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.
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