Finding Time for Freedom within a Structured Curriculum

Negotiating the Literacy Block: Constructing Space for Critical Literacy in a High-Stakes Setting, by Paugh, Carey, King-Jackson, and Russell, describes the work of a teacher and literacy coach in developing a curriculum that carefully works within the required Basal reader and literacy standards while still allowing for student innovation and creativity and offers on-point, personalized instruction. The problem with the highly structured curriculums that developed out of a culture of high-stakes testing and (sometimes unfair) processes teacher accountability is not that the curriculum is bad in itself but that it does not address the specific needs of specific students and that it does not allow for innovation; “mandated curricula ignore ‘students’ cultural/linguistic/imaginative capital’” (32). In a world where social and economic success not only requires knowing how to read and write printed texts but also assumes active participation in collaborative community events” (31), a world that increasingly  requires critical and creative thinking, teachers should create space for such learning as well as a space for standard curriculum. (This Ted Talk on Motivation in the Workplace illustrates the importance of creative thinking in the modern workplace.)

Reflecting on the predominately non-white, urban students of this article, their teacher realized that students from non-privileged backgrounds needed explicit instruction in the language of schooling schooling in order to gain access to educational success. Adding “Choice Time” (later changed to “Design Time” because students were so proactive in designing new methods for their own learning) to the Literacy Block gave students a chance to work on what they specifically needed in a way that worked with their style of learning. Choice Time allowed students to choose between a variety of activities for learning vocabulary and spelling, such as Look Say Cover, Spell with a partner, Sentence Strips, Hangman, etc. This time also gave students opportunities to develop social negotiation skills as many students borrowed ideas and encouraged each other.  Over the course of the year, Choice Time grew to incorporate student ideas officially. For instance, “Apple Tree”, a version of Hangman, was developed for a girl whose religious beliefs would not allow her to participate in a violent game. This approach gave children the opportunity to be proactive and self-motivated, to drive their own learning in a very positive way.

To fully understand the implications of their innovation, the teacher and literacy coach used multiple forms of assessment at the end of the year. “These included: 1) the district-mandated reading assessment (the Developmental Reading Assessment) which measures students’ fluency and comprehension, 2) the changing landscape of the classroom (evidence of students’ initiative in creating new rules, social relationships, and investment as they interacted with Choice Time texts); and 3) the Choice Time activities themselves (as) evidence of student innovation, participation, and connection to the state standards for English Language Arts.” (39). Results showed that most students in the class were ending the year at late second-grade or early third-grade levels – right on target.

This article gives me hope that, even if I do accept a job that forces me to work within a highly structured curriculum such as a Basal Reader, there are ways of also finding time to meet specific student needs.

iMovie

Last week for class, we had to make short videos using iMovie. There were a few ways we could proceed. I chose to do a live-action movie. So I got my child - we shall call him Luca - to tell me a story. At first he wanted to tell a story involving a BBgun, but I talked him out of it for two reasons. The first is that, while he is homeschooled, stories about guns and gun use in public school classrooms is frowned upon. The second was that, considering we were going to make a live-action movie, using a BB gun seemed reckless and afforded too many opportunities for a mishap. So we compromised and I allowed him to tell me a story involving a bow and arrow. The story he decided to retell was that of Robin Hood.

It took quite some prompting to get Luca to tell me a full Robin Hood tale. I tried not to add any details myself, but to prompt him with questions: Where does Robin Hood live? Does he live with anyone else? Does his robbing from the rich make anyone angry? (I realize this last one was definitely a leading question, but it helped move the plot along.) After we had the story outlined, we made a voice recording. Luca refused to tell the tale at first, so his sister told the first clip. Then Luca was ready to tell the second two.

Getting the story recorded was all I (and the kids) had time and energy/attention for that day, so I returned a week later to shoot the video clips. We went out into their back yard. It is a beautiful, wooded area with a somewhat run down play house that served as Robin Hoods home. There are a few bloopers - when I didn't notice my finger was covering part of the iPad lens, when Robin Hood dropped an arrow instead of firing it, when the wealthy villain refused to give his gold to Robin Hood (which punched a hole in our plot line). Overall, though, the filming went smoothly.

As much fun as I had preparing the movie, I have to admit that I became obsessed with editing it. I was sick that week and, while I didn't feel up to doing homework that required full cognitive consciousness, I had too much work to condone just lying around all day. So I spent hours tinkering with the movie, getting the credits just right, making sure the music lined up properly, cutting clips and putting them back together. In class I learned how to make clips slow motion, how to add sound effects (the "golf swing" sound effect worked perfectly for firing an arrow), and how to add a clip of the production company (Literacy Playshop Films) to make it look professional. (FYI, I did this by making a trailer in iMovie, which walks you through that step, saving it to my iPad, and then using just the clip of the production company in my movie.)

I think my professor may have opened a Pandora's Box for me - I got so excited about the movie that I neglected other homework. Did I choose the wrong profession?? I think not, but this is definitely something I want to incorporate into my future classroom. I hope my future students have as much fun as the kids and I did, and are as proud with the final product as we were!

The place of technology

“Digital, Hybrid, and Multilingual Literacies in Early Childhood”, by Aria Razfar, begins with a simple question: What counts as literacy in early childhood? Is literacy simply the ability to read and write? Or is it more complex? The decades have shown an unprecedented growth in the variety and proliferation of electronic and digital media and of children’s access to that media. Multimodal activities - activities that semiotic (meaning), digital (technological), and multilingual tools - are therefore crucial to children’s acculturation into the modern world. Of course, at the moment, it seems as though my students are more tech-savvy and adept at navigating this world of informational technology than I am. I suppose this means I need to “up my game” so that I remain a valuable resource.

In addition to he need for students to learn how to use these tools to function in the modern world, these tools are also simply part of their everyday life. Razfar states that literacy development is a “dialectic, collaborative, effort of the community of learners rather than a solitary act,” and that learning should be “natural, purposeful, and appropriate to the child’s environment.” To me, this means that for instruction to be effective, it must be engaging and for it to be engaging, it needs to connect with what children already know, care about, and are interested in- a meeting of minds, so to speak. As much as I may be out of the loop, connecting to students through modern technology and technological practices such as online chatting, film-making, video gaming, etc. If teachers (such as myself) pay attention to this aspect of their students’ lives, “links to school become more viable and cognitive growth is promoted.”

The article went through four anecdotes about mediational tools. The overall consensus is that multimodal instruction, and instruction that values the languages and cultures students bring to the classroom, is in no way detrimental to student learning and that “children can benefit from enriched repertoires of media text.

My one hesitation in regard to this article is that there is a focus on learning and using the technology that students are already familiar with to promote learning, to the detriment, it seems, of other modes of learning. 

"Tech Zombie"

There is an incredibly rich world outside of the world of technology. I love to read. I love studying cultures, past and present, and trying to understand multiple ways of interpreting the world. And I love to take long walks in the woods to reflect. I think that the fast-paced, highly stimulating technological world we live in detracts from these things that take time, that require us to slow down, that require us to think deeply rather than react immediately. So once again, as I have stated in several blog posts now, I think it is about finding balance – in this case, a balance between the need to educate students in and with technology and to share with them the beauty of older traditions (such as reading books…). School should, to my view, teach children multiple ways of interpreting the world, so they can both function in the world and find a way of being that reverberates in their Self. 

Playing to learn: where literacy and play collide

The article I found for this blog post - "Kindergarten as Nexus of Practice: A Mediated Discourse Analysis of Reading, Writing, Play, and Design in an Early Literacy Apprenticeship.", written by my illustrious professor :) -  is about integrating literacy with children’s natural instinct to play. The article states that, “When literacy and play combine, they support and strengthen one another, proliferating the ways for children to “do school” and increasing access for diverse learners.” The reading supports play goals, and the playing supports reading development.

If one considers how children use play to negotiate, imitate, and mediate the “real world”, it seems natural to use play to do the same for reading. Literacy is simply one aspect of the “real world” that children will have to face every day; why not let them play to develop interest and understanding?

According to Vygotsky’s popular theory on learning, learning takes place in a social context. Literacy learning is no exception. Children begin to encounter literacy in mediated settings (mediated by parents, teachers, peers, etc.) and over time  gain more control in a gradual release format. Play illuminates and promotes this social aspect of learning.

In the article, the children in the class being observed divided into three groups for literacy play. One group, composed of boys and girls, “played” school – they reproduced daily routines and imitated the teacher’s behavior (in activities such as a “played” read-aloud.). A second group, comprised of girls, appropriated and revised Disney stories to fit their own social and individual needs. The third group, boys only, enacted college sporting events. This ability to choose what and how to play allowed for learner agency over traditions of child obedience.

In these groups, children used books and multimedia tools. They “negotiated their interpretations of book and film meanings, vied for valued play roles and empowered classroom identities, maintained joint play scenarios, and protected child-controlled space…  (They) determined how Kindergarteners should act as readers and writers, leaders and followers, girls and boys.”

In a sense, combining literacy and play is just another example of integrating curricula. I think that in this, the information age, the need for play is overwhelmed by the need to learn how to use various forms of media and sign systems and by the need to learn so much information. Play is important! School is not just a place to learn stuff, it is a place to be socialized, to gain understanding of one self, one’s peers, and one’s socio-cultural landscape. Play accomplishes this. And if it can be done in a context of practicing literacy skills such as storytelling and story making, so much the better!

Wohlwend, Karen E. "Kindergarten as Nexus of Practice: A Mediated Discourse Analysis of Reading, Writing, Play, and Design in an Early Literacy Apprenticeship." Reading Research Quarterly 43.4 (2008): 332-34. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/20068350?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Kindergarten&searchText=as&searchText=a&searchText=nexus&searchText=of&searchText=practice&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DKindergarten%2Bas%2Ba%2Bnexus%2Bof%2Bpractice%26amp%3Bprq%3DKindergarten%2Bas%2Ba%2Bnexus%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bracc%3Doff >.