Week 3 Post - Laura Hilfinger

When reading the text from Book Club Plus! A Literacy Framework for the Primary Grades, I especially noticed the chapter about writing, chapter four. In my first grade classroom, so far we have mainly focused our literacy on our Writer’s Workshop. In this way I think that my teacher focuses mainly on the second “emergent literacy” view on children’s writing (p. 45). We focus in my classroom on getting the children to put their thoughts on the paper. If A student can draw a picture of himself and a friend on their bicycles, and then they attempt to write a sentence or two about the picture they just created, we typically consider this a successful writing example. One problem I see with this is that not all of the students try their hardest when we say that anything they write is correct. There are some students who write just the first sounds of words, there are some students who write just the first and last sounds of words, some students try to write all the sounds they hear, and some students even try to include vowel sounds in their words. I think that we should encourage writing their ideas down as much as possible, but I also think that sometimes we need to encourage the student to move to the next level of creating words.

The traditional view of writing that places a high priority on the accuracy of spelling and letter formation (p. 45) is something that I have not seen in my classroom yet. We have not started spelling in the classroom yet, so this is probably why we have not placed an emphasis on correctness in writing. I am looking forward to seeing the writing workshop combine with the spelling we will expect from the students during our spelling weekly word lessons. I also have noticed in my classroom that many of the students do not use any type of sentence structure to make their workshop stories. I will see sentences with capital and lower case letters all randomly mixed up with no spaces between the letters, and the child will point to their picture, pretend to move their finger across the letters, and explain the picture they drew. There is no connection between the text and the picture, however the kids do make the connection that these things should go together.

Blog- 9-27

In looking at my kindergarten classroom, in light of the Book Club Plus framework, I started to see similarities and differences in the way the Book Club Plus implements literacy and the way my classroom teacher implements literacy. I think that it is important to note that, I have yet to see a full spectrum of literacy in action in my classroom, and so my observations thus far are nowhere near a clear reflection of what literacy instruction in my classroom may look like in January. Right now, we are just trying to get the children engaged with the basics of paper and pens and books in general, being the children are five years old. In the Book Club Plus framework, the idea is that literacy instruction is centralized around a specified book that is either homogenous amongst the learners, or heterogeneous, with different small groups reading different books. Using the book club books as a basis, different types of instruction are used: community share, closing community, reading, writing, student book clubs, and literacy blocks. Community share is “a whole group instruction in which the teacher teachers learners what they are going to do in their upcoming reading or writing, how to talk about a text, and how to teach skills and strategies,” (Cohen, 2010). In my specified classroom, there is a lot of community share. Before each of our lessons we teach, we provide children with a whole group instruction of what they are going to be doing in either reading or writing. Often the mini-lesson involves showing the learners how to implement a new strategy or skill, or how to engage in readers and writers workshop. It is very explicit and helps the learners to know what is expected of them and how to engage in the tasks they will be given. Often times the lesson is done using think-alouds, where my teacher, or myself, models for the children how to apply certain strategies or skills. As far as closing community, our learners do not engage in this, as it is laid out in the framework. The framework says that closing community is a time for learners to, “share ideas and issues that emerged in their book club discussions” (Cohen, 2010). Our learners do not do this. Instead, after our learners have engaged in readers or writers workshop, we pull them back together for a whole group discussion in which we talk about what we noticed that was going well, and what we, as teachers, saw that we think needs to be modified. We also allow it to be a time where learners talk about their experiences with readers and writers workshop. Reading, the next component of the framework, is similar, but a little different. In the Book Club Plus framework, reading is a time in which teachers engage learners in read alouds and/or shared reading. Our class does read-alouds daily, multiple times throughout the day. In this part, the frameworks are similar. In contrast, however, our shared readings are set up a little different than in the framework. The framework has shared reading being a time in which teachers provide each learner with a version of the book, in a small group setting. In this small group setting, the teacher reads the story and the children follow along. In my classroom, shared reading is done through a giant book, in which the learners are able to see the print and read along, but they do not have their own books and it is not done in small groups. The purpose of the shared reading, in my classroom, is to scaffold the learners in the skills they need to learn how to read, and also to teach the learners about concepts of print. Writing, the next component of the framework, is greatly different in my classroom than how it is used in the framework. In the framework, writing is supposed to be a time in which learners reflect on what they have read and have opportunities to evaluate, inquire, and critically reflect on the book they are reading during student book clubs. In my kindergarten class, we do not even have student book clubs, let alone provide children time to write about the stories we read in class. Writer’s workshop, in my class, is a time in which the learners write about things that have already happened to them. It is not connected to the various readings we do in class. With this being said, my cooperating teacher has informed me that once we start the Daily Five, one of the centers is going to be where the learners sit and listen to a book on tape. Once they are finished listening to the book on tape, they are required to draw a picture of their favorite part, and maybe add words, if they are able to. Lastly, my class does have a version of the literacy centers that the Book Club Plus framework talks about. In my class, we have what is called the Daily Five. This is a time when the children independently move through various literacy activities while my teacher and I pull guided reading groups (another component of the Book Club Plus framework). Our centers will involve a listening center, letter identification and games center, a word study center, a writing center, and a reading center.
In being in Kindergarten, our entire day, I feel, is dominated by literacy instruction. If someone were to ask me when literacy instruction takes place, I would say all day long. Looking at the flow of our day, my learners come into class where they get their book bins and read silently for the first 10 minutes of school. After that, they come to the carpet where they engage in morning meeting, a time where they go over the calendar, the poem of the day, and the morning message. At this time, they have opportunities to read the poem, calendar, and message, view all three, speak, when I ask them questions, and listen to other learners. After that, my learners have readers’ workshop where they read and view books. Following readers’ workshop, they have word study, in which they are able to use speaking, sometimes writing, reading, and listening to engage in word study activities. From word study, the learners then engage in writer’s workshop, where they are able to write, and at the end, speak about what they wrote. The Daily Five then follows, in which the learners go around to centers, as groups of learners are pulled for guided reading. Once lunch is over, the children engage in making meaning, in which they interact in all but the writing aspect of literacy. Making meaning is followed by math, where the learners engage in a lot of listening, viewing, reading of math (math literacy), and speaking. Their day ends when they engage in structured play, a time when they are able to do some more play based activities like play-doh. However, even at this time, the learners are actively engaging in discourse amongst one another, and thus are engaging in literacy, even though it is not through direct instruction. Sometimes throughout our day, we have social studies and science, but even then, the lessons are heavily focused on story reading and discourse among learners.
Focusing closely on the style of writing that takes place in my classroom, in regards to writing into a text, through a text, and out of a text, I have really not seen my learners engage in any, in the written form. Like I said before, my learners are soon to be able to engage in the writing about their favorite part of a story, a very simplistic version of writing out of a text, but that is not till much later in the year. In the mean time, whenever my class talks about a book as a whole, we do it orally. I found it interesting, however, that we touch upon and talk about all different types of points that one would have the learners write about as they write into, through, or out of a text, we just do it orally, in large group. For example, before reading a story we have the learners, predict what they think is going to happen, raise questions, highlight the premise of the story, etc. Though my learners are not writing out the information, they are still benefiting from having the talks take place orally, amongst one another.

Updated Observations from 9-21

I, as a future educator, strongly believe in learning about all of my learners, looking at them in the perspective of the “whole” child. I believe in understanding my learners in the context of their family, community, culture, and individual personalities. In order to learn more about my learners’ community, I want to explore the surrounding areas around my school, Walled Lake Elementary. In order to start to understand the community for which my learners live and interact with, I want to not only explore the basic places, such as the library and the grocery store, but explore those places my children frequent regularly, that are specific to Walled Lake. I want to go to the places that are a part of my learners’ everyday lives. In going to the places that my learners normally go to, I hope to gain a perspective on what they are learning outside of the classroom, to see the literacy that they engage with on a regular basis. Having already conversed with my learners a lot over the last two weeks, I have come to realize that a lot of my children go to the local beach, Mercer Beach, a lot frequent the local park, and a lot of my little girls go to the local dance studio. On top of those three main places, I also want to go to the establishments that the learners of the school, as a whole, see as relevant and popular. This would include going to Tom’s Root Beer stand, a local establishment across from Walled Lake. It will also include Bayside Bar and Grill, the major restaurant in town, the local Dairy Queen, where the majority of the upper elementary students hang out, the local batting cages and the local Laundromat.
In exploring my learners’ neighborhood, I expect to find a close-knit community. The reason I feel as though it is going to be close-knit is from the signs and events I have already noticed. Every Friday, there are tons of flyers that go home with the learners, for dance classes, Halloween parties, and apple pickings going on in the local community. Though it cannot be confirmed that it is a close-knit community, I tend to feel as though my observations coincide with my belief. For example, the main sign that says, ‘Welcome to Walled Lake,” is filled with a bunch of posters and flyers for community events. Furthermore, when our one member went to the Bayside Bar and Grill, she noticed that the staff was very warm and informal, making the environment very welcoming. Furthermore, I expect to find houses that reflect a middle to high socioeconomic area, due to the surrounding large houses. When I went and observed my community, I found that though I did see a lot of large houses around the lake, there were a lot of smaller homes farther away from the school. Though I did not see the complex myself, I know from asking the teachers at my school that a lot of the learners come from a neighborhood called, “The Village,” an apartment complex. This proved my misconception that most of my learners were from higher middle class false. This was a surprise to me. Furthermore, I expect to find a lot of restaurants, beaches, and boating activities, due to the importance of Walled Lake to the community. I am thinking I am going to find that a lot of where the community goes and a lot of what the community does will be centered around Walled Lake. This I found to be completely true as it seems as though all of the popular places around my school, for people to attend and hang-out at, are located around the historic downtown, located next to the beach. I feel as though there will be a lot of opportunity, in the community, for my learners to witness multiple types of literacies, due to all the resource areas, for example, the local Laundromat and library.
Having not conducted my exploration into my community yet, I cannot say for certain about what was confirmed in my preconceptions or what was disconfirmed. However, I can say that through driving to my school, I do believe I may be correct in believing that there are a lot of literacies evident in the community and that the community is active, constantly reaching out to its inhabitants. As I pointed out earlier, I did recognize that my community is very involved. It seems as though Walled Lake continually has community events. Though I am not positive yet, I feel as though it may be true just from the signs I have already seen and the involvement by the community I have already witnessed.
In touring the community and going to the places that my learners most often go to, besides their own home, I hope to start to understand my learners’ funds of knowledge, and the literacy that they come into contact with, outside of school. I expect to see literacy in all forms, from the signs in windows, to the labeling of buildings. I expect to see environmental literacies at the beach, technological literacies, such as using of computers,, and even visual literacies, through objects such as street signs. I expect to hear a lot and learn a lot also through the discourse that takes place at different establishments. The type of talk and conversation that the people at the places engage in will tell me a lot about the community and the types of conversations my learners may have partaken in or overheard. What I expect to see, hear, and learn, is about all the different types of literacies evident in the community. In learning about the different forms of literacy, I hope to bring forth the different types into my classroom to make meaningful lessons for my learners. Though I am not positive if this will be true, that I will find all sorts of literacies, or a lot of enriching discourse, I feel as though my expectations might be right just from what I have already witnessed through the involvement of the parents, the involvement of the community, as I mentioned, through flyers and community events.
As I have pointed out, a lot of my expectations about my community were correct. I noticed a close-knit community that really valued bringing together the people for events, and providing a lot of resources for the inhabitants. For example, there is a community center right next to our school that provides preschool, holds sporting events during the winter, and offers adult classes. I pointed out earlier that I was really surprised by the socioeconomic status reflective of the neighborhoods. I had expected that most of Walled Lake was higher up in the socioeconomic ladder. All of my life I had heard of how Walled Lake was this really nice area. Though the area is very nice, I did learn through talking to teachers and learners, that there is a definite socioeconomic gap. There are those learners that live in huge houses in fancy neighborhoods and those that live in the apartment complex on the outskirts of the town. The socioeconomic status of my elementary schools learners is definitely wide ranging. The knowledge I gained from learning that not all of my learners are from higher to upper middle class really changed my perspective of my learners.
From visiting the community, I started to see my community, learners, and school in a different light. I started to see that I would be working in a school where the learners were going to be coming in with a wide range of experiences (though all learners, no matter their demographics do), and some may come in with completely different outlooks of the community in which they live in. I might have learners who go to a certain set of restaurants, while I have another group of learners who go to a completely different set. From the experience, I also learned that there are a lot of cultures represented in my immediate area around my school. Our school is one of the most diverse in Walled Lake, having all types of ethnicities, and over 25 languages represented. This too adds to the diversity and varying experiences that I can use as a wealth of knowledge both from the learners of the school and from the learners’ families. I learned that my school and community is filled with resources and that if I were to ever need anything from either, I feel as though I would have resources on hand.
This experience, as a whole, helped me to gain a better perspective of my learners and their families, of my school, and of the community. From the knowledge that I gained, I hope to really be able to create a classroom that fosters all that I learned. I want to have a diverse classroom that represents all my learners’ ethnicities. I believe in bringing in children’s lives and who they are, into the classroom lessons. For example, I might have the learners write a poem titled, “Where I am from,” or use multicultural texts to teach social issues. Catherine Compton-Lilly wrote, in her article, Listening to Families over Time: Seven Lessons Learned about Literacy in Families, “I now encourage my colleagues to learn more about the families they serve (2009).” This really resonated with me, in the belief that all families are a valuable resource and should be used as a resource to enrich the classroom dynamics and to better learn about where each of my learners come from. I also want to create a warm environment for my families, by doing home visits at the beginning of the year, and also creating lessons in which parents can be volunteers or provide materials and support for lessons. I believe that so much knowledge can be gained from a learner’s family, for they are the number one expert on their learner. In addition, I want to bring the community into the classroom. For the most part, my learners have grown up in the Walled Lake community, and they have experienced all sorts of literacies from living in the community. For example, visual literacy from the street signs that they read, social literacy from the interactions they have with others, and even mathematical literacy, from the math that they read in their environment. It would only make sense for me to take their knowledge that they know, and use their knowledge as a base for my lessons. In order for learners to better understand, or find relevance and meaning in the lessons, learning must connect to their lives. If I can bring in the community, and the types of literacies they have experienced, into the classroom, I feel as though I would be helping my learners and providing them with a foundational base to start off their learning. They would be able to use their prior knowledge and experiences. Taking this perspective, I will start to see my learners as literate beings who already have a plethora of knowledge. I will look at them as a resource and plan my lessons to not discredit their prior knowledge, but to use it to help enhance their learning.

Week 3 post

After reading the chapters in Book Club Plus! A Literacy Framework for the Primary Grades, and particularly focusing on the book club model, I noticed a great deal of similarities as well as differences within my classroom literacy instruction. I learned how important the appropriateness of text is in relationship to the quality of learning that will take place within each student. If each student does not have a variety of thought provoking, age-appropriate text to choose from, the classroom literacy instruction will be very limited for these particular students. As educators, we need to ensure that every child will have suitable materials that will enable them to gain the necessary literacy skills they need to have to be a successful student. While looking at the book club model, I noticed that there were several components that are very prevalent in my own classroom. We often utilized teacher read alouds, independent reading (in centers), shared reading (whole group), and writers workshop (both whole group and centers). These four core elements take up nearly half of our daily schedule for most of the week (thus far). As the year progresses, we will start up our guided reading groups which will be a major focus for most of the year. Some differences between the book club model and our classroom literacy instruction is the types of literacy centers that are available on a daily basis. We do not have centers on language arts, journaling, or unit work. Our centers tend to have very specific tasks for each center. Our five centers are guided reading (with a teacher), independent/buddy reading, handwriting/writing, retelling/listening, and word study. Within our centers, the children spend approximately fifteen minutes at each center to complete a specific task. These tasks vary daily as well as weekly and adjust to the needs of the students. These centers allow the students to practice reading in nearly every station, writing in two of the centers, listening/viewing in every center, and speaking in three of the stations. These five components are not only practiced throughout literacy centers but also in numerous and various approaches across curricula and throughout the school day. Our students are given a great deal of time in the day to practice their writing. We utilized the Lucy Caulkins writing program almost every day. We have been instructing the students to write about what they enjoy doing, what they had done in the past week or so, what they are planning on doing over the weekend, etc. At this time we are not allowing the students to create fictional stories. I look forwards to seeing what other literacy instruction is going to be utilized as the year progresses.

Blog post 1 (9-21)

1. I will be visiting an ethnic food store that is located about 5 minutes from the school. It is called Babylon Foods. It is a grocery store that specializes in Middle Eastern and Arabic foods. I choose to come here because I have large Chaldean population in my class (nearly a third) and I would like to see what options their families have to experience their native food where they live now. I also think it would be beneficial and informative for me to see the types of food they like to eat. These things could help me understand the culture a little bit more.

2. I am expecting to see a large Chaldean population shopping there. I can’t imagine that this specialty store will have a large variety of different ethnic groups shopping there but I’ll just have to wait and see. I am expecting to see and learn about the different types of foods that the Middle Eastern population enjoy. I will be purchasing some of the “more common” foods (as informed by the workers) to try at home. I am hoping this will give me more insight towards their culture and will give me some talking points to ask my students about. I am also hoping that I hear some people speaking Chaldean. The language is very interesting to me and I would love to have the opportunity to hear the native language.

3. Since I have not visited this place yet (will be going their within the next couple of days) I cannot answer whether my expectations/assumptions were confirmed or disconfirmed yet.

4. I am hoping that this will give me insight on the types of literacy this particular ethnic group is introduced to. I am wondering if the products that they buy have the Chaldean and English languages represented on the packaging or if it is primarily one or the other. I am also curious if they read the same (directionality, return sweep the same way, etc). I know that some languages read from bottom of the page to the top and right to left. This will give me an indication of the type of literacy the children experience at home (considering a great deal of my students speaks Chaldean or a different language other than English at home). It will help me to know where I need to give additional literacy support to these children.

Task 4- After community visit

o What did you notice?

The majority of the people at the ethnic food store were Chaldean or Arabic. The items sold at the store really catered to this population of people. Every label in the store was written in English as well as Arabic. I noticed that I stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone was staring at Katie and me and talking about us in their native language. I also noticed how busy the store was. It was a small store but had a large following of patron customers.

o What surprised you? What didn't surprise you?

It was very interesting to be in a situation where you are the minority ethnicity. It really gave Katie and me the sense of being an “outsider” within their small community of shoppers. I was surprised by the reaction of one of the workers when we were taking pictures of some of the products. He initially thought that we worked for someone who was paying us for the pictures. He seemed very alarmed and guarded. When we explained that we were interns who worked at Maple Elementary, the man warmed up to us a little more and informed us that if we needed any help to let him know. I was also very surprised by another employee. He was very helpful and took the time to answer all of our questions and tell us some interesting things about his culture.

o How has this community experience helped you learn about your school, students, and families?

It really taught me a lot about the Chaldean ethnicity. A great deal of my first graders are Chaldean. It was very interesting to be put into a situation that they had mostly likely been in several times over their life; the feeling of being an outcast. I felt a little overwhelmed when I was unable to understand what most of the people around us were saying. It really made me relate to how my students’ must have felt the first time they came to school and couldn’t understand their classmates speaking English (most of my students are ESL). While at this store, I purchased a few items to experience some of the traditional food that my students eat. It was very interesting and exciting to try something new. Although, it was even more exciting when I told my students about the foods I tried and could really connect with them.

o How will this experience help you in your teaching?

This experience really opened my eyes to the diverse ethnicities that are present in my classroom. I would really like to have the opportunity to learn more about the different traditions and cultures of my students. I may try and use these differences as a positive to allow all of my students to gain valuable insight about the special dynamics of our classroom culture. It also makes me more aware of the special circumstances that ESL students may need. I have more of an appreciation for the ESL students because I know how frustrating it must have been to come to this school for the first time and not understand anyone around you.

o How will it influence your thinking about your students' as literacy users and learners?

This experience has made me consider new literacy techniques that could be utilized that assist our ESL students. I’m realizing that not all of my ESL students learn in the same way and that I may need to be more creative to adapt strategies that accommodate for those students who struggle with literacy due to being bilingual. I may want to talk with my CT about new strategies that I could work on when I become more involved in the classroom instruction. Using as many senses to introduce lessons could be one way to accommodate my ESL learners. I definitely have some thinking and exploring to do.

Week 2 Post - Laura Hilfinger

Task 2:

1. We are going to visit the different types of housing around the Glengary area because the biggest form of diversity at our school is economic diversity. We will also visit local restaurants such as the Dairy Twist and the 7-11 strip mall to see where the students like to go after school. We also are going to visit some parks and lakes in the area because they are everywhere so they are clearly an important part of the community.

2. We expected to see a variety of different neighborhoods that show the differences in income for the students. We also expected to learn about the different lakes in the area.

3. Our visits to the neighborhood showed that there were definitely different types of subdivisions in the area. There were trailer parks, “cookie cutter” type neighborhoods where every house is built by the same company, and there are really nice/huge houses on lakes. This confirms that there is a mix of socio-economic statuses at Glengary.

4. This difference in housing can mean that the parents have more or less time to work with their children after school, however, it does not help explain which parents will be part of which group. Obviously the people with more money will be able to provide their children with more books at home, but these parents might be working all the time so it might not happen. Overall the things I have seen through curriculum night and meeting parents before school started have shown me that the parents in this community express that they are interested in their children’s education clearly and often.

Blog 1- Mallory Gignac

I, as a future educator, strongly believe in learning about all of my learners, looking at them in the perspective of the “whole” child. I believe in understanding my learners in the context of their family, community, culture, and individual personalities. In order to learn more about my learners’ community, I want to explore the surrounding areas around my school, Walled Lake Elementary. In order to start to understand the community for which my learners live and interact with, I want to not only explore the basic places, such as the library and the grocery store, but explore those places my children frequent regularly, that are specific to Walled Lake. I want to go to the places that are a part of my learners’ everyday lives. In going to the places that my learners normally go to, I hope to gain a perspective on what they are learning outside of the classroom, to see the literacy that they engage with on a regular basis. Having already conversed with my learners a lot over the last two weeks, I have come to realize that a lot of my children go to the local beach, Mercer Beach, a lot frequent the local park, and a lot of my little girls go to the local dance studio. On top of those three main places, I also want to go to the establishments that the learners of the school, as a whole, see as relevant and popular. This would include going to Tom’s Root Beer stand, a local establishment across from Walled Lake. It will also include Bayside Bar and Grill, the major restaurant in town, the local Dairy Queen, where the majority of the upper elementary students hang out, the local batting cages and the local Laundromat.
In exploring my learners’ neighborhood, I expect to find a close-knit community. The reason I feel as though it is going to be close-knit is from the signs and events I have already noticed. Every Friday, there are tons of flyers that go home with the learners, for dance classes, Halloween parties, and apple pickings going on in the local community. Furthermore, I expect to find houses that reflect a middle to high socioeconomic area, due to the surrounding large houses. Furthermore, I expect to find a lot of restaurants, beaches, and boating activities, due to the importance of Walled Lake to the community. I am thinking I am going to find that a lot of where the community goes and a lot of what the community does will be centered around Walled Lake. I furthermore feel as though there will be a lot of opportunity for my learners to witness multiple types of literacies, due to all the resource areas, for example, the local Laundromat and library.
Having not conducted my exploration into my community yet, I cannot say for certain about what was confirmed in my preconceptions or what was disconfirmed. However, I can say that through driving to my school, I do believe I may be correct in believing that there are a lot of literacies evident in the community and that the community is active, constantly reaching out to its inhabitants. Though I am not positive yet, I feel as though it may be true just from the signs I have already seen and the involvement by the community I have already witnessed.
In touring the community and going to the places that my learners most often go to, besides their own home, I hope to start to understand my learners’ funds of knowledge, and the literacy that they come into contact with, outside of school. I expect to see literacy in all forms, from the signs in windows, to the labeling of buildings. I expect to see environmental literacies at the beach, technological literacies, such as using of computers,, and even visual literacies, through objects such as street signs. I expect to hear a lot and learn a lot also through the discourse that takes place at different establishments. The type of talk and conversation that the people at the places engage in will tell me a lot about the community and the types of conversations my learners may have partaken in or overheard. What I expect to see, hear, and learn, is about all the different types of literacies evident in the community. In learning about the different forms of literacy, I hope to bring forth the different types into my classroom to make meaningful lessons for my learners. Though I am not positive if this will be true, that I will find all sorts of literacies, or a lot of enriching discourse, I feel as though my expectations might be right just from what I have already witnessed through the involvement of the parents, the involvement of the community, as I mentioned, through flyers and community events.