Week 3- McLean (initial)

     In my placement classroom, literature is incorporated minimally, yet literacy is taught.  Last semester I spent the afternoons in the classroom where the children would engage in writer's workshop.  This semester, in the morning literacy block, the children spend time working on their letter-sound knowledge or practice reading from the reading street curriculum.  However, there is little literature that is incorporated into the classroom that engages students in creative thinking on social issues or literature that is reflective of their life.
     This is very different than how I would use literature in my classroom.  Although the aspects of literacy, like sound knowledge and writers workshop, are important, I also feel strongly about incorporating literature into the classroom.  I feel this way for many reasons, some being children will see themselves in the classroom, be exposed to different social issues, understand print concepts, etc.  In the article by Leland, a first grade teacher incorporated literature into the classroom and this allowed her to teach her students about social issues that they otherwise would not consider.  Then, she had students write responses to these readings, talk about them, draw pictures of them, etc.  This allowed literacy to be a multifaceted area of development in her classroom.
     Similarly, it would be beneficial for my head teacher to include literature into her classroom where she and the children can engage in conversation about social issues and use this to further expand on with writing responses, drawings, etc.  Leland also found that by incorporating this type of critical literacy into the classroom, children will begin to understand different perspectives, have better behavior in the classroom, have higher quality writing, and create intertextual connections (to name a few).  Overall, I believe there are several ideas on how to include literacy in the classroom, and I just named a few in this post. Yet, the importance of including critical literacy into the classroom is clear, as shown through the Leland article.