While sitting in my 4th grade classroom today, I
was able to reflect on how the two MT’s that I have use literature in their
literacy curriculum. What I realized was how in many occasions literature is
used to teach literacy throughout the day in various subjects- not just English
language arts.
While most of the literature that my students contact during
English is from their reading textbook (Houghton Mifflin Grade 4), they also
are allowed to choose their own book for “read and log” time. By allowing
children to pick their own book, they are encouraging students to become
aesthetic readers while building their fluency and increasing their exposure to
books. The students are actually currently working on a great assignment right
now in English that utilizes literature. They are working in pairs and
researching a famous black American in celebration of Black History Month.
While looking at encyclopedias, non-fiction children’s books, and other texts,
the students are finding details about important events in the life of their
selected hero. After they have completed the research, the pair will then use
their findings to compose a poem that they will perform before the class. In
this way they are integrating literature into the research part of the project
that will be needed to write the poem. I think this is such a fun way for
students to use literature for a research assignment and also complete an
unusual final representation of their hard work.
After reading the texts, I realized how incredibly lucky I
was to be in a 4th grade environment in which literature is used
frequently throughout the day. Like the Langer discussed, the teacher presents
open-ended questions during reading time to encourage the critical thinking of
each student. She does this through scaffolding so the students can see exactly
how to model their thinking throughout reading each story. She also encourages
her students to actively read each text by posing an “assignment” to do while
reading, such as giving the students sticky notes and jotting down when they
notice something they can relate to in the story. For example, when they had a
similar experience as the main character or if they remember a concept from a
different story. While I have not seen is the use of “controversial” topics during reading time; this is something I hope to do with my future
students. As 4th graders, they like to talk and want to participate in class
discussion by adding in what they can to the topic. This is a perfect age to
introduce hard topics to encourage the growth of critical literacy, especially if they have not been exposed to readings like this in previous grades. While my
classes now do not have much time to be on the Internet, I would like my future
class to be able to utilize computers more, especially during research time for various individual and group research projects. There are so many new literacies out there that I want to expose my children to as many as possible in hopes that they become educated people and lifelong learners.
I too am in a fourth grade class, and it seems, the students are always immersed in language arts. Like Stephanie's class, the students that I observe are challenged by language arts in everyday lesson activities. My MT challenges her students to build on their language art skills by allowing them different opportunities to enhance their skills through different learning experiences. For instance, the students in my classroom right now are researching a country and presenting their findings to the class in whatever medium they are comfortable with. This idea connects well with the multimodel understanding of language, because it allows students the opportunities to think critically about how they want to present their information. The students have to challenge themselves to address the most important information and then, successfully present it to other students in the class.
ReplyDeleteMy MT has also done a great job and challenging the students to think about what they are reading. During language arts time. My MT is constantly using appropriate think aloud strategies to engage students. Often she will ask the students to make inferences about what is happening in the text, and what they think will happen next. My MT's ability to utilize Langer's suggestions for language arts instruction is shown everyday and seems to help the students in creating a love for literacy.
Like Stephanie, the students that I work with are not exposed to the tough topics. I agree with what Stephanie has written. I think students should be faced with challenging issues. Of course the proper modeling in regards to analyzing the issue would be needed, but by exposing students to ideas that they are forced to think critically about can help drive their literacy understanding to new levels.
I, like Stephanie, hope to expose my students to a lot of different possibilities when it comes to literacy. I would like to challenge them to think critically about what they are reading, become active readers, and effectively communicate their ideas to others. By allowing students the opportunities to think critically about their literacy, it is my hope that they will gain a love for literacy, and encourage others around them to develop a passion for language arts.
Unlike Stephanie and Matt, I am not in a 4th grade classroom, but rather, a K/1 split, so I see very different aspects of literature functioning. Like Stephanie, my teacher does not use read-aloud time exclusively for fun. When she wants to teach them how to be “healthy students” (in the science realm of germs and protection, as well as in the social studies realm of learning how to function in a classroom where classmates may be sick, etc.), she will read them a story. When she wants to introduce the idea of maps, she reads them a story. I feel as though the storybook, with its pictures, along with her inflection and emphasis on certain “sight” words for them, is absolutely crucial to the Spanish-immersion program. The students sometimes need these aids in order to understand the lesson, and a storybook is something they can relate to, as many of their parents have read storybooks with them outside of class, in English.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I know that my teacher has used literature to model escritura, or their writing lessons. Around Christmas, the teacher read them the story of the gingerbread man. While this may seem as a throw-away, fun activity around the holidays, she told me that the purpose in teaching this book was to expose them to the fantasy genre. Not only that, but the students had to then make text-to-self comparisons and write their own fantasy, or come up with their own fantasy story. Then, of course, they also had the opportunity to apply the book to their lives and have a little fun, by tapping into their artistic sides and making gingerbread houses. Even when reading books in interim times between the end of a lesson and a special, my MT or student teacher will ask the students questions about the book, helping them with comprehension, and then asking questions that have the students talk about how elements of the book could apply to their lives.
They also have opportunity to read books from their book boxes, and I was fortunate enough to work with a few sets of partners, who were supposed to read the book aloud to each other. Whereas before, since the books are all in Spanish, I figured they were just looking at the pictures, this read-aloud really gave me an opportunity to see how my students are sounding out words. Even some of the kindergartners were demonstrating fluidity, and all of them had mastery of letter-sound, since Spanish is absolutely beautiful in that only one sound belongs to each letter! Even when one of my students told me he needed “help,” he sounded out all of the words rapidly, and only needed my affirmation that he was right. When asked what he just said, he responded in English, demonstrating comprehension. These short literary texts are really helping the students develop all facets of literacy.
Whether I am in another Spanish immersion classroom or an English-speaking classroom, I intend to use literature as part of every subject, because of its great importance, but also because students can simply relate to it.