Double Entry Journal #3

Learning to read in elementary school is one of the most important things one should take before moving on to middle school. If you don't have a very good teacher, then that makes ALL the difference. Then, once you get to middle school and beyond, if you have difficulty reading, then that makes daily life pretty difficult. Every school year, students are tested; they are tested on many things. If a student can't read the test, or doesn't comprehend the questions being asked, that student could get a poor grade and this will alert the teacher to something being wrong. This is why reading test scores are important: so teachers can see that you are having difficulty, how much difficulty, and steps can be taken to help get you where you need to be.

Something I find a bit surprising is the myth about learning to read and write only occurring in elementary school. I suppose, after reading this article, I realized that you just get the basis for reading and writing in elementary school. As you progress through school, and life, you learn so much more. Reading and writing takes continued usage and practice to improve and develop a better sense of literacy. Something to help students with literacy and comprehension is to ask questions as you go along, or, one of my favorite ideas, is to group students and have them dramatize what they just read. This works with comprehension because some students didn't fully comprehend what they read, but working with classmates to act out what they just read helps it stick in their memory and it's an engaging experience. 

A discourse community is basically a group of people with a common interest or goal that has their own "-isms" that just this little community understands. Many discourse communities are outside of the school setting and this is where literacies that you don't learn in school are adapted. For example, I belong to a discourse community of people who have sugar gliders. We speak our own language that only a few of my friends who do not have sugar gliders understand because I have tried to educate them so they have some literacy on these small marsupials. Literacy practice, in this instance, would be when I am in a sugar glider chat room and we are discussing diet. I am literate on different diets that are good for gliders, so when someone asks "What should I feed my sugar glider", I can answer "suggie soup, HPW, BML and VGV are some of the most popular diets that offer the most benefits for your glider's health". Obviously, I love sugar gliders and it is quite offensive when someone dismisses this love as petty or unimportant. I would be devastated if I were a small child with this love and the literacy I have about gliders, and my teacher dismissed it as unimportant or invaluable. This would interfere me with learning and my relationship with my teacher would be strained because I would feel like my interests and things I have a plethora of knowledge about outside of school are unimportant. On the other hand, if a teacher told me that my knowledge about sugar gliders is fascinating and it would be a great way to highlight a lesson she would be teaching on marsupials or nocturnal animals, I would feel that my knowledge on these animals is valued, important, and I would feel extra special. Other, smaller ways, teachers can build on these extracurricular literacies of their students is to do a show-and-tell or a free write. 

This reminds me of my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Freeman. She was an incredible motivator. One kid in class who I will call Fred, was that kid will all kinds of energy that all the teachers screamed "NOO" on the inside when they found out he was going to be in their class for the school year. Fred was hyperactive (he had ADHD) and tended to be defiant to teachers as well. Mrs. Freeman had patience with Fred, she joked with him and allowed him to be free to be himself in class, within reason. She never scolded him in front of the class, and if he got in trouble, she would sneer at him and threaten something completely outrageous to him. While this might seem a bit much, it worked for Fred. He looked forward to going to school in fifth grade, where he hated school in previous years. She was one of the only teachers that he would go out of the way to help or do something nice for. I even talked to Fred the other day who told me "Mrs. Freeman was my favorite teacher. She was cool with me as a person, she didn't put me down in front of the class (which was a trigger for defiant behavior) and she joked around with me". THIS is how Mrs. Freeman motivated Fred to be the best he could be. He actually did his homework for her, raised his hand to answer questions in class, and he was respectful in class. Because of Fred and Mrs. Freeman, I am motivated to be the kind of teacher that she is. I have told her this, too. I want to be the kind of teacher that students look up to and respect, yet know I respect them for their individual literacies and personalities.

Bolima , D. (n.d.). Contexts for understanding: Educational learning theories. Retrieved from http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/new_page_5.htm

The National Counsel of Teachers of English. (2007). Adolescent literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/Chron0907ResearchBrief.pdf

Double Entry Journal 2

As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth

Whether we realize it or not, like it or not, want to admit it or not... stereotypes are inevitable. As I read through As Soon as She Opened Her Mouth (Gates 2002) I realized that even I stereotype others when I don't realize it. One quote that really spoke to me spoke about people without experience or exposure to certain things tend to come off as ignorant, not as good as others, or just dumb; however, this quote, and the essay suggests otherwise. 

          "Are we going to interpret this as a flaw, a deficit, in Phil? Or are we going to interpret it as a lack of crucial experience, a difference in the experiential backgrounds between Phil and the other memebers of the drivers education class?" (Gates 2002)

After reading this, I was truly floored; I had my "Ah, ha" moment! Just because someone looks a certain way, or comes from a certain place, doesn't mean they cannot learn, it only means the person has come from a different background with different stimuli and exposures. This brings me to another quote from a professor I had for three semesters in the Education Program; in these three semesters she drilled it into our brains that "ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN". This is just as Miss M understood with her students as I read in the essay. A teacher can't stereotype students. It's a studied problem that teachers don't expect as much from students of a lower socioeconomic standing and as I read through Miss M's situation, the light bulb came on for me. I realized that I would have let that little girl sleep because I felt sorry for her; on the other hand, a different teacher would have reprimanded her for sleeping in class. Not Miss M! She helped the student by having her stand up so she wouldn't fall asleep therefore forcing her to pay attention so she could learn to read. Miss M understands "all children can learn" and gave her students their best chance to do just that. 

To get back to Phil, he wasn't dumb, or uneducated, or even too tired to pay attention to class: the poor guy just had no background with cars. This is a direct relation with students in the classroom and, more specifically, Donny. His parents were illiterate and he had no exposure with written language. SO many teachers would let him fall through the cracks. Many teachers would place blame that he is lazy, his parents won't work with him, he has a learning disability, etc. However, we have established that all children can learn, some just take more time. 

Sometimes, there is a language barrier preventing proper education. This essay discusses dialect and students learning to read in "proper English" rather than, when reading, hearing their own dialect in their head. This is where it gets tricky and difficult for both students and teacher. One can make modifications for an English Language Learner (ELL), but it's not so easy when you both speak the same language, yet it's so different. I have a friend from Boston who walked into a West Virginian Home Depot asking for some cork. The employees gave her crazy looks as though she was asking for something unreasonable. So, she kept asking "I'm looking for some caak"! Unable to understand this, the Home Depot workers kept asking her to repeat herself or ask in a different way. Finally, she spelled it out "I need some caak, C-O-R (pronounced 'ah')-K, CAAK"! They finally got it! Now, put this in a classroom with 20 students, one teacher, and this confusion in a student who speaks a different dialect. Now, I understand the thought of using proper English, but not in this aspect. In my mind, proper English is using complete sentences, and (this is difficult for me) pronouncing the -ing at the end of words. Not trying to sound like you're from a different place. 

I have been stereotyped many times in my life, but I have learned to embrace it. I am proud to say that I am a country girl from wild and wonderful West Virginia. There are some things like the following clip that give me a chuckle. There are plenty people that likely think that ALL West Virginians are like this as you can plainly see the reaction of the audience in the video. 

So, this is the Boone County Ninja. Yes, he is quite the entertainer, but it gives the illusion that this is how ALL people from West Virginia talk and act. This is precisely the stereotype people have for West Virginia. And, as stated in the essay mentioned above, people with that southern dialect (or southern drawl) are typically viewed as uneducated. Which brings me to my next video. This child had just turned three-years-old and is also from West Virginia...

This child blows people away with her memorization of the continents. This is third grade material and she just turned three. Chloe breaks the stereotype mindset people have for people from West Virginia..... And, to quote Forrest Gump: that's all I have to say about that.

On a side note, in case you were wondering... that's my kid in the video  ^_^

Citations

Diemondavedotcom. (2010). Diemon dave on jerry springer first appearance [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWPJO-W2Vbw

Gates, V. (2000). As soon as she opened her mouth. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6DFAmexYq7vMGQxMjI1OTEtMjAyZS00NzJmLTg1OTUtODlmMGQ0ZDIxOTVk/edit?hl=en_US

mammab1203. (2011). 3 year old says continents[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccpIm_qtVM&feature=plcp

O'Brien, J. (2003, May 10). Tall tales of appalachia. . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html

Double Entry Journal 1

Inclusive Education

Inclusive Education is just as it states: education that includes all students. It has been developed and put into effect for the students of lower socioeconomic standing, mental and physical disabilities, etc. It is to bring diverse groups of people into one setting for learning. Inclusive practices are meant to benefit everyone in the classroom. The mentally disabled students can gain social skills, students with average developmental achievement can learn to be role models for the others, and the teacher can, and will, learn from any and all students. In short, Inclusive education is meant to serve students with varied ethnic, linguistic, socioeconomic and ability components.

                Schools that practice inclusion tend to have similar characteristics. To name a couple, Parents as Partners seems to be of the most important characteristic. Without the assistance and teamwork from parents of these students, educators will not be as successful as they could or should. Another that stands out to me is the Students as Problem Solvers. Students become more responsible as they are trained to peer mediate, tutor one another, work together, and engage in a buddy system so everyone is responsible for each other. 

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I love everything about this photo! There are a few “average” looking kids, a couple with Down Syndrome, one that might have a physical disability with her arm, and one that seems to have some unknown mental disability. They are ALL smiling! They ALL look like friends! And they are ALL different! THIS is possible to happen in any classroom as long as inclusion is part of education as a whole. It doesn’t look to me like anyone in this photo is making fun of or being made fun of, that is important!