"Learning the Write Way" by Deidra M. Gammill (Michelle Smith)

This article focused on how writing can be used to build reading comprehension, to self-question, activate prior knowledge, infer, and reflect. Writing-to-learn can be implemented in the classroom with two strategies: K-W-L and reading journals. K-W-L is a chart that can be completed as a whole class or individually, which is used to represent what students know, what they want to know, and what they learned. Reading journals are a way for students to reflect on their learning, and are also a way for students to make connections. Both of these strategies can be used at any grade level, with a few modifications, and with any subject area. Writing to learn is a way for students to organize their thoughts on paper, which helps them think critically.

Writing to learn can be used in a kindergarten classroom with any of the subject areas. Using a K-W-L chart for science and math lessons would be a way to integrate writing into the lesson. This would help students recognize what they already know about the subject matter, and would give meaning to the lesson as their questions in the “w” column were answered. In kindergarten, we would fill out a K-W-L chart as a class, where students would contribute what they know, and want to know at the beginning of the lesson, and then at the end of the lesson we could close by completing the “l” column, what they have learned. Reading journals can also be used in any subject area, but would be especially useful in language arts. Our kindergarteners are still learning how to identify letters, and the sound each letter makes, so few of them are able to write actual words. Reading journals could still be used, where we could encourage students to try their best to write words, and draw a picture to represent their thinking. This is a great way to assess students’ comprehension of a book, and summarization skills. We could also use the reading journals before reading a story and have the students make predictions through pictures and labels. This is similar to the publishing activity we viewed in Cyrus Limon’s class in the way that the students would be using inventive spelling to write sentences, along with pictures. However, reading journals takes this a step further because now students are using comprehension strategies to understand the story, and writing their understanding of the book/lesson on paper.

In order for writing to learn to be effective in my classroom, I would need to spend time modeling how to write in a reading journal, and how to contribute to a K-W-L chart. We would start with one of these strategies alone for a whole unit, and then focus on the other strategy the next unit. For the reading journal, I would have students begin by simply drawing pictures. As students were writing/drawing in their reading journal, I would circulate around and see whether students were drawing pictures to explain the story, or if they were drawing random pictures. After a few days of drawing, I would add in the writing by having students label, or attempt to write sentences. I could use their reading journals as an assessment to not only assess their comprehension strategies, but to assess their phonics knowledge (if they can segment words into sounds, and write down letters to represent those sounds), and letter identification.

It was refreshing to observe a kindergarten class using writing strategies in this module because most videos and lessons I have observed deal with second graders or older. Most of my assessing will take place while students are working with me in their guided reading groups for literacy. I also plan on informally assessing two students each day by taking detailed observation notes on their work and participation throughout the day. I feel that holding writing conferences would be most effective in mt class. Students will feel more comfortable to express their thoughts while meeting with me one-on-one, so this will be a better way to measure their growth, and monitor their progress and learning.

School Talk: Conferring in the Writers Workshop, NTCE Elementary Section (Allison Mooney)

This issue of "School Talk" consisted of a compilation of various articles all surrounding the ideas related to conferences with students embedded into the writing workshop.  


"Writing Conference: Breaking the Silence" by Ralph Fletcher
"Conversations with Student Writers" by Carl Anderson
"Teacher Talk: Developing Voice and Choice in Writing" by Yvonne Siu-Runyan


     The main ideas presented in these articles were all related.  It centered around the fact that traditional approaches to conferring with students might, in fact, not be the most effective way to help students learn traits to become better writers.  One article highlighted the fact that teachers need to step back and do something as simple as just converse with their students, as they would a friend or colleague.  It also urged teachers to respond as writers and laugh when they thought something was funny or mirror their honest feelings (ie: "I was pulled in at the beginning because I love swimming, but when you started listing lots of people I was confused").  The articles also encouraged teachers to help students find their voices when they might be frustrated or discouraged as writers.  One article encouraged rehursal to become a main part of the writers workshop in hopes that students who say, "I don't have anything to write about," can TELL stories they find meaningful to an audience and then write down the words.  The articles also focus on being a teacher and a learner.  It is important to sit eye level with a student, make them feel like their ideas are valued and to model these practices to students.  Mainly, the goal of these articles was to help teachers understand that the main goal of conferencing during the writers workshop is to help students become better writers, to teach the writer not the writing and to help students use writing and thinking techniques and strategies.  


     Conferencing could definitely be used at the kindergarten level.  It could be used during any portion of the writers workshop.  Especially in kindergarten, young students need a lot of scaffolding and modeling in regards to writing.  It could be used during the pre-writing and drafting stage by talking and conversing with students to gain a sense of what they are going to write about.  It would be beneficial to use here because a teacher could help a student elaborate on an idea by asking open ended questions.  If a student said they wanted to write about playing outside, the teacher could help the student think of a particular time they played out side and ask who they were with, what happened etc.   It could also be used during the revising, editing and publishing stage many ways.  It would be important to take into mind the developmental level of kindergartners and each student in general. This is where a small conference while circulating around the classroom to assist and model for children how to use phonetic spelling and how to find sight words in the classroom would be helpful.  


These articles help enrich writing instruction beyond what I saw in Mr. Limon's video because they enable teachers to step back and remember that they are teaching human beings.  It is important to take into mind that these students have different voices and are at different abilities and sometimes teachers straddle that line of being completely in control and having the students in control.  These articles present ways for teachers to positively and (possibly) effectively confer with their students.  The articles encourage students to respond as a writer, praise specifics, provide short conference times with one focal point, have students become "problem finders," mirror thinking and to reflect post-conference for the teachers' own benefit.  


As a professional, I would need to learn more about how the writing workshop can be applied in a kindergarten classroom.  I do not see all stages of the writing workshop in my classroom and I am not sure how I would be able to scaffold the students to maintain the level of writing as seen in Mr. Limon's video.  Personally, I still think I need to learn more about developmental writing and about how to help students effectively write, learn aspects of writing, and to introduce phonics into the curriculum.  


The module components have helped me see how it is possible to structure a writers workshop at the kindergarten level and that it can be successful (the video especially).  In order to plan my units, I now realize that writers workshop can be beneficial for kindergartners and that it is important to introduce components of good writing now so that they can grow as writers and foster good writing techniques.  


I want to remember/consider that all of my students have their own voices.  I also know that some of my students are not motivated or say they don't like writing.  I have also seen that there is a big focus on perfection as students write in my class.  My CT likes things a certain way.  As I plan for instruction I will remember that my students have a voice and stories to share and I will try different techniques such as story telling to help them become interested in sharing their ideas through writing.  I will also try and incorporate some activities that involve more developmental writing so the students are not focused on forming perfect letters and words.  

School Talk: Conferring in the Writing Workshop by Marianne Marino and Hindley Salch (Katie Gleason)

This issue of School Talk is all about conferring with students on their writing which means simply conferencing with them with them one on one to have a conversation about their writing. It is said to start a conference with simple questions to get a conversation going as well as setting up assessment ideas such as “How’s it going?” or “What are you doing as a writer today?” This gives the students a chance to take ownership of their writing by retelling to their teacher. As the teacher talks with the student they assess what that individual student is doing as a writer. There is also a point at the end where the teacher talks with the student about how to be an even better writer. They are to focus on the student’s writing and teach them specific ways to improve it. I really love the approach that is talked about in this article because it is all about listening to what the student has to say by asking the question such as “How’s it going?” while having an expression of sincerity. This shows the writer that the work they do as a writer really matters!

I would love to use this approach in my kindergarten classroom. My reasoning for this is because it is very hard to assess writing during a whole class activity. I also have a few quiet students in the classroom that will tend to stay away from discussion as a whole class, but if we sit down and talk with them separately they tend to talk much more. I really like how much it shows the students that we care about each of them, and what they are learning. As a professional I need to become comfortable with assessing students in a conversational on the spot style. I have noticed many teachable moments that have just showed up that I could have taken to ask questions and assess. I would like to be able to have a conversation with a student about their writing experiences comfortably. This seemed to be an attainable skill with practice and beginning prompting questions.

In my student work that I collected I felt as if I would really like to go back and talk with a few students about why they wrote what they did and what their thought processes were. After reading the School Talk article I feel as if conferring with students is a perfect way to go about this! During my unit students will be doing writing as a few centers, and I would like to incorporate conferring with students after completing centers. From student work I would like to plan a conference with students where we would be able to chat about if they enjoyed their writing and why they wrote what they did. I would also use this time to talk with students on ways to improve their writing.

The Forgotten Genre of Children's Poetry by Sharon Ruth Gill (Jen Flanagan)

          This piece is about how poetry has become a forgotten genre. After attending a book fair made Sharon Gill think about how children’s anthologies seem to be more in the past and focused on “classics” rather than the 20^th century. She explains that there are many 20^th century children’s poems, but these books aren’t easily seen in bookstores and are definitely not at book fairs. If children became more educated on understanding what poetry is—“a concise and memorable case of language, with intense feeling, imagery, and qualities of sound that bound pleasingly off the tongue, tickle the ear, and leave the mind something to ponder,” then they will appreciate the works of poetry. In the end, it is up to teachers to make it a point to not let poetry become a forgotten genre when teaching in a classroom. It’s up to teacher’s to make a difference and to speak up for a forgotten genre.

            In Kindergarten, poetry can fit in any language arts curriculum. In my classroom, we have read a book almost every day. This is where I could teach my students about poetry and read poems by a variety of poets—both “classic” and 20^th century poets. I would further this approach by having students write their own poems or writing a poem as a class (since my Kindergartener’s have a hard time writing solo.) Incorporating poetry into any language arts curriculum can enrich writing instruction. It makes students think more deeply about what they are trying to express. Poetry is a different kind of expression in terms of writing. It has a unique set of guidelines and “rules” to follow. If students learn to read and write in this context, writing instruction can be enriched.

In order to use this approach successfully with my students, I think that I need to learn how to facilitate a classroom discussion as well as the approach I take to explain a new genre to my students. Explaining something new to Kindergartener’s takes a lot of practice and repetition. I think I will need to learn how to approach this topic in a simplistic manner. In terms of thinking about types of assessments for my unit development, I thought that the “Record-Keeping Form” from the article, “Assessing Writers” was a great way to keep thoughts about student’s and their writing. For Kindergarten, it might be hard to do this because my students can’t write stories of even sentences. However, just watching them write letters and talking to them about their writing, I can learn about what I need to do to teach my students about writing and the writing process.

            As writers, I think about the capability of my students. I know that some of my students can write, but I know that a majority of them can’t because they don’t know how to spell, let alone write words or even sentences. I think I need to know what my student’s are capable of writing even though they might not be able to write it. As long as they can verbalize it, they can one day write it on paper, as writers.

Book Club Plus

In our classroom, we have been using the Houghton Mifflin reading curriculum. This is very similar to the Book Club Plus model in the way that students are practicing reading strategies (such as predictions, summarizations, decoding, etc.). Also, students will be using literacy centers, and will be placed in guided reading groups once they have finished STEP testing. One of the main differences between these two instructional models are that Houghton Mifflin focuses primarily on reading, with few writing tasks incorporated in the units, where the Book Club Plus model involves all aspects of literacy.

The Houghton-Mifflin book has word for word what to say to the students as you are teaching them. Besides the literacy centers, which do not begin until Unit 4, most of the lessons are more teacher directed, rather than student oriented. For example, all of our lessons begin on the carpet where my cooperating teacher will give examples of rhyming words. Instead of the students working together in groups to discuss which words rhyme, and how they have come to that conclusion, only one or two students will be called on to give a rhyming word. The students complete many worksheets throughout the day, such as writing their letters, and circling pictures that have a specific beginning sound. The students complete these worksheets independently, and are not allowed to speak. It will be interesting to see the transition from completing worksheets to centers and guided reading groups, where the students, hopefully, will be sharing their thoughts on books, and working together at literacy centers. Although the students will be placed in guided reading groups, they will not be participating in book club groups.

Reading is seen in our class during our read-aloud every morning. Students have also been given miniature books that contain the two sight words that they have learned (I and see). The sight word books have “I see” and then a picture followed by a punctuation mark to represent a sentence. Students also read in the morning while we are during our calendar, days of the week, and months of the year songs. Writing is seen in our class when students first come into school. The students enter the classroom, put away their backpacks, turn in the homework folders, check-in, and then complete a writing worksheet. The worksheet will have letters for the students to trace, and then a few lines for them to write the letters on their own as a review from yesterday’s lesson. Later in the day, after students are introduced to a new letter or sight word, they practice tracing and then writing the letter or word. Students spend most of their time listening and viewing in the classroom. They listen to their peers help with the circle time activities, and they listen to the teachers as we teach our lessons. They also listen during their specials, such as art, gym, library, and computer class. Students are beginning to speak more in our classroom. I suggested to my CT that we have the students share their pictures that they draw based on the read-aloud. We have been having five students per day come up to the front of the carpet, and explain to the class what they drew a picture of. Students also speak during circle time if they have the days of the week or calendar job for that week.

I am hoping to incorporate some of the methods I have read in the Book Club Plus model when I begin my guided lead teaching. I would like to give the students more opportunities to talk, and work in groups.

Book Club Plus

I found the “Book Club Plus” to be insightful and helpful when thinking about literacy instruction. I really like that everything points back to discussion groups. For example the concept map on page 11 really breaks this down. It has discussion groups in the middle and then read aloud, writing and community share and all of these aspects can go back to discussion. This model is more like literacy instruction in my classroom than unlike it. The students very often after a read aloud are told to turn to a neighbor and discuss a guided question. One part of the “Book Club Plus” that is constantly being utilized in my classroom is that of making predictions. Every time we read a book we ask for predictions at least once. This is a great way to track comprehension and simply a way of determining who is paying attention during the read aloud. One thing that I noticed when reading was speedwriting. My CT calls this free writing but has explained that it will soon be a part of their curriculum, This can really promote a interest in writing as they can write what they would like to write about.

In my classroom we do a lot of reading during read aloud. This is when we use books with a lot of repetition. This is a great opportunity for the class to read along together as we point at the words. The students have not done a lot of formal writing other than writing their names, but they have done writing as far as mathematical equations and labeling pictures with words. In the writing we have done thus far there have been a few students that get frustrated with inventive spelling, but for the most part students are catching on to sounding out a word they would like to spell. We also do a lot of modeling with inventive spelling which seems to help. There is a lot of listening and speaking in our class. Whenever we have discussion on the carpet these two area of literacy are constantly intermingled. My CT never just stands at the front of the classroom and lectures. The students are always expected to be listening and answering questions when they arise. I have also seen viewing in the classroom. For example when we discuss during a lesson we often write on the easel and go over what we write over and over so the students don’t repeat the answers that were already said, but also so the students can get used to seeing written language that they actually thought of writing.

Book Club Plus vs. Reading Mastery

My CT uses one particular literacy instruction within my Kindergarten classroom along with her own ideas. Reading Mastery is the main literacy instruction that my teacher works with through out the school year. This program starts by teaching phonemic awareness and sound-letter correspondence. From there, word recognition and short readings come in to play. With word recognition, comes vocabulary development, comprehension and reading aloud. “Later lessons emphasize accurate and fluent decoding while teaching students the skills necessary to comprehend and learn from expository text. Lessons are designed to be fast-paced and interactive. Students are grouped by similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes placement assessments and a continuous monitoring component.”

This is similar to Book Club Plus (BCP) in regards to what happens within literacy centers. Both instructions have centers that focus on reading, working with words, phonics, vocabulary, and process writing. In both models, there are guided reading groups, writer’s workshop and teacher read aloud. Since my students are in Kindergarten, there are a lot of teacher read aloud’s. Within guided reading groups in Reading Mastery and BCP, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, letter-recognition, etc. is taught. Another similarity involves assessments. Both instructional models have some form of assessment to assure that students are learning what they are being taught. The main difference being that BCP involves assessments of reading, writing, culture, discussion, and evaluation. Reading Mastery only focuses on the reading aspect of literacy.

BCP is also difference in the sense that it has shared reading, independent reading and book clubs. Due to the fact that my students don’t know how to read, there is no shared reading involved within my classroom. That being said, students don’t get to hear their peers reading. Independent reading takes place on rare occasion in my classroom. These readings seem to be pointless because my students don’t know how to read and see this as a time of social hour. They are looking at the pictures but aren’t engaging in meaningful learning. Within BCP, there are a lot of opportunities for shared reading, and community sharing. Within Reading Mastery, this does not take place. Book clubs also do not take place within Reading Mastery. Students are secluded to their guided reading groups only and haven’t gotten to the point where they can have a successful book club.

Reading is seen in my classroom when students have to do calendar, read the word name, signs around the classroom and certain words that my teacher has the students reading. Writing takes place when my students have to write their names, write letters and numbers. With the new Radner Model curriculum that has been implemented in my school, students are to do all the writing with no dictation. Students have been writing letters to try and represent what they are saying, but they have no foundation yet.  Listening is always seen in my class. Students have to listen to stories being read, directions, and they have to listen to their peers. Speaking is seen when my teacher calls on students when their hands are raised and in certain other situations. When they are at their tables, they aren’t to talk, but talking can be seen since they have a hard time listening to that expectation.

Book Club Plus vs. StoryTown

The curriculum we use at our school is called StoryTown.  The teachers guide provides teachers with daily lesson plans and even provides scripts to follow.  Comparing this curriculum with the Book Club Plus suggestions shows me that there are many differences and a few similarities between the two curriculums.  StoryTown uses more direct instruction.  Many of the lessons are about telling the students different things like what rhyming words are and what a syllable is (for example).  Then the teacher and the students will do examples all together with teacher telling them what to say.  These concepts are later present in a book that the curriculum provides for the students and is read to the class after the teacher tells the students what the concepts are.  To me, this is not as meaningful as it could be.  Much of the focus in StoryTown to me is based around phonics instruction.  There is a theme in StoryTown, and maybe it is the way my CT has presented the material, but I was not even aware of an ongoing theme until she gave me the teacher guide.  She does not focus on the theme or ask the students to make connections between the texts or even explore the theme further past reading a story about it.

The Book Club Plus curriculum seems more literacy based.  There are still the same aspects and objectives present in the BCP curriculum, however they seem to be more intertwined into  literacy and a thematic approach.  For instance, many things like phonemic awareness and rhyming can be introduced using different types of literacy and can be supplemented with direct instruction. I liked how BCP has different roles for the teacher in regards to instruction. It seems to me that most of the StoryTown curriculum is explicit instruction and modeling.  In BCP, they encourage a variety of teacher instruction ranging from the teacher controlling most of the lesson and students controlling most of the lesson.  I think this would work for kindergarten because they do need a lot of direct instruction, modeling and scaffolding at first but as they begin to grasp major components of literacy, they are able to be independent and can take more control of their learning by use of discussion and presenting.  When using the StoryTown curriculum, I have noticed a small amount of teacher directed discussion, however the questions were short and there was no student to student discussion.

Both curriculums seem to be theme based.  Like I said, I think it is more meaningful to have a theme like BCP where various components of literacy are present within that theme and within valuable literature.  Both curriculums seem to be flexible (to an extent).  BCP seems to take into account that all classrooms are different and teachers are able to choose literature based on what their students needs are.  StoryTown provides themes.  One theme later this year is "Down on the Farm."  This frustrated me when I found out this was a theme because it is not very applicable to urban children in an urban setting.  How will this be meaningful?

I do see reading, writing, listening, viewing and speaking in my classroom.  The students do independent "reading" after their journal times, where they look at books.  They are not supposed to be speaking during this time so it is meant to be silent reading.   They usually look at the pictures and when they ask me to read to them, I have to explain that it is silent reading time and they can use the pictures to figure out what is happening in the story.  They also "read" the morning message, which they have memorized, but it is different each day, so they can do the part with the date easily but then when the words change like "P.E. is tomorrow" or "Art is next week," the teacher reads this and if the student can read, they read along too but the rest of the class mumbles with us.

The students enter the classroom and begin to write in their journals.  By writing, I mean the teacher has written on the board and in SOME students' books (a few don't have it written in their books but they write it independently) "Mm is for _____" and the students need to trace what the teacher has written and then one student gets to pick the word for that day.  M was the letter the first week, and then S.  The phonics program chooses the word order and it is not explained as to why.  The students must write the word independently or as the teacher to write it and they trace it.  They must write it in lowercase letters.  These are the journal writing rules my CT enforces.  It is not correlated to what the BCP textbook says is appropriate for emergent writing.

The students mainly listen to the teacher read a story during the language arts lesson and they listen to the teacher during the morning meeting where we do calender, what school day it is, and the weather.  They rarely receive time to listen to the ideas of their peers.

The students have opportunities to view books during the silent reading time.  The teacher brings one bin of books from her library and they are allowed to choose from that bin.  There are about 15 other bins in which they are not allowed to choose from that sit in her "reading" area.  They also view the morning message written on the whiteboard and they watch the teacher complete the morning meeting activities such as calender.

The students speak occasionally when the teacher asks questions based on the StoryTown curriculum guide.  Sometimes she will ask them to predict what will happen in a story when she is half way through.  They are allowed to discuss their ideas about math during certain math lessons.

In conclusion, the ideas that are presented in BCP are somewhat contradictory to what I see in my classroom.  I would like to try and implement something more appropriate to their age (which they discuss a lot in the BCP textbook.)  Hopefully my CT will be open to this.

Task 2 and Edits

Wadsworth Elementary is in the Woodlawn area of Chicago. Our school is located on Woodlawn and 63rd. Prior to visiting places of our community, I decided to research the history and dynamics of Woodlawn. Woodlawn is 98% African American and over 1/2 of its residents are on some sort of social aid (Wikipedia). Honestly, knowing this information prior to visiting areas of the community did give me some feelings of anxiousness. I was not sure what to expect. I am from a small suburb of Detroit and I was from a mainly white community. At first, stereotypes of the homeless and people living in poverty came to mind. What would I see as I visit a place where half of the people are on governmental aid and 93% of my students are described as "low income?"

Before visiting places around my community the other interns in my school cohort asked the teachers and students in our school where they liked to visit in our community. We inquired about restaurants and after school "hangouts." Some of our teachers said that it was not safe to go to ANY restaurants around our school. Our students said that they typically went to Giordano's in Hyde Park, the YMCA after school and the grocery store down the street. These are the three places we choose to visit. We figured that the restaurant was something that the students might visit on a special occasion, the grocery store might be something that the do with adults at home to get food they eat on a more regular basis and the YMCA is something that many of our students do as a social event or after school.

I expected to see a grocery store that is typical of the chain grocery store, Aldi. From my experience, Aldi is a grocery store similar to L and L or Jewel Ossco. I expect to see children and adults shopping for food because we plan on visiting after school. (Edit: The grocery store was much smaller than I expected. There were about five isles, and there was no deli and a very small produce section. Based on my experiences at Aldi prior to this, I am surprised to see such a small store serving this community.) At the pizza restaurant, I am expecting to see a restaurant typical to Italian eateries. At the YMCA I am expecting to see a recreational center with a pool, possibly a play area outside and children participating in after school activities. Based on my research of the community, I guess in regards to biases I expect to see many African Americans who seem to be struggling financially. I am not sure what this might consist of or if it will be the case. (Edit: At the grocery store, I did observe a man and a woman arguing over the price of something, saying they could not afford to buy so many groceries. This does not necessarily mean that they are poor or reflected by the statistics of the community, however it shows that these families are aware of a budget and possibly watch watch what they spend. At the restaurant, I saw families of many different ethnicities dining out together. This also shows that there is still a disposable income within the residents of this community and they are able to go out and spend money on leisure such as eating in a restaurant.)
I see myself as somewhat of an outsider, however based on my experience at my school with such a friendly staff, I have become somewhat "used" to being a minority in my community. Other outsiders might find this intimidating at first (I know I did). (Edit: Outsiders might be surprised by the small grocery store or by the lack of families shopping there after school hours. I was surprised to see there were no children and about 10 adults shopping at this time.)

I expect to see many types of inter-connections between reading, writing and listening at the places we are going to visit. For example, I plan on seeing people reading and writing grocery lists, reading labels and prices and listening to store announcements, cashiers and other people in the store. (Edit: I did hear a couple arguing about what to buy and prices, they were required to read the prices and listen to each other speak about it. I also saw cashiers reading prices and discussing the amounts with customers. I also saw three customers on their cell phones. This is an aspect of literacy that is new and might be relative to students we teach.) At the YMCA I expect to see children and adults reading signs to see where to go within the building and listening to directions that are given. At the restaurant I expect to see people listening to each other speak, reading the menu and discussing it with the wait staff and writing their name on receipts. (Edit: These were present at the locations!)

( Task 4 Edit: I have definitely learned a lot about my community throughout visiting these places. I know that my neighborhood is not very safe and the crime rate is high. I teach/work in this environment and these families live in it. However, I see that there is literacy and math present in many aspects of the community despite the fact that the community does not have many funds and might not have state of the art buildings or facilities. I have learned that each school, community and family brings different experiences to our school learning community. I think as a teacher it is important to help students see that they are learning all the time, whether it be at the grocery store, eating out or at the YMCA after school.

Much of the Compton-Lilly article was about connecting home to school experiences. I think that the funds of knowledge idea could really help out in my school community. For example, in my school at least in my classroom, there is a lack of parental involvement. This is sad because they really have a wealth of knowledge and can lead us to learn about their child and help us understand their development thus far. It might be hard for a teacher to do home visits, as the teacher in Compton-Lilly did. However, a neat solution might be to send home a questionnaire for parents to fill out on bright colored paper and offer that the returnees will be entered in a drawing for a certificate to a store in the community. This might involve parents and help encourage them to help us learn more about their child and their own personal experiences that they can contribute to the classroom.)

Task 2 Post - Michelle Smith

When asking my kindergarteners where they like to go on the weekends, and what they do after school, they did not really know the names of places they visit. They said things like “going out to eat” but did not know the name of the restaurant, or “going to the park” but did not know which specific park. I suggested to the other Bret Harte interns that we go to the YMCA since three of my students attend the after school program. We have also decided to go to Jackson Park (right across the street from our school), the Museum of Science & Industry, which is about a block or two away from our school, and Mellow Yellow, a restaurant nearby. I am going to be visiting the Museum of Science & Industry and Mellow Yellow on Saturday, two of the interns visited the YMCA yesterday afternoon, and another intern will be visiting Jackson Park tomorrow afternoon. We chose these places because they are all within walking distance of our school, and we feel that many people within our community visit these places.

I believe that the Museum of Science & Industry will be very diverse, racially and socioeconomically. I think that people who live in our school community will visit, as well as people from other parts of the country who are visiting Chicago. I expect to see mostly families at the museum with both parents in attendance since I will be going there over the weekend. I will also be recording the people, building designs, plant life, stores, and music I hear while walking to the museum. I expect to see mathematics in action while purchasing my ticket, at the vending machines, while looking at the map of the museum, and the layout of the building.

While visiting Mellow Yellow, I expect to see mostly African Americans since our school consists of mostly African American students. I expect to see families at the restaurant, couples, and friends of all ages. I will also be recording the music I hear in the restaurant, the building design, the people I see, and the surrounding stores. I expect to see mathematics taking place while people are paying for their meals. People will be counting their money, calculating the tip, dividing the check up among a number of people, etc…

I think an outsider may be considered with the number of people, and the demographic of the area if they are unfamiliar with this. I have been living in Hyde Park for over a month now, and do not feel as much of an outsider anymore. Moving here for the first time was a little different for me, but I actually grew up in a very diverse area so I became accustomed to the area and the diversity pretty quickly. One thing I noticed on the bus though, one of my first days in Hyde Park, was that I felt like I was the minority. I think that an outsider, if they are a young Caucasian female like myself, may be uncomfortable being the minority if they are used to “blending in” with everyone else.

At the museum, I believe that I will see literacy taking place in the form of all three types. People will be communicating with one another on the exhibits they see, some may be writing down what they see if they are participating in a school project, and most people will be reading the information posted under each artifact, the museum map, signs to various locations in the museum, and the shows that will be taking place. At Mellow Yellow, I will see waiters/waitresses jotting down customers’ orders, and we will see customers writing on the check if they are paying with a credit/debit card. We will also see people communicating, and reading the menu. In addition to people at both the museum and restaurant communicating with other people they are with, we’ll be seeing people talking on their cell phones, and text messaging.

There will definitely be connections made between the two places I am visiting, as well as the places the other interns are visiting. Literacy is such a big part of our every day lives. We communicate with one another, whether it be orally, or through a cell phone or computer. Reading is important wherever you go because you need to be aware of street signs, so you can find your way, signs in the museum so you know where the exhibits are, and of course the menu at a restaurant so you know what you can order. Written language may not seem as common as reading and communication, but when you are text messaging on your cell phone, that is considered a form of writing, and even simple tasks such as paying a bill and signing your name.

TASK 4: After Community Experience

I actually ended up visiting a local church (St. Thomas the Apostle) and on my way home, walked through the 24th Annual Children's Book Fair on 57th Street & Kimbark. My initial prediction on how the population at Mellow Yellow would be was accurate at the book fair, but not at the church. At St. Thomas the Apostle, it was very diverse! This is a catholic church, and on Long Island, although I live in a diverse area, our church has mostly Caucasian parishioners. This was not the case at St. Thomas, there was an even mix of Caucasians, Asians, and African Americans. I also noticed a larger number of elderly people, and young couples than families. The Children's Book Fair was also very diverse with mostly Caucasian and African Americans. This was surprising to me since the book fair was only a few blocks from Bret Harte. I thought that the book fair would consist of mostly African American families who have children that attend Bret Harte. Seeing how diverse the book fair and church were made me realize that the students in my class have grown up in a diverse area, and some of them commute from other areas. Some students take the city bus to school everyday with a sibling or parent, while others walk a few blocks to school.

While walking through the book fair, I immediately noticed all of the literacy around me. There were books at every booth, and these books were alphabetized by author, and categorized by genre. There were a few authors at the fair doing book signings, such as Blue Balliett, Beverly Patt & Janet Nolan, Marianne Malone, James Kennedy & Sallie Wolf, and Cynthea Liu & Patricia J. Murphy. These authors were using literacy in the form of writing by signing their names. There was also literacy present in the form of writing when people would sign up to volunteer at an event by writing their name. Literacy was present in the form of reading in numerous ways. People in the community were reading summaries of books, reading the brochure that was handed out, and reading signs at each booth. Visual literacy was present in book murals that were displayed all around the fair. On these murals, the names of the illustrators, painters, and designers were displayed for participants to read. There was also visual literacy in the form of entertainment, such as a storyteller reading a story, and the participants following along and viewing the book. Communication was another form of literacy present throughout the fair. People were communicating with one another, discussing the different books and entertainment, as well as communicating with the vendors about their products. Entertainers were also communicating while presenting their books, or expressing themselves through dance, and music.

It was wonderful to see the resources these students have available to them since the book fair had almost one hundred vendors from the area. In the Compton-Lilly article, she said "They found that despite economic challenges, parents found ways to support their children with reading and writing (page 450)." This book fair provided an opportunity for low-income students to purchase books for as low as ten cents a piece. Many of the booths at the book fair were selling gently used books for under a dollar. I even saw one booth where you could spin a wheel and have an opportunity to win a free book!

When visiting St. Thomas the Apostle Church, literacy was found in many different forms throughout the mass. People were reading along in the bible, as well as reading the words to songs while singing them. Communication was present while saying prayers aloud. Visual literacy was all over the church, such as the Stations of the Cross, and the saints that were on each stained glass window. At the end of mass, a bulletin was given, which was full of parish information, and upcoming events. In the bulletin, there was also a section for children where they could fill out a crossword puzzle. Literacy was also present as people were leaving the church because they were communicating with one another. People were also reading street signs, checking their cell phones, and reading church fliers as they were leaving.

Through my exploration of the community, it became evident that although students may be coming from a low-income home, they have access to books, and literacy in general in their everyday lives.

Task 2: Considering the Community-Katie Gleason

I am at Shoesmith Elementary on 50th Street in Hyde Park, and have come to find that the majority of my students live in walking distance to the school or somewhere in Hyde Park. Myself and the other Shoesmith interns have decided to stay close to the school and explore various places our student frequently visit. One place is the Hyde Park Produce store on 51st street because it is a store where most families that live in the area seem to shop at. A grocery store is a great example of where my students may interact and be exposed to literacy. As young children walk through a grocery store with a parent they frequently ask for the parent to buy them something. In this case they child would have to read the print or look at the pictures on the cover of a product as well as read the price of the item. Another place we plan to visit is Leona’s Pizza right on 51st street. When I asked my kindergarteners where they like to eat many yelled out “Pizza!” This is a restaurant with quite an extensive menu with a lot of variety. This will be neat to read what the students in our school read when ordering here. We already visited the Farmers Market last weekend and we also plan on visiting Cleopatra’s hair salon on 51st.

At the farmers market there seemed to be a lot of mothers with either very young girls and boys or older girls. There were not many boys under the age of 10 it seemed. I expect that the Hyde Park Produce store will be about the same. At Leona’s I expect to see families with children as it is a pizza place. Literacy will be very apparent at the restaurant because children tend to look at menus as they know it shows the food they will be receiving. I visualize Cleopatra’s with a majority of African American customers because the demographic of the Hyde Park neighborhood seems to be having a large concentration of African Americans.

I live only three blocks from my school so at first I felt like an outsider because I didn’t know the area at all, but over the last few weeks I have grown to become very comfortable in my new neighborhood. So while I feel as if I’m not as much as an outsider anymore I often wonder, even though I live in the neighborhood and feel comfortable living, if the community as a whole considers me an outsider. Personally when going to the farmers market, grocery stores and restaurant in my new neighborhood I don’t feel like an outsider at all. Although, there are places that if I were to go to, I would feel like an outsider. One of these may be Cleopatra’s Hair Salon. Hairstyling is a very intricate and important part of the African American Community, and because the make-up and texture of my hair is different than those who may have their hair done at Cleopatra’s I would initially feel like an outsider.

I really like this idea that is asserting that reading, writing and oral language are all interconnected in the learning process. I think that at any grocery store all of these can be interconnected. For example you may write a grocery list to buy all of your products and while at the grocery store read the list as well as read the labels of each product to see what it is, and perhaps even talk to someone with you to see if that’s the product to buy. Now that I think of it, it would be very beneficial for a parent to go through this process with a child that is developing in order to have them go through an interconnected literacy process.

In our classroom we have a decent sized area store where there is a kitchen with many appliances as well as a shopping cart and play food set up as a store with the cash register and fake money. It would be a great lesson to have the students create a grocery list and go shopping. They would have to read from the list the created to buy their food, and talk to store workers about how to find the products on their list. This would be an excellent way to utilize three types of literacy in one lesson as well as math. This lesson would also connect the student to their community with literacy in mind; to the point where when going to the grocery store the students would think about what they did in the classroom!

Task 2: Community Visit--Jen Flanagan

Upon beginning this assignment, I asked my Kindergarteners at Woodlawn Community School where they like to go outside of school. They said things like, “my Granny’s house, the park, Library, McDonald’s.” All great answers, but answers that weren’t of much help. I wanted to go into a place that was different from any place I had ever been. I knew it was impossible, at least this early, to go into one of my student’s grandparent’s house. I have been in many McDonald’s, especially the one in Woodlawn. I knew what to expect at that McDonald’s which is why I chose to not go into one. I want to go into a place that is unfamiliar and fresh. Megan and myself decided upon to places to visit, Chuck E Cheese’s and a local bus station. During lunch one day, I was sitting at the girl’s table. When I asked them where they have their birthday parties, most of them responded with “Chuck E Cheese.” I thought this would be a great place for Megan and I to go. We also chose to go to a bus station because we know that a lot of students take the bus into school with their parents or they ride the bus to get to places. We figured this is an essential part in the lives of our students in which we need to become more familiar with and we knew that we would see Literacy and Math at both places.

At Chuck E Cheese, I expect to see children playing with their siblings or parents, parents socializing, as well as a lot of reading and math conversions. Literacy will be seen from students reading the directions of the games, the menus, and the signs as to the prizes that they win with their tickets. I expect math to be seen when children have to read how many coins they need to play a game, counting how many tickets the have, and parents figuring out the bill. I do expect to see more African American people rather than Caucasian people due to the demographic of people that do live in the Chicago Land area, in the surrounding areas of Woodlawn and Hyde Park. I also expect to see a lot of mothers at Chuck E Cheese rather than fathers. I think that a lot of fathers will be working, so mothers will bring their kids. I expect that there aren’t going to be a lot of people there due to the fact that most of them will be in school. However, Megan and I have decided to go around four in the afternoon so that most students will be out of school.

I expect to see only a couple of people at the bus station. I am expecting to see families, maybe getting ready to go home from work or school. I am sure there will be certain people who are traveling alone, to wherever their destination will be. Literacy will be seen from the passengers reading what bus they are looking for, reading signs—such as how much they need to pay, maps/directions, etc. Math will be seen when people have to figure out how much money they have, the distance in which they have to travel, how much they might have left on their bus cards, etc. I do expect to see more African American people, as stated before. This again is due to the demographic in the surrounding areas and from what I have seen already driving home from school during the past two weeks.

I would consider myself an outsider, to a certain extent. I consider myself an outsider because I am still not familiar with the area/s surrounding Woodlawn. People in the area do not know who I am or anything about myself. Since I do no live in Woodlawn or Hyde Park, I am an outsider to those students that do live in that community. However, inside Woodlawn Community School, I am not an outsider. I am a teacher, part of the family within their community.

If an outsider was to come to Woodlawn, I think they would be concerned with the population and the demographic. Especially if they have never been to an area like Woodlawn. They would see people in the streets, people not minding one another, hollering, etc. This is something that I am already used to being in the school’s community for about two weeks now, but a “true” outsider might not.

As stated earlier, I think there are going to be many interconnections in the two places that we have chosen to visit. Reading is going to have to be done in both settings in order for people to do what they need to do. For example, at Chuck E Cheese’s, students need to read the directions of the games in order to start playing. At the bus station, people need to read the bus’s that are passing to see what bus they need to get onto. Writing will mostly be seen at Chuck E Cheese’s when parents are paying the bill (and they have paid with a credit card or debit card). Oral language will be seen in both settings, though mainly at Chuck E Cheese. This is due to the fact that communication is essential in almost all aspects of the things that we do.  Children need to listen to what their parents/friends are saying at Chuck E Cheese’s in order to act accordingly.

TASK 4--

After visiting Chuck E Cheese’s and a bus station near Woodlawn Community, I noticed so many interesting and surprising things.

In regards to my initial thoughts about Chuck E Cheese’s, there were children playing the games with their parents. Parents were helping children read the directions for the games and how many coins they needed to add in order to start the game. I did notice that there were two or three adults for each child that was playing a game. There were more adults there than there were children. Chuck E Cheese’s was pretty empty at around 4:30 in the afternoon. I expected that to be the case since students had school earlier that day. I am sure on the weekends, Chuck E. Cheese’s is more crowded.

At Chuck E Cheese’s, the first thing that struck me was the last of diversity. For a place in which a lot of my African American students go to for birthday parties and for fun, there were about three or four African Americans with the facility; the rest of the people where of Mexican decent. This surprised me at first due to the amount of students at my school that go to this Chuck E Cheese. However, after thinking about it, we were in a part of Chicago where the population is predominantly Mexican. I was also surprised at the fact that people were not friendly, at all. People/parents playing at Chuck E Cheese’s didn’t even seem to acknowledge that fact that we were taking pictures and walking all around Chuck E Cheese. I would have thought that people would be interested in what we were doing and asking questions.

My initial thoughts about the 67-bus station were not very accurate. There were two groups of people, none alone. One group seemed to be a father and a son and the other was a male and female (not sure of their relation). However, I could see how literacy and math were being used. Each group had to read what number was on the bus to make sure that they were getting on the right bus (which is also mathematics).

I was very surprised when we visited the 67 bus right off Stony Island, which is a couple of blocks away from Woodlawn. I was more surprised than not with this community encounter. I thought that the people at the bus station would be very cold and judgmental at what we were doing. Megan and I approached a couple of people that were standing at the bus stop and asked them if we could take pictures of them getting on the bus, etc. for a project we have to do. They were so understanding and asked questions about Michigan State, Woodlawn Community. They were really inviting and understanding about our project and almost seemed excited to be a part of it. We even got a picture of the bus driving waving to us!

This community experience has helped me learn about my students because a lot attend birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese’s. When they talk about Chuck E. Cheese’s at school, I will know what they are talking about and the games that they have played. When they talk about the bus that they take, I know exactly what bus they take and even the bus driver! In regards to families, this experience helped me understand what parents do for fun with their children as well as what families need to do in order to pick up or drop off their children at school. Some families might not be able to afford to pay for a car, so they use public transportation. It is mostly an assumption when I say that my students who take the bus can’t afford a car. However, this assumption leads me to think about the finances within my student’s families.

This experience will help me implement lessons that talk about Chuck E. Cheese’s and using the bus system. Since I know more about what the children to at Chuck E. Cheese’s, I can write math problems that involve coins needed to play a game. I am going to take this experience and use it to my full advantage. I am hoping that students will be more engaged in learning if they can relate to what they are learning about. I know that my students are very knowledgeable; I just have to approach my teaching technique and community experience to expand their thinking.

In Compton-Lilly’s article, she states that Norma Gonzalez, Luis Moll and Cathy Amanti “argue that all people…bring funds of knowledge to schools and classrooms and that teachers should build on these funds of knowledge to design instructional programs that are responsive to students…”(450). This quote talks exactly about what we should be doing with the community experiences. We should build on the knowledge that the students gain at Chuck E. Cheese’s and at bus stops. Children are very knowledgeable and it is up to me to relate to their experiences and my own to “build on their funds of knowledge.”