Reading 2.1 - Exploring the requirements of critical school literacy

The  ‘four contextual domains’:

Everyday             Starting points: diverse & open ended; Working with the contexts prior knowledge & understandings; roles & relationships; interactivng with others primarily through spoken language; ‘personal growth literacy’

Applied                Gaining control of specific kinds of expertise; using specific skills, based on acquired expertise; apprenticeship role; using spoken and written language to enable experience or activity; ‘skills literacy’

Theoretical         Accessing dominant forms of knowledge & semiosis; assimilating & reproducing the contents of specialised knowledge based on educational learning; becoming part of member of a discipline; producing & interpreting epistemic texts; ‘specialised literacy’

Reflexive            Negotiating social diversity and competing discourses; questioning the taken-for-granted understandings of specialised knowledge, based on alternative perspectives; challenging and reconstituting roles in a world of social diversity; recons truing meanings through different media, ‘critical literacy’

Implications for my teaching means that while critical literacy is important it cannot be achieved without engaging students in mainstream/specialised literacy practices. Students need to be explicitly taught those literacy skills that will help them to be able to create  their own texts, process their own and other texts meaning and analyse text before they can critique texts (54).

Outline of author’s model of students’ path towards critical literacy:

1.       access to a range of contextualisation practices in their reading and writing. Students need to make informed decisions about which occasions warrant a critical or more mainstream reading. They need to know the parameters of a text  - the terms that make ‘it’ obvious - before they can recontextualise it.

2.       Develop meta-level awareness of texts  & the practices that provide the concrete evidence – students need to be able to recognise a text’s topic, identify its implied author and readership and comment on its rhetorical features. Students need to have multiple experiences  (and taught the skills)  ‘which enable them to distance themselves from texts’ (57).

3.       Acquire both of the above within visible pedagogies marked by explicitness. Using focused reading of model texts (structures and features), joint construction of class texts, immersion in texts that are intertextually relevant to different learning contexts.

Issues of interest in the students’ study and writing in the IVF unit:

·         Teacher used students prior knowledge and personal experience  as initial provocation

·         Review earlier work so all students have a common knowledge base

·         Visual literacy – diagrams, labelling, technical terms  = which brought a new intertextuality into play...students personal experience with technical recontextualisation (an applied intertextuality)

·         Explanations, tables, videos , note taking (all of these are activities are building upon the prior knowledge of previous lessons)

·         Students are also scaffolded in their independence – beginning with small group work, before moving to independent work

·         Refocusing on text type – e.g. the explanation – from the content, the language now becomes the field of study; looking at differences between genres (eventually narrowing to two text types)

o   Explicit focus on  matching examples of genre with its social purpose

·         Outlining: Continued modelling by teacher of text (breaking it down into its component stages/technical language)

·         Student draft explanations in groups

·         Students write final drafts independently (following editing by teacher).

·         THROUGHOUT WHOLE PROCESS STUDENT LEARNING & UNDERSTANDINGS IS SCAFFOLDED TO BUILD UPON THEIR EXPERIENCES AND KNOWLEDGE AS THE UNIT PROGRESSES.

Sitting in...

Today I had the chance to sit in on a middle years Grade 6 English class. It was great to observe a younger class and reflect on the differences between middle and high school. I must admit that I am always pleasantly surprised as these opportunities to observe seem to be matching up with my readings of the week. This week  I read an article by Mary Macken-Horarik, "Exploring the requirements of critical school literacy". In the article the author argues strongly for the need to for critical literacy to also consider  the challenge of developing those linguistic skills necessary for students to read the text in order to  gain a critical understanding of the relationships and conceptual meanings to be found within it.

And that is what I observed - the teacher teaching those skills and scaffolding the writing process from description - analyzing - essay format. Differentiated learning was in evidence with three different tasks according to the needs of the student. Students had been given modeled examples to support their own writing. They also had support with Step Up to Writing Handy Pages booklet.The teacher focused the groups at the beginning and throughout the session reminding the students of what their tasks were asking of them - to think about 'transition words in the texts, and in their own writing,  and what was needed in developing Introductions. The teacher also spent the lesson clarifying and elaborating with individual students regarding these aspects of their writing - both student having to clarify and elaborate on their work, or their teacher commenting.

The importance of outlining again was evident (seen in other classes). Students were required to complete outline notes before commencing their typed drafts. It gave the students the necessary organised format to begin their writing.

It is this explicit instruction in building up the skills involved in writing essays that will lead these students to be able to analyse and critique them.

It was a great lesson!

Sitting in ...

I joined back up with Macbeth  today. After the class, talk revolved around how students begin the outlining process by looking at quotes from the play, what they say, and what they mean within the context of what has happened or is happening in the play as they progress through the Acts.  Students then move on to create a dynamic structure of the play, first in pairs, then individually. My mentor really likes to see colour coding used, and also  to leave the design or layout of the structure to the students.The teacher models a simple DS at the beginning, but the creativity is up to the kids...and the end result is showing the thought processes that each student engages in. 
Which led us to another discussion point, being the importance of outlining, and especially visual organisers in helping the students organise their thoughts. Another class yesterday used Venn diagrams to discuss parallel themes in two different plays. All these visual tools move the students toward effective writing - one that is coherent, organised and shows critical thinking.

Quotes I like...

As a PYP Curriculum Coordinator, I like browsing to keep abreast of happenings in the IB (International Baccalaureate) world. One site is PYP Threads which is a ning I subscribe to. Of course, the links send me out into the global community. One blog I came across is 21 Century Classroom. Heidi's blog this week reflected on learning, and how important it is that we as teachers are always learning alongside our students:

"... the sad truth is that when I am not learning, none of my students are learning." 

This really hit home, as did an earlier blog commentary: My students need me after all  - thinking about our role as teachers.

Pedagogical status of group work in the teaching of secondary English.

Reference:

Baxter, D. (2009). Small group work. In S. Gannon, M. Howie, & W. Sawyer, Charged with meaning (pp. 197-203). Putney NSW: Phoenix Education.

Manuel, J. (2009). Talking and listening for learning in English. In S. Gannon, M. Howie, & W. Sawyer, Charged with Meaning (pp. 185-196). Putney NSW: Phoenix Education.

***

There is a vital role of talking and listening in student learning,  Manuel notes how this is often diminished in the ‘propensity to privilege reading and writing, particularly when it comes to assessment and examinations’ (Manuel  2009:185). We spend ‘far more time  producing spoken language to organise and verbalise experience than we do using written language’ (Plattor 1984:3) (Manuel, 2009, p. 186).

Group work allows for the continuity of talking and listening in the classroom.  It encourages ‘proficiency in oral language that can contributes significantly to their developing capacity as writers and readers.’ (Manuel, 2009, p. 187)

Group work changes the source of power from the traditional teacher-student dynamic of teachers controlling the language of the classroom to that of facilitator, where students are involved in active, purposeful talking and listening learning experiences. It allows for the ‘talking space’ in the classroom to be  democratised (Douglas Barnes) and for student’s voice to be valued. It ‘assume[s] that the student’s home language is a crucial resource in the building and extending of their talking and listening; and that students have something to learn from one another. (Manuel, 2009, p. 189)

Group work ensures that students are involved as both participants and spectators in the classroom. It ‘requires a commitment on the part of students to proffer ideas, interpretations and responses’ (Manuel, 2009, p. 187). By doing so, the emphasis is on the process of making meaning.

Manuel  (Manuel, 2009)notes that there is an explicit understanding that students learn best when they:

ü  Encounter purposeful, relevant, challenging & stimulating language activities

ü  Given degree of choice & agency & developing sense of responsibility for their learning

ü  Value coherence between the language of school, home, community, workplace & media

ü  Given abundant opportunities for purposeful talk

Group work provides for all these learning experiences. Wilkinson (1973:436) notes that “English should provide a profusion of ‘living language situations’, that allow oral work to encompass a variety of purposes, audiences and contexts (Manuel, 2009, p. 188)in order for the development of talking and listening skills among students. For this to occur teachers need to consider different strategies  they use and the ‘social relationships they permit within their classrooms, and how these affect learning’ (Stratta et al 1973: 144-5).

The practical aspects of implementing group work in the English classroom

Teachers have a pivotal role in ensuring group work is successful in the classroom. They need to:

ü  Plan, prepare, structure, organize & mediate

o   Regular small group experiences

o   Allow time for students to learn how to work in groups – begin by planning short, focused activities, beginning with pairs.

§  Focus :questions or instructions

§  Set time limit, but allow time if it takes longer

o   Variety of tasks in variety of ways – see  (Manuel, 2009, pp. 194-5)

§  Plan a ‘context’ for discussion

§  Activity is interesting, enjoyable, challenging, relevant

§  Purpose of activity is clear & precise

§  Students clear about their roles & what they are to achieve or produce

§  Tasks need to be fair & achievable for all students including socially isolated students

o   Keep groups dynamic & fluid – students work within & across number of groups

§  Size 2 (pairing especially if working on computers or writing) to  4

§  Use different methods for grouping e.g. numbers/cards with images

o   Resources

§  Suitable space

§  Necessary resources available

§  Amount of time given for task is appropriate

o   Use range of models of talking and listening - see (Manuel, 2009, p. 193)

o   Assessment

§  Rationale for assessing activity is clear, fair & established/communicated at beginning of activity

§  Include students in designing criteria based on performance

§  Use of peer assessment – based on observable, objective criteria

§  Design activities so that all members have ownership & responsibility for product of their labours

ü  Establish expectations of acceptable & unacceptable talk

o   Inform students about purpose & processes of group work

o   Have students contribute to establishing ‘protocols’ e.g. group roles, individual’s roles, leadership, group responsibility, seating etc.

o   Rules for behaviour & cooperation

ü  Have range of questioning techniques

o   to encourage students to think critically & perceptively about experiences, issues, stimulus materials, problems

ü  Act as facilitator, coordinator, receptive audience (to the group discussion), negotiator, consultant, supportive mentor

o   Teacher models good listening skills – take genuine interest in ideas, responses, contributions of all students

ü  Intervene when necessary to challenge, redirect or refocus talk to encourage students to think critically and move beyond ‘mere expression of opinion’

o   The plenary follow-up to group work –listening to groups report back – incorporate different ideas for students to use – choice e.g. visual (poster, mind map, poem); performance; print walk (bus stop)

17/04/2011

Video scenario #3

‘Enhancing literacy in secondary English’ (DEST,2001), Scenario 3. Teaching writing.

1.       Teacher implementing ideas of explicit and systematic teaching through focus on teaching specific skills. The teacher takes the students step by step through different ways of making meaning. In this particular scenario the skill is essay writing, and the teacher explicitly instructs the students in the form, structure, and metalanguage of essay writing.

2.       What strategies did  you use to differentiate learning to meet the different needs of your student group? What reflective thinking did you use at the conclusion of the teaching plan for the students to reflect on their learning? What assessment tool was used to evaluate or assess the students skill in essay writing?

3.       I think the teaching/learning sequence did address the syllabus because students evidently were addressing:  

a.       Outcome 1 (7-10)  learning about the forms and features of language, the structures of texts (1.15) ; and learning to: Compose ...critical texts for different purposes, audiences and contexts

b.      Outcome 2 – Students learn to edit through reading aloud and peer editing, checking accuracy, paragraphing, cohesion, grammar, spelling and punctuation (2.5); Students learn about:  different ways of using feedback to improve their texts (2.11),  explicit criteria for judging the effectiveness of a text for its purpose, audience and context (2.12); and especially

c.       Outcome 4 “A student uses and describes language forms and features, and structures of texts appropriate to different purposes, audiences and contexts”

d.      Outcome 7 “A student thinks critically and interpretively about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts”

4.       There is evidence in this scenario of student learning through student class discussion and  the individual student reflecting on his learning. The students were able to use the metalanguage of essay writing: introduction, topic sentence, paragraph, conclusion.

5.       The explicit and systematic teaching are similar to what I have experienced or observed in the past:  teaching explicit skill development to learn about form and structure; the question, answer response between teacher and student  is  traditional. However, the focus on student self reflection of their written work (e.g. annotation of their essay structure to explicitly review what they have done) is something that I would not have experienced as a student in the classroom. Often too, as a student the focus of the lesson was not made explicit, which is not the case here.

6.       The pedagogy being applied here (and referenced by the teachers in the video) is  critical reading and writing (critical literacy approach). Moving beyond the personal response of the Growth model to critical reflection on what they are composing, and the purpose. The strength of the pedagogy is that the students have to reflect on their learning. They have to critically evaluate their composed texts.

Sitting in ...

Today, I sat in on a Grade 10 English class. I explained that I had also returned to the study books and gave the background as to why I am studying Secondary English...and that my whole purpose was for a change to watch the teacher not the students.
Grade 10 are studying Macbeth. It is perhaps the only Shakespearean tragedy I have not read.  The class were still involved with reading the play. Students nominated themselves to read aloud different parts. Alot more scaffolding by the teacher compared with the Grade 11 class...elaboration upon text - meaning and context, more directed questioning regarding the play. Love the teacher's sense of humour...as did the kids!