Considering the Leslie Community

1. Where/What will you visit? Why did you choose to go there?

I plan to visit McDonalds, the local grocery store: Felspauch, the hardware store: True Value, and the Dollar General. I chose McDonalds because it is one of the three restaurant options in Leslie and is the only fast food establishment. From talking to many of the teachers in the school and being in the staff room during lunch, it appears that most of the teachers in the school go there for lunch as much as every day! I chose Felspauch because it is the only grocery store that I have seen in the community so everyone from my students to the school board members who live in Leslie must go there for their groceries. I chose the Dollar General for similar reasons. Leslie is a very small community and many of the stores that I normally shop at are nowhere to be found, so I thought it was important to visit a new place where my students may buy school supplies and possibly clothes? Leslie is also a rural where many families have farms so I decided to visit the hardware store to see what things families in the community value and need on a daily basis that are very different from my more urban upbringing.

2. What do you expect to see? Spend some time thinking about common ARCHETYPES and BIASES present in your community.

I expect to see things that you generally associate with a small town: most of the necessities near the highway, not many people out and about, one stop shopping where you can get everything in one place, not a lot of variety, farm equipment, etc. I am not aware of many biases about Leslie other than it being a small “farm town.” I grew up about 25 miles south of Leslie and that was the impression I’ve always had of the small town. When people would ask “what’s in Leslie?” I would always think “I don’t know. Nothing I guess, farms?” Since I’ve started driving there every day I do know that there is something there, like the schools, McDonalds, etc, but I haven’t seen and don’t expect to see any big, well known attractions. It was hard to get any additional ideas about biases from those I work with at the school because they are all insiders and said they weren’t aware of any, other than the fact that many students at our school are low income.

3. What do you think an "outsider" would see? Does what an outsider might see differ from what you think you will see? If so how? If not why not?

I think an outsider would see things very similar to how I might see them because for one I am technically an outsider: I am not from Leslie, I never lived there, and I had honestly never been there before I started teaching. Also, I haven’t really been there long enough to start to see things as an insider. I do think that by the end of the year an outsider and I might start to see things differently because by then I will be and feel like a part of the community, but after only two weeks I’m still working on becoming an insider.

4. Florio-Ruane (2010) explains, "The ecological view of literacy asserts that reading, writing, and oral language cannot be separated in their learning and in their use to learn subject matter. They are interrelated because they are all part of communication and are meaningful within social groups, contexts, knowledge and activities" (p. 2). Think about the setting/event you will visit as part of your Inquiry 1 investigation, and jot down some notes about the types of interconnections you are likely to see among reading, writing, oral language and other literacies and how they might contribute to communication in that setting.

I expect to see literacies that relate to the community reading and listening in order to get and by the things they need such as menus, prices, simple descriptions, signs, as well as listening to announcements on loud speakers, etc. I also expect to hear and see people communicating with each in each setting, whether it be just for enjoyment if they see someone that they know and are catching up or workers working together at McDonalds to get an order. I expect speaking and listening to be the most common interconnect literacies.

5. Think about the connections you could make between and among contexts such as your school, classroom and the community. Literacy can and is found in all of these contexts, though they are not always as "obvious" as they are in our classrooms.

Sample questions to ask yourself include:
What uses for and types of writing do you expect to see in the community (e.g., see Florio-Ruane, 2010, p. 13)?
Out of all the obvious literacies I honestly wonder how much writing I will see. Many of the places that I am visiting don’t seem to require writing; speaking and listening and reading seem like all you would need to communicate successfully at the store or restaurant. This brings up questions for me about how this might influence the students in my classroom’s writing abilities. If they don’t need to write often in their environment then they might not have adequate practice or see the necessity of it.



After visit:
• What did you notice?
Even though I waited to go after school, I noticed that there wasn’t many children or people out and about in general. At the times I went I expected more cars and more bustle, but really it was quiet. Maybe many people were still at work or work from home? Maybe it was just the areas I visited and the children were all at parks, etc?

• What surprised you? What didn't surprise you?
Based on my previous knowledge and what I had heard about the Leslie area, I wasn’t really surprised by in my opinion the lack of number of resources. I wasn’t surprised that there really was only one fast food restaurant and one small grocery store. I was surprised however by the number of people visiting Leslie for just a short period of time as they exited the highway and got gas or grabbed a quick meal. Majority of those visitors only saw the parts of Leslie closest to the highway and it made me start to wonder what kind of impressions those people from surrounding areas where getting of Leslie as I was unable to ask any of them.

• How has this community experience helped you learn about your school, students, and families? How will this experience help you in your teaching?
I will definitely have a better understanding of my students’ families, home situations and where they come from. Now that I have seen first-hand what resources they have available to them and their families I have a better understanding of what they might choose to bring or not bring to school, just as one example. I also now have a better sense of reference as to what I can make simple conversation about with my students. I think its so important to show your students that they are important to you by just talking to the informally about their lives and favorites and families, and now I can talk to them about the ice cream shop or the grocery store. If I tried to talk to them about going to Meijer or Target they might not connect with me as well as if we were talking about Dollar General and that is important even if it is a very small aspect of the classroom.

• How will it influence your thinking about your students' as literacy users and learners?
I definitely saw people chit chatting all over the place and sharing so many stories orally around the grocery store, McDonald’s, etc so it will be important to look at my students from a culturally relevant literacy lens taking into consideration the types of literacy that is around them out in the world every day. I now know that they have more experience with certain literacies and technologies and will use that information to determine what to focus on literacy instruction wise in the classroom.