Story Walk

 In case you are wondering, and even if you are not, here's what I've been up to for the past ten weeks:

See those kids above and their babysitter? They are enjoying the literacy project that I helped create. In the course of taking a Literacy Leadership graduate class, I needed to initiate a literacy reform project and jumped in with the local librarian to create a Story Walk along the fence where many children and adults walk to and from school. It is also the path used in the summer to get to the city park and swimming pool.

What is a story walk you ask? It is a combination of dismantled books, poems reprinted line by line, comics, words, letters, and pictures chosen to challenge and intrigue everyone from emerging to conventional readers. Every few weeks the selection is replaced with new materials.

Did you know that mental maturity and drill have less to do with literacy learning than children having an abundance of print experiences before starting school and that "easy access to books, magazines, and other reading materials is an essential factor to schools where children become readers and writers" (Allington & Cunningham, 2007, p. 63).  

Also, low-income children tend to fall as much as two months behind in their reading achievement during the summer months because they have less access to computers and reading materials so relying solely on school materials nine months per year is inadequate literary access (Viadero, 2010). Besides that, “children whose knowledge of a topic is limited have difficulty comprehending much of what they read and difficulty communicating in writing about that topic" (Allington & Cunningham, 2007, p. 52). So this project is an effort to expand background knowledge and draw more families into public libraries.

Hopefully, as people walk along they will read, think, and discuss the print, practicing their reading skills and expanding their repertoire of print experiences. They may also become acquainted with the materials available at the public library and be more motivated to make use of it year round.

The project is a bit time consuming since the materials have to be prepared, laminated, and secured to the fence, which is about a 12 hour process, but it is creative and fun. And if it motivates struggling readers, then it is definitely worth the effort and time. Of course,  gathering the project data through interviews, surveys, and research, then compiling and interpreting it before creating and implementing a reform plan, summarizing the results, and evaluating the process was also a bit time consuming. Twelve pages worth of time, in fact, but also worth the effort.

So that's where part of my time has gone - along with a couple book studies and weekly response papers. Oh, yeah...and helping Mom on the side...er, in the middle.

Worth It

 

Mom is wielding a bean bag in the above picture, fulfilling her occupational therapist's belief in her that she can knock down every pin. Twenty minutes and over fifty tries later, it was a reality recorded in the picture below. Faith provided the motivation and willingness to risk failure, but hard work, trial-error-adjustment, and determination created the success.

Also pictured on the right is the pole that the physical therapist has helped her to learn to use as a transfer aid. The horizontal bar lifts and rotates around the pole, then lowers to lock into place to use as a grip. It all adds up to a little more freedom, muscle building, and greater self-esteem. 

Besides fear, Mom has had to overcome self-doubt, apathy, and bias (she didn't want the therapies nor aids in the beginning) and accept help (regardless of its form) in order to move forward in her healing. Before the therapy started, she was depending on faith, alone, for her progress, but we all know that God expects more from us than that. The journey has been psychological, emotional, and physical, and so have the achievements.

So what are we dreaming of that is worth our faith, hard work, and determination?

Mentally Engaged

I’ve just spent the last ten weeks taking a couple online graduate classes in teaching literacy. The credits add to the continuing education that I need to renew my license and the courses can be applied toward a reading endorsement, or, if I have enough stamina and motivation, an MS degree, but I don’t expect to take it that far. I have to admit that the reading has been very interesting. I didn’t realize all the factors that contribute to a child’s learning to read and write. Even “environmental print” plays an important part. That’s the words on packaging, price tags, the McDonald’s logo, road signs, and billboards.

There are lots of things that can put children at-risk for reading. Besides learning difficulties, factors such as cultural diversity, being an English language learner, low socio-economic status, low family literacy, and lack of environmental print experiences can all challenge reading development. I have also learned that scribbling is important and that there are different kinds of scribbling that denote motor development. It just goes to show how much we take for granted in the learning process.

As mentally stimulating as these courses have been, however, I almost bit off more than I could chew along with subbing and spending time with Mom. I got a head start on the reading, but writing two papers and six half page responses to other people’s papers each week plus two ongoing projects caught up with me about halfway through the term. Part of my problem is that obsessive desire to make things perfect coupled with the random refusal of the technological “Blackboard” system to cooperate with posting my work. Now I am racing to finish up the last papers and final application projects that denote the end; reveling in how much “good stuff” I have learned while counting the days until I am free to immerse myself in the luxury of reading for fun again. Yet, even as I breathe this sigh of relief at the light that has reached my eyes from the end of the tunnel, I wonder what will be next to help me fill some of those restless hours of the day.