Self as Informant

Well honestly I can't remember the first encounter with a book. In all honesty I don't recall reading that much as a child. I think this is because my parents were immigrants from El Salvador and they had little to no education. They could barely print their own names let a lone read a book to me. I do remember that my grandfather would read from this book of fables from El Salvador. He wasn't very educated either but these simple fables were taught to children as life lessons and were used as phonics lessons. It sounds absurd to think that a story like "The tortoise and the Hare" could be used to teach phonics but Spanish is a very phonemic language. Sorry, I forgot to mention that we were reading in Spanish. I didn't have any contact with English language books or writing until I reached kindergarten. In any case this book of fables and tales was so important because I remember thinking that I could learn how to read using this little book and behold I did learn how to read and write in Spanish. I think those building blocks were the strong base that helped me learn how to read and write in English. 

One of the most important books that I have read was probably a book about self-discovery. The book is called "The Alchemist" by Paolo Cohelo and initially I was drawn to the book because he talked about a personal journey that we must all follow in order to find ourselves. It sounds kind of spacey but when you are in college, your full-time job is to study and find out who you are. In any case this book really helped me understand things in ways that I never would have thought of. I find books like this interesting because I like looking at situations in different ways. I like to discover interesting ways to figure out problems. I like looking at a situation from a different perspective. I like to be very cognizant of all possible outcomes so that I can expect everything at anytime. I think that's why I am so excited about this class because I hope to open my view of text and literature to a whole new world.

Initial Ideas on Text Set

Well as I've been thinking more and more about my text set, I realize that I may want to do something on the issue of immigration. It's a huge issue in the community that I work in. I work in a very diverse neighborhood of Washington, DC and a lot of the students here are children of immigrant parents. Often the parents are here illegally and their immigration status often is a hot-button issue to the children. We've been discussing the election process in our class and my children are really interested in the issues of education and immigration. I think it would be powerful if we could do images of our neighborhood so that we could really see the diverse neighborhood we live in. It would also be very powerful if we could put a face to those people directly affected by immigration laws and policies.

Critical Literacy and Children's Books

When I first thought about what is critical literacy and what it really means to me as a teacher, I could have sworn up and down that involved the teacher as the sole or main player in disseminating the information to the students in a more thoughtful way. As I read upon what is really meant by critical literacy I have come to realize that the teacher is not the only player albeit an important one but there are other stake holders. What about the children who need to engage in the literature? The authors whose meanings we need to crack in order to engage our students are also players. Then there are the administrators, policy makers, support staff and so many others that make decisions about children's literature and its place in the classroom. I felt overwhelmed by what I had to understand and digest, so I broke it down so that I could better serve my children.

In the four-resources model article online the author talks about the roles a student can play in terms of their interactions with the text. I never really thought that a student could have a role but only that of a student. In that way I was forced to really look at how I see my students. Are they code-breakers or meaning makers or text users or text critics? I don't really know because I never really asked myself or them for that matter? Then there exists the different stances that a teacher can take. As I do read-alouds or select readings for my class what am I trying to portray? What are the students' stances? What about the author, what kind of stance is he/she taking? All of these questions swirled in my head, even right now because I was never forced to think about it. I just hope that throughout the course of this class I am able to be more metacognitive of my teaching practices because once I know what stance or what role I'm playing, then I can do something. It is then that I can move forward and make meaningful interaction between the text, my students and myself.