Work in Progress: Building Bridges with Families and Community Members Through Reading and WritingMelinda S. Butler

Humble ISD, Sam Houston State University

Mother Teresa:

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love.“

Retrieved from: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=59322

Now. Here. This.:

“The Golden Palace”

Please share your thinking with a partner…

Reading Makes Me Powerful Because: My name is Mindy Butler and reading makes me powerful because it opens up worlds and ideas and opportunities and challenges I never dreamed of. And, there are so many different ways to read; we read and write every day, all day long, and we don't even think about it. We have the incredible ability to read, think, write, speak, and react. We can change the world with our literacy "super" powers!!

A story…..

An idea gets started……

January, 2011, I attended my first TCTELA conference at Moody Gardens in Galveston. I listened to Jim Cummins’ keynote address on students’ created/negotiated identities.

Cummins, J. (2011). Presentation at the Texas Council of Teachers of English (TCTELA), Galveston Texas, on January 21, 2011.

Jim Cummins (NABE 2012 Presentation)

“As soon as a visitor walks in the door of the school, she/he should be able to see the extent to which this is a school that believes in the importance of identity affirmation.”

Retrieved from: http://www.annex.mville.edu/images/stories/Graduate_Academics_Education/ChangingSuburbs/Clearinghouse/Cummins_NABE_keynote_2012.pdf

And I wondered….

Does a person walking in the door on our campus see our commitment to every students’ culture?

That began a journey that continues today…

What does it take to become a successful reader?

Reading engagement

Identify affirmation

(Cummins, 2012)

Value Students’ Experiences

As teachers, we will not be successful teaching marginalized students if we refuse to fact the fact that we are not contributing to students’ positive identity building. We have to value students’ experiences and students need to know that we do value them (Cummins, 2001, Gee, 2000).

“Coercive Relations of Power” “Power Over”

Marginalized groups may be treated differently by teachers and community (e.g., low expectations for second-language learners, students of color, students from poverty).

Subtractive (tears down identity)

Cummins, 2001

“Collaborative Relations of Power” “Power With”

“…participants in the relationship are empowered through their collaboration such that each is more affirmed in his or her identity and has a greater sense of efficacy to create change in his or her life or social situation. Thus, power is created in the relationship and shared among participants” (p. 16).

Builds up positive identity (Additive)

Cummins, 2001

An idea gets started……

Students who think of themselves as “less than” others, who don’t see their culture valued in school, will probably not be successful readers, and successful future citizens. I realized that the campus where I serve has many such students.

Cummins, J. (2011). Presentation at the Texas Council of Teachers of English (TCTELA), Galveston Texas, on January 21, 2011.

For successful, insightful reading to occur:

• “Metacognition

• Text competence

• Positive attitude about reading”

Wiggins, G. (2014). Figuring out Figure 19, Lead4ward Presentation at Humble ISD on December 20, 2014.

Students must ….”Develop reading identities”

“I am not reading; I am a reader.”

“I am not writing; I am a writer.”

Morrell, E. (2015). Presentation at the 2015 Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts Conference, Houston, Texas, on January 23, 2015.

Fixed and Dynamic Performance Self-Theories

Dweck & Leggett, 1988, Johnston, 2012

“Reading Makes Me Powerful Because…..” Jim Cummins (NABE 2012 Presentation)

Cummins introduced “identity texts” and pointed out that they…

“……hold a mirror up to the student in which his or her identity is reflected back in a positive light” (Jim Cummins (NABE 2012 Presentation).

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1yMfuJ6

Cummins (2011) shared a few examples. Here is one:

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1yMfuJ6

A little bit of action research on our campus (February 2011):

During tutoring with 5th grade struggling readers, I asked them to write in their journals: How does reading make you powerful? The students were engaged, and they wrote with passion.

A little bit of action research on our campus (Feb., 2011):

During a Professional Learning Community (PLC) meeting with 3rd grade teachers, I shared the 5th grade students’ writing. One of the teachers asked her class to write how reading made them powerful. The students wrote, and the teacher posted their writing in the grade-level hallway.

A little bit of action research on our campus (April 2011):

During our campus Literacy night, “El día de los libros/The Day of the Book” we asked parents and children to write together, in Spanish or English, about how reading made them powerful. We took pictures of families and posted them around the campus.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

We sent home “Reading Makes Me Powerful/La lectura nos da poder porque” templates as homework so that families could write together. Some families sent in their “homework” in English and in Spanish.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

At our biannual literacy nights, we continued the practice of writing how reading makes us powerful, to collect and post more family writing.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

At our biannual literacy nights, we continued the practice of writing how reading makes us powerful, to collect and post more family writing. We created a video of teachers, parents, and students telling how reading makes them powerful, and presented it to families during one of our literacy nights.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

We asked teachers, our superintendent, administrators, classrooms, student mentors, and community members to contribute, and they did! Pictures and writing have been combined into posters for the front lobby and the hallways in the school.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

I took the project to NCTE and participated in a poster session.

Website:http://humbleisd.net/Page/67453

We created a webpage where all the families, teachers, administrators, and

community members who have contributed writing have been posted.

A little bit of action research on our campus:

The TCTELA proposal was accepted, and now we’re sharing with you.

Reading makes us powerful because…it gives the ability to think outside the box, and to boldly go where no one has the guts to go! It also gives us the strength and courage to step out and take risks and become and do everything we want to do.

Reading makes me powerful because as a child growing up in the late fifties our biggest highlight was when the Bookmobile came to our neighborhood and we were able to check out (3) books for a two week period. During this time I was able to find a quiet spot in our backyard where I immersed myself in the book and visualized all the characters, settings, and problems in the book. This was a time, just for me, and gave me a look at someone else’s life, outside of my little world. I felt powerful and learned to love to read!!

Reading Makes Me Powerful Because it broadens my imagination. Takes us on new journeys. Improves

vocabulary and spelling. Get to learn a lot of new things, adventures, and characters. Also get to know

more authors.

La lectura nos da poder porque la lectura nos hace más inteligentes y nos llevan a diferentes lugares que nunca hemos ido y nos hace mejorar nuestra escritura.

“Reading Makes Me Powerful because I always learn something new and I'm able to see and go places I've never been before! Reading as much as I can makes a great difference for me!”

Community Volunteer Mentor:

“Reading makes me powerful because I read with _____. _____loves his books because I help him with the words he does not yet know. He grabs a book each time we go through the library. We go over vocabulary words each time and this is helping him to sound out the words. He is getting better and his confidence is growing.”

Community Volunteer Reader:

“Reading makes me powerful because I have loved to read since I was a little girl. The library was our window to the world. We did not have computers but we had vivid imaginations. Through reading we were able to be anything or anyone we wanted to be. Reading can take you to exotic places or let you be a rocket scientist. Books are one of our most precious possessions and I hope they will continue to be so in the future. This is the reason I read to the children. I hope they will continue to love books as I do.”

Community Volunteer Reader:

“Reading makes me powerful because it gives me the opportunity to gain knowledge, to explore unknown worlds, to experience wonderful adventures, and to pass this knowledge on to the next generation. Reading also makes me powerful in that it enhances my self esteem and gives me a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.”

Community Volunteer Reader:

“I can learn anything I want to learn, I can find out what is going on in the world, I can read stories about faraway places and people, I can read funny stories and exciting books, I can read signs to know where I am going and that makes me able to take care of myself!”

Please take a few minutes and write your own “Reading Makes Me Powerful” identity text (Cummins 2001)

Turn and talk. How are you using/might you use the idea of identity texts on your campus/with teachers, families,

and community members ?

Thanks!!!!

References

Cummins, J. (2012). Presentation at the National Association of Bilingual Educators (NABE), Dallas, Texas, February 15-17, 2012. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1yMfuJ6

Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd Ed.).Covina, California: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Cummins, J. (2011). Presentation at the Texas Council of Teachers of English (TCTELA), Galveston Texas, on January 21, 2011.

Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review 95(2), 256-273. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256

.

References

Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, 99-125.

Johnston, P. H., 2012. Opening minds: Using language to change lives. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Morrell, E. (2015). Presentation at the 2015 Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (TCTELA)Conference, Houston, Texas, on January 23, 2015.

Wiggins, G. (2014). Figuring out Figure 19, Lead4ward Presentation at Humble ISD on December 20, 2014.