My Tenth Visit...

Yesterday was my tenth visit to my kindergarten students. The ride is so familiar now, and I don't get nervous anymore when driving to the school. When I arrived at the school, I waited at the door with Thanh and a student who was late..we had to ring the doorbell at least 5 times before they let us in. After we signed in, Thanh and I made our way to Mrs. Del's room. The other volunteers were already there and Mrs. Del and Mrs. Smith were sharing stories from their teaching experience. We found out that the intervention program is technically over since we evaluated them, but we would still be tutoring the students when we came. This week I got the game Candy Land and I knew my students would be so excited.

When we walked to Room 14, we saw all the students on the carpet reading a story with a substitute teacher. When they were done, the other volunteers and myself went to our designated tables and waited for our students. Billy, Jared, and Sarah were so excited when they saw Candy Land. We jumped into the game...each student had to name the sight word and a sentence before advancing to the color of the card. Billy and Sarah did very well with the sight word and sentences. Jared struggled still with the sight words, but was able to put together sensible sentences. The students really enjoyed Candy Land, but Billy missed doing the poem so he asked if we could do "Humpty Dumpty" next week. I said I would bring it and try to get Candy Land again. As 10:35 came around, the volunteers and myself made our way back to Ms. Del's room.

This week, there was no paperwork to fill out. I have only two weeks left with the kindergarten students and it's a little sad. I have grown to like these students and being able to help them learn there sounds and start to read. This service learning project has been a great experience!

Talking Points #10

"Education is Politics: An agenda for Empowerment" Shor
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. “He urged teachers to encourage students to question their experience in school: “You must arouse children’s curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it’s very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers” (Meier 1990, 7). A school year that begins by questioning school could be a remarkably democratic and critical learning experience for students.”

I agree with this quote. If students are encouraged to ask and discuss their school experience, they may be able to see the importance for receiving an education. When I was in school, I didn’t feel the importance of it a lot because no one talked about; it was just known to me that I would go to school then to college. If students discussed it and were asked about it, then it could evoke critical thoughts into some students, if not all which would lead to them finding out the importance of going to school.

2. “People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not, as is commonly supposed, politically neutral. It cuts off the students’ development as critical thinkers about their world. If the students task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.

I agree with this quote as well. Education can develop or stifle a student, and I have seen both. I think it’s important for schools to ask students about education and why they go to school, so they will be able to see the importance of it. Furthermore, if a student realizes why they are in school and how it can help them be successful, maybe they will become more inclined to learn.

3. “On the other hand, education is a social experience for tens of millions of students who come to class with their own dreams and agendas, sometimes cooperating with and sometimes resisting the intentions of the school and the teacher.”

Students do come to school with their own dreams and agendas because most of the time, especially in older students, they are focused on getting out of school and what’s ahead rather than what’s in front of them. I feel that it’s important for the teacher to engage the students by in cooperating aspects into each lesson that interests students so that they will focus on learning and achieving academically in the process of achieving their dreams.


This article was interesting. I think it’s very important that students learn, and teachers encourage, to question things. They should question why they are in school, what’s the importance of it, and to question what material they are learning and why. Furthermore, when students learn to question they will learn to analyze things critically, which is important for life. I also feel it’s important that people are not only judged on their academic success but also their hard work.

Talking Points #9

"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome" Christopher Kliewer

1. "I started to notice that I didn't like the classes I was taking called special education. I had to go through special ed. almost all my life. I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry."

This quote really made me think of what's going on in our society and schooling for students with down syndrome or other disabilities. It's not fair that she wasn't taking other classes that interested her. I think it's important for all individuals to be able to at least attempt to take classes that interest them in order to make learning more fun.

2. "Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community. Though many of us have certain level of control over who we meet and interact with, none of us can come close to claiming complete control. So we must learn to work with others, and this holds true whether we ultimately are destined to lead a multinational computer software firm, inspire a civil rights movement, raise caring children, bag groceries, or chat and feed squirrels with an old man on a park bench. We have to got learn to get along as individuals and as citizens."

I agree with this quote. It is so important to be able to form relationships with others who make up our society. We are always interacting with different people and in order to live and build a successful society we have to learn to live together. This relates to the Johnson reading, who also says that in order to build a successful society we must get along and then solve problems together.

3. "Along with recognizing an individual's ability to think, Bogdan and Taylor (1989) suggest that respect and citizenship require a realization of the person's individuality. This is as true in school relationships as it is in our wider community relationships."

I agree with this quote as well. People must recognize an individuals ability to think, but also recognize their individuality and that everyone is different. Furthermore, it is something we have to do both in school and in our community.


This article was interesting. Everyone is different, but most people want similar things in life. It is important that everyone in society works together and learns to get along. If people can get along then our society can work on improving and becoming a better place for us to live in. However, this can't be done if people can't accept individuals with disabilities or of other races, etc.. It's important that people realize, we are all here in society and we should learn to get along in order to better our society.

Miscellaneous Post #2

This past Thursday, the class watched a video on nontracking in an English class for ninth graders. Then we were asked to be either students, teachers, or parents and figure out the pros and cons of tracking vs. nontracking, and later we would debate. In my group was Thanh,Jen, and Casey. We were the students and instead of splitting up, we worked on the pros and cons together. Since we had all been in tracked schools, we found it easier to be pro-tracking. Some of the reasons included: in tracked classes, students are all at same level, so it's less likely to fall behind and teachers can go at a good pace for the studens learning level...no one will be bored (if teacher's going to slow) and no one wil fall behind(teachers not going to fast. Some of the pros for nontracking were: students will feel equal with each other, there will be interaction of different students, and teachers give all students same amount of attention. On Tuesday in class, we will discuss more pros and cons and then we will debate, which is always interesting.

My Ninth Visit...

Today was my ninth visit for my service learning project. I drove the now familiar route to the school and arrived exactly at 9:30. I rang the doorbell, signed in, and made my way through the halls to the reading room. When I walked in, Mrs. Del was already explaining something so I hurried to sit down and catch up. We found out that it was evaluation week and we were going to help out and give some kindergartners their evaluations to see if they are any closer to begin the phonics program and begin to read. Mrs. Del went through the evaluation a student had already done and told us how to give one.

Unfortunately, my students were already evaluated so I was going to room 24 to evaluate two other students. The evaluation tested each student on their stage of phonemic awareness and two more after that. If the student got 4 out of 5 or higher correct on each skill, the evaluator would continue until they got 3 out of 5 or less. Some students made it through the entire evaluation which showed they were ready to begin phonics. Others, like two of mine were not even passed the first stage of phonemic awareness, which was sad to me. The first student I had was a boy named Joey. He was currently at the first stage of phonemic awareness, rhyming. He passed that section and went on to the skill of isolation. Unfortunately, he did pass that section and when we went to the next one, Identification and Categorization, he didn’t pass that either. He was trying so hard, but he just didn’t understand all of it yet. The next student I had was another boy named Juan. He also began at rhyming and made it through that and through isolation. However, he didn’t make it through identification and categorization. It was hard for me to see them not succeed when they try so hard.

After making it back to the reading room, the other volunteers spoke of how some of their students didn’t do well either. Mrs. Del said that some of the students who don’t pass many of the skills may have something else wrong that slows them down. Today’s visit was different, which I enjoyed but I would rather be with my three students. Next week I may have different students, depending on where each of my students tested. I guess we will see next week.

Talking Points #8

"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" by Jean Anyon
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Nor was there any attempt to relate the steps to an actual or possible thought process of the children. The observer did not hear the terms dividend, quotient, and so on, used again."

I feel like this happens a lot throughout different schools and different grades. I feel it is extremely important for the teacher to relate what they are doing to the children and their life. Especially in math, when it's so hard for some students, relating it to some aspect of their life will help them understand more. I think too many teachers just lecture and repeat the textbook the students are not relating to the information and therefore aren't understanding it.

2. "The four fifth grade teachers observed in the working-class schools attempted to control classroom time and space by making decisions without consulting the children and without explaining the basis for their decisions."

I understand that teachers need to be able to control the students, in ways such as behavior. However, I feel it is important to consult with the students, as well as explain decisions made for lessons, in order for the students to connect with the teacher and understand why certain things are being done the way they are. The students are the ones learning and in order for them to succeed, they need to understand what is going on in the classroom and why they are being taught and told to do activities in certain ways.

3. "There is little excitement in schoolwork for the children, and the assignments are perceived as having little to do with their interests and feelings. As one child said, what you do is "store facts up in your head like cold storage - until you need it later for a test or your job." Thus, doing well is important because there are thought to be other likely rewards: a good job or college.""

I agree with this. I feel like a lot of students today, and when I was in school, were being taught things that a little interest to our life. Furthermore, if the teacher were to connect it to something interesting in our life then I feel like students would be able to learn and understand things. Moreover, students already know that if they do well it could lead to rewards but I feel like learning should be fun for the students so that they can really enjoy themselves and want to continue on their own to learn, not just because they think they have to.

This article was interesting. I liked being able to see the different schools and how different each was. Furthermore, when relating it to the social class of each of the students I think there is a "hidden curriculum" that is teaching the students how they will be when they are older. Some schools offer more creativity and others don't allow the students to give any feedback. I think this is creating some inequality and showing the privilege higher class people have.

My Eighth Visit...

On the morning of my eight visit, the weather was perfect. I didn't hit too much traffic and luckily it was an easy ride to Providence (NO RAIN:]). I arrived at 9:30 on the dot and made my way to the school. Two students were going in late so they rang the doorbell and I followed in. After signing in at the office, I saw Sarah sitting outside the Principal's office. I don't know what she was waiting for, but she was so excited to see me. She asked for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to be the poem I read to them and I did end up picking that. I finally arrived to Mrs. Smith/Mrs. Del's room and started collecting materials. I picked "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," an activity called "Three-in-a-Row," and a pile of sight words. Mrs. Del showed us the new game they got, "Candy Land," that was modified to work with sight words. Each color a student picked would have a sight word and if they said the correct sight word, they would move ahead on the board. Unfortunately, there weren't enough so my group didn't get to try it..but we will next week.

I made my way into the classroom to three excited students. We all read the poem together and did the spider motions with it. They were so cute! We then did activities with the poem, such as pointing out rhyming words and recognizing lower case and upper case letters. Next, we went through the sight words. First I would hold up one word for each student and they would recite it back to me. Billy knows his sight words extremely well, Sarah misses only a couple, and Jared is still struggling but he recognized more than last week. After going through the pile once, I then scattered the words face down on the table. Each student picked one, two, and then three at a time on their separate turns. Then the student would read the words they picked and make a sentence with at least one sight word. I liked doing this type of activity because the students would end up challenging themselves to try and create a sentence with more than just one sight word. It was great to see how excited they got and how much better they recognized and knew their words, as well as putting them into sentences. Then, it was time for "Three-in-a-Row" which we had already done and the students were kind of bored with. In this game, one at a time a student picks up a picture, tell us what it is and its beginning sound. I think a part of the reason they're bored is because Billy, Sarah, and Jared really know their beginning sounds. They even go a step further and connect the sound with the letter. Overall, I think the students have made great progress and continue to learn more each week.

After tutoring, I made my way back to the room and met with the other volunteers. We filled out our paperwork and shared stories about our students. I'm happy I get to go to this school each week because it really is a rewarding experience. Until next week...

Talking Points #7

"Teaching Boys and Girls Separately" Elizabeth Weil
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "By this past fall, Sax says, that number had soared to more than 360, with boys- and girls-only classrooms now established in Cleveland; Detroit; Albany; Gary, Ind.; Philadelphia; Dallas; and Nashville, among other places. A disproportionate number of the schools are in the South (where attitudes toward gender roles tend to be more conservative) or serve disadvantaged kids. Sax claims that “many more are in the pipeline for 2008-2009.”"

I found this very interesting. I had never heard of single-sex public education before. It's surprising to me that the numbers are rising and more school systems are choosing this type of education. I can see why more schools in the south are because of the attitudes towards gender roles, however, I would want to see solid, consistent improvements in students academic success to prove that this type of educating works.

2. "Principal Mansell reports that her single-sex classes produce fewer discipline problems, more parental support and better scores in writing, reading and math. She does, however, acknowledge that her data are compromised, as her highest-performing teachers and her most-motivated students have chosen single-sex."

This is a reason why I would not think that this type of educating works perfectly. This principal says that her most-motivating students are in this classroom, so how effective is this data. She also says that her highest-performing teachers are teaching single-sex, why can't they go into co-ed classrooms or with lower-motivated students. Having an effective teacher could help lower-level students succeed more.

3. "Given the myriad ways in which our schools are failing, it may be hard to remember that public schools were intended not only to instruct children in reading and math but also to teach them commonality, tolerance and what it means to be American. “When you segregate, by any means, you lose some of that,” says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “Even if one could prove that sending a kid off to his or her own school based on religion or race or ethnicity or gender did a little bit better job of raising the academic skills for workers in the economy, there’s also the issue of trying to create tolerant citizens in a democracy.”"

I agree with this. By having single-sex education, in a way you are promoting separation and a difference between girls and boys. If boys and girls are so different, then I think they should be able to interact with them in school and outside to build tolerance for different people. Public schools were intended to teach commonality and tolerance and through single-sex education, you're taking that away.


This article was very interesting. I never heard of single-sex education, except in catholic schools. Leonard Sax seems to have substantial information on boys and girls, but I would want to see substantial, consistent results of a students academic success with this type of teaching. I think that if they are going to offer single-sex education, it should be a choice for parents. I feel that co-ed education is needed. It teaches children to tolerate and get along with each other. I don't really like the idea of single-sex education, it feels old-fashioned to me and without any solid results I wouldn't go through with it

My Seventh Visit...

Rain, Rain, Rain....EVERYWHERE. The drive to Providence was very slow today, the torrential downpour made everyone very cautious. I arrived at the school at 930 sharp and hurried across the puddle filled parking lot and rang the doorbell, luckily it only took one ring today. I signed into the office and met with the other volunteers in Mrs. Del/Mrs. Smith's room. They told us that are classroom might be extra filled today because many teachers were absent and there were not enough substitutes. Also, they told us not to do the sight word game today, but to just review the words and make sure our students knew them. Eventually, it was time to go to the classroom.

When we walked in the room, it seemed extra chaotic and noisy. I hurried over to see Sarah, Billy, and Jared patiently waiting for me. They were so excited that I brought the poem "Humpty Dumpty." They read it aloud with me and Billy even added in his own beat to the poem by tapping his lap. I thought that was creative. Next we did some activities with the poem, like identifying rhyming words. Then it was time to do the activity, "Picture Dominoes." This activity had several dominoe shaped papers with two pictures on it, the students had to choose a dominoe say what the picture was and what its beginning sound was. Once the figured that out they would place the picture on the table matched up with another dominoe whose picture had the same sound. I felt all the students did well with this. Occasionally, Sarah would confuse the beginning and ending sounds but she was able to correct herself. Lastly, we reviewed the sight words Billy and Sarah did great with these, as soon as I held up the word they would immediately say it. Jared, however, had trouble recognizing some sight words. He would look at the word and say another sight word that he had remembered but was far off from the one I was showing him. I brought this to Mrs. Del's attention and she said she would look into it. After all that, I said good-bye and told them I would see them next week.

When we got back to Mrs. Del's/Mrs. Smith's room we filled out the paperwork and discussed our session. Then we figured out what the rest of the tutoring schedule would be and we made our way back through the rain and to our cars.

Talking Points #6

An interview of Tricia Rose, an expert on hip-hop by Tavis Smiley
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Of course it matters because its on the one hand a profound cultural force, I mean you just can't look in American society today and not see its impact everywhere: marketing, advertising, representation, images."

I agree with this hip-hop and other types of music do matter. It is a force in our culture and sociey that is everywhere. Its a major influence on our society and some people still don't understand why it matters.

2. "It also matters because we have a whole generation of young people, not just African Americans, who see themselves as apart of something called the 'hip-hop generation.'"

I also agree with this. There is the generation that see themselves as the 'hip-hop' generation. Many people don't think it matters, however, when a whole generation is influenced by something then it really does matter. Hip-hop is all around and a major influence to a lot of young people.

3. "Remember the blues and jazz were just completely ignored by higher education for decades and decades and in fact music departments today, you only get a very small slice of these traditions taken seriously. So, theres an effort to change that and again, African American studies are at the heart of that change in the academy there not the only ones but its very important we take seriously the world we are living in and take seriously all human beings cultural creativity."

I feel that it is important to take all people and their cultures seriously. I remember learning very little about music genres, such as jazz and the blues, and it's nice to see that people today are talking about the genre of hip-hop because it is a major influence in our society.

This was an intersting interview. I always thought music was important but this interview made this thought even stronger. It is extremely important for the people of our society to learn about differnt cultures. Music is a great way to do this because within a song are lyrics that usually tell a story and give background on a culture. Furthermore, people need to be more open to different types of music especially when a genre is almost defining certain generations and making a big impact on society's youth.

My Sixth Visit...

Today was my sixth visit to the elementary school. It was rainy so I ran to the door and waited with a parent who was going into the school for what seemed like forever. The man had to ring the doorbell three times. Eventually we made it in and I signed into the office and made my way to Mrs. Smith's room. However, today I found out that Mrs. Smith was a teacher assistant and the real literacy coach, Mrs. Del, was out on maternity leave. So it was a bit of a change, but Mrs. Smith came into to talk to us too. Mrs. Del explained what we should be doing and how she is really happy that we come because it is so helpful to the students. We then picked up our folders and materials and made it to our classrooms.

When we go to room 14, the students were sitting on the carpet singing some song about the 13 colonies. When the teacher saw us,she sent the kids to their intervention tables. Billy, Sarah, and Jared were all there and excited to see me. We started with a poem, "One, Two, Three, Four, Five," which they all enjoyed. We did some activities with the poem, but they were all excited about starting the new activity we hadn't done yet. Starting this week, we are able to an activity based on the skill level of the students. Billy, Sarah, and Jared are on the Identification/Categorization skill. We did the activity "three-in-a-row" which they all enjoyed. One at a time, each student would pick up a square paper that had a picture on it. They would then identify the picture (ex. bear) and give the beginning sound of the word (say the sound of "b"). It the student said the letter as well that was great, but the main thing was to get them to recognize the sound and the beginning sound at that. After we played three rounds of that we did the sight word game. Each week, the students are getting better and better with there sentences. Furthermore, they did very well recognizing the beginning sounds and what they are. Finally, it was 10:35 and time to go.

As I walked back to Mrs. Smith's/Mrs. Del's room students were all around the halls walking to their classes or a special. When I got to the room, I filled out the behavior and log sheets and put my materials away. The other volunteers came back soon after and we all discussed what we did with our students and how they behaved. Soon it was 11:00 and we made our way to the parking lot. Next week, I'm excited to go back and do another activity and read either "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "Humpty Dumpty" per request of Jared, Billy, and Sarah.

Miscellaneous Post #1

For the past two weeks our class has been working on a project based on the stereotypes we see in the media (movies, music, television, etc.). My group for this project consists of Thanh, Jenna, Alicia, and Josh. This project has been extremely interesting and has really opened my eyes. After reading, "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us," I realized how the media has given us this "secret education." It was hard for me to look at childhood movies and see what stereotypes were portrayed and how that may have influenced the way I react to certain things. Furthermore, by looking into these movies I have been able to connect things to the Delpit reading and many more that we have looked at. I'm interested to see what media the other groups bring up in our presentations on Tuesday.

Talking Points #5

"In Service of What?: The Politics of Service Learning" Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Educators and legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling." (1)

Service learning can "invigorate the classroom," as well as provide educational and eye-opening experiences for people. I have done loads of community experience and as I have gotten older, I have valued more the experiences I have had in the past and present. Service learning can be for all ages, and I believe that all student should participate in some type of service learning. This is because it will give them perspective on how people live, as well as making themselves better people.

2. "Rather than tie the service curriculum exclusively to moral development, some advocates of service learning talk about developing citizens for our democracy." (8)

I believe that service learning should be for both moral development and the development of becoming a citizen. I think that service learning can help a person grow and become more compassionate, but also, service learning can open a person's eyes to the needs of our society. By doing service learning, I hope that I, and others, can continue to grow as people and also to contribute and help our society grow in a positive way.

3. "This interaction led some students to report marked changes in their beliefs about children from this neighborhood. Moreover, when asked what they gained from the experience, many students said simply that it taught them "that people can be different" from what you expect." (12)

I can relate to this quote. For this class, we needed to do a service learning project with schools in Providence. Before I arrived for my first visit, I had tons of things going through my head about what I thought it would be like. I was nervous to go, however, when I arrived and met with the students that all changed. I think it's important to do service learning projects in places that need the most help. Furthermore, people should try to get over the fear or notion that an area is a certain way until they have seen it themselves. This is a way service learning can help people broaden their horizons and find out which places in our society need the most help.


This article was interesting, yet,it didn't grab my attention like our previous reading. It was interesting to find out how people view service learning differently. By reading this article, I was able to connect to it because of the service learning project I am participating. Furthermore, I was able to articulate how I feel about service learning. I feel that service learning is very important. Furthermore, I feel that it helps a person grow inside and helps people See what needs to be done in our society to help it grow as well. Service learning is a great thing and all students and people should participate in it.

My Fifth Visit...

This morning I had to get up extra early because I was brining my cousins to school for 8:30. Then I traveled to my elementary school and arrived 15 minutes early. This was the earliest I had ever been, so I decided to wait until I saw another volunteer to go in the school. Ten minutes later I walked in, rang the doorbell, and signed in at the office. After arriving in Mrs. Smith's room we gathered our materials and waited until 10 o'clock. This morning Mrs. Smith shared stories about her kids so the time we waited went by quickly. Before we left, Mrs. Smith reminded us to get back her room on time becasue we were going to have a meeting with the principal...we all wondered what it would be about.

When I arrived in my classroom, the students were doing a sight word activity and when the teacher saw us she hurried to get everyone to their tables. When I got to mine, I saw that Sarah was absent so it would be just me and the boys. We started off with the poem "Humpty Dumpty" and the boys liked it. Billy and Jared were both very chatty but completed all the activites correctly. Finally, we got to the sight word game and before we started I held up the words and had them recite it out loud. Billy knows his sight words very well and Jared seemed to be struggling with some but I could tell he was going slow on some of them on purpose. The actiity went well and the sentences were much better than last week. Jared and Billy were so enthusiastic. At 10:35, I said good-bye and made my way back to Mrs. Smith's room.

First, we filled out our paperwork on the poem and activity and then we completed the behaior charts out. Soon after, the principal came in. Mrs. Patrick was very nice. She came in to thank us and find out how we were doing in our classrooms. She wanted to know how the students were and how or if the teachers interactaed with us. The teacher in my room barely says hi to me and Mrs. Patrick said that she was going to be holding a meeting with the classroom teachers and to let them know they should be open and interact with us. Overall, it was a good visit and next week we get to meet the literacy coach.

My Fourth Visit...

On Tuesday morning, I arrived at 9:30 and met with Thanh in the main office. After I signed in, we walked down to Mrs. Smith's room and found our group folders. I am group E so I grabbed that and then my materials for the day. Those materials included the sight word game and a new poem, I chose "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." After we gathered our materials, the other volunteers and me sat around the table and discussed our students and the similarities and differences we saw in their learning ability. Many of our students recognize their sight words, but then have difficulty putting it into a fluent sentence. Furthermore, many of our students end up using the same sentences with different sight words over and over again. At 10:00 we took the trip to our classroom.
Myself and two other volunteers made our way down to room 14, now very familiar with the school and where everything is. When we walked in our students were having snack and working on some sort of writing activity. As soon as everybody saw us, they went into a frenzy cleaning up and the students dispersed to their assigned seats. Sarah and Jared fought over who would sit next to me, so I had to get a little tough and tell them to stop fighting and sit down. First, I asked them how everyone was and if anything exciting had happened over the weekend. Jared talked about his cat and Sarah talked about going to the movies. Billy sat quietly with nothing to say. Soon after, we started the poem "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." All three students loved it and joined in with me when I started reading it. They also did the hand motions that went with the poem. After reading it, we did some of the activities on the poem. One that they all enjoyed was searching to find the letter "s" in the poem and underlining it. Then they asked to find another letter. After we did that a few times, we started with our sight words. First I held up the words one at a time and had them say it out loud as a group. They recognized the words quickly. Then I put them face down and each student picked two words. The six words total would be the ones we played the game with. This week all the students had a dice so they enjoyed that. We played the game for about 15 minutes, the students did better with their sentences which I was happy about. After the sight word game, Billy, Jared, and Sarah wanted to read the poem again. When it was time to go, I gave Sarah and Billy and feather (equal to money at the school) because they were very well behaved and helpful. Jared didn't get one because he had trouble listening.
When we got back to Mrs. Smith's room, we filled out a paperwork and behavior sheets. Some of the other volunteers had trouble with their students, I was happy that mine for the most part are very well behaved. I am excited to go back next Tuesday and see what progress the students have made.

Talking Points #4

"Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" Linda Christensen
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live,and dream. This indoctrination hits young children especially hard. The "secret education" as Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dubs it, delivered by children's books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these societal blueprints." (126)

The society we live in, as well as the media that presents itself (movies, television, books, etc.) does indeed tell the people of our world how to "act,live, and dream." It shows what is acceptable and what is not, but by who's standards? I believe that this does hit children hard because some will realize that the culture they are from is not represented at all, or in a positive way through the media. This is difficult, and I like the term used by Ariel Dorfman, "secret education." I think that is a perfect way to describe the way the media teaches children and others to live their life. Furthermore,it is secret because many aspects through the media are not straightforward and a person has to read into a little more to see the message it is sending.

2. "She ended her piece: 'Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess.' Kenya's piece bristled with anger at society that rarely acknowledges the wit or beauty of women of her race. And she wasn't alone in her feelings. Sabrina wrote, 'I'm not taking my kids to see any Walt Disney movies until they have a black woman playing the lead role." (131)

I have seen very few movies where women other than white women were playing a princess. I think that society needs to do a better job of acknowledging the women and men of different races. I believe that many people, like Kenya and Sabrina, feel this way. Furthermore, when she says she won't take her children to see Walt Disney movies, it's funny because Disney just came out with "The Princess and the Frog" with a black woman as the lead role. However, even with that step, Tatiana (the lead role) is from a poor family where her mom is a maid for a wealthy white family. In the end, she does become a princess, however, before that she is how many black characters are portrayed as in other movies (poor and maids).

3. "Turning off the cartoon doesn't stop the sexism and racism. They can't escape, and now that they've started analyzing cartoons, they can't stop analyzing the rest of the world."(134)

This is true. Despite hoping when you turn off the television the racism and sexism will stop, it won't. It's been around for too long and people without realizing will constantly say something that could be offensive. Furthermore, after reading this article, like those students, I find myself analyzing more and it does get frustrating.


This article was very interesting and another eye-opener. It makes me analyze more aspects of the media and question things as well. I like how this article gave examples and most of them I knew and after thinking about it realized how true and stereotypical these movies and cartoons are. I believe that the media is dangerous to the youth of our society. If young people see this portrayals as real, nothing will ever be done to stop them. Like Johnson said, everyone is a part of the problem and everyone needs to be apart of the solution.

My Third Visit...

On Tuesday morning I left my house a little after 9, which would give me just the right amount of time to make it to my elementary school. This, unfortunately, did not go as planned. As I drove on the highway I soon encountered 5 mile per hour traffic; I am suppose to be driving 55 miles per hour and soon realized I was going to be late. This made me really nervous, but I took out my cell phone and told Thanh to tell Mrs. Smith I would be late and felt a little better. I finally arrived at the school at 9:45 and had to ring the doorbell twice in order to get in. Luckily, we don't start seeing our students until 10:00. I signed into the office and took the now familiar route down to Mrs. Smith's classroom. When I got there, the other volunteers were discussing what poems we would be reading and I found out that we would only be doing the poem and sight word activity when we tutored. This was because Mrs. Smith wanted our students to really be able to recognize these sight words quickly. This bothered me a little. I want my students to be able to recognize these words, however, doing those same two activities each week gets boring for the students. We are able to change the poem, which does help keep interest, however, the students do get bored with the sight word activity and it really shows at some points.

When I walked into Room 14, Jared, Billy, and Sarah were all sitting at our table by the window. They were excited to see me and I was excited to see them. This time, the students got me a bigger chair so that I would fit more comfortably at the table. They were so excited to tell me, it was really sweet. We started off with the poem, "Little Miss Muffet," which they all thought was funny. We did a rhyming activity and a word pairing activity that all the students did well on. Then I asked them to identify upper case and lower case letters (such as Aa) throughout the poem and they did really well with that. After the poem, we worked on sight words. Sarah wasn't too excited and Billy and Jared were excited but mostly about tossing the dice I think. They still struggled with creating sentences, however, they did very well recognizing the words (some were: come, for, and). In the middle of our tutoring the four of us to a trip to Room 24 because Mrs. Smith thought I was suppose to be in that room. It was mixed up because one of the volunteers did not show up. It was a nice break for Sarah, Billy, and Jared to take a walk. At the end of our session Sarah helped me clean up and because of this I gave her a paper feather, which represents money for the school store at this school. She was really excited; I then said my goodbyes and walked back to Mrs. Smith's room.

In Mrs. Smith's room we filled out our logs and behavior sheets on each of our students. Then, we talked about how as volunteers we need to be strict with our students and let them know when they are doing something wrong (behaviorally). I felt I was lucky with the three students I got because they all listened very well. After we discussed that, we signed out at the office and walked to our cars. I'm excited to go back next week and continue to see the progress my students make.

Talking Points #3

Dennis Carlson, "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community"
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Public schools are being drawn into the battle brewing between "new right" fundamentalists and progressives in America culture as older forms of community and family are beginning to disappear and cultural diversity is increasing." (233)

I believe this is true. As time goes on, cultural diversity is increasing quickly. Today, there are all different types of families...not just the two loving parents and 2-3 children who are perfectly behaved. Times are changing and public school have to decide if they publicly accept homosexuality. This decision will be difficult and there might never be a solution because of people who still don't accept homosexuality. Although there may never be a clear solution people need to work together and show equality towards everyone because we are all people.

2. "I want to suggest that public schools may play an important role in helping build a new democratic, multicultural community, one in which sexual identity (like other markers of difference including class, gender, and race) is recognized, in which inequities are challenged, and where dialogue across difference replaces silencing and invisibility practices." (233)

I believe that this could happen. If we teach our students throughout their schooling that everyone is equal and despite differences we are all people who want similar things in life, I believe a change could happen. I actually think it has started. This is because in my own experience from high school, everyone was really accepting of others. We had multiple people who ended up "coming out" in high school and everyone accepted them and treated them like they treated them before they came out. Furthermore, this does relate to Delpit and the Silence Dialogue, everyone deserves to be heard and hopefully we can start doing that.

3. "...the dominant idea of community in America was represented by what I will call the normalizing community. Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e. white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represent as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions (i.e. black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are dis empowered and represented deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways 'abnormal.'" (233)

This quote relates to S.C.W.A.M.P and how throughout our society the white middle class men represent normal. How is this fair? Who gets to say who is normal? I keep saying, we are all people who want similar things. How in society where we can love and accomplish so much...hate so much? Sadly, this quote is true. However, there have been steps in the direction but not as many for homosexuals. My generation is the one where homosexuals fight for their rights, similar to when the Black and women did in previous generations. Hopefully, people will show equality and openness and maybe we could all get along.


This was definitely an interesting piece to read. It opened my eyes even more to the total inequality and privilege people in our society show. I believe that schools and educators should work on showing equality for homosexuals and also for opening discussion on it in class. If no one talks about it, how will there be a solution as Johnson wrote in his reading. Furthermore, I believe society is coming along and opening their eyes a little more to the fact that homosexuals may be different in one way but are the same in another. Moreover, within our media we are seeing more and more popular gay and lesbian characters and I definitely think that is helping move our society in the right direction.

My Second Visit...

On Tuesday morning, I made my way to Providence. This would be my second visit and my nerves had calmed down a little. Luckily, I didn't get lost and was able to find my way to the parking lot and find a close spot to the school. I remembered to ring the doorbell and easily made my way into the office where I signed in with the VIPS Volunteer Binder. After I signed in I sat on a bench in the hallway with 3 other volunteers. We were all unsure on whether we were supposed to go directly to our reading coach, Mrs. Smith's, room or to wait for her to come get us. We decided to wait for the two other volunteers and then at 9:35 made our way to Mrs. Smith's room.
When we arrived in her room, we all sat around a table. She gave us our room assignments...three would be in room 14 and the other three would be in room 24. We were then given a folder with our three students file. In this file was their pre-test (to see what level of phonemic awareness) and results, their log of what activity they do each week, and their behavior chart where the other tutors write down any behavioral issues they had. Finally, it was 10:05 and we all made our way down the hall to our designated classrooms.
The other volunteers and I slowly walked in room 14 feeling a little nervous. However, those nerves went away when we were greeted with friendly kindergarten students who were so excited to see us. I found my three students sitting at a table by the window. The hardest thing about the day was trying to fit in those tiny chairs at that tiny table. Across from me at this table, were two boys and one girl. From what I could tell, the girl and one of the boys was black and the other boy was asian. Let's call them Sarah, Billy, and Jared. I went around the table and asked them their name and age and told them my name and age. They were all so enthusiastic and happy, which made me even more comfortable.
The first thing we did was read the poem "Mary had a Little Lamb," they listened intently and were ready to do the activities that went along with it. I asked them things like "what would you do if a lamb was at school?" and "where is a lamb suppose to be?"; Sarah said she would try to ride the lamb, but then changed her mind because she didn't want to hurt it. Billy said he would feed it and Jared said he would ride it all around school. There answers made me laugh, but I was happy to see that they were comfortable and ready to answer any questions. Then we did a rhyming activity with the words in the poem and they did very well with choosing which words rhymed and which didn't when I said them aloud. The final activity we did was the sight word game. I chose 6 words (ex. funny, for, and) and gave each a number. One at a time, the student would role the dice and which ever number they got they would create a sentence with the corresponding word. All of the students struggled a little with putting the words into sentences, but as the game went on and I helped them Sarah, Billy, and Jared understood a little better on how to make a sentence with the words. I was really happy with how they did for their first day with me.
After we met with our students for 35 minutes we returned to Mrs. Smith's room to fill our paperwork and discuss how our first day went. It was nice to hear the other volunteers experiences as well. I'm excited to go back and see what kind of progress my three students will be making over the next few weeks.

Talking Points #2

Terry Meier "Why can't she remember that?": The importance of storybook reading in multilingual, multicultural classrooms
Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "Linguistic research reveals that, by the age of 3, the vast majority of children all over the world have mastered all of the sounds and most of the complex grammatical systems of their native language or languages. In addition, as the research cited here documented, they have figured out how to use language to get things done in the world, often in highly sophisticated ways." (243)

I found this quote very interesting. It's amazing that at the age of 3, children have already learned and mastered their own language, and possibly a second one. Furthermore, every child's background is different so by this statistic, people can see that all children can learn quickly at a young age. Also, by children having this knowledge when they enter school the classroom teacher will have a good foundation to work on in "literacy instruction" (242) as Meier pointed out.

2. "Children who don't have many early book reading experiences learn their cultural lessons through interactions with family and other community members, from oral stories, and from observations of other people's behavior." (244)

I believe an important part of learning is learning through interactions, observations, and oral storytelling. I don't think a child can learn everything through reading books. Like Meier pointed out, the interactions that children, mentioned in the quote above, experience proves to be an important model on how to use language in both powerful and creative ways.

3. "The teacher's likely assumption in this case was that Gabriela did not know the answer to the question, possibly leading to the conclusion that she needed more simplified instruction, or perhaps more English-language vocabulary, rather than more interesting questions." (245)

I found this quote to be very important. Teachers have to remember that children come from different backgrounds. Like Gabriela, she didn't understand why the teacher would ask such questions ("How many mittens are there?" [245]) because she, Gabriela, was not used to an adult asking questions. Furthermore, because of this a teacher could make the wrong assumption about a student, when the real problem is that these students do not feel this experience is an "intellectual stimulating activity" (245).


This article was very interesting. When the author put the examples of the three children and how they used their linguistic skills, it helped me understand how they learn and how every child comes from a different background which means they most likely learn in different ways. Whether that be through reading/listening to books or observing and interacting with family. Furthermore, when the author talked about her observation with Gabriela's class, it made me realize that because children learn different ways and don't understand why a teacher does a certain task, this could lead to the student getting more help when they only need an activity that is more interesting.

Meier mentioned three things to do in order to connect a child to the text. The first was to "Choose books that relate to children's lives" (246). This is a very important one, if a child sees similarities to a character's life and their own, they will be more inclined to pay attention and even respond to questions asked. The second was to "Teach book reading behaviors explicitly" (248). This means that the teacher should be exact when giving instruction on book reading and to include both open-ended and known-answer questions into the lesson. Finally, Meier says to "Make books come alive" (249). I find this one important as well because if a book comes to life, with puppets and dolls, it well help children visualize and fully understand what is going on in the story. This article gave me a new perspective on how children learn and different methods to use in order to show the importance of storytelling.

Jane Elliot's A Class Divided

The link below goes to a YouTube video of "Jane Elliot's A Class Divided." I had seen this video in a previous class and found it very intriguing. In this video, which is part one, Jane Elliot talks to her class about discrimination and gets her students opinion on people of different races, one says "look at that, dumb people" referring to black people. Then she divides her class up into the blue-eyed people and the brown-eyed people and favors the blue-eyed people. This video is eye-opening and shows what can happen when a group of people are told one race (or eye-color) is better than another, especially with children and how influenced they can be. I definitely thinks it relates to class with all our discussions on race and privilege issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0

My First Visit...

On Tuesday, February 9, I made my first visit to an elementary school. On the drive to Providence, I was a little nervous...I was worried I would get lost and I really didn't know what to expect. As I pulled up to the school I had no idea where to park...there were cars everywhere, eventually I followed a red mini van around the school and into a parking lot. After parking, I began walking to the school and was faced with the challenge of finding the main entrance. As I made my way to the first door I found out it was locked, so I walked around half the building and found another locked door. I decided to go back to the first door and just as I got there a little girl walked in the school with the door slowly shutting behind here. I didn't get to the door in time and wound up searching for a doorbell and eventually got into the school. After making it into the school, I had no idea where to go, luckily there were 5 other volunteers, who I'm sure could tell how confused I was, that told me which door would get me into the office. As soon as I signed in, the reading coach/advisor came and brought us to her room.

When we arrived in our advisor's room the other volunteers and myself sat around a table anxiously awaiting to hear what exactly we would be doing during our 15 hours. Our advisor gave us some background information on the program and what we would be doing as reading buddies. She told us that we would be working with kindergarten students, 2-3 per volunteer. We also found out that we would be working with our students for 35 minutes and doing 3 different acitivites. First, we would be reading a poem and asking questions to the students about it. Then, we would be doing an activity that would relate to the step of phonemic awareness that our students were working on. Lastly, we would be going over sight words, which are the words that can't really be sounded out but have to be recognzied because they are so common in our language. Before and after we meet with our students we will be reviewing and filling our paper work on our students progress and how they behaved during the time we spent with them.

After we talked and fully understood what we would be doing as reading buddies, our advisor gave us a tour of the school. The school is two floors, however, we only saw the first floor because that is where the K-2 classes are located. The school was a square and well-maintained, as far as I could tell. We visited three classrooms and everyone was very welcoming. The students were excited to see new faces and one girl gave me a hug. Walking into these classrooms and feeling welcomed really helped ease my nerves and let me know that volunteering here would be fun.

My first visit was a success. I'm excited to go back and help these students learn how to recognize sounds of letters and words. Even though I didn't get to work with the students directly, I was glad to have felt welcomed and fully understand what I would be doing during my volunteer hours.

Talking Points #1

Peggy McIntosh "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" Kaitlyn Paolino

1. "I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege." (Pg. 1)

I never thought I had "privilege" because I was white. However, after reading this quote, and seeing the connection to male privilege, I can see how I have not "recognized" it. Throughout my life, I have never been aware of this privilege and after reading the list on pages 1 and 2 of this reading I realized that there is such thing as white privilege and that I take part in it because for the most part I am unaware of it.

2. "26. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have then more or less match my skin." (Pg. 2)

This may not be a big "privilege", however, it still is one that exists in society today. Furthermore, it's one I never thought anything of and just went on with life subliminally thinking this is the color of flesh. However, this was wrong. There are many colors of skin in our world and I think that it's extremely wrong to have this bandage labeled as "flesh" color. It makes me wonder what black children feel like when they see bandages labeled "flesh" color but it doesn't match their own skin. This is just another way of showing people of other races that whites still think they have privilege but pretend they don't see it.

3. "We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck." (Pg. 3)

I usually do think of privilege as this. If I see someone who I feel has privilege in some area of life, I usually think it's because it runs in the family or it was earned through luck or hard work. However, after reading this by Peggy McIntosh I have a different perspective of privilege. For example, going back to the "flesh" colored bandage, that shows privilege which was not earned by luck or through birth. It is just a color that whites have labeled as "flesh" without thinking of the many other races in our world.

After reading this article, I have a different perspective of privilege then I did before. In the beginning, McIntosh does a great job of connecting white privilege to male privilege, which helped explain what it meant to pretend you don't have privilege. It also showed me how I never realized it myself, and it happens everyday. Furthermore, the list of privileges McIntosh said she has experienced or doesn't have to worry about was eye opening. Many of these things I have never thought twice about, such as "6. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is" (Pg.2). Throughout all my years of schooling, this is how I have seen it; there are others on the list that made me realize I do have this privilege as well.

This reading was interesting. It gave me a new perspective and also related back to our previous readings. For example in the Delpit reading, black men and women shared their experiences and the trouble they have with being respected and heard. This reading on white privilege helped me realize it still is present, and it's not just earned by birth or luck. People in our world may not or choose not to recognize this problem and because of this nothing will be solved. Like Johnson said in his reading, everyone needs to be a part of the solution.

About Me...

My name is Kaitlyn Paolino and I am a freshman at RIC. I am a health and physical education major and I'm hoping to graduate in 4 years. My semaster is going well so far. When I'm not in class, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, playing sports, and baking.