Evans, Igoa, and Hill

I found the Inner World of the Immigrant Child by Igoa the most interesting article for this weeks readings. Last summer I had the chance to work with some immigrant students during a summer camp.  What was amazing is that some of these children were in the United States without their parents - they were being sponsered by a local church and staying with people from the church.  These children were really taken out of their comfort zone.  Not only were they trying to learn a new language but also a completely new culture.  Perhaps I releated to them from my business background.  I would often have to travel to foreign countries and stay for a month at a time.  What I realized this summer is that we have as much to learn from them as they do from us.  It is so important for teachers to try to understand the world as the immigrant students see it and to create a learning environment that they are also comfortable in. I am anxious to read the rest of this book.

The readings from Evans "Literacy Moves On" was so exciting for me to read as my MGRP was about incorporating multimodality into the classroom.  The introduction made a statement regarding a study about what children do in their out of school time that only one child out of 90 chose to read a book and no one chose writing or drawing.  I've learned about the importance of offering new ways to approach reading and writing to students but this study really made it hit home.  I understand that some teachers may be more comfortable with letting their students read a graphic novel such as Diary of a Whimpy than other teachers but the statistics are out there:  we must adapt our way of teaching and reaching out to students.  Students are exposed to technology at such an early age that they almost expect to see it being used in the classroom.  I believe that using modern technology in the classroom to engage students could avoid some of the behavior issues that we are seeing in classrooms.  Interactive websites can keep students engaged and learning far longer than simply listening to a teacher lecture.  In addition, students are more likely to remember what they have learned if they are actively engaged. 

The article from Hill really made me stop and think about how some of the teachers who have been teaching for a long time may be intimidated by all of the new technology.  While students are being raised with new technologies many of these concepts are new to teachers.  It is our responsibility to learn new technologies so that we can meet the literacy needs of our students and improve their literacy skills.  By incorporating out of school interests with the requirements of the state standards we can begin to bridge the gap between student and school.  When teachers can bring a personalized meaning into a lesson then students will be more interested in learning and will remember the lesson longer than the assessment.