Response 8: Part 1- Wordless Picture Books, Part 2- The Power of Community and Rubrics

Response 8: Part 1- Wordless Picture Books and Second Language Learners
Module 9: Diverse Cultures

I chose the article, “Reading between the Pictures” Immigrant Students’ Interpretations of The Arrival written by Martinez-Roldan and Newcomber (2011) article because I struggle with how to support second language learners as an English speaker.


The Arrival is a wordless picture book written by Shaun Tan, also author of several other wordless picture books. The following link is to a book summary and personal note where he speaks of writing books which share a belonging theme. Click on the link, it's a wonderful way to familiarize yourself with the book if you have not read it.
http://www.shauntan.net/books/the-arrival.html

I thought this article was a good fit for my school district. “Burnaby schools reflect the increasingly global nature of the Burnaby community, with more than 4,000 students enrolled in English Language Learning programs. A recent survey of languages spoken in Burnaby homes identified more than 85 languages other than English were spoken in the homes of Burnaby students. Such diversity has brought rich cultural benefits to Burnaby's communities and schools.” (http://sd41.bc.ca/about/)

The high numbers of second language learners in our schools create a wonderful opportunity to explore multimodal resources and varied approaches to supporting English language development and literacy-based comprehension.  This study was created to assess the comprehension level of immigrant students who could not communicate in English. It intrigued me as they presented two students (Ryan and Almah) interpretations and responses to the wordless story as both hypotheses and predictions throughout the literature circle discussions.

Originally I was introduced to the text, The Arrival by Shaun Tan in a children’s literature class. We were involved in a literature circle and we discussed our interpretations of the graphic novel online but never actually knew the true storyline. I see tremendous potential for the book, and I have intuitively used with intermediate second language learners, but I have not used it with a whole class yet.

Although I enjoyed reading this article and I found many strategies very helpful, the reality of the study is that it is just not applicable in the current school system. We do not have interpretative services  at the school level therefore it is very difficult to see a child’s comprehension if they cannot communicate it in English or in pictures. I could relate to Ryan’s teacher’s concerns.  As a classroom teacher I struggled with knowing how to support second language learners engage in the curriculum. As a teacher librarian I want second language learners to enjoy reading and to be able to access and evaluate information.

I think volunteers that speak various languages would be a wonderful way to bridge this book with students who do not speak English to help them give language and meaning to their experiences. It is the content and format of this book that makes it so appealing. 

From a community building perspective I love the idea of hosting a literature circle for students new to the country to speak about their experience (international students, immigrant students, refugee children) and make meaning of it through wordless picture books that tell stories of immigration and language barriers. It would be a vehicle for the students to become the experts on the topic and to share their knowledge and stories with the English speakers.

I would change the initial inquiry questions to: “Can we build community through immigrant children making meaning of wordless picture books in small literature circle discussions?” to guide my thinking and planning.   It certainly supports the research that children learn to read and write through accessing background knowledge and making personal connections.

Direct connections from the article to my practice

As I participate in this course and notice what the students (where I work) like to check out I can see the graphic novel collection has tremendous potential to engage our most vulnerable readers (reluctant and second language learners). “In order to read and interpret graphic novels students not only have to pay attention to the usual literacy elements of character, plot and dialogue, they also have to consider the visual elements such as color, shading, panel layout, perspective and even lettering styles (Schwarz (2006) as cited by Martinez-Roldan and Newcomber, 2011,p. 189).

When I am thinking about wordless picture books I can see a big difference between traditional wordless picture books that are written to promote story sequence for pre readers and postmodern texts. According to Martnez-Roldan and Newcomber (2011) postmodern texts have multiple perspectives, intertextuality of different characters and images, indeterminacy and non-linear chronology, they break traditional genre boundaries and there is not the same borders, and storylines are often blurred between fantasy and reality. This brings up other teaching opportunities such as the traditional story structure vs. the modern story structure one might find in a graphic novel.

There are 12 strategies for discussing wordless picture books presented in this article.  The following ones will be most useful for designing lessons using wordless picture books in the library.

·      Look at several books by the same author and then compare author’s style

·      Use buddy reading, group students to talk and take turns discussing the images found on interchanging pages.

·      Keep the conversation flowing and provide questions or prompts such as: What do you think about this page, what do you notice here? What is happening here? Why do you think so? Students can also create their own questions and inquiries about the text.

·      Pose inquiries that promote wondering and guessing, such as “Maybe…” and "I wonder if…”

·      Have students write notes directly on photocopied pages about their thoughts and ask the students to choose their favorite page and write their thoughts on it."

(Martinez-Roldan and Newcomber, 2011, p.192)


This is my favourite page: 

References

Martínez-Roldán, C.M. & Newcomer, S. (2011). “Reading between the Pictures”: Immigrant Students’ Interpretations of The Arrival. Language Arts, 88, 5,188-197.

www.sd41.bc.ca accessed on October 12, 2011

Part 2: The Power of Community and Rubrics


The Power of Community 
 Module 10: Barriers to literacy: several learner-centered approaches

I was a community school coordinator for 5 years and I am a strong advocate of working with families and community members as partners in attempts to create a continuum of community minded caring. Although I have completed my formal "responses" I am writing a few thoughts about this module because it has impacted my planning this year in a meaningful way.

Imagine creating an experience that brings empowerment and joy to families to share within the school context.  Imagine creating this scenario,  “Pearl was exuberant as she walked out of the classroom a short 30 minutes later. Beaming with excitement, she expressed her amazement at how the children had responded to her writing and was especially impressed with the sophistication of their questions. It was a new feeling to have her work appreciated by the audience for whom it was meant. Moreover, she was encouraged by the children’s expression of understanding about John” (Whitmore and Norton-Meier, 2008, p.456). 

I am co-planning a human library that I hope will bring as much joy to the participants as it does to the learners at our school. The human library is a project that invites real people to come and share their stories,each person is a book to be "checked out" and this process is a wonderful vehicle for sharing. To read more about this project please see: http://humanlibrary.org/  

One day I hope to work in a society where everyone agrees that  "schools must recognize and validate that each family exists in an intellectually credible history, culture, and language and that all families hold expertise that is essential for their survival in or- der for them to negotiate their position in society" (Whitmore and Norton-Meier, 2008, p. 458)

Reference

Whitmore, K. F. & Norton-Meier, L. A. (2008). Pearl and Ronda: revaluing mothers’ literate lives to imagine new relationships between homes and elementary schools. Journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 51, 6, 450-461.

Rubrics
Module 11: Assessment


"Rubrics are created for many purposes in many contexts, including classrooms, programs, institutions, and states. Instead of declaring all rubrics “good” or “bad,” we need to examine what they do, why, and in whose interests" (Turley and Gallagher, 2008, p.92). 

I thought this article was very interesting and certainly raised some good points for using and not using rubrics. I really thought the article stressed the need for authenticity of rubrics to be meaningful. In the classroom I used many forms of assessment including formative and summative. I taught lessons that were meaningful for students because I used the performance standards to assess where my students were and then planned lessons that would meet their unique learning needs. As a teacher I found them very grounding, I was able to see the provincial expectations of students in each grade and I could adapt and modify them as I needed them.  I like the idea of having the students become involved in creating the rubric. Perhaps I will use the performance standards as a starting place and add a few more columns that the students can design. 


Our district uses the B.C. Performance Standards
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/


References 

Turley, E.D. & Gallagher, C.W. (2008). On the Uses of rubrics: reframing the great rubric debate. English Journal, 97, 4, 87-51.