September 5, 2022 - Fischer 2017

Big Takeaway: Children’s annotations/scribbles, drawings, and play are symbolic and meaningful from a young age.

Nugget: I find it interesting how there is a right type of annotation, which is acquired in schools. However, thinking in this way ignores how young readers pre conventionally interact with text.

Reflection:

View the reading through a particular lens (disability studies) to consider the implications of the reading for a specific audience.

Looking at this reading through a disability perspective might change the way we take meaning from what seems like random scribbles. A child with a disability might develop school-worthy annotation skills a lot later than other children, or they might not even develop them at all. That is why it is important to not brush off what seems like random scribbles as meaningless annotations. A nonverbal child might never be able to reflect on their readings and drawings like other children, but their ability to annotate and connect with text should not be counted out. Children with disabilities are still very much able to connect with text, but this sometimes comes across in a way that our society views as less meaningful.

When I began reading this article, I quickly got really into it because this topic is very interesting to me. I work at a preschool and am always interested in what the children create, especially the really young ones. It is so cool to look at their drawings and writings and know that all of it has meaning. Even if it seems random and meaningless to us, it was created as a result of a child’s interaction with text. This reading also made me question my prior opinions on children drawing in picture books. It taught me that when we give a child a book, we are giving them ownership over it, meaning they should have the freedom to connect with it however they want.

August 29 - Cambourne & Britsch + Meier

Big Takeaway

Cambourne: Literacy classrooms should mimic authentic learning contexts.

Britsch + Meier: It is essential for children to have ownership over their learning environments.

Nugget

Cambourne: “Learners are more likely to engage with demonstrations if they are free from anxiety”

Britsch + Meier: When the teacher was reading aloud, a student made a comment about the teacher having big feet. Although it is frustrating and not helpful when kids say things like this during instructional time, it is important to not treat their off-topic comments as unwanted or irrelevant.

Reflection

After you’ve read, document your initial response to what you’ve read. Consider how the ideas you read about made you feel and what they made you think about.

Initial Response:

After reading the text from Cambourne, I began to think about my own personal experiences as a learner. I became intrigued after reading about learner anxiety and was able to relate it to things that have happened in my own life. Learners engage more frequently with demonstrations if they are free from anxiety, and I found that to be true in my own life. I remember when my dad made me sign up for an engineering class in high school to explore the field. I was only a freshman and the class was filled with upperclassmen who would soon go off to study engineering in college and had lots of background knowledge on the subject. I felt very insecure about my engineering expertise from the first day I walked into that classroom, which had a great impact on willingness to participate in class. I felt anxiety about many different things as I was a part of that class, and as a result of this, I rarely volunteered and participated in class. It didn’t help that the teacher had already had the chance to form relationships with most of the other students through previous engineering classes they had taken.

Before I read this text, I looked at the titles throughout the reading and reflected on what they might be about. I originally tried to listen to the recording on canvas, but quickly resorted to the online copy at the library because I am very much a visual person and it helps to see what I’m reading. I found this reading easy because it was interesting to me, and I even found myself connecting my own personal experiences to a lot of what I was reading. This text highlights the importance of teaching students in authentic learning environments, and it made me think about lessons I have observed or taught in the past, and if they stayed true to this.