Literacy & Language

Literacy.

What is literacy? I have taken many classes on this and I remember when it first became really clear to me that literacy is not simply the ability to read. Literacy involves understanding the world's communications as well as the cultural and social contexts of those messages. We receive these messages via written texts or images as well as through body language and facial expressions. When we speak of literacy, more often than not, we are referring to the written texts or images of society. However the message and context are not mutually exclusive. In order to read these messages and interpret them accurately, one must understand how you create them and why.

I am only at the start of understanding the above implications for my classroom. One summer several years ago, I found myself at a teacher website and found a company producing small chapter books for Spanish learners. They consisted of 9-12 short chapters that were written by native speakers. Though I was unable to preview all of them, what I saw intrigued me and at six dollars a book, they seemed like a bargain. I purchased eight of them and waited eagerly to receive my package in the mail.

Before my life-altering summer in the CDWP Summer Institute (described here), I had developed a system called TQE. TQE stood for Tarea Que Escojes (or homework that you choose) and they were reading packets that I found in a textbook reader. Each was an article with guided questions throughout the reading, vocab exercises, comprehension questions, and a personal essay topic. The topics were all cultural and for the five years that I used them, students had to pick one every three weeks and complete it.

Looking back, these packets were well-intended, though misguided. I knew that students needed to read in order to see correctly modeled Spanish. There were three different levels of difficulty in the TQEs so the students would pick from more and more difficult ones as the year progressed. The deadlines would bring many students after school and during study halls the week before they were due. I was able to work with a lot students and help them read these articles. A sea of kids was often crowded around my desk with a packet, frantically trying to complete it and get a 50/50. Students were also allowed to correct them to earn credit back if their first attempt was poor.

I haven't thought about these in the three years since my summer at CDWP. During that summer, I determined they were complete crap and were a waste of time and paper. They were not authentic and they required students to simply regurgitate the information from the article. There was no real thinking or learning involved. When I returned to my classroom that fall, I tossed all the copies into the recycle bin.

What this misguided attempt at, what can only be loosely described as, reading instruction demonstrates is that I am a language teacher who does not know how to teach reading (or writing). I know how to drill rules and teach vocabulary, but I was not prepared in the fundamentals of language instruction. This is a problem I have witnessed many times, beginning from my very first Spanish class in seventh grade. Language teachers are teaching vocabulary and grammar and very few have in depth knowledge at how to teach skills. There are many "reading comprehension" activities in text books however they call for simple regurgitation. In my five years of schooling for the two degrees I hold, I never learned or discussed theories on reading or writing instruction, yet I am expected to do it. I am certain that the same can be said by many of my colleagues across the country who teach world languages. I do not believe that teaching grammatical rules and expecting students to memorize vocabulary lists teaches them how to read. Granted, vocabulary and grammar aid in reading but they are not the only pieces to that puzzle. I am learning this now.

I am only now truly starting to understand how complex reading and writing instruction is. My students know vocabulary words and they recognize several tenses and grammatical structures, however they still cannot read. I wanted to start solving this problem. Meta-cognition and teaching through modeling intrigues me and I thought modeling how to read might be the way to start. So I finally pulled out one of those readers I bought over two years ago. It's a chapter book called Viaje Perdido and we read it in class together. I read and voiced the characters, adding tone to the piece as necessary to aid in their understanding of the sarcasm and whit of the various characters. We read and translated it together and I still do not understand where the disconnect is for my students. There were many passages I opted, at first, not to translate because it should have been obvious for them and they were easier sections. However then kids reported they didn't understand and were lost.

We are now reading a second book called Ojos de Carmen. I informed the students that I would not be translating word for word like we did the last book. I want to see if they could make meaning from it. For this book, I took two hours and read through it, underlining and defining several words and expressions for them. In fact the only words that are not underlined are ones that they should know or be able to guess. Yet just yesterday in class, a few students expressed their frustration about not understanding any of it. How can this be when I even defined all the hard words? It begs the question, where is the disconnect?

It's important to note that I have many students who do get it and can read the language with little difficulty. These are strong students in all subjects and are students who innately move between classes with ease. They "get" school in a way that many don't. But what about the others? I have many theories on what makes reading so difficult for these world language students.

1. They lack the confidence in their abilities. Perhaps they understand more than they let on but are afraid they are wrong, so they say they don't get it.
2. They do not know how to take the reading skills they learned in elementary school about decoding sentences and extrapolate it to Spanish.
3. They have learned helplessness in this society where many of their parents do everything for them. They are used to instant gratification and not working for anything.
4. They truly don't care enough to try to figure it out, even though they could.
5. The lack of motivation to try comes out of a deep-seeded cultural belief that everyone should, or does, speak English, so this is irrelevant.

It could very well be, that for any one of my students, several of these theories are at play to one degree or another and so it is not necessarily a lack of ability or motivation, but a severe disconnect with many factors necessary for reading proficiency. In an elementary school, students who were struggling and not up to par with their classmates would be pulled out for reading intervention. A teacher would sit with those students separately, having been trained as a reading specialist, to help them find success. I do not have such a luxury here so I struggle and do what I can.

I have foregone some vocabulary and grammar content in order to read with my class. I believe it will inevitably help them more in their language learning and, yes, even on their final state exam. Since the four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) cannot be separated or placed above each other, it will also inform the other three skills. Strong readers are stronger writers. Strong writers have the ability to manipulate language quicker and are better speakers. Great readers and speakers are excellent listeners. The skills bleed into one another and help my students to be able to decode the written text of this culture.

I have traveled far from my first year of teaching, in which reading was done superficially and with minimal thought. Back then, I assumed memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules was sufficient instruction and that reading would magically happen. I was naïve and believed that five years of college had taught me what I need to know. Little did I know, I had barely begun learning about what it truly is to teach.

I do not think I am alone in this struggle. I am sure many of my world languages colleagues are as uncertain as me as to why our students tell us they can't do it, or are unwilling to try. I am in the long, arduous process of learning how to teach not simply a language to my students, but true literacy.