Fairy Tale Harm

It is accepted that popular magazines cause the skewed beliefs people have about what they should look like and what they should wear. The idea that fairy tales mess people up is less commonly discussed. I have thought for some time that fairy tales were a source of woe for me in my life. I did not watch an excessive number of fairy tales as a child, but the fairytale love story has been told millions of times in millions of ways. I can honestly say this was my expectation of romantic relationships and as you can imagine, I was left confused and disappointed when my relationships were not all grand gestures, devotion and adoration. 

            It is easy for me to believe then that fairy tales affect the way children develop ideas about sex roles, race, and class distinctions. Time after time beauty is held up as the most important feature of women, and strength the most important feature of a man. I grew up thinking that intelligence and cleverness was the most important quality a woman can have, and I did not understand the obsession other girls with all things pink and pretty. I wonder if the fairy tales I was reading shaped my beliefs. My favorite book as a little girl was called The Practical Princess. All of the stories involved handsome princes who were sent out to do the traditional quest of slaying the dragon and saving the princess. In these stories though, the prince had no idea how to solve the problem, and the very clever and practical princess would thick of a plan to solve the problem. The she would marry the dim, but sweet prince and live happily ever after.

            I love the ideas presented in the article, Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us, of challenging the students to question what is being presented in these stories, but these ideas seem directed towards older children. With young children I still think there can be discussions about what is being presented in these stories.  It would be immensely valuable if we could help children develop analytical skills and discernment. These skills would serve them their whole life, and need to be taught. Another thing that we can do as teachers is to take care in the selection of books we read. By consistently sharing stories that promote qualities we as teachers think are important it may have some effect on our students. Did I love the practice princess because I was that kind of girl, or was I that kind of girl because I loved the practical princess? I do not know, but I know that we give great importance to the selection of role models for children, so wouldn’t it follow that fairytale heroes are a kind of role models?

Mulitcultural Literacy

        I have been thinking lately about the experience of students who come to a new country as children with out speaking the language or understanding the culture. I went to a small elementary school in a small town and I did not have classmates from other cultures. I never understood that experience.
My fiance came to Bloomington from Venezuela when he was 11 years old. He did not speak English and was placed directly into school without any special assistance. He struggled in school trying to learn the language and to do the school work. He was embarrassed by his differences and his culture. He only wanted to fit in. He learned English by watching television, and did his best to not be different. He never liked school and always claimed that he was not good at it. I wonder how his experience would have been different with the right kind of support. If he had received help would he have been able to feel successful in school? If he had received affirmations about his culture would have felt like it was okay to maintain a sense of identity with South America. He worked so hard to leave his culture behind so he would not be different, and I wonder if there could have been a way for him to feel good about his differences and for his classmates to learn through them.
        When I see students in the classroom for whom English is not their first language. I think about my fiance in that same position and I hope that these students get the support that I wish my fiance had gotten. I am so happy that this issue is receiving attention, and that we as teachers are learning how to best support these students in the classroom.
          When I was fifteen I lived for a year in Haiti and though I went to an English school, most of my classmates were Haitian and spoke Creole outside of the classroom. I was difficult at first to make friends and I gravitated towards students who spoke English as a first language. I understand how uncomfortable and alienating it can be. I am hoping to find ways to bring multiculturalism into my classroom, and to help all students to be successful.
       There can be such a great benefit to having students of different culture in an elementary classroom. Many young children are not exposed to many different cultures or countries. When students can teach each other about different cultures, there is the opportunity for students to broaden their horizons and expand their perspectives. It is an opportunity for students to learn to be people who accept and appreciate people's differences. This is a very valuable ability.

MGRP Reflection

While researching ADHD, I felt like I was able to have some insight into the experience of ADHD. I got a new perspective on what it is like to be in a class with ADHD, and the challenges that go along with that. I have experienced ADHD from the perspective of a teacher, but it was challenging for me to see it from the perspective of the student. I am grateful to this project for giving me insight.

For our genre pieces, Courtney and I wanted to have a cohesive, interrelated sequence of pieces. We started  with the perspective of the student who has ADHD. In order to do this I decided to use a poem. In a poem I tried to express emotions that I imagine a student feels. Poetry was a good choice for this. After reading the chapter about multi-genre poetry I wanted to use one, and this seemed like the best way to use it. I enjoyed writing the poem. It has been a long time since I wrote poetry so I used the book instruction on the different voices poem.

The next perspective we wanted to explore was that of the teacher. This perspective is specially relevant to us as future teachers. We will undoubtedly have many students with ADHD in our classrooms. The first genre from the teacher's perspective was a letter home to the parents about the students classroom behavior, asking for their permission to evaluate their son written by Courtney. Next there is an evaluation of the student by a special ed teacher. In order to do this evaluation I called my mother. She is a special education teacher and has done many of these evaluations. While writing the evaluation I got an idea of how to do that type of evaluation. It was useful to think about how to observe a student and what to look for. Next I wrote a practice Individual Education Plan. This was very complicated and I found it useful to take a closer look at the structure and content of an IEP.

The medical aspect of ADHD is also important. So we included a prescription for medication and a follow up request for information from the doctor to know how well the drug is working. Courtney worked on these two pieces.

Next we tried to make the genre pieces tell the hypothetical story about a school district that tried to make a difference in the problem of ADHD. First there is an newspaper article about a new after-school program to help students with ADHD.  Then we had a fictional letter to the editor about the article. When I wrote this article, I tried to imagine what kinds of objections a community member would have about ADHD programs. We also imagined a professional development workshop on ADHD management would be a good way for the school district to deal with the issue. Courtney made a brochure of that workshop.

Finally, in our hypothetical situation, so much awareness has been raised in this school district, by professional development trainings and after school programs that a public service announcement is put up to continue to raise awareness about ADHD in the community. I thought this was a good idea because the nature of ADHD can often make it a misunderstood disorder. Students with ADHD can become very frustrated and uncomfortable in a school environment and I think they are sometimes seen as bad kids, when in reality, they are kids like any others in many ways.

Using Artistic E xpression in Multi Genre Research Papers

After reading about poetry and non-fiction genres, I had decided what genre pieces to make. I had begun them with utter confidence in my choices. While reading chapters 5 and 7 (particularly chapter 7) of Hale, new ideas began swirling around in my head. Is I read about the different ideas I could see myself doing them. I picture making a video, and artistic renderings that would capture the sentiment of my topic. I thought about writing a short story which had not occurred to me as an idea before. Now I am reconsidering all of my options, and some of them, I am even looking forward to trying.

I loved reading Seedfolks. It is such a sweet heart warming story. As I finished the book I felt compelled to run out and find an empty lot in an inner city, that I could use to grow food and communities. I realize this was not the point of reading this book for our class. I get that we are considering characterization, and this book does it beautifully. Even though you may not know any one character as well as you would if there were one main character who told the whole story, you do get a feel of who all the different people are. This method of telling a story in some ways has the ability to go much deeper than a traditionally told story. With multiple perspectives you can see prejudices as the misunderstandings that they are. It is a sweet story, and even though I haven't figure out how it can be useful for my multi genre research paper, I still want to start an inner city garden.

Poetry and Investigations in the Classroom.

       Reading an article about invitationals did not leave a clear picture in my mind of what they are, or how they work. Rather I got the general impression of group investigations which is an idea I love. Even though I do not feel, after reading the article that I could go into a classroom and set this up, I do feel like I am left with great ideas and inspirations for classroom learning. One part of the article that particularly struck me was, the child who wondered why people who write news, think kids would not be interested. That is a good question. I think that children knowing more about the issues of the world is extremely valuable. I got the idea while reading, for a class news paper "In Our Own Words." Along the lines of an invitational, I would have groups of students pick an issue, and read articles about it, translating them as a group, into language that is easily understood by children. I also do very much like the idea of invitationals, as presented in the article, but need more information before I could do what is being suggested.
     Though I do not write poetry, I have done it in the past for classes, and emotional expression. I can understand, to some extent, why people struggle with poetry. I was talking to a friend the other day who is completely opposed to writing poetry herself. People I think feel silly, especially when expressing emotions this way. There is also some confusion about how to do it. For some, the freedom of expression is liberating, while others I think may just feel lost. for this reason I really liked the chapter on poetry. I think that the instructions for writing poems are useful, but even more useful would be repeated practice and experimentation with these poem structures in the classroom. Once students can experiment with different poem techniques and find that they kind of like some of the stuff they produce, the world of poetry will open up a little for them.

Active Learning VS. Passive learning

     I really enjoyed reading the Donut House article by Rebecca Powell and Nancy Davidson. It really resonated with me after just having completed my research on ADHD students in the classroom. In the beginning of the article when they are describing a teacher who is unsuccessfully trying to get students interested in a bland literacy activity, I though of ADHD students and how they struggle to focus. Even students who have no disability at all are likely to have a hard time connecting with a lesson that is not relevant or exciting to them. Unfortunately I often see this type of teaching in practice. The students who are not paying attention are considered the problem. I would like to think of it as a teacher problem. If the students aren't engaged, what does the teacher need to do differently?
    The donut hole learning experience is a good example of what a teacher can do differently to engage students in their own learning. Rather than telling the students what they should know, with "situated literacy," the teacher provides opportunities for students to connect what they are learning with the real world.
    I was struck by the section where it talks about how traditionally, at-risk students, who need extra help to learn, are given more of the kind of work that they are failing to be successful with. It seems that these students would be very lucky to overcome the "schooled learning" and develop an enjoyment of reading and writing. In many cases unfortunately, I think the education process is setting the student up to reject literacy, when with a little creativity it might be possible to turn a literacy learning experience around.

MGRP ADHD

       I chose to work on the multi genre research paper with a classmate. I was struggling to solidify my topic when I heard a very similar, much more clear topic from a classmate. We both were interested in studying ADHD, but her thoughts about it were focused on adjusting teacher thinking about it in order to accommodate the student. My focus had been to find the cause and figure out how to prevent it. After a little bit of research I realized that my idea for a topic was not a realistic one. I was very happy to focus on what I as a teacher can do to make ADHD less of a problem for individuals and class groups as a whole.
     Because of the nature of working with a partner, we needed to set deadlines and meet to discuss topics. We also had to carefully organize the paper. Because of the organization and planning, I found it much easier to do the paper. I was able to focus my research to look at each aspect of the topic individually and systematically.
     The best part of researching my topic was the way it helped to to see students differently. About half way through the paper and research, I went to a high school to substitute teach. In that classroom I immediately noticed some students who were exhibiting ADHD like behaviors including, speaking out, moving around, and refusal to do the work. For the first time in my life I looked at one student in particular and just felt bad for him. Even though he was "being difficult" I could see that the worksheets and copy-out-of-the-book exercises could not possibly be holding his attention. The truth is that none of the students seemed to be learning anything from it, but the "good students" were the ones who just sat quietly and did their "busy work." I think it is not right to ask any student to do that kind of passive work, much less a student who struggles to stay focused. Why would he be interested in working that hard for work that is so meaningless? I was grateful for the new perceptions I have gained by researching this topic.