"For as long as I have been at Lafayette, each successive administration has announced that schools that demonstrated a history of academic success would be given ‘autonomy,’ or the ability to make local school decisions with a minimum of central office interference. I’ve been on various committees that looked at what autonomy would look like and how it would fit into the other DCPS regulations. Models from other school districts were discussed. For a few years Lafayette, along with several other schools, received additional federal funds to use with flexible spending as a designated high achieving school. But with the continuous revolving door of leadership at the top of the school system, that grant money and discussion of autonomy disappeared.
"In many ways, Lafayette has just taken ‘autonomy’ when it best fits our needs. I have very little trouble getting our budget and staffing plans passed, even when they don’t contain all the required positions. I have become very good at writing justifications for what we want to do and always get them approved. After staffing the school, there isn’t much money left over in the budget for much of anything except basic school supplies. It’s your help as members of the Home and School Association that get us so many of the extras. We use the adopted DCPS curriculum materials but have been supplementing them for as long as I have been here with extras like our Wordly Wise vocabulary series. Many of the novels your children study are selected by the teachers themselves and not from a DCPS list. Parent-teacher conference days are supposed to run from 12 noon until 7 p.m. I let the teachers set their own schedules. As I have often said to many different people, it is very easy to go your own way in a dysfunctional school system. There really is no one to check up on you, and with our continued outstanding results, I’m not sure anyone really wants to upset what is happening at Lafayette.
"At a February meeting, Lafayette was again identified as a school eligible for autonomy. Five areas were listed, budget, instructional programming, professional development, textbooks, and scheduling. Some things Lafayette already does will no longer need an approval process. No more budget petitions or staffing justifications, but we will still have to use the DC procurement process. We can have an arts integration school and arrange our own professional development activities, exactly what we are doing now. When a new textbook series is up for adoption, we can decide if that is the program we want to use or if there is another one that better meets our needs and get the funding for our choice. And setting our own conference day schedule or moving our professional development time to the late afternoon instead of December 21-22 which we did last winter will no longer need to go through the chancellor’s office. Or at least that is what was told me. So I submitted the application and we are waiting to hear when our school review will take place.
"I told the staff that I really don’t see where much will change. Our partnership with the Kennedy Center will still be in place next year. We have already ordered next year’s copies of Wordly Wise. There are no new text materials up for adoption. We will continue to do what works at Lafayette. It will be nice though to have a little framed certificate hanging somewhere that does give us permission to make some of these changes and not worry about some downtown person walking through wondering what is going on here. I can’t imagine that we won’t be chosen as an autonomous school. The designation won’t get us any additional money or staff. But it will get us the recognition that this school knows how to plan, implement and achieve at the highest level for all its students."
Monday, March 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Post Scriptum: What Critical Literacy Means to Me Now
As a lawyer with some familiarity with the area of Critical Legal Studies (CLS), I came to this class with some expectation that Critical Literacy would entail deconstructing texts to examine issues such as bias, power, agency, and reader positioning, essentially approaching literature in the way that CLS approaches jucicial opinions. Over the course of the semester, I have broadened my thinking about Critical Literacy to take into account its focus on reading for social action -- the notion that examining issues of bias without taking remedial action may be tantamount to enabling or perpetuating the bias. CLS has a similar focus on using law as a tool for social change, but I hadn't really thought about how that might play out in Critical Literacy when I began this class. While I see enormous value in empowering children to take social action, I have to say that I also believe that there is great benefit in the awareness-raising and attitude-modification that can come from "mere" examination of and deconstruction of texts; I would not subscribe to the more extreme position that all discovery of bias and inequity must lead to a social action project in order to be meaningful.
As a writer, and in a vein that has more to do with flavor than contours, I have to say that I've really appreciated Vivian's continual effort to remind us that literature always provides an opportunity to "create space" for various discussions, and that teachers need not, and, in fact, probably should not, come to such discussions with predetermined talking points; our role should rather be that of facilitators, helping students to find the answers -- and questions -- that resonate for them, both collectively and as individuals. Thus, books like Into the Forest, with ambiguous, or perhaps not fully realized, messages can nonetheless be wonderful vehicles for discussion in the critical literacy spirit.
Through the course, I've also developed a greater appreciation for the importance of what I'll call "literary enfranchisement" in the classroom -- the notion that it is not only valuable but critical for students to be see their own experiences and identities reflected positively in both the stories and the authorship of the books that surround them and inform their learning.
Vivian is a lovely person and a delightful teacher :) This class was definitely the highlight of the MAT program for me. Thank you!
As a writer, and in a vein that has more to do with flavor than contours, I have to say that I've really appreciated Vivian's continual effort to remind us that literature always provides an opportunity to "create space" for various discussions, and that teachers need not, and, in fact, probably should not, come to such discussions with predetermined talking points; our role should rather be that of facilitators, helping students to find the answers -- and questions -- that resonate for them, both collectively and as individuals. Thus, books like Into the Forest, with ambiguous, or perhaps not fully realized, messages can nonetheless be wonderful vehicles for discussion in the critical literacy spirit.
Through the course, I've also developed a greater appreciation for the importance of what I'll call "literary enfranchisement" in the classroom -- the notion that it is not only valuable but critical for students to be see their own experiences and identities reflected positively in both the stories and the authorship of the books that surround them and inform their learning.
Vivian is a lovely person and a delightful teacher :) This class was definitely the highlight of the MAT program for me. Thank you!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Media Research
I have to confess that I watch so little TV that the one example I came across of a children's literature theme in the TV media was almost twenty years old -- from a recorded episode of "The Wonder Years" that aired in 1989. The commercial, for Huggies diapers, featured Sleeping Beauty, a two-year old who had been asleep in her royal crib for about a hundred years and was finally woken by the arrival of Prince Charming, a two-year old boy bearing the gift of Huggies leak-proof diapers. Apparently, in bringing Sleeping Beauty the diapers, Prince Charming fulfilled the girl's ideal of happiness.
I was a bit skeptical about how a girl with a leaking diaper would have been able to sleep through the night, much less for a hundred years, but the tongue-in-cheek message of the ad was clear: life begins (again) when a girl meets the prince who can rescue her from adversity, and the prince in such cases is well-advised to consult commercial sources in the pursuit of material, and romantic, success.
It would be interesting to compare the commercials of that era with modern commercials, but I just don't watch any prime time TV, and CNN and MSNBC don't seem to run commercials with kiddie lit themes. Looking at the reports of my peers, however, it seems, that princess themes are alive and well, but also counterbalanced in some instances by edgier messages that deconstruct or at least pull at the edges of the traditional themes.
I was a bit skeptical about how a girl with a leaking diaper would have been able to sleep through the night, much less for a hundred years, but the tongue-in-cheek message of the ad was clear: life begins (again) when a girl meets the prince who can rescue her from adversity, and the prince in such cases is well-advised to consult commercial sources in the pursuit of material, and romantic, success.
It would be interesting to compare the commercials of that era with modern commercials, but I just don't watch any prime time TV, and CNN and MSNBC don't seem to run commercials with kiddie lit themes. Looking at the reports of my peers, however, it seems, that princess themes are alive and well, but also counterbalanced in some instances by edgier messages that deconstruct or at least pull at the edges of the traditional themes.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Interview with a Classroom Teacher
For this assignment, I interviewed a good friend who is a gifted and inspiring teacher of 2nd and 3rd grade public school students in California. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in the Whole Language movement, with a focus on high-quality literature and integration of literacy skills into all areas of the curriculum. With a mixed grade classroom, she is a proponent of small reading groups and shared reading, with an emphasis on reading for meaning and building and sharing connections, which the children journal about in their "literature logs." She highly recommended The Reading Teacher as a source for literature study ideas.
In my friend's classroom, the school supplies the books, which I find interesting, since in DC it seems that teachers are required to build their own libraries from scratch, for the most part. She characterized her library as reflecting diversity of ideas as well as of authorship and characters, but she did say that her primary focus is always on high-quality literature, with diversity playing only a secondary role in book selection.
My friend's mother was a longtime kindergarten teacher in Phoenix before her recent retirement. One of the things that she did with her students was to send books home with children, along with a list of questions to begin discussing with parents. The goal, central to the Whole Language approach, was to stimulate a love of literature and to build a positive foundation of questioning and discussing books in the search for meaning. A concern that I have with this sort of approach is whether, in a socioeconomically diverse community, it has the potential for exacerbating the built-in head start that certain children have when their families place a premium on education and are in a position to offer this sort of after-school support. In DC there would certainly be many students whose parents would not be able to participate in this kind of activity, and it seems important to me to maximize the learning that occurs within the school environment, where children are more ostensibly on an equal footing in terms of their access to resources, including adult time.
As I look forward, towards the time when I have my own classroom, I know that I will strive to the greatest extent that I can, consistent with the needs of the curriculum, to incorporate the many insights and lessons of the Whole Language philosophy, which, interestingly, shares with the Critical Literacy movement a broad view of "text." As I discussed in my banned books entry, I view literature as a powerful tool in shaping ideas -- much more so than the cold pages of textbooks. While Tarry Lindquist makes a powerful case in Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies for relying more heavily on nonfiction, as a way of integrating learning and creating cross-curricular connections, as a writer, I would be very sorry to see fiction leave the classroom. Like my friend, my first priority in book selection would always be to choose high-quality literature, which is apt to be more motivating to students as well as to offer richer, more multifaceted opportunities for learning and teaching. I have come to see in this class, however, that it will be critically important not only to talk about issues of authorship and positioning but also to offer children regular exposure to literature that reflects their experience in a meaningful way, which is consistent with Constructivist teachings. Diversity will accordingly also be an important consideration as I build my classroom library.
In my friend's classroom, the school supplies the books, which I find interesting, since in DC it seems that teachers are required to build their own libraries from scratch, for the most part. She characterized her library as reflecting diversity of ideas as well as of authorship and characters, but she did say that her primary focus is always on high-quality literature, with diversity playing only a secondary role in book selection.
My friend's mother was a longtime kindergarten teacher in Phoenix before her recent retirement. One of the things that she did with her students was to send books home with children, along with a list of questions to begin discussing with parents. The goal, central to the Whole Language approach, was to stimulate a love of literature and to build a positive foundation of questioning and discussing books in the search for meaning. A concern that I have with this sort of approach is whether, in a socioeconomically diverse community, it has the potential for exacerbating the built-in head start that certain children have when their families place a premium on education and are in a position to offer this sort of after-school support. In DC there would certainly be many students whose parents would not be able to participate in this kind of activity, and it seems important to me to maximize the learning that occurs within the school environment, where children are more ostensibly on an equal footing in terms of their access to resources, including adult time.
As I look forward, towards the time when I have my own classroom, I know that I will strive to the greatest extent that I can, consistent with the needs of the curriculum, to incorporate the many insights and lessons of the Whole Language philosophy, which, interestingly, shares with the Critical Literacy movement a broad view of "text." As I discussed in my banned books entry, I view literature as a powerful tool in shaping ideas -- much more so than the cold pages of textbooks. While Tarry Lindquist makes a powerful case in Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies for relying more heavily on nonfiction, as a way of integrating learning and creating cross-curricular connections, as a writer, I would be very sorry to see fiction leave the classroom. Like my friend, my first priority in book selection would always be to choose high-quality literature, which is apt to be more motivating to students as well as to offer richer, more multifaceted opportunities for learning and teaching. I have come to see in this class, however, that it will be critically important not only to talk about issues of authorship and positioning but also to offer children regular exposure to literature that reflects their experience in a meaningful way, which is consistent with Constructivist teachings. Diversity will accordingly also be an important consideration as I build my classroom library.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Banned Books
It was very interesting to look at the lists of banned or challenged books at the ALA website. Many are books that I was required or encouraged to read as a child; many are books that my son, in private school, is required to read now, and still others are books that I sought out on my own. One thing they all share, to my chagrin, is that I have failed to retain a strong enough command of them to feel able to discuss intelligently the reasons that they are challenged or the value -- or harm -- that they might hold for today's students. That having been said, here are some reflections on a few of the more prominent titles on the lists.
At the moment, my son is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was one of my favorite books in high school. I didn't have time to reread the book myself in preparation for this class, but I did read Wallace Stegner's thoughtful introduction to one edition, written in 1960, and I'm looking forward to discussing the story with my son from a critical literacy standpoint as he digs further into the book.
Another favorite that I was worried about revisiting is Uncle Tom's Cabin. I know that, as a child and teen, I was drawn to books that explored the terrible injustices of slavery and, I think, managed to bring my own critical literacy reading to books like Uncle Tom that, by modern standards, may be regarded as complicit in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One thing that I took away from all of these books was a powerful feeling that slavery was America's Holocaust -- a gaping abyss from which our nation may take many centuries to recover. It's possible that I was influenced without knowing it by the offensive stereotypes in these novels, but I have to believe that the dividends that I gained from reading them, in the form of deep human compassion and a very palpable sense of grief and pain over this part of our past are things that I could not have picked up from the cold pages of history books. While I do appreciate the reasons for the recent backlash against Uncle Tom, I hope that, over time, the book will be remembered more for its pivotal role in galvanizing popular feeling against slavery prior to the Civil War than for some of the unfortunate stereotypes it employs that seem so glaring and distasteful when examined under a modern spotlight.
Another old favorite that seems to figure prominently on banned book lists is To Kill a Mockingbird. This wonderful story, by Harper Lee, was required reading in my favorite year of school -- 5th grade. It was also one of my favorite books of all time. I assume that it's challenged because of the allegations of rape and the theme of family violence. While I think there's room for legitimate discussion about whether 5th grade is the ideal year to be reading a story with so many adult themes, I really can't see any legitimate grounds for keeping it out of the curriculum altogether. Madonna's trashy, self-exploitative Sex, on the other hand, I have read and am completely comfortable keeping out of school libraries.
At the moment, my son is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was one of my favorite books in high school. I didn't have time to reread the book myself in preparation for this class, but I did read Wallace Stegner's thoughtful introduction to one edition, written in 1960, and I'm looking forward to discussing the story with my son from a critical literacy standpoint as he digs further into the book.
Another favorite that I was worried about revisiting is Uncle Tom's Cabin. I know that, as a child and teen, I was drawn to books that explored the terrible injustices of slavery and, I think, managed to bring my own critical literacy reading to books like Uncle Tom that, by modern standards, may be regarded as complicit in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One thing that I took away from all of these books was a powerful feeling that slavery was America's Holocaust -- a gaping abyss from which our nation may take many centuries to recover. It's possible that I was influenced without knowing it by the offensive stereotypes in these novels, but I have to believe that the dividends that I gained from reading them, in the form of deep human compassion and a very palpable sense of grief and pain over this part of our past are things that I could not have picked up from the cold pages of history books. While I do appreciate the reasons for the recent backlash against Uncle Tom, I hope that, over time, the book will be remembered more for its pivotal role in galvanizing popular feeling against slavery prior to the Civil War than for some of the unfortunate stereotypes it employs that seem so glaring and distasteful when examined under a modern spotlight.
Another old favorite that seems to figure prominently on banned book lists is To Kill a Mockingbird. This wonderful story, by Harper Lee, was required reading in my favorite year of school -- 5th grade. It was also one of my favorite books of all time. I assume that it's challenged because of the allegations of rape and the theme of family violence. While I think there's room for legitimate discussion about whether 5th grade is the ideal year to be reading a story with so many adult themes, I really can't see any legitimate grounds for keeping it out of the curriculum altogether. Madonna's trashy, self-exploitative Sex, on the other hand, I have read and am completely comfortable keeping out of school libraries.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Cinderella and Friends
I'm very sorry to have to miss tonight's class, in which we begin discussing Cinderella narratives. Cinderella is an issue very close to my heart on many levels -- so much so, in fact, that it forms part of the chorus of one of my songs, "Hollow Victory."
As a mother of young children, I always sought to expose my children to high-quality literature while sheltering them from narrative suggestive of stereotypes. At the same time, I recognized that there is, as Vivian has discussed, "cultural capital" in familiarity with popular stories, both within and across generations, so I didn't want to avoid the classic children's stories entirely.
Instead of Jack and the Beanstalk, we read Mary Pope Osborne's Kate and the Beanstalk, and my children's first association with beanstalks will always be that of a headstrong, brave, and perhaps reckless girl determined to save her family and right a wrong. Another interesting retelling of a traditional story is Virginia Hamilton's The Girl Who Spun Gold, a Caribbean spin on Rumpelstiltskin, featuring a father afflicted with hubris and a daughter blessed with the cunning and humor to redeem at least part of his mistake. One of the great pleasures of reading this story, for someone who loves language and accents, as I do, is trying to read it in the lyrical Caribbean voice in which it was written.
We have several Cinderella retellings in our home library, but one that has always had a special place in my heart is Erica Silverman's Raisel's Riddle. Raisel takes place in long-ago Poland, where the poor granddaughter of a Talmud scholar is forced to find her own way in the world during the harsh winter in which her "zaydeh" dies. She finds work as a housekeeper in a rabbi's home, over the objections of his head housekeeper, who is determined to make Raisel's days miserable and to thwart any social contact between Raisel and the rabbi's family.
The Cinderella parallels in Raisel are strong, as Raisel is granted three wishes by a magical woman in repayment for her kindness and uses her wishes to attend a Purim party in the costume of Queen Esther. Although Esther's story is not retold in the book, it bears note that Esther was a Jewish woman in ancient Persia who risked her life by standing up to her king and his advisor to save her people.
Raisel does offer marriage as the basis for salvation from hardship -- perhaps as an homage to the traditional Cinderella narrative, or perhaps just in recognition of the fact that most hardships are borne more easily in a context of love and partnership -- a point minimized by counternarratives like Princess Smartypants. In a twist that improves upon stories like Princess Smartypants, however, Raisel does not peddle attractiveness as the key factor in determining a woman's marriage prospects. Although the wise and kind rabbi's son does comment on how lovely Raisel looks in her Queen Esther costume, her true appeal for him lies in her wisdom and interest in learning. Best of all, her answer to his ultimate query is not a foregone conclusion.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Children's Literature Web Sites
Looking for good children’s literature websites was a frustrating exercise! If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve actually searched for good children’s literature sites in vain before, I would have been truly shocked at the paucity of such online resources (or at least their weak claim to Googling). I went through a couple of pages of Google results using separate searches for “Children’s Literature,” “Children’s Books,” and “Critical Literacy” and was really disappointed in what I came up with. Maybe my classmates will have had better success. I’ll look forward to reading their blogs and finding out. Meanwhile, here’s my rather dreary list.
Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature: A+
http://www.dawcl.com/
This was the one find that I was really jazzed about. The stated purpose of this non-subscription website, maintained by CSU, San Bernardino librarian Lisa R. Bartle, is “to create a tailored reading list of quality children's literature” as an aid to help librarians, teachers, and parents guide child-readers. To our enormous collective benefit, Ms. Bartle is “deeply committed to the idea of providing information for free.”
The coolest thing about the site is that it allows users to search the database not only by award, genre, and book format, but also by reference to elements such as the ethnicity, nationality, and gender of the protagonist, whether the book is multicultural (defined as including two or more cultures interacting), and the use of languages other than English. As a result and by way of example, I was able to locate in moments 20 award-winning picture books with female Native American protagonists. The book blurbs were simple summaries, rather than reviews, and there was no explicit discussion of critical literacy, but the site’s search engine creates a powerful tool for teachers to create inclusive classrooms and launch critical literacy discussions. I love this site!!
Fact Monster: All About Books: B-
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0768701.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=books&gclid=CJT17JKohZYCFQ8QagodNCFvEg
This site is very kid-friendly. It has many different recommended lists of books, including best sellers by year (5 years only, plus “all-time”), teachers’ top 100, kids’ top 100, books with girl characters (be warned – Amelia Bedelia is included here under “novels”), and one of the more substantive categorizations – books by award (with subcategories for several different awards going back 30-86 years in some cases). Like most of the other sites I came across, this one was thin substantively. Except for the award lists, its indexing was so general as to be almost useless as a tool for choosing a book for a particular topic or age group. I upgraded it to a B- from a C only because of its special appeal and accessibility to child-users.
Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site: C+
http://www.carolhurst.com/
This site describes itself as “a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.” I found the site’s promise to be only marginally fulfilled, with good depth in some areas and huge gaps in others. An initially promising section entitled “Looking Critically at Picture Books” turned out not to be about critical literacy at all but seemingly about having children look closely at pictures for meaning. The exercise was at once rote and odd – not something I’d be in a hurry to do with children.
About.com: Children’s Books: C
http://childrensbooks.about.com/
A subset of the greater About.com world, the purpose of this site, as described by its administrator, Elizabeth Kennedy, is to help those “who work with children and value children’s literature” locate the children’s books and other online resources best suited to the children in their world. The site struck me as thin on substance and heavy on advertising. There are many interesting topics discussed on the forum – this month, for example, the site is highlighting the issue of Cinderella stories, but the discussions typically don’t have the depth that I’d like to see. The Cinderella article, for example, discusses the elements of a Cinderella story and provides sources for locating multi-cultural Cinderella stories, but it neglects entirely the critical literacy issues surrounding the Cinderella paradigm and omits any reference (that I could find, at least) to counter-narratives.
Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature: A+
http://www.dawcl.com/
This was the one find that I was really jazzed about. The stated purpose of this non-subscription website, maintained by CSU, San Bernardino librarian Lisa R. Bartle, is “to create a tailored reading list of quality children's literature” as an aid to help librarians, teachers, and parents guide child-readers. To our enormous collective benefit, Ms. Bartle is “deeply committed to the idea of providing information for free.”
The coolest thing about the site is that it allows users to search the database not only by award, genre, and book format, but also by reference to elements such as the ethnicity, nationality, and gender of the protagonist, whether the book is multicultural (defined as including two or more cultures interacting), and the use of languages other than English. As a result and by way of example, I was able to locate in moments 20 award-winning picture books with female Native American protagonists. The book blurbs were simple summaries, rather than reviews, and there was no explicit discussion of critical literacy, but the site’s search engine creates a powerful tool for teachers to create inclusive classrooms and launch critical literacy discussions. I love this site!!
Fact Monster: All About Books: B-
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0768701.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=books&gclid=CJT17JKohZYCFQ8QagodNCFvEg
This site is very kid-friendly. It has many different recommended lists of books, including best sellers by year (5 years only, plus “all-time”), teachers’ top 100, kids’ top 100, books with girl characters (be warned – Amelia Bedelia is included here under “novels”), and one of the more substantive categorizations – books by award (with subcategories for several different awards going back 30-86 years in some cases). Like most of the other sites I came across, this one was thin substantively. Except for the award lists, its indexing was so general as to be almost useless as a tool for choosing a book for a particular topic or age group. I upgraded it to a B- from a C only because of its special appeal and accessibility to child-users.
Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site: C+
http://www.carolhurst.com/
This site describes itself as “a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.” I found the site’s promise to be only marginally fulfilled, with good depth in some areas and huge gaps in others. An initially promising section entitled “Looking Critically at Picture Books” turned out not to be about critical literacy at all but seemingly about having children look closely at pictures for meaning. The exercise was at once rote and odd – not something I’d be in a hurry to do with children.
About.com: Children’s Books: C
http://childrensbooks.about.com/
A subset of the greater About.com world, the purpose of this site, as described by its administrator, Elizabeth Kennedy, is to help those “who work with children and value children’s literature” locate the children’s books and other online resources best suited to the children in their world. The site struck me as thin on substance and heavy on advertising. There are many interesting topics discussed on the forum – this month, for example, the site is highlighting the issue of Cinderella stories, but the discussions typically don’t have the depth that I’d like to see. The Cinderella article, for example, discusses the elements of a Cinderella story and provides sources for locating multi-cultural Cinderella stories, but it neglects entirely the critical literacy issues surrounding the Cinderella paradigm and omits any reference (that I could find, at least) to counter-narratives.
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