Week 3 Blog Kelsi Vidal

I enjoyed the Tompkins text this week in the "Literacy for the 21st Century - A Balanced Approach" book because it provided a lot of useful information and tools for success for teachers while teaching reading and writing.  I liked in chapter one where they mentioned teachers needing to understand how children learn to be effective teachers and connect information in meaningful ways.  

I also enjoyed the idea of critical literacy that involved using students and teachers as "agents of social change."  This is often not a concept we think about, but with the examples they provided such as teachers interacting differently with boys and girls, students being silenced in the classroom, differing expectations for minority students, etc. it is apparent these can be modes for social change extending beyond the classroom.  This is something I think is important to remember especially with the increasing number of ELL students and students from various cultures found in classrooms today.  The classroom can be a good starting point to present equality and hope they will extend on into the community and beyond.  

The idea of modeling and guiding students in reading and writing practices was interesting to me because it is something I have seen in my classroom.  Sometimes we forget that younger students don't know how to do simple things we may take for granted or forgot we were once explicitly taught how to do things.  In the kindergarten classroom I am in the teacher must remind students how to work in groups or how to have a group discussion.  Being in school so long, this is something many students internalize and eventually just know, but for students just being introduced to concepts in reading and writing it must be modeled and laid out in an very specific and procedural way.  I know from personal experience it is always less intimidating and more productive if I have an idea of the task at hand and so modeling seems like a positive method of instruction to me.   

Something I found impressive and amazing while reading was in the section about cueing systems was that children have a vocabulary of approximately 5,000 words when they enter school and acquire 3,000-4,000 more each year in the elementary grades.  These numbers seem astounding when you think about how many words that actually is.  The fact that young students have such an extensive vocabulary coming into school and learn 8 to 10 new words each day really conveys to me that students are "sponges" and will absorb new experiences (word interaction).  

I also believe the link between school and home is infinitely important and I feel I can attest to this first hand.  I had positive experiences with reading and writing at school and at home and remember my parents being involved in my literacy development throughout childhood.  This reminds me that for students who do not receive this at home may need more help at school and can be at a disadvantage.  If students are not encouraged at home in reading and writing, are there ways to still keep them interested and ahead in literacy development?  I have and am currently tutoring "at-risk" students and it is difficult to get them excited and interested in reading and writing when they are only encouraged at school and by tutors.  When there is an extreme between home and school life, it is hard to create a balance.  I also find that many of these students are not motivated to read or write at home and do not enjoy it.  Is there any way to get students more excited and involved with reading and writing if they already have negative feelings about it?