A13.5: Week 13 Participation Memo

Aims and Objectives: My goal for this week to turn in my I-search paper before the deadline on Friday. I wanted to make sure that I gave myself ample time for revisions on my paper so that I made sure I was turning in best work. In regards to the other assignmetns I simply wanted to them in a timely fashion. I really needed a break from school work so I didn’t put a timeline on myself. I wanted to work on the assignments at times where I felt I would be able to put forth my best effort.

Declarative Knowledge:  There is a lot of information that I learned this week by completing the last revision of my I-search paper. In regards to my paper I learned that teachers play a very important role in the development of literacy skills of children. Teachers are the ones who help equip individuals with the skills to be successful which includes literacy skills. I learned that it is important for them to help “all” students, but it is specifically important to provide help to children from impoverished environments because they typically have delays in these skills. There are specific things teachers can do to help these children which includes providing a curriculum that is specific to their needs and then continually going through professional development to learn more about how to help these students. By doing this teachers will be providing students with what they need to be successful literate individuals.

I also learned this week that the revision of papers is a never ending process. No matter how many times I looked at my paper I always found something that I felt need to be revised or changed. Eventually I had to make myself just stop and turn the paper in. I know that if I went back right now and reread my paper there would be things I would want to change which is why I’m not allowing myself do that. I do no that in the future though it may be important to change this paper as new research is developed on the topic.

Procedural Knowledge: I can not think of anything new that I specifically learned how to do, but I did enhance some skills that I already had. I used my writing and revising skills a lot this week to complete my I-search paper and the assignments. These skills are ones I use a lot and it is crucial that I know how to use them profitiently.

Conditional Knowledge: I can use the knowledge I obtained on my research paper as a citizen to help make people aware of the importance of literacy. There are many children who are lacking the skills necessary to be literate individuals which is why the public needs to be informed of the affects this can have on children. I could provide this information to other people by teaching them about programs that focus on the development of literacy. I could also use the information I learned from my paper as a future SLP in that if I ever worked with a children who had delayed literacy skills. I now know some techniques that could help improve this skills. I would also be able to inform this child’s teachers about things that could be down with the child in the school. Lastly, I could use the information I learned from completing the weekly assignments because I know now how to write a preface, about the author sections, and acknowledgement section which could be helpful if I ever decided to write a book.

References

Barone, D. (2004). Second grade is important: Literacy instruction and learning of young children in a high-poverty school. Journal of Literary Research. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200301/ai_n9180275/pg_2 

Cooter, K.S. (2006, April). When mama can’t read: Counteracting intergenerational illiteracy. Reading Teacher, 59(7), 698-702. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

Fillipoff, S. (2001, March). Inner-city schools: Canaries for the public school system. Teacher Newsmagazine, 13(5). Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www.learningexchange.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/canaries2047.pdf 

Klein, L.G. & Knitzer, J. (2007, January). Promoting effective early learning: What every policymaker and educator should know. National Center for Children in Poverty. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health Web site: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_695.html 

Lanthrop, K. (n.d.). Critical early literacy skills: From research to practice. California Reading and Literature Project. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://www.healthychild.ucla.edu/First5CAReadiness/Symposium/Kathy%20Lathrop.pdf

Lindjord, D. (2003). The start of a new school year: Research-based classroom practices for improving student achievement in children from high poverty and minority families. Family review. Journal of Early Education and Family Review, 11(1), 4-5. Retrieved October 18 , 2007, from the ERIC database.

Literacy in the early years of schooling. (1997). Primary Educator, 3(5), 10-13. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

MetLife Fellows. (n.d.). What our action research tells us about how to improve literacy. Teachers Network Policy Institute. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www.teachersnetwork.org/tnpi/recommend/literacy.htm

National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. (2007, May). Early Literacy Development. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from Clemson University Web site: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/effstrat/early_literacy_devel/overview.htm

Phillips, B.M., ( n.d.). Emergent literacy: What it is and why it matters. Retrieved November 3, 2007, from http://www.fcrr.org/science/pdf/Phillips/EmergentLiteracy.pdf

Rizopoulos, L. A., & Wolpert, G. (2004). An overview of the techniques used to develop the literacy skills of adolescents with developmental delays. Education, 125(1), 130-136. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from the ERIC database.

The reading skills pyramid. The key reading skills & the steps in acquiring them. (2004). Retrieved November 3, 2007, from http://www.time4learning.com/reading_skills_pyramid.htm 

Acknowledgements

First and Foremost, I would like to thank my professor for this course, Mrs. Karen McComas for her guidance throughtout my research process. Her assistance in the developement of my essential and foundation questions helped provide the basis for my research. The encouragement she gave helped me tremendously when I felt like giving up. She always encouraged me to never give up even when it looked like I wasn’t going to find any research to help answer my questions. Also, I would like to thank her for providing deadlines for the research and rough draft of this paper. Without these deadlines I probably would have waited until the last minute to complete my research and write this paper. Again, thank you Mrs. McComas for always being available when I needed help and guidance.

I would also like to thank the researchers who took the time to complete research on what teachers can do to increase literacy skills in children from impoverished environments. Their research helped me tremendously in developing my own understanding of this topic. I would have not been able to complete this paper without their research to support my findings.

Finally, I would like to thank Linsey Cushing and Joy Piles for providing feedback about my paper. Without your peer reviews my paper would not have been the same.

Thanks again to everyone who provided me with support while completing research and writing this paper!

About the Author

Traci  Girondo currently attends Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia where she is a senior majoring in Communication Disorders.  After graduating in May 2008 with her Bachelor of Science degree, Traci plans to further her education by obtaining a Master’s of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology. For her future work, Traci has high aspirations to work in a hospital and focus her skills to the area of neurogenics. At Marshall Traci is a member of the National Student Speech-Language and Hearing Association (NSSLHA). Outside of school, Traci enjoys spending time with her family and friends, running, reading, and swimming.

Preface

My desire to learn about this topic came from a personal experience I had working with children from impoverished environments. In my sophomore year of college I participated in a Read Aloud program through an organization at Marshall University. For this program volunteers, including myself were assigned to specific schools in the area that were noted as being “at risk” schools.This label was placed upon these schools because they were recieving low test scores and very little federal fuding.The goal of this program was to enhance literacy experiences in school-age children. My role in this program was to be the facilitator of these literacy experiences.To do this, I would read aloud to a classroom of children twice a week. While I was reading to the children and observing in the classroom I noticed that many of the children had trouble with many of the basic literacy skills such as reading, writing, and phonemic awareness.I discussed this observation with the teacher of the classroom and she stated that she felt that many children in the classroom had delayed literacy skills because they had not received very many literacy experiences at home before they entered school. I knew that factors such as the environment a child lives in can affect literacy because children living in impoverished environments are not receiving as much stimulation and exposure to literature. Also, many of the children’s parents work constantly to provide for the family and have very little time to work on the development of the child’s literacy skills. From my experiences working with these children I decided I wanted to focus my research towards what an educators role is in the development of literacy in children from impoverished environments. I felt a personal connection to this topic because my personal belief is that all children should have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to succeed in life and no child should be left behind because of their socioeconomic status.