Response 4: Looking at timeless things with fresh eyes and possibility

Response 4: Looking at timeless things with fresh eyes and possibility

Module 5: Teaching With and Through Literature

I thought about the questions posed by Armstrong (2011) in the module introduction when I completed my response. She asked  “Why should we teach literature in its traditional sense of lengthy novels when text messages and online conversations seem so much more popular?  How can we foster a love of reading when we ourselves are often too busy to take the time to read?” I immediately thought "student centered inquiry based learning" and how literature circles would be a good fit for teaching many elements of literature and letting children choose topics to read about while embedding elements of technology into the procedure. 

I chose to focus on responding to the webcast about literature circles and I was so impressed with the level of detail the teacher provided that I immediately sent out the link to our student teachers. We have 4 student teachers and I host a training session for them once a week. Last week I focused on the performance standards and this week I am going to show them the link to this webcast and pull some literature selections related to their curriculum topics.  

 I thought the Literature Circle webcast was great for many reasons. It was a blend of instructional suggestions and student examples.  I enjoyed watching the students discuss their literature roles and saw the questioner, literary luminaire and researcher role cards all clipped together on the ring (what a great idea!). Having facilitated literature circles fairly regularly with the grade 7’s for many years I know the classroom management is a big component, if not the biggest. I knew what to look for when I was watching the presentation, students need their roles defined and require modelling of what a good reader response sounds like. The teacher described how she participated in each literature group to model to the other students what good responses look and sound like which is a fantastic way of modelling to the webcast viewers how to manage group behavior. Literature circles are very motivating however I did not hear anything about supporting students reading level abilities. The teacher mentions Harvey Daniel’s book Voice and Choice in the Classroom as something that guided her thinking and planning- it is an excellent resource. The resource emphasizes how in literature circles students develop accountability and connect their learning to prior learning and extend their learning. The teacher modelled her planning from that book and then added the media element. I thought the student interviews were unique, students were talking about how empowering “choice was”- procedures, roles and social procedures in the group. To see the metacognition happening in the webcast was great. 

Another part of the webcast I found informative was how she shared a collaboratively developed classroom definition of critical literacy, which was clearly student developed and very comprehensive: texts are not neutral and students stated they must consider the multiple messages in text and look for bias. Students shared their feelings about literature circles, which were quite thoughtful. They enjoyed choice, the camaraderie and discussion associated with the text. The power of videotape is a component I have not explored in my teaching. Students enjoy seeing their discussion and are able to edit their video to share with the class at a later date. It seems like an important assessment tool and supports students with their listening skills. The excitement of using technology to create a piece of media was evident.  Students become creators of media and they are able to reflect further on their involvement in literature circles. The technology seems very reliable in this school and it looks like she is in a library. That is one of my main battles; we do not have the proper technology (or reliable technology) to have students doing this regularly in our school.  It was interesting watching the self-assessment through media construction. Students were actively engaged in their learning and working together. Students are doing self-assessment on their learning style and purpose/intended audience.

In conclusion, this webcast has added another layer of inquiry to my own literacy instruction. How can I involve technology in what I am already doing and work with the realistic resources I have in the school? Blogging is one way I see this working. Students creating a blog and all posting their roles and then discussing it and creating a small vignette.  I hope that we can purchase a set of ipads or something like an ipad where we can use video "real time" and students can have instant feedback. 

References

Curriculum Services Canada. (2010). Literature circles webcast for educators. Retrieved Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/circles/index.shtml