Using a Multicultural, Interdisciplinary Approach in a Reading, Writing, and Technology Camp

Patricia R. Leigh
Carlie C. Tartakov
Carline B. Phillips

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Abstract

Learning Together: Literacy for Life is a program designed to enhance the literacy and technology skills of a targeted population of children. Participants engage in reading, writing, and computer activities directly related to science, math, and visual and performing arts. A three-week pilot of Learning Together was implemented by three university professors and teacher educators, who served as program directors and enlisted the help of numerous volunteers. Participants with reported reading difficulties were selected after interviews with both parents and children prior to the start of the program.

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Introduction | The Program | Conclusions | References



“Sweeeeet!” exclaimed one of the seven children gathered to watch a demonstration of the features of PowerPoint presentation software. Using a laptop computer and projector, the directors of a literacy program worked with the text from one of the student’s word-processed documents to create slides that the class could see on a large screen. Students were shown how to select layouts, insert text and graphics, choose text and slide transitions, and apply design templates. The feature that generated the most vocal response was an animated transition that presents text one letter at a time, accompanied by typewriter sounds. After the demonstration, the students rushed to their desktop computers to begin their new technology assignment.

This scene took place in the summer of 2002, when students were participating in Learning Together: Literacy for Life, a literacy program that uses technology to support and enhance learning. The program was conducted in a women’s resource center serving an inner city community in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The four boys and three girls, aged 8 to 11 years, were children of the women center’s clients and represented a diverse range of ethnicities: African American, Latino and Latina American, and Native American.

This article is intended to show how students experiencing difficulty in literacy acquisition can benefit from working with culturally relevant materials and technology. Research data reveal that U.S. public schools with high enrollments of African American and other students of color from low-income families have significantly less access to instructional technologies than do schools serving white students from wealthier families (Leigh, 1999). Urban schools in communities of low socioeconomic status (SES) typically have high percentages of African American and Latina/Latino American students (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Noguera, 2003); teachers in low SES schools are also less likely to incorporate technologies into the curriculum in meaningful and authentic ways (Becker, 2000). Learning Together addresses these problems directly by providing appropriate hardware and software as well as exemplary technology-using teachers. But the program goes beyond addressing the well-known issues surrounding digital equity: Because it centers on cultural relevance and infuses activities with meaningful uses of technology, it is unique and innovative. Using culturally relevant materials and providing diverse role models is beneficial for all students, because doing so creates a learning environment that reflects the true diversity of our society. However, the use of these materials is particularly important to the success of students of color. In what follows, examples are provided of activities and strategies that proved to be successful in exciting students’ interests in literacy and technology.

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The Program

Learning Together: Literacy for Life is a program designed to enhance literacy and technology skills of a targeted population of children. In summer 2002, we implemented a three-week pilot program of Learning Together and served as its directors, enlisting the help of numerous volunteers. The program is an initiative of the Carver Learning Institute for Educational Equity, and was designed by its co-directors, Carline B. Phillips and Patricia R. Leigh (two of the authors of this article). As such, it is aligned with the institute’s mission to provide educational services, programs, resources, and instructional technologies for the promotion of literacy among populations of low socioeconomic status and historically underserved ethnic groups. Funding from a grant from Bankers Trust of Des Moines, Iowa, allowed for the cost-free participation of the seven 8- to 11-year-old children in the pilot program.

Participants in the program, who were reported to have reading difficulties, were selected after interviews with both the parents and students. The parents reported their children’s difficulty in reading. School records that validated these reports were brought to the interviews, which were conducted by Phillips and Leigh. The program site was the women’s resource center, where the parents were clients. Two rooms were converted for use and equipped with children’s furniture, computers, a printer, and a library of books and writing materials.

The program took place Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., over a three-week period. The daily schedule was as follows:

During the “theme block” time slot, artists, musicians, or storytellers came to the center and engaged the students. For example, a drummer introduced various types of African-style drums and taught the students how to play certain rhythms. He also connected this activity and lesson to mathematical concepts. On another occasion, a storyteller read to the students and showed slides depicting his family’s escape from war-torn Laos. He posed questions to the students and aided them in formulating their written responses. Field trips to the local library, the science center, and the dance studio took place after the tutoring hour.

On the first day of the three-week session, the seven participating children were assessed by a public school reading specialist, who determined their reading levels. The children then chose books within their reading level, reading one at the program site with a mentor and taking another home to read with a parent. After reading and returning a book to the resource library, children were free to chose a new title. Students were then given the opportunity to share a story with the group by giving an oral summary during the first half hour of the day. All students were asked to write about one of their books and were given a list of guiding questions to frame their essays.

For two reluctant readers, finding books with which they could identify was a major step in going beyond the reading and writing suggestions of their instructors:

In complete amazement, Rafael, a fifth-grade Latino student, sat with his tutor and stared at the book in front of him. “I wonder if my mom knows about Cesar Chavez. Can I take this book [Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader, by Clara Sanchez de Morris] home tonight for her to see? He’s Mexican American, like me. I wanna read this book at home and read it to you tomorrow and then write a story about him on the computer.” Though this book had come from his tutor’s own collection, Rafael was allowed to take it home that night. The next day, his mother, who worked at the center, commented on how excited Rafael was about the book. She had, of course heard of Cesar Chavez, but Rafael had not.

As a result of reading and reporting on this book, Rafael’s vocabulary began to expand quickly, as did his critical thinking. At one point, Rafael became interested in the meaning of the word strike, and wanted to understand what would make someone take such a firm stand for what they thought was right, even if it meant going to jail. “This is like what Martin Luther King did for his people, right?” Rafael commented. By connecting with the story of Chavez, someone from a shared cultural background, Rafael began to make connections across cultures.

When Sonia, a Latina sixth grader, saw a book that included her name as part of the title, she was naturally delighted. She was also drawn to pick up this book about a girl who shared her name and culture, despite the fact that doing so represented extra reading. For both Rafael and Sonia, their interest in reading and writing about books was piqued by the fact that they could identify with the people in the stories. A light was turned on, and they could see their own faces reflected in the faces of the main characters. They identified with the lives, challenges, and struggles that many Mexican Americans experience in the United States, in terms of both ethnicity and socioeconomic class.

Using Word Processing

During the technology hour, the students were introduced to word processing. For example, they were asked to use Microsoft Word to complete their book reports. The first day the children worked in pairs, taking turns writing their documents. The three directors rotated among the students, showing them how to use some of the software’s editing features and tools, such as spellcheck. The students exhibited various levels of expertise in keyboarding and in the management of files, but they all showed equal enthusiasm in the way they attacked the assignment.

After the first few days, students worked individually rather than in pairs, and were taught how to save their work to floppy disks so that they would not be tied to a particular computer. Having their own disks on which to store their ongoing work seemed a new and exciting concept for them. On some occasions, especially when there were no scheduled events, time was set aside in the afternoons for students to continue work on uncompleted technology assignments. Between assigned projects, students were encouraged to use a game-like software package that reinforced keyboarding skills, which was loaded on each of the computers.

Students were encouraged to create the first drafts of their book reports and essays using Word, without teacher help in spelling (see Figure 1). Some students used dictionaries in combination with spellcheck to correct the misspelled words identified by the software. Again, the teachers would rotate among the students, asking each child to read her or his short essay. At this time, the teachers helped students tackle particularly troublesome words, encouraging them to use the skills presented by the program’s reading specialist and their individual reading tutors.

Figure 1
Samples of Students’ Word-Processed Texts

student's essay outline student's essay

Creating Presentations

PowerPoint was the first presentation software introduced in the program that allowed students to insert graphics and sound and to experiment with transitions. The other presentation package used was Hyperstudio, which was developed as an educational tool and is therefore more student friendly and more widely available in schools than is PowerPoint. PowerPoint, on the other hand, was developed for business use and is available across platforms and operating systems. Adults and parents are more likely to have this software if they have access to computers at home or at work and can perhaps in turn help their children with it. In addition, because this package is used in the workplace it may prove beneficial to expose children to it. As with the other software packages used in the program, PowerPoint was incorporated to enhance the storytelling, writing, and reading skills of the students.

For example, after a field trip to the local science center, students were instructed to create a slide presentation representing their experiences. After the teacher-led PowerPoint demonstration described in the opening vignette of this article, students created their presentations, based on the following guidelines:

  1. Create a page with a title and your name, using the title slide layout. [Drawings of the layouts were provided on a whiteboard.]
  2. Create additional slides about things you saw, did, or learned using the bulleted slide layout.
  3. Choose a background (design template).
  4. Choose transitions for the words and slides/pages.
  5. Insert a picture on one of the slides.

Again the teachers helped the students familiarize themselves with the features of the program. Digital pictures of the students taken at the center were loaded on each of the computer’s hard drives, allowing them to personalize their slides if they chose. However, students were reminded of the importance of the story they were providing — and were asked directly to focus on writing and inserting text if too much time and effort was being spent on the software’s extra features they found exciting. For this particular project, the reading tutors helped the students correct their spelling errors and, in addition, students were given the opportunity to present their completed slideshows to their respective tutors. Slides from one student’s presentation are shown in Figure 2 (note that the child’s name and picture have been removed to preserve anonymity).

Figure 2
Science Center Slide Presentation

slide showing presentation title

first content slide

second content slide

Creating Books with The Amazing Writing Machine

The Amazing Writing Machine software was introduced as another tool students could use in writing about their experiences. One feature of this package is the ability it provides for children to create pages that, when printed on standard letter-size paper, can be folded to make a small booklet. After the teachers demonstrated this and other features, the students were given the assignment of creating a booklet about a field trip to a local open-air museum that demonstrates life in Iowa in several time periods.

Using HyperStudio

Hyperstudio is a multimedia presentation software package that allows students to create projects that include video, still photos, audio, and text. Each computer screen of information is referred to as a “card,” and the collection of cards (the end multimedia project) is called a “stack.” The student can create buttons or hyperlinks to retrieve and display a card in the stack nonlinearly, without displaying the cards that precede it. Hyperstudio’s navigational tools are similar to the hyperlinks found in Internet Web browsers.

HyperStudio was introduced after the students had many experiences provided by visitors to the program setting and field trips away from the program’s facility. Students were asked to create a HyperStudio stack that included a table of contents and three to five cards with text and graphics depicting a field trip or some theme-related activity. If they chose, they could also create buttons that allowed nonlinear navigation through their stacks. A “home” button was created and copied to all appropriate cards, so that one could always return to the first or home card; buttons for linking to the previous or next card were also available. Students learned to insert, size, and position text boxes and graphics, and they experimented with transitions between cards, some incorporating audio effects.

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Conclusions

Learning Together concentrates on developing students’ literacy through science, math, and visual and performing arts. Children engage in reading, writing, and computer activities directly related to these themes. During program hours, students read on their own, in small groups, and with the larger group. They write short essays, stories, reports, poetry, and plays directly related to what they have read. In emphasizing the use of computer technologies for writing and developing the portfolio artifacts that reflect student learning, the program follows the suggestions outlined by McKenna, Reinking, Labbo, and Kieffer (1999) for fostering electronic literacy: “Provide ample opportunities for children to read and write using computers. In so doing, you will help prepare them for the literacy demands of the world they will enter” (p. 121). Emphasis is also placed on cultural awareness, and the program includes a multicultural approach to learning. Students of color see themselves reflected in the curriculum and in the faces of the directors, tutors, and volunteers.

Field trips and other activities outside the program facility also support development of reading and writing skills. For example, students visit a local science center, an open-air history museum, a theatre, and a dance studio. When they return from these outings, students prepare oral or written reports related to their experiences.

Parental involvement is another part of the Learning Together program. Researchers contend that student achievement and long-lasting educational gains are secured and enhanced when parents provide support and model reading and learning in the home (see, e.g., Darling-Hammond, 1997; Halle, 1994). Though this is commonly accepted among educators, public institutions are not in the position to require or mandate parental support and involvement. On the other hand, in Learning Together, parents commit to active engagement in the literacy programs their children undertake in the program, promising to make reading an essential part of their family routine. This parental involvement is a required and key factor, but it varies in form depending upon family circumstances and working situations. Parents report regularly on the reading activities engaged in at home, books completed, and the general progress of the student.

For the pilot program, students and their parents were interviewed before and after the program. One of the key questions posed was how much time the students spent reading outside of school and how much time the parents spent either reading to their children or listening to them read. In most cases, the students and parents reported they perceived significant increases in time spent on home reading activities over the duration of the pilot program. As Bandura’s (1996) work indicates, students are willing to try things if they think they will be successful.

Students also reported an increased level of self-efficacy concerning their computer skills. Second only to the final field trip (which involved a trip to a local amusement park), students reported the work on computers as being a favorite aspect of the program. Several were impressed with having their own floppy disk and reported that learning to save their work was an important lesson. In the initial interviews, most students reported limited access to computers in their schools. Some had computer lab time during the day, while others competed with classmates for turns at the single computer available in a classroom. With this in mind, Learning Together again followed the recommendations of McKenna et al. (1999): “Have reasonable expectations. Technology is not the panacea for all of the problems faced by the struggling reader” (p. 122). However, all children did report excitement in being able to work independently on the computers and to experiment with new programs. One student exclaimed in the final interview, “You guys had everything!”

At the conclusion of the individual exit interviews, students escorted their parents to the lab area and presented the work that was stored on their disks. The students activated the appropriate programs and, in the case of the presentation software, presented the PowerPoint slideshows and navigated through the HyperStudio stacks. Students were allowed to take their disks home at the end of the program.

The goal of the pilot program was to improve the literacy skills of the participants by means of an indisciplinary, multicultural approach that made use of technology. All students were excited about engaging in, completing, and presenting their computer-based reading and writing projects to their classmates, tutors, and parents. The technology clearly played an important part in the success of the program by motivating students to spend time reading and writing. Although there was no formal assessment of the program, the tutors reported gains in the students’ reading skills. The reading specialist had assessed the individual students’ reading levels at the beginning of the program and worked with the tutors throughout the three-week period concerning the students’ progress. In addition, parents reported that their children were spending more time reading at home. (In most cases, the parents also reported spending more time reading with or to their children.)

Shelli, a fifth grader of Native American and African American heritage, appeared to be an avid reader early in the program, despite the fact that her mother indicated in the initial interview that she did not enjoy reading at home or at school. Because of Shelli’s enthusiasm in choosing books and sharing stories with others, the directors assumed that her mother was unaware of her interest. We underestimated her mother’s knowledge of her child, as teachers so often do; we were also unaware of the level of involvement Shelli’s mother took on during her daughter’s time in the program. Although parental involvement was a major element incorporated into the program to ensure success, we were unaware of its impact on Shelli’s reading. During the final interview, we learned that, every morning, Shelli had been accompanying her mother to the center hours before the literacy classes began. This was the time that Shelli and her mother had carved out to read together. Shelli’s enthusiasm would spill over into the day. Often, she would be the first student to arrive in the classroom and would excitedly ask, “Can I share my book today?”

Although there was no formal reading assessment at the end of the three-week period, the observations of the program directors, tutors, parents, and the students themselves indicate that the pilot program was successful and should be replicated to include more students. (Because of difficulty in securing sufficient funding, the program has not yet been replicated to include more students. However, the three program directors — the authors of this article — are still investigating the possibilities of offering an expanded version of the summer camp sometime in the future.) It also became clear that learning about one’s own and other cultures was an important element of the program’s success. Providing students with role models that reflect their culture or ethnic heritage is also critical to success in learning. Most teachers of minority students are culturally different from their students, and many know little about their students’ lives or backgrounds. The most effective teachers, however, are those who respect and appreciate their students and their students’ cultures and welcome the diversity they bring to the classroom. This does not mean they must be of the same culture or ethnicity as their students, but it does mean they must know and appreciate the diverse perspectives their students bring to their schools (Tartakov, 1995, p. 25)

Students also need to see themselves reflected among the people they perceive to be their leaders. If no one in their school’s administration — no teacher or senior administrator — looks like them, is the same sex as they are, or belongs to their ethnic group, it will be difficult for them to see the possibilities of success or leadership for themselves. Children need role models who demonstrate what they themselves can become. If they have no contact with people in positions of authority with whom they can identify, they are being taught that they should not aspire to those positions (Tartakov, 1991, 1995, p. 25)

Availability of role models and issues of self-efficacy are important to students of minority status as they strive for success in academic undertakings. These issues become even more important for the struggling reader. According to Bandura (1986), self-efficacy is the way people judge their personal capabilities. These judgments vary, depending upon the activities pursued. The extent to which people judge themselves to be capable is important: It determines how much effort a person will put forth in completing a particular task. Furthermore, Bandura’s studies show that vicarious experiences offer powerful opportunities for people to gain knowledge about themselves. Individuals who see or visualize others mastering activities can be persuaded to become successful at comparable activities. Perceived self-efficacy can be changed by relevant modeling (Bandura, Adams, Hardy, & Howells, 1980). Curriculum is important, of course, but role models give clear indications of who will be allowed to learn and grow into a respected citizen (Tartakov, 1991, 1995, p. 26).

The following scene from the program demonstrates the effects that role modeling had on the self-efficacy of a student in the literacy program, as well as the effects it had on his reading choices:

After a session in which the program directors shared their backgrounds and travels, one of the students asked, “Where else have you been?” Two of the three directors had accompanied university students on a study-abroad program in India. At the students’ request, they brought in pictures and artifacts to show the next day. Kevin, an African American student who had up to that point taken little interest in the activities and was resistant and bored, seemed fascinated by what he was being told and shown. Kevin discovered a book about folktales from India and could not read enough stories and gather enough information about the country and its people. What seemed to amaze him most was that two of his African American teachers had actually visited India, a country that the students he knew had little knowledge about. To him, India could have been the moon, and we were as impressive as astronauts. His teachers of color made another “sweeeeeet” impression, demonstrating that “Yes, we can do that, too.”

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References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice Hall.
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Bandura, A. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy on academic functioning. Child Development, 67(3), 1206-1222.
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Bandura, A., Adams, N.E., Hardy, A.B., & Howells, G.N. (1980). Regulations of cognitive process through perceived self-efficacy. Developmental Psychology, 25(5), 729-735.
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Becker, H.J. (2000). Who’s wired and who’s not: Children’s access to and use of computer technology. Future of Children, 10(2), 44-75.
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Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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Halle, J.E. (1994). Unbank the fire: Visions for the education of African American children. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Leigh, P.R. (1999). Electronic connections and equal opportunities: An analysis of telecommunications distribution in public schools. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32(1), 108-127. .
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McKenna, M.C., Reinking, D., Labbo, L.D., & Kieffer, R.D. (1999). The electronic transformation of literacy and its implications for the struggling reader. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 15, 111-126.
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Noguera, P.A. (2003). City schools and the American dream: Reclaiming the promise of public education. New York: Teachers College Press.
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Tartakov, C.C. (1991). Appropriate role models for people of color in education. Issues Facing People of Color in Education, 2(2), 188-192.
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Tartakov, C.C. (1995). Ethnicity awareness intervention: Effects on attitudes and behaviors of science educators. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Iowa State University, Ames.
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About the Authors

portrait of Patricia Leigh

Patricia Leigh (e-mail) is an assistant professor in curriculum and instruction at Iowa State University and is affiliated with the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching (CTLT) in the College of Education. She teaches courses in social foundations, technology, and multicultural education. Her research centers on the equality of educational opportunities, including access to technology, afforded historically underserved children.
portrait of Carlie Tartakov

Carlie Tartakov (e-mail) is an assistant professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University and is a member of the Multicultural International Curriculum Studies Team (MICS) in the College of Education. Currently, she directs the University Studies program “Dialogues on Diversity.” Her research and teaching is focused on multicultural education and cross-cultural/international relations. She is involved in the implementation of anti-racist/anti-bias curricula and practices in educational settings.
portrait of Carline Phillips

Carline Phillips (e-mail) is an adjunct professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her areas of expertise include curriculum, and instructional technology, teacher education, and reading. Carline teaches educational methods courses and supervises student teachers in the Drake School of Education. She has nearly 25 years of teaching experience, having taught at the elementary, secondary, and college levels.

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Citation: Leigh, P.R., Tartakov, C.C., & Phillips, C.B. (2004, March/April). Using a multicultural, interdisciplinary approach in a reading, writing, and technology camp. Reading Online, 7(4). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=leigh/index.html



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Posted March 2004
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