Multiliteracies and Grade One Readers
Interweaving proven practices in the classroom.
Situated Practice for Struggling Readers
Situated Practices are worthwhile activities to all learners. Jewitt (2008) describes “current pedagogies built on multiple
literacies encourage teachers to build classroom work on student’s knowledge, experiences, and interests”
(p. 254). The Situated Practice classroom is one in which teachers provide a climate
where students feel motivated, interested, and safe to participate in the literacy activity
(New London Group, 1996). To demonstrate our value of all students and their literacy events,
my classroom has a bulletin board titled Creation Station. Here, students can bring in something
from home they are proud of or something they created during class time and they add it to this bulletin
board. This board provides the opportunity for students to exhibit “meaningful and authentic activities”
(Kim, 2013, p. 224). In this way, I am demonstrating to the students that all of their work is valued and worthy of
being shared with the class.
Situated Practice is the component that values the experiences and knowledge each student brings to the classroom and builds on these experiences to make real life connections (Mills, 2009). In providing opportunities for students to share, teachers are valuing their voice and as a result improving instructional effectiveness (Padak & Potenza-Raids, 2010). It has been this component of Multiliteracies that has inspired me to provide an open forum for student sharing which demonstrates, to the class, that their opinions and experiences matter (Jewitt, 2008). A few of our struggling students have brought in homemade books, medals won at tournaments, and favourite dolls. Students are focused and energized when they listen to a peer read from their journal, see the clothespin animal creation their friend made at a workstation, and connect to each other's experiences such as visiting a hotel with a water park. I have been pleasantly surprised with the patience and interest students show each other when they share. The Multiliteracy framework reminds teachers that literacy is about actively communicating and through this social practice teachers are providing students with authentic opportunities to share their interests and motivations (Kalantzis & Cope, 2008). The Prezi below provides a multimodal presentation of our Monday morning journal writing routine.
A good example of this situated social practice and listening stamina occurred when our class
completed a co-authoring project with their grade six reading buddies. Following this social
literacy writing task, the class had unanimously voted foreveryone to share their stoires as soon
as the grade six students left our classroom. All students remained at the carpet for thirty-five
minutes as each child stoodon our class stage and read their book and shared their pictures with
their peers! Below is the multimodal Prezi created to introduce book writing to the grade six
and grade one students.
Implementing Situated Practices such as improving connections between home and school further support the struggling reader and honour student events outside of school. To communicate each child's learning skills (e.g., independent work, initiative), our class uses the Class DOJO website. Class DOJO allows parents to see feedback on their child's learning skills through a point system. While this aspect has been beneficial, I find the open communication of texting parents to be the most effective way of informing parents of their child's success at school (Kim, 2014). Recently, Class DOJO has added a feature where students can send teachers pictures of their experiences outside of school (e.g., one struggling reader recently sent me a picture of his new soccer shoes). This Situated Practice has practical applications because orally communicating about their pictures furthers their literacy development and social confidence (Roberston, 2013). For a more detailed explanation of Class DOJO and how I specifically connect home and school please view the Prezis below.