I recently read Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shape-shifting Kindergartner by Siegel, Kontovouri, Schmier, and Enriquez from the National Council of Teachers of English. In this article, a case study, the authors discuss a kindergarten student named Jewel. Jewel moves between languages (Bengali and English), cultures (home and school), and literacies (writing and drawing). This issue raised by this article is one of perception. Jewel does not, the authors observe, cause a commotion in making all these changes. Jewel is an example of a multi-literate student. Multiliteracy is a relatively new idea, one that needs to gain footing in order to prepare students for the modern world.
This article argues that systems like balanced literacy, as it was practiced at the observed school, created a culture discourse which valued certain types of reading and writing over others. I think this is something that can be very hard to identify in your own school and even if it is identified, making changes also proves challenging. Even in my limited experience in classrooms, I have heard teachers and administrators say things like "Well, it's always been done that way." In the article, students in Jewel's classroom were praised for sitting correctly during mini-lessons, using the mini-lesson strategies while reading, and completing writing exercises in the correct order. If Jewel did something out of order she was reminded by her teacher or fellow students what the correct procedure was. Repeatedly, Jewel was reminded to add words to her drawings, that they were not done without the addition of words. I found myself asking what I might be able to do if I find myself teaching in a school that does not value cultural diversity in it's curriculum.
This article proposes looking at young students' work through a lens of multimodality, that is assigning value to all aspects of symbolic representation. I could transfer this viewpoint to the classroom by asking students about their drawings instead of just reminding them to add words. As we've learned in Catching Readers Before They Fall, every student has their own developmental timelines. Not all kindergartners are ready to write sentences at the same time and that's okay.
The students I teach will need to be prepared to use their literacy skills everywhere in an ever-expanding variety of forms. They will not only need to be able to identify narrative elements in stories, but know how to use all of the features on a standard website, smartphone app, or grocery store self-checkout station. This article emphasized that it is important to think about who a literacy program benefits. Is it designed for ease of measurement or to value students' developing skills and build on them in a variety of ways?
Siegel, M., Kontovourki, S., Schmier, S., Enriquez, G. (2008). Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shape-shifting Kindergartner.Language Arts, Vol.86 (No.2), pp.89-98. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41962327
This article argues that systems like balanced literacy, as it was practiced at the observed school, created a culture discourse which valued certain types of reading and writing over others. I think this is something that can be very hard to identify in your own school and even if it is identified, making changes also proves challenging. Even in my limited experience in classrooms, I have heard teachers and administrators say things like "Well, it's always been done that way." In the article, students in Jewel's classroom were praised for sitting correctly during mini-lessons, using the mini-lesson strategies while reading, and completing writing exercises in the correct order. If Jewel did something out of order she was reminded by her teacher or fellow students what the correct procedure was. Repeatedly, Jewel was reminded to add words to her drawings, that they were not done without the addition of words. I found myself asking what I might be able to do if I find myself teaching in a school that does not value cultural diversity in it's curriculum.
This article proposes looking at young students' work through a lens of multimodality, that is assigning value to all aspects of symbolic representation. I could transfer this viewpoint to the classroom by asking students about their drawings instead of just reminding them to add words. As we've learned in Catching Readers Before They Fall, every student has their own developmental timelines. Not all kindergartners are ready to write sentences at the same time and that's okay.
The students I teach will need to be prepared to use their literacy skills everywhere in an ever-expanding variety of forms. They will not only need to be able to identify narrative elements in stories, but know how to use all of the features on a standard website, smartphone app, or grocery store self-checkout station. This article emphasized that it is important to think about who a literacy program benefits. Is it designed for ease of measurement or to value students' developing skills and build on them in a variety of ways?
Siegel, M., Kontovourki, S., Schmier, S., Enriquez, G. (2008). Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shape-shifting Kindergartner.Language Arts, Vol.86 (No.2), pp.89-98. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41962327
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