Reflection Letter

Dear Reader,

I want to say first that throughout the entire multi-genre research project I have learned a lot about process of creating multiple genres of presentation as well as the whole process of the assignment. I found creating these genre pieces the most enjoyable part of the process. A research paper can be very informative but it can also be very dry. While in many cases using different genres can portray the same ideas in a much more entertaining way.
Personally I learned that I do not know as much as I thought I did about The No Child Left Behind Act and can always learn more about everything.
I think this assignment can be a very valuable tool when teaching literacy in my classroom as well as an enjoyable project that students will have fun completing. The only part of this assignment I would change for use in my elementary classroom is the length of the research paper. I think it would be hard for elementary age students to write a paper of such length.
The best part of this assignment is that it can be incorporated into every part of a literacy curriculum. It could easily fit into a Daily Five structure as well as reading and writing workshop structures. You could even incorporate this assignment with a history or science lesson by using something from those areas as the research topic.
Overall all it is a great activity for any classroom.


Thanks,


Kris Harden

Newspaper

The Daily Herald

Washington D.C.  January 7, 2002 ---

Tomorrow the No Child Left Behind Act

officially takes effect. One of President

Bushes signature pieces of legislature,

The No Child Left Behind act promises

to make great strides in education.  In 

the area of literacy education the act

reads “Reading First is a focused

nationwide effort to enable all students

to become successful early readers.

Funds are dedicated to help states and

local school districts eliminate the

reading deficit by establishing high-

quality, comprehensive reading

instruction in kindergarten through

grade 3. Building on a solid foundation

of research, the program is designed to

select, implement, and provide

professional development for teachers

using scientifically based reading

programs, and to ensure accountability

through ongoing, valid and reliable

screening, diagnostic, and classroom-

based assessment.”  When asks how

he thinks the act will effect the way

he teaches literacy in his classroom

Mr. David Jones a 4^th grade elementary

school teacher said, “I don’t think the

way I teach will change, I just think I will

have more resources at my disposal to

assist me in teaching.” If Mr. Jones is

correct and the act works as it is

written we should see dramatic increases

in the level of literacy in our country.

I choose a newspaper article for this piece because i wanted to portray the initial reaction to the passing of the No child left behind act. I wanted to portray the act in a positive way, the way it was originally intended to be viewed. The article identifies when the act was enacted and gives a teachers point of view about how they feel it would work out. 

ISTEP CARTOON

In this short cartoon, I intended to show the point of view of a student.  I wanted to show that the students don't really understand what is going on with standardized testing. They really only know what they hear and the majority of the time it is that the things they are learning are going to on the exam.

Letter to Parents

Xtranormal

In the short video two teachers discuss one of the issues they have to deal with because of policies that have resulted from the NCLB act. I used extra normal to create the video because I felt that a written script might be a little to plan and the video allows fro some life with the story.

Bumper Sticker

Bumper Sticker

This bumper sticker is suppose to represent the idea held by many that the no child left behind act has forced many teachers to cut back on the amount of history and science being taught in the classroom today.  It used a oft misquoted line to lead off with, first to make the reader think about how they one have misquoted the line, but then also to think about the quote and its implications with the affects of NCLB.