Representations galore...

"Representation doesn't always have to be literal."  This is what we had learned from our Kidnet guest lecturers.  They explained to us that representations of writing don't always have to be literal.  They showed us examples of digital stories that portrayed people's autobiographies through pictures and digital media.  

This reminded me of my own experience during my high school graduation.  Instead of a normal graduating speech, I expressed my feelings through dance and put together a graduation dance instead of a written oral graduation speech.  In the following video, me and four other graduating dancers danced to "For Good" to express how people have impacted our high school's lives for the better and as a tribute to our family and friends for always being there.

It is interesting how writing and language can really be portrayed in so many different modalities.  This is simply just one of them...

Reflection of Glynda Hull's presentation

I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Hull's presentation of Errors in Literacy.  As she discussed artistic forms of oral communication and different registers of language.  That got me thinking of how performing arts could be considered a modality of literacy and writing.  Professor Glynda Hull used examples of digital story telling to exemplify how incorporating different modalities into writing changes traditional writing.  

While she was describing this I was thinking about how physical movement or dance could be used as a modality of writing and communication.  One contribution of dance to literacy is the ecological psychotherapy and value of dance for patients.  According to Susan F. Graham, she talks about she agrees with educational writers, such as Vygotsky, that there is a pattern that develops in literacy development.  

They believed that literacy is stimulated by 

interactions of a gross physical nature with ones environment and others,

these experiences are then converted into internal or external verbal languageand finally

the concepts developed are reinforced and recorded through the more abstract mediums of reading and writing."

Read more:http://danceeducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/dances_contribution_to_literacy#ixzz0MX6hA9Xu

This really made me think that maybe I could do my final project incorporating this type of modality of literacy.

"Are you born in Chinatown???"

Funny how my field work experiences are moving hand in hand with class readings and discussions.  Just yesterday after class, I went to St. Martin de Porres and I met two cute little Mexican girls.  The quiet one was named Diana and the more outgoing and active one was named Rachelli.  As I was playing and talking with them, one of the first questions they asked me was what country are you from?  It was very interesting how they associated my race/ethnicity with what country I came from.  Yes... I am Chinese, but I have actually never been to China before.  I also have only gone back to Taiwan maybe twice my entire life.  So I answered I'm from the United States.  They both gave me puzzled looks and were waiting for me to continue my explanation.  I told them I am Chinese and I speak Mandarin, but I was born here and so I identify myself as an American.  

Diana and Rachelli were so interested in my ethnic background, culture, and language.  I was actually sad that I couldn't identify as much with it as I'd like.  They wanted me to tell them how to say all these different words and phrases in Chinese.  They even made me write the words on their arms so they could remember them.   Embarrassingly I couldn't write as proficiently as I speak.  As I taught them Mandarin, they taught me a bit of Spanish.  Although I had taken Spanish in high school for  years, I would say I'm far from good so it was a great experience for me!  I really enjoyed this opportunity for exchange of languages and their growing curiosity for other cultures.  It made me think about how eventually, someday, we could all learn to overlook boundaries of race and appreciate all the different cultures that do exist.

Transformation...

According to Vygotsky, interpersonal interactions transforms into intrapersonal interactions. Vygotsky repeatedly emphasizes the importance of education as a social learning process that develops into an individual internalization. Moving from the social level, where learning is acquired in an external manner, most of the time from another intellectual. One of his prime concepts and examples is that "we learn with the assistance of someone else who can help us do things we can't yet do on our own." I have found this to be very true since I've started to work at the St. Martin de Porres site. Many of the students that I have worked with are just waiting for someone to show them how something is done. They just need an older mentor or tutor there to teach them about the life experiences and achievements they are yet to obtain. One of the greatest feelings I get is when the kids talk about the schools they want to go to in the future. One of the young girls I went to even told me she wanted to go to Cal! She said that all of the tutors and mentors from there were smart, she hoped that one day she would be like that as well. Like Vygotsky says, all the students need is assistance to get to where they want to be and what they cannot yet attain by themselves. Interpersonal goals and learning processes are then transformed into intrapersonal scaffolding. =)

Exploring on Equal Territory

Often times I find it to be very intimidating to go up to a professor or person of higher scholarly merit than you and ask for help or even just to engage in conversation.  I feel incompetent in comparison to them and that I lack the capacity of knowledge necessary to communicate with them.  Although I know that this is a faulty way of thinking, I can't help but feel nervous and jittery when having to face someone who is considered an intellectual superior.  

This exact situation seems to be an underlying fear for a lot of tutors.  When working with kids, you really have no idea what to expect.  Personally, I am afraid to be stepping on a child's imagination and creativity by having to correct them or point out their academic faults.  I find it very difficult to find the perfect balance between the two hats that are mentioned:  researcher and teacher.  It seems like often times there is an assumed hierarchy between the student and the teacher that is hard for some of the students to break.  In that case, it is really hard for the teacher to empower the student, engaging in rich dialogue and the student to accept that help and encouragement.  

To make research and teaching work in unison, we learned that we have to be able to approach and make knowledge "together" rather than have a give and receive type of learning technique.  The main concept that I will be sure to take with me as I visit my sites this week is to simply imagine myself exploring the learning field once again, but this not as a tutor but as an equal to the kids there, experiencing and growing in knowledge with them.

play...

According to Webster's,  the word "play" holds multiple meanings.  It can be the noun meaning the conduct or course of an action or even the maneuver within a game.  However, I feel like the word "play" is far more significant to us as a verb.  I would never have associated the word "play" with literacy.  In a normal classroom setting, it is hard for students to associated play or fun with academic learning.  However, as we listened to the introductions from both St. Martin de Porres and Artists in Residence, I realized some of my best learning and literacy experiences began outside the classroom.  

Looking back, my very first experiences were simple out of the classroom memories of listening to bedtime stories that were being told by my parents.  In a lot of ways that would be considered "play" or at least playtime for the imagination.  I'm excited for the experiences and opportunities that await when we volunteer at our selected sites.  I feel like in our busy schedules we often forget to take that time out to just relax and play, and with that lack of "play" we are actually missing out on a lot of valued learning as well.