Literacy Instruction In The Classroom

Literacy is integrated into various parts of the school day at Shoesmith Elementary. It begins with morning work instructions on the SMART board leading into math. "Literacy" is taught after lunch - we do this by introducing a new topic of instruction to focus on for the week. Students have 10 spelling words a week and 6 vocabulary words which the are tested on every Friday. I teach the students their vocabulary words through "Text Talk" which is a Scholastic program that provides a read aloud book and comprehension that go along with each page. This keeps the students engaged and checks for their progress. The teacher's guide provides the vocabulary words the students will work on for the week giving examples and questions to make sure the students understand the language - these words are found in the book that is read-aloud. Following the "Text Talk" lesson students are required to read independently for approximately 30 minutes. During this time (starting this week) I pull a group of readers along with my CT. These groups are broken into students at the same reading levels. We gathered these results from the Scantron tests that the students had taken the first week of school. Currently, I am working with the (2) higher level groups. I am having them focus on "reading" the punctuation and reading with fluency while comprehending what it is the are reading. They practice their skills both orally to the group and quietly to themselves. We will be working on sharing opinions and ideas about the book(s) as we continue. This will give the students the opportunity to share their ideas and to listen to their peers - possibly opening up their understanding of the material. The students have not yet begun writing on their reading but should be starting within the next week - this will give me even more insight into what they are thinking and understanding. Considering this is the first month of school I think that my CT and I have worked hard to integrate some of the aspects of Book Club Plus into the classroom. We will be building on these as the year continues and I hope to see confidence in my students as they learn to share their work with their classmates. I believe that this model for literacy instruction is great to use in the classroom it helps students work together, talk about their books, and collaborate with one another to build social skills.

Compare/Contrast Literacy in the Classroom (Alison DiStefano)

So far, I have seen very little variety when it comes to literacy in the classroom. Unfortunately, it feels as though we are still in the first week of school. My teacher still seems to struggle with classroom management and keeping up with her schedule each day.

Each morning, the students are expected to come into the classroom (quietly of course), put their book bags away, and pick a book out of the book bin in the center of their table (there are tables with 4 students at each). Once they pick a book they are to sit there and read independently until they are instructed to do otherwise. Sometimes they are sitting there reading silently for as long as an hour and a half. I am all for independent reading but I feel as though it is hard to expect students to come in in the morning and remain silent and interested in a book for that long right off the bat. They are chatty and eager to get their day started! I think independent reading is best later in the school day and not for that long stretch of time.

Every week we have a read aloud where my CT picks one book to read aloud to the class. They use their instructional focus for that week and incorporate it into their reading strategies. This has had great success with the students. It generates discussion and keeps them focused on the instructional focus for the week.

Each week we take the instructional focus and develop it through text connections. With the read aloud, my CT can help them see the different focuses (i.e. motives, cause & effect, prediction, etc...). They then can take it with them and do it on their own through independent reading (or so we hope!). Writers workshop is where we are able to assess them on these instructional focuses and how well they understand the concepts. They explore the concepts and use them to enhance their writing. Although, the only problem is I feel that a week is way too short to introduce, teach, & expect students to expand on an instructional focus only to introduce a NEW one the following week.

I feel like literacy is incorporated throughout the day but the variety is missing. Hopefully different types of literacy will be incorporated soon. If not, I will be able to introduce them during guided lead teaching!

New Teacher, New Plan

To give a little bit of prior knowledge to my book club group: my students have just started going regularly to a reading teacher three school days ago. When looking at the Complete Literacy System graph on page 3 of Book Club plus, I see some similarities with the chart and with what I have seen happen within the classroom. A literacy block has not yet started but the reading teacher has discussed with me that one will be starting soon. Students will come together with either her or I to read in groups of similar reading levels. While one teacher is monitoring the literacy block the other teacher will be working with the rest of the class. We are planning on pulling each group to the literacy block once or twice a week. Writer’s workshop has been seen used once with my homeroom teacher. Students read a story together and then talked about the setting, characters, and the layout of the story (beginning, middle, end). After students discussed they have been using this outline to plan and write. I have talked with the reading teacher and we will be starting more writer’s workshop soon. I have participated in Teacher read alouds; I have read students picture books and then discussed with them what happened in the story. The students and I have also participated in a shared reading. This particular shared reading was a readers’ theater. The students stood in front of the class, read their lines, and listened to others read it. I have not yet seen shared reading in small groups. I look forward to implementing this when I am the lead teacher. I have seen independent reading with my homeroom teacher. Students have read short stories, discussed the story in a whole group setting, and then answered questions on a worksheet.

During the first lesson with the reading teacher, she went through their new text books. The textbooks had a chart of different reading strategies. She read each one, gave examples, discussed with the students about each one, and practiced a few of them. They scanned through the book and one of them saw a picture of a dog jumping a fence. Another student talked about their dog jumping fences. She noted that already this student was using a reading strategy: accessing prior knowledge. During her discussion she told the students that while reading they should be utilized one or more than one of these strategies. Tomorrow, I will be starting a lesson focusing on text to self connections. I talked with my reading CT about this and she agreed that it would be a great way to continue working on reading strategies and comprehension. I will be reading a book titled “Chrysanthemum” about a mouse named Chrysanthemum who loves her name, but at the first day of school students make fun of her name. My students will be making text-to-self connections by talking with their parents about their names and then writing about what they found out.

When looking at the reading teacher’s roles in instruction and comprehension strategies: she has had very high control and the students have had very low activity. She has been giving very explicit instruction but I know she is planning on moving away from that and more towards students having a very high participation rate and high activity rate, while she and I are giving less instruction and less scaffolding. But before we get there, she is doing a lot of modeling and scaffolding this week to help build students comprehension strategies. It will be interesting to observe and work with the new reading teacher to see this transition take place.

Book Club Plus Model - Chelsea McIntosh

Thus far into the school year I had expected to much more instruction involving the aspects of literacy. Although literacy is easily transferred across subject areas, there has been far less focus on literacy within my placement. This has been due to a rough start to the school year. Two days before school began, our principal was to inform two of our primary teachers that they will no longer have their job. This shifted teachers to unknown classrooms, raised student to teacher ratios, and placed our assistant principal in a classroom as a full time teacher. Therefore, resources still have not been distributed (textbooks, etc.), and the remaining teachers at my school are still fearful that they will lose their job.

However, I have yet to see any representation of the book club plus model within my classroom. My CT has informed me that he does incorporate a book club into his literacy instruction, but he is still waiting to receive student scores from the Scantron and from STEP (which is beginning this upcoming week) so that he can effectively group the children and begin assessing their literacy needs. Nevertheless, it is a relief to know that my CT has a major in Language Arts and that is his primary passion in teaching. The first two hours of our day is becoming dedicated to language arts. The students engage in 25-30 minutes of silent reading, D.E.A.R, then they actively journal a summary of their reading or orally retell the main events of their book. My CT and I have already initiated small group sharing, pair sharing, and individual oral retelling of a students reading for that day. This has been a great morning “procedure” to include in our classroom, as students are already beginning to pick up a book and start reading immediately follow the pledge and morning song.

Literacy is actively engaged in by both the students and adults in my classroom as our classroom community has allowed students to feel comfortable interacting with literacy in a variety of forms.

Post Community Visit - Christina Jumic

After visiting and “touring” Hyde Park I noticed that there were many small, local shops within and around the community. Everyone we passed was extremely friendly and gave a smile and wave as we walked by…this was not what I had expected. It was like a small town feeling in a big city. As a group, we decided to “look into” the local hair salon, Cleopatra’s, farmers market and local deli, and Leona’s pizza restaurant. These seemed like very different locations where literacy could be integrated into each and all were within a walking distance from the school. Students from the school were walking in the small strip mall (where Leona’s and the local deli were located) with their families and were still in school uniform. It was great to see that they went out after school instead of just going and sitting at home, which is what my perception was. I was surprised at the deli how small the store was and there was not much of a selection (compared to what I am used to at my grocery store). The hair salon also had two male workers and one female worker – this surprised me since I had the perception that women would do other women's hair. The salon workers were very friendly and even allowed us to take a tour of their salon. I wasn’t surprised that there were customers in the salon during the middle of the day – as I have learned how important it is to the culture to have your hair done all the time. Leona’s was somewhat empty when we visited which was my expectation as I didn’t think many families would be eating out and spending their money when they could spend it on their families in a more economical manner.

I cannot say enough how beneficial this was to gain knowledge into who my students are and where they come from. I am from the suburbs of Chicago and have always viewed the south side in such a different manner – I am glad I had the opportunity to look beyond what was just told to me. I got to see why my students are the way they are in regards to outside life and mannerisms. The students respect me, themselves, and others and I can see that the Hyde Park community follows this norm. I am privileged I get to work with other teachers, students, and families that come from such a welcoming and caring community. The abundant amount of beautiful parks also plays a key role in the students and family’s lives – they have things to do after school and are surrounded by green grass and flowers (something I would never expect to see in the city). These things play a very important role in a child’s life and I will be able to bring some of those things or ideas into the classroom. I will work my hardest to teach to the students and use ideas/language that is familiar to them that I experienced in the community. I will work to understand why some student’s literacy levels are far below average while others are on track or a bit above. This will take more time on my part as I try to create lessons that suite all students needs while using things from the community that the students can relate to, which will keep the students more engaged and they will then WANT to learn about literacy and how to become better learners in the classroom.

The readings all play a dominant role in looking into the outside community and bringing it into the classroom. A quote from Compton and Lilly that really stood out to me was, “Teachers need to be one part detective: We sift the clues children leave, follow the leads, and diligently uncover the facts in order to fill out and make credible the story of their growth and development. We need to be one part researcher: collecting data, analyzing information, testing hypotheses” (page 32). This in a sense explains why we had to go into our communities in which we are teaching because we have to know who are students are before we try to teach them something. We have to gain their trust. We need to listen to what they have to say – what is going on in their lives, where they are going, what they are doing – these will all help guide us when we want to know who are learners are. With the information we gather we then need to create lessons that are engaging and meaningful to our students. Everything may not work the first time but we have to try again until we find what is best suitable for our students.

Post Community Visit (Chelsea McIntosh)

I noticed a difference between the level of interactions and the amount of people frequenting each location throughout our visit to the grocery store, restaurant, and YMCA. I was surprised to see several students from Wadsworth at YMCA immediately after school. Many of them were still in their school uniforms and already engaging in structured activities throughout the facility. I was also surprised that the grocery store was extremely small and lacked several primary sections such as a deli. However, I was not surprised that the activity in the restaurant was very minimal. By this I mean there were few customers at the time we frequented the restaurant (about 4:00pm). This was most likely due to several parents/guardians still working as well as a lack of excess money to spend on leisure-like activities.

By going and visiting some key locations throughout my community I feel that I have gained a better sense of who my students are and where they come from. This has transferred over to my perception of their learning environment outside of the classroom. Lisa Delpit’s article “Lessons From Teachers” suggests that we should teach within context that provide meaning (2). I feel that I can better make connections, in literacy and mathematics, to things in their everyday lives which will allow the students to better relate to the lesson I am presenting. I have also become aware of the effects of the school day on the children. Other than the YMCA and the minimal after school programs at Wadsworth, it was evident just by driving throughout the surrounding community, that there is a lack of resources to involve the children in productive, safe, and educational after school environments.

Community Visit- Katie

After speaking with students and teachers at our school, we decided to visit a hair salon (Cleopatra’s on 53rd), the 61st street farmers market and Leona’s italian restaurant. We chose these places based on the prominence they hold in the community and in our students lives. As I have spent a significant amount of time in and around this community already, I expect to see a diverse crowd of people. At the farmers market I am expecting to see the “farmers market types”... the type of people who commute to work by bicycle, have compost bins by the back door and are genuinely concerned with their environmental impact. In my past experience, I have not actually witnessed a lot of diversity at farmers markets, so I suppose I am going into the experience expecting to see just one type of person. At the hair salon, I am expecting mostly women, getting their hair done and gossiping about who is doing what in the neighborhood. Again, these stereotypes are somewhat grounded in past experience, but I am very interested to see how things play out in this new community. Judging from how many people have recommended Leona’s, I am expecting to see a diverse crowd, gathered together for the sake of of delicious pizza, burgers and drinks. Leona’s is located in the heart of Hyde Parks central business area, and many of my students walk past it on their way to school.

Post-Community Visit
Although it wasn't my first adventure into the heart of Hyde Park, the fact that I was accompanied by a few first timers made it a bit more exciting. One thing that I noticed was that there were a lot less people out and about than I was used to seeing. I think this is because for the most part, my time in the community was spent in the evenings and on weekends, when more people are out and about. So to see it a little less crowded during a work day was kind of cool. I was not surprised by how friendly and outgoing the people we encountered were. First at Leona's they were not even open for business yet (we had eaten there the night before and were going back for pictures) but the waitress's saw us standing at the door, came to ask what we needed, and let us in to do what we needed to do. Also, at Cleopatra's the hair salon, it was obvious by the expressions on the stylists faces that they were wondering why we were just standing outside staring and not coming in to chat.

The experience I had in the community gave me even more insight into my students lives. I realize that people in this area really look out for one another and are genuinely willing to help. One way in which this has already begun to impact my teaching is by allowing students to help each other. For example, the other day my CT was at a conference so it was just a substitute and myself, and a few of the students were struggling to understand the math lesson. When I realized there were also a few students who were very bored with the lesson because it wasn't a challenge, I was able to determine who might be a good "teacher" for a classmate. This turned out to be incredibly effective and it was nice to see the pride on the faces of the students who were helping their friends. I also realized that the students can relate to each other better than I can relate to them, so having an explanation come from a peer could be incredibly helpful for someone who has a hard time articulating what exactly they don't understand.

It is somewhat easy for me to anticipate how an outsider would view this community, given that I am still making the transition from outsider to insider. It did not take long for me to fall in love with all the neighborhood has to offer, but I am aware that not everyone sees things through my lens. For example, on move in day with my parents following me in a U-haul, my awareness was heightened and I suddenly took note of anything that might be perceived as dirty or dangerous. I was prepared for the look from my father as he pulled up to the curb, and mentioned that although there were mansions on the blocks surrounding my place, abandoned lots and essentially the opposite of mansions occupied space not at all far from this little “mansion district”. The fact that a visibly drunk and/or drugged driver crashed his car into the side of my building a few short hours later did not improve my parents perception of my new home. Although I recognize my parents concern, I feel that it stems from a lack of understanding and familiarity with such a diverse and unknown culture. I believe that integrating myself into the community here is absolutely necessary to my success as a teacher, and thus far I have really enjoyed it.

I feel that I will see interconnections among reading and oral language at the farmers market as well as Leona’s. This is because both experiences involve reading (either a menu or food descriptions and price lists) as well as oral language as far as ordering or inquiring as to the quality of the food. Some new literacies I expect to see in the community might have to do with city life in general, for example, the bus/train system is still totally overwhelming to me, and the fact that people of all ages, races, shapes, sizes etc. are so adept at public transportation is very impressive to me. I really hope that in this next year I will become at least mildly proficient. I expect to see all of the traditional literacies, especially because of the amount of schools in the area as well as the proximity to the University of Chicago. I feel like education is highly valued here and literacy is everywhere.

Pre Community Visit - Christina

As a Shoesmith group we are planning to visit the local farm stand and market, pizza restaurant, bookstore, and we are going to walk around the neighborhood and see what it has to offer to the residents of Hyde Park. We will be looking for parks and small shops along with architecture and fun things for kids and adults to do on the weekends or after school – we want to know where our students come from and what they have to bring with them to the classroom. We chose these locations because many of the children in my class had said they loved playing outside at the park and a few of their favorite foods is pizza – so we thought it worked out great. The farm stand and market is where many of their parents/guardians go grocery shopping. As new residents in the area we wanted to see if there was a difference between the grocery stores we are used to shopping at (Meijer) differs at all from their local shops. The community is very small and many of the shops and restaurants are located on one of two streets.

I expect to see young students who attend school at the University of Chicago, as it is only a few blocks away, or elderly. The community is for the majority African-American but there are white-Caucasian, middle-eastern, and Hispanics also in the area. I would assume that many people would be working and not shopping when we visit since we are going Thursday during the day – I could be wrong however since Chicago is suffering from unemployment rates – which can also be a bias. As for the workers at these locations I expect them to all live around the area and assume that they would all live within walking distance. Since Hyde Park is such a small community I would expect to see the majority of the people out walking to-and-from their locations. Depending upon the times that we visit each location I would expect to see the children of the community playing at the local parks.

I would consider myself an outsider in this community as I am commuting from home – a town south west of the city, about 20 minutes. Therefore, I will have my “outsider glasses” on that I will try to look past, which will be hard because I am not able to experience my student’s community first hand – I wish I could! Before, teaching I would view this community different as I would now, however as I know the students in my class I could picture them going from place to place. I would have been possibly scared or felt like a minority if I did this activity prior to learning about my students and other teachers because I would be one of a select few white people walking around the area. I am now comfortable and barely see the difference in skin color after working with my students – we work as one. Now however because I can see the community through a different lens I think I will be better able to understand my students – which is what I am hoping for.

At the restaurant, farmers market, and market I would make connections between reading and oral languages. The customers must be able to read the menu and make a decision as to what they want to eat for dinner then communicate that to the waiter. Whereas, as the markets the customers must be able to read the price of an item and communicate to the cashier as to how much it costs. In the end both then connect to math as some form of payment must be made. Without literacy no type of sale could happen. As for being able to understand what the other person is saying you must be able to listen and understand the language along with reading body language and facial expressions. Communicating to those that live and work around you is very important – students use these skills that they start to use at a very young age in the classroom and being able to apply real-world situations will get them connected and keep them engaged in the lesson.

I expect the people that I see in these settings to be able to know how to read and speak in a way that is understandable to those on the other side. It would be great if I could see new literacies such as technology being used since it is considered one of the most powerful things that young children can connect and understand. I wonder how much my schema of the south-side of Chicago is going to change and if going into the community will really show me something about my students that I didn’t know – I am eager to find out! I am also curious to see how many people ask us what we are doing in the community (if we look like outsiders).

Task #2: Community Visit (Alison DiStefano)

For our community visit, the other interns at Woodlawn Community Elementary asked our kids where they liked to go when they weren't at school. My 3rd graders responses were: "The beach", "the park", and "my grandma's house". Not the most helpful for my project but still great responses! The other interns received a little more help such as the local bowling ally and a couple restaurant suggestions. We split up the locations by twos. Myself and Lizzie chose to visit the local bowling ally as well as the restaurant Medici 57. We did this so we could all go to 2 places and report back and get a wide variety of examples for the project. Lizzie and I chose to go to the bowling ally and Medici 57 because we figured these would be great places to spot examples of literacy and math, as well as get a feel for how the community is. A bowling ally is a great place to see people of all ages interacting and enjoying themselves. Medici 57 is a restaurant that a few students recommended. We figured it would be a great place to see members of the community interact as well as examples of literacy and math.

I expect that the bowling ally will be filled with families as well as adults my age since it is located in the University of Chicago campus. I expect there to be lots of examples of literacy and math (food menus, signs, bowling shoe sizes, bowling ball weights, etc...). I assume that since we are going during the day on Thursday that there will not be too many people bowling (except perhaps college age adults and older adults not working). I do expect there to be more African American people there than white people due to the demographics in Hyde Park. I also assume there will be more males there than women due to my own stereotype of bowling allies in generally appealing to more males than females. As far as the restaurant goes, because it is closer to our elementary school, I figured the demographics will be the same as the school (mostly African American) and perhaps lower income families enjoying a Thursday night dinner. We figured we could go and perhaps even see students eating dinner there. There would probably be lots of literacy and math examples (i.e. menus, interaction with the waiters, signs, prices, etc...).

In a way I consider myself an outsider since I do not live in the exact community as my students do. Then again, because I have been around it and part of the community for a while now, I think I may not considered an exact outsider anymore. I think if I brought a friend who had never been to Hyde Park before or experienced the Woodlawn community, I think they would feel uncomfortable in these settings. Perhaps mostly because of the demographic. We see skin color first and if you notice you are the minority somewhere it is going to affect how you interact or feel in that particular setting. I think at the bowling ally an outsider would feel more comfortable and not like an outsider because it is located in the University of Chicago campus. At the restaurant though, I feel because it is a smaller venue and more of a known hotspot for the community they may not feel as welcome. Perhaps everyone knows each other or that the demographics may be more apparent because of the smaller, more intimate setting. I don't know if it is because I am used to being the minority at school or if it is because I don't notice the differences in skin color anymore, but I feel that I won't be as intimidated by being in these settings as much as an 'outsider' would.

I expect to see many different types of literacy. In the restaurant, I expect to see people ordering food and knowing how to do so. They should be able to order and pay for their meals. It will be interesting to see how the people there interact with one another. Will it be different than in a restaurant closer to where I live? In the bowling ally, I expect people to know how to rent bowling shoes and pick out a bowling ball. What will the groups of people be like? Will kids be there on a school day afternoon? Are there signs around the bowling ally or restaurant for customers?

Will post again after I go to these places!

Pre Community Visit (Chelsea McIntosh)

I am currently placed at Wadsworth Elementary School, which is located in the community of Woodlawn. As a group, we chose to visit three locations within our community. The first was a local YMCA, located about 2 blocks from our school. We also visited a local grocery store and a nearby restaurant (Giordano's). We selected the YMCA to visit, because it hosts a positive after school environment in which many of the students from Wadsworth attend. The selection of the grocery store and restaurant were selected because they are areas in which could be considered a typical common ground for students of various cultural backgrounds. Upon visiting these locations I expect to see lots of interaction with different individuals; whether it be small groups of children or neighbors greeting each other. Due to the majority of my schools immediate community facing issues of poverty, minimal resources, and unemployment I do not expect to see any hostile or violent acts among peoples.

I believe that a person visiting a local establishment in my community might conceive the misconception that literacy and mathematical skills are not successfully employed throughout due to an appeal of a low socio-economic status. Until recently, I would have considered myself an outsider within this community. However, by spending time near my community and within my school I no longer feel the same way. Therefore, after briefly learning of the academic success, struggles, and goals from within my schools as well as CPS, I hope to enter each location with no biases.

Within the three establishments we have selected to visit, I expect to see the greatest overlap with the use of oral language and reading. As an individual visits the grocery store, restaurant, or YMCA they will need to use varied levels of reading skills to differentiate between what meal they may order, what item they will purchase, or what program they will join. Their selections may be accompanied by the use of oral language as a person is commonly required to convey their selection or need of assistance using verbal communication skills.

One common connection that will appear within a school as well as the YMCA, restaurant, and grocery store is a public restroom facility. In order for a male or female individual to access their necessary restroom, they need to be able to differentiate between the diagram of a male/female displayed or read the associated words 'male'/'female'.