Loving Literacy

When looking back over all of my blog entries, I noticed there was a recurring theme of me not having exposure to certain concepts and situations involving literacy. I seemed to preface a lot of things with, “I’m not a teacher but…”, and would reiterate the fact that I am a school psychologist. As a school psychologist, we have a different perspective on things and students. Recently,  for example, I did an evaluation of a student who was reported by his teachers to have some behavior issues. During testing, he was great and was off the charts with his IQ and achievement. When I observed him, he was quiet as a mouse and did everything he was told to do. After that, I of course was like, “Why in the world am I evaluating him, he’s a great student!” That was because I only got a snapshot of what he’s like and he wasn’t misbehaving when I observed him. I know I need to be more careful of that and really do a better job of taking on the perspective of a teacher, instead of my own biased view.

Blogging for me has been a great way of putting my thoughts out there and getting feedback from other educators. Here I go with the “I’m not a teacher” thing again, but I was not familiar with a lot of the early literacy concepts and assessments. I liked reading teacher blogs where they gave real-life examples of how they did things in their classrooms. I enjoyed getting advice and thoughts from people who have been there and done that. I was often inspired by the blogs and comforted by the fact that there are some really great, committed teachers out there! It’s nice to be in a community of educators where we all are in it for the best interest of the student.

Overall, I think I have learned a great deal about emergent literacy concepts. I feel more comfortable applying those concepts to real students and helping them. One of the biggest things I think I have learned from reading classmates’ blogs and this class in general, is not to go into a situation with preconceived notions about students. What really emphasized that point to me was my kidwatching project. As I said in class, I honestly didn’t think he would be able to do the running record, but he sure surprised the heck out of me with his 76% accuracy rate! I know in the future not to ever underestimate what kids can do. They can always do something. As we learn in class, it’s important not to have that deficit thinking. If you think they can’t do anything, then you’ll have lower expectations of them and they may not reach their full potential.

I learned that you can use the simplest situations and turn them into an opportunity to enhance a child’s literacy skills. Lastly, I learned that your classmates/colleagues can often be some of your greatest resources/teachers, and to take every opportunity to learn from them. This class has been a great way for me to learn about literacy and I know I will take what I learned and use it as a school psychologist.

Chapter 8, “Engaging Families”, in the Barone, Mallette, & Xu book first of all reminded me of the cross-cultural counseling class the school psyc students had last semester. It highly emphasized the significance of learning about the cultures of the students and families with which you work, and not assuming anything about anyone.

I liked reading the chapter’s suggestions for learning about the student’s home literacy experiences, and was reminded of a home visit that I did earlier in the school year at my practicum site, with the social worker. The neighborhood was a government housing project. We went in the morning, as the social worker said that was the best time to go, since not everyone is awake yet. The social worker needed to talk to the mom of a student who had been absent multiple times. The mom was pregnant with her fifth child, on welfare, etc.  They just had their electricity turned back on that day. I will spare you all the other details about the situation, but, as you can imagine, it was less than an ideal setting for any child to be raised. I thought, “no wonder the child has been absent so many times”.  The same could be said if it was a child from a similar situation, that had poorly developed literacy skills. These families may not have access to books and resources that will encourage their children’s literacy skills to grow. They also may not have the knowledge or the time to spend to support literacy development. This is extremely important to keep in mind as educators.  Although there isn’t anything we can really do about the environment from which they come, like Chapter 8 reiterates, it must be considered. If you know that your student comes from a home similar to the one I talked about, then you will (hopefully) be more understanding of the literacy skills the student has, and be able to create strategies specifically for them and their situation. I think teachers, and/or school psychologists, could use this as a teaching opportunity for not only the students, but for the families as well. Perhaps if they are taught how they can be supportive of the student’s literacy development, then they will be more likely to do so. Depending on the number of students the teacher has, however, it may be difficult for them to visit each individual family. It is definitely worth a shot though. I know from my experience with the home visit that it gives you a new perspective on the student and their particular situation, so I hope to be able to make more home visits in the future.

I enjoyed the article by Cristina Gillanders about the teacher-child relationship on English language learning. She did a thorough job with her research-visiting the classroom 51 times! It sounds like the teacher she observed, Sarah, used great strategies in establishing an atmosphere in which her students felt comfortable and accepted.  I thought the concept of the “double bind”, in which ELLs must learn English to be socially accepted, but to be socially accepted they must speak English, was an interesting concept. I’d never thought of it that way before. Most of the time, I think of ELLs in terms of their academics, not thinking of the social impact it may have on them. It made me start to think that school psychologists could help ELLs in this capacity, at least until teacher education programs start to incorporate more traning on working with kids from diverse backgrounds. School psychologists could lead social skills groups with a mixture of ELLs and native English speakers, attempting to integrate them and realize that they have more in common than they might think. We could also hold in-services with teachers, in which we give them tips on managing a classroom with ELLs. I know I, myself, need to learn more about working with ELL students. Like the article says, a teacher can make a crucial difference in the success and adjustment of ELL students, and create that nurturing, positive environment, even if they do not speak Spanish (or other languages) fluently.