Opening doors of discovery

Of all the things I hope to do as a teacher, one of the most gigantic convictions I hold is the need for educators to open students to the outside world. Too often, the walls of school become places of control and formula that leave students separated from all there is to be discovered in the big world outside. There are a myriad of resources available to teachers and students that get us all outside the classroom, but unfortunately, it seems most teachers/administration lack the creativity or bravery to take advantage for fear of insurance risks, or the complications of field trip politics, or the limitations of funding. However, I really think that with a little creativity and determination, there are a lot of meaningful experiences we can provide for our students that will affect them in significant ways for much longer than traditional classroom instruction.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do just this for the student I am tutoring this summer. Luckily, the student's mother is more than willing to provide every opportunity for her son to succeed and was willing to drop him off at an ice cream shop across from the university. We then walked down the street, observing signs and advertisements, discussing what real estate is and how to figure out where we are on a map based on street signs. Because I am still a student, I have many connections and knowledge of all the resources there are on campus and was able to set up a tour of the advocacy office for Latino students, El Centro. As the student I am working with has a very strong Hispanic background, this was an excellent way to engage him and will hopefully motivate him to do well in school. As we've been planning our trip to campus, he has often mentioned a tutoring program he took part in at the University a few years ago-- obviously, this was an experience that he enjoyed and remembers well.

Think about your own experiences in school. Which ones do you remember the most? Are there specific trips or opportunities provided while you were in school that opened an area of passion in you that you never knew you had? I remember in high school taking a trip to the university in the town I grew up in to see a Batik exhibit before starting a similar project in my own class. I still remember the beauty of the dyed-fabric images of Italian cities, being awed at the complexity of a medium based in fabric dying. Being exposed to the work of such an artist at such an age definitely gave me an inspiring glimpse into what I could be as an artist.

A significant component of being able to expose your students to the accomplishments of others and the resources available to them, teachers need to be utilizing and aware of them themselves. It is shocking to me to find out how many students there are even on campus that know little about the town in which we live. As teachers, we need to be living lives that put us in a position of learning so that we have ample life experience to offer our students. If we rely upon the curriculum and resources that only come from inside the school, we are robbing our students of the knowledge they need to lead meaningful lives. Additionally, we are modeling a way of life for our students that avoids true and meaningful learning.

What are some of the resources that you have found to expose your students to the real world? What are some of the reasons that teachers neglect this?

Literacy Resource 4: Oragami and Paper Airplanes

A great resource I have discovered for working with creative students reluctant to apply themselves to reading is activities such as origami and paper airplanes. I found a simple book in the Juvenile non-fiction section of the library giving directions on many different types of paper airplanes. In attempt to draw out some more visual and artistic interests in the particular student I am working with, I also brought along a selection of markers to decorate our creations which. There is something about the opportunity to add decoration to something that makes people feel more at ease-- a lesson I learned through the many class presentations in my art education methods class. The nice thing about books on paper airplanes is that the directions are not as complex as traditional origami books, which makes the process a bit less intimidating.

Literacy Resource 3: Logic games

After the discovery of how successful Mad Libs are at engaging students as well as the realization of all the learning opportunities involved in this fun puzzles, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble in search of more games like these and found a wealth of mind-stretching activities that are fun ways of building literacy. Here are a few books and activities that I found especially valuable:

"The Everything Pencil Puzzles"
"Martin Gardner Perplexing Puzzles"
"Gladstone's Games to Go"
"The Everything Word Games"
"DistrAction"
"USA Today Logic Games"

Some of the activities included in these books and others are as follows:

Logic games
Picture Puzzles
Story prompts/ endings
Scramblers
Fill-in Cartoons
Picture story-prompts
Rebus puzzles
Cryptograms
Word Searches
5 Minute Mysteries
Word Ladders
Chronograms
Riddles
Twenty-questions

There are ample resources online for these types of games that can be found with little searching. If you have some money to spend, Barnes and Noble has a fantastic selection of books in various formats, or most of these books can be found on Amazon for as little and $0.01 plus shipping. You can also have students make up their own.

These can be great activities for ELA students in part because of their use of cultural or common knowledge that can help build vocabulary in areas cultural understanding. I find that a major barrier in reading is a misunderstanding of these social conventions that native speakers take for granted. These are also great resources to keep on hand in any classroom and any content as they can be great educational time-fillers for those students that get done early or for days when the lesson plan runs a little short. Students can also build social skills through working through these activities by working together to solve these puzzles.

Literacy Resource 2: Spooky and Disgusting Fiction

In attempt to build my literacy experience further, I ventured out to the local library to seek the help of a children's librarian and was brought back to the middle school world of Goosebumps and Captain Underpants. When the librarian brought up these books, I remembered being 12 and not being allowed to read such literature being instructed by my mother to stay away from things so disgusting and ugly. But the librarian was very adamant about how popular the books were with her own children, who refused to read before discovering the thrillers.

I'm sure at some point in even my own middle school life, I disdained literature written for 12-year-olds as juvenile and unsophisticated, but am now gaining a new appreciation for the genre and the authors who wok hard at creating wonderful plots in simple language.

So, I am not sure if these books are yet too intimidating for the student I am working with, but I feel more confident about presenting some material that is at his level in hope that he may yet be enticed by it.

What sorts of books have you used successfully with reluctant readers?

Literacy Resource 1: Board Games

All though right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the challenge of my tutoring assignment for the summer, I imagine that by the end of the season, I'll have built a bit of a repertoire of resources and I think I will post them here as I discover them.

This morning, in a flash of genius and desperation, I remembered all the times that I've been told that board games are excellent resources to keep in the classroom for down-time or time fillers and realized that perhaps using fun as a purpose for reading, I might get this student motivated after all. After coming to this realization, I then remembered that the only games that I own personally are Scrabble and Balderdash. True, these are both reading games, but are not quite appropriate for this student. And then-- my third memory-- I have little to no Money.

So I ventured out to my favorite local thrift store and was shocked at the selection of games that they carried. I came away with at least a few really great games for about five dollars. And the best part? The time flew by as we did Mad Libs, played scrabble and made our own sentences with wood blocks. As soon as I emerged from my car with arms full of games, I could tell from his eyes that it was going to be a good day.

Never underestimate the power of a good game...

Convincing students that reading is worth the work...

This summer I find myself working for the school district's ELA department as a 1:1 Tutor for a sixth grade boy. When I found out that I actually got the job, I was excited about the opportunity but am now seeing why a majority of the people hired for this position are ELA certified teachers: this is hard work and requires a lot of brilliance AND resources.

It has been interesting to see all that I have read in literacy books about students who are a) reluctant to read b) don't understand the letters they are decoding and c) don't see the value in learning to read, materialize in the form of this exuberant boy.

I find myself having to make the decision between laughing and crying when my student explains all the tactics he has developed just to avoid reading. If he wants to know what a news article is about-- even if it is something of interest to him-- he simply finds the one with the most pictures. If he wants to use the family's video camera, he simply asks his brother to explain it. If an error message comes up on the computer, he would rather take the risk of loosing his work than reading and understanding the message. What to do?

When I attended the two hour training session before I met with this student(which, unsurprisingly, was dominated by instructions on how to administer pre and post exams), they told us that for the duration of the eight to ten hours a week we spend with the student should be dominated by practice in reading, but should not feel like school. So what do you do with a student for three hours a day that will do anything to avoid reading? To say the least, I think we both find the time equally excruciating.

So what to do? How do I help this boy understand that reading is a beautiful and essential skill to hold? When I left his kitchen on Wednesday, he was fairly upset about my weekend homework assignment: finding one piece of reading material that was both school appropriate and something he would be interesting in reading. Somehow he gave me the impression that such a request would be unreasonable.

So... I don't even know if people read this blog, but if you do and you have any ideas about activities that might interest an eleven-year-old boy who wants so badly to be about 17, but unfortunately is quite intimidated by the sight of text, please share your ideas. I know that this scenario is not unique nor unusual, so please do share your own experiences. I'm looking forward to learning a great deal this summer, but am still waiting out the learning curve.

Entering New Worlds

I walked through the doors of Lincoln Jr. High School for what felt like the 100th time on Monday-- except this time it felt a little closer to being real. As I settled into a seat in the lecture hall, I looked around and thought to myself, awed, There are real-live teachers all around me. Strangely, I felt like I was standing on the Red Carpet in Hollywood or something-- all sorts of my own heros were all around me and I was one of them.

This summer, I am working for the school district as an One on One ELA tutor. I am scared out of my wits and stoked out of my mind. I was "hired" without interview and with little information about what the position would entail, but in a nutshell, I'm broke and will take any experience I can get. Typically, the people they hire for this job are ELA-Certified teachers. I'm a "Teacher Candidate" with a content area in Art. But I got it anyway and here I am.

I don't know what this summer will hold and all that I will learn, but I think it will be definately a great learning experience, if not an exciting one. I let you know how it goes!