Hwewon's Blog

Through this class, Issues and Trends in Reading and Language Arts in the Elementary School, I had an opportunity to go through what issues related to Reading and Language Arts were inferred in the US and to see what policy, research, and practice had to say about the issues.

Second, I had a chance to consider about how I as a researcher and educator could relate what I read from articles (research and policy) with practice. Sometimes, when some researchers in an article suggest some recommendations, it might be ideal, not real. We can see policy makers don’t always consider that. Through discussions in the class, I heard about practices related to reading and language arts from classmates who are teachers and I tried to figure out what would be best.

I think each researcher, policymaker, and educator should agree on the purpose of language instruction. When their opinions converge, they can cooperate and lead our students toward better learning environments and experiences.

             The simple goal of Structured English immersion (SEI) is “to teach students the English language quickly so they can do better in school” (p. 42).

The English language is the main content of SEI instruction. All materials and instruction in SEI programs are in English. Teachers are not required to be able to speak a language other than English.

             This article makes me remind of Soto’s book. In Soto’s book (1996), the schools force the minority students to use only English and push for the loss of their home language.  They also make the students “good Hispanics.” The definition of a “good Hispanic” (p. 21) made me sad: A group of people who will “keep to themselves” and “cause no problems.” The “good Hispanics” continue to be silenced in both the educational and political processes. The language-minority families were not at liberty to choose a language (p.23).  Furthermore, the school took away their language (p. 32).  That is, “the schools are not only unfriendly, but are also creating oppressive and abusive climates of futility” (p. 50).  As I read the book I wondered: Why do the schools force the minority students to use only English?  Why do the schools push for the loss of someone’s home language?  Why do they make the students “good Hispanics”?  Do the schools exist for the oppressors’ convenience?

             Where is the starting point of education for bilingual children?  What thinking do educators have?  What should they prepare?  “The education process has to start from the experience and background of the children” (p. 46).  “Language leaning is clearly Knowledge that will benefit our citizens as we attempt to organize, understand, communicate, and plan for future cross-cultural and global possibilities” (p. 94).  For the purpose of language learning, the premise and the strategies for education will be different. We should consider the purpose of language learning.

             According to Spring (1993), “Language was considered related to values and culture” (p.69).  Bilingual education is vital not only to teach two languages but “to transmit their cultural traditions to students” (p. 95).  Therefore, a teacher should begin to teach ELL students from their identity, their experiences, and cultural background, not focusing just on language.

Four Resources Model

Code breakers: decode text

Text participants: make meaning from text

Text users: use text appropriately and flexibly across contexts

Text analysts: evaluate text regarding issues of social, cultural, and political power

        “Reading, and reading a lot is the most important thing a student can do as students continuously develop as code breakers, text participants, text users, and text analysts” (Jones, p.114). In the classroom, however, most students work hard as code breakers, text participants, and text users.  They are not text analysts.

       “Readers of all ages need to understand how power, perspective, and positioning operate in all texts” (Jones, p. 127).  Television commercial, movies, magazines, song lyrics, and even textbooks offer students versions of white, middle-class life that are considered standard or normal. It might promote unitary versions and stereotypes. Students should consider connections and disconnections between their life experiences and those presented in the image of the text. A critical perspective “offers students the tools to deconstruct and reconstruct texts and work toward socially just understandings” (Jones, p. 127).

             I like critical literacy because students discuss perspectives, consider social issues, question the use of power, and explore how books make them feel and what they make them think. As I read Jones’s chapter, I wondered, for white middle class, how they were able to find disconnections between their life and texts. How can we lead them to deconstruct mainstream illustrations and stereotypes and reconstruct the concept of what is “normal”? Is critical literacy for one specific race or class?

     Duncan-Andrade and Morrell (2005) conceptualized the critical teaching of popular culture as a visible strategy to increase academic and critical literacies in urban middle classrooms. Alexander-Smith (2004) describes how, in a poetry unit, she used hip-hop music and spoken word poetry, and how they offered resources for teachers.

         I’d learned that teaching should begin from students’ previous experiences and with their interests, in my college. However, I never encouraged my kids to sing pop songs in my classroom. I ignored such forms of entertainment. I might have felt this way because of my notion of “high and low culture.” Low culture refers to those “types of popular texts students choose to engage in are frequently devoid of academic merit and mostly serve the purpose of mindless entertainment” (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2005, p. 295). As I read these two articles, I thought about how they applied to young children: These articles were related to adolescents. Also, what significance do these articles have for the field of early childhood education? In reality, how would it apply to young children?

          Although participation in popular culture is widespread in our society, children from economically privileged and culturally dominant homes have greater access to school literacy. On the other hand, media use among low-income and African-American and Latino children is more pervasive. Dyson (2003) examined recontextualization processes and the influence of unofficial (Child-governed) practices on 1^st grade students’ participation on official (teacher-governed) literacy practices. By using the label “brothers and sisters” from the movie Space Jam, a group of African-American first graders expressed their solidarity with the African American tradition. The children sang hip-hop or R&B songs written for teenagers, African-American related. However they were not passively absorbing the media material. Rather, they appropriated group songs and dramatic play. Students are doing their work in the official world, but they are also doing their work in the unofficial world.

          Classroom practices traditionally tend to be formed by curricular and instructional expectations removed from particularities of children’s relationships, pleasures, powers, and concerns. However, the brothers and sisters did not abandon these, as they entered into school literacy. In other words, the children brought themselves, their relationships, and their textual toys into their official classroom activities. Recontextualization processes led to a productive interplay between official and unofficial worlds. The children are active beings in the classroom. Through Dyson (2003), we see that the children brought themselves, their relationships, and their textual toys into their official classroom activities. Through the process of recontextualization, there was productive interplay between official and unofficial worlds. Through Dyson (2003), we are able to understand young children’s recontextualization process, and can bridge the gap between popular culture and school.

          “As teachers, we must raise students’ critical consciousness to the symbols of popular culture by finding a space in our instruction to discuss them… But, examining popular culture demonstrates to students how artists, advertisers, filmmakers, and entertainers manipulate images to communicate images to communicate their attitudes about students’ culture, lives, and world” (Alexander-Smith, 2004, p. 63).

     In Vasquez (2004), we see how she uses language critically to help her students understand that they have an active role to play in the world and how the youngest children take this role. For example, in the kindergarten classroom, children reflected on how McDonald’s thinks and discussed how Happy Meals work, including how McDonald’s uses toys as a way of maintaining child consumers. While engaged with McDonald’s as text, multilayered conversations were constructed; children involved themselves with different activities and actions in response to the text. After discussing the warning labels as a text on the plastic bag, a child suggested that if the plastic bag was hazardous the packaging should be changed. In response, some students designed their own toy containers, which they felt were safer for children. Also a child offered two versions of how alternate packaging might be constructed as a proposal. The use of popular culture texts could provide spaces for students to discuss and critique this reality.

     It is worth remembering, “Critical, postmodern educators should look first to their students to understand how they make sense of the world before deciding what is best fir these young people” (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell ,2005, p. 304).

References

Alexander-Smith, A. C. (2004). Feeling the rhythm of the critically conscious mind. English Journal, 93(3), 58-63.

Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R., & Morrell, E. (2005). Turn up that radio, teacher: Popular cultural pedagogy in new century urban schools. Journal of School Leadership, 15, 284-308.

Dyson, A. H. (2003). “Welcome to the jam”: Popular culture, school literacy, and the making of childhoods. Harvard Educational Review, 73(3), 328-361.

Vasquez, V. M. (2004). Negotiating critical literacies with young children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gerstl-Pepin C. I., & Woodside-Jiron H. (2005). Tensions between the “science” of reading and a “love of learning”: One high-poverty school’s struggle with NCLB. Equity&Excellence in Education, 38, 232-241.

             What are problems of the federal government programs or policies? “Scientifically-based research is valuable, but it may not fit every context or the large purpose of developing expert teachers who equipped to accommodate instruction to meet student needs” (p. 239). That is, like Allington (2005), imposing particular one-size-fits-all instructional materials and methods, curriculum, and instruction on children and their teachers is not best. They might ignore or miss contextual differences. Therefore, the programs or policies should consider lived culture of schools and government should give autonomy to schools and teachers: It is the schools and teachers that know their students very well. Also government should perceive that “reading is really a part of social action and how important literacy is to changing one’s world” (p. 236).

             Gerstl-Pepin and Woodside-Jiron insisted that “a teacher’s passion for teaching and a child’s love of reading are important components of school reform that are not easily quantifiable and measurable” (p. 239). For this, Teachers should deal with the reality that their studnets’ home lives can have an effect on their readiness to learn. The context of their students’ lives and its implication for instruction is important.

             What else would teachers need? I think teachers’ belief is the most important. Attitudes are made up of multiple beliefs obtained from experiences with the environment and with other people. They arise from single and multiple experiences, both direct and indirect (Cooper and Croyle, 1984; Rajecki, 1990). Beliefs “are dispositions to action and major determinants of behavior, although the dispositions are time and context specific” (Pajares, 1992, p. 313). Pajares (1992) theorizes that beliefs can develop into values and that an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and values make up his or her belief system. Therefore, beliefs are very important and have a significant influence. The belief would be based on the teacher’s passion. The belief could also affect teachers’ practice in the classroom.