RM Winter 2017

Pen Pal Book Study Project: Authentic Literacy Experiences with Third Graders and Preservice Teachers

By Shawnna Helf, Bettie Parsons Barger, Hannah Brandon, Haley Nash, Winthrop University & KimWhite, Sugar Creek Elementary, Fort Mill, SC

Reading Matters Research Matters

ABSTRACT —Authentic learning is critical to the development of readers and writers. These types of experiences have been found to improve student achievement and motivation. In this article we describe an electronic pen pal book study project between third graders and preservice teachers. We will share the perspectives of the participants and offer considerations for designing authentic literacy experiences. Authentic practice has been defined as a “combination of personal meaning making and purposefulness within an appropriate social and disciplinary framework” (Stein, Issacs, & Andrews, 2004, p. 241). Research supports the use of authentic literacy in accompaniment with reading and writing instruction (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall & Tower, 2006; Gambrell, Hughes, Calvert, Malloy, & Igo, 2011; Parsons &Ward, 2011; Schmoker, 2007; Teale & Gambrell, 2007; VanDeWeghe, 2008). These experiences provide real-world texts for a real-world purpose, which may result in tasks students value (Perry, 2012; Tompkins, Campbell, Green & Smith, 2014). Often, authentic literacy tasks require social interaction and collaboration among participants (Tompkins et al., 2014). These types of activities have been shown to increase students’ academic achievement on general and standardized tests, as well as motivation (Gambrell, Hughes, Calvert, Malloy, & Igo, 2011; Teale & Gambrell, 2007). As university professors, we (Drs. Helf and Barger) advocate for these types of learning opportunities as we seek to enhance the intellectual development of our students. In the fall of 2015 we designed a book study project with third graders at a local elementary school and preservice teachers. Essentially, the third graders and preservice teachers were electronic pen pals, reading/discussing a piece of children’s literature over a seven-week period. The purpose of the project was to (1) engage elementary school students in an authentic literacy activity and (2) provide undergraduate, preservice teachers opportunities to observe the features of elementary school students’ literacy development and respond to the students in a meaningful context. In this article we will provide an overview of the project, share the perspectives of the project participants, and offer considerations for designing authentic literacy experiences. Book Study Project Overview From the beginning, we knew book selection was critical to the success of the project. The novel had to appeal to both third graders and preservice teachers. It had to have short, manageable chapters and be on an instructional or independent reading level for the third graders. It

also had to have an eventful plot for students to want to, and be able to, engage in a discussion of the story.

After conversations with the classroom teacher, learning more about the abilities and interests of her students, we decided on Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Tough Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins Figure 1. Figure 1. Selected text.

(2006). In this short novel, three toys (Stingray, Buffalo, and Plastic) go on adventures, learning more about their world and themselves in the process. This novel is written on a 3.9 reading level, with a Lexile level of 730. Each chapter has a problem and a resolution, providing students enough material to generate discussion.

There are six chapters, which fit perfectly with the timing of our project and the elementary school and university calendars. Setting up the Technology The next step was to create an online forum for the book study project. The first design included email correspondences between elementary students and preservice teachers. However, because of privacy and security concerns the third graders did not have individual access to email; therefore, we had to explore other platforms. Our university had just moved to Microsoft Office 365, so all of our preservice teachers had access to Microsoft OneNote. This program allows multiple people to share access to the same notebook, which provided a layer of security for the students involved. The university professors, preservice teachers, and classroom teacher had access to the notebook. OneNote allows for multiple dividers in each notebook. We set up the notebook so that each third grade student had his or her own tab across the top of the notebook. This organization allowed us to keep all responses in one notebook, with specific locations for each student. Under each student tab, we inserted multiple pages, one for every pen pal entry across the book study. We wanted to ensure that the organization made it clear where each entry should go. See Figure 2 for a picture of the Notebook layout (names of the participants have been removed). Each student tab was password protected (accessible to the university professors,

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