This course has enlightened my knowledge on literacy with the acqusition of it to the reason why we still continue to have so many Americans who cannot read. I have been forced to change my preconceived notions about non-literate people and for me to be an effective educator my ideas had to change. Lazy, incompetent and uninterested are a few of the thoughts I had but this course says I should see all the factors before I make an uninformed judgement.
Seeing how people learn from different socio-cultural and economic backgrounds allows me to be aware of the perceptions that are placed on students before they even enter the classroom. I am challenged to create a learning enviornment that is socially acceptable and equal to all students I encounter where as this was not much of a consideration when the profession began. To be aware of an individual's emergent literacy acquisition is something I would not have known if I had not taken this course. Additionally, the attention to how to teach people of various backgrounds will prove to be invaluable in my pursuit of this degree. The guests we had were informative and helpful in their comments on various subjects and the trip to Columbia University library really grounded me for the course work to come. It is difficult to comment on all that I have taken away as I believe I am still processing some information causing me to see different concepts I would have not known existed. Cultural literacy is just one of those concepts that continue to swirl around in my head as it seems to be a very simple idea but complex to pull it off without the proper planning.
All in all, I will continue to look over the readings and books for this course to reinforce what it is that I have learned.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Final Exam, Part II
Why Adults Can’t Read
It is hard to fathom that in this day and age we can encounter adults who have not learned to read and write. With all the resources at one’s disposal in this country there are many Americans who cannot use them because they have not acquired the basic skills necessary to utilize them. Unfortunately, statistics state that “the number of functionally illiterate adults is increasing by approximately two and one quarter million persons each year” (Sweet) and this number takes into account those 17-18 year olds who are dropping out of high school before they even graduate. Why is it that a country as prosperous as the United States cannot ensure that all of its citizens are literate? In reading Victoria Purcell-Gates book Other People’s Words I discovered some of the reasons why adults can have low or even no literate skills in our current society. The reasons I will discuss include the lack of access to print before formal instruction, socio-economic factors, and social promotions.
Contrary to what some may have understood literacy does not begin in the classroom. I am sure I am not the only one outside of academia to have believed such a notion but after reading Purcell-Gates’ book, I discovered what we absorb before our formal education begins is just as important as what we learn once we are in school. Purcell-Gates asks the question “What do children learn about the language of reading and writing during their preinstruction years?” (46) and as of a few months ago my answer would have been something like they learn to imitate their parents and say two or three letter words that represent the items they want. Although my response is not entirely untrue, Purcell-Gates indicates there is much more to what a child can learn about reading and writing before setting foot in a classroom. Her study of Jenny and Donny’s family introduced me to the idea that parents are a significant factor as to how print is received and used in the child’s eyes.
I was privileged enough to have a mother who read the newspaper every morning and then would give me part of the paper to pretend to read. As a child I wanted to know what my mother was reacting to in the news. I wanted to read like her.
Regrettably life in the Appalachians is not the same. It is a tight knit community that provides its citizens with all the comforts they need to survive. Reading and writing is not high on the list of goals. Jenny and Donny do not read newspapers or magazines, they cannot read the bills that come to their home, nor can they read the notes that come home from school with their boys. Print material is not utilized in their home. Their sons, Donny, Jr. and Timmy, do not see mom and dad writing down instructions, taking notes or writing letters. They function without print almost as comfortably as you and I function with it. Because Donny Jr. and Timmy do not see their parents using print in their home it becomes just as easy for them not to notice it as well. Reading and writing is dismissed and almost seen as an annoyance by little Donny when it is introduced. The adults use physical markers, shapes and/or sizes of signs to get to any destination outside of their home base and with the assistance of their community, it is understandable how people in this particular society in America can grow up not learning to read and write. They have learned to work around it. With continued assistance from literate family and friends the number of illiterate Americans in the Appalachians will likely rise.
We see that none or even very limited access to print as a child has much to do with the why an adult in American can grow up not knowing how to read but so does the socio-economical factors. Socio-economic status is most often determined by a combination of income, occupation and education, and is thought to be a good indication of whether a child will achieve in a literate society. In author Richard Kahlenberg’s article, “Can Separate Be Equal?” he seems to agree.
“The landmark 1966 Coleman Report found that the most important predictor of academic achievement is the socioeconomic status of the family a child comes from, and the second most important predictor is the socioeconomic makeup of the school she attends” (13).
I found these points to be true as evidenced in two current readings in particular. In Other People’s Words I learned that because of the family’s poor background, no particular attention was paid to the needs of the parent or the child when it came to their education. Several attempts to address the school were made but Jenny’s parental cries were ignored simply because the family was known to be from the poor side of town. It was almost ingrained within the school system to expect these students to fail and many of the staff did nothing to help them achieve. By the end of the reading it was good to witness Jenny’s exuberance at discovering the ability to decode her world. On the other hand, it was just as disconcerting that Donny, Jr. did not keep up with is reading nor was he enthusiastic about continuing his progression as a reader simply because his saw his father did not read.
In the reading of Margaret Finders’ Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High, it is clear that the girls who live in the trailer park do not enjoy the same literate freedoms as the privileged girls. The socio-economic makeup of the school has not hindered the students she deems “the cookies” from reading and writing. They participate in class and are as adept at reading as their socially accepted counter parts. However, they cannot participate in the normal adolescent activities, such as year book signing, sleepovers or participation in extracurricular activities because they cannot afford to or they have obligations at home that keep them from being socially active. Clearly these girls have learned to read and write because of the socio-economic makeup of the school, however their personal economic status have not allowed them to be embraced into the larger society.
In addition, socio-economically disadvantage students usually live in areas where there are little to no resources available for them. School are supposed to be separate but equal, however students who live in areas where access to resources are plenty do not have to contend with dated or lack of text books, limited, or little access to technology and teachers who already have pre-conceived bias about their abilities. Unfortunately children from disadvantaged backgrounds often have parents who were raised in the same environment and therefore reading and writing may develop more slowly for these students without parental guidance. Couple this with the idea that both adults probably work to maintain the family, and we can comprehend why it is difficult for a child who does not grasp the basics can quickly fall behind.
Had Purcell-Gates not stepped in and advocate for Donny, Jr.’s retention on his mother’s behalf he would have been socially promoted just as his father and mother were. We still find this to be the case today. This semester as I observed Walton High School, in the Bronx, New York there were obvious instances where this practice has happened. Ms. Page informed me that a number of the students were “moved through” although they could not complete the basic requirements of the previous class. I witnessed the lack of attention that was given to the reading instruction in the classroom. A majority of the class did not participate in the class reading assignments because many of them were not comfortable reading out loud. Additionally, the students had come to know the requirements of the school system and many of them wanted nothing more than to receive the minimum passing grade in order to be promoted or in some cases, graduate.
Social promotion was initially developed for two reasons. One, public schools were growing rapidly in urban areas and the added costs for students that had to be held back were not conducive to budget restraints. Two, parents began to become concerned about placing older students with younger student so they were moved along to the next grade whether they had obtained the skills necessary to complete the grade or not (221 Carifio). Our colleges are filled with high school graduates who require remedial reading and writing before they can even begin their academic careers. Promoting students who have not grasped the fundamentals of their grade ensures that he or she will be behind in the following grade. This will continue until the student becomes or has an advocate to fight for him/her though instances are rare. More likely these students will drop out and learn to function well within their communities or they will become remedial students in many of the college classrooms.
As we become more technically advanced, print literature and children’s engagement with has and will continue to change. But if a child’s parent is not engaged with print, or perhaps lives in a socio-economically disadvantaged area and is the product of social promotion there will continue to be many Americans in this global community who cannot decode and make meaning of the language around them. We cannot make parents read to their children even more than we can change where they live and work, but we can begin new discussions on a better way to ensure that we do not shuffle children along to college who are not properly prepared. It is not fair to the children or the teachers who must try to right the wrongs.
Works Cited
American Psychological Association, Task Force on Socioeconomic Status. (2007). Report of the APA Task Force on Socioeconomic Status. Washington, DC.
Carifio, James, and Theodore Carey. "Do Minimum Grading Practices Lower Academic Standards And Produce Social Promotions?" Educational Horizons 88.4 (2010): 219-230.
Kahlenberg, Richard D. "Can Separate Be Equal?" American Prospect 20.7 (2009): A13-15.
Page, Verna. Personal interview. 1 December 2011.
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Sarroub, Loukia K. "Living “Glocally” With Literacy Success In The Midwest." Theory Into Practice 47.1 (2008): 59-66.
Sweet, Robert W. Jr., K. "Living “Illiteracy: An Incurable Disease or Education Malpractice?” The National Right to Read Foundation. http://www.nrrf.org/essay_Illiteracy.html
It is hard to fathom that in this day and age we can encounter adults who have not learned to read and write. With all the resources at one’s disposal in this country there are many Americans who cannot use them because they have not acquired the basic skills necessary to utilize them. Unfortunately, statistics state that “the number of functionally illiterate adults is increasing by approximately two and one quarter million persons each year” (Sweet) and this number takes into account those 17-18 year olds who are dropping out of high school before they even graduate. Why is it that a country as prosperous as the United States cannot ensure that all of its citizens are literate? In reading Victoria Purcell-Gates book Other People’s Words I discovered some of the reasons why adults can have low or even no literate skills in our current society. The reasons I will discuss include the lack of access to print before formal instruction, socio-economic factors, and social promotions.
Contrary to what some may have understood literacy does not begin in the classroom. I am sure I am not the only one outside of academia to have believed such a notion but after reading Purcell-Gates’ book, I discovered what we absorb before our formal education begins is just as important as what we learn once we are in school. Purcell-Gates asks the question “What do children learn about the language of reading and writing during their preinstruction years?” (46) and as of a few months ago my answer would have been something like they learn to imitate their parents and say two or three letter words that represent the items they want. Although my response is not entirely untrue, Purcell-Gates indicates there is much more to what a child can learn about reading and writing before setting foot in a classroom. Her study of Jenny and Donny’s family introduced me to the idea that parents are a significant factor as to how print is received and used in the child’s eyes.
I was privileged enough to have a mother who read the newspaper every morning and then would give me part of the paper to pretend to read. As a child I wanted to know what my mother was reacting to in the news. I wanted to read like her.
Regrettably life in the Appalachians is not the same. It is a tight knit community that provides its citizens with all the comforts they need to survive. Reading and writing is not high on the list of goals. Jenny and Donny do not read newspapers or magazines, they cannot read the bills that come to their home, nor can they read the notes that come home from school with their boys. Print material is not utilized in their home. Their sons, Donny, Jr. and Timmy, do not see mom and dad writing down instructions, taking notes or writing letters. They function without print almost as comfortably as you and I function with it. Because Donny Jr. and Timmy do not see their parents using print in their home it becomes just as easy for them not to notice it as well. Reading and writing is dismissed and almost seen as an annoyance by little Donny when it is introduced. The adults use physical markers, shapes and/or sizes of signs to get to any destination outside of their home base and with the assistance of their community, it is understandable how people in this particular society in America can grow up not learning to read and write. They have learned to work around it. With continued assistance from literate family and friends the number of illiterate Americans in the Appalachians will likely rise.
We see that none or even very limited access to print as a child has much to do with the why an adult in American can grow up not knowing how to read but so does the socio-economical factors. Socio-economic status is most often determined by a combination of income, occupation and education, and is thought to be a good indication of whether a child will achieve in a literate society. In author Richard Kahlenberg’s article, “Can Separate Be Equal?” he seems to agree.
“The landmark 1966 Coleman Report found that the most important predictor of academic achievement is the socioeconomic status of the family a child comes from, and the second most important predictor is the socioeconomic makeup of the school she attends” (13).
I found these points to be true as evidenced in two current readings in particular. In Other People’s Words I learned that because of the family’s poor background, no particular attention was paid to the needs of the parent or the child when it came to their education. Several attempts to address the school were made but Jenny’s parental cries were ignored simply because the family was known to be from the poor side of town. It was almost ingrained within the school system to expect these students to fail and many of the staff did nothing to help them achieve. By the end of the reading it was good to witness Jenny’s exuberance at discovering the ability to decode her world. On the other hand, it was just as disconcerting that Donny, Jr. did not keep up with is reading nor was he enthusiastic about continuing his progression as a reader simply because his saw his father did not read.
In the reading of Margaret Finders’ Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High, it is clear that the girls who live in the trailer park do not enjoy the same literate freedoms as the privileged girls. The socio-economic makeup of the school has not hindered the students she deems “the cookies” from reading and writing. They participate in class and are as adept at reading as their socially accepted counter parts. However, they cannot participate in the normal adolescent activities, such as year book signing, sleepovers or participation in extracurricular activities because they cannot afford to or they have obligations at home that keep them from being socially active. Clearly these girls have learned to read and write because of the socio-economic makeup of the school, however their personal economic status have not allowed them to be embraced into the larger society.
In addition, socio-economically disadvantage students usually live in areas where there are little to no resources available for them. School are supposed to be separate but equal, however students who live in areas where access to resources are plenty do not have to contend with dated or lack of text books, limited, or little access to technology and teachers who already have pre-conceived bias about their abilities. Unfortunately children from disadvantaged backgrounds often have parents who were raised in the same environment and therefore reading and writing may develop more slowly for these students without parental guidance. Couple this with the idea that both adults probably work to maintain the family, and we can comprehend why it is difficult for a child who does not grasp the basics can quickly fall behind.
Had Purcell-Gates not stepped in and advocate for Donny, Jr.’s retention on his mother’s behalf he would have been socially promoted just as his father and mother were. We still find this to be the case today. This semester as I observed Walton High School, in the Bronx, New York there were obvious instances where this practice has happened. Ms. Page informed me that a number of the students were “moved through” although they could not complete the basic requirements of the previous class. I witnessed the lack of attention that was given to the reading instruction in the classroom. A majority of the class did not participate in the class reading assignments because many of them were not comfortable reading out loud. Additionally, the students had come to know the requirements of the school system and many of them wanted nothing more than to receive the minimum passing grade in order to be promoted or in some cases, graduate.
Social promotion was initially developed for two reasons. One, public schools were growing rapidly in urban areas and the added costs for students that had to be held back were not conducive to budget restraints. Two, parents began to become concerned about placing older students with younger student so they were moved along to the next grade whether they had obtained the skills necessary to complete the grade or not (221 Carifio). Our colleges are filled with high school graduates who require remedial reading and writing before they can even begin their academic careers. Promoting students who have not grasped the fundamentals of their grade ensures that he or she will be behind in the following grade. This will continue until the student becomes or has an advocate to fight for him/her though instances are rare. More likely these students will drop out and learn to function well within their communities or they will become remedial students in many of the college classrooms.
As we become more technically advanced, print literature and children’s engagement with has and will continue to change. But if a child’s parent is not engaged with print, or perhaps lives in a socio-economically disadvantaged area and is the product of social promotion there will continue to be many Americans in this global community who cannot decode and make meaning of the language around them. We cannot make parents read to their children even more than we can change where they live and work, but we can begin new discussions on a better way to ensure that we do not shuffle children along to college who are not properly prepared. It is not fair to the children or the teachers who must try to right the wrongs.
Works Cited
American Psychological Association, Task Force on Socioeconomic Status. (2007). Report of the APA Task Force on Socioeconomic Status. Washington, DC.
Carifio, James, and Theodore Carey. "Do Minimum Grading Practices Lower Academic Standards And Produce Social Promotions?" Educational Horizons 88.4 (2010): 219-230.
Kahlenberg, Richard D. "Can Separate Be Equal?" American Prospect 20.7 (2009): A13-15.
Page, Verna. Personal interview. 1 December 2011.
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Sarroub, Loukia K. "Living “Glocally” With Literacy Success In The Midwest." Theory Into Practice 47.1 (2008): 59-66.
Sweet, Robert W. Jr., K. "Living “Illiteracy: An Incurable Disease or Education Malpractice?” The National Right to Read Foundation. http://www.nrrf.org/essay_Illiteracy.html
Final Exam, Part I
Phonemic Awareness
There are two current views of reading that relate to the distinction between learning and acquisition. The word recognition view is a belief that written language must be learned. The sociopsycholinguistic view believes that language is innate and can be acquired. Because the word recognition view is based on the concept that identifying words involves recoding written language to oral language this process requires that one must have phonemic awareness to complete this task (Freeman 75).
Because we have a phonemically based alphabet where every letter has one or more speech sounds it is imperative that children master phonemic awareness before they begin to read. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. For example, a phonemically aware child should be able to recognize which words in a set of words begin with the same sound, isolate and say the beginning or ending sound of a word, blend and combine the separate sounds in a word to say the word and break up a word into its separate sounds. For example, a child seeing the word “sat” should be able to isolate the s phoneme and add a new phoneme, such as r to create a new word. Researchers believe if a child masters this ability they will be more successful in reading. Professors David and Yvonne Freeman concur. In response to research that clearly indicated phonemic awareness as the factor that differentiated good readers from poor readers they write, “Children with phonemic awareness [become] good readers and those who lack[ed] phonemic awareness [struggle] with reading” (76). With this knowledge is it is important for pre-school teachers to be cognizant that when children begin their formal education special attention should be made to ensure that all students can manipulate phonemes before they begin to read.
This approach should be done in a way that is “developmentally appropriate” (170 Zeece) and teachers can involve students in this process in a variety of ways. By keeping instruction light, fun and informal, teachers can create an environment where learning about language will pique the child’s curiosity; they can avoid grammar drills and memorization as well as be celebrate and recognize the individual differences each child brings into the classroom. It is also believed that word and wordless books help children to develop the basics of story structure and the cohesion of images and words.
Children begin to categorize sounds and phonemes without even knowing it. They can create their native vowel and consonant sounds before they are a year old and by the beginning of school they have amassed an oral vocabulary of a couple of hundred or thousands of words. This is the critical moment where applying phonemic awareness can prove to develop and strengthen the reading success of children. The skills children learn at this stage will give them confidence as they will be able to recall these concepts as they engage in the various texts they will encounter in school.
Works Cited
Atwill, Kim, Jay Blanchard et al. Receptive Vocabulary and Cross Language Transfer of Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarten Children. The Journal of Education Research. Volume 100, Number 6, January 2007. pp.336-346.
Freeman, David E. and Yvonne S. Freeman. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004.
Metsala, Jamie L. and Linnea C. Ehri, ed. Word Recognition in Beginning Literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 1998.
Zeece, Pauline. Sound Reading and Reading Sounds: The Case for Phonemic Awareness. Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 34, Number 2 (October 2006), pp. 169-175
Emergent Literacy
Contrary to what one may believe literacy does not begin in the classroom. Emergent literacy theory speaks to this fact. Emergent literacy theory basically says children learn about reading and writing before they enter school for formal instruction. Children can learn about literacy in what seems to be benign ways even if they do not quite understand it. It is believed that the stage between birth and five years of age is the most significant stage for emergent literacy development. Children become aware that environmental signs such as labels, road signs and advertisements convey meaning. How their parents interact and engage the child in these environmental activities can prove to be a powerful indicator of success in future reading and writing. A child walking into the classroom without engaging in the community might find school a little more difficult.
Research in emergent literacy has allowed educators to observe and comprehend more completely the ways in which toddlers use and develop conceptual meaning about print language as they go about in their daily lives and communities. This research is important because it can be used to develop curriculum and possibly predict the early reading patterns as indicated in a study of one child’s development in understanding the word apple. In Pauline Zeece’s observation, a child surrounded by apples falling from the tree in her new back yard while she swings and slides, she knows more is at work here than just typical play. The child notices that apples are taken into the home to be enjoyed and the toddler even gives one as a present to her father clearly pronouncing its name. An interesting pattern developed as the child began to sort books from her book shelf for reading. The same number of books were set aside daily and quickly deemed her favorites. Upon closer inspection, and subsequent reading the child had put aside books that either directly or indirectly referenced apples. In addition, after only three weeks in the new home this young child selected two P shaped sponges and said “Apple!” Even more telling, was when the P’s were replaced with G’s the child said “No!” and immediately replace the G’s with the P’s to spell the word apple (565-566). This is a great example of emergent literacy at work. A two year old has absorbed her new environment and provided meaning for it by locating stories that mentioned or indicated the word apple but she also took her understanding to a new level with the invented spelling using two P’s to represent apple. The more a child continues in their perceptions and interactions of the community, the more they become aware of the literacies around them, they will try to construct meaning for themselves that will only assist in their reading and writing development. Emergent literacy is the precursor to our formal concept of literacy and any deficiency in emergent literacy can indicate future difficulty in a child learning to read and write.
Works Cited
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Elliott, Elizabether and Charleen Olliff. Developmentally Appropriate Emergent Literacy Activities for Young Children: Adapting the Early Literacy and Learning Model. Early Childhood Education Journal. Volume 35, Number 6 (June 2008), pp. 551-556.
Neumann, Michelle, Michelle Hood and David Neumann. The Scaffolding of Emergent Literacy skills in the Home Environment: A Case Study. Early Childhood education Journal. January 2011, pp. 1-7.
Zeece, Pauline. Linking Life and Literature in Early Childhood Settings. Early Childhood Education Journal. Volume 35, Number 6 (June 2008), pp. 565-569,
There are two current views of reading that relate to the distinction between learning and acquisition. The word recognition view is a belief that written language must be learned. The sociopsycholinguistic view believes that language is innate and can be acquired. Because the word recognition view is based on the concept that identifying words involves recoding written language to oral language this process requires that one must have phonemic awareness to complete this task (Freeman 75).
Because we have a phonemically based alphabet where every letter has one or more speech sounds it is imperative that children master phonemic awareness before they begin to read. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. For example, a phonemically aware child should be able to recognize which words in a set of words begin with the same sound, isolate and say the beginning or ending sound of a word, blend and combine the separate sounds in a word to say the word and break up a word into its separate sounds. For example, a child seeing the word “sat” should be able to isolate the s phoneme and add a new phoneme, such as r to create a new word. Researchers believe if a child masters this ability they will be more successful in reading. Professors David and Yvonne Freeman concur. In response to research that clearly indicated phonemic awareness as the factor that differentiated good readers from poor readers they write, “Children with phonemic awareness [become] good readers and those who lack[ed] phonemic awareness [struggle] with reading” (76). With this knowledge is it is important for pre-school teachers to be cognizant that when children begin their formal education special attention should be made to ensure that all students can manipulate phonemes before they begin to read.
This approach should be done in a way that is “developmentally appropriate” (170 Zeece) and teachers can involve students in this process in a variety of ways. By keeping instruction light, fun and informal, teachers can create an environment where learning about language will pique the child’s curiosity; they can avoid grammar drills and memorization as well as be celebrate and recognize the individual differences each child brings into the classroom. It is also believed that word and wordless books help children to develop the basics of story structure and the cohesion of images and words.
Children begin to categorize sounds and phonemes without even knowing it. They can create their native vowel and consonant sounds before they are a year old and by the beginning of school they have amassed an oral vocabulary of a couple of hundred or thousands of words. This is the critical moment where applying phonemic awareness can prove to develop and strengthen the reading success of children. The skills children learn at this stage will give them confidence as they will be able to recall these concepts as they engage in the various texts they will encounter in school.
Works Cited
Atwill, Kim, Jay Blanchard et al. Receptive Vocabulary and Cross Language Transfer of Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarten Children. The Journal of Education Research. Volume 100, Number 6, January 2007. pp.336-346.
Freeman, David E. and Yvonne S. Freeman. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004.
Metsala, Jamie L. and Linnea C. Ehri, ed. Word Recognition in Beginning Literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 1998.
Zeece, Pauline. Sound Reading and Reading Sounds: The Case for Phonemic Awareness. Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 34, Number 2 (October 2006), pp. 169-175
Emergent Literacy
Contrary to what one may believe literacy does not begin in the classroom. Emergent literacy theory speaks to this fact. Emergent literacy theory basically says children learn about reading and writing before they enter school for formal instruction. Children can learn about literacy in what seems to be benign ways even if they do not quite understand it. It is believed that the stage between birth and five years of age is the most significant stage for emergent literacy development. Children become aware that environmental signs such as labels, road signs and advertisements convey meaning. How their parents interact and engage the child in these environmental activities can prove to be a powerful indicator of success in future reading and writing. A child walking into the classroom without engaging in the community might find school a little more difficult.
Research in emergent literacy has allowed educators to observe and comprehend more completely the ways in which toddlers use and develop conceptual meaning about print language as they go about in their daily lives and communities. This research is important because it can be used to develop curriculum and possibly predict the early reading patterns as indicated in a study of one child’s development in understanding the word apple. In Pauline Zeece’s observation, a child surrounded by apples falling from the tree in her new back yard while she swings and slides, she knows more is at work here than just typical play. The child notices that apples are taken into the home to be enjoyed and the toddler even gives one as a present to her father clearly pronouncing its name. An interesting pattern developed as the child began to sort books from her book shelf for reading. The same number of books were set aside daily and quickly deemed her favorites. Upon closer inspection, and subsequent reading the child had put aside books that either directly or indirectly referenced apples. In addition, after only three weeks in the new home this young child selected two P shaped sponges and said “Apple!” Even more telling, was when the P’s were replaced with G’s the child said “No!” and immediately replace the G’s with the P’s to spell the word apple (565-566). This is a great example of emergent literacy at work. A two year old has absorbed her new environment and provided meaning for it by locating stories that mentioned or indicated the word apple but she also took her understanding to a new level with the invented spelling using two P’s to represent apple. The more a child continues in their perceptions and interactions of the community, the more they become aware of the literacies around them, they will try to construct meaning for themselves that will only assist in their reading and writing development. Emergent literacy is the precursor to our formal concept of literacy and any deficiency in emergent literacy can indicate future difficulty in a child learning to read and write.
Works Cited
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Elliott, Elizabether and Charleen Olliff. Developmentally Appropriate Emergent Literacy Activities for Young Children: Adapting the Early Literacy and Learning Model. Early Childhood Education Journal. Volume 35, Number 6 (June 2008), pp. 551-556.
Neumann, Michelle, Michelle Hood and David Neumann. The Scaffolding of Emergent Literacy skills in the Home Environment: A Case Study. Early Childhood education Journal. January 2011, pp. 1-7.
Zeece, Pauline. Linking Life and Literature in Early Childhood Settings. Early Childhood Education Journal. Volume 35, Number 6 (June 2008), pp. 565-569,
Literary Sponsors - Essay #2
Influential Persons That
Helped Shaped My Literacy Learning
As I was reading Other People’s Words by Victoria Purcell-Gates I read a line about researchers who focus on emergent literacy that caused me to re-think my early literacy events. She writes “…all children growing up in a literate society learn many important concepts about written language before they begin school” (42). For me that meant if researchers believed “unequivocally” that children learn about literacy before they entered the classroom then I had to re-examine what I remembered about my relationship with literacy before beginning my formal education.
During family gatherings I am often reminded that I was the only one of my four brothers and sisters who did not read before kindergarten. No reason was ever given why I did not learn to read but Purcell-Gates’ book made me recognize that my emergent literacy did begin with my mother and not in a classroom as I had thought. I had to quell the thought that because I did not learn to read before beginning school my mother was not instrumental in my learning.
In the morning my mother would read the Daily News at the dining room table with her cup of coffee. On Sundays she would give me the colorful part of the paper and I would pretend to read it. This continued until I could actually read the funnies myself. As my reading and spelling developed Mom would challenge me to do the kids version of the jumble in the newspaper. The jumble is a word puzzle where the reader is given 4 or 5 words to unscramble. Each word has a circled letter that when put together, it spells out the solution to the accompanying cartoon riddle. If I could not solve the last answer to the puzzle, my mother would give me a word that rhymed with the word I was seeking. That never failed in helping me find the answer. When the kids jumble became too easy for me I graduated to the daily jumble. These words were longer and much more difficult to figure out. My mother and I would sometimes do the puzzle together or she would solve half the words and I would solve the other half. Afterwards we’d figure out the solution together. It is only after reading Other People’s Words do I understand how this seemingly benign activity led to me being interactive with words. Unlike little Donny in Purcell-Gates’ case study, print entered my life at an early age and watching my mother engrossed in the paper did code my world (133). I mirrored her when I pretended to read the paper even though I did not know the importance of the act. All I knew was that what Mom was reading would sometime cause her to verbally respond. I heard “ain’t that the truth” or “what is this world coming to” or watched the simple shaking of her head as she read and so I imitated them too. Cultural magazines such as Ebony and Jet were a constant in my home as well. Initially, I didn’t pretend to read those texts as I did with the newspaper because I was more captivated by the photography in the magazines. As I grew older and began to comprehend the articles, some words were not as easy to understand. Instead of telling me what these words meant my mother would make me look them up in the dictionary. She said “look it up” so often I eventually stopped asking. It is only in retrospect that I see her directive was purposeful. I am sure I did not always look up the words in question as retrieving the heavy dictionary from the bookshelf and bringing it to the dining room table was work but if I could not detect the meaning from the sentence or the entire article then I would have to look up the word just to satisfy my curiosity.
Ebony, Jet and the Daily News were the constant forms of print in my home. These texts were so imbedded in my life I initially did not recognize them as having any significance to my learning. I mistakenly thought of literacy as the point where one has learned to read. Anything leading up to the point of actual reading for meaning did not enter my frame of thought as contributing factor to my emergent literacy. It is with this knowledge that I can now see that my mother was my first literary sponsor.
In determining which of my educators I would consider as my co-literary sponsor, I had to really go back and recognize any significant contribution they have made in furthering my learning. I don’t remember learning to read as much as I remember having to practice my letters. Although my fourth grade teacher encouraged me to write, the distinction of literacy sponsor would go to my fifth grade teacher, Jeffery Ratner, who is now a retired principal living on Long Island, New York.
Our elementary school had 4 or 5 classes per grade except pre-K and kindergarten. It is with no exaggeration that every child knew who Mr. Ratner was and that every child wanted him for their own. I wanted to be in his class just because they performed the best plays and went to Chinatown every year. Despite the fact that he had the reputation of being mean and hard on his students those who got in were deemed privileged amongst their peers and those that didn’t wished they had.
What was special about this educator was that he refused to treat a group of ten year olds like babies. Where we were getting milk before, with him we were getting a full meal. On the first day of class he said he would always be up front with us no matter what was going on in and around our school. This was during a time when staff changes were being made and teachers who were staples in the schools were leaving or being re-assigned to other grades. If anything happened, we heard it from him first. It is then I understood why it always seemed his students appeared much older and walked a little taller than the others.
Writing poems came easily to me in first and second grade as I always rhymed words by creating new “Roses are Red” poems for publication in the school newspaper. I am sure this had a lot to do with my mother giving me words that rhymed with the jumble answer I was looking to solve. By the time I was in fourth grade, I was writing 1-2 page short stories starring the members of my class. No one knew who I would write about next, and neither did I for that matter. However, when I reached Mr. Ratner’s class, I was in for a rude awakening. Looking back now, my writing was very… elementary. I used simple words to tell simple stories and Mr. Ratner was not a simple teacher. His first task was to have us pay attention to the boundaries of the paper. My refusal to adhere to the invisible margin on the right side of the loose leaf paper left me having to reproduce work over until all my writing was neatly place between the two red goal posts. I didn’t understand his obsession of these two poles but complied with grumbling as did the rest of the class. Little did I realize this practice not only taught me to pay attention to basic instructions but it facilitated in me learning how to break up multisyllabic words at the syllable instead of breaking them where I wanted. I knew what syllables were but I did not understand the rules until forced to pay attention to what I thought was a meaningless rule by a strict task master.
Because literacy involves being competent in reading, writing and interpreting texts, I chose my fifth grade teacher mainly because his choice of vocabulary words enriched my writing. Long gone were the 2 – 3 syllable words I received in previous classes. Now I was being introduced to words that were not part of my oral vocabulary words such as, “temerity,” “consequences” and my favorite word, “idiosyncrasy.” It was exciting, for me at least, to see on Monday what words he would test us on by Friday. Mr. Ratner made sure the class used the words during the week and in the readings he assigned for homework. It was not easy for me at first because I did not know how to study. I had no older brother or sister that could teach me how. As a learner I did not always understand what I was supposed to do to retain the information. How do I study? I wouldn’t raise my hands to ask questions. In short, I did not want to appear stupid so I did not understand the value of asking questions. In addition I was comfortable in my old habits of double negative usage and dangling participles in my speaking and writing. Why wasn’t it good enough for him when all my previous educators applauded and praised my efforts? I felt he was picking on me but subconsciously knew he was expecting the same from all of us.
On the back of our report card there was a space provided where teachers would write their comments on our progress. I still remember his neat handwriting on my report card. I was acutely aware that his black fountain pen with the balled, metal tip would make his E’s look like the number 3 every time. On one report he wrote something similar to “Nayanda’s improving nicely but she would do better if she learned to use the dictionary more.” Until this day, I attribute my love for the dictionary to Mr. Ratner. He pointed out how using the dictionary is more than just looking for the unfamiliar as he showed me the pronunciation key, the notation for parts of speech and the related words. The introduction of antonyms and homonyms further increased my writing as now I was able to call upon words that earlier weren’t available to me. Needless to say, the love affair caused me to refer to the dictionary frequently when reading books and the newspaper for current event articles as he had instructed.
In our elementary school library I was introduced to books that did not have large printed words or pictures of literary scenes every few pages. I needed the dictionary to navigate through new words brought to me by new texts. I became familiar with Judy Blume and other young adult writers in fiction as well as the poetry of Langston Hughes and Phyllis Wheatly. It is in fifth grade I came to fully comprehend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as we prepared for a play celebrating his birth. What did it mean to me in the bicentennial year of 1976 when the country was celebrating its independence from Britain while the black community was still missing its first national leader? I was not used to thinking that deeply. Not only did we read varied texts but the goal was to understand what we read. Mr. Ratner opened the door to what was possible for me as a learner in a culturally mixed neighborhood in Long Island City, Queens. I would say our classroom had a slightly larger African-American population but that was not indicative of all the classrooms in the school. My elementary school was pretty mixed as many of my friends were of different ethnic backgrounds.
Whereas before I was a rhyming fanatic, I had now become more engrossed in why a text was written and wanted to discover the purpose for which it was written. I was no longer afraid to ask questions because I understood those answers brought me additional clarity. My reading took a path of its own I didn’t foresee. My short story writing ceased as I compared my writing with what I was reading. I knew the days of cute little stories were over as poetry, especially Haikus, became a dominant part of my personal writing.
At 10 years old I learned to be responsible for my own knowledge. Instead of having books being recommended for me, I was now exploring the possibilities myself. What was provided was a foundation, a blueprint, if you will of what I could know. From that moment on, I knew my education was up to me.
Analysis
Unfortunately, I don’t remember our first writing assignment but what I do remember is that no one in my class adhered to the margin rules. Mr. Ratner called us up one by one to retrieve our papers from his desk questioning us in different ways about the margin on the right hand side of the paper. Sure the margin was, in fact, on the reverse side of the paper but it wasn’t invisible to the eye. That was the point. Mr. Ratner forced us to see what we refused to see, notice what we weren’t supposed to notice.
We wrote letters to the Daily News and New York Post when we were particularly interested in something. I remember the excitement of a classmate as he received a response from Jimmy Breslin. That only encouraged us more. We wrote letters to the networks about our favorite shows and even wrote to our favorite news anchors. Mr. Ratner taught us the difference between informal and formal writing and why we use one to write business letters and the other for pen pal letters. One of the writing forms that stand out the most is our “thank you” letter to the restaurant where we had lunch on our trip to Chinatown. We had to be very specific in this letter so the owner would know who we were. Therefore we had to put the date and time of our visit, what dish we were served and the name of our waiter, if we remembered. We also had to add something specific about the visit such as the fish tank in the corner or the décor on the walls. We were encouraged to write what we liked and didn’t like about our visit and after we wrote two or three drafts, they were sent out the following week. The payoff came when we received a letter back from the restaurant written by the daughter of the owner who did not speak English. The practice of letter writing showed us that we could engage with adults on a level totally unfamiliar to most of us. We could even get a response with purposeful, well thought out words.
I believe Mr. Ratner knew that most of us came from homes where parents were not college graduates, much less high school graduates. I can only believe he wanted to show us how what we thought and what we said meant something. I would say our classroom had a slightly larger African-American population but that was not indicative of all the classrooms in my elementary school. Most of the African-American children during my era grew up learning to be seen and not heard. What this meant was that at home or even in public places, in the company of adults, we were to remain quiet. Children were not allowed to talk back, ask questions or interrupt adults in conversation without saying “excuse me.” If the “excuse me” was not acknowledged we retreated until an opportunity presented itself where the adult we needed was not busy. This practice was also useful in making sure as children we did not say too much at a time that was inappropriate.
In this teacher we found a place where this practice was not the case. Perhaps that was why our vocabulary words were not the typical fifth grade fare. I do not believe a majority of today’s 10 year olds would know the meaning of temerity or idiosyncrasy. But because he taught on a different level than I was used to my dictionary was my new best friend and I was constantly being teased by my siblings who tried to hide it whenever they could. It is from my reading for this class I understand these lists of vocabulary words along with the weekly list of spelling words are part of the world recognition view of reading. But as ideas about how children learn were beginning to change in the 70’s to a more cognitive view (Freeman 2), I think Mr. Ratner sought to bring some of the community into the classroom. I do not recall specific images hanging on the classroom walls but I do know his particular taste in music mirrored some of our own and when there was down time he would play the music of Natalie Cole or The Temptations on a small record player he kept in the classroom.
We had a number of Asian-American students in our classroom and throughout school so our trip to Chinatown allowed us a glimpse into this culture. After the trip the Asian students would answer questions about what the red tassels hanging in the restaurant represented, why was it customary to bow as opposed to shaking hands or how did they learn to use chopsticks.
He expanded my view of what community was by asking us to search for articles to share with the class. None of us were allowed to bring in cartoons or crime related stories. We had to write briefly what the article was about. This was the time of year where Gerald Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the presidential election, NASA had a new space shuttle name Enterprise (which pleased the Star Trek fans) and celebration of America’s 200 years of independence from Britain was the talk of the year. Fidel Castro was now the president of Cuba and I had no idea who he was or where Cuba was located. Having to seek out a new article to share each week was interesting. This is where I first learned to think critically, although I didn’t know that is what I was doing. Basic questions that would come up for me is why is this news? Who is the audience that this article addresses? How do you feel, what is your response? Because I had to discuss the article in detail picking one became personal as it allowed me to verbally express and write what I knew and understood about the news clippings.
In fifth grade I was challenged to write things purposely, to have an intention. I was challenged to keep in mind who I was writing to and the reason for my letter. If I was writing a story or poem, what was its purpose to me and to the audience? For a while I stopped writing creatively because I felt what I had to say was not important enough. I no longer wrote to entertain my classmates as I felt a somewhat bigger responsibility. I knew words were important. My mother thought so every morning she sat with her paper and her coffee. They made her speak out loud to no one in particular. Words had power to elicit responses and the proof was there in my class where students were receiving letters from complete strangers. Not everyone received an autographed picture or an acknowledgement letter. We learned not to always depend on one. However, the lesson learned in writing letters to various individuals or entities was to effectively voice an opinion, concern or problem in hopes of having it addressed, if not responded to, in some form. This practice gave us a voice with adults we might not have ever had outside the classroom. We were free to express ourselves without fear of being shushed or ignored. Perhaps that is why I recall this particular classroom activity so vividly. I could say what I felt and thought without being interrupted or dismissed. Today, I still believe in the power of an effective letter.
As I came to know Mr. Ratner and see his passion for his students I was drawn to him for everything. I truly did not want to disappoint this man. I wanted everything I put in front of him to be the best work I could give. It was no longer about making my classmates smile but having a paper returned that said “good work” or “nice job” or “good use of vocabulary” that would make my day. He gave us easy access to him as we not only had him in class but we could get his home number only if we looked it up in the phone book. I was one of the few that did and I was able to maintain a relationship with him over the years.
I believe he had inklings of the drama that was going on in the lives of his students. But because family issues were kept in the family, no one dared talked about the abuse, hunger or unsafe living conditions that they were experiencing. Only after his students of 1976-1977 were adults with their own children did we realize we had some of the same problems happening in our homes. This was a time in society where teachers did not ask a student about anything in their life outside of the classroom. I think if Mr. Ratner were to ask me back then if my father had a drinking problem, I would have denied it. Family business was not to be shared with school adults and I am sure Mr. Ratner understood that part of our culture very well. The consequences for me saying anything negative about my home life would have been detrimental to my posterior. I believe this is why he created a learning environment that we all could feel safe in, where we could be seen and heard. Even today when his birthday comes around he will receive messages on Facebook from former students proclaiming how influential he was in their lives. He served as a surrogate father figure for some and he refused to let them fall by the wayside. He encouraged what we knew and asked us why we didn’t know. He saw our potential and showed it back to us as often as he could.
Because of both my early literacy sponsors I learned to write purposeful letters, read books that were foreign to me, pronounce words properly and find the meanings of any word I did not know. I learned to substitute words, read the first chapter of a book before making a judgment and look beyond the funnies for the news within my community. My mother and I enjoy playing Scrabble together and have included the children to participate in the game as well thereby helping them to explore and/or add to their oral vocabulary.
I would love to say everything was smooth sailing after that but not so. I became spoiled with him as a teacher. It was a number of years before I met someone else that was as passionate and engaging with students as he was. Unfortunately, that wasn’t until college. But his influence still came across in my scholastic writing. For example, in my 12th grade English honors class, we were told to write a paper on why Huckleberry Finn should or should not be taught in schools. We had to present an argument and use “12th grade vocabulary” to explain our position. My high school was located in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan, predominately Latin and African-American students with an average population of students whose grades were considered good.
When Mrs. Spilotro finished returning the essays, I realized mine was not given back. Fear gripped me because I thought it was misplaced or she didn’t like my handwriting (she’d do that on occasion) and I had to write it over. She announced to the class that of all the papers she received this was the one that followed her directions and was fully thought out and a pleasure to read. Mrs. Spilotro read my paper to the class and I could not close my mouth. I really wish I had kept a copy of it. I remember that I was for the teaching of the book in schools because of its historical setting. I remember using words like “consistently” and “derogatory” as I was explaining my position. When she handed my paper back to me she gave me the smallest wink, as she was not known to show any emotion whatsoever and I never felt more proud of myself.
Unfortunately, I could not consider her as literary sponsor as this is the only significant interaction I remember from receiving from her. The attention and nurturing I received in fifth grade did not follow me to the other grades. I can barely recall any conversations, praises or admonitions, except this one, from any of my other educators that followed Mr. Ratner. What I do know is that everything I learned about writing I learned in fifth grade. In the book entitled Literacy For All Students page 133 reads “Culturally responsive teachers build on what students know to help them make connections to new concepts” (133). This is where Mr. Ratner thrived. He became immersed in our culture, what we were watching, what we were listening to and incorporated it into our learning. I imagine he thought, how do you allow a child to have a voice when they are not used to having one? Write letters. How do you introduce a culture the majority of the students are unfamiliar with? Take them to an area that is rich in that culture. I am not sure whether in 1976-1977 this would be considered radical teaching but I do know if my subsequent teachers were as attentive to our needs as students as he was, I would have included them as my literary sponsors as well.
Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. Literacy and Learning: Reflections on Writing, Reading and Society. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.
Freeman, David E., and Yvonne S. Freeman. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004.
Powell, Rebecca and Elizabeth C. Rightmyer, ed. Literacy For All Students: An Instructional Framework for Closing the Gap. New York: Routlegde, 2011.
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Helped Shaped My Literacy Learning
As I was reading Other People’s Words by Victoria Purcell-Gates I read a line about researchers who focus on emergent literacy that caused me to re-think my early literacy events. She writes “…all children growing up in a literate society learn many important concepts about written language before they begin school” (42). For me that meant if researchers believed “unequivocally” that children learn about literacy before they entered the classroom then I had to re-examine what I remembered about my relationship with literacy before beginning my formal education.
During family gatherings I am often reminded that I was the only one of my four brothers and sisters who did not read before kindergarten. No reason was ever given why I did not learn to read but Purcell-Gates’ book made me recognize that my emergent literacy did begin with my mother and not in a classroom as I had thought. I had to quell the thought that because I did not learn to read before beginning school my mother was not instrumental in my learning.
In the morning my mother would read the Daily News at the dining room table with her cup of coffee. On Sundays she would give me the colorful part of the paper and I would pretend to read it. This continued until I could actually read the funnies myself. As my reading and spelling developed Mom would challenge me to do the kids version of the jumble in the newspaper. The jumble is a word puzzle where the reader is given 4 or 5 words to unscramble. Each word has a circled letter that when put together, it spells out the solution to the accompanying cartoon riddle. If I could not solve the last answer to the puzzle, my mother would give me a word that rhymed with the word I was seeking. That never failed in helping me find the answer. When the kids jumble became too easy for me I graduated to the daily jumble. These words were longer and much more difficult to figure out. My mother and I would sometimes do the puzzle together or she would solve half the words and I would solve the other half. Afterwards we’d figure out the solution together. It is only after reading Other People’s Words do I understand how this seemingly benign activity led to me being interactive with words. Unlike little Donny in Purcell-Gates’ case study, print entered my life at an early age and watching my mother engrossed in the paper did code my world (133). I mirrored her when I pretended to read the paper even though I did not know the importance of the act. All I knew was that what Mom was reading would sometime cause her to verbally respond. I heard “ain’t that the truth” or “what is this world coming to” or watched the simple shaking of her head as she read and so I imitated them too. Cultural magazines such as Ebony and Jet were a constant in my home as well. Initially, I didn’t pretend to read those texts as I did with the newspaper because I was more captivated by the photography in the magazines. As I grew older and began to comprehend the articles, some words were not as easy to understand. Instead of telling me what these words meant my mother would make me look them up in the dictionary. She said “look it up” so often I eventually stopped asking. It is only in retrospect that I see her directive was purposeful. I am sure I did not always look up the words in question as retrieving the heavy dictionary from the bookshelf and bringing it to the dining room table was work but if I could not detect the meaning from the sentence or the entire article then I would have to look up the word just to satisfy my curiosity.
Ebony, Jet and the Daily News were the constant forms of print in my home. These texts were so imbedded in my life I initially did not recognize them as having any significance to my learning. I mistakenly thought of literacy as the point where one has learned to read. Anything leading up to the point of actual reading for meaning did not enter my frame of thought as contributing factor to my emergent literacy. It is with this knowledge that I can now see that my mother was my first literary sponsor.
In determining which of my educators I would consider as my co-literary sponsor, I had to really go back and recognize any significant contribution they have made in furthering my learning. I don’t remember learning to read as much as I remember having to practice my letters. Although my fourth grade teacher encouraged me to write, the distinction of literacy sponsor would go to my fifth grade teacher, Jeffery Ratner, who is now a retired principal living on Long Island, New York.
Our elementary school had 4 or 5 classes per grade except pre-K and kindergarten. It is with no exaggeration that every child knew who Mr. Ratner was and that every child wanted him for their own. I wanted to be in his class just because they performed the best plays and went to Chinatown every year. Despite the fact that he had the reputation of being mean and hard on his students those who got in were deemed privileged amongst their peers and those that didn’t wished they had.
What was special about this educator was that he refused to treat a group of ten year olds like babies. Where we were getting milk before, with him we were getting a full meal. On the first day of class he said he would always be up front with us no matter what was going on in and around our school. This was during a time when staff changes were being made and teachers who were staples in the schools were leaving or being re-assigned to other grades. If anything happened, we heard it from him first. It is then I understood why it always seemed his students appeared much older and walked a little taller than the others.
Writing poems came easily to me in first and second grade as I always rhymed words by creating new “Roses are Red” poems for publication in the school newspaper. I am sure this had a lot to do with my mother giving me words that rhymed with the jumble answer I was looking to solve. By the time I was in fourth grade, I was writing 1-2 page short stories starring the members of my class. No one knew who I would write about next, and neither did I for that matter. However, when I reached Mr. Ratner’s class, I was in for a rude awakening. Looking back now, my writing was very… elementary. I used simple words to tell simple stories and Mr. Ratner was not a simple teacher. His first task was to have us pay attention to the boundaries of the paper. My refusal to adhere to the invisible margin on the right side of the loose leaf paper left me having to reproduce work over until all my writing was neatly place between the two red goal posts. I didn’t understand his obsession of these two poles but complied with grumbling as did the rest of the class. Little did I realize this practice not only taught me to pay attention to basic instructions but it facilitated in me learning how to break up multisyllabic words at the syllable instead of breaking them where I wanted. I knew what syllables were but I did not understand the rules until forced to pay attention to what I thought was a meaningless rule by a strict task master.
Because literacy involves being competent in reading, writing and interpreting texts, I chose my fifth grade teacher mainly because his choice of vocabulary words enriched my writing. Long gone were the 2 – 3 syllable words I received in previous classes. Now I was being introduced to words that were not part of my oral vocabulary words such as, “temerity,” “consequences” and my favorite word, “idiosyncrasy.” It was exciting, for me at least, to see on Monday what words he would test us on by Friday. Mr. Ratner made sure the class used the words during the week and in the readings he assigned for homework. It was not easy for me at first because I did not know how to study. I had no older brother or sister that could teach me how. As a learner I did not always understand what I was supposed to do to retain the information. How do I study? I wouldn’t raise my hands to ask questions. In short, I did not want to appear stupid so I did not understand the value of asking questions. In addition I was comfortable in my old habits of double negative usage and dangling participles in my speaking and writing. Why wasn’t it good enough for him when all my previous educators applauded and praised my efforts? I felt he was picking on me but subconsciously knew he was expecting the same from all of us.
On the back of our report card there was a space provided where teachers would write their comments on our progress. I still remember his neat handwriting on my report card. I was acutely aware that his black fountain pen with the balled, metal tip would make his E’s look like the number 3 every time. On one report he wrote something similar to “Nayanda’s improving nicely but she would do better if she learned to use the dictionary more.” Until this day, I attribute my love for the dictionary to Mr. Ratner. He pointed out how using the dictionary is more than just looking for the unfamiliar as he showed me the pronunciation key, the notation for parts of speech and the related words. The introduction of antonyms and homonyms further increased my writing as now I was able to call upon words that earlier weren’t available to me. Needless to say, the love affair caused me to refer to the dictionary frequently when reading books and the newspaper for current event articles as he had instructed.
In our elementary school library I was introduced to books that did not have large printed words or pictures of literary scenes every few pages. I needed the dictionary to navigate through new words brought to me by new texts. I became familiar with Judy Blume and other young adult writers in fiction as well as the poetry of Langston Hughes and Phyllis Wheatly. It is in fifth grade I came to fully comprehend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as we prepared for a play celebrating his birth. What did it mean to me in the bicentennial year of 1976 when the country was celebrating its independence from Britain while the black community was still missing its first national leader? I was not used to thinking that deeply. Not only did we read varied texts but the goal was to understand what we read. Mr. Ratner opened the door to what was possible for me as a learner in a culturally mixed neighborhood in Long Island City, Queens. I would say our classroom had a slightly larger African-American population but that was not indicative of all the classrooms in the school. My elementary school was pretty mixed as many of my friends were of different ethnic backgrounds.
Whereas before I was a rhyming fanatic, I had now become more engrossed in why a text was written and wanted to discover the purpose for which it was written. I was no longer afraid to ask questions because I understood those answers brought me additional clarity. My reading took a path of its own I didn’t foresee. My short story writing ceased as I compared my writing with what I was reading. I knew the days of cute little stories were over as poetry, especially Haikus, became a dominant part of my personal writing.
At 10 years old I learned to be responsible for my own knowledge. Instead of having books being recommended for me, I was now exploring the possibilities myself. What was provided was a foundation, a blueprint, if you will of what I could know. From that moment on, I knew my education was up to me.
Analysis
Unfortunately, I don’t remember our first writing assignment but what I do remember is that no one in my class adhered to the margin rules. Mr. Ratner called us up one by one to retrieve our papers from his desk questioning us in different ways about the margin on the right hand side of the paper. Sure the margin was, in fact, on the reverse side of the paper but it wasn’t invisible to the eye. That was the point. Mr. Ratner forced us to see what we refused to see, notice what we weren’t supposed to notice.
We wrote letters to the Daily News and New York Post when we were particularly interested in something. I remember the excitement of a classmate as he received a response from Jimmy Breslin. That only encouraged us more. We wrote letters to the networks about our favorite shows and even wrote to our favorite news anchors. Mr. Ratner taught us the difference between informal and formal writing and why we use one to write business letters and the other for pen pal letters. One of the writing forms that stand out the most is our “thank you” letter to the restaurant where we had lunch on our trip to Chinatown. We had to be very specific in this letter so the owner would know who we were. Therefore we had to put the date and time of our visit, what dish we were served and the name of our waiter, if we remembered. We also had to add something specific about the visit such as the fish tank in the corner or the décor on the walls. We were encouraged to write what we liked and didn’t like about our visit and after we wrote two or three drafts, they were sent out the following week. The payoff came when we received a letter back from the restaurant written by the daughter of the owner who did not speak English. The practice of letter writing showed us that we could engage with adults on a level totally unfamiliar to most of us. We could even get a response with purposeful, well thought out words.
I believe Mr. Ratner knew that most of us came from homes where parents were not college graduates, much less high school graduates. I can only believe he wanted to show us how what we thought and what we said meant something. I would say our classroom had a slightly larger African-American population but that was not indicative of all the classrooms in my elementary school. Most of the African-American children during my era grew up learning to be seen and not heard. What this meant was that at home or even in public places, in the company of adults, we were to remain quiet. Children were not allowed to talk back, ask questions or interrupt adults in conversation without saying “excuse me.” If the “excuse me” was not acknowledged we retreated until an opportunity presented itself where the adult we needed was not busy. This practice was also useful in making sure as children we did not say too much at a time that was inappropriate.
In this teacher we found a place where this practice was not the case. Perhaps that was why our vocabulary words were not the typical fifth grade fare. I do not believe a majority of today’s 10 year olds would know the meaning of temerity or idiosyncrasy. But because he taught on a different level than I was used to my dictionary was my new best friend and I was constantly being teased by my siblings who tried to hide it whenever they could. It is from my reading for this class I understand these lists of vocabulary words along with the weekly list of spelling words are part of the world recognition view of reading. But as ideas about how children learn were beginning to change in the 70’s to a more cognitive view (Freeman 2), I think Mr. Ratner sought to bring some of the community into the classroom. I do not recall specific images hanging on the classroom walls but I do know his particular taste in music mirrored some of our own and when there was down time he would play the music of Natalie Cole or The Temptations on a small record player he kept in the classroom.
We had a number of Asian-American students in our classroom and throughout school so our trip to Chinatown allowed us a glimpse into this culture. After the trip the Asian students would answer questions about what the red tassels hanging in the restaurant represented, why was it customary to bow as opposed to shaking hands or how did they learn to use chopsticks.
He expanded my view of what community was by asking us to search for articles to share with the class. None of us were allowed to bring in cartoons or crime related stories. We had to write briefly what the article was about. This was the time of year where Gerald Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the presidential election, NASA had a new space shuttle name Enterprise (which pleased the Star Trek fans) and celebration of America’s 200 years of independence from Britain was the talk of the year. Fidel Castro was now the president of Cuba and I had no idea who he was or where Cuba was located. Having to seek out a new article to share each week was interesting. This is where I first learned to think critically, although I didn’t know that is what I was doing. Basic questions that would come up for me is why is this news? Who is the audience that this article addresses? How do you feel, what is your response? Because I had to discuss the article in detail picking one became personal as it allowed me to verbally express and write what I knew and understood about the news clippings.
In fifth grade I was challenged to write things purposely, to have an intention. I was challenged to keep in mind who I was writing to and the reason for my letter. If I was writing a story or poem, what was its purpose to me and to the audience? For a while I stopped writing creatively because I felt what I had to say was not important enough. I no longer wrote to entertain my classmates as I felt a somewhat bigger responsibility. I knew words were important. My mother thought so every morning she sat with her paper and her coffee. They made her speak out loud to no one in particular. Words had power to elicit responses and the proof was there in my class where students were receiving letters from complete strangers. Not everyone received an autographed picture or an acknowledgement letter. We learned not to always depend on one. However, the lesson learned in writing letters to various individuals or entities was to effectively voice an opinion, concern or problem in hopes of having it addressed, if not responded to, in some form. This practice gave us a voice with adults we might not have ever had outside the classroom. We were free to express ourselves without fear of being shushed or ignored. Perhaps that is why I recall this particular classroom activity so vividly. I could say what I felt and thought without being interrupted or dismissed. Today, I still believe in the power of an effective letter.
As I came to know Mr. Ratner and see his passion for his students I was drawn to him for everything. I truly did not want to disappoint this man. I wanted everything I put in front of him to be the best work I could give. It was no longer about making my classmates smile but having a paper returned that said “good work” or “nice job” or “good use of vocabulary” that would make my day. He gave us easy access to him as we not only had him in class but we could get his home number only if we looked it up in the phone book. I was one of the few that did and I was able to maintain a relationship with him over the years.
I believe he had inklings of the drama that was going on in the lives of his students. But because family issues were kept in the family, no one dared talked about the abuse, hunger or unsafe living conditions that they were experiencing. Only after his students of 1976-1977 were adults with their own children did we realize we had some of the same problems happening in our homes. This was a time in society where teachers did not ask a student about anything in their life outside of the classroom. I think if Mr. Ratner were to ask me back then if my father had a drinking problem, I would have denied it. Family business was not to be shared with school adults and I am sure Mr. Ratner understood that part of our culture very well. The consequences for me saying anything negative about my home life would have been detrimental to my posterior. I believe this is why he created a learning environment that we all could feel safe in, where we could be seen and heard. Even today when his birthday comes around he will receive messages on Facebook from former students proclaiming how influential he was in their lives. He served as a surrogate father figure for some and he refused to let them fall by the wayside. He encouraged what we knew and asked us why we didn’t know. He saw our potential and showed it back to us as often as he could.
Because of both my early literacy sponsors I learned to write purposeful letters, read books that were foreign to me, pronounce words properly and find the meanings of any word I did not know. I learned to substitute words, read the first chapter of a book before making a judgment and look beyond the funnies for the news within my community. My mother and I enjoy playing Scrabble together and have included the children to participate in the game as well thereby helping them to explore and/or add to their oral vocabulary.
I would love to say everything was smooth sailing after that but not so. I became spoiled with him as a teacher. It was a number of years before I met someone else that was as passionate and engaging with students as he was. Unfortunately, that wasn’t until college. But his influence still came across in my scholastic writing. For example, in my 12th grade English honors class, we were told to write a paper on why Huckleberry Finn should or should not be taught in schools. We had to present an argument and use “12th grade vocabulary” to explain our position. My high school was located in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan, predominately Latin and African-American students with an average population of students whose grades were considered good.
When Mrs. Spilotro finished returning the essays, I realized mine was not given back. Fear gripped me because I thought it was misplaced or she didn’t like my handwriting (she’d do that on occasion) and I had to write it over. She announced to the class that of all the papers she received this was the one that followed her directions and was fully thought out and a pleasure to read. Mrs. Spilotro read my paper to the class and I could not close my mouth. I really wish I had kept a copy of it. I remember that I was for the teaching of the book in schools because of its historical setting. I remember using words like “consistently” and “derogatory” as I was explaining my position. When she handed my paper back to me she gave me the smallest wink, as she was not known to show any emotion whatsoever and I never felt more proud of myself.
Unfortunately, I could not consider her as literary sponsor as this is the only significant interaction I remember from receiving from her. The attention and nurturing I received in fifth grade did not follow me to the other grades. I can barely recall any conversations, praises or admonitions, except this one, from any of my other educators that followed Mr. Ratner. What I do know is that everything I learned about writing I learned in fifth grade. In the book entitled Literacy For All Students page 133 reads “Culturally responsive teachers build on what students know to help them make connections to new concepts” (133). This is where Mr. Ratner thrived. He became immersed in our culture, what we were watching, what we were listening to and incorporated it into our learning. I imagine he thought, how do you allow a child to have a voice when they are not used to having one? Write letters. How do you introduce a culture the majority of the students are unfamiliar with? Take them to an area that is rich in that culture. I am not sure whether in 1976-1977 this would be considered radical teaching but I do know if my subsequent teachers were as attentive to our needs as students as he was, I would have included them as my literary sponsors as well.
Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. Literacy and Learning: Reflections on Writing, Reading and Society. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.
Freeman, David E., and Yvonne S. Freeman. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004.
Powell, Rebecca and Elizabeth C. Rightmyer, ed. Literacy For All Students: An Instructional Framework for Closing the Gap. New York: Routlegde, 2011.
Purcell-Gates, Victoria. Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
The Printed Word (Essay #1)
To say reading and writing in early European history was elitist is not a stretch. Monarchs and clergy were those entrusted with books and the reading thereof. Using scribes at their behest was the norm and dictating what they wanted was not uncommon. The artifacts seen in at the Columbia University library supports this line of thought. The mass printing of texts should have increase print production thereby boosting readership. However it took some time for this new technology to make a significant mark.
Upon observing the display of written material at Columbia University one is struck by two things. First, the age and history attached to these items can be seen in the types of medium used to write. The tablet almost leads one to believe that this piece may have been from biblical times. This grave stone written in Latin in Rome around 1st or 2 AD still survives because the letters were hand chiseled. The worn surface is noticeable but the impressions of the letters albeit faded are still noticeable.
The scrap of the book The Odyssey written on papyrus was small but a significant piece of history as it dated back to 2nd or 3rd BC. It was interesting to learn that this piece of literature was once on a scroll that opened vertically instead of horizontally and used vegetable matter. In addition papyrus was
only written on one side of the medium and not on both sides as we currently write on paper today.
The second thing one notices about the Columbia University tour is the detail in the writing samples that were shown. Scriptura continua, the process of writing without spaces, was used in many of samples provided. No punctuation was could be detected to separate words and no pages numbers were used to distinguish one page from the next. Colors of red and blue were used as separators to indicate new paragraphs or new ideas. The more colors used on a page was indicative of the person for whom the text was written. Scribes were initially used to write at the request of the monarch or clergy where a number of colors were found on the writing samples provided. Writings of a biblical nature were found to be elaborate with color. One knew that the average citizen could not afford and therefore would not be in possession of this kind of material. However, in the 13th century, according to our Columbia University guide, Consuelo Dutschke, the use of multiple colors diminished in the 13th century when writing became more commercial.
One of the things I found fascinating is how mistakes were handled in early writing. If one was writing on parchment and an error was made a knife was used to scrape the parchment which wore the medium thin if done too hard. If paper were used, it was crossed out or in the more elaborate text filled with gold and silver, three dots were put under the mistake as a cue to the
reader to skip over it. This most held my interest because someone had to design this process by which everyone who read during that time knew what those dots meant. There were no written rules in which this was stated at the beginning of each text. Somehow the reader was conditioned to ignore the mistake just as we know to pause when we see a comma or period.
As writing progressed and scribes and the patronage of writers were not used as often, the idea of authorship became prevalent with the invention of the printing press. It can be said that the printing press leveled the playing field when it came to reading in a way that the task of writing 2 or 3 pages by hand could not. “…The author’s copyright was legalized and censorship was nearly abolished; enormous numbers of literary works...were printed and made available to readers…” (p. 49). Writing and reading were not only for the cultured as printing began to change the social life of at every level. (p. 48). It seems with the invention of the printing press it allowed more works to be distributed and therefore making books more available to the public. And one can assume with more books available readership also increased as well.
It is difficult to believe, according to Alvin Kernan’s book, Samuel Jackson & The Impact of Print, that the printing of books did not increase with the advent of the printing press. In fact, he relays that there was a drop in printing in the eighteenth century even when using the most conservative of numbers on the information available at that time. These numbers measured
the amount of titles printed instead of the number of books printed and therefore maybe mis-leading. However, by the 1800’s the increase in book production could not be denied (p. 60-61). Although there were trials and tribulations with this new technology the business of printing was here to stay and booksellers, publishers and those associated with the production of books all found ways to make publishing into a lucrative business for themselves. Although books were pricy more people had access to them than the hand-made material produced earlier.
Works Cited
Kernan, Alvin. Samuel Johnson & The Impact of Print. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1987/1989.
Upon observing the display of written material at Columbia University one is struck by two things. First, the age and history attached to these items can be seen in the types of medium used to write. The tablet almost leads one to believe that this piece may have been from biblical times. This grave stone written in Latin in Rome around 1st or 2 AD still survives because the letters were hand chiseled. The worn surface is noticeable but the impressions of the letters albeit faded are still noticeable.
The scrap of the book The Odyssey written on papyrus was small but a significant piece of history as it dated back to 2nd or 3rd BC. It was interesting to learn that this piece of literature was once on a scroll that opened vertically instead of horizontally and used vegetable matter. In addition papyrus was
only written on one side of the medium and not on both sides as we currently write on paper today.
The second thing one notices about the Columbia University tour is the detail in the writing samples that were shown. Scriptura continua, the process of writing without spaces, was used in many of samples provided. No punctuation was could be detected to separate words and no pages numbers were used to distinguish one page from the next. Colors of red and blue were used as separators to indicate new paragraphs or new ideas. The more colors used on a page was indicative of the person for whom the text was written. Scribes were initially used to write at the request of the monarch or clergy where a number of colors were found on the writing samples provided. Writings of a biblical nature were found to be elaborate with color. One knew that the average citizen could not afford and therefore would not be in possession of this kind of material. However, in the 13th century, according to our Columbia University guide, Consuelo Dutschke, the use of multiple colors diminished in the 13th century when writing became more commercial.
One of the things I found fascinating is how mistakes were handled in early writing. If one was writing on parchment and an error was made a knife was used to scrape the parchment which wore the medium thin if done too hard. If paper were used, it was crossed out or in the more elaborate text filled with gold and silver, three dots were put under the mistake as a cue to the
reader to skip over it. This most held my interest because someone had to design this process by which everyone who read during that time knew what those dots meant. There were no written rules in which this was stated at the beginning of each text. Somehow the reader was conditioned to ignore the mistake just as we know to pause when we see a comma or period.
As writing progressed and scribes and the patronage of writers were not used as often, the idea of authorship became prevalent with the invention of the printing press. It can be said that the printing press leveled the playing field when it came to reading in a way that the task of writing 2 or 3 pages by hand could not. “…The author’s copyright was legalized and censorship was nearly abolished; enormous numbers of literary works...were printed and made available to readers…” (p. 49). Writing and reading were not only for the cultured as printing began to change the social life of at every level. (p. 48). It seems with the invention of the printing press it allowed more works to be distributed and therefore making books more available to the public. And one can assume with more books available readership also increased as well.
It is difficult to believe, according to Alvin Kernan’s book, Samuel Jackson & The Impact of Print, that the printing of books did not increase with the advent of the printing press. In fact, he relays that there was a drop in printing in the eighteenth century even when using the most conservative of numbers on the information available at that time. These numbers measured
the amount of titles printed instead of the number of books printed and therefore maybe mis-leading. However, by the 1800’s the increase in book production could not be denied (p. 60-61). Although there were trials and tribulations with this new technology the business of printing was here to stay and booksellers, publishers and those associated with the production of books all found ways to make publishing into a lucrative business for themselves. Although books were pricy more people had access to them than the hand-made material produced earlier.
Works Cited
Kernan, Alvin. Samuel Johnson & The Impact of Print. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1987/1989.
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