Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - Field Placement Visit #1

As I approached the brown brick building of Excellence Charter School (ECS) at Learning Campus, groups of African-American students lingered around the front door and off to the side of the building talking to each other before school began. I entered the two glass doors and notified a white-male teacher at the front door to inform him that I was here for field placement with Jane Bard. (Jane Bard is a first year teacher). He directed me to the front desk to sign in. After I signed in, I went to Room 107 and saw my host teacher sitting in front of her laptop preparing for the day. Ms. Bard welcomed me and provided me a clipboard with three sheets of the assigned seating for the three math courses I would be observing.

When the first school bell rang, 10th graders began trickling into the classroom for their first class of the day -- geometry. Ms. Bard greeted her students saying "Good morning Tom" and "Good morning Anna" by calling out her students’ first names. She then asked her students how their internships were going. When they saw the new assigned seats, some of Ms. Bard's students called out, "We got new seats?!" Mrs. Bard tried to calm her class down by having her students focus on the Do-Now, which is a silent and independent task.  Since this was a new semester and a new year, Mrs. Bard had some questions she wanted to know from students. They were:

1. Which expectations will be most challenging for you?

Unstructured Dialogue: A Way to Access Funds of Knowledge

12:30 p.m. – I arrived earlier than I expected so I told Ms. D that next time I could start around 12:45 instead of 1 p.m. Today is my actual first day of “teaching/tutoring.” I put those in quotes because this experience will not exactly follow the kind of teaching that happens in a school classroom. However, Site A has classrooms that are used for all sorts of activities. A weekly schedule is posted on each classroom door to show which department can have the room for the allotted time.

The classroom is a decent size even though Ms. D said that there isn’t enough space in the organization. About 16 chairs surround the rectangle table, which occupies most of the classroom. A white board is located across the door. There is a world map and several handmade posters on the walls: classroom rules (e.g. Turn off cell phones), “What is your job?” (pictures with words), and classroom questions (e.g. How do you say ___ in English?). There are fluorescent lights on the ceiling. I mention this because lighting is one of my concerns in a classroom.

On Saturday night, I sent Alice an email that began like this, "Hello Prof. Alice,
           I decided to read the June Jordan article because it really interested me in class, but I still have a few burning questions, especially after our last class. How can one not betray themselves, and still achieve an ends within a society where who they are is contrary to the power structures in place. In other words, how can I work against the system within the system? Should I play along with them in order to achieve my ends? Or should I toss it all aside and be me, write like me, and talk like me?"

Last Thursday in class, we discussed the journal entry about a first grade student who had been given a minor role in her school play because English was her second language, and therefore she was not as fluent as the other students. The writer of this journal entry describee this experience as a turning point that motivated her to develop her reading and speaking skills in English. While reading and discussing this post, I began to wonder about that pivital moment in every young students' life when they decide that it is time to commit to learning their language and to read. As a college student, I understand both the functional purpose and the societal norm that states that around the age of five, children should start to learn to read. However, when you are five, you are still oblivious to these societal norms. This is where my question stems from. What is it that inspires a young student who barely understands the importance of reading, to want to read? I believe that in the case of this specific journal entry, it was the realization that an inability to read English would socially separate her from her peers. This caused me to reflect on the ways that social pressures are present even at this early age. I believe that without the pressure/support/and desire to fit in with your peers (an innate desire) students would not be as motivated to learn to read, or for that matter, develop any other skill.

I saw this on Facebook and thought y'all would be interested. Can't figure out how to share the link (except on Fb) but here's the text:

One's ability to function in society is now dependent on their ability to use computer, specifically the Internet. This new form of literacy is essential for doing almost anything. It encompasses all of our lives, from work to personal enjoyment. The Internet is now a plausible medium for watching TV shows or having a business conference. What I view as one of the most important functions of the Internet is that it allows for freedom of expression through mediums such as Tumblr and Twitter. One can say whatever they desire.  Yet, such power comes with responsibility, and not every country is lucky enough for this freedom, Additionally, not every person can handle such power. Thus, this new form for literacy creates questions in my mind: What are the limits and boundaries of this relatively new discourse/literacy? Where do we draw lines and who is to do this? Will the freedom the Internet maintains today, be seen in the future? 

All I know is that the power of the Internet cannot be ignored. It is necessary to recognize that the Internet and ways to use it are changing and challenging society. 

At our last class, one of my peers commented on my post about being given a minor role in my first grade's Peter Pan play. My peer's comment was that if my first grade teacher had given me a bigger role in the play, that could have potentially motivated me to practice my reading skills and become a better reader. I had never thought about it that way but I believe she's right. I then read the Jaschke, Leigh article about teaching adults in West Africa how to read through mobile phones. I found the article interesting because by teaching adults how read through mobile phones, they are not only becoming literate but learning how to function an important useful piece of technology. What makes this significant is that the program that makes it possible for these adults to become literate allows them to use a "practical literacy component tied to obtaining market information via text message". This component has been very beneficial for agricultural producers that from what I understood from this article is that in order for them to enjoy the benefits this component offers, it could be safe to say that this can serve as a motivator for adults to learn how to read. This then makes me think back to my own experience, what can we do as educators to motivate our students to learn how to read?

Yellow,
a color I despised since childhood.
I never understood why it was so loud.
I never liked how it would hurt my sleepy eyes
or how it made me nauseous.
I just never liked yellow!

When reflecting on this assignment, one memory in particular came to mind. While my story is not specifically a story about a breakthrough or an epiphany when I all of a sudden knew how to read, it is a story of literacy, and ways in which my understanding of a storyline helped me play a role. When I was young I had a series of fairytale books. Out of all of them, my favorite was The Twelve Dancing Princesses. My older sister is twelve years older than me, so by the time I began to learn to read she was in college. I had always looked up to my sister and wanted so badly to impress her. During one of her visits home I went to her and informed her that I had been learning to read and had mastered this skill, which was far from true. I held my The Twelve Dancing Princesses book in front of my, careful to stare at the pages studiously, and recited the story from memory. While my sister was overly impressed, when she reported my success to my parents, they saw through my act. While this was only a temporary success, one could argue that although I could not yet read, I was literate. I was able to entertain my sister by telling her the story, while also demonstrating a certain cunning, although it was a deceptive one. If literacy here means judging my success at reading, I would have failed. However, if literacy had been considered my ability to entertain and communicate the story, it could be considered a success.