Building alliances, building community, building bridges through literacy

by

Laurie Stowell

(in press)

in

In T.S. Dickinson & K.D. Wood, (eds.) Promoting Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators Grades 4-8. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

 

"The idea of an education that simply gives individuals the methods and skills they need to get ahead in the world is almost certainly inadequate, even as "job preparation", in an advanced technical economy, which requires morally and socially sensitive people capable of responsible interaction. It is even more inadequate in preparing citizens for active participation in a complex world" (Bellah, et al, 1991, p. 170)

Introduction

What endures? What do students take with them when they leave middle school literacy classrooms? What tools are at teachers' disposal that can ensure students will take with them things that matter? Building community within the classroom and then building bridges to the community outside of the classroom have the potential to do just that. "Encouraging students' quests for their place and their gift and their role in the larger society must be central to all of our teaching" (Kohl, 1994, p. 86-87).

Everyone needs to feel part of some group, especially in middle level classrooms. It is easier for students to learn from people who they feel care about them and whom they care about. Students also see more easily how they and their education is connected to the smaller groups that they participate in, than how they connect to the larger society. Not only are they part of society, but functioning, efficacious, empowered people who have something important to contribute. Connectedness is part of the support system students need to succeed in education. "Of all the riches denied to disadvantaged children, perhaps the most important is a network that would allow them to thrive in school and give them a sense of belonging...They have not become part of the networks that add to the intellectual enrichment of children (Maeroff, 1998, p. 426). Human rights activist Jane Adams said, "The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life."

In order to teach all kids, the teacher must have a connection with all kids. Learning that stays with a student is tied to a relationship and emotion. Building alliances among students and teachers and then building a classroom community reinforces for students and adults the importance of the affective domain of learning. Young adolescents are not just academic beings. In fact, at this time in their lives, they are primarily social beings. In A Place Called School, Goodlad (1984) found that junior high students value their school friendships and social relationships far more than school subjects and teachers. When asked, "What is the one best thing about this school?" well over a third of the students in Goodlad's study responded "my friends" and 15 percent named sports activities. About two thirds of what students appreciated about school was the opportunity to meet and mix with their peers. In fact, at 8 percent, "nothing" outranked "classes I am taking" (7 percent) and teachers (5 percent). Goodlad also found that junior high students' satisfaction with school stemmed from their perceived success in peer group relationships rather than from characteristics of the school itself (p. 254). Rather than bemoaning these facts, educators can capitalize on students' natural tendencies to be social and use it to the students' advantage. "Successful schools for young adolescents choose to become environments that promote social development" (Perisco, 1996, p.39).

Literacy is the most natural means to discover and embrace these connections. Literacy connects us together as humans. It is an important way that we develop and maintain community. "The primacy of being human is how we use language in social contexts to make meaning" (Wink, 1997, p.83). We invent (and reinvent) ourselves and our relationship to others through language. Therefore literacy can be the most powerful tool teachers have for building alliances, building communities and building bridges. The basic aim of language arts teachers is to help students become more effective communicators. The more literacy is used for a variety of purposes, with a variety of forms and in a variety of contexts, the stronger it becomes. Literacy learning within and across communities may be our best hope for preparing responsible, caring, empowered citizens who will lead lives that matter.

Sociocultural nature of literacy learning

Building community is an especially important notion for literacy educators. It is built on the very solid theoretical and research foundations of Vygotsky (1978, 1986), Smith (1978), Goodman (1996), Friere (1987), Moll (1990), Fish (1980) and others. In shot they tell us that literacy is socially constructed. Children learn how to speak to get things done and to communicate with the people in their lives. By the same token adults read and write to get real things done and to be part of the local and global community. Humans read to learn how to put something together or fix a broken appliance, keep up with current events, or gossip about a celebrity, or enjoy a letter from a loved one. Similarly any piece of writing originates in some real social purpose and after it is composed it is sent to some audience in the real social world to accomplish its purpose. (Zemelman and Daniels, 1988 p. 48)

One of Vygotsky's important concepts is sociocultural learning. All of the meaning we make out of this world is socially and culturally grounded. We make meaning according to the social and cultural groups of which we are members. No literacy event occurs in a vacuum. Any literacy event (listening, speaking, reading or writing) is influenced by the environment it came from and in which it is received. Freire and Macedo (1987) extended this notion by saying we must be able to read the world and the word. Reading the word is obvious: making meaning out of print, connecting it to our own lives, experiences, culture and knowledge. But young children learn to read the world first: stop signs, McDonald's, a favorite toy store, the expression on the face of a loved one, etc. Freire said that reading the world is all those things, reading the people and the community around us as well as the visible and invisible messages of the world. It is understanding the implicit power structures of society: how power is constructed and by whom it is held. Research shows that children of many cultures know a great deal about reading and writing before they get to school, and they learn very quickly the value of that knowledge in school settings. Are their ideas really valued if they are different from those in power, i.e. the teacher? Is their cultural knowledge and experience valued when sharing and in making connections in class or is only one kind of background experience valued? Is everyone's language or dialect valued? Is everyone's voice valued? Children learn to read the world of their school by how well it is taken care of, how safe it is, what groups they are put into, and by how much power they are given over their education. Most young adolescents are especially good at reading the power structure of peer and social groups: what gets you in and what is "out".

Vygotsky's second important concept is the zone of proximal development (ZOPD), that is "the distance between the actual developmental level determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." (Vygotsky, 1978, p.86) What children can do with help today, they can do alone tomorrow. Trade apprenticeships are a good model of the ZOPD. A young person works side by side a master carpenter or painter, learns and makes mistakes in a safe environment with lots of support, until he or she is able to accomplish the craft on his or her own. In literacy, we read to children and with children before they are ever expected to read on their own. Even as a child approximates reading and continues to read, teachers support that reading in many ways. In middle schools, teachers often teach a new concept and have students practice it in pairs or a small group setting before they are expected to accomplish it on their own. Vygotksy's theory is one of the bedrocks of our educational philosophy: we (in Dewey's words) accept the child where he is, support his learning, all the while tugging him to the next cognitive level.

A more contemporary literacy educator, Smith (1990) said the same things with different words. He said, "I can sum up all learning in seven words: You learn from the company you keep". Learning is an intellectual and a social activity, it is a result of engagement, being a "member of the club". It is not strictly a technical, systematic process. Students differ so much in what they know because of the informal learning experiences they have. "Children learn to read and write effectively only if they are admitted into a community of written language users, which I shall call the 'literacy club,' starting before they are able to read or write a single word for themselves...admission to the club rapidly results in becoming like established members in spoken language, in literacy and in many other ways as well." (Smith, 1978 , p. 2). The literacy club functions like any other club. When we join we want to be like the members of the club, behave the way they do, talk their talk and the members support our learning how to be good members of their club. Smith uses the example of when he learned to sail. He joined a sailing club and dressed like a sailor, talked like a sailor, learned to tie knots like a sailor, sailed with more experienced sailors until he could sail on his own (ZOPD). The same happens with reading and writing when we join the literacy club. When we read we join the company of the author and other readers and when we write the reader joins us.

Stanley Fish took Smith's ideas a step further with the idea of the interpretive community. Fish (1980) argues that meaning is not inherent in the text, but rather that we all read in much the same manner because of the culture of our interpretive community (largely schools). Each of us is socially constructed and therefore all text is socially constructed. Understanding a book is specific to the community in which it is read and interpreted. Before the reader steps up to the book, she is the socially constructed sum of the communities in which she has been a part. It is those experiences which she brings to the book and enables her to construct its meaning. Therefore, there are not incorrect interpretations of texts necessarily, but rather different constructions based on social and cultural experiences and knowledge. Fish gives a wonderful example of this interpretive community in action. He taught two classes back to back in the same classroom: linguistics & literary theory and religious poetry. During the first class (linguistics) he wrote the names of various linguists and theorists on the blackboard as he spoke about them. When the religious poetry students came in for class, he drew a box around the names, wrote "p.43", told them it was a poem and asked them to interpret it. They did! Interpreting text, in this case a poem, is the act of constructing, and that construction is largely based on the communities the reader comes from and is a part of when the constructing takes place. (Fish, 1987)

BUILDING ALLIANCES

There is an extensive body of research about group formation and group dynamics. Like individuals, groups develop through a series of identifiable stages. Knowledge of how groups form can help a teacher work with the process, rather than against it, from the beginning. Schmuck and Schmuck (1983) identify the first stage as psychological membership. Classroom activities can be devised which help students develop strong feelings of membership, being recognized, known and valued within the group. Nurturing group development then helps to teach reading and writing. It takes time for students to feel comfortable sharing ideas about a piece of literature, offering and accepting feedback on a piece of writing, and speaking in front of the class.

Building alliances within the classroom

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, most students were educated in communities - that is, in one room schoolhouses. They learned from and taught each other. They learned from example and through collaboration. When schools found it more efficient to group students by age, students became more concerned with keeping up than helping each other out. Teachers became managers rather than collaborators. Building community in larger schools does not happen as naturally as in small schools. Understanding how to form a community and be a functioning member is as important as any content discipline. If classrooms are not safe, democratic spaces, learning may not take place. Similarly, if students do not learn how to get along with each other and operate reasonably and responsibly in the classroom, how can we expect them to behave that way outside of the classroom? A true community classroom means more than caring and cooperative learning. Being part of a community means being needed as well as needful. It means believing you have something to contribute. There is an inherent need to be useful and helpful to others. Community expectations are balanced by respect for individual needs.

In the beginning of the academic year it is important for all members of the community to be explicit about their expectations. No matter the age of the students I teach, I begin a school year with an activity which facilitates this. I ask students to get in pairs, discuss and write their responses (on big paper so that it can be seen by everyone) to the following:

Following the discussion of their expectations and contributions, the students number off in pairs and then face a partner by forming an inside circle and an outside circle with the partners facing each other. Each partner has 1 minute to answer a question (be sure both share their answer) and then the outside circle moves two people to the left, ask another question, then the inside circle moves four people to the right and so forth. The questions can be any kind of icebreakers for the students to get to know one another like: "A book I'd recommend is..." or " my favorite place is...". The last question asked is: what does it mean to you to be part of a community? Students then go back to their seats and we discuss their answers. I end this first class session by reading a book about forming communities, something like Swimmy (Lionni, 1963) and asking students to write me a letter explaining what I need to know about them as a learner and how I can help them be successful. I have gotten answers such as "I don 't like to speak out in class but I am listening" to "my parents are getting a divorce". They usually share their academic as well as personal needs. I keep the letters and periodically ask the students to write me an updated version. Understanding students, their needs and expectations, as well as students understanding a teachers expectations is an important first step to building community.

What is community and what does it mean to be part of a community?

We all become members of whatever communities we belong to through literacy. By the same token, learning what communities we are a part of, building community and contributing to various communities will also build literacy skills. It gives students a real reason for using literacy.

What does it mean to become a community? A first step is for members of the potential community is to know one another and trust one another that is, to build alliances. Customarily community is applied to virtually any group: a neighborhood, town or city, school, church or social club. This is so even when the members may be total strangers. But community requires quality communication, not the mere exchange of words "Community is a way of being together with both individual authenticity and interpersonal harmony so that people become able to function with a collective energy even greater than the sum of their individual energies." (Peck, 1993, p. 272) Christensen (1994) said that "to become community, students must learn to live in someone else's skin, understand the parallels of hurt, struggle and joy across class and culture lines and work for change. For that to happen, students need more than an upbeat, supportive teacher; they need a curriculum that teaches them how to empathize with others." (p. 50)

Community does not happen in a day, nor does it come easily. It has to be constantly nurtured and built. There are stormy periods which are normal on the way to developing an authentic community. The bedrock of community is commitment, a willingness to hang in there when the going gets tough.

BUILDING COMMUNITY

"In the first place, the school must itself be a community life in all which that implies (Dewey, 1916, p.358)

Building alliances is the foundation of building community. People who know and trust one another are more likely to form a community. But building a community is so much more than knowing its members. The real work is developing and maintaining a true community.

What communities are we part of?

It is important for students to recognize and for the teacher to know what communities they consider themselves a part of and to tell the stories of their communities. That in turn becomes a part of the story and history of the community built within a classroom. How does membership in particular communities impact their participation in this community? I ask students to draw a graphic representation of the communities they are a part of and show the relationship of these communities to one another. This gives rise to a class discussion about the communities students spend the most time in, which have the most influence, and those in which they would like to spend more time. This information gives the students and the teacher a great deal of important background information about the social and cultural influences which students will bring to bear in class. An ensuing discussion can serve as a jumping off point about the nature and norms of a classroom community and then the class can enter into community building activities.

There are a multitude of resource books on activities which build community within a classroom such as: The community as classroom (Gillis 1992), Values Clarification (Simon, et al, 1972), Personalizing Education (Howe & Howe, 1975) and advisement activities handbooks usually put together by district teachers, to name but a few. A key factor is ongoing community building which supports these principles:

Due to the social nature of literacy learning, community building in language arts classrooms is especially facilitated through methodology like the reading and writing workshop (Atwell, 1985) and literature circles (Daniels, 1994). Because writing and discussing literature are opportunities for students to share themselves, language arts classrooms must be safe spaces in which students have built alliances. In fact it is through the sharing of reading and writing that alliances are built. Teachers also enhance opportunities for building community by showing vulnerability and sharing their own stories.

When students deconstruct community: getting back on track

Too often, we as teachers read accounts of wonderfully productive classrooms that don't match the chaos we all meet and we end up feeling inadequate because we haven't created smoothly running communities of learners. "Each September I have this optimistic misconception that I'm going to create a compassionate, warm, safe place for students in their first days of class because my recollection is based on the final quarter of the previous year. In the past, that atmosphere did emerge in a shorter time span. But the students were more homogenous and we were living in somewhat more secure and less violent times" (Christensen, 1994 p. 50).

Many theorists who have studied groups and community formation predict a stage of chaos. For a community to form authentically there will probably be periods of time when all is not going well. It is not always warmth and harmony, and politeness can often mask resentment or unspoken thoughts and feelings. If the community is committed to forming community and stays with it, everyone will come out better on the other side.

To form community with a class takes more than get -acquainted activities. It takes a lot of listening to who the students are, what they are interested in and what will engage them. Then it requires being responsive to the students. Those interests need to be taken seriously as exhibited by bringing literature and writing into the classroom that speaks to them, that has real meaning and purpose for them. Literature should operate as windows and mirrors. It can be a window on the world to be learned about and a mirror of the reader's own life experience. Freire (1987) said that reading a book and never seeing yourself is like looking in a mirror and seeing nothing reflected back. Again, as Dewey said, it is accepting the student where she is. A question which often comes up is how do we do that and teach the required curriculum. One response is, how do you teach the curriculum with a group of unengaged, resistant learners? Are they really going to learn a teacher's objectives? Students learn best when they are in a positive relationship with the person from which they are learning.

Allowing students to bring their stories into the classroom can become the foundation of any curriculum. Micere Mungo, a Kenyan poet recently said, "Writing can be a lifeline, especially when your existence has been denied, especially when you have been left on the margins, especially when your life and process of growth have been subjected to attempts at strangulation" (Christensen,1994, p. 53) The word story can be traced to the Greek eidenai which means "to know" (Atwell, 1998). Students can understand themselves and others better through reading and writing their stories. "For many students, their stories have been silenced in school. Their histories have been marginalized to make room for "important" people, their interests and worries passed over so I can teach Oregon history or The Scarlet Letter." (Christensen, 1994, p. 53) When given the opportunity students will share amazing stories and when those stories are moved from the margins, they no longer feel the need to put someone else down.

Community can also be difficult to form when rival schools are asked to merge. One middle school principal describes how a "community of friends" was formed when two rival middle schools in Chicago, one predominantly black and one predominantly white were merged into one school in 1987 (Bullard, 1995, p. 26). Since that time, Crete-Montee Middle School has won two national awards for excellence in education and become a model of multicultural and cooperative learning. The principal credits his schools' success to three things: shared leadership, an emphasis on community building and inclusive academics (heterogeneously grouped classes).

These two schools had been rivals in everything from academics to band to athletics. When the two school faculties got together, one of the counselors suggested, "If you're gonna get kids to learn together, they gotta be friends first, " (Bullard, 1995, p. 26). The community of friends was born. It was more than a slogan, it was a commitment to change student behavior. During orientation sessions, students engaged in community building simulations and activities within groups composed of both schools. These efforts continued throughout the academic year. Teachers were given a "Building a community of friends" handbook filled with suggestions for discussions and activities that promote harmony. More importantly, time was set aside to practice these skills throughout the school year and incorporated into the curriculum.

One of these activities they use is called "Four of a kind". Students are grouped by fours and sit around the four sides of a large sheet of paper which has a large square drawn on it. Each member of the group writes his or her name on one outside edge of the square. The group identifies four things they all like or dislike and writes them in the center of the square. For example they may all share a common interest in rap music or a common dislike for brussel sprouts. Then all individuals in the group identify four things about themselves that are different from the other members of the group and write them down in their section of the square under their name. For example, one person may be the only one who wears glasses, or has five brothers. Students may use words, symbols or drawings. At the end of the exercise, each group may share their square and a discussion ensues about what they discovered. (Kagan, 1995, p. 31)

Problem solving through class meetings

What should a student do when he thinks another student copied his answers on a test? What if items are missing in the classroom? What happens when students exhibit racial bias or homophobic behavior? How can a community be safe for everyone? Big and small issues will arise to challenge a community which has been built. Establishing the routine of class meetings when things go astray can be an important means of getting the community back on track. Well run class meetings which place the responsibility for problem solving on the students are the most effective. This communicates to the students a sense of shared power and decision making. Students can determine the rules of operation for class meetings, but basic rules would be to meet regularly or as the need arises, meet in a circle so all can see, keep time, no put downs, listen to each without interrupting and the teacher serves as gatekeeper and keeps the group focused on the topic and the rules. A different student can volunteer or be designated to run each meeting. Charney (1992) suggests the following steps:

The possibility for topics is endless and need not only apply to specific individual problems. The teacher could start with questions like: What makes you want to turn in your work, what makes you want to do your best work, what do you need in order to feel good about your work in this class, how much power should the teacher share in regard to curriculum decisions, why are you afraid to say no to peers when they ask you to do something which makes you uncomfortable? Talking about issues in a class meeting before they arise may give students tools to act appropriately when they encounter difficult situations. Students may also make links between the problems they discuss and those outside the classroom doors: how a fight waiting for the bus can lead to a discussion about the civil war or more current events like conflict in the Middle East. Reading good adolescent literature can serve as a springboard for discussing problems the students have. A sample of titles: Soto's Taking Sides, (moving to a more upscale neighborhood and trying to keep old friends) Martinez's Parrot in the oven (gangs and an alcoholic father), Leeper Buss' Journey of the sparrows, (harsh realities of legal/illegal immigration), Garland's Shadow of the dragon (Asian gangs), Arrick's Chernowitx (anti-Semitism), Lorbiecki's Just one flick of a finger (gun violence), Alicea's The air down here (many issues a Puerto Rican-American teen in Bronx faces), Mathis', Teacup full of roses (drugs), Oneal's The language of goldfish (not wanting to grow up too fast), Slepian's The Alfred Summer (coping with disabilities), Bridgers' Notes for another life (contemplating suicide), Lionni's Swimmy (working together to overcome difficulty), Pfeffer's The year without Michael (missing younger brother), Klein's Mom, the Wolfman and Me (divorce), Philbrick's Freak the mighty (standing up for a unique friend and the power of sticking together), Arkin's The lemming condition (the dangers of following the crowd), Garden's Annie on my mind (exploring homosexuality), Betancourt's My name is Brain Brian (learning disabilities), Bang's Common Ground (using up earth's resources), Hahn's December Stillness (homelessness), Hamilton's Plain City (homelessness), Voight's Izzy Willy Nilly (girl loses her leg from date's drunk driving), and Bunting's The terrible things (standing up and speaking out).

Beginning a class meeting with a poem like "Honeybees" from Joyful Noises: Poems for two voices can be a reminder that there are multiple ways of looking at a situation. Everyone has important and valid points of view. All can learn from one another and respectful dialogue is a key component of building a democratic community.

Class meetings can also be a forum for problem solving much larger issues. Often the unique problems that students bring into the classroom can be linked to factors or problems in society. Learning to solve their individual and collective problems can serve as models for how these problems can be solved within society. Social justice issues like the unequal distribution of resources within and among school districts (why does the middle school across town have better sports equipment and uniforms?) can prompt thematic curriculum that might take a year to explore adequately. Students may wish to discuss what their shared vision of a just society is and how the class can work toward that both within the classroom and without. Literacy is power: listening, speaking, reading and writing gives language users power over their environment. The more opportunities students have to engage in the use of literacy with each other and their communities, the more empowered they will be. Students may learn that they are not passive recipients of an education designed to make them fit into society, but rather that they can remake society to fit them (Wood, 1984, p.220).

BUILDING BRIDGES

"What good is academic learning if young people don't learn to become contributing members of society?"

(Jane Nelson, 1987)

A time of rapid personal change and natural self- centeredness characterizes young adolescents. They need to balance this view by connecting to larger communities. Young adolescents don't look at school as primarily a place to get ready for what matters in life. What matters is what is happening to them right now. (Atwell, 1987) Therefore, there is no time like the present to work within the community outside of the classroom. "The world outside the classroom is a limitless resource of diverse people, purposeful activity and the innumerable artifacts of a culture - cars, buildings, bridges, art. Our children grow out of and into this world. They are its products as well as its architects" (Gillis, 1992, p. 130). Bringing young adolescents and the community together rewards both.

The ancient Greeks understood this well: a person who is completely private is lost to civic life. The Greek concept of Paideia is essentially the "interplay between the development of mature, enlightened individuals and maximum cultural development. The community optimally educates... Education is no more confined exclusively to schools than is religion confined to churches, mosques and synagogues." (Goodlad,1984, p. 349). Gillis (1992) suggests three goals for integrating classroom and community: 1) help students live harmoniously within their environments by knowing them better; 2) help students see themselves as capable of shaping and changing their worlds; 3) enable them to understand language as a powerful means of interacting with one's community.

Goodlad (1984) suggests an ecological perspective of school. This is in concert with Dewey's (1916) notions that the learning in school must be continuous with that out of school. There should be a free interplay between the two. This is possible only when there are numerous points of contact between the social interests of the one and the other." (Dewey, 1916, p. 358) John Adams said, "It takes the whole of the people to educate the whole of the people". An ecology of education is one in which there is give and take between the school and the institutions, agencies and people of the community. It is more than the cliché, "It takes a village to raise a child". Rather, the child is an active member of that village, has something to give back and plays a role in shaping that village as well.

The metaphor of the bridge may be more appropriate than the village. A bridge makes links, enables parties from both sides to enter and exit at will and requires action on the part of the builder, the bridge walker, and maintainer of the bridge. A poem is one way to introduce these notions to students. One poem that works well is a Silverstein (1981) poem which begins, This bridge will only take you halfway there, To those mysterious lands you long to see." The poem ends by saying, " The last few steps you have to take alone". If teachers expect students to carry what they have learned beyond the classroom walls, then we have to build the bridge with them to those "mysterious lands they long to see".

Dialoguing with other communities

One way that middle school students can connect with another community is through dialogue journals. In a survey about their interests one middle school teacher, Lynn, found that in her diverse class of seventh grade students from a small urban community in southern California, eighty percent said they wanted to go to college. Listening and respecting this interest, she wanted to expose them to the realities of college and college students. Being a former student of mine, Lynn contacted me and asked if I would come speak to her class about what college was like. I visited the class a couple of times, got to know the students, then Lynn and I devised a plan which would benefit both our students, accomplish some of our literacy objectives and connect both groups to another community.

Being a professor of middle level pre-service teachers, I want my students to understand young adolescents, their interests in life and reading and to more closely view their writing. Lynn wanted her students to have a better understanding of college, college students, and have authentic purposes for writing for an authentic audience. We decided to trade dialogue journals. Lynn provided each of her students a journal which was to be used just for this purpose. Her students began by writing a letter about themselves, many included a picture and questions they had for my students, which tended to be more personal than academic. My students wrote back telling about themselves, answering questions and asking others. And so it went. We both read "My journals" from Hey World! Here I am (Little, 1986) to our classes, among various other writers' use of journals and excerpts from writers journals. Several pieces of children's literature are written in journal form such as, Pedro's Journal, Catherine called Birdy, Amelia's Notebook, The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 and The Green Book.

What surprised Lynn and me was the extent and depth of what they revealed. We thought the seventh graders would be guarded, obtuse, and just ask questions about college. They had a very different agenda. They wanted to know their audience, they wanted to know the person who went to college and most of all they wanted someone to really know them. The students found it much easier to reveal themselves in writing to one single person who would respond back. One boy wrote about his nervousness about asking a girl out, one wrote about his fear that his brother would run away, some shared fights their parents had, and many asked advice.

My pre-service teachers were equally surprised by the personal sharing and nervous about their responsibility not only to respond back to their student, but also facing a whole class of students with these interests, concerns, fears and hopes. But responding to one seventh grade student at a time was manageable. They viewed it as a wonderful opportunity to get an inside perspective on middle school and middle school students. When student teachers begin, they tend to see a sea of faces and worry about how to manage the group, they often lose sight of the 33 individuals who make up that group. The dialogue journals also gave the pre-service teachers an opportunity to see middle school students in the most favorable light: they weren't rude, disrespectful, or complaining. They shared themselves- and they really let us inside their heads and inside their lives.

About halfway into the academic year, we decided to have two meetings, one at each of our respective locales. The pre-service teachers visited the classroom to meet their students and to watch literature circles (Daniels, 1994) in action. Before our arrival, we read "Blackmail," a short story from Local News (Soto, 1993) that the seventh grade students would be discussing on that day. The pre-service teachers sat in the literature circle groups with their partner seventh grade student. The students led the discussions and were the experts. They taught their partners how to work in a group, how to lead the discussion, and perform the various roles within the literature circle. As befits any gathering of this nature, after the discussion we ate together. The seventh grade students had suggested bringing food and one girl and her mother baked a cake. She said it was like having guests in her home and she wanted to make it a special visit.

Reciprocally, the pre-service teachers hosted a visit by the seventh grade students to our campus. We began with a welcome by our dean, a snack and a reacquainting. The pre-service teachers planned a campus tour via a scavenger hunt in small groups of two and three partner groups. The hunt encompassed the financial aid office, an empty classroom and active classroom, the math and writing lab, student recreational centers, etc. The seventh grade students also prepared questions prior to their arrival that they wanted answered during their visit. We finished with lunch together and escorted the seventh grade students to their bus.

Beyond journal writing, the seventh grade students also had a built in authentic audience or reader who gave feedback about a draft of a piece of writing. A couple of times during the school year, Lynn asked the pre-service teachers to read their students papers and give them feedback about how well they were communicating their ideas. Real people who are interested in what students have to say who give valuable feedback can only serve to strengthen students' writing.

Building community among various populations is possible and vital. This experience is very adaptable to many domains. Students can exchange journals with any number of groups who have a real purpose for interacting and learning from one another. Pen pals have been a popular activity for decades, but they are largely between children and classes of the same age. Students can (and do)write to senior citizens in residential homes, juveniles and other incarcerated individuals (with parental permission and using only the address of the school - in this case students have to be cautioned about not revealing too much personal information). In this technologically accessible society, with appropriate hard and software, it is very easy to dialogue on-line. One class of eighth grade students discusses the books they are reading with a group of college students. Both classes have learned from the other's perspectives.

Gathering information and challenging assumptions

Language shapes and expresses our views and values. All of our attitudes about our communities are learned. What a culture values is reflected in its words: the use of the pronoun "he" to refer to doctors, scientists and athletes and "she" to refer to teachers and nurses. "Immigrant", "illegal alien", "undocumented worker", and "new America" are all words to describe a person not born in this country, yet all reflect different social and political dimensions. Gillis (1992) suggests using language in all its forms to explore the sources of our ideas about our communities. A reciprocal relationship is then engaged, in which language is used to understand culture and society and the language itself is strengthened.

One simple exercise to have students examine their assumptions and stereotypes is a kind of word association. First the students list all the nouns and adjectives they identify with immigration, old people, homelessness or whatever the topic of study is. Then they categorize the words by whether they think the word has a positive, negative or no connotation. A discussion follows about the kinds of images their words conjure for them. Telling or writing about people described by these terms is a good way to discover the meaning of them and a possible source of stereotypes. A similar activity is to give students pictures from magazines, and words, ask them to match the pictures with the words and then write a story about the person using those words. Or give students the same pictures and different words and ask them to write a story about their picture. When they read their stories about the same people using different words, discuss the impact that language has on how we view people. (Gillis, 1992)

Students can explore their ideas about a particular population or issue before engaging with that community through writing. Before a group of eighth grade students visited a homeless shelter, soup kitchen and food bank, they wrote about what they thought they'd see and why. After the visit the same group wrote about their reactions and what they thought could be done to serve those populations. Because a newspaper reporter covered the trip and printed their before and after writing, some students decided letters to the editor, local and state politicians and letters of request for needed resources would be the most effective way to serve the homeless and hungry. They saw not only the power of print, but of their own voices.

One university professor (Herzberg, 1994), points out a necessary caution. It is very easy to assign journals and reaction papers and let it go at that. " A colleague reported overhearing a conversation between two students: "We're going to a homeless shelter tomorrow and we have to write about it." "'No sweat." "Write that before you went, you had no sympathy for the homeless, but the visit opened your eyes. Easy A"" (p.309). Writing is an important part of processing any experience, but it alone is not sufficient, nor is a one time reflective journal assignment enough to understand the social forces that sustain poverty, discrimination and injustice.

Through literature, writing and drama, students can also pursue questions regarding how neighborhoods, locales in a community (such as parks, beaches, a local store) and the people in the community are perceived as safe/unsafe or inviting/uninviting. Literature (such as that mentioned previously) can be read and pictures examined for how communities are represented. Smoky Night (1995) is a beautiful picture book relating the civil disobedience in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict from a child's perspective. Students can compare the book's explanation and images with that of the media and print reports of the same events. What words are used to describe the people portrayed ? How are the streets and neighborhoods described? How would you feel about these portrayals if you lived there? Students can engage in letter writing campaigns to publishers, authors, television personnel and sponsors who perpetuate stereotypical, demeaning and negative images. Students can seek out and publish their own more accurate images in stories, books and film about their neighborhoods and the people in them.

Service learning

Service learning is not new. It is grounded in the writings of Dewey, experiential education, de Toqueville's notion of service as citizenship, Ivy League schools' preparation for future leaders, citizenship education, participatory democracy and social justice. Turning Points(1989) advocates not only connecting schools with communities but also providing opportunities for youth service by 10- to 14-year olds: "Youth service in the community should be part of the core program in middle school education" (p. 70).

People for the American Way (Fowler, 1990) surveyed more than 1,000 15-24 year old young people. One question asked them to rate seven possible goals. Career and financial success was number one, a happy family life number two, enjoying yourself and having a good time was number three. Being involved in helping your community be a better place ranked seventh. When asked to describe (in their own words) what constitutes a good citizen, most equated being a good citizen with being a good person. A typical description was: " Honest, a good friend, trustworthy" Rarely did their notion of a good citizen hold a social or political dimension and only twelve percent believed that voting was an important part of citizenship. When asked how schools could improve teaching about citizenship, students called for a more active, hands on approach. Fifty one percent favored making community service a requirement for high school graduation. They noted the barriers to getting involved were: pressures to do well in school and get a good job (68%), lack of parental encouragement (45%) and 42% said no one asks young people to get involved or shows them how. More recently (Hodgkinson & Weitzman, 1992) found that 61% of teenagers (between the ages of 12 and 17) volunteered an average of 3.2 hours per week. Of these only 25% reported that their service was school related.

Increasingly, service learning is becoming a powerful tool for learning about content, increasing reading and writing skills as well as linking students with their communities. Most service learning advocates agree that a good program has five components: 1) those being served control the service provided. The needs of the host community, rather than the academic program come first in defining the work of the students placed there and the community defines those needs; 2) those being served become better able to serve and be served by their own actions. The aim of the students' service should be the collaborative development and empowerment of those served; 3) those who serve are also learners and have significant control over what is learned; 4) there are plenty of opportunities for reflection and 5) there is a celebration of the service or a means for making it public beyond the classroom.

Literacy can play an important and powerful role in each part of the service learning process. Literature like Seedfolks (Fleischman, 1997) can operate as a springboard for discussion and investigation. Seedfolks is the story of a young girl, Kim who by her example, inspires a neighborhood to turn the local vacant lot into a garden, and the book "records through the garden's progress the growth of its most precious crop - the tendrillike sense of community" (book jacket). Almost a hero (Neufeld, 1995) is a novel about how involved a seventh grade boy, Ben becomes in his service learning project volunteering in a day care center for children of the homeless. His journey of discovery of working for children within and without the system is a good introduction to the pitfalls and possibilities of engaging in service learning.

To allow the host community to define its own needs, students can develop an interview or survey protocol. The needs assessment can include questions like: Are there people in this community who could be served in some way, are there physical facilities that could be serviced (clean up, up keep, building, etc.), are there other living things (plants, animals) that could be serviced, is there some political action or advocacy that could be done to service this community? (letter writing, informational fliers, etc.), is there some product or performance that would help this community (a pamphlet of information on bike safety, a play about drug prevention, a song about taking care of our environment, and so forth), is there anything we could teach to members of this community that would be valuable to them? The surveys can be completed individually and compiled as a class. Students then have an opportunity to see what the needs are and how they may best serve them depending on their availability and comfort level.

Needs are plentiful and the possibilities for service learning projects are endless. Middle school students have grown gardens and donated the fresh produce to local soup kitchens, taken animal shelter pets to local nursing homes to visit patients, painted over graffiti in their local park, written picture books and put on plays about local environmental issues, made toys in industrial arts and clothes in home arts for homeless children at Christmas, studied a local lagoon and become docents and advocates for saving the lagoon, read books on tape for young children and the blind, been zoo volunteers, child care aids, library aids, special Olympics volunteers, recycling volunteers, envelop stuffers, museum guides and hospital volunteers.

Processing the service experience and helping students make links to literacy and other curricular areas through reflection can take a variety of forms: small and large group discussion, one on one conferences with the teacher, talks or slide presentations to other audiences, journal writing, case study writing, research papers, painting, drawing, music or drama. Using varied forms may be beneficial in order to appeal to a larger number of participants. Ongoing reflection is key to maximum gains in awareness and understanding of the service and the issues related to it.

Celebration and recognition reinforce and nurture a culture of caring. "They teach youth to care about others in their community and foster a community that values its youth...Students celebrate learning and achievement. They are recognized for their demonstration of learning in real life situations that address community needs" (Fertman, et al, 1996, p.37). Presentations to families, peers and community members, highlighting service projects in the school and local newspaper, and noting the number of service hours on report cards are just a few examples. Our university is currently developing a student profile which will accompany a student's transcripts. The profile includes extra-curricular, leadership, and service activities that students engage in during their college careers. The message to students and potential employers is that these experiences are equally as valuable as those inside classrooms.

 

Conclusion

Literacy and community study has no end. Building alliances and community within a classroom, support and empower students to act beyond the classroom. The classroom is a very appropriate place for students to become adept at not only academic literacy, but reading and writing our communities as well. Middle school classrooms may be the last best opportunity to provide students with a vision of what is possible for their future lives in this global community: a more just society than the one we live in now. Our classrooms are a bridge to their communities, but we can only take them halfway there. The last few steps they have to take alone.

Bibliography

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Levine, E. (1995) The tree that would not die. New York: Scholastic.

Moore Gray, L. (1993) Miss Tizzy. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Moss, M. Amelia's Notebook. (1995) Berkley: Tricycle Press.

Townsend, S. (1982). The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4.London: Methuen.

Voight, C. (1986). Izzy Willy Nilly. New York: Antheneum.

Walsh, J.P.(1982).The Green Book. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.