My Personal Literacy Paper

This was an assignment that was given to me by the professor who teaches my Advanced Studies in Language Arts. The assignment was to examine our personal experiences with reading and writing, and connect them to the our professional practice. I really enjoyed the assignment. I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

Aimee Bosworth
Personal Literacy Paper
February 3, 2010
If we were in the toy store and I was asking for something trivial, the answer was “no”. If we were at Walden's and I was asking for a book the answer was, “we will always buy you a book if you enjoy reading.” My parents were influential in my love for reading. When I was a child, I was one of the lucky ones, my parents read to my brother and me every night before bed. Flap Your Wings, Junior was our favorite. Mom hated it, but we all laughed every-time that Dad reread it in some funny way to make Mom smile and, at the same time, satisfy our need to hear the story again. I always had my nose stuck in a book. Judy Blume was a favorite author of mine, The Babysitter's Club Series, Goosebumps and Nancy Drew were all personal favorites. My all-time favorite, though, was Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I can't remember what made me love reading so much. I don't remember my personal stages of emergent reading too well. At the most, I remember adults spending time to read with me.
Now, my friends and I have a book club. We collectively choose a book and then have a lovely excuse to get together with appetizers and friends to share our thoughts on the selection. I listen to audio books in the car (I have a boyfriend in Cincinnati, which provides ample time for listening). I read books before bed (when I'm not too tired from chasing kindergartners all day), and I always have a book downloaded on Kindle on my iPhone for reading in long grocery store lines, doctor's waiting rooms, etc. I finished two books this weekend, one on my drive home from Columbus, and one on Kindle while I was out of town for a trip. Some of my favorite authors now are: Wally Lamb, Jodi Picoult, Nicholas Sparks, Stephanie Meyer, and J.K. Rowling (to name a few).
What do my experiences suggest about an effective classroom environment for learning? I tell parents on the first day that I meet them (and very frequently thereafter) that the best thing they can do for their child is READ with them. I recommend reading 15-20 minutes every night before bed (...sound familiar?). One way to induce reading between children and their parents is their monthly reading log. Each month they are to record one book each day. At the end of the month, if their reading log is complete, they get a prize of some kind and they get entered into a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the year. The children in my class each have their own “browse bags”. Browse Bags are simply Ziploc bags that hang on the back of their chairs with books that are developmentally appropriate for that student. They explore these books by reading and rereading them. They highlight their “magic words” (a.k.a. sight words/high frequency words). They add color to the dull photocopied version they are given to accent comprehension. When children have extra time they are also permitted to choose books from our classroom library which is organized by theme. This allows the children to explore literature about topics that they enjoy! From my personal experience, I think that it is important to give children the chance to read what they WANT to read. We have read-alouds and reading groups which all provide time for children reading with adults in order to facilitate their love for books.
Writing is an entirely different ball game. When I was about seven, I wrote a poem for my grandpa. I framed it for him for Christmas.
I have a teddy bear,
He's really not a spare.
My grandpa got him,
Of course, he bought him.
And that's my teddy bear.

That poem hung in my grandparent's house for YEARS. The bear (which was given to me at 4) is currently supporting my neck, in the form of a pillow as I write. I remember the night that I spent in my bedroom, while falling asleep, thinking so hard, searching, for a word to rhyme with “bear”. I came up with “spare”...not bad.
The writing continued as I grew. At Christmas, I would write one letter for my entire family telling them about all of my inner thoughts and opinions about what 'Christmas' and 'family' and 'giving' really meant. I wrote to the teachers in high school who inspired me and helped me to grow. I wanted them to know how they not only taught me curriculum, but how they showed me a new part of myself. I spent lots of nights writing in a spiral notebook that I shared with one special friend. We passed it back and forth in school everyday. I'd write Monday night, she'd write on Tuesday. We shared what was inside, our thoughts, our worries, our crushes, our stresses, our happiness, our middle school, and eventually high school, experiences. I spent hours drafting what I would write in my friends' yearbooks, just so that when it came time to sign, I could write down all the things that I really wanted to say without leaving anything out or getting anything wrong.
When I had a problem, I had to write it out. Talking about it would be way too hard, and I'd inevitably forget something. Drafting, revising, editing...then I could make it exactly what I wanted to say, a well thought-out piece. Writing is my reflection time. It is my memory building. I write about things that are important to me. That seems to be the common thread throughout my writing career. I don't write to spell correctly or to put commas in the right place. I write when I'm feeling something. I write when I have something to say. I write when I want to tell my story. I write when I want to be heard, or when I want someone to FEEL what I'm thinking.
Now, in my adult life, I blog. I keep writing using Google Blogger. I started the blog last year and even though my followers are family and friends, I do have a few fans. If you'd like to explore my site is http://aimeebosworth.blogspot.com. I write about all the fun things that I've been doing. I share exciting news about my family, or trips, or my students. Actually, I might just have to post this paper on my blog (as an FYI piece).
How does this love for writing impact my classroom? That's an interesting question. Writing in kindergarten is a long drawn out process and sometimes it's like pulling teeth just to get them to write one little word. If the process of teaching writing is not done properly, lots of kiddos may end up in tears. If not done properly, lots of teachers end up feeling very frustrated with little to show for a stressful lesson. In my four years of teaching, I've learned a lot about the teaching of writing. I've learned that children need oodles of support and encouragement to even attempt to write a word. I've learned that the teacher needs to know how to properly scaffold writing for the children. I've learned that shared writing is an unspeakably valuable tool. I've also learned about the frustrations of children like: “I don't know what to write about”, and “I don't know how to spell that word.”
From my experience personal and teaching experience, I encourage children to talk before they write. Oral language leads to writing. Students need to get their ideas out orally in order to “know what to write”. In kindergarten we draw before we write. Drawing is the pre-cursor to writing. Drawing gives a support to the words that will come next. Children can certainly tell stories. They certainly have things that are important to them, they just have to be lead in down the right path in order to get their thoughts onto paper. When writing, we collaborate. When writing, we communicate. A writing time shouldn't be a quiet time, children can learn from each other. To avoid tears, we always compliment first, teach second. I conference with children individually about their writing in order that they have an opportunity to revise and edit. In first grade we wrote How To Books, Fiction Books, and True Stories. We had publishing parties and families were invited to see the work their students had done. The children all had a “map of their heart” in their writing folder,. The map was a collage that they had created with all of their favorite things, or things close to their heart. Many hearts had pictures of family members, favorite cartoons, favorite snacks, sports, etc. Incase they couldn't think of anything to write about they could look at their heart and write about something important to them. We've also published a couple of our books by making them into movies (this is our media use). In lower grades it is important to teach children to write about what's important to them. (This opinion of mine is surely rooted in the fact that I love to write about what is important to me.) Children need to get their pencil moving fluently with what they WANT to say in order to gain skills and strategies while enjoying themselves, before they can write about meaningless prompts or topics.
In regards to media, or maybe more appropriately termed, technology we do a lot of that in our classroom too. I've grown up using the computer and internet. I've been able to explore from these technologies at a young age. Now, I like to fidget with things like blogging, pod-casting, iMovie and iDVD, etc. For this reason, I like to give my kids the same opportunities on the computers. I'd say, of the teachers in my school building, I'm one of the more liberal users of the technology available to our students. Our district subscribes to Raz-Kids which is a website we have our children using to read on-level books that are specially selected for them. We've also written books and created them into movies. My interest and/or hobby for media and technology come into play in my classroom when I expose my children to these things as well. Also, we have a classroom website, blog and electronic e-mails. http://ww2.plainlocal.org/powpak/cgi-bin/homepage.pl?id=BosworthA
In retrospect, it is easy to see how my personal preferences in regards to reading, writing, media and technology impact my classroom. I enjoyed the challenge of thinking of my own personal literacy practices. Applying those thoughts to the work that I do in Kindergarten everyday has been an interesting journey and lead to new thoughts. I try to instill in my students the same love that I feel for these areas in my life. Transferring these exciting attitudes to the children who are so malleable in my classroom is an exciting part of my job.