In reading this article, I felt like these kids were living in two very different worlds; one that took place in the school setting and one that occurred in their home environments. In their home environment, both students share with their family things they enjoy such as reading and writing, they make connections between things that they do at home and literacy, and they live social lives by participating in the powwow's and other events of their culture. Daniel even made a connection between learning to read musical notes and learning to read text. He even compared the sound dynamics of music to be similar to puncuation. What insight and intelligence found in a connection! In the school setting, both students appeared to struggle. Daniel was thought of as being nice but withdrawn from his peers and his teachers perceived him to be disorganized and uninterested in school. Zonnie appeared to have a better relationship with her peers but was still found to be disconnected with teachers and people that she didn't have a bond. Her reading teacher thought that she was a mediocre student even though she showed interest in reading and would often stay after class to discuss things that she and the teacher had read.
I found the struggle of these students interesting. With the high population of immigrates that live in our country (many of which speak other languages when beginning school), I would think that teachers would try to make better connections with their students in order to create a safe and invovled learning atmosphere for all students. Previously, I taught at a school in which most of the students were from other countries. They struggled with literacy from the perspective of the teachers. These students, as the Native Amercians, participated in some of the other literacies mentioned in the article. I found that the best way for these students to understand that you care about where they come from and what they have to say is by participating and showing interest in their culture. This was also mentioned in the article. One year, I made a deal with several of my Hmong students to learn some words in Hmong if they worked hard to learn how to read in my classroom. That year I learned several new words and they made an enormous amount of growth.
I believe that all students can excel in literacy if their teacher attempts to learn more about who is apart of the class that they are teaching. I think that it is the teachers responsible to make every effort to learn what things their students enjoy and show interest. This also aids them in helping their students find books or magizines that are of interest to the student so they are also encouraging reading. I think if a teacher makes an effort to do some of these things, their students will feel more comfortable in the school setting. Feeling more comfortable in school will encourage the students to socialize more with their peers and teachers and hopefully encourage those students to become more aware of literacies that are found in the school setting.
Comments (2)
Erin,
I agree that it is the teacher's responsibility to get to know their students and make them feel comfortable in the classroom. I too feel as though the teachers in this study didn't make the effort to do this. They seemed very disinterested and some even thought the students didn't care.
Posted by Reshawna Greene | June 9, 2010 8:29 PM
Posted on June 9, 2010 20:29
Wasn’t it a shame that they both seemed to struggle in school? They were very academic in their own ways. Zonnie loved to write poetry, and Daniel loved the saxophone and comic strips. It was apparent to me that they were talented. It just seemed like their teachers didn’t see their talent. It was like they had on some kind of cultural vision blockers on, where they didn’t see past these children’s cultures. They assumed they were low and not able to function above grade level because they were Native American. When in all actuality these children were living two very versatile lives. They were tending to their own culture and family lives at home after school. They were also switching gears and playing the role of an Americanized student. They were very talented in being able to do just that! That is wonderful how you got your Hmong students to improve in their reading. The fact you learned some of their words for every improvement they made shows that you were connecting with their culture. I think the article insinuated that we as teachers should be more understanding and culturally aware of our students’ own heritages. You are right it is our duty as educators to find out what interests our students and go from there. We can build lessons and activities around their interests to reel them in to learning literacy more. I had a child this year that loved scary things. So I allowed him to read Goosebumps and other scary books and to write in this sense. I didn’t spend too much time on “scary” lessons but I encouraged his creativity in reading and writing with this subject. He really got into reading and writing because it was on a topic he liked. Like you said, we should make every attempt to help our students feel more comfortable in school. It is sometimes one of the most easiest things to do but so easily overlooked. You are correct in the fact that students will learn more within their comfort zones. It is often hard to teach and manage small group instruction but it is so very important. It is another technique that helps a lot of our students to feel more comfortable and open to express themselves. I love to work in small groups in my classroom, but it is sometimes hard to find the help you need when you teach upper grades.
Posted by Maria Blevins | June 9, 2010 9:16 PM
Posted on June 9, 2010 21:16