Gapminder.com

We had another visit with Gapminder World.  Our in-class, small-group project of finding something of interest and creating our own way to display the information was thoroughly enjoyable, albeit a bit overwhelming - too many choices and such different questions in our small group.  Nonetheless we found something that we could all invest in and then had to find a way to display the information.  Interestingly, our questions led to more questions that led to more research outside of the gapminder website.  We had to answer why (education spending flatlined in 2001 with the inception of NCLB) and that led down some controversial paths that had what appeared to be very conflicting information.  Given more time I think students would begin to ask more questions about what is actually being asked and answered in the research, broadening their understanding of how difficult it is to be clear, concise and as "objective" as possible.  This looks to me to be a potentially very inter-disciplinary study of how we get information, how we look at it, and what it really means.  I think this could be very valuable across all content areas.  The implications are very broad and far-reaching in this "Information Age."

The Fabulously Intricate Web of Literacy

Reflecting on the learning-to-read journeys of myself and my two daughters in light of the reading we did in Barbara Fox's Word Identification Strategies has been illuminating. I have been especially struck by the pre-literacy learning that unfolds for us. Each daughter definitely went through these stages with different strengths and speeds.  I remember one of them at around 3 saying "PCC" when we went to the store.  I was so impressed that she knew those letters (especially the P), and then quickly realized that she knew the logo and what we called it.  That was strange for me to simultaneously appreciate a logo so that my daughter could take another step toward literacy, and to dislike that companies can use this information to try and create brand loyalty at a very young age!  Nonetheless, as parents, we celebrated when our children recognized symbols in our culture; stop signs, walk signs, different bathroom symbols, different animal crossing signs - we especially delighted in the goose and horse crossing signs which then inspired some art projects when we got home.  (Sidebar: It occurs to me that Washington state sends out little developmental postcards to parents of children born here.  They should include ways for parents to help children with the early stages of literacy.)

In the light of my deepening understanding I look forward to working with my Kindergarten buddy today, to think about her stage of literacy which I would guess is on the threshold of alphabetic.