Response for Class on 3/21

Artifactual Literacy
Literacy is this weird term that I thought was one thing but is actually so much more. Being a self-proclaimed book nerd, I hear literacy, I think books. Texts you can read, words on a page, the ability to be literate. All of this is was literacy encompasses. Except that's not all. My original definition of literacy is so shallow in comparison to what literacy can be. Our in-class discussion during the first few weeks of the semester really opened my eyes to that.

Now that I have a better grasp of what literacy actually is, this article was extremely interesting because of how it presents yet another side to literacy that I never even considered. Objects can actually contain experiences and stories that are central to a person's being. That in itself is literacy - my mind was actually blown. I love that experiences can be considered a part of literacy. I think that the idea of creating a time capsule or memory box project is a really cool way to introduce students to the important aspects of their peers. There are stories within the smallest parts of our everyday lives that carry lessons for others to take from.

When students can connect to each other in a personal way, they are able to see that people aren't so different, that everyone has something in common. Using something as small as an artifact assignment can open the door to a more personal form of writing. We've learned throughout many of the readings this semester that students write better when they enjoy what they're writing about. This is an excellent way to give them a chance to find their voice.

Writing Between Languages
I have had a limited number of experiences with ELL students. I really enjoyed this reading because one of my fears is that I will get into a classroom and not know how to teach a student who is learning English. These chapters helped to give me an idea of how to approach differentiating a writing curriculum for students who need extra support.

When I was in high school, I took AP Spanish. Whenever we did a writing assignment, my teacher told us to think in Spanish because the writing would be more accurate than if we wrote in English and translated later. I always felt like I was writing at such a low level when I thought in Spanish. I couldn't express what I wanted to say, so I had to simplify it. I feel like this is the approach most people take when dealing with emergent bilinguals. All this really does is discourage them in their attempts at writing; if they are a strong writer in their native tongue, seeing how little they can write in English when they "think in English" can be harmful to their progress. If it was difficult for me to be able to express myself in a language that wasn't necessarily pertinent to my survival in this country, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for ELL students to feel as though their communication is barred because they do not have the skills to think in English yet.

I loved Fu's point about the four stages of writing that ELL students go through. It makes sense that they would undergo a gradual process rather than achieve an overnight skill. I think if teachers can recognize the stages that the students go through, it will make it easier to encourage and build up the students in their writing. I hope that I will be able to use the strategies in these chapters to help me cultivate a love for writing in any bilingual students I may have in the future.