Connect with Dr. Jennifer Miller-Ray

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Category: parent involvement

  • Round as a Tortilla Makerspace STEAM Literacy Event

    Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez (2011) describes the importance of education programs leveraging a child’s fund of knowledge through connecting with families and involving a holistic approach toward learning activities and learning environments. Makerspaces can serve as a quality environment to facilitate activities to incorporate balanced literacy approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners. Range & Schmidt (2014) suggests “successful makerspaces, particularly in education environments, balance practicality with creativity and collaboration to serve the needs of the school community” (p. 8). Tan, Barton, & Schnekel (2018) highlight that “children’s funds of knowledge were recruited by engaging them in community ethnography, which informs of the making design process” (p. 77) via a makerspace environment. The purpose of this activity is to align a purposeful makerspace activity to topics explored in Pre-K and kindergarten using the book by Thong & Parra (2015), Round as a Tortilla.

     

    Repeated Reading Strategy

    Day One

    1. The teacher will introduce the, Round is a Tortilla, to their students. The teacher will show the front cover, back cover and conduct a picture walk.  Remember to read the story enthusiastically, and with expression.
    2. After reading, ask why questions to allow time for students to make inferences and to measure understanding of story events.
    3. Begin the a KWHL: What do we know? What do we want to know? How will we find out? What have we learned? How will we find out?

    Send home a Round as  Tortillia Makespace STEAM Event letter to invite parents to the school library and to participate in making items from the story. Include 4 challenge card ideas in the letter with a link to the video. Invite the makerspace community. Your librarian should be able to help you facilitate this process.

    Day Two

    The teacher will conduct the second read-aloud to enrich reading comprehension and provide further engagement opportunities through a book talk, and highlight vocabulary.

    1. Add more frequent questions.
    2. Ask children questions to think beyond the story with completing a KWHL, What have we learned?
    3. Introduce 4 STEAM Makerspace Challenge Cards and Makerspace activities. Here are some ideas. Encourage students to make their own challenge card but remind students that cards should connect to elements found in the story.
      1. Journalist: Be a storyteller and make a story about shapes in your community.
      2. Scientist: Be a scientist and investigate the process of making masa and round tortillas. Be a computer scientist: Make a game with squares and other shapes.
      3. Artist: Make a weave of shapes to use as a rectangular flag as represented in the story. Make an oval necklace.
      4. Engineer: Engineer a sail for a boat that you make.

    Day Three:  Makerspace STEAM event in the library. Students will make items that represent elements in the story with their parents and makerspace community.

    Repeat the reading of the story. After the activity, ask the children, What have you learned?

    This activity connects to Moll’s ideas of knowledge as it involves the child’s entire community in the literacy process. Children can learn how their culture connects to classroom topics through the art of making. Elders can help children learn how to weave, code, build, and apply STEAM principals through everyday activities.

  • Learning to Read

    How did I learn to read? This is a good question to consider when thinking about the process of reading. Teresa Horner, a middle school librarian aide, taught me how to read at a very early age. Mrs. Horner is also my mother and avid reader, which enriched my opportunities toward becoming a successful reader. My mother took a big interest and engaged me every day with rhyming and song. Before I could read, I remember memorizing Baring-Goud & Baring-Gould’s Mother Goose (1967) nursery songs that we would sing together. Later we graduated to Dr. Seuss’s children books and rhymes. I learned to listen while other read to me and to interact with the reader via song. The public library always offered a summer reading program and my mother would escort all four of her children to the program each summer. As a kindergartner, we were able to have our parents read to us to sign off on our program. Participants were rewarded in some way, but I do not remember what the reward was. We were encouraged to read 10 books each summer, attend a weekly meeting, and participated in a party afterwards. As an early reader, we participated in literacy circles, met colorful authors and guest readers, and created artistic representations of the books we read during public library programs. I began to learn to read early in life, 4 to 5 years of age, with learning the alphabet. As the textbook mentions, pictures and song influenced both my ability to engage and comprehend readings. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Fortune, provided us with books that we would take home to read. They were very simple and required parent involvement. As we progressed to second, third, fourth, and fifth grade, I remember my mother encouraging us to read more. As a family, we would read chapter books to include the Boxcar Boys, Nancy Drew Mystery Stories,  and Little House on the Prairie. Again, she took me to the public library each week and we would check out books together as a family. I don’t remember my school librarian at all and don’t remember the school library being a fun learning environment. The public library was always of interest to me.

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    Baring-Gould, W. S., & Baring-Gould, C. (1967). The annotated Mother Goose: nursery rhymes old and new. New American Library.

    Cobb, J. B., & Kallus, M. K. (2011). Historical, theoretical, and sociological foundations of reading in the united states. Boston, MD: Pearson Education Inc.