RE_5539

In this chapter of boyhood stories, Hicks researches the social discources between home and school in the life of a boy named Jake. Her research begin with a study of Jake in Kindergarten and ended at the end of second grade. Unlike Laurie's family, I was very proud of Jake's family for using Hicks research to discover why he was having difficulities in school. Jake, a boy that sits in the back and doesn't want to participate in class activities, is so typical of many of the students in our classrooms. They want it their way. Students who are active, as Jake is, seem to excell when the classroom presents a feeling of openness to choose and move to different activities.

Jake's identity with a boyhood just like his fathers, reminds me of my son. Jake's dad was a gifted carpenter as my husband is, but not professional, just for home jobs. My son sees his dad trimming bushes, cutting trees down, mowing, weeding, fixing a ceiling on our screened in porch, and rebuilding the walls at our new lake house that had molded and become extremely rotten. Like Jake, my son has power tools, a weed eater, lawnmower, and a workbench with all the tools he need for building, which are all toys by the way. My son, Jacob, is only two but plays will all of these things. When we were at the lake this past weekend, he heard a chain saw and said, "Daddy's here". Daddy wan't at the lake , but Jacob has learned to identify the chainsaw sound with his dad since he has uses his chainsaw at the lake to remodel our lake house. Jacob loves to play at his workbench and carry his drill around drilling everthing. "I'm building", he says.

Just like Jake's dad, my husband has a collection of NASCAR and John Deere tracotors. This is Jacob's other love. He loves playing with cars and putting trailers on tractors. I use toy cars in many of my Kindergarten lessons. My students have had games where they drive the car to the number I call out, allowing them to learn to identify numbers. I also had a syllable game this year where the students had to drive the cars down the road to the correct number of syllables on the race track board. My students love these kinds of games and I see in depth more now "why" the students are so engaged since they are identifying with what they know. Even little girls love cars. They see their mom driving them. Hicks writes:

"Schooling in the primary grades should ideally become a set of opportunities for children to experience new identities connected with textual practices."

It was obvious from Jake's stories about NASCAR and his dog Max that he was experiencing success with writing and retelling. His ability to act out a race car experience using NASCAR diriver names such as Labonte and Earnhardt, just goes to show how a child's story telling and writing experiences are results of their identity and the things they know. By allowing students to read, write, and act out stories that identify with who they are and what they like, we are setting the stage in the classroom that says we value their language and culture that make them who they are. Hicks sums it up well by saying, "The instructional movement toward such cultural and class pluralism, however, requires first that the learner's primary values, language practices, and identities be valued in the classroom.

Reading about how Jake and Laurie both struggleed in first grade within the school adopted anthology series, really frustrates me. These children were expected to read on the same level without consideration into their developmental learning style and independent learning level. Yes, a child is going to struggle if they are not reading on their insturctional level. I wonder if Jake would have gotten behind in school if he had been in a classroom where students were grouped and taught on their individual level of learning? I definately feel that all teachers need workshops on how to teach guided reading groups that meet each student's individual needs.

I have never thought about how the types of genres from the various books that we are exposed to, shapes our literacy learning. Jake's family loved to read realistic informative books. This helped to shape Jake's knowledge about history. His family loved to read and so did he, but in first grade during DEAR time he didn't want to read. As teachers, we have to be certain that we have books available that meet each child's level of reading. I have tubs of books in my classroom that are leveled. I train my students on which tub of books to choose their books. My students do enjoy DEAR time because they can successfully read the books they select. During DEAR time I have them select books that are a level lower than their intructional level. During read aloud I select books that are slightly above my students instructional level.

Unlike Jake, I like to read fiction books the best, and still do. History has never been a favorite subject of mine, but I love the fantasy word and immagination that fiction brings. I have created a classroom library, by going to many yard sales, and have stocked my shelves with books from all generes. What I have noticed is that the boys in my room most of the time select the expository texts off the shelf where there are real pictures with facts about real people, places, or animals.

In second grade Jake made tremendous gains in his reading ability, but as Hicks tells us, "his accomplishments as a reader that year though impressive, did not match up with an expected sequence of achievements. Jake was to enter third grade as a fragile reader and the expectations and practices that constituted reading in an instutional sense". Impressive gains is just the kind of thing that No Child Left Behind does not pay attention to. Our society has become a testing world where children, no matter their circumstances are all expected to be at the same level with no regards to the fact that every learner is unique and therefore not every child develops at the same rate or age.

When I read the part about Jake, who is normally distant and disengaged, raising his hand and being engaged in a read aloud of a book Up Goes the Skycraper, it really made me think more about paying attention to the things my students say. By listening to what Jake has to say about his father working as a heating and air conditioning repairman, one can learn important information about his identity. Listening to our students also helps us to know the types of books to select during read aloud. After reflecting and reading about Jake's boyhood stories I am going to do a much better job of letting my students talk and listen to what they say. I confess that I get very focused on time and making sure I get every subject in. In consequence, I often cut students off and suggest students put their hands down. I realize now that I was missing out on an important opportuntiy to learn who my students are so that I can imcorporate literacy experience that match with their identity.

In Jake's second grade class with Mrs. Williams, she brought science into reading and writing. I think this is very important for teachers to cross disciplines in order for students to succeed. I also like that she brought in Writers Workshop. Writers Workshop gave Jake a chance to write about the things that interested him. He was used to choice at home and that is what Writers Workshop allowed him the opportunity to do. After reading Jake's stories in his notebook, it is obvious how home experiences play important roles in a child's literacy. In his notebook, Jake wrote about experiences of playing at home with his brother Brad.

I don't share the same philosophy as Jake's mom who believed that it didn't matter if Jake was reading differently from some of his classmates. However, I do agree with his dad who believed that schools could be engaging enviroments for learning. "All they had to do was find ways to connect students' interest with academic tasks." I agree with Hicks that Jake probably will lead a happy and productive life because of the support he recieves at home. My question is what can we do about the students who don't have support at home to help them become successful? Maybe we can make a difference the year we are with them, but what happens after that? Is one year of a caring supportive school setting enough? Will they continue to be in loving situations that nurture their learning styles and values of who they are? What happens when they are not in a supporative situation? How do we keep these students from falling through the cracks?

Linda Younts