It's Not Easy Being Flat pointed me toward the importance of incorporating critical literacy into my project more. My students have been looking at different persuasive pieces at mentor texts during their writing processes, but there is room for more critical literacy that are not persuasive pieces specifically. They need to see more texts about children taking a stand and changing their world such as Kid President or works by MLK, Jr. or Gandhi as shown in this TICC project. I want to look more into the UN Rights of a Child to foster more conversations about what the students' rights and responsibilities are. It would be powerful to come up with not only some rights for my students but also some responsibilities as the teacher in this project does.
The more that I learn about the students, my school, and the surrounding community, I realize what a tight knit community my students live in. Many of them live in the same neighborhoods, live very close to other family members, and know and interact with their neighbors regularly. For this reason, I was interested in the study Latinos for Involvement in Family Education to help guide my thinking more about how to get the community involved in what my kids were working on in the classroom. The main point that the author of this project makes is the need for families to feel respected and have equal access to information. Parent involvement and communication is often something that is labeled as a problem at our school. While I think that it is improving greatly with our new principal, I think that there are definitely gains to be made, not only by our school but with me as a teacher. The woman who began LIFE talks extensively about the power of taking ideas that are the parents and supporting them in the school. Then they are the agents for change while community and trust are simultaneously being built. I think that another way to make my project stronger would be through incorporating my students' parents and their opinions into the projects that are happening in the classroom.
I also love the "I Need a New Way of Lyfe" study that took students into the exploration of the rights of an adequate standard of living. One of the most powerful parts of this study is seen in the texts, tools, and resources that the teacher used - local newspapers, church bulletins, and photographs from the students' community coupled with historical documents about the larger African American community. I can link this part of the project even further with my students' families and larger community by encouraging them to bring their lives and experiences into what they are doing. Although this is a high school study, my students can do the exploration and thinking piece about the needs of the community that they live in.
Overall, through reviewing these studies again, I want to think more about how to connect the project that we are working in in the classroom to the larger community. I want to use more critical literacy to link my students to the UN Rights of the Child and how those are manifested in their lives and others' lives in different ways. I want to work to make more connections across the more for this to become something more and more meaningful to my students.
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you are really thinking of some powerful ways to incorporate some ideas from the book into your project. I especially like the idea that you have about bringing in the parents' opinions and ideas in for the project. Often times our parents are stereotyped as not being involved, but in some cases they are not sure of the opportunities that are available for them to become involved. That may be something to consider for my project as well.
Lastly, I also like the idea of bringing in community resources alongside historical documents. I believe this helps with student investment and can be a powerful tool in the classroom. Students' motivation can increase when they see not only historical figures making a difference but people within their own community as well.
Kels,
ReplyDeleteYou have really done some great things here! I love how you are taking a look at how you can incorporate critical literacy into your project! I too am looking closer at the UN Rights of a Child and am excited to see how my students react to seeing these rights.
I also think it is great, like Ashley mentions, that you are really bringing in the community and the realities of what being a part of their community will look like. It is great that you are talking more about parent involvement and communication and giving your parents an opportunity to actively participate in this. I think I am going to try to look for ways I can incorporate this as well.
Keep it up Kels, you have lots of great things going on here!
-KM
I very much enjoyed reading your thoughts about how these case studies have informed your thinking about your TICC/Action Research project Because our projects are a little bit similar, I also connected with the case studies that you highlighted.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you mentioned the importance of parent empowerment and involvement. I have been a little hesitant to start talking to my students' parents about these projects because I'm not sure where they're going to go, but I'm glad that you reminded me that these projects can be that much more powerful if the parents get involved. I think that my fear and doubt can sometimes get in the way of greatness, and instead of worrying about these projects and how they're going to turn out, we must trust the process and trust our kids.
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this post. Your discussion of getting the community involved and utilizing parents as resources is especially relevant for me. I think that too often, parents get a bad rap, and even though my mindset is more geared towards seeing parents as resources than some others, I also have a way to go in terms of actually making my belief in parents evident in my practice. I had not even considered getting parents involved in our action research project. This really makes me think about how I need to incorporate our community, which is also very close-knit, into our project. If I don't model placing the community at the center of my priorities in education, I cant expect my students to.
Thanks for this!
I feel like the progress you have made in book clubs this year will be perfect for implementing the types of critical literacy study you are looking to do. I feel like you are really passionate in not only getting the students pumped up but also the families and community. I can totally relate to the awkwardness of talking to parents about this- it's kind of like diving right in and not knowing exactly what to expect and then inviting others along for the ride. I'm proud of the work you've done so far and excited to see where it all leads.
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