readings and just irritated by others. Though when I really thought about my irritation it wasn't what they were saying it was the fact that I have been witness to some of it and here is some pointing it out in a much grander scale.

What really stuck out to me was the video by Gladwell. I LOVED IT! I loved it because it said exactly what we as educators already know, but maybe we need to keep hearing it. There is no perfect.....(lesson/student/teacher/etc.) What Howard Moskowitz released and then passed on to the food industry is that different kinds people like different kinds of food. The data that was collected from the Pepsi research showed no bell curve but was scattered, extremely scattered. The data didn't make sense, until Moskowitz looked at it a different way. They were asking different people what they prefered, and by doing that they got different responses.

So take that into the education field. Why do we have such extreme scores on standardized testing? Because, there is no standardized student. Different backgrounds, different cultures, different family structures, different everything and anything and you get scattered results. Our students don't learn the same way, some need more time, some need less, some need to figure it out on their own and still others need it broken down to the bare bones to understand what it is that we are teaching. As each teacher has a different style so do our students. When do we stop doing the "universal search" and start on the "understanding of variables"?

Code Switching

I'm still getting used to blogging on here.

After this week's readings I find myself drawn back again and again to Lisa Delpit's chapter about her daughter Maya. I agree with her view on why it is so easy for kids to pick up additional dialects. When you can identify with a group because you are comfortable with them you relax and are open. You find them to be inviting and fun (Delpit, pg.39).
She also points out why this isn't the atmosphere in the classroom for so many. "Students rarely get to talk in classrooms. The percentage of talk by the teacher far outweighs that by all the students put together."(Delpit, pg. 40) Sadly it is the truth. Add that to teachers knowing little about their students and their background and you have a sorry combination. A mentor of mine used to have a sign in her classroom that said "No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."
Teachers need to help students find motivation in the classroom and students aren't motivated if they don't feel that teachers care or understand them.
Delipt writes that once teachers internalize an understanding of certain facts about students particularly students of cultural backgrounds different from theirs "then it is much more difficult for them to judge their students' abilities solely on the basis of their language form." (Delpit, pg. 42)
And this isn't an easy task to undertake, but teachers need to do it and they need to believe in why they are doing it. Delpit points out that only once we are connected to our students and they are willing to connect with us do we hold a chance at getting them "to adopt our language form as one to be added to their own."(Delpit, pg. 48)

Language Diversity

In a nation where literacy seems to be a dominant focus in our schools it seems that we easily forget where we came from. "Multilingualism was always highly valued in Indigenous societies and, indeed, was essential for trade and survival in one of the most culturally, linguistically, and ecologically diverse regions of the world."(Lomawaima, McCarty 2006) But as our nation developed indigenous societies were not looked at in this sense.  I find it surprising that, "In fact, first-language literacy among the Cherokees in the early 1800s was higher than that of the local White population"(Lomawaima, McCarty 2006).  It was easy for white missionaries to decide they were going to make it better for Navajo, Cherokee and other indigenous groups, they didn't understand and there for didn't trust these groups.
Lomawaima and McCarty write that "Native societies were assumed to entirely lack or possess only rudimentary forms of the building blocks of a civilized society, such as governing bodies, codes of law, or organized religion. US educators assumed that Native societies also lacked educational systems." (2006) But that was far from the truth. Native societies had all of these in place, it just didn't fit the mold of the standard educators felt worked best.
Currently there aren't many educators out there who would say that every student learns at the same rate, or in the same way. But what has changed over the years to make us see that? And why are we still holding on to the need for language learning the same way we always have?
After reading about triligualism and the use of multi-languages it makes sense that students who have the literacy skills for a native language and English would do well. I think it should be embraced and expected more, that students who are English first learners about have their second language courses at younger ages instead of waiting to a point where it is harder to grasp.

"What Literate Americans Know"

    Over the last week I have been reading and hearing a great deal about the issue of literacy and what educators need to do to help improve it. I participated in a workshop with Mike Mattos, veteran teacher and administrator who now gives talks on RtI and Professional Learning Communities. It was eye opening to see the statistics he had, as well as some of the work that he and others have done to show how well RtI can work. The ideas from Mike Mattos then were joined by the readings from E.D. Hirsch Jr., Lisa Delpit, Laurie Olsen and Stuart Greene.  
    E.D. Hirsch Jr. created an extensive list in his book Cultural Literacy:What Every American needs to Know.  His point being that understanding of these thousands of things allows for Americans to communicate with each other in a fundamental way. Hirsch points out that "the standard of literacy required by modern society has been rising throughout the developing world"(Hirsch, 1988). He explains that we as a society are stuck doing things as the system of education had standard for in the 1950's. However that standard no longer applies and if we continue to maintain the status qua we will not be able to compete in the economic world.
    We live in a time where information is essential and advanced technology pushes this information faster and further than when Hirsch first made his statements regarding literacy. His points are still relevant though. To understand the words on the page, there needs to be a foundation of understanding that many adolescents, children and even adults don't have. Hirsch also states that nationwide communication allows for a national language, which is sustained by national literacy (Hirsch, 1988).
     As I looked over Hirsch's list of What Literate Americans Know, I found myself thinking of it as "What Educated Americans Know".  If  I were to ask a hand full of my 9th graders what a tenth of the items on the list were they would not have an answer, that sadder part is that I could also ask adults that are in my work place and have them hesitate to respond as well.
    I thought about what would be on my list. I doubt it would be as long at Hirsch's. There are specifics that I would have but not limited to the following:
   *The Declaration of Independence
   *The Constitution
   *The Federalist Papers
   *The Gettysburg Address
   *Abraham Lincoln "A House Divided"
   *Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have A Dream"
   *Franklin D. Roosevelt  "Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation"
   *Franklin D. Roosevelt "The Arsenal of Democracy"
   *Franklin D. Roosevelt "Fireside Chats"
   *John F. Kennedy "Inaugural Address"
   *Woodrow Wilson "War Message 1917"
   *Woodrow Wilson "The Fourteen Points"
   *Elie Wiesel "The Perils of Indifference 1999"
   *Robert F. Kennedy "Remarks on Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination"
   *George W. Bush "Address to Congress and the Nation on 9/11/2001"
   *Rudolph Giuliani "9/11 Speech to the United Nations General Assembly"
   *Bill Cosby "Address to NAACP 50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education"
   *Maya Angelou "Remarks at the Funeral for Coretta Scott King"
   *Maya Angelou Poems including but not limited to I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and  Phenomenal Woman
  * Jane Austen
   *Emily Dickinson
   *Robert Frost
   *William Shakespeare
   *Langston Hughes
   *Walt Whitman
   *Ralph Waldo Emerson
   *The Diary of Anne Frank
  * Howard Zinn A People's History of the United States
   *James Loewen Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened.
   *Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried
   *Randy Pausch The Last Lecture
   *John Gatto Dumbing Us Down and Weapons of Mass Instruction