As a relatively inexperienced teacher, one of the few things I have felt confident in has been my knowledge about how to implement a program of balanced literacy in a first grade classroom. I did my research about phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency instruction. This year I have even ramped up my instruction by including a variety of types of text experiences (read alouds, shared reading, independent reading book bins, decodable texts, math-literature connections). However, after a week of learning about critical literacy and what types of experiences that opens up to students, it is clear to me that I have not been empowering my students to engage in real ways. Perhaps I thought they were too young, or perhaps I was no confident in my ability to provide them with those opportunities, but it is clear my instruction is lacking.
When I was reading about the Halliday Plus Model (Vasquez, 12) I noted that my instruction really only targeted the "Learning Language" and "Learning about Language" quadrants, which rarely if ever including aspects of "Learning through Language" and "Learning to use Language to Critique" in my class. There is so much pressure from our schools that all children in first grade learn how to read - and for most people (myself included) - that triggers us to focus our time on the concrete chunks of reading (as defined by Reading First and other NCLB interventions). The danger is that in doing this we are not creating students who love to read as they continue in and beyond school.
I feel excited to learn how to integrate critical literacy into my current reading instruction. I have already seen glimpses of how my students are capable of engaging in texts - making connections to characters in books we read aloud or that they browse in the library. My one fear is that because my classroom lacks the rich diversity of Professor Vasquez's class, the students will not push each other to see people's perspectives. My role then becomes different, having to purposefully challenge them to research and learn about new cultures and peoples.
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1 comment:
I think you're be a little hard on yourself. It sounds like you're dedicated to giving your first grade a healthy, well-rounded approach to reading. I wouldn't try to force critical awareness on your students, or force them to look at other's perspectives. Like Professor Vasquez discovered, those kinds of things come naturally from kids. All we have to do as teachers is keep asking our students broad, open questions. They will look around -- and inside themselves -- and make observations that are much more valid than any we could impose on them, because the conclusions will be their own.
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