Task 1: (Essential
Question A) Jigsaw Reading: This week we will look at a few disciplines (sorry
not all are represented here) which our school systems recognize and regularly
assess adolescents’ abilities. Each of
the chapters listed below explores learning within a particular discipline from
the perspectives of both a literacy expert, who understands the reading, and
writing challenges that adolescents encounter, and a discipline expert, who
understand the nature of the discipline and how literacy processes operate
within it. Please choose one of the
chapters below to read and become an expert on.
English Language Arts
Jetton,
T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic
disciplines. Chapt. 5 pp. 120-153
Science
Jetton,
T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic
disciplines. Chapt. 6 pp. 154-171
Mathematics
Jetton,
T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic
disciplines. Chapt. 7 pp. 172-198
History
Jetton,
T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic
disciplines. Chapt. 8 pp. 199-226
Art
Jetton,
T. L., & Shanahan, C (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines. Chapt. 9 pp. 227-266
What is Jigsaw?
Jigsaw is a cooperative
learning strategy that enables each student to specialize in one aspect of a
learning unit. Students meet with members to teach the material to their group
members.
Just
as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece--each student's part--is essential for the
completion and full understanding of the final product. If each student's part
is essential, then each student is essential. That is what makes the Jigsaw
instructional strategy so effective.
Description
of Lesson: In
a typical jigsaw activity, students are given a topic on which to become an
expert, either individually or as part of a group. The student or group of
students then teaches the material to the rest of the class. For our online meeting week you will read
JUST ONE of the chapters above teach the other members of your group about
your chapter.
(Essential Question A)
Pre-Posting – Read JUST ONE of the chapters above.
Posting – For a full discussion of the readings, in your assigned small
group, you are to become the expert of your chapter and teach the material to
the rest of your group. You need to not
only summarize the chapter, but to help everyone in your group to develop a
deeper depth of knowledge in relation to your chapter. To do this you will need to explain and
clarify meanings with personal examples or applied examples for further
clarification. This posting should
indicate deep thinking and reflection on your part, along with supporting
evidence that shows your own learning from reading and experience to this
point.
Response Postings -- Everyone
should respond at least 1-2 times to each group member with a question,
clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their postings. You might consider other information,
questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
Reconceptualizing Literacy and Instruction for Mathematics Classrooms:
ReplyDeleteThis chapter has given me a new insight on how to incorporate literacy in the mathematics classroom. The chapter starts off by addressing misconceptions with literacy in a math classroom. The first one is that mathematics teachers should devote time in mathematics classrooms to help adolescents develop general print literacies. The second one has to do with the nature of mathematics as a discipline. The final problematic conception is the belief that reading any print text or incorporating any general literacy instructional strategy is appropriate for mathematics classrooms."(pg 174) I am familiar with these misconceptions and I found this part of the text very interesting. The biggest thing that I got from this area is that reading in mathematics is very different than other subjects. We can't just use traditional print text that consists of words, sentences and paragraphs. In mathematics, we use objects rather than traditional print text, (for example: graphs, equations and diagrams) to create, convey and negotiate meaning. The chapter points out that instead of arguing for an infusion of print texts in mathematics classrooms to improve literacy instruction, we argue for improved mathematics instruction to prepare adolescents to interact with a variety of texts they will confront as part of daily living and through their occupations. An example that the book gives is a shoe stores had a sign that said buy two pairs of shoes and get the third pair half off. The store is hoping that the buyers aren’t familiar with math, that they just see the half off and think that is a good deal! But if you think about it, what they are really saying is that if you buy three pairs of shoes you get 17% off the total transaction and if you want the best deal you need to buy shoes of the same price. This is not as great as a store advertising 20% off all shoes or 10% off all shoes. So it is important to facilitate the underlying mathematical ideas. The chapter then went on to say that mathematics is made of up computational fluency, conceptual understanding, and mathematical processes. The computational fluency refers to having and using efficient and accurate methods for computing. So this means that students need to know and be proficient at using a set of procedures that meets students’ mathematical needs both in and out of school. Computational fluency by itself is insufficient, students also need conceptual understanding. They need to understand the why behind it and how they can apply it to other areas of mathematics. The book states, “understanding should be the most fundamental goal of mathematics instruction.” (page 178) I agree with this statement. There are many times that students just memorize a formula or how to do something so they can do well on a test. But they didn’t understand it, so when we move onto another topic that uses what they previously learned, they can’t remember it and aren’t able to use it on the new knowledge. It is important to teach the why and the how rather than just the do. The book also recognizes that students need to be adept at participating in mathematical processes. Students cannot be said to have expertise in mathematics unless they are adept at engaging in them (ex: forming and testing conjectures, solving problems, constructing proofs and justifications.).
The book talked about an example of Draper observed a mathematics class. She noticed that the teacher didn’t use a textbook, but the students understood the material. She noticed that students’ learning of mathematics depended on their ability to create and interpret these objects in appropriate ways. Thus, the definition for text was broadened to include all objects created or interpreted for the purpose of constructing, sharing and negotiating meaning. The chapter also pointed out that texts play an essential role in learning mathematics because knowledge cannot be transmitted directly from mind to mind, people rely on text creation and interpretation to communicate and negotiate mathematical meaning. Since they broadened the definition of text they also changed the definition of reading and writing in mathematics. Reading refers to the interpretation of texts, including such acts as listening to and understanding a verbal explanation, looking and making sense of a graph, and reading and critiquing a mathematical proof. Writing refers to acts of text creation, including arranging a set of manipulatives into a particular configuration, providing a verbal description of the proportional relationship between two quantities, and writing down an equation to model a real-world context. Page 183. I agree with these definitions. In order for a student to be successful in a math class, they need to be able to read graphs and tables and proofs and be able to understand them. They also need to be able to listen to verbal explanation and why such things happen. For writing, it is different than just writing a paper. They need to know what the terminology means and be able to write down and communicate their steps they took to solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter then discussed a general approach to designing literacy instruction in the classroom.
Step 1: Identify the texts that are to be read and written during the lesson.
Step 2: Identify the literacies-the specific ways that texts are to be read and written-that are required during the lesson
Step 3: Develop an instructional plan that makes explicit the texts and literacies and allows students to develop these literacies through participation in mathematical processes.
During this section they also noted that the literacy specialists predominant role is that of questioner and the mathematics teacher’s role is the answer provider. The literacy specialist isn’t the expert regarding mathematical texts and literacies and need to be careful not to impose their own views about the nature of math.
.
I thoroughly enjoyed your posts, Sara. I like that the text chose to break down mathematical literacy instruction into steps that you included in this particular post. It was interesting to read your summation of the difference between literacy specialists and mathematics' teacher. Awesome summation. Thanks!
DeleteThe chapter then discussed examples of teachers who have incorporated literacy in their classroom. The first example is where the teacher didn’t know he was going to have to incorporate it. The students did an example involving the equal sign and their idea of the equal sign was different than his. He sees it as a balance and the students were just using it to put in between the terms but the terms on each side weren’t actually equal. He used literacy and discussion to help the students see that the equal sign is a balance and we want what is on the left side to equal the right side. The second example is of reading graphs. The students looked at a graph of a roller coaster. The students were supposed to find the shape of the roller coaster. Many of the students said the graph was the roller coaster, so where the graph was increasing the roller coaster was increasing. But this didn’t match up with the labels of the graph. They had discussion and the students realized that it was speed, so where the graph was increasing the roller coaster was decreasing and where the graph was decreasing, the roller coaster was slowing down so was going up a hill. I thought these were good examples because these were two topics that students do struggle with in math. The examples showed how we could use literacy to help the students understand the topics. The examples also used “objects” rather than having the students just read a book on the topics. The students were constructing conjectures and then proving or disproving them.
ReplyDeleteThe book then talked about creating and sustaining collaborations between literacy and mathematics education. I found it interesting that the book states that we shouldn’t form it between struggling math teachers. That it is common for literacy educators to partner with struggling math teachers to help them. But we should do the opposite. Literacy educators should partner with experienced knowledgeable, and enthusiastic mathematics teachers. They say this because once the collaboration is on its way; they can then help the struggling teachers. The steps for sustaining collaborations is develop a shared purpose, work from collaborators’ strengths and evaluate work together.
Your real life examples in this post are great! I can definitely see the confusion students had with the equals sign. I can remember the jump from general math classes to classes involving and algebra and advanced problem solving. It was very difficult to jump over this language barrier from elementary to secondary school.
DeleteDani
Sara,
DeleteFirst of all I would like to thank you for using the term “computational fluency”. This is a new term to me, and as a language teacher I really enjoy it. :)
Also, I like that you acknowledge the difference between ‘learning math’ and memorizing formulas. Its true that memorizing formulas (similar to memorizing grammatical rules in Spanish) doesn’t do any good unless we understand why things are the way they are and how they work. Perhaps this is why I didn’t make it into all of those calculus courses!
Thank you for sharing the examples you did. They seem to do a great job of challenging students to inadvertently practice new forms of literacy in math. I think they would be fun activities that could be adapted to any level of learners.
Learning with Texts in History:
ReplyDeleteTeaching secondary students how to navigate academic texts is difficult enough if not just for helping them to navigate the academic language used in different disciplines. I realized after reading this chapter on teaching reading for history, however, that teaching students how to read and use navigate and use academic language is only just the beginning when it comes to reading history. As I’m sure many of you found when reading the chapters about other academic fields, reading academic language in a content area is so much more than just reading; it also includes teaching students how to decode, summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and compare one reading to another.
This chapter began with the story of two eighth grade students, Ayesha and Brad, working together on reading and analyzing for different types of text that all had to do with the Boston Massacre, a gunfight that occurred between the British soldiers and the colonists in Boston. One reading came from the textbook and was written from a non-biased, detached point of view that “gave the facts” about the British soldiers firing on the colonists who demanded their freedom. Another reading was the first-hand account given by the British Captain who either did or did not give orders to the British soldiers to fire on the colonists (he insists he did not give them orders to shoot, but they did anyway, resulting in several deaths). The other two readings were two testimonials of people who say they witnessed the event. One said he did hear Captain Preston give the orders to fire, and the other said he heard Captain Preson say NOT to fire. The task of the eighth grade students was to read the four texts, come up with an idea of what happened, and share their ideas with the class.
Brad, a white boy from the upper-middle class, seems impatient with Ayesha and with the texts because he “just wants to find the answer and move on.” He decides to share the facts from the textbook with the class because they are “non-biased” and the textbook has the authority over the other three texts. Ayesha, on the other hand, is not so quick to conclude that the British were wrong to fire on the colonists. She reads Captain Preston’s and the other two eyewitnesses’ accounts carefully and tries to imagine what would have led the British troops to fire, with or without orders to do so. In the end, she decides to share with the class that she thinks the British soldiers fired on the colonists for reasons of self-defense.
The authors share that Brad and Ayesha are experiencing hypertextual noise, or conflicting accounts, and that Brad seems much more uncomfortable with this than does Ayesha. They maintain that Brad wants the authoritative voice that he believes comes from “the facts” of the textbook, and that this is probably due to his identity that matches how the textbook writers frame their account (along American ideals). Ayesha, on the other hand, is not so quick to accept the dry textbook version and seems intrigued by the conflicting accounts. Her identity as a black girl from a working-class background may, among other things, lead her to question the authority of a textbook that paints this incident to be a simple picture in which the British soldiers were overly-aggressive. How students subconsciously identify themselves has a lot to do with how they interpret texts.
ReplyDeleteThe author also maintains that it is really important to give this hypertextual noise to students if they are to truly be able to read and analyze history. It is not a black-and-white subject, and historical events are always recorded and later interpreted with some type of bias present. It is up to the reader to read many different accounts, evaluate the bias, author’s purpose, political leanings of the writers and/or participants in the historical events, the context of the event and the later interpretation/writing about it, etc. before coming to one’s own conclusion about what really happened in history.
I chose to read the chapter on learning with texts in history because I am like Ayesha--I enjoy the challenge of piecing together different accounts of what happened in history, interpreting them, and then thinking about how those events have shaped our world today. Students like Brad are harder to crack when it comes to reading history. Teachers have to teach students like him how to read, interpret, and evaluate perhaps conflicting accounts of history rather than just jumping to the simple, textbook conclusion as an authoritative answer. Oftentimes, textbooks gloss over what happened throughout history, so it is important to be able to teach students to be critical of what they are reading.
Rachael,
DeleteI feel that a lot of students are like Brad when it comes to reading. I think a lot of it has to do with how we were taught. I like to read and discover things, but when I was in high school, I never had to compare books. What the book said was what we had to learn for our classes. So I would believe the textbooks because that is what I was going to be assessed by. So this shows us that we need to teach students to be critical of what they are reading and give them opportunities to look at other sources and compare.
I agree with Sara that most students look at text reading like Brad. I can remember doing the same thing as Brad when I was in history class. I would race through the assignments, looking for the answers in the text, without actually absorbing the content or lesson at hand. This was a great real-life example, Rachael!
DeleteRachael,
DeleteIt sounds like maintaining an investigatory attitude and seeking multiple sources are two important methods for become literate in history. Would you say that this applies to every discipline? Or are there disciplines where one does not need to be so "questioning" of the content?
Thank you.
In chapter five of Adolescent Literacy in the Academic Disciplines: General Procedures and Practical Strategies, the authors focus on the teaching of literacy in the English Language Arts classroom. They exemplify their research and recommendations through two versions of a vignette about at Literature class studying the novel Of Mice and Men. At the beginning of the chapter the first version of the vignette is described. It resembles a ‘typical’ literature class where students are given a ready schedule to follow, taught about the importance of the author and the novel, and asked to answer guiding questions as they proceed through the reading. They are also taught about various reading and comprehension strategies. Once finished with the novel, students are given a culminating essay assignment and/or exam.
ReplyDeleteWhile this first version does facilitate and assess comprehension, the authors argue that does not do an adequate job of teaching English Language Arts because it does not engage the students optimally and does offer them a variety of perspectives and understandings about the novel. At the end of the chapter, the authors offer a different recommendation for ‘teaching’ students about the novel, in which students are asked a number of pre-reading questions about their own experiences with reading, then required to keep some sort of reading logs as they progress through the novel, and -finally- given options of final projects to do that are more relevant and engaging to their daily lives. Some examples of possible projects are: 1) Creating a series of Twitter updates from the perspective of the main character as he progresses through the novel. 2) Making news-flash videos about main events that occur in the novel and their importance.
The authors of advocate that today’s students need to be given opportunities to compose (demonstrate literacy) in different genres, for different audiences and through different forums in order to become truly ‘literate’ in today’s society. By doing this - teaching learners more than just the required knowledge and strategies to be literate - we shift our goal towards making them active creators and manipulators of the content. They create, critique, investigate and produce within the context of English Language Arts (or any area, really) as scholars do within their specializations. One of the ways in which the main ideas of this chapter can be summarized is to say that we need to shift our goals from teaching students how to be literate to helping them becoming creators, manipulators, etc. of the content while teaching them traditional reading and writing comprehension skills.
ReplyDeleteThey used a great analogy for this, which is: We build the plane while flying. That is, we should strive to teach them the basics of literacy as a means to being able to create and act literately rather than for the sake of accomplishing literacy. The authors note that this is especially applicable to language teachers because our content is reading and writing, and in order to help students become literate in our disciplines, we must teach them how to read and write within our content. (I know that this may not quite make sense. The authors refer to it as a Duality of purpose and it can be found in the third paragraph under the heading “Three Literacy Frameworks” in chapter 5 for further clarification.)
Within this chapter is also an array of interpretations of what literacy is. For example, Cadiero-Kaplan (2003) puts forth four interrelated literacy ideologies, which are: functional, cultural, progressive, and critical. Based on our goals for our students, we tend to operate within one or more of these literacy frameworks whether we are conscious of it or not. Our goal, now, should be to realize which framework we tend to operate under, and re-evaluate our teaching strategies to best suit our students.
Of greatest importance in this chapter is the understanding that literacy is dynamic and multidimensional in nature (an idea originally from Kucer) and that we as educators need to challenge ourselves to develop an understanding of what literacy in our content areas is and how it manifests itself across these dimensions. Only then can we re-evaluate how to best guide our students towards literacy within our fields.
David,
DeleteI really like the examples you provided for projects. I think the students would really enjoy them. I also really your statement, we shift our goal towards making them active creators and manipulators of the content. I think this gets lost a lot of the times when teaching literacy. When I was in high school, this was not the case. We read the textbook(s) and then did quizzes or tests or wrote papers on them. We weren't given the opportunity to demonstrate literacy in different genres. This will be something that I will remember and try to do!
David,
DeleteI love the Twitter account example you chose to share from the chapter on Language Arts. This is a great way to get students interested in their reading of Of Mice and Men! I think it's a great strategy to incorporate current technology and literacy into our curriculum. You made some awesome points in your posts. Thank you!
Dani
Really interesting example you provided about ways to engage students in their reading by using real-life, fun examples. Twitter feeds from the point of view of the main character!? What a good idea. I can see high schoolers really buying into this. I'll have to incorporate some of those methods into my language teaching class. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteLearning with Text in the Arts: This chapter's content area could not be further from my content area of Chemistry. I think reading this chapter could not have been more beneficial. We've discussed this before in class, but many people look over literacy in the areas of music, visual arts and performing arts. At the end of this chapter, (pg 263) the author discusses choir, orchestra and band classes. Most times class time for these three consists of practicing for upcoming concerts, without given time for other content such as musical theory/history, how to read sheet music, learning about pitch, and MUCH more! "It can be challenging for music teachers to disengage from the time-honored mode of rehearse, rehearse, rehearse in order to carve out time for developing improvisational skills and concepts (Reveire, 2006)." (pg263).
ReplyDeleteThis chapter in Adolescent Literacy in the Academic Disciplines, discusses texts and literacy within music and visual arts class. The author of this chapter takes the time to focus on how literacy is incorporated into art standards. The standards for art classes are given throughout the chapter. I found it interesting that the author, in a way, discusses music class as decoding a new language. Students must be able to read, interpret and actually hear the sounds of sheet music inside their heads. The author also discusses the nonprint objects involved with music including symbols, sound, musical scores, or interpretation of a conductor's gestures. I would not have thought of many of these as things involved in musical literacy!
As the author converts to the topic of literacy in visual arts classes, traditional print-base texts are discussed, such as textbooks, art-related books, and artist-composed texts. These are the texts most would brainstorm when asked about literacy in the arts. Literacy within the arts that is not normally discussed consists of techniques (molding, painting), procedures for different techniques, labels on paint jars/other mediums, vocabulary during class (elements/principles of design). I was boggled by how many of these things I would not have thought about within art literacy!
The author takes literacy a step further and lists the standards involved with the arts, then gives the literacies for each, or how the text is negotiated. Many of the music standards involve performing, creating, contemplating and listening. I did not realize how much literacy is involved with the task of listening. Visual Arts literacies involve creating, problem solving, critiquing, and reflecting. In these areas of art education, students must not only learn about visual arts and how to create music. They must also be able to listen to, critique, reflect and problem solve in all areas throughout the class.
ReplyDeleteOn page 228, the author restates a great comment given by Paul Broomhead, "She framed text as "what" we intend our students to create, produce, interpret, or make sense of in their learning. Literacy was framed as "how" we intend our students to interact with text, for example how they might go about creating, interpreting, and making sense of it."
Dani,
ReplyDeleteI think its neat that reading about literacy in art helped you to understand literacy in chemistry. You’re right, they do seem like polar opposites at first glance.
You give some great examples of syntax in your second paragraph! Did you realize that?
Dani,
DeleteA while back when I was watching tv, there was this show that was on and the guy who was playing the music, said music is reading to the ears. I found this interesting! I was in band, and I never thought of reading music as reading. I knew i was reading music, but didn't classify it as actually reading. Thanks for bringing that up!