RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Overall I have enjoyed reading Deborah Hicks' book. While reading these final chapters of Reading Lives I had mixed feelings about them. In some ways I felt as if what was being said made perfect sense, but on the other hand I questioned it too.

In chapter 5 when Jake's dad's workshop was described, it reminded me of my dad's workshop when I was little. No matter where we lived, and we moved a lot, my dad always had a workshop. My younger brother got very into working with tools around the time he hit his teen years and together he and my dad rebuilt a car from the ground up for his 16th birthday. I think I always felt a little tinge of jealousy about this because it was a way in which they bonded that I wasn't able to be a part of and wasn't invited to be a part of. Although I never thought about it much, I guess it was gender stereotyping that played a part here. Working in the workshop was a boy thing, and doing things inside the home was a girl thing. My dad and brother now own a car restoration buisness together, and although they fight like "cats and dogs," they are doing something they love together.

On page 133 Jake's mom voices concern about Jake not being able to "continue reading at his own pace" in third grade. I completely agree with her. I feel that children should be allowed to read at their instructional level. I know that this creates problems when the teacher has to teach grade level materials to a struggling reader, but there are ways to help them with this. She could get books on tape or record her own, look into materials that cover curriculum areas but at a lower reading level, etc. I would hope that the school system wouldn't require teachers to only use grade level materials at all times. If a child is struggling and is only presented with materials that are too hard, how are they to improve? I also wondered during this reading about the Drop Everything And Read time that was mentioned. How young is too young for this? It sounded like they were practicing this in Jake and Laurie's class in first grade. We have tried it at my school in first grade, and it seemed to be counterproductive. The children mostly flipped pages and looked at pictures, which is a part of emergent reading, but I'd say about 10% of my class would actually gain any real reading experience from DEAR on a given day.

In chapter 6 on page 142 the phrase "feeling is integral to how students come to know and value" struck a cord with me. I agree that children have to feel that something is important for them to want to learn it, but is it possible to get 20 children to all "buy in" to what is going on in a classroom all the time? For example, Hicks talks about Jake's difficulties with math and how having him use cars as manipulatives would have been just as easy as using the manipulatives that the teacher gave him. While I agree that this would have been more interesting for Jake, I can't help but think about the chaos that could ensue as well. I can imagine that at some point Jake would actually use the cars as cars during math instead of as manipulatives. I also think that if you allow Jake to use the cars, then Sally should be allowed to bring in Polly Pockets, and John should be allowed to use Silly Bandz. How does a teacher do this realistically?

Also in chapter 6 Hicks says that for some children tuning out is "safer....than tackling the uknown territories of science and literature." This was a new idea for me. I know that when I do hands on activities with my students the children are always much more involved than if we are doing a pencil and paper activity. I would love to be able to present everything in a fascinating way, but in the reality of every day teaching, that just isn't possible. We are required to do some math worksheets, grammar practice, etc. and those things just aren't always fun. When I was in school I remember wanting to "be good" and to learn all that the teacher presented because it was my job to do so. It wouldn't have mattered if we sat at our desks all day long, I would have just payed attention because I had to. I realize that there are some students like this today, but more and more I see children in my classroom that just seems so disconnected from school. I think sometimes we tend to stamp these children as having attentional problems like ADD because they seem to be focused on something elsewhere (or just not focused on anything) so often, but what it they are "checking out" just because they don't want to take the chance on being wrong about something we are presenting in class? This is definitely a perspective that I will be thinking about in my classroom from now on.

Hicks' book really gave me some things to ponder as I think about starting over with a new set of children in August. I think that sometimes as educators, especially once we have been teaching for a number of years, we get into a rut and do things just because we have always done them that way. It is nice to read something that makes you think about what you do, why you do it, and evaluate if it is truly effective.
-Elizabeth Norwood