Not Without Joy: A Reflective Practice Journey To Encouraging Literacy Through The Arts

• Main Author: McCann, Lauren A.
• Format: Others
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/978567/1/McCann_PhD_S2014_pdfa.pdf; McCann, Lauren A. <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/view/creators/McCann=3ALauren_A=2E=3A=3A.html> (2014) Not Without Joy: A Reflective Practice Journey To Encouraging Literacy Through The Arts. PhD thesis, Concordia University.

ABSTRACT Not Without Joy: A Reflective Practice Journey To Encouraging Literacy Through The Arts This thesis chronicles my journey as a kindergarten teacher-researcher as I apply the arts to inform early literacy skills. It is the teacher’s role to drive the curriculum and it is his or her past experiences that will determine its delivery. After researching into my past, and gaining insight into my teaching philosophy, I discovered my passion for educating through the arts. To improve my teaching practice, and uncover the impact of my art driven curriculum, I recorded my actions, wrote daily field notes and collected the works of my students in order to discover the impact my lessons had on their self-perceptions as they became readers. Using the method of reflective practice, I question how teaching through the arts can support my students in visualizing themselves as readers while learning to read. The dissertation focuses on my daily reflections in regards to art activities intended to teach early literacy skills according to the International Reading Associations’ three reading standards. Reflections from these lessons are examined in parallel to the bi-monthly reading-self-portraits created by the students. Themes such as home and school emerge and, as the school year progresses, personal connections to reading are made as the children mature. Their reading-self-portraits evolve to illustrate lessons learned in class and conclusively depict independent reading. By expanding the definition of “literacy” to include new literacies and multimodality, and by validating the views of a reflective practitioner, I connect my teaching methods to my students’ improvement. Through reflective practice, I discover the key ingredient of a successful academic curriculum – joy.