Entry #9 Open Entry: Differentiated Learning to Engage Students

This week in class we watched a video Teaching Reading: Strategies for Successful Classrooms where we were able to see and hear about different strategies that one teacher uses to engage her students in reading and writing. What I found interesting that many of the ideas and things I was able to see are parallels to Gholdy Muhammad's learning presented in her Book Cultivating Genius. I find these parallels particularly interesting due to the ideas being presented in Teaching Reading come almost Thirty years before Cultivating Genius. I, in no way, am trying to discredit the work of Dr. Muhammad because what she presents in her book is looking to get back to these ideas that have seemingly been lost throughout history; but to highlight that some of these ideas have never been completely lost and that they have always worked in teaching literacy. 

One parallel that sticks out to me is the use of shared learning. In Muhammad (2020), she presents this idea from her "Ten Lessons from Black Literacy Societies (p.32)" saying "learners of different literacies and experiences came together to learn from one another- using each other's ways of knowing as resources for new learning (p.34)." Then in the video this idea is presented in what the teacher, Mrs. Martin called "share time. This is a whole class activity where students talk about stories they've read or stories they've written (Jacobs, 1991, 6:25)." Both ideas talk of sharing learning, to teach each other, and the ability to gain new ideas that you won't come across in your learning. Sharing your learning exposes the people in the audience to new ideas, or stories that they might never come across in their own educational pursuits. The sharing in both show that it has worked in the 1800's, it worked in the 1900's and it can work today. This makes me want to allow my future students the space to share their learning, share their ideas and help spark other students thinking and expand their learning. I want to allow them the freedom the space to express themselves and help their fellow students progress their knowledge as well.

Another interesting parallel that I see between Muhammad's work and the work being done in Mrs. Martin's class in the video was working on identity. Identity is one of Muhammad's pursuits in teaching literacy, 

    Our students, and arguably adults, are looking for themselves in spaces and places.                Before getting to literacy skill development such as decoding, fluency, comprehension,        writing, or any other content-learning standards, students must authentically see                    themselves in learning (Muhammad, 2020, p. 69).

In the video one way that Mrs. Martin helps students see themselves and allow others to see them during morning meeting, "the children and I share news of home (Jacobs, 1991, 4:35)." She allows students to share who they are and help them build their identities within the classroom. This allows for her to understand her students and she in turn helps her create her lessons for her students. Seeing this in actions reinforces the idea of getting to know my students to help them become the best students they can become. When you know your students, you know how to reach them and are able to make sure they get the most out of their learning.

The video gave so much in just the short viewing that we did in class. It showed many different ways to teach literacy in all forms. It also made parallels to Muhammad's work that show that what she wrote about works in a modern setting.

References

Jacobs, A. (Director). (1991). Teaching Reading: Strategies from Successful Classrooms.              University of Illinois; https://vimeo.com/693686567/650b8de612 

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and                  Historically Responsive Literacy. Scholastic