EDEL 599
Capstone Presentation
by Michele Wilson

About Me:

• live in Spruce Grove with my family
• passionate about nature, food, mother earth
• taught in various contexts: rural/urban, Canada, Taiwan, Australia
• taught wide variety of grades and subjects

Current studies

• Masters of Education in Elementary Education with a specialization in Language and Literacy
• major focus: critical literacy
• minor focus: importance of places and education in culturally diverse classroom

Why do a masters?

• to learn, grow andimprove my own skills and practices
• to have new and different opportunities
• to be able to assist / lead other teachers - learning coach

What to choose

• EVERY COURSE OFFERED NEW LEARNING AND GROWTH
• Like fitting in the pieces of a puzzle that is being created as I go

EDEL 595:
Literacy Development
Through Drama and Literature -
Designing a Process Drama and Creating a Teacher Workshop

Process Drama - drama at the edges of the text. (Wagner, 1998; Wolf, 1997)
Using "Horton Hears a Who" to teach critical literacy to young children through drama.

the Drama

• a way to completely engage students by having them use their whole body / mind
• utilizes critical thinking and higher level learning (Wagner, 1998).
• a way to teach 4 dimensions of critical literacy: disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues and taking action / promoting social justice (Lewison, Seely Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002).

the Teacher Workshop

• this exercise provided me with a useful presentation to take back to my colleagues - share
• useful for the teacher leader/learning coach
• helped me to think about my future role as a teacher with a masters - what do I have to offer my peers

Highlights

• Every class was a highlight for me
• Each added new layers and dimensions to answering my questions surrounding critical literacy: What is it? Why teach it? How to teach it.

future career

Many Thanks to:

• my super supportive husband, Dave, and children, Gaby, Danielle, Joel, and Rosie
• my advisor: Dr. Linda Laidlaw
• all my fantastic professors/mentors: Dr. Heather Blair, Dr. Julia Ellis, Dr. Florence Glanfield, Dr. Carol Leroy, Dr. Leonora Macy, Dr. Lynne Wiltze, and Dr. Joe Wu
• my students

References

• Lewison, M., Seely Flint, A., and Van Sluys, K. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts, 79(5), 382-393. Wagner (1998). Educational drama and language arts: What research shows. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Wolf, S., Edmiston, B., & Enciso, P. (1997). Drama worlds; Places of the heart, head, voice, and hand in dramatic interpretation. In Handbook of research of teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts (2nd ed., p. 492-504). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers