Fostering Lifelong Learning - Episcopal Academy

Finding a New Language for Literacy
Reflections on a
sabbatical year
by Jennifer Rea, Episcopal
Academy kindergarten teacher
I
find myself returning to the classroom
with a new language for
literacy. I’ve always had a love of literacy,
and wanted to know more…
not simply because it’s what I like doing,
but because reading and writing are at
the heart of teaching. I wanted (needed)
to explore current theories and how other
teachers teach reading and writing.
Being granted a sabbatical year gave
me just such an opportunity — to come
to grips with the reading and writing of
learning. In the year prior to my sabbatical,
I enrolled in the University of
Pennsylvania’s masters program in reading,
writing and literacy at the Graduate
School of Education. The sabbatical
provided me with the time to share in
and inhabit the classrooms of two superb
kindergarten teachers at The Penn
Alexander School in Philadelphia. And,
it was there that I was inspired to see
kindergarten children in “workshops”-
“work” as in the “doing,” “shop,” as in
the place of doing — reading and writing
with joy and purpose. After three
months in the classrooms of Penny Silver
and Mark Lowe, I was beginning to
develop new ideas and new symbols —
I was acquiring new ways of thinking
about literacy, a new language.
It was through time shared with Penny
and Mark, and their pupils, that I was
impelled to attend Columbia University’s
two-week intense training program
at the Summer Institutes in Reading and
Writing. Directed by Lucy Calkins, the
Teachers College Reading and Writing
Project is based not only on literacy research
but also on active collaboration
between teachers and researchers. Its
implementation throughout New York
City’s school district, from Manhattan
to Harlem, has yielded terrific results.
Calkins’ reading and writing workshops
teach even the youngest children to love
words and literature, to read like “writers”
and write like “readers.”
Because of these experiences I now
address my children as “readers” and
“writers.” I ask them to “turn and talk”
to sit “knee to knee” to tell the “stories of
our lives” and their “good writing ideas
across five fingers.” At lunch they sit
telling stories about something that happened
and add “I think I’ll write about
that.” They want to hear stories again
and again. They spontaneously read
along as stories are read aloud, playing
the part. Their natural creative impulses
to learn by doing are reinforced and enhanced
by interactive “read alouds” and
the reading workshop. There’s a new energy
in the classroom around reading
and writing. Reading and writing really
are fun!
Mindful that young children need to
play and explore, to live the experiences
that will become the fabric of their
lives as literate individuals, reading and
writing are now the crux of the kindergartener’s
day. The workshops are special
times for children to explore words, pictures
and stories…express themselves to
themselves and to the others within their
community, the classroom.
1
Rea, J. F. (2007) Play, Experiential Learning,
and Literacy in the Kindergarten Classroom,
Prospect Review 28 (e), 9 pp. http://review.
prospectcenter.org/" http://review.prospectcenter.org/
2 Connections