| Abstrakt: |
Authentic teachers learn from their students. Through the self-study method, a teacher educator not only learns from her undergraduate and graduate students, but the children of the inner city urban Catholic schools opened her eyes, heart, and head to the deeper meaning of literacy. As a teacher of method courses in literacy, the meaning of instructional strategies were examined in the field by working with teachers, principals, and children of the urban Catholic schools. This paper reveals the journey that was traveled as a college professor and classroom teachers came together to understand their pupils' reading through writing. The children in the upper elementary grades went back and forth with revising and editing. Finally, they noticed their own potential for writing and for understanding the power of the written word to express true ideas. The students in this study were from low socio-economic neighborhoods, and many of the students were bilingual from countries such as The Republic of the Sudan, Mexico, and Bosnia. After receiving the National Migration Week Grant for $500.00, the goal was to increase expository writing with the children from the central city Catholic schools. Many of the (K-8) teachers in these schools were uncomfortable in encouraging students to take their own stories into their learning because of the varied background. The teachers feared that having students read and write about their own backgrounds would be too painful. Through examining and modeling interviewing skills, listening skills, and writing strategies, students traveled to a local Center to interview new refugees to the area. This paper tells the journey of freedom through reading and writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
