Reading Response 4/7

Leu 9

Wow! This chapter had so many good ideas for incorporating the new literacies for the primary grades on the Internet. I plan on using the story book read alouds. The children can write a sentence on the story and draw a picture afterwards.
My boys would like the scanning electron microscope website where they look at objects underneath a microscope and have to draw a picture of the item and identify it.
It would be nice to have fast computers with a color printer in my classroom but we aren't a Title 1 school and the funds are not there. However, I did get the maintenance crew and the technology person in our school district to put in an Internet connection on my wall so my three learning center computers have Internet now. Our school doesn't have educational software in the computer lab so I can compensate by using these great Internet sites in my classroom and in the computer lab.
I have never bookmarked a link before, but this book gives great instructions on how to do this. I'm going to go outside of my comfort zone and try creating bookmarks on my learning center computers and in the computer lab.
The animal scavenger hunt would be fun to try to help the students learn navigational skills on the computer. It was set up for Kindergartners to write down words that are on the screen.
Literacy, math, science, and social studies activities were abundant and too numerous to go into. This chapter was worth the price of the textbook. It is an important resource for teaching technology to my students.
I liked Jack Fontanella's website for his Kindergarten class. I may rethink my classroom blogsite and see if my technology person can help me set up a website for my Kindergarten class. The privacy suggestions about permission slips and posting only first names on the website to protect the safety of the children were especially helpful for me.

Auerbach Article

This research says that we shouldn't be so concerned with how to incorporate school practices in the homes of ESL or minority students. Instead, we need to address significant literacy in the home by including community culture and social problems into school literacy activities to make them meaningful for parents and students alike. The curriculum needs to be collaborative with parents and students. There shouldn't be a set curriculum.
The definition of family literacy should be broadened to include direct parent child interactions around literacy tasks, reading and listening to children, talking about and helping with homework, parents improving in reading and writing, using literacy to address family problems, parents addressing child rearing concerns through classes, supporting the home language/culture, and being involved with the school system.
Reading and writing can be used in a variety of ways with bilingual parents. Teachers need to investigate home language use, explore family literacy practices, explore cultural issues, validate culture text, explore parenting issues, address community issues, school advocacy, and learn about cultural political issues.
This article was an eye opener. Most educators believe in the assumption of parents incorporating school practices in the home to provide more practice for students to ensure academic success. This collaborative approach is probably more meaningful and relevant for bilingual learners but who has the time to conduct all this personal research?
The next point is that education is a top down enterprise. Each school and school district do have set curriculum programs and standards that are required.
This was an interesting perspective, but I do not find it to be very practical.