EDRD 345 Thoughts

Three great ideas for parents and literature circles from the text:

Holding parent introduction nights, in the fall maybe during an open house. Having the parents read a short book and discussing it with one another is a great way for them to experience what activities your students will be involved with this year. They begin to understand the expectations as well. 

Parent book clubs that meet once a month are a great way for parents and teachers to  both model reading behavior and good strategies to discuss the books we have read. 

Sending letters home to parents before the book club begins is a great way to lay out all of the "at home" preparation for literature circles. If having read the letter, each parent will have the same understanding of the reading expectations and then each student will come to class ready to learn about the book that they chosen to read. Each book bag includes a stack of sticky notes for the students to use while they are reading and the strategy for using the notes is explained in the letter home. 

Literature can be presented many times a day for many different purposes such as enjoyment, awareness of the author and illustrator, and acquiring a disposition to be a lifelong learner. pg. 142

Preparing for literature circles:

make sure the students become familiar with terms that are going to be used in upcoming literature circles ( illustrator, connection, summarizer, etc.) 

build the students' familiarity with the process of cooperative group work. One can read a book out loud and put the students into groups then they can walk through what would take place and what each students job would be in the literature circle

Books are appropriate for beginner readers- wordless books, big books, picture books, kid-made books, etc. 

Kids usually will read the whole book then have one discussion on the book as a group

After the students will record their responses in drawings or writing at their own level.

children will read books with different titles which helps the students decide whether they would enjoy reading a book after hearing about it. 

(Miller, pg. 89). 

"When we plan with the end in mind, we set our goals for children first"( pg. 70). 

"Knowing students deeply and through conferring and running records, listening in, small-group work, observation and their demonstration understanding is key to their and our success" (pg. 71-72).  I love this quote because all of our classes as students in the professional program focus on kidwatching and keys to observation for success. Having this understanding and reiteration of concepts helps to solidify how possible it can be to implement these practices in our future classrooms. 

Instead of planning months and months in advance to plan the curriculum for the rest of the year can be stressful. Instead a good idea is to plan the next months curriculum based off of and building on the last months growth. This will keep the stress level lower but allow for children to meet the goals set in place for them. (pg. 72).

Use real language and standard terminology when talking to children.(pg. 73) Miller uses words such as inferring and schema with her children to help them understand exactly what she wants them to understand. Holding high expectations for their growth and development can be set by modeling the behavior that one wants.

"Articulation is key for twenty-first-century learners" Students need an opportunity to talk in a variety of rich, structured conversations- as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner" (pg.74)  

Active Readers Making Connections to Construct meaning:

Exploring Teachers knowledge of Pop Culture Interests. The teacher has to learn about the child's interests before they can fully appreciate and interact with it to the point of including pop. culture into the curriculum. 

Making Home-School connections: Make student's pop. culture texts part of the school literacy. Use pop. culture interests that engage students across different cultures. For example, in preschool show a clip from the TV show Dora the Explorer to convey meaning or communication in English and Spanish.

Sometimes I feel as though teachers sympathize or agree with the first strategies in the Alvermann article which state that teacher's should discourage use of popular culture in the classroom because they don't want to be less knowledgeable on the subject that that they are teaching than the students, or they don't believe that popular culture shows, games, movies, etc. can only be perceived as harmful to the students because of their content. 

"Trying to define popular culture is like nailing gelatin to a wall." There is an inability to give it a single definition (pg. 146). The authors of this article take on the belief that "A view of popular culture as folk culture... celebrates the very fact that common people are indeed capable of making their own meaning of popular culture" (pg. 146). 

Parents and teachers often blame the media for children's problems ( I have been guilty as such...teen mom, MTV beliefs, etc.) The producers make only what the consumer will by but it is up to the audience to negotiate the consumption of pop. culture. 

Four approaches to using popular culture in the classroom: 

(prevalent in classrooms, not condoned) Popular culture viewed as detrimental to students. Teachers send the message that students lose valuable time entertaining it when they could spend time "developing their minds" It is discussed in class how ever is not being factored into teaching

Using pop culture-  Teach students how to analyze various forms of pop. culture texts. The "ideal" reader sees through what the media provides as influential material. Teaching this way reveals "underlying truths that are normally hidden from view". Pop. culture is viewed in a pedagogical display and limits the pleasure (pg. 148).  

Third approach emphasizes the pleasure students take in different forms of media. Shy's away from asking students to critique what they find pleasurable in texts. Drawback: When children are not taught to be critically aware of these texts their opinion goes unchallenged. "They do not develop tools for exploring their likes and dislikes of certain forms of popular culture" (pg. 148). This approach looses the opportunity to teach children to become critical readers ( Approaches 2 and 3 are lacking an "in between" method). 

Media based plots and violence-

Post-Columbine era, many schools instituted blanket no violence policies for the students writing (pg. 64). This can also discourage students' choice to write about super heroes saving the day or conflict resolution in regards to violence. 

How much violence is too much?

If students can read about violence but not write about it then how much can students read about violence until it threatens a classmate or adult. How far should the limits extend?

Visual Literacy- media based plots 

"Visually mediated narratives can provide scaffolding for early attempts at story writing" Scaffolding can come from sources outside of the teacher. Students may borrow basic plot lines, conflicts and character traits from their favorite television show, video game or movie.  

hybrid texts- drawn from multiple sources. 

"For these boys, a difficulty has turned into an identity. Many come to identify themselves as nonreaders, as nonwriters- and indeed, as nonstudents" (pg. 63)

Students carry the weight of their success or what seems to be failure at a very young age. That is why passionate early childhood professionals with heart are needed! We cannot allow students to label themselves as non-anything in school. We need to appeal to their interests and watch their learning and excitement blossom. 

"Black children come to school with greater exposure to visually mediated stories...It is illogical, however, to treat media narratives as though they are completely unrelated to school literacy" (pg. 64). 

(Newkirk, pg. 62). 

Jean's Unit on Superheroes: 

Idea about supeheroes came from one of her student's relating the story of The Little Red Riding Hood to a super hero, and Captain Underpants. 

students brainstormed a list of superheroes they were familiar with

teacher began learning about and researching the superheroes that she was unfamiliar with

Brought in texts for students to read independently to increase their knowledge

Discussion activity- Began with small-group discussion and branched out to a larger group. Students led the discussion and the teacher steered the conversation when students needed to elaborate on certain topics

Not planned ahead of time. Students interests guided instructional decisions

Sherry's Unit Musical Bands

Began working with five third-grade students who were "reading below grade level and needing a 'boost in motivation' " (pg. 34). Based the planned out unit on music that was relevant to her students

Began by asking her students what their favorite music, tv shows, videos, books, etc. are

Before beginning the lesson the teacher informed herself about what was important to the students and did her own research

Printed the lyrics and let the students follow along and read while the songs played

Learned about the artists. The level of text was more difficult but allowed kept the students interests. 

Learned how to dance the Cumbia as it was a traditional dance to one of the songs artists. 

Compared and contrasted the two songs

Recognized that culture played a large role in the writing of the song

culturally responsive teaching- made learning about other cultures intertwined with students' interests and own cultures

April Popular Culture Texts

Chose to develop a unit based on pop culture that both her and her students were familiar with. (Scooby-Do. Children could have interacted with this icon through movies, tv shows, comics and books). 

Compared Scooby-Do to Inspector Gadget. ( Like Sherry's unit)

Venn diagram use and small-group discussion to help aid in identifying the similarities and differences

Creative writing piece in relation to the show Scooby-Do. 

studied character's traits in the show ( like Jean's unit) 

Students watched show and read books. This gave the students multiple opportunities for the students to read different versions of a text

Scooby snack recipe. And tied their favorite recipe from the community into the project