Considering the Community

1. Where/What will you visit? Why did you choose to go there?

As a group, we decided to go to three places. We chose a local restaurant (Pete’s Coney Island), a local grocery store (Kroger), and a local café (L.A. Café). We chose these because we knew that the café and restaurant had close ties to the community. The café is owned by parents of a second grader at our school, and the restaurant supports local teams, people, and events.

2. What do you expect to see? Spend some time thinking about common ARCHETYPES and BIASES present in your community.

Considering the time of day, we went on Tuesday morning, I expected to see few kids (they should be in school) and more elderly people or business people. The restaurant would have more business people dining for a breakfast/brunch meeting. The grocery store would have most of the elderly, or people without jobs (?), or stay at home moms shopping for the week or for dinner that night.

3. What do you think an "outsider" would see? Does what an outsider might see differ from what you think you will see? If so how? If not why not?

I don’t think the “outsider” would see anything too drastically different. This is a standard suburban area. I do not live in this immediate area and felt that I could have been walking into the same Kroger as the one down the street from my own house. The people are going about their daily lives, and barely even glanced at our small group taking pictures. The café had a more intimate feeling because it is locally owned and operated so that the people who came in felt important and they may feel like their presence is valued.

4. Florio-Ruane (2010) explains, "The ecological view of literacy asserts that reading, writing, and oral language cannot be separated in their learning and in their use to learn subject matter. They are interrelated because they are all part of communication and are meaningful within social groups, contexts, knowledge and activities" (p. 2). Think about the setting/event you will visit as part of your Inquiry 1 investigation, and jot down some notes about the types of interconnections you are likely to see among reading, writing, oral language and other literacies and how they might contribute to communication in that setting.

In the grocery store there will be some reading. It will be necessary to read titles of brands, ingredients, etc. The shopper will also have to be able to read the price in order to make the best decision for his/her own financial needs. Because of all of the different items available there are many workers who know the inventory and can help somebody if necessary. The café and restaurant require use of reading a menu, or observing pictures. You may be able to describe what you desire to the wait staff and they can offer suggestions. The environment will require at least oral fluency.

5. Think about the connections you could make between and among contexts such as your school, classroom and the community. Literacy can and is found in all of these contexts, though they are not always as "obvious" as they are in our classrooms. In the classroom we work a lot with new literacies.

We spend a lot of time on emotional literacy and ways to deal with these problems, like the conscious discipline ideas. We spend time in the computer lab so that the students have an opportunity to learn and experience digital literacy and all of the software resources the school has to offer. The classroom and district really focuses on the traditional literacies. We spend our entire morning working on reading and writing alone. These are skills that the district believe are necessary for a student to obtain in order to be successful in the other subject areas.

9-27 EDIT:

• What did you notice? I noticed, throughout our observations, that the community is very friendly and realizes exactly how their support helps the rest of the community (children and adults). There were plenty of opportunities for the visitors to use literacy skills throughout their day of running errands or for a quick meal out.
• What surprised you? What didn't surprise you?I was surprised about how much Pete's and LA Cafe tried to help out their immediate community. At Pete's, we learned from the owner, Ed, that he happily provides a venue and food for fundraisers. The group trying to raise money (generally sports teams or school groups) would be the waitstaff for the evening and take home all tips as proceeds. Ed even mentioned that he makes sure that his regular waitstaff is all taken care of in lieu of the fundraiser staff.
• I was surprised about the Kroger. The Kroger by my house is just an average grocery store. The Kroger in Clarkston/Waterford was recently renovated and it gives off an aura of luxury in an otherwise average middle working class area.
  
• How has this community experience helped you learn about your school, students, and families?I have seen some of the establishments that students and their families go to after school. These are places that students can associate with and develop a "second family" in some of these places.
  
• How will this experience help you in your teaching?I now know what some of the local areas are like, where the students and their families shop or spend a lot of time running errands.
  
• How will it influence your thinking about your students' as literacy users and learners? This excursion will help influence literacy because I can understand how frequently and to what extent my students are experiencing literacy outside of the classroom. I can work to cater my literacy homework assignments to these needs.