Group Literacy Invitation: Bullying

The topic of my groups literacy invitation is bullying. Often times bullying is looked over as kids just being kids, but reality is that bullying gets more serious and produces bigger results as the years pass. "Almost 30% of youth in the United States (or over 5.7 million) are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both. In a recent national survey of students in grades 6-10, 13% reported bullying others, 11% reported being the target of bullies, and another 6% said that they bullied others and were bullied themselves." (National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center) Too often you hear of students committing suicide due to some form of bullying. It is up to educators to monitor their students and make sure that they know bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Doing this literacy invitation not only will allow students to take a deeper look into bullying, but at the same time it will invite them into literacy based around the topic. I look forward to this invitation, I know a lesson like this will one day come in handy in my future classroom.

Literacy Moves on ch.1-5

Making connections between classroom literacy and everyday texts is one of the main topics that stood out to me amongst these chapters. When you think of elementary literature; basals, poems, published children literature, and things of the sort come to mind, but rarely are tv advertisements, magazine ads,toy packaging, etc. considered. Using invitations based around these forms of literacy really draw the student into the lesson. Using everyday texts in the classroom can build a connection between the students' world and education. Its always important to teach in a way that interest the students. The greater interest a student haves the greater work he or she will produce.
The Toy Packaging Invitation is amazing. After reading about it and then doing the activity in class I could see how many topics could be covered while students are at the same time having fun. Just about anything involving toys will keep a child interested and is more than appropriate for their age level. Examples of lessons that could be taught are creating personal toys, developing story to go along with toy, creating logos, etc. All opportunities need to be left open when thinking of ways to reach and teach students; the possibilities are endless and if looked at the right way may really allow the student to take his/her work to the next level. Teachers must always keep their minds open.