Course: C&T 740: Foundations of Reading: Process, Theory & Instruction

Title: Exploring Societal Differences Through Books

In C&T 740: Foundations of Reading: Process, Theory & Instruction, I wrote a final paper, discussing multicultural books and discussed how I used one with one of my scholars and documented that lesson. Since taking this course, and creating this lesson, I have constantly implemented the use of multicultural texts with all of my scholars so they can get a better understanding of different cultures, families, lives, and point of views.

My scholars do not have easy access to multicultural books outside of the classroom, and the curriculum does not always provide multicultural books. So, giving them the opportunity to learn about different cultures and realizing that we all share similarities has been helpful for them.

Learning Outcome 2 focuses on demonstrating critical self-reflection to understand one’s own identity and the ways in which identity, oppression, and privilege influence individuals and their experience in schools and communities. It also emphasizes the commitment to and evidence of practices that foster inclusive environments and learning opportunities in the candidate’s context.

My final paper relates to Learning Outcome 2 because it indicates my commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for all of my scholars by providing them with multicultural texts that they can engage with to practice their reading skills while also learning about others’ cultures.

For my final paper, I wrote about a text I used called, Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding. This book won the Notable Children’s Book award on September 15, 2009 and is intended for scholars in grades pre-k to third grade. It is about the Chinese culture which is different from my scholars’ culture. My scholars are Hispanic or African American. Since this text was rich in vocabulary, I introduced some vocabulary words before reading the text. Those words not only helped my scholars understand the text but it also helped them when recounting the story. I was able to use the words “bridesmaids, bouquet, and ceremony” to bridge the conversation from the text to their personal experience with attending weddings or if weddings in their culture also have bridesmaids, bouquet, and a ceremony. In my artifact you will see that I only documented data from one scholar I worked with, that is because I used Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding and focused on the skills of questioning, fluency, comprehension and summarizing with her and then did so with the rest of my class.

When reading Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding, I provided sentence frames to help my scholars articulate their inferences. I used phrases such as, “when looking at the cover I predict, the character said ...so, it seems... I'm wondering… I remember when...have you ever….” Sentence frames have been helpful for many of my scholars because it has helped them get their thoughts together to infer how a character is feeling, think about what might happen next, but also think about any connections they may share with the text. The use of sentence frames has helped create an inclusive learning environment for my scholars because because it has helped those who either have a difficult time articulating their thoughts in complete sentences or has helped those who do not speak the English language very well. Overall, the frames have helped engage and guide learners when responding to a prompt.

After reading Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding, I provided videos and articles about Chinese weddings to further our learning about the Chinese culture. This helped spark their interest to research their own culture and find out any differences and similarities they share with the Chinese culture. All of my scholars were able to engage with in these activities and share their findings. They were able to work in pairs when researching their culture in case they needed support with navigating websites or help on reading certain words. Learning a few things about the Chinese culture and learning about their own culture by using their Chromebook to complete their research while working in pairs provided them with the opportunity to help each other find information or navigate websites and learn new facts about other cultures present inside and outside of the classroom.

C&T 740 was helpful because it not only provided articles and opportunities for us to discuss what we found interesting in each article but it also provided us with resources we could implement in our classrooms and then document the effectiveness of using those resources. One article I found extremely helpful was “The Princess Storyteller, Clara Clarifier, Quincy Questioner, and the Wizard: Reciprocal Teaching Adapted for Kindergarten Students.” Myers mentions how to use reciprocal teaching “with students at academic risk who have difficulty comprehending complex text” (Myers, 2005, p. 315) But I also found this helpful for all of my scholars. Each day we focused on a different strategy from reciprocal teaching and after practicing it consistently, my scholars were using the language from this strategy such as, “I predict, I need clarification, I wonder, this story is mainly about,” and so on. I continue to use reciprocal teaching because it encompasses what scholars need to comprehend a text and provides sentence frames for them to support their thinking and responses.

References

Look. L. (2006). Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Myers, P. (2005). The Princess Storyteller, Clara Clarifier, Quincy Questioner, and the Wizard: Reciprocal Teaching Adapted for Kindergarten Students. The Reading Teacher, 59(4), 314- 324. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204356