Week 11:Re-Thinking (Pre)School Literacies
When we were in school, we were being taught to be prepared and ready for Istep, benchmarks, and other standardized testing we oh so dreaded. But what does it mean when a child/student is ready for that? According to Souto-Manning's book, Rethinking Early Literacies, Common Core State Standards is what deciphers whether a student is ready to move on to the next content or curriculum and whether a student is moving too slowly. Unfortunately, the literacy standards focus on formation of letters, capitalization, punctuation, spacing and other mechanical skills. Therefore, they are sculpting curriculum to be about materials, manuals, and objectives. They are not focusing on what is most important which is where the students are learning their language and how they are actually interpreting it into there academics. "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world" (p 165). An example Souto gave in the book is that all the students need to write and illustrate a story. The teacher is forced to give them a time limit on how long they are able to do it and by the end, one particular student was not able to finish their story. This student was focused on drawing pictures of her family than writing the words to explain what was happening in her drawings. She was very disappointed she did not have enough time to finish the assignment.
This can relate to when we are taking standardized tests in class and eventually we ran out of time. Some students had finished the test and some students didn't; this is supposed to determine who is ready to advance and who is not. I remember when I was in middle school and we had to take the Istep test which included reading, math and writing. I always finished the math and writing part of the test but I could never be able to finish the reading portion. This was because I was not a very strong reader and I did not comprehend texts well. This did not mean I wasn't ready to advance because I have always been smart, it just meant I need more time than others and that's what us future educators should realize about our students. I also remember dreading the practices we were forced to do all year before taking the test. "There is a distinct difference between writing as an assignment versus and writing as social and cultural activities used to connect with others and to build relationships" (p 176). Building relationships and learning their cultural differences through writing activities can also help prepare students for the future and what comes ahead. Here are some ways we could do this in the classroom:
1. Words and letters as representative of meaning: Figure out what your students are interested in and use that to your advantage. Such as letting them make name tags for themselves to decorate is significant to students. Do acronym activities with them to see what their minds express when connecting a letter to a word.
2. Using print resources: Alphabet charts, word of the day, colored words, and books are great to use.
3. This also goes along with patterns and repetition: consistency is important to young students and having a word of the day every day or having read aloud everyday to learn new words would be significant to them and be something they could look forward to.
4. Copying: Just practicing spelling words they see often or names they hear often.
Questions:
1. Should standardized practice be enforced before taking standardized tests?
2. Could having students write about their experiences and culture also prepare them for the future?
3. What the strategies could you make writing significant to the student?
4. What is the difference between writing as an assignment and writing as a social experience?
In regards to your second question, "Could having students write about their experiences and culture also prepare them for the future?", I know personally this would have helped me in schools. Especially in college we talk about our culture in every class that we are taking. I never had to do this in high school, and it took a while for me to get used to. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable, but that means that you are learning. Talking about their experience may help them become more comfortable and grow as a person, which will help them in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou’re right! I didn’t talk about culture in any of my schooling before college and I agree that it would’ve prepared me a lot for this experience.
DeleteI think that there is a big difference in writing as an assignment and writing as a social experience. I love to write, and for a long time I would record my dreams and write short stories about them. I would share those stories with my friends and parents, who would often as me about them. Sometimes my friends would try to interpret my dreams for me, and we would spend a long time trying to figure out what my dreams meant. This was a social experience. When I write for an assignment, I don't usually share very personal things about myself because it doesn't usually have a place in the academic word. This is the sad truth, and we really should make more room for personal writing in the academic world. If we did, students might perform better because they can bring their own knowledge into the classroom.
ReplyDeletePaige, I agree when you say that we should make more room for personal writing in the academic world. In the article, Phonics Instruction With a Culturally Responsive Twist, the author talks about struggling to do this in her own classroom because teachers are given curricula that leaves no room for meaningful teaching opportunities that include students being able to draw on their personal experiences and background. Providing opportunities like this creates motivation and the drive to want to learn because then students feel appreciated.
DeleteTo answer question #1, “Should standardized practice be enforced before taking standardized tests?” I don’t necessarily believe it should be enforced, but I do believe this is where the idea of “timed test” came from. As stated before by multiplying classmates “timed test” didn’t really help, but instead have everyone dreaded them. I think teachers need to find a creative way to help students prepare for standardized tests instead of the typical “timed test” way. Or teachers can pinpoint what each student struggles with within the test and help build time management on that particular area. Which could possibly lead to a better outcome when it comes to being timed during the standardized test.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I think that it shouldn't be enforced and that the teachers need to come up with a more creative way instead of just giving them a timed test and saying, "do this in one minute". This can make the student get burnt out easily. It also could not be helping certain students, and if this is the practice you are told to give them, they could fall behind if they aren't memorizing what you give them. I agree that if the teacher pinpoints the struggles of each student on a certain topic, they can focus on just those things to improve test scores.
DeleteI think standardized practice should be required as long as we still have standardized testing because it allows the students to prepare for the tests they are going to have to take. If they have time to prepare, it might help them with test anxiety and help them feel less stress over the thought of standardized testing. I think having students write about their experiences helps them prepare for the future because it helps them learn how to be open and understanding of others and the fact that we are all different. Sharing experiences allows students to be less judgmental and more understanding of each other, while feeling more comfortable and open.
ReplyDeleteFor question two, I would like to say that personally it helped me and it's continued to help me. In college I find myself talking about my experiences and my culture in many ways. Me knowing this I feel as if starting kids young on doing this will help them grow as a person and become more comfortable talking about their experiences and being proud of their culture. Everyone has a story and I believe knowing that story and evolving your story everyday is an important part of life.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question I think students would benefit a lot from writing about their experiences because when students are applying for college they usually need to write something about their experiences and what they have had to go through to be able to get to where they are now. If they didn't practice that before hand they might not know what to write at all. Students also need to figure out who they are first and what makes them who they are and what makes them unique.They should start at an early age trying to figure out their culture and how what they have gone though matters so much when it comes to figuring out who they are as a person. It definitely would've helped me a lot to try and figure out how me being Hispanic and a minority impacted my life so much and how the rest of the world viewed me so I could be ready for 'the real world'
ReplyDeleteA way that I can make writing significant to my students is by first having them write about things they care about and about themselves. When you are passionate about a subject you have a lot to say about it, this to me will greatly benefit my students because one it's getting them excited about writing and two it allows me to see where they can use improvements and we can go from there. To me it's cruel to expect students to write about things they don't know or don't care about, that is when you will get halfhearted work and no excitement about writing. Writing should be fun, it is another way for people to express themselves and I want my students to know and appreciate this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Christian, students do not like to write if it’s something they don’t know about or enjoy. it’s a good idea to figure out what they like writing about & incorporating it into the classroom.
DeleteTo answer question number 2, I think having students write about themselves and their culture will help them in the future. I think it will help them express themselves more, and help them understand where they come from so they can be proud of who they are. I think more students need to learn how to wrote about themselves because I think that is a lost skill that more teachers should be working on in their classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to respond to your last question "What is the difference between writing as an assignment and writing as a social experience?" I think the difference between writing as an assignment and as a social experiment is that one is more personal and insightful than the other. I remember for most of my elementary education, the writing assignments I did were mainly trying to focuses on what the author directly said from the critical text . We have to look up the right words or phrases that go along with the Its basically you either have the right or wrong answer. Sometimes my teachers ask to talk about what we thought about it and how it relates to us as a culturally relevant text. On the other had, it wasn't frequent as it could have been. The social experiment aspect really comes down to talking to other peers and bouncing off ideas/perspectives from one another.
ReplyDelete"Could having students write about their experiences and culture also prepare them for the future?" This could 100 percent help students prepare for their future. Writing about ANYTHING is good for your mind because it can get feelings and emotions out. It can also help you find who you are and maybe even where you fit in. Throughout our classes this semester, I have found myself a bit more because we are constantly thinking about and talking about who we are. If I would have known what I do now about myself in highschool and was more comfortable with who I am, then I feel like my future would have been a lot more structured. With us thinking about who we are and what are beliefs are, I think this will better help prepare be for my future because I know more about how and who I am. If our students start this early in their lives, then they will be able to find themselves sooner and be better prepared for their futures.
ReplyDeleteI feel like there should be some standardized practices done before students take the standardized tests. Standardized tests are not going to go away, we should realize this, adapt, and help our students practice for their tests.
ReplyDeleteWriting is very important to me and it is a great skill to have in the future. If students were to write about their experiences and cultures, it will make writing fun for them. I would implement this into my classrooms by doing short warm ups and subjects to write about and give them a time limit to write about their experiences.
To answer question two, students writing about their experiences and culture can help them prepare for the future. When I went to school we did not talk about these issues but I had friends of different cultures and I learned more through them in school. To answer question three, I think to a strategy to make writing significant to a student is to have them write about their interests because they aren't limited on what to say and can express themselves through writing gaining a writing style.
ReplyDeleteIn answering question two "Could having students write about their experiences and culture also prepare them for the future?" I believe letting students write about their experience would bring them to learn about themselves and about others. This helps students share their culture and who they are let them express what they want in their writing. By letting students write about their experiences and culture not only does it help them learn about themselves but it also lets the teacher learn about their students individual at a deeper level. In my personal experiences in elementary I didn't really write about my culture or experiences until college. I noticed by sharing my experiences and my culture it can benefit others to learn something new or something different but unique. In this class I like to share how I learned in elementary because my experience was different from others. I noticed this by reading my classmates comments. I think by letting students sharing their experiences and their culture would help them in the future because it has helped not only me but also others in my class.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to answer one of your questions, Should standardized practice be enforced before taking standardized tests? I think standardized testing shouldn't even be a thing anymore because all it does is stress out the student and make them feel like a failure if they don't do well. But I don't think this will change for awhile. So, I do believe we should because it would make it easier on the student when they actually have to take the standardized test. They will know what to expect and can learn from it as well. I know when I was younger, I hated taking any form of tests, especially standardized tests. They always caused me a lot of anxiety and stress.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, "2. Could having students write about their experiences and culture also prepare them for the future?", I think that this would benefit them. I think that it would also prepare them for the future because it is a great way for them to write it out, think about how they are feeling about their experiences and then be able to talk about it later on. I feel like if they write about it, they will want to talk about it. Also, writing about their culture might make them want to ask more questions about their culture that they don't know. Therefore, they will have more knowledge about that in the future. If that makes any sense at all.
ReplyDeleteQuestion one should standardized practice be enforced before taking standardized tests? I think it should be. I think students would benefit from practicing because it could ease their anxiety by showing them what to expect. It could also give them a chance to prepare instead of throwing them to the wolves so to speak. I would have like to have some sort of practice before a test.
ReplyDeleteA writing strategy I would use to make writing significant to my students are using journal prompts or complete the story prompts. I found that usings these prompts help children express themselves in writing that they wouldn't do for a "regular" writing assignment. Using prompts allows the teacher to connect with the student and learn about a students likes and dislikes. I've used this technique to help my own daughter to increase her writing. She previously didn't like to write which I couldn't understand because I love to write. She is an avid reader so I believed that the next plausible step was writing and when she told me she didn't like to write I had to change her perception. We began writing a journal prompt daily and I learned so much about her personality, opinions, like/dislikes, and her dreams. Now she is an avid writer as well as reader. This shift encouraged me to use this technique with my future students.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I think it would be extremely beneficial to have students write about their experiences and culture in order to better prepare them for the future. We live in a word that is expanding in diversity everyday. Students come from all different kinds of backgrounds, family structures and culture. What better way to learn than from one another? A students funds of knowledge should always be valued in the classroom and be used in a way to make curriculum more engaging and rich in learning. By sharing a students experience and culture, you are helping students understand one another better which is something that will benefit them in the future.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, yes I believe that having students write about their experiences and culture can better prepare them for the future. I believe this to be true because the world is so diverse and that is something we need to embrace. By writing about our own experiences and cultures we are able to teach and learn from others. When we know who we are and acknowledge what we have been through we are able to move forward and grow as people. This can help other grow as well.
ReplyDeleteTo answer number 1, I do believed standardized practice tests should be required before having to take a standardized test. Students should be able to decipher how much time they will have on each section/ problem, as well as see the set up of these standardized tests. I remember the first time I took the SAT and I was so scared. I was at a school I have never been to before, I had to find the testing rooms, and I was surrounded by strangers. All of those factors are things you can not really take away from the SAT unless rules are changed but added on top of the fear is the not knowing of how the test was going to be ran. These factors put an extreme amount of anxiety on a student and having practice standardized tests could somewhat remove a few nerves by enlightening the students on the lay out of the test.
ReplyDelete- Deja Shelton
To answer your second question, I think writing about experiences and culture will help with the future yes. But for some people like me, I have yet to still dive into my culture. It is something I have still been searching to want to know more about. Researching about my culture would for sure help anyones future. Wanting to know more about your family generations really helps shape you into the person you want to be/are.
ReplyDeleteI think standardized practice can be beneficial before taking a standardized tests so students know what they are getting ready to take with the format and topics. Having students right about their culture and experiences can prepare them for the future by allowing them to use their experiences to better understand knowledge. Writing for an assignment can cause stress for the student while writing in their free time can be a way for them to release their stress.
ReplyDelete