Hi Lise,
This is Kristen Anderson from class responding to your post. I am very interested in the subject you raise -- the idea that students’ literacy development can help them become more aware of societal problems. Although I have a B.A. in Social Justice, I had never heard the term “sociolinguistics” until reading about the student-centered learning theories outlined in our textbook.
The idea that children would be interested in reading about real human experiences makes a lot of sense, and it sounds like your daughter was receptive toward your book-sharing experience. Implementing literacy activities that encourage students to examine issues such oppression can lead to discussions of topics such as school bullying. These student discussions can help develop social and relational skills, (Tompkins, p.10) while also improving problem-solving skills and empathy. Tompkins describes the development of “critical literacy” as part of a model of reading and writing that is not only a system for teaching, but also has the added bonus of helping students become more thoughtful and empowered! This teaching philosophy is inspiring to me.
Thank you for your post on this interesting topic.
Hi, Kristin, thank you for sending me your post. I will figure out why it did not post directly to the blog.
My Grade 7 daughter was receptive to shared reading initially on The Watson's Go to Birmingham, but after the first chapter with me, she read the rest of the book by herself, as did I. C.P. Curtis weaved a compelling story about life in Detroit to the road trip to Birmingham to visit family members. I found myself visualizing how cold it was to live in Detroit and how hot it was in Birmingham. Tompkins (pages 40-41) highlights a teacher who prepared a series of minilessons to help students visualize excerpts from The Giver. This visualization strategy brings the stories to life by talking about geographical settings, sights, sounds, smells, feelings. The teacher also presented a minilesson on literary opposites. This type of lesson clearly helps students see differences in communities, families, rules and race. As a substitute teacher in Grades K and 1, I have not had a chance to do a series of minilessons yet on an age-appropriate book that would use literacy to challenge injustices. I was thinking maybe I should bring a copy of The Bracelet or The Other Side (recommended for primary grades K-2, Tompkins, p. 10) the next time I am a substitute teacher and see if there is some free time where I can read the story and do a minilesson on visualizing and literary opposites.
Getting back to creating moments through reading/writing where teachers can talk about injustice, oppression, and diversity - I strongly agree this should happen on a regular basis. The characteristics of the sociolinguistics theory (Tompkins, p. 6) include the importance of social interaction between students and using authentic activities to instill learning. In my opinion, when children have an opportunity to talk about their culture and the community where they live with other students in a classroom setting, the playing field becomes equal and the opportunities to create success at reading and writing are manifold. Children learn to appreciate different cultures and develop greater empathy toward others. I also believe young children are learning how to become better citizens. Tompkins (Ch. 1) really provides a great framework for becoming an effective teacher of reading and is very inspirational too.
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