CBL Newsletter Spring 2025

GGSE Reading Clinic at UCSB
Jul 9
15 min read

Dear Friends,

First of all, I should share that this will be my last newsletter introduction. My decade as director of Community Based Literacies (CBL) has come to a close, and a new leader will take my place. CBL Assistant Director Dr. Valerie Meier (see photo on the left) will take my place as Director and oversee all programs and activities, including this newsletter. Dr. Meier co-led the development of the CBL approach with Dr. Arya, and is first author of the forthcoming book, Community Based Literacies: Theories, Methods, and Practices.

In her new role as CBL Director and Principal Investigator, Dr. Meier will focus her efforts on revitalizing the popular program called UCSB Club. In 2023-2024, we developed UCSB Club in order to bring our young co-learners to UCSB on a weekly basis to engage in interest-driven research projects with undergraduate facilitators. This program was a reprisal of an earlier practice before the onset of the pandemic.

Dr. Valerie Meier has been an invaluable member of our team, and we are grateful to GGSE leadership for supporting her in this new role. She will be joined by CBL Writing Director Dr. Sarah Hirsch, who has been an amazing colleague and friend, and has been a wonderful partner in developing our programs.

Patricia Atmoko, Ray Sebastian, GasparYahaira, Venegas-Hernandez, Caroline Paskus, Danielle Holguin, Lanie Allen, Natalia Rodriguez Martinez

Undergraduates at UCSB work directly with community youth on collaborative projects that reflect community interests. This year marked our second iteration of the CBL Endorsement Program, which is an opportunity for undergraduates to gain valuable experience in developing and implementing activities and projects that are expected of candidates within a teacher education program. This year, our CBL Endorsement Candidates (right) dove deep into topics and issues surrounding multilingual learners. Projects included case studies on socioemotional wellbeing, identifying and developing texts that explicitly address linguistic and cultural inequities, and game-based learning. Candidates are listed below.

We also recognized three undergraduates who completed the CBL endorsement last year and continued to be involved in our programming throughout this year. Nat Acosta, Liz Toro Medina, and Serenity Sosa developed and facilitated instructional activities at our clinic and at HUPS while also serving as peer mentors to current endorsement candidates. Each of these amazing educators have graduated this spring. Nat Acosta received a fellowship for the teacher education program at UCLA, where she will start in the fall

Finally, I cannot think of anything better for my last issue as CBL Director than to focus on Celebrating Community Youth. Our young co-learners are front and center in our programming. In this issue, you will read about the experiences and accomplishments of our young co-learners who conducted investigations, wrote poetry, created games, and more. I invite you to celebrate with us by exploring the creative and scholarly work featured in this issue.

Best,

Dr. D

Queridos amigos,

En primer lugar, debo compartir que esta será mi última introducción al boletín informativo. Mi década como directora de Alfabetización Basada en la Comunidad (ABC) ha llegado a su fin, y una nueva líder ocupará mi lugar. La subdirectora de ABC, Dra. Valerie Meier (ver foto a la izquierda), ocupará mi puesto como directora y supervisará todos los programas y actividades, incluyendo este boletín. La Dra. Meier codirigió el desarrollo del enfoque ABC junto con la Dra. Arya y es la primera autora del próximo libro, Alfabetización Basada en la Comunidad: Teorías, Métodos y Prácticas.

En su nuevo cargo como Directora del CBL e Investigadora Principal, la Dra. Meier centrará sus esfuerzos en revitalizar el popular programa Club UCSB. En el curso académico 2023-2024, desarrollamos el Club UCSB para que nuestros jóvenes estudiantes se reunieran semanalmente en la UCSB para participar en proyectos de investigación basados en sus intereses con facilitadores de pregrado. Este programa fue una reedición de una práctica anterior al inicio de la pandemia.

La Dra. Valerie Meier ha sido un miembro invaluable de nuestro equipo y agradecemos a la dirección de GGSE su apoyo en este nuevo puesto. A ella se unirá la Dra. Sarah Hirsch, directora de redacción de CBL, quien ha sido una excelente colega y amiga, y una excelente colaboradora en el desarrollo de nuestros programas.

Los estudiantes de pregrado de la UCSB trabajan directamente con jóvenes de la comunidad en proyectos colaborativos que reflejan los intereses de la comunidad. Celebramos la segunda edición del Programa de Acreditación CBL, una oportunidad para que los estudiantes de pregrado adquieran experiencia valiosa en el desarrollo e implementación de actividades y proyectos que se esperan de los candidatos dentro de un programa de formación docente. Este año, nuestros candidatos a la Acreditación CBL (derecha) profundizaron en temas y problemáticas que rodean a los estudiantes multilingües. Los proyectos incluyeron estudios de caso sobre bienestar socioemocional, la identificación y el desarrollo de textos que abordan explícitamente las desigualdades lingüísticas y culturales, y el aprendizaje basado en juegos. Los candidatos se listan a continuación.

También reconocimos a tres estudiantes de pregrado que completaron la certificación CBL el año pasado y continuaron participando en nuestra programación durante este año. Nat Acosta, Liz Toro Medina y Serenity Sosa desarrollaron y facilitaron actividades educativas en nuestra clínica y en HUPS, además de servir como mentoras de los candidatos actuales a la certificación. Cada una de estas excelentes educadoras se graduó esta primavera. Nat Acosta recibió una beca para el programa de formación docente de UCLA, donde comenzará en otoño.

Finalmente, no se me ocurre nada mejor para mi último número como Director de CBL que centrarme en Celebrar a la Juventud Comunitaria. Nuestros jóvenes estudiantes son protagonistas de nuestra programación. En este número, leerán sobre las experiencias y logros de nuestros jóvenes estudiantes, quienes realizaron investigaciones, escribieron poesía, crearon juegos y más. Los invito a celebrar con nosotros explorando el trabajo creativo y académico que se presenta en este número.

Saludos cordiales,

Dr. D

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Engaging Youth in University Contexts

During the year we had many chances to bring Harding students to UCSB to learn, collaborate and explore.

Writing Hawks

The Writing Hawks is a group of young writers at HUPS who came together and worked with Dr. D and Dr. Sarah on various writing projects. As part of this program, the Writing Hawks took two field trips to visit Dr. Sarah’s journalism class in the winter and her magazine writing class at UC Santa Barbara.

In the winter the Writing Hawks and the UCSB undergraduates worked together on a Love Letters activity. Connecting with what/who inspires us, or an amazing experience that we've had this year so far. The Hawks and the UCSB journalism students wrote a word or message that reflected a memory that we loved, or someone we really appreciate. We then posted our notes to the wall within the heart. After this each Writing Hawk interviewed a group of the undergraduate journalism students. From these interviews they composed a study entitled “Exploring Undergraduate Life.” Read about their findings below:

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Involucrando a los jóvenes en contextos universitarios

Durante el año tuvimos muchas oportunidades para llevar a los estudiantes de Harding a UCSB para aprender, colaborar y explorar.

Los Halcones de la Escritura

Los Halcones de la Escritura son un grupo de jóvenes escritores en HUPS que se unieron y trabajaron con el Dr. D y la Dr. Sarah en varios proyectos de escritura. Como parte de este programa, los Halcones de la Escritura hicieron dos excursiones para visitar la clase de periodismo de la Dr.. Sarah en invierno y su clase de redacción de revistas en UC Santa Barbara.

En el invierno, los Writing Hawks y los estudiantes de pregrado de UCSB trabajaron juntos en una actividad de Cartas de Amor. Conectando con lo que/nos inspira, o una experiencia increíble que hemos tenido hasta ahora este año. Los Hawks y los estudiantes de periodismo de UCSB escribieron una palabra o mensaje que reflejaba un recuerdo que amamos, o a alguien que realmente apreciamos. Luego, publicamos nuestras notas en la pared dentro del corazón. Después de esto, cada Writing Hawk entrevistó a un grupo de estudiantes de periodismo de pregrado. A partir de estas entrevistas, compusieron un estudio titulado “Explorando la Vida de Pregrado.” Lee sobre sus hallazgos a continuación:

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what the mind of an undergraduate writer is like? Or what their thinking process is like? Well, we can help find the answer! There are 16 million UGs (undergraduates) in the US. Of this total, 2,360,700 of those go to school in California. There are many processes or factors in an undergraduate’s mind. So we have gathered much of this information for this question by interviewing students at UCSB.

UCSB is one of ten universities in California, listed below.

We wanted to learn what it is like to be an undergraduate, so we conducted interviews with undergraduates attending UC Santa Barbara. The goals of our study were to visit a local university and explore the minds of undergraduates and their experiences. Specifically, we wanted to learn (a) what undergraduates like about their school; (b) what they like about writing and research; (c) what it’s like to be a college student; and (d) more about the mind of a writer.

We worked to this conclusion by interviewing 18 undergraduate students, which included three boys and 15 girls. The study we conducted was to learn about the personal perspectives of individual 2025 college students. Hence, our research question is: What are the perspectives and experiences of undergraduates who are developing writers?

Methodology

We visited a college journalism class to interview 18 undergraduates (juniors and seniors) about their experiences and perspectives.

Five of us asked the following questions:

What is your favorite class?
What is your favorite type of writing?
What is your Major?
What do you like about UCSB?
How long have you been at UCSB?
What’s your favorite writing piece?
What classes do you take?
What’s your dream job?
What is your favorite book right now?
What inspired you to start writing?
Have you ever met or known a person that has written a book?
What writing are you working on right now?

One of us asked the following questions:

What is your favorite class?
What is your favorite type of writing?
What do you like about UCSB?

We randomly assigned the undergraduates to one of six groups. Each group was interviewed by one of us, and four of us used our iPads to audio record the interviews. We also took notes on what the undergraduates shared.

After our visit, we listened to all the recordings and reviewed our notes. Then we agreed on what and how to report about the information that we gathered. We pulled all the information into a single excel document to create a database. Below is a screenshot of this database:

Findings

Based on what we gathered, we found the following information about undergraduates’ background and interests. For many of these findings, we had missing information from three of the undergraduates.

Figure 1. Number of years at UCSB.

A lot of students have been at UCSB for only one year, which suggests that many of the undergraduates went to a two-year college beforehand. This is because all undergraduates were juniors or seniors.

The most reported major was communication. We used pink colors to refer to majors that involve literacy, which is the most frequent kind of major. Second most frequent are the sciences, like environmental science.

Figure 3. Favorite Class

Undergraduates reported many different kinds of favorite classes, like Chinese art history. There were several kinds of art classes mentioned. The most popular classes seem to relate to literacy, indicated in pink colors.

Poems are a big favorite among interviews. Fiction was more popular than nonfiction.

Figure 5. What I like about UCSB

Most of the undergraduates (13 out of 18) said that they liked UCSB for where it is–near the beach and good places to eat. We marked these kinds of responses in shades of yellow. Three people said that they liked the people at UCSB (blue). One person said that they liked how diverse UCSB is, and another said that there were lots of opportunities to learn and do things with others. Below were what the undergraduates said about their dream jobs.

As we said before, we had missing information from three of the undergraduates, so we have information from 15 out of 18. As you can see, each person we interviewed had a different dream job. We grouped them according to type of job, like STEM (green) and teaching (purple). The most popular kind of job is in STEM.

Discussion

This study gave us an idea about what it’s like to be an undergraduate at UCSB. By interacting with them we were able to understand their interests and personalities and why they chose to go to UCSB. With this we were able to learn about what it’s like to be an undergraduate. We as students took this opportunity to give ourselves an understanding of undergraduate life, like going to the beach and you can take different kinds of classes at a university like UCSB.

We think that communications was a popular major because it may help get good jobs. We did not know that you can take so many different classes in college, like dinosaurs. And there are so many different kinds of history classes.

This study also gave us an opportunity to think about what we think is most valuable in our own learning. For writing, we think that the most valuable experiences we had this year were the different writing contests, and opportunities to do different styles of writing. We think it is valuable to be able to publish our writing, and we like meeting as a group because everyone in Writing Hawks are writers and we understand each other and get better feedback.

To be a writer means to have a creative mind, and have deep descriptions. Writing is a way to share thoughts with the world, as a kind of art. We express our feelings to give a story character. Our advice to peers interested in becoming writers is to use your free time to explore writing. Make it your own, use your voice and bring your own style to it. Typewriters can help, too.

Thank you for reading our study about undergraduate life.

During the Writing Hawks second trip to UCSB they worked on Identity Statements along with the undergraduate magazine students answering one of the following questions:

Hardly no one knows this about me…
One of the best experiences I ever had was…
I’m the kind of person who…

The undergraduates and Writing Hawks wrote a paragraph based on their chosen prompt. The undergraduates got into groups each led by a Writing Hawk. Together they shared their paragraphs and picked a theme that linked all their paragraphs together. From this theme each group wrote a haiku. They are below:

Durante el segundo viaje de los Writing Hawks a UCSB, trabajaron en Declaraciones de Identidad junto con los estudiantes de la revista de pregrado, respondiendo a una de las siguientes preguntas:

Casi nadie sabe esto sobre mí…

Una de las mejores experiencias que he tenido fue…

Soy el tipo de persona que…

Los estudiantes de pregrado y los Writing Hawks escribieron un párrafo basado en el tema elegido. Los estudiantes de pregrado se dividieron en grupos, cada uno liderado por un Writing Hawk. Juntos compartieron sus párrafos y eligieron un tema que vinculaba todos sus párrafos. A partir de este tema, cada grupo escribió un haiku. Están a continuación:

Finally, at the end of class the Writing Hawks announced to the magazine students what their assignment was for the next day. These writing workshops with the Writing Hawks and UCSB undergraduate students illustrate how writing and creation are collaborative projects.

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Finalmente, al final de la clase, los Writing Hawks anunciaron a los estudiantes de la revista cuál era su tarea para el día siguiente. Estos talleres de escritura con los Writing Hawks y los estudiantes de pregrado de UCSB ilustran cómo la escritura y la creación son proyectos colaborativos.

Spring Field Trip

In May, Harding fourth graders came to campus to do a Sound Walk around the Lagoon. We were walking, listening, pausing and creating in order to map the soundscapes of UCSB’s Lagoon.

There were seven locations along the trail noted by what groups would find there:

Sage Scrub
Eucalyptus Trees
Oak Grove
Cove
Labyrinth
Wildflower Blooms
Beach (native dune plants)

Every colearner received a field guide notepad to document the sounds they heard: drawing shapes or pictures, writing out what the waves for example sounds like (crash) or the wind (swoosh).

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Excursión de Primavera

En mayo, los estudiantes de cuarto grado de Harding vinieron al campus para hacer una Caminata de Sonido alrededor de la Laguna. Estuvimos caminando, escuchando, haciendo pausas y creando para mapear los paisajes sonoros de la Laguna de UCSB.Había siete ubicaciones a lo largo del sendero indicadas por lo que los grupos encontrarían allí:

Matorral de salvia
Eucaliptos
Robledal
Ensenada
Laberinto
Flores silvestres
Playa (plantas autóctonas de las dunas)

Cada alumno recibió un bloc de notas con guía de campo para documentar los sonidos que escuchaba: dibujar formas o imágenes, escribir cómo suenan, por ejemplo, las olas (choque) o el viento (silbido).

Field Trip Photos/Fotos de la excusión

Poetry Corner

From the CBL Poetry Corner of the McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic

The following featured poems were written by two young co-learners, Brian and Ryan Quintana, twins who have been a part of CBL since first grade. These brothers have been making big strides in their literacy development. They just completed 8th grade and are reading high school level texts!

Below are selected poems by Ryan and Brian, based on what they have researched with undergraduate co-learners.

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Desde el Rincón de Poesía CBL de la Clínica de Lectura y Artes del Lenguaje McEnroe

Los siguientes poemas destacados fueron escritos por dos jóvenes estudiantes de pregrado, Brian y Ryan Quintana, gemelos que han participado en CBL desde primer grado. Estos hermanos han avanzado mucho en su desarrollo de la lectoescritura. ¡Acaban de terminar octavo grado y ya leen textos de nivel preparatoria!

A continuación, se presentan poemas seleccionados de Ryan y Brian, basados en su investigación con estudiantes de pregrado.

Ode to the Octopus

by Ryan Quintana

Of the many things that live under the sea

Could you think of once with many arms

Though strange and unworldly

Octupuses are very loveable

Perhaps once of their three hearts could win you over

Unless you're won over their disappearing acts

Since they're amazingly smart, why don't you give them a chance?

Time

by Brian Quintana

One day, two days

Tuesday, Wednesday

At a blink of an eye

it's Monday

then Sunday.

Time is short

So very short indeed

But not as short as

Ryan climbing a tree.

Take your time

go the long way home

Because the next thing you know

you'll be graduating with a PhD.

Second Annual SBUSD Poetry Contest

As a celebration of creative writing and National Poetry Month in April, students in Santa Barbara Unified School District were invited to submit a poem in the Second Annual SBUSD Poetry Contest. All TK-12 grade students were invited to participate by submitting an original, unpublished poem related to the theme of Change.

The poems you see here were selected as awards recipients for the collaborative category.

Segundo Concurso Anual de Poesía del SBUSD

Como celebración de la escritura creativa y del Mes Nacional de la Poesía en abril, los estudiantes del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Santa Bárbara fueron invitados a presentar un poema en el Segundo Concurso Anual de Poesía del SBUSD. Todos los estudiantes de TK-12 fueron invitados a participar presentando un poema original e inédito relacionado con el tema del Cambio.

Los poemas que ves aquí fueron seleccionados como ganadores de premios en la categoría de colaboración.

“I Am the Change”

By: Maestra Balcazar’s TK Class, McKinley Elementary

Change

Cambio

What is it?

Que es?

Colores, Seasons

Caterpillars to mariposas

Tu? Me?

Love, Diferencias, Amor

Amigos, Respeto, Familia

Empatia, Growth

You are the change

Tu eres el cambio

1st Place: TK/K/1 Collaborative Poem

“Weather Changing”

By: Mrs. Menegon’s TK Class at Harding University Partnership School

Every day, the weather changes.

What will the weather be like today?

On sunny days, I like to play,

At the beach, the pool, or at home.

The sky is blue, the air is hot.

I like to take big jumps into the pool.

A sunny day feels hot on my skin,

Don’t forget to put on sunscreen!

On rainy days, the sky turns gray.

Water falls down from the clouds.

On rainy days, I like to splash in puddles

with my boots.

And open my mouth to taste the rain.

As rain changes to sun, sometimes,

A rainbow appears in the sky.

Red, ornge, yellow, green, blue, purple!

Every day the weather changes.

2nd Place: TK/K/1 Collaborative Poem

“Change”

By: Ms. Solano’s 1st Grade Class, Franklin Elementary

Weather changes all the time.- Lily

Chameleons change color. Josie

Animals change size as they grow-Dominic

Seeds change into plants.- Angel

Leaves change into different colors. Lupe

Kittens change into cats.-Jason

Clouds change shape in the sky.-Ava

Caterpillars change into butterflies. Leslie

Children change into teenagers.-Diana

Day changes into Night. -Lupita

The Seasons change.-Ariana

Cookie dough changes into chocolate chip cookies-Dylan

Holidays change into new holidays.-Nathan

Wind changes from a breeze to a gust.- Ruby

A baby changes into a kid and kids into grown-ups. Benji

A bunny changes into a rabbit.- Julissa

Ice cream changes into a melted mess.-Daniella

Water changes into ice.-Reynaldo

Sharks teeth change because they keep falling out.- Alonzo

Chocolate changes into hot chocolate.-Valentina

We change. We get older and older-Gavin

3rd Place: TK/K/1 Collaborative Poem

Coda

There is much to celebrate as we come to the end of this school year. Despite what is going on around us we continue to explore, learn, and collaborate with each other. Through this we make connections. Connections between subjects or topics we are curious about, connections between ideas we have, and connections we find with each other. So much of what CBL is about, is connection; learning from one another. I continue to be so thankful to be part of this community and a colearner with all of you.

–Dr. Sarah

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