Exploring the Community

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

I will visit Russell Park in Leslie, MI. I asked the students what they did on the weekends and most of them told me that they play video games but some of them said they go to the park. The park is right down the street from Woodworth elementary and my teacher said that there may be occasions that we take the students there during school. Right across from the park is a pool. I was told that the pool is very popular in the summer, although it is closed now due to the season. I chose to visit this park because it is the only one that is in the area besides the one at the elementary school. Leslie is a very small town and there is not much to it. This park is small compared to ones that I have seen in the East Lansing area. I chose to go here also because I hope to see students outside playing, instead of playing video games. I also wanted to see if families were there or if it generally was just the children playing.

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

I expect to see some kids playing there. Since it is a small town I expect to see a lot of children and not as many parents because it is within walking distance for many houses. I expect to see more children there than I saw during the week. The one bias that I have heard of the community is that is a lower income area. Because of this, I expect to see a lot of children on the weekends because there is no admission to the parks as there is at a state park like Hawk Island park in Lansing. At the same time I don’t expect to see a lot of children at the park because it is a small town and unless it is within walking distance I feel as though people will not go. I also expect to see older kids, teenagers, because it is central in the community and it is a place where they can “hang out”.

--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 the same as me because I am not from the community nor have ever been there before my student teaching started. I think they would see the same as me also because from driving through the town and seeing the houses and “downtown” area one can easily tell that it is a small town. There are a lot of houses around the park so I think it would be easy for anyone to expect that many children would walk to the park.

-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.

At the park there is a sign that says “Park Rules” and it lists the rules that are expected to be followed. In order to be able to read that sign is it important to know how to read. Also the people there will be interacting with each other. The children will be talking to each other and playing and adults could also be interacting with each other. Also, at the pool there is a sign that says it is closed. I expect to see mostly reading and oral language because there is not much writing that occurs at the park. Although this is informal I do expect to see some kind of writing on the play structure itself from older kids.

-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.

What traditional literacies do you expect to see in the community?

I expect to see a more traditional literacies rather than new literacies. I expect to see more reading and writing rather than blogging or instant messaging. Since it is a small town there is no community college in the town. I also did not see a community center or anything that would have computers available to the public. The only resource that I saw in the community was the library and it was very small. I don’t expect to see many computers available for use there either. There is a computer lab at the school that has enough computers for everyone in our classroom but that is not up and running yet. I think traditional literacies will definitely be more common but I also think there will be some students who have computers in their homes that are able to go on the internet and play educational games or that have been more introduced to computers in general. (It is generally the same students in my class that ask if they can use the computers during free time.)

What did you notice?

After I visited Russell Park I noticed that my predictions were fairly accurate. There were a few more students that I expected to see. I did not see a lot of parents because most of the children that were there had walked to the park.

What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you?

I was surprised at the lack of adult supervision. But at the same time I wasn’t. The community is small and is lower on the economic scale. The majority of the families that live in Leslie are unemployed or they are part of the working class. I think they let their kids run free a lot of the time. I was not surprised that there was a higher number of teenage students there because it is centrally located in the community and it is a good place to “hang out” away from their houses and parents. I was also surprised at the condition the play structure was in. I had assumed that there would be carvings of words in the wood from older kids but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was not a lot of vandalism or profanity or anything around.

How has this community experience helped you learn about your school, students, and families? How will this experience help you in your teaching?

This experience has helped me see what some students do on the weekends. I think it is very important for kids to get outside and play instead of staying indoors watching TV or playing video games. The park is very close to the school and my teacher said that we may visit the park during school hours on occasion. I think it taught me a lot about the families in the sense that I did not see a lot of family interaction going on. There were few adults in comparison to the amount of students that were there. When I was younger my mom did not let me or my siblings go to the park alone. It is just a safety issue. It is not like at a public pool or anything where there is a lifeguard or a security guard or anything is on duty that is there to watch the people that are playing. I think it will help in my teaching because I feel like the students might not necessarily get the supervision or direction and rules that they need at home. I feel like the students don’t get the structure that they need to be successful and I hope that I can give that to them in the classroom.

How will it influence your thinking about your students as literacy users and learners?

I think it will influence the students as literacy learners because there was a sign with the park rules clearly stated. There is not too much literacy that is seen at the park but you could turn that into having them research and find different ways to connect their experiences to literacy. This could even include writing about their experiences or reiterating the rules that they saw displayed.