Blog Topic: Describe how
literature is included in the literacy curriculum in your classroom. Based on
today’s readings and your own ideas, what thoughts do you have about additional
ways to incorporate literature into the curriculum?
Literacy curriculum in my
classroom:
My
first grade classroom uses the “Treasures” by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill curriculum.
Literature is seen in this curriculum when the teacher reads the students a
story from the “big book”. This book is a large picture book that all the students
can see and follow along as the teacher reads. The curriculum gives the
teachers strategies to use while reading the literature. For example, it might
instruct the teacher to discuss what “summarize” means. After, the students
have an assignment that goes along with the story that was read. For example,
they might be asked to write the order of events that happened, and then also
draw pictures to go a long with what they write. They all have journals that
they use to write and draw their answers in. Additionally, the students all
have their own textbook filled with different stories they can read
individually, and follow along during group read.
Readings:
Langer, “Understanding Literature”
While reading this article, I thought Langer’s idea
of “thought tappers” provided good tips for teaching literature. The guidelines
listed as “thought tappers” can be used to help push students to explore
literature in greater depth by asking open-ended questions. I think this would
be good to incorporate into any literacy curriculum in order to get students to
fully understand the literature in many ways.
Hassett and Curwood, “Theories and Practices of
Multimodal Education: The Instructional Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary
Classrooms”
This article discusses how a text, a piece of
literature, may have “multimodal characteristics”, meaning things within the
text that convey different meanings. For example, these may include; the
design, font, images, the way it is narrated, and different perspectives. This can
be incorporated into literacy curriculum by keeping in mind the “multimodal
characteristics” when choosing literature for the classroom. If a text has
different colored font, or multiple perspectives it is important to keep that
in mind because it will change the meaning of the literature for students.
Almasi, “A New View of Discussion”
Almasi
discusses her view of what a discussion should look like, “a forum for
collaboratively constructing meaning and for sharing responses.” A discussion
should allow for ideas to be shared in order to reach new understandings. This
is important for teachers to keep in mind when they have discussions after
reading literature. Students should have the opportunity to discuss their
ideas, instead of the teacher just telling them what the text was about. When
incorporating literature into the literacy curriculum, I think it is important
to keep in mind that discussions must be had in order for students to get
meaning out of the literature. The discussions will allow for students to work
off of each other’s ideas in order to reach new meanings.
For first grade I believe this is a great way to incorporate literature. By the teacher using the "big book", the students can see the story as it is read to them. This kids the 1st graders drawn into the story making them pay attention to what the story entails. Their journal is helpful so they can not only write their answers in but draw what their answer is.
ReplyDeleteAlmasi is on point with discussion. There should always be discussion after reading literature. It helps the students to think about what they have read and it can also help the teachers know there the students are in their reading comprehension. Also it's important for them to work off each other's ideas.
I also agree that Langer's idea of thought tappers provides a good resource for teachers when trying to lead students to analyze the text. I also found it interesting when she said that these steps she outlined do not always occur in a linear fashion and can be revisited by students multiple times at various points of the text. With younger students, such as your first grade class or my kindergartners, I think most students would need help from the teacher to move past being out and stepping in, guiding them through the process and helping them build those skills to do it on their own after a while.
ReplyDeleteI found Hassett and Curwood's article to be really interesting, and reminiscent of TE 348 in which we discussed all the different meanings of text fonts, colors, pictures, borders, etc. I think it is easiest to see all these different modalities in picture books and leading discussions on these books with students will even show us as teachers that students will pick up on things that we often will miss.
Discussions are vital to developing student understanding. Almasi lays out the different roles students can take on in a discussion, giving them more freedom and investment in participating and investigating the meaning of the text. I feel like discussions are a great way to engage students and give them ownership of their thoughts, ideas, and reactions to the text.