Strategic approaches to content instruction: How do we model understanding?

"(C)omprehension is a complex, interactive process in which readers construct meaning by (1) connecting what they know (schema) to what is written in a text and (2) engaging in discussions with other readers in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes."  (Alvermann et al, 2004, p 21)

"(P)roficient reader characteristics represent a marked contrast from former ways of conceptualizing reading comprehension, which was described more as a skill than as an active mental process. Reading was conceived to be the skill of recognizing letters and words, which led to the ability to connect words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into longer passages that represented various themes or ideas. If a student could recount what was in the text--in other words, reproduce what an author had written--then we concluded that comprehension had occurred. If a student could not recount, than we explained that the student was lacking in reading ability, the student had poor study skills, or the text was too difficult." (Buehl, 2009, p. 6)


Being told I was "skillful" at something had always seemed like a compliment. Hearing that I was a skillful dancer, or adept at reading meant I knew how to dance or read at a high level. However, a concept like "skill" has gotten stuck in the mire of instructional methods. Skills have become things we either have (like a knowledge of our 7's or 8's times tables), or we haven't. This is bad news for any reader who doesn't naturally acclimate to understanding in a content area--what they need is scaffolds that offer them strategic ways to get closer to understanding. 

Acquiring particular skills and tools in a variety of contexts is productive, as long as we know when these skills are needed, and when they are not enough to accomplish a specific task. The same is true of reading content. We know from Alvermann (2004) and Buehl's (2009) review of comprehension research that for many years, students were being tested on their comprehension skills, yet rarely walked through strategic processes for getting at an understanding of the material. Remediation for learners began and ended with decoding practice, merely phonetically unpacking the word--na-tion-al-ize--instead of focusing on its meaning in context of a people's political efforts, or the root word as a clue, or even its part of speech as a verb, an action. In general, students were not taught how to use their prior knowledge with a variety of text genres and structures, how to make connections (text to text, text to self, text to world, how to vizualize, synthesize or even evaluate, instead of passively receiving material.  They received so little modeling and guidance in thinking through these processes with a text, that those already struggling failed to gain independence as proficient readers.  

As Buehl (2009) argues, your readers are your apprentices. So, one of our big tasks this term is to make you, as teachers, more aware of your own reading and writing strategies so that you can model the same to your classroom: "What I think about when I....how I figure this out is...I tend to ask questions and moniter what I understand when..."

This week we will spend half of class thinking about how we integrate these processes into our daily content work with students so they become not only proficient at the language of geometry or English literature, but proficient in knowing what kinds of understanding and thinking processes will aid them in their content inquiry. Benchmarks in the current state standards as well as the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) will provide you some of those expectations for developing reading, writing and thinking skills. For the second half of class, Coleen and an esteemed collaborator Elise Sheffield, Director of Education at Boxerwood Education Association) will be sharing how to integrate environmental science standards, issues and interests, as well as higher levels of comprehension (Alvermann et al, Chapter 11) into content inquiry. 

MORE ON THE BLOG SOON ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PRESENTATION FROM COLEEN!

A few good related links for reading more about Reading Comprehension research and strategy use within lesson planning:

www.reading.org
www.ncte.org (National Council Teachers of English) 
www.shanahanonliteracy.com (Blog)
www.readwritethink.com


GLOSSARY FOR WEEK 4: 

*Strategies vs Skills: Following the apprentice model, students need strategies as well as skills in order to be successful readers and writers. Skills have a tendency to be overlearned, have simple or single steps, require a high level of accuracy, and be immediate in memory. On the other hand, strategies are more purposeful, giving metacognitive control to the reader so that they may reflect, think aloud or in their head using multiple steps. The scary part of strategic work for some teachers and students is that its inquiry-based nature leaves a probability rather than certainty of success. Still, this is what inquiry and experiment is about!

*Levels of Comprehension: Following Bloome's Taxonomy, Higher Order Thinking Skills or HOTS are measured in our standardized testing to a certain extent; however, teachers tend to get little preparation in working on understanding that reaches beyond the literal fact-finding or summary of what is known. Although these are necessary building blocks for understanding, students need practice in learning to inference, synthesize and evaluate the purpose and efficacy of texts and experiences based on what is know, as well as their own questions and connections.  

*Guided Release of Responsibility: (see Buehl, Fig 1, p 9, and Alv Chap 2 conversation, p 24) Following the apprenticeship model, teachers take a series of steps to guide students to independently use comprehension processes. Step 1) "I show you how I think/ work through this"; Step 2) "Will you help me as we both figure this out?"; Step 3) "Will you show me how to think through this?  I'll help if you get stuck"; Step 4) "Now it's your turn to trying thinking this through on your own or with a buddy" (partners, grps or individually). Buehl comments on scaffolding with simpler strategies first (KWL's, THINK ALOUDS) toward multistep strategies and processes that require students to integrate various levels of understanding. 

Considering textbooks and texts...

I'll be honest. Whenever I think of using a textbook, I cringe a little. I think back to a teacher who was around in my childhood and that I later worked with. She was a by-the-book kind of teacher with whom I really had no issues with as an elementary student -- that's just the way it was. I had the chance to revisit her classroom on occasion, this time as a coworker assisting a student in her room. The fact that she still used the textbook exclusively and that her approach to teaching hadn't changed have had a big influence on me when I consider my own students. She was tired and her students weren't engaged. An embarrassing (but true) fact: I fell asleep in her class as an adult. She expressed much frustration to me about how much schools have changed--what bothered her most was having to teach students like the one I assisted. She felt like it was extra work to handle not only the variety of reading levels but also students with disabilities. I am sure many of us might be resistant to use textbooks after our own experiences as students, our interests in trade books or other media, or things we have read or heard about textbooks. Let's be honest: there's not a lot of textbook love out there! 

I felt challenged to reconsider my point of view, though, with this week's readings. Our textbook authors really were spot on with their pro/con lists for textbooks and tradebooks.  I am sold on the benefits of trade books in content areas, but I'm ready to use textbooks differently. One point for using the textbook that stands out for me is using it to help students navigate books and use features to find answers. The more I think about how quickly we are becoming a Google-dependent culture, the more I want to provide them with alternative means to find information. I am sure as a new teacher you might be more willing to use the textbook until you are ready to venture into other territories, and for some content areas, it seems foolish to create your own materials (Math). It will be interesting to hear your responses once you explore the textbook of your own interest and analyze how you might use it with your students. Where does the textbook fit in your philosophy of reading in the content area?  

Most teachers I know seem to either never use it or use it too much, but my thoughts--post reading--point me towards the words balance and exposure. The best teachers have found a way to expose students to a great variety of media rather than just one format, incorporating and valuing both textbooks and trade books. They are using technology, art, drama, experiments, manipulatives, trade books, and textbooks--giving students a chance to read, write, and think critically with all. Considering the amount of money schools spend on textbooks, let's treat them as one of the tools we can rely on. Consider also the great responsibility you have to prepare your students for a future; they need a chance to develop competencies in a variety of mediums. The last thing I'd want to see is a student falling asleep in my class, or to be predictable, so I consider this when I gather my resources to use with students. 

Last, I think back to chapter 3 and Caswell and Duke's 1988 study at the Harvard Literacy Labratory. Peter and Isaac's stories reminded me of a movie called The First Grader (2010). An elderly man, once a freedom fighter and now raising goats, receives a letter but can't read. Kenya announces that everyone can now go to school, a message he interprets personally to mean even the elderly. He attempts to attend an elementary school with increased obstacles and resistance, all with the support of a teacher who might lose everything because she wants to see him succeed. It's a beautiful story, but you may not see a connection to the week's readings. For me, it reminds me that we will have students like Peter and Isaac who have gotten lost in the shuffle of school or life. We are going to encounter an enormous spectrum of skills, experiences, and interests. Perhaps they have learning disabilities, aren't motivated, or they just have't made a connection to what we want (need) them to learn. It's been my experience that many of these students have parents who feel like the system failed them, and their children share a negative attitude towards school. It's these students who are asking, even as 3rd graders, "Why do I need to learn this? What's the point? Why am I here?" I think our job as teachers is not limited to just using a great variety of resources but helping them see how knowing this content or using a skill can help them in the future. The old man in The First Grader might not have had a chance or reason to learn to read until his late 80's, but his determined spirit was not going to be broken. Here, the opportunity is present, but the determination might be something you will have to inspire. How do you envision motivating someone like Peter, whose primary interests are in social studies and science, in a Math class? Did you yourself have breakthrough experience as a student, one which changed your opinion about the necessity of being educated?  

Week 3: What is a Text? Workshopping Multiple Modes of Communication

What do subway maps, music by Bach, a graph indicating bio-crises in African nations, a picture book about the frog life cycle, a cubist painting by Picasso, a podcast on positive psychology, the novel and film of Dracula, poems by Robert Frost, an article in Rolling Stone, or a collection of autobiographical accounts by Vietnam veterans have in common? According to current literacy theorists, a text is defined as any closed system of meaning that has symbolic value within a particular discipline. Our task this week is to determine what makes each of these texts different, what they afford us as readers, and what kinds of distinctive qualities we're looking for as we explore them. For instance, can we say that we should observe and interpret, in other words "read" a still life painting of a lemon in the same way we would make scientific observations about a live lemon? Does Picasso's visual commentary on the Spanish Civil War, Guernica (shown below), provide an equally important perspective on history? This will be food for thought in class.

As Short, Kaufman and Kahn (2000) and Alvermann et al (2004) argue, the more exposure we can give young readers to varied texts as tools for thinking and communicating, the more prepared they will be to read, understand, and compose different genres of text, even as their experiences with content instruction increase in difficulty.


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzShSePIEEYIcXdoWEpsaFVJcVU/edit


Glossary:

Reader Response, Efferent and Aesthetic Reading:

Louise Rosenblatt's theory of Reader Response (1978), which is largely derived from the pragmatic learning philosophies of John Dewey, focuses on the idea that readers have active, purposeful transactions with text and their authors. Many of these transactions are driven by sensory, "lived through" experiences within fictional narratives that generate aesthetic (of the senses) responses.  At other times, readers seek a more public interaction as they gather and share information (efferent reading).  Her theories have empowered the reader to take different stances, interpreting and breathing potential meanings into texts, even those considered classics in our literary canon. Educators have sought to encourage a range of reader responses by exposing students to a variety of text genres, and modeling what a text can offer them as a reader. Both aesthetic and efferent responses help to support Text- to-Self, Text-to-Text and Text-to-World connections between a reader's prior knowledge and new experiences/ information.

Transmediation (Siegel, 1995): the process of taking understandings from one system (print text) and moving them into another system (visual text, such as a drawing). When we consider the definition of visual and other media literacy in Alvermann's Chapter 6, modeling ways to critically and creatively view, listen, read and reconstruct a variety of symbolic messages and diverse meanings for specific content purposes will be crucial to a child's growing literacy set as both reader and a writer. 

Intertextuality (Text-to-Text): the process by which we make meaningful connections between different texts, such as a film and a book, and in turn extend or reconstruct possible meanings of the original. "The character in this book reminds me of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz because..."


Readability: Level of text difficulty based on a variety of factors (sentence length and structure, number of sentences on a page, vocabulary). Lexile levels (see www.lexile.com) are now a commonly used measure for determining text difficulty as well as reader match, and we will be using these along with other measures as we evaluate content texts. Because Common Core State Standards (CCSS)  are moving away from a Guided Reading Approach (Fountas and Pinnell), which is founded on the idea of matching text to readers at their instructional level, teachers will now be challenged to match readers to text, in order to make optimum learning gains at more challenging levels.  With a greater need to motivate children to engage with "close readings" of increasingly challenging texts, choosing a variety of books for student and content interest will become an important of a teacher's professional skill-set.

Due to the growing influence of web sourcing, picture book and graphic novel genres, readability will also need to consider the relationship between print language and illustrations/ sign system use.

Tradebooks: Books available to the general public. The children's tradebook market has grown considerably in the past ten-fifteen years, and authors are now much more attentive to educational needs, particularly content standards within informational texts (check out Ink Think Tank on the BB resource list posted for Content Reading this week).

January 16: Organizing Content Literacy Instruction

I shook my head as I read the description of rainforest studies in Mrs. Roger's classroom. "I'm not there yet, but I'd like to be..." I thought. Can you imagine being a student in that classroom? There's an energy and a level of learning happening in those environments that are the work of a true artist (Yes, Steph, I see teaching as an art!) I'm still learning my own, and I think each of us will develop our own sense of how literacy instruction should be used in the classroom. Every teacher provides a unique experience for each student in the room. The questions that come to mind with this idea is: How do we 1) develop this instruction within the limitations in the world of education today; 2) ensure that our craftsmanship remains focused on what will prepare our students for the future?

1)What a juggling act teachers have! I had no idea. A little background story on me: In preschool, I wanted to be a teacher because I loved to help grade papers, and most especially, to use stamps and stickers! As you can predict, my opinion of grading papers has changed. Still, I returned to education and believed (like many of you) that I would change the face of teaching. You're going to school to learn the best practices, and many practices will change. You'll have moments where you feel like a hamster running in the wheel. The expectations placed on you will seem never-ending, but I want to offer you some encouragement. The solution to the need in providing exceptional content literacy instruction is inquiry-based teaching. If you are anything like me, it was difficult for me to envision what inquiry-based instruction looked like, at first; this is likely because I thought that I had the best teachers as a kid. Challenging yourself to become an inquiry-based teacher will help you manage all those conditions I know you anticipate facing as a teacher out of the program. I only wish I could have read this chapter again as a first year teacher to remind myself of just how to integrate literacy instruction in my content area (Science).  The chapter could essentially become a running checklist for teachers as they create their classroom literacy program in an inquiry-based classroom. Rather than focusing on how you're going to cover X, Y, Z, inquiry-based instruction will cover the cnotent in depth but also develop reading and writing skills that will be springboards for future learning and life experiences:

"As students become better readers and writers, they also become more content literate, and as they become more content literate, they also become better readers and writers." (p. 164)

Our focus as teachers need not be so much on the standards, but instead, on the skills that our students need to have practiced as they develop into adults. For me, though, the strength of inquiry-based teaching is in the depth that a teacher helps the students attain. It is a skill to craft the right kind of unit that remains steered in the right direction, but that's a topic I'd like to discuss again in the future.

2) You're going to graduate with a ton of ideas that you will want to use right away, and you'll want your classroom to be as inspiring as Mrs. Rogers'. This chapter offered so many creative forms of literacy instruction that we all could adapt, but being creative in this presents a challenge. It's been an especially difficult challenge for me, as I place a high value on the arts in the class. How do I keep myself in check? Just because I can come up with a beautiful, creative activity doesn't mean that it meets their needs or is cognitively challenging. Instead of being an activities-focused teacher, make it your priority to be an inquiry-based teacher. Each content area teacher is going to be concerned with his or her own discourse as well, and I think it is necessary to reflect on what you want them to be able to do when they've completed the activity. Do you want them to know X, Y, and Z, or do you want them to be able to compare and contrast X, Y, and Z? Are you planning time for students to evaluate before, during, and after their studies? If your goal is simply to get them to remember X, Y, Z, you are not helping them develop potential problem-solving skills that are becoming necessary for jobs of the future. Revisit chapter 9 for a good list of points to include, but one component that is missing the need in determining what level of questioning are using. I am sure you are not surprised that the highest level of thinking is Creating, which goes right along with what the MacArthur video argued.

Lastly, build your instruction in small pieces. The artfully crafted, integrated units described in the chapter take a great deal of time and effort. One of my professors in the MAT program, made the suggestion to start by trying to create 1 or 2 of these integrated, inquiry-based units of study each year. Some uber-talented, uber-energetic young teachers might be able to do more, but take the pressure off yourself.

This is just a quick piece of advice: If your classroom/school is limited on books or supplies, I would recommend looking for resources in Goodwill, yard sales, Craigslist before spending money on new materials! Keep an open mind about what could help you throughout the year.

Jan 16: Diversifying Instruction

Prof. Hodde's Reflection on Week 1: (Intro, Chapter 1)

I have often wondered how many seasoned content teachers would claim whether they see their teaching as an art, or a science. Both artistic and scientific methods use many modes of inquiry to express something or explore a prediction, but they each place different values on the purposes and techniques of their disciplines. As someone who has always approached educational inquiry from an artistic view, I was impressed by the ways your literacy digs revolved not just around the various sign systems at our disposal, but also how each social literacy context, whether it be a comic book store, a preschool classroom, a child's bookshelf, or a spice drawer, develops through the sensory and felt (subjective) experience of relationships, rather than objective phenomena.  As we discussed, why else learn to communicate but to connect and make sense of meaningful relationships in the world? 

In our Discussion Web concerning whether the new literacies of the 21st Century offer an adequate cognitive challenge to students, many of you argued that the difference lies both in the choices teachers make (teach, don't facilitate!) AND in the creative choices students are guided to discover with these tools, texts and technologies. Even those of you who were worried about the challenge of meeting and measuring so many different needs, we know that youth are interested in learning in order to make impact, to participate and find real connections with peers, teachers, their classroom community, the greater world in ways that are hopefully empowering.

This Wed we will return briefly to the digs to help us transition to new material as we determine what it means to diversify and organize your content classroom to meet English Language Standards, and still support your content objectives.

Transitioning to Week 2: (Alv et al, Chapters 7 and 9)

 “Classmates with no history of rewarding exchange and no emotional investment in each other (will) appear unconcerned about future interactions.” (Laursen)

In Chapter 7, Alvermann , Swafford and Montero prompt me to ask, how might we create environments and communities in our classrooms in which children, as students and classmates, feel safe and confident about inquiring and making meaning together, even if they appear to have little common experience outside of school, or vary in their aptitudes for reading? How do we motivate students by showing them how content is “interesting, relevant, worth knowing” (p. 123)? 

The authors reveal that a term like  “differentiation” only begins to consider the differences that children bring as readers and learners. Language, culture, motivation, interests, intelligences—all influence children’s attitudes, learning styles and abilities as readers and writers, and all become clues for choices of texts (genre, content and multimodal features) as well as instructional approaches to these texts.  Recall how many ways we “read” and understood the idea of multiple literacies in our DIGS. Recall how we explored different reader roles and purposes with our Territories exercise. Depending on the context of our experience—whether we’re studying the Great Depression or retelling folk tales—we can expect many layers of reader response.

The word “investment” found in my opening quote is a word we often relate to economics, but as teachers we are responsible for deciding why content teaching is worth the investment of our time, and our students' time—why are these disciplines worth discussion? This question is important because rather than just assume what the standards give us, we need to model why we are intrinsically motivated to teach, and hopefully why our students might be motivated to learn. As Chap 9 helps you determine possible ways to organize your classroom and inspire students to use content language, we will focus on several aspects of this organizational process in class, especially how your decisions can engage student “talk” that supports reading and writing processes, and the language of content standards. 

We will be having some fun with a few content simulations and kinesthetic movement this Wed, so wear comfortable clothing-if you can help it, don’t wear heels!


Week 2 GLOSSARY OF TERMS: Chapters 7 & 9
Intrinsic Motivation: the idea that we are engaged for personal fulfillment, not external/extrinsic prompts (candy, grades). In the case of Ethnomathematics (122) or building community via the Family Photography or Storytelling Project (132), students are given some choice, control, challenge and collaborative experience in weighing multiple perspectives as well as identifying what is important about their individual/ cultural approach. This allows for flow between informal and formal learning modes as well as academic / cultural goals. 


Differentiation: An instructional decision-making approach that asks teachers to consider the diverse abilities, experiences, needs of students, including learning styles, multiple intelligences (we'll explore week 3!) language proficiency, prior knowledge and readiness.  It requires teachers to think about intrinsic motivation, such as a menu of options for students to approach and achieve in the learning process. NOTE: In this class, we will extend our sense of differentiation to include a diverse use of learning modes, contexts and texts, offering many points of view, cultural origins that respect and broaden student understandings. 

Language Routines (LR's): LR's refer to the different ways teachers and students organize meaning-making and participate in language use throughout the learning cycle.  Common routines mentioned in your cross-curricular reading include Read Alouds, Learning Centers, Silent Sustained Reading, Guided Reading, Minilessons, Shared Reading, Buddy Reading, Reading / Writing Workshop, Author's Chair.  In our national standards for English Language Arts (see inside flap of Alvermann, Swafford and Montero), which drive both the purpose for training content reading/ writing teachers as well as Common Core standards for 2014, these routines need to consider ways to model learning processes and strategies, expose students to varied content texts (print and nonprint) and gradually release them to independent inquiry.  

Using a Blog

Why do I like using a blog?

In a world that is quickly becoming paperless, I still value the act of writing on paper. Still, we've got to present a balanced approach with our students. We rely so heavily on computers anyway, and using a blog is a way to:

1) Keep a copy without worrying whether it is saved on a jump drive, hard drive, etc. because you can log in Google/Blogger anywhere.

2) Save paper!

3) Share links that students can view outside of class (and keep all your links in one post--no worries about bookmarks!); 

4) Share information or student work with parents and administrators (All you Facebook and Twitter users, you can keep your followers updated on your blog each time you publish). 

5) Keep a class scrapbook. Think of the reflection that can take place when students, parents, and administrators take a look at the work, activities, or material covered through the course of the year. 

6) Open communication lines between teachers and students. For example, a student might have a question about a post related to a class activity and you don't have time for questions during class (so you let them ask questions on the blog). Maybe you invite them to visit the blog to answer challenge questions or play games that offer enrichment. 

7) Get students excited! They really enjoy viewing a class or teacher blog. I swear some of them think they are famous if their picture is on a class blog, but, if it inspires them to work hard, why not! By the way, I do get parents permission to post certain things on my class blogs (photos); as a rule, I never post student names.

8) Safely communicate. I have seen teachers who use Facebook to keep students and parents updated, but I worry about the issues involved with "friending" people outside our professional lives. In addition, I feel a little safer knowing exactly who can see the blog (as you can decide to make it public or private for a select group of viewers). Facebook and Twitter change their privacy policies so often, and I'm not sure who can see my FB page (and what they can see on it)!

9) Create something unique. Blogs can be whatever you want them to be. Perhaps you want to share the project your class does and/or you share photos, artwork, student writing, etc. Maybe you want to share study guides, vocab, classwork, homework assignments--think of the absent students having easy access with a phone. It could a place that you write down your thoughts and ideas about teaching. Upper grade teachers, I think it would be wonderful to see students create their own blogs.

10) Make your life a little easier. I'm still learning to balance my time and efforts as a teacher. Having everything in one place has been a time-saver and a useful tool for many the reasons I've already mentioned.

There are so many ways that I can think of to use a blog and I hope you will consider giving it a try!

This is the basics of Blogger. I am happy to add to this as needed. I think you will find that as you work on a blog, the easier it gets. By no means am I an expert, and I'm sure if you run into a particular problem, an internet search will help you find a fast answer! 

To log in to blogger, all you have to do is log in to your MBC email. In the top bar (where you normally click on Mail), go to More. Scroll down to Blogger and your dashboard will appear.

The top of your dashboard will list any blogs that you are authorized to post to; the bottom of the page will display the most recent posts of blogs that you choose to follow: your Reading List.

If you want to follow a blog, typically there will be a button on the blog or you can be on your dashboard (the lower portion) and hit the Add button to start following a blog.

If you click on a blog title, the blog will display.

Let's say you are viewing your own blog and you want to create a new post. In the upper right hand corner, hit "new post." If you are viewing your own blog and you want to view your posts, hit "Design" and let the page load. Go back to the top of the page to "More" and select Blogger. If you are on your dashboard, you can view your old posts by selecting "X posts" to see a list of any posts you've drafted or published.

It gets pretty simple once you choose a post. The HTML method of writing a blog post can get pretty complicated, so stick with compose.

Save your blog frequently, preview to see what it would look like, close if you want to go back to your dashboard.

There are lots of options with Publishing. Let's say you want to choose when your post shows to the public. Hit Schedule and work through those options. Let's say you want to organize posts by topics (not just chronologically like the blog will normally view as), create Labels. An example might be by SOL topic, class, types of posts (study guides, student examples, etc.) You could invite students or parents to leave comments--or not--by selecting Options and working through that section.

Want to add a document? There are a few options. You could cut and paste from Word. I like that best if it is a chart or graph. You could scan the document and insert that like a photo. Sometimes the fastest way for me, though, (especially with student work) is to just photograph it using my document camera. The image goes straight to the computer and within a minute, I'll just upload it to a post. By the way, to upload a photo, just go into a post and look for the polaroid button!

To create a working link, go to the page you want to link to and cut out the active link. Go back to your blog, select the post you want. Highlight the word or words you want your readers to hit to go to the link and hit Link below the word Publish. Press ok and you should see it is bolded if you preview the post.

I will soon add a note here on adding things to your blog called gadgets. Gadget are added to the left, right, or tops of blog pages. These could be something as simple as a calendar, a list of followers or a note about the blog (like we have displayed), a slideshow of photos, etc. With that, I can also write a note about changing the layout of the blog. 

Please let me know if there's something else you think I could assist you with as you create a blog. 

Rethinking the 21st Century Learner

Studying a film, like any content text, should begin by determining the purpose and audience: What is the filmmakers's purpose?  Who is she/he imagining as an audience? In tonight's class we will imagine ourselves as the audience, an audience of teachers. We'll be questioning the filmmaker's purpose, as well as their authority to speak on this topic, and then listening/ looking for "strong lines/ images" in the film's narrative that stuck with us. After viewing the film, we will share some of these lines/ images, and then pose the following question for a Discussion Web, a broadly used reading / writing springboard invented by Alvermann (234) and reviewed by Buehl, 76). Developing a discussion web requires an initial question regarding two points of view. Sometimes these debates are explicit in a text; however, in this case I have posed a question to help us unpack implicit points of view in the film:

QUESTION: Are 21st Century modes of learning / literacies cognitively challenging? 

(YES/ NO)

Week 1: Digging for Multiple Literacies

 Week of Jan 9: Digging for Multiple Content Literacies:

One of the big ideas of this course is that literacy is now a plural concept--there are multiple literacies active in any learning environment, even within what may seem like traditional content classrooms. Students and teachers are not just writing and reading, but communicating in many symbolic, meaningful ways, using both print, visual, digital, performative and other sign systems. Although content reading theorists continue to debate whether to embrace, or ignore the New Literacies of pop culture and younger generations, their tools and modes are relevant to aspects of contemporary meaning-making. In order to help youth develop multiple literacies for communicating in the 21st Century, and extend our own instructional approaches to content literacy, we need to recognize how they operate and are valued in different contexts, learning events, and disciplinary discourses. 

To prepare for our first class, you will be undertaking your own literacy dig (go to our Blackboard Discussion Tool, Jan 9 LITERACY DIG forum for instructions), and then sharing some of your findings in class. Coleen and I have provided our own models below, and the following glossary of terms will help you make sense of the reading. 

Glossary of Terms for Jan 9: (Alvermann et al, pp 1-15) 

NOTE: It is posted in a double-entry, two-column format. Relevant terms from textbook and article readings will be starred*. Additional terms used by instructors that will support our vocabulary for this course may also appear without a star*. You are responsible for learning these terms and using them in journals, class discussions.

Intro VOCABULARY	Questions, Implications:
*Content-Area Literacy is the ability to use reading, writing, speaking, listening, representing, viewing and other sign systems to construct meaning with print and non-print texts (p 4)	How does this definition influence our notion of what a text is? Who defines texts in each content area?
*Content Inquiry-integrated processes of reading, writing and representing to develop independent learners and learning (p 6)	Can we use similar inquiry processes in different disciplines? This is where the idea of content reading methods developed.
*Four Processes (Freebody, 1999): Code breaker, meaning-maker, text user, text critic	These processes support the theory that reading is an active transaction between reader and text, and that readers have shared authority in the reading experience.
*Disciplinary Languages/ Discourses: language is situated in context and purpose (hard sciences vs social studies), including the beliefs, values and practices of that discipline.	What do these discourses share, or in what ways are they distinguished? How do they use different print genres or modes of communication?
New Literacy and Transactional Reading Theories confirm that literacy is *multimodal:  that we learn through various modes of communication, using a variety of tools and media for different purposes and audiences.	Modes are the paths of communication-how many modes did you find in your literacy dig?
*Motivation in Content reading, 6 C’s (14) Intrinsic motivation plays a large factor in the life of an active reader, that wanting to know” and connect with the world	We will discuss the 6 C’s in class.
Both or informal and formal learning processes at home, in school, and contexts in between support our  *schema  (webs of info and understanding) and *prior knowledge of any content subject.	Prior knowledge is a key component to developing comprehension and a major factor in assessing student readiness for new knowledge.
Strategy vs Skill-Based Learning: Strategies are flexible methods readers and writers use to become more aware of how, not just what, they learn. Both strategies and skills are relevant to content learning.	A focus of this class is guiding students to take on their own toolkit of content strategies that allow them to use skills and practices more fluidly between subject areas.
*Social Constructionism (Vygotsky, 1978; Bruner, 1986) p 7-9: the idea that language-based learning is socially constructed and influenced by many contexts in which children are exposed.	The implications are immense—independent growth becomes tied to classroom culture and group progress.

Stephanie's Dig: 

The following dig is one I pursued last Winter in my daughter's room--I chose this context because my 8 year-old 3rd grader was beginning to immerse herself both in her personal / home environment, as well as new print and visual literacy interests that seemed relevant to Alvermann et al's introductory discussion of the intersection between home and school literacies. 

We learn from Alvermann and her co-authors that language is situated; here Claire invites with a written welcome into her room and book corner, fit with beanbag and curtains. 

Claire's genre interests are growing--her explosion into books came with the fantasy series Warriors, a great introduction to studying clan behaviors of feline species as well as herbs, rituals, spiritual questions, and spurred her interest in looking at informational texts about medicinal herbs and social behaviors of animals.  She also enjoys realistic fiction. 

At an early age, Claire's modes of communication began to bridge the visual and the verbal--publishing personal mags through Blurb, an online photo site, is an elaborate and satisfying process, a way to reveal her world of home as well as imaginary landscapes. 

Claire is drawn to comics-Garfield and beyond-her sense of humor is quirky and often defies understanding. This lady is a comic depiction inspired by Toulouse Lautrec that she'd been studying in art class, and her drawing has begun to mimic the comic effects of these models, even as she delves into Monster High cartoons and Manga.

Coleen's Dig: 
The kitchen is the heart of our tiny home. As my family prepares for a move in just a few weeks (and Christmas items have yet to be packed away), I was surprised to see so many examples of the "home" literacies that I could apply in a school setting around the room.

This is a box of German Christmas Carousel candles. I imagine that if I  taught German, World History, or studied holiday cultures with my students, this box (and accompanying carousel) would help bring something to life that a textbook could not. I love that whether you know German (or not), children and adults can approach a box like this and tell what is inside, how to use the objects, when (seasonally) this box should be used. I even love the snowman and what he represents to people. Imagine you are a child in the world who does not sing about Frosty the Snowman vs. a child who does: how do they "read" the image differently? 

My son Charlie (age 4) has always loved to talk about animals. From a young age, he loved to study illustrations and photos in books about living things--most especially, dinosaurs and animals. He loves to come to my classroom to play with whatever resources I have out. For the past few weeks, all the books, posters, puppets, artwork, etc. around my classroom were to do with owls. At his own school, he was given paint and this is his own Snowy owl painting-- a cherished gift for his mother. He can't do what my 3rd graders are doing, but he finds his own way to identify with what he hears we are doing. I love when he "reads" to me! 

A blast from the past! I had intended to transfer this VHS to a DVD as a gift for my mother. I  know that this video is from a family reunion we had in Yellowstone when I was about 10. I think this is a significant example for a few reasons. 1) This was once "the latest technology!" Now it is a dinosaur, but I'm reminded that students need to see things like this. We live in an age where every year new computers, gaming systems, phones, and the like replace the last year's model, and devices fade away so fast. I think it's important for students to have a balanced exposure to a variety of texts: traditional and popular; we're going to need them to reflect on what's come/gone/stayed and have a voice in the mediums that should be carried on.
2) This ties in well to what was described in the "Reflection" section at the bottom of page 8/top of page 9. " You might have been a child of the 80s living in Southwest VA, but when you and I watch this video,  each of us would feel totally different emotions watching the images presented.

More evidence of a 4 year old. My husband coached the HS Cross Country team and enjoyed writing workouts for them to do. This is Charlie's version of what the team should do. Early writing. And the photos--using great images, not necessarily cute baby photos, of course, can be such a powerful medium in the classroom.