Book Club Model vs. Literacy Instruction in My Classroom

The book club model involves multiple components: reading or read aloud, writing, community share, and book club discussion groups. Several of these components are implemented in literacy in my own first grade classroom on a daily basis. For example, each day, my mentor teacher begins Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop with a mini-lesson teaching a new skill or strategy for them to use in their reading and writing. This is very similar to the opening community share in the book club model, as it is a teacher-led, whole group activity in which the teacher controls the topics of discussion (p.11). Additionally, students are exposed to teacher read alouds and independent reading throughout the day, while also writing for sustained periods of time daily. The book club model contrasts with the literacy instruction in my classroom mainly because we do not have student book clubs. As opposed to having students read and reflect on books in small groups (book clubs), a teacher will normally read one book aloud to the class and then students will turn to a partner and discuss before opening up discussion to among entire group.

In first grade, we spend the large majority of our day focusing on literacy. As a result, we see reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing constantly and across different subject areas as well. Reading takes place in every aspect of our day—from the morning message, Reader’s Workshop, Word Study, and Making Meaning to snack and a story, math journals, Daily 5 and social studies read alouds. Writing also is heavily incorporated into our literacy program, with a designated block of time for Writer’s Workshop and a ‘Work on Writing’ time in the Daily 5. Additionally, students write their names on everything they complete and practice writing in their math journals as well. Speaking and listening take place throughout the day and include listening to a teacher read aloud, turn and talk to your partner to discuss a story, listening to others’ ideas and teacher instruction, speaking the words to help them read a story, etc. (the examples here really are endless!). Finally, students experience viewing when they look at a peer’s illustration of writing, watch a student present their star of the week poster board, look up front on the overhead projector, or follow along with the pictures while reading a book independently or while a teacher reads a book to them.

So far, our literacy program seems very open-ended for students, as they can choose any topic to write about. Currently, we are focusing on writing personal narratives (which can be anything from telling what they ate for dinner last night to writing about the people in their family). I think simply having students write about experiences in their own lives is an example of writing into a unit or text because it helps engage them with the concept of personal narratives and gives them something to refer to once we start reading personal narratives as well. Additionally, students have the opportunity to write through a unit or text during Writer’s Workshop. During this time, students write without stopping for a period of time, focus on ideas and meaning as opposed to spelling and grammar, and always have the opportunity to go back and work on. These are all features of speedwriting, a tool for writing though a unit (p. 55). Finally, students had the opportunity to write out of a unit after we read a book about several things the main character used to do in kindergarten, but doesn’t do in first grade. After we read, all students wrote in their writing notebooks about “When I was in kindergarten, I…” This prompted students to reflect on the story and helped students engage with the book.

Book Club Plus connections to classroom

In my classroom, we take part in a lot of literacy activities. We focus on literacy because it is used in every aspect of our teaching and curriculum including mathematics, science and social studies. We also have not started every part of literacy teaching that we do yet because the children are not yet ready to begin or we  have not figured out what level these children are at academically yet. In many aspects, our literacy program is very close to the book club plus model. In the book club plus model. We do take part in some community share however we do not call it this. We have mini lessons that take place in our classroom that have to do with reading and writing. We also have read – a- loud’s that take place. Also, we have writers workshop as well as readers workshop. We are still establishing readers workshop as well as literacy centers which is called Daily Five. Because I am in a kindergarten classroom, my students are not yet reading on their own so we are taking our time setting up our literacy centers with reading to self, read to a partner and listening on tape. We also do not have book clubs where children talk to each other about a book they are reading because we are not at that point. Conversations about books though would be discussed in guided reading later on throughout the year.

               On page 15, the four curricular areas are “comprehension, writing, language conventions, and literary aspects.” These four areas are represented in other ways throughout our curriculum. This would include our “Making Meaning” curriculum which is our comprehension section where one book is focused on each week and you work with partners and ask children questions regarding the book of the week. Each week there is a new theme. On page 30, three comprehension principles are discussed which include “comprehension instruction should be explicit, comprehension strategies must be modeled by more knowledgeable others, including teachers and peers, and comprehension strategies must be scaffolded by the teacher until students are able to apply the strategies successfully during independent reading and response to reading. “ These principles are modeled in our classroom through modeling done by my teacher and I. We also teach specific strategies and we do one teaching point at a time so that students are not being overwhelmed by too much information at one time. We also use shared reading in order to teach concepts of print which is something for students to understand in order to start reading their own books. In a lot of ways, the program emphasized in my classroom is very similar to the book club plus model, however there are different names in place.

               So far in my classroom, I have not seen writing into a unit, or writing out of a unit. At this point in the school year we have mainly focused on trying to make connections with the story we are reading together. We have so far not had children writing on their own about something we have talked about. We may have shared information verbally which is still a part of literacy, however students has not done this on their own yet. This may be something that we start doing later on throughout the year.

My community experience

While I was looking around the community in Walled Lake, I noticed a lot of things occurring. I was very impressed at the way the community emphasized events that were taking place. I also forgot about the many ways that you can see literacy occurring. Because there are so many types like social, emotional, cultural, political, mathematical, informational, etc., it was easy to find a lot of places that had literacy incorporated somehow. Within the community, I noticed a lot of signs, advertisements, and a large emphasis placed on literacy in education within schools, social interactions taking place and an area of friendly people.

I know that from my school experience, we place an emphasis on literacy being taught heavily in the classroom. For example, for one morning of class, I wrote four lesson plans that had to do with literacy in some way. I was shocked to find out the school district’s emphasis on literacy being very heavy as well. The website emphasized many types of literacy as well including civic, social, occupational and personal literacy (Walled Lake School District). It was very nice to see that many types of literacy were being advocated for other than just the typical reading, writing, and oral language and discourse. Just from looking at the district website, I understood the programs that were being implemented at my school and the emphasis that are placed on them.

I also noticed in the community that there were a lot of advertisements that were posted on buildings and establishments. It was nice to see them out so that the members of the community could look at them while they were out. I also noticed the menus that you could get from restaurants. These menus could be used in reference to students regarding lists and types of food that they may have eaten. I also noticed the type of discourse happening in these restaurants. In one restaurant, I ate there it was very informal communication; however the staff was very concerned about your opinion of their food and took it seriously.

While driving around the area, I noticed how things were pretty close together in terms of distance between popular places. It is an area where you can walk around downtown and walk to the beach and to the surrounding restaurants. A car is not always required when you are in this area. When thinking about these things, I think it will be important to reference these places and help students to think about their prior knowledge and remind them that literacy really is all around us. Even the signs we see like school crossings is a part of visual literacy. The sign helps us to recognize that there is a school. The visual provides us with meaning. There are many parts of literacy that many children do not even think about and that is what I want to incorporate into the classroom to help all learners.

I noticed a lot of community events and although I was unable to attend the events, it provides a sense of community togetherness. Even the school community, I noticed was important to parents. My school had a school picnic and is having an ice cream social in October and curriculum night to inform parents of information about our classrooms. It is important that I know what is happening in the community so that I can  help inform my students as well as listen to what students do so I can help myself relate to them. If I relate to my students prior knowledge, it will be more beneficial to my students learning!

Book Club Model vs. Own Literacy Instruction

When looking at the book club model, I was provided with a great deal of insightful literacy instruction that I have not necessarily seen in our classroom context. It was explained that book club is a program that was created to meet three criteria. These are, guiding rather than prescribing, addressing a common problem in ways that are open to local adaptation, and reflecting current theory and research on the teaching and learning of literacy (Book Club Plus!, page 2). Book club is also used to address the problem of differentiated instruction (page 2). It is important target those students who struggle in reading and to have them engage in books that they are interested in and that are at their reading level. With this being said, “book club was designed to create opportunities for all students to engage with age-appropriate materials, whether reading at grade level, above grade level, or below grade level” (page 2). Book club also allows teachers to work with those students who are below grade level, mean while challenging those students who are above grade level. All of these criteria of book club were built off three guiding principles. One, language is fundamental to thinking, two, literature is the disciplinary content of the reading program, and three, school-based literacy education should prepare students to live and work in a diverse society. When I read these principles it immediately made me think of our community-based inquiry project and just how important it is to incorporate the students’ prior knowledge and community into the classroom instruction. Not only does book club offer multiple strategies for creating opportunities for all students to engage with age-appropriate materials, but it also provides comprehension strategies. These strategies include drawing on background knowledge, text processing, and monitoring strategies (page 14). The strategies used to draw on background knowledge include activating prior knowledge, building new knowledge as needed, making intertextual connections, developing vocabulary concepts, and predicting. Text processing strategies include summarizing, sequencing, visualizing, making inferences, synthesizing, analyzing literary elements, and using knowledge of text structure. Lastly, monitoring strategies include evaluating and adjusting predictions, asking questions, and clarifying. With these strategies, students can discuss the strategies with their peers in book clubs, and they can bring the strategies to the attention of the teacher and the whole class in community share (page 14).

So far, a lot of what I have learned about book club thus far has been about the reading aspect of literacy. After reading and researching more about book club, I have been introduced to the writing component of book club. This writing component emphasizes meaningful ways in which reading and writing connect and support each other. Stated in Chapter 3, “Developing strong writing skills is an important curricular goal in itself, but writing becomes relevant when students see it as a set of tools that helps them accomplish specific goals” (page 29). In book club there are four functions of writing such as, writing as a tool for reflecting on reading, writing as a tool for gathering and organizing information, writing as a tool for practicing literary forms, and writing as a tool for sharing ideas with others (page 29). Witnessing writing in my own classroom, it is clear that when students see writing as a tool and resource they achieve a lot more.

Now after having some knowledge and insight on how book club is run there are some apparent similarities and differences to how the literacy instruction is run in our classroom. We most definitely provide the students with age-appropriate materials and each student has their own reading-level books to choose from. Every week they go book shopping in the classroom library where they are to choose books at their reading level and books that they are interested in. The writing component of literacy instruction teaches the students about how writing can be seen as a set of tools, just as book club does, although we accomplish this during our writer’s workshop. Unlike book club which consists of a five to fifteen minute block of community share time, followed by reading, writing, book clubs, and closing community share for three days a week, as well as literacy block two days a week which includes guided reading groups, skills centers, journal writing, etc., in our classroom we have reader’s and writer’s workshops, making meaning, and daily 5, five days a week. In our classroom literacy activities, all components of literacy are seen and evident. In our writer’s workshop, our mini-lessons consist of a connection where we put the day’s work into the context of children’s ongoing work and explicitly name what we will teach that day. Whatever we teach will be something the children will use as often as they write. The connection is then followed by teaching where we teach students a new tool or concept that we hope they will use often as they write. Every mini-lesson also includes active engagement time where we set children up to briefly use the strategy or concept we’ve tried to teach them. The last component of our writer’s workshop mini-lesson is the link where we restate our teaching point and either try to ensure that every child applies this new learning to their ongoing work today, or encourage children to add today’s teaching point to their repertoire of possible strategies or goals. The students then have individual work time while we teachers confer with students one-on-one. After the work time is over, we all come together and share what the students worked on, practiced, or the strategies they used during their writing time. Our reader’s workshop is also set-up in a similar fashion, beginning with the mini-lesson with the same four components – connection, teaching, active engagement and link – followed by independent reading time, then partner reading time, and a then sharing. Each time the students are reading independently or with a partner, we are working on stamina and building up how long they can be actively engaged in reading or writing. Another aspect of our literacy instruction is daily 5. It is during this component of literacy where the students participate in five centers – reading, writing, listening, retelling, and word study. All these components of literacy are seen throughout the day and over the course of the week.

When thinking about our writer’s and reader’s workshop and all the components of literacy instruction included, I realized that the students have opportunities to write into a unit/text, write through a unit/text, and write out of a unit/text. I had never thought of these writing objectives within book club plus as this kind of instruction but rather as a beginning, middle, and an end to a lesson/workshop. Every writer’s and reader’s workshop begins with a mini-lesson where the lesson is introduced also like setting the stage. Relevant background knowledge is announced, and questions and purposes for the lesson are given which is equivalent to the writing into objective of book club. Another part of the mini-lesson deals with active engagement where information is charted often, important information is identified, as well as details, plots, and settings. These activities go along with writing through a unit/text which supports students’ meaning-making as they read and listen – from exploring words to making text-to-self connections (Book Club Plus!). The writing out of a unit/text is seen in our workshops at the end when the students come together to share. The students are able to reflect about concepts and ideas they encountered during their reading/writing, and extend their understandings to new situations and connect their reading and life experiences to a theme they may have been exploring (Book Club Plus!). During the writing out objective, I would like to promote more reflection on personal, creative, and critical findings, rather than just making text-to-self and text-to-text connections.

Overall, I feel that our literacy instruction is fairly similar to that of book club; the main difference is that we do not sit our students in book club groups, mainly because they are first grade. I would love to try out book clubs in the lower elementary grades to see how the students would respond to the texts and if they could make more connections and extend their thinking!

Inquiry 1: Reflecting on the Community

I visited Ishtar’s Ethnic Food Store at 5:00pm on a Wednesday afternoon. When I walked in, I first noticed loud, festive ethnic music playing and a steady stream of customers coming in and out of the store! As I stood near the entrance, camera and notebook in hand, I immediately felt out of my comfort zone. I looked physically different from everyone else in the store, and I felt as though every person there was looking at me and judging me. As I walked towards the back of the store, I saw two men look at me and then begin a conversation in Arabic. I was probably being paranoid, but automatically assumed that they were talking about me. It made me very anxious and uncomfortable not being able to understand what they were saying. Just then, as I got my camera ready to take a picture of a food label, the owner (Arabic) approached me and in a thick accent asked how he could help me. I informed him that I was a teacher intern, exploring my school community, and he smiled and told me to find him if I had any questions. At this point, customers smiled at me as I walked by them and I was beginning to feel more comfortable. There were rows of exotic fruits, spices, baked goods, and foods which I had never heard of! Food labels were written in all varieties of languages throughout the store. In fact, I picked up one item and found that the nutrition facts were listed in 20 different languages! In the back of the store, I was surprised to find 3 men baking fresh Arabic bread in a stone oven. When the bread was done baking, they would toss it directly onto the table for customers to take. As I made my way back towards the front of the store, I noticed music, religious jewelry, and hookahs, all telling me more about the Middle Eastern culture. Finally, as I was leaving, I spoke to an employee who told me that although virtually every written language can be found in the store, all of their customers speak one of three languages: Arabic, Chaldean, and English.

Overall, I had anticipated several things, but others surprised me. Specifically, I anticipated the festive music, food labels written in other languages, employees and customers communicating in other languages, and aisles of unique foods, beverages, and spices. However, I was surprised at how many people were actually shopping in the store! As I said above, people were constantly coming in and out. I was also surprised not to find more Japanese influence in the store—I’d say the store mainly catered to those of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, I was surprised by how uncomfortable and different I felt at first, walking into the store!

This community experience has taught me a lot about my school, students, and their families. It has helped show me that my students come from all different walks of life. Each student’s family looks different, interacts differently with one another, has different traditions, etc. I also better realize how wonderfully the school tries to keep contact with all families (by hosting multiple family events, having bilingual paraprofessionals, translating newsletters, etc.).

This experience has helped give me some perspective. I looked, sounded, and felt different from the people in the ethnic food store. This is just how my ELL students must feel in the classroom—particularly my Japanese students! My Japanese students speak little English, look differently from their classmates and teachers, and sound different from everyone as well. I am now able to better appreciate how they are feeling and understand why they tend to be so withdrawn and introverted. The experience will help me when I’m teaching because I have learned the importance of being patient! I need to be patient with my reserved ELL students and appreciate what they are going through. Something that seems second nature to me may be completely foreign to some of my students. I also feel that I understand the importance of differentiating instruction (based on varying language development and comfort levels). For example, I don’t see a problem letting my struggling Japanese students write in Japanese once every week or two if it helps them express themselves and become more comfortable in the classroom.

This influences my thinking about students as literacy learners because I better appreciate how difficult it must be to speak, read, and write in multiple languages. I became overwhelmed and frustrated by trying to figure out what Arabic food labels translated to in English. I now feel that my students are constant literacy users and learners. Literacy surrounds them wherever they go—from writing a story about their pets at school to reading the Arabic food label on a can of lima beans brought home from the store. As Catherine Compton-Lily indicates in the article, “Listening to Families over Time: Seven Lessons Learned about Literacy in Families,” there are often times more literacy practices and educational experiences occurring at home than we realize (456). Most of my students have a much greater responsibility with literacy than I did when I was in first grade because they are exposed to different educational experiences at school and at home (often two different languages). However, I am amazed at how capable and strong they all are as literacy learners.

Inquiry One: Reflecting on the Community

As I walking into the high school stadium where the little league football game was being held, I saw big banners and posters all decorated with the teams’ colors and players names. Just being there I felt included in the community. The parking lot was filling up fast with cars filled with parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. The families all walked in together with their children, they would be carrying all their belongings and once inside they sent their children off onto the field and gave them a kiss and a “good luck”! The families and spectators then proceeded to the stands to find places to sit to watch the game. As they were walking up the bleachers they would find other families whom they had created relationships with and sat down together and got right into conversations. The siblings of the players would find their friends or make new ones, and were found running up and down the bleachers and in the open areas around the field. There was also a concession stand where you could find families lining up to buy drinks and snacks for one another, as well as football and cheerleading merchandise. Everyone was dressed up in their team’s colors and with signs and/or noise makers. As soon as the national anthem began playing, everyone stood up and placed their hands on their hearts. The teams were lined up at the 50-yard line ready for the game. Before, and during the game everyone was cheering in the stands for their teams and their children. The players on the field could be seen looking back at the coaches to read the signs he was giving them for the plays to be ran. Some parents were there for enjoyment and others were more intense about the game. Nevertheless you could tell they all shared the same purpose for being there, for their children. There was a sense of pride and unity in the stands, and I enjoyed being a part of it! The cheerleaders were constantly cheering and getting the crowd involved. At the end of the game the players shook hands with the other team and had a team meeting in the end zone. This is a way to “debrief” so to speak on the games accomplishments. The players then took all their equipment and met up with their families. Most of them could be over heard making plans with other families and friends for the remainder of the day. This one sporting event turned into an entire day social event!

When thinking about what or what did not surprise me, not a whole lot surprised me. I grew up in the same community and had friends, family, and neighbors growing up who participated in the same little league. I got the same welcoming and joyful feeling that I did when I was a part of it as a child myself. However, there were two things that surprised me a little. First, I noticed about the event I went to, is that despite any socioeconomic, racial, or linguistic differences, all families were engaged in this meaningful and purposeful literacy activity. As Compton-Lilly states about these children who come from families with differences they all bring “rich experiences and understanding to classrooms that teachers can build upon, access, and develop” (page 449). I was not expecting to see all these families participate in this event, and knowing this know I can utilize their experiences and understanding in the classroom. Another was that, the age of my students are six to seven years old, so they were the ones I watched (in this league there are games all day ranging through first grade to eighth grade), and some of the attitudes and responses that some of the parents had were surprising to me. Some of the parents were into the game a little too much and were all about winning. These were the parents that were yelling from the sidelines and walking up to the child and telling them what they did wrong and what they should do next time. This was very shocking to me considering their age and the fact that it is a little league team and should be played for fun, to make friends, and learn how to be a team player.

This community experience has helped me learn about my school, students, and families by knowing how they spend their time outside of school and work. It was nice to see and observe the community members in a non-school environment. The students were more open and less structured. They were free-willed and having fun. The families were involved and filled the stands. I also learned that a lot more of my students and the rest of the students in the school participate in this sporting event. It was a place where they could all come together and participate in the same event and communicate in all different ways such as reading (plays, signs/banners, scoreboard, cheers, concessions), writing (sidewalk chalk drawing, phone numbers, notes) and orally).

This experience will help me in my teaching by knowing more about my students and their families’ funds of knowledge. Meaning what they know outside of the school setting and how they can bring it into the classroom to make learning more meaningful for all. Compton-Lilly puts this into easier terms to understand; “All these funds of knowledge can be used to create rich and relevant literacy activities for children” (page 457). Due to a majority of my students participating in this sporting event, I could incorporate it into my teaching. Such as perhaps I could start the day with a chant or a cheer, like “break on three”, and also to have the students sit in a group to debrief about what we had accomplished during the days work. Football and cheerleading also have different literacies that I could bring into the classroom, like a class scoreboard for games or goals, more signs around the room, etc. It will also help to show me just how important looking beyond classroom walls is especially important for educators who work children from diverse communities, as Compton-Lilly expresses (page 450).

My experience overall will influence my thinking about my students’ as literacy users and learners through knowing that they know more about literacy such as reading, writing, and oral, than they think. Having had the opportunity to observe my students outside of the classroom environment I could grasp more about what they know and how they learn best. It will influence my thinking about how they know a lot more than I thought they did, they use literacy everywhere they go. It is just a matter of exposing them to these kinds of literacies in these ways in the classroom not just out in the community. I feel that once the students understand they are using and learning literacy everywhere they go, they will be more welcoming to the learning happening in the classroom!

Project 1 Expectations Post

          This week we are going to be looking into numerous places in Walled Lake. We are going to be visiting the local beach, restaurants that are in the area, the grocery store, batting cages, the dollar store, the laundromat and other places as well. These are some of the places where we have learned that students are interested in and are apart of their lives. When we are teaching our students, it is important to make our teaching meaningful. One way to do this is is to use students interests in our teaching. Because these spots are places that students visit frequently or have been to before, it benefits students learning if we can make our teaching meaningful and incorporate these places into our teaching. This also gives teachers an idea of where students do like to hang out and what types of places are available in our community. We also have to be aware of the places students are talking about to understand what their interests are. In respect to literacy, reading signs on the streets is a simple way that children and adults demonstrate their understanding.

         In the community, I expect to see people in the area and possibly visiting these places. I expect to see people reading directions that are given at places like the batting cages. I expect to see some advertisements and also see some signs for community events. I expect to see words on menus from restaurants and words on buildings. I expect that I will see many forms of listening whether it be through listening to people talk through communication, listening to radio, etc. I expect that I might see people reading whether it be a newspaper or other reading materials. Because we are focusing on our community, I also expect to find information and numerous types of text available throughout the community. 

       While my group was looking at our community, I did find that many of my expectations were found and fulfilled. I also noticed that not only were these places discussed by teaching and children, many restaurants and other places were very busy. This tells me that these places are very popular within many members of the community and not just the people in my school. I also noticed that you could find many types of literacy within the community. There were many types of text that were displayed including advertisements, food menus, newspapers, building signs, road signs, books, magazines etc. There were also numerous types of oral language taking place between people. These are skills that we are going to be teaching young children and you can relate to students based on communication that we see happening in our community. 

         Overall, I am very excited to continue looking into my community and learn more about what my students enjoy doing. As teachers, we should be able to relate to our students and by looking into our community, we are able to learn for our own purposes and relate to our own students better.

Inquiry One: Considering the Community

I plan on visiting a recreational activity, specifically a little league football game and cheer-leading. These games take place at the nearby High Schools in the surrounding community, mostly at Northern High School in Commerce, Michigan. I chose to go here because a majority of my students and a lot throughout the school and community participate in this activity.

What I expect to see, hear, and learn is about how all the families of the community and those of my students come together outside of school. I hope to see parents, grandparents, and siblings all being a part of one activity. I hope to hear families communicating with each other and students building long lasting relationships with others in the classroom and the outside community. Overall I hope to learn how my students, their families, and the people of the community spend their time outside of the classroom and work environment. I feel that this can give me an idea of who my students are, what they like to do, and more important what their funds of knowledge are so that I can bring it into the classroom and make learning more meaningful for all my students.

My visits will confirm my expectations by already having the notion of how my students and their families spend their time outside of school and work. Each day and after the weekend all my students have stories upon stories about their football games and cheers that they did. This confirms my expectation that my students families play a big part in their lives outside of school because of how excited and knowledgeable they are about their recreational activities. It brings joy to my heart that my students families are so involved in their lives in and outside of the school community and I am glad to have the opportunity to be a part of it myself!

When thinking about the setting and sporting event I will visit during my inquiry one investigation, I was able to jot down some notes about the types of interconnection I feel I am likely to see among reading, writing, oral language and other literacies and how they might contribute to communication in that setting. As Florio-Ruane (2010) stated, “the ecological view of literacy asserts that reading, writing, and oral language cannot be separated in their learning and in their use to learn subject matter. They are interrelated because they are all part of communication and are meaningful within social groups, contexts, knowledge and activities” (pg. 2). When thinking about this one statement, it was clear to me just how much this was true in one sporting event. The students taking part in playing football read plays, and communicate on and off the field. The cheerleaders on the side lines do not only communicate with each other during cheers but they use oral language to communicate to the spectators in the stands. Also, with sporting events, interconnections among other literacies such as the score board contribute to communication in this setting. The score, team names, and time-clock are all displayed for everyone to see throughout the event. From the literacies that are seen in this one sporting event, I am able to make connections between and among contexts in my students’ community. Literacy can and is found in all the contexts of this one sporting event, though they are not always as obvious as they are in the classrooms, and I feel that I can bring these literacies into the classroom so that my students can begin to understand the learning going on outside of the classroom!

Project 1 Expectations

This week, I will visit an ethnic foods store in the West Bloomfield community, about a half mile from Maple Elementary School. I am choosing to go here because the student population at Maple is so diverse! I hope that by visiting this ethnic foods store, I will gain valuable insight into the lives of my students. I also hope to familiarize myself more with their cultures as well.

I am expecting to see aisles of neatly stacked foods, separated into categories like, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, etc. I am anticipating seeing foods with which I am not familiar (unique spices, meats, grains, etc.) and food labels written in a variety of languages. I expect to walk in and hear faint festive music throughout the store. I also expect to hear customers and employees communicating in foreign languages.

Overall, I'm assuming that since most students in my classroom are Chaldean and Japanese, this ethnic foods store will cater mainly to these cultures. As a result, I'm hoping to learn more about these two cultures in particular: how people communicate and interact, how their language is written, and what is important to them. Because I am writing this before my visit, I'm interested to see which of my expectations will be confirmed and which were incorrect!