1. How does elementary reading instruction contribute to poor literacy attainment for older children?
In elementary school, there seems to be more focus on HOW to read rather than WHY you need to read. The reading puts it as follows: “an emphasis on processes of how to read can crowd out attention to reading for ideas, information, and concepts -- the very skills adolescents need to succeed in secondary school.”
2. What are reading test scores good for?
Test scores are not good at representing students’ reading skills, but they are good at “eliciting crisis.”
3. What reality about a literacy myth surprised you the most? Why?
The myth that surprised me the most was the one which said “students who struggle with one literacy will have difficulty with all literacies.” This was surprising to me because I guess I had the incorrect assumption that if a student had trouble reading in one subject, he/she would also have trouble reading anything else.
4. What do you know about teaching reading comprehension in the content areas? Give an example of a strategy you might use to teach reading during a science or social studies lesson.
Different subjects have different content. Thus, it requires different comprehension skills to interpret material from varying subjects. For that reason, teaching literacy is the job of teachers of every subject! During a science lesson, one way to teach literacy would be teaching how to plot coordinate points on a grid. Although this isn’t the same type of reading that a student would do in a English class, it is still a form of reading in the content area.
5. What kind of literacy do you have that was not acknowledged in school? (Literacy means being able to use texts and technologies to accomplish one's purpose in the world.)
I can read music. I learned this skill from my mom as opposed to a teacher in school.
6. Give an example of a literacy practice.
A real-world literacy practice would be teaching students how to read a map in social studies. They would certainly be reading, and the skills that they would develop are skills that can be used in the future.
7. What is a discourse community?
A discourse community is a group of communicators who have a common language which may not be known by people outside of that community. One great example of a discourse community is doctors and those in the medical field.
8. What can happen if students valuable multiple literacies are not recognized as valuable in school?
If a student’s multiple literacies are not recognized as valuable in school, then the student is likely to feel dumb and feel silenced. As long as students are hitting the main targets with literacy, individual and personal tactics to develop literacy should be permitted.
9. Give an example of how a teacher might build on the extracurricular literacy practices of their students?
I really liked the example that Dr. Lindstrom shared in class in which a poem was read in Ebonics and transposed into “proper” English. This is a way to build on students literacy practices while teaching them another way to speak as well.
10. Describe a time in which a teacher in your 4-12 schooling experience employed one of the research-base strategies to improve motivation.
One of the research-base strategies is to extend time for literacy. I had a 3rd grade teacher who was a very firm supporter of the DEAR time in class. I remember enjoying this quiet time, and I’m sure that other students did as well.
11. Give an example from your own K-12 schooling experience that engaged in you in multicultural literacy development.
I went to elementary school in a tiny little community with an all white school population so I was not exposed to much multiculturalism in school. However, I remember my 2nd grade teacher teaching us to sing “Jingle Bells” in French. She wrote the words on a poster board, so it gave us some experience in reading French and engaged us in multicultural literacy development.
12. What do teachers who gain recognition and respect from their peer also do well on?
Teachers who gain recognition and respect from their peers not only make learning engaging for students, but also do a good job at teaching! Because literacy is SO important for everyone, I think that good teachers also teach literacy not only during English/Language Arts, but also in every content area.
Sources:
Depaul, S. (2011). What is a disource community?. Retrieved from http://shrike.depaul.edu/~jwhite7/discoursecommunitydef.htm
The National Counsel of Teachers of English. (2007). Adolescent literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/Chron0907ResearchBrief.pdf
Excellent understanding of why it is important for content area teachers to teach reading strategies!You gave a great example of how math has its own literacy practice that include reading coordinate points of a grid! Reading music is a valuable literacy that often goes unnoticed in school! I think people who can read music should be considered bilingual!
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