Thinking Globally

Many young children, that are primary-aged students, are not afforded the opportunities to learn about other cultures and societies from around the globe. Though some of the subject matter can be quite heavy at times, it can lead students toward a better understanding of their place in society and their society’s place in the world. In Literature of Social Transformation: Helping Teachers and Students Make Global Connections Ann M. Neely writes about her experience teaching pre-service elementary school teachers and how important it is to expose both the teachers and the elementary students to a global literacy curriculum. She traveled with her pre-service teachers to South Africa to deliver books and volunteer in an elementary school library. Her class was able to experience a global connection in South Africa that many teachers and students will never be able to physically make. This is where literacy comes in. Through carefully chosen books, an elementary school teacher can transport his/her students to another culture or society while learning to make connections to their own lives.

While Neely makes the connection between apartheid in South Africa and slavery in the United States, elementary educators can make an infinite amount of global connections by stocking their classroom libraries with quality international literature. Whether it is picture books or chapter books, folklore or poetry, literature is a connection to other cultures that can only lead to a better understanding of people around the globe and the societies in which they live. Some global and domestic issues may not be appropriate for primary-aged students; however, an educator that truly knows their students will be able to judge what is suitable for that particular group of children. As a future educator, I feel it is my responsibility to move students along a path that leads to responsible citizenry and compassion for others. In my opinion, there is no better way of doing this than to make the global connections through literacy that Neely describes in her article. The International Board on Books for Young People is an outstanding place to begin a search for quality international literature.

Primary-aged students are looking to make sense of the world around them and educators should assist them in expanding their worldviews with literature that provides experiences that they may never otherwise encounter. Children want to make these global connections and it is up to educators to facilitate them in anyway possible.

World Making Through Stories

Too often in the classroom stories are treated as a means to an end. They are used to teach admittedly useful literary skills, yet they are much more than just teaching tools. Humans, to make sense of the world around them, utilize stories. We create stories to help ourselves come to an understanding about people and events that are occurring in our world. In Kathy G. Short’s article Story as World Making, she describes how stories can have an impact on the literacy education of children in elementary school. Her argument is in stark contrast to the “pressure of tests and standards” that many educators face today. The importance of stories in everyday life and in the classroom can be realized when stories are examined for meaning making, life making, and world making.

Meaning making through stories is an important part of a child’s education and is a primary source of knowing. Adults and children construct meaning from everything around them and their experiences. By using stories, children begin to organize their experiences in a sequence that makes sense to them. Children often use stories of the past to frame their understanding of the present. This use of stories assists children in attaching meaning to their everyday lives.

Literature can also be viewed through the lens of life making. Stories are a primary source for children as they begin to understand the world around them and how they fit into that world. When using this lens, Short explains that a “decision about whether to read literature to support students in learning content more effectively or to experience life is not an either/or opposition.” Literature can be used for both purposes as stories transport children outside of their boundaries and reveal different ways in which they can think about themselves and the world.

World making is yet another way literature can affect a young child’s life. In the classroom and at home, children must be immersed in stories that allow them to engage in cultures from around the globe. Involvement with culturally diverse literature appeals to children’s need to imagine other ways of life and draw conclusions about their own culture. The variety of stories that are available to children at a young age will have an influence by either widening or constraining their view of the world.

Literature is so often used for other purposes that educators overlook the value of stories and how they help children come to an understanding of their place in the world. Short’s article is a reminder that stories are not only an instructional tool, but also a world-making tool for children.

The Value of Reading Assessment

Reading instruction in the classroom would be meaningless without having the proper assessment tools in place. While authentic reading assessment is necessary for all readers, it is critical for struggling readers who could easily find themselves wasting valuable time on materials that confuse them and have no real connections to building their reading process system. In Catching Readers Before They Fall Johnson and Keier describe a teaching environment that is built on ongoing and informative reading assessment. This environment  includes both informal and formal assessment tools intertwined into the literacy experience in the classroom. Educators would be left guessing about appropriate lessons for their students if they were not including assessment tools, such as anecdotal notes, benchmark assessments, or running records, into their everyday routine.

While anecdotal notes can be gathered throughout the school day and on many different occasions, running records are a more structured assessment tool and are essential to knowing your students strengths and challenges. Running records consist of a structured coding system that allows an educator to record what a student says and does while reading. Though running records may seem like a more efficient way of judging a student’s reading abilities, without incorporating informal assessment methods into the mix, gaining an holistic view of that child’s reading skills would be impossible.

Ongoing reading assessment not only plays a major role in classroom instruction, it is crucial when responding to curious and concerned parents. Many parents are concerned about their children’s reading level and can often place blame on an educator when their child is struggling. Ongoing and thorough assessment in the classroom allows educators to point to actual data when discussing reading issues with parents. Also, when such importance is placed on assessment, I feel that an educator gets to know their students better and can make more informed judgments about personal instruction. This has been very apparent in my field experience classroom. On several occasions I have witnessed parents bringing their children to the classroom and asking my cooperating teacher about their child’s studies. A couple of the parents were asking about reading materials and what they should be doing at home to help their children with their skills. While there was not much time for discussion, the teacher knew her students well enough to be able to speak intelligently about that particular child and his/her strengths and challenges. If ongoing assessment was not a priority in this classroom, brief discussions like these would be difficult for the teacher and confusing for the parents. While students will inevitably move back and forth on the reading spectrum, committing to an assessment approach that is woven into the fabric of the classroom will not only benefit the students, but the teacher as well.