Group
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Initiators
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Summarizers
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Responders
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Illuminators
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1
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Michael Gillis
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Karin Logerquist
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Molly Nelson
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Ian Gorton
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2
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Nicholas Gaudette
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Jesse Vavreck
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Nancy Nair
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Laura Mayo
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3
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Kaylee Wiens
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Kris Latcham
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Paul Garlock
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Jonathan
Reeves
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4
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Sara Stein
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Erik Krueger
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Michelle O’Connor
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Sean Johnson
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E. In this last small discussion group, you will begin the study of adolescent readers.
Preparation for the discussion: Please read:
- Adolescent Reading: position statement of the International Reading Association. https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reading.org%2FLibraries%2Fresources%2Fps1079_adolescentliteracy_rev2012.pdf
- Delbridge, K. (2008). What we know about the teaching of adolescent reading. In what research really says about the teaching and learning to read (pp 158-175). National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois.
- To access the Delbridge article (article listed above) you can locate it on D2L-Content-Readings OR under Forms and Doc on the Website OR use the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RBFhdurd8ec0Vac2xQTEZiQWs/edit?usp=sharing
- To access the Delbridge article (article listed above) you can locate it on D2L-Content-Readings OR under Forms and Doc on the Website OR use the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RBFhdurd8ec0Vac2xQTEZiQWs/edit?usp=sharing
Roles:
There are 4 people in each conversation group. You only respond to those in your own group.
Initiators start the conversation. They must do the reading immediately and get their entries in during the first day or two so others have material to respond to. Grading will be based on the quality of questions, speculations, and thought-provoking prompts that will get people really considering the ideas presented in the content. You must include your own responses to the ideas as well. If another Initiator has already posted his/her ideas, the next Initiator to post must enter new ideas. In other words, don't repeat what's already posted.
Responders directly address and extend the ideas that the Initiators have thrown out for consideration as well as adding your own unique responses to the readings. It is not enough to say, "I agree", or "That was a nice idea." Responders need to enlarge the conversation, make connections to their own experiences, and draw from other material in the readings to expand on the conversation. Responders need to get their ideas in at least 48 hours before the due date so the Summarizers can do their work (below).
Illuminators teach, guide, edify, and enlighten. They take their own and other people's ideas beyond surface statements to broader and deeper ground. They pull from other sources, such as pertinent internet sites, they have encountered to shed light on questions or confusions. They clarify. Illuminators add their contributions after the Initiators, before or after the Responders, and before the Summarizers (i.e., before the last day).
Summarizers pull together and consolidate all the key ideas from the group. They are the last to make their entries, probably best done in the evening of the deadline day. Every participant (except fellow Summarizers) should be named, and the contributions of each acknowledged in the summary. Summarizers should be organized and concise. Capture the essence. (If there are any group members who have not submitted by 8:00 p.m. of the deadline day, you do not have to wait for them — just summarize those who have submitted up to that time.)
Respond at least once to another member of your group with questions, clarifications, or other ideas. You will not likely be able to respond to the summarizer, as they will be summarizing all ideas and discussion at the end (Sunday). The Summarizer will need to respond to at least one person during the week before you summarize. This would be a good time to ask for clarification on ideas to help write the summary at the end. Make your response postings before Sunday, November 3.
Hi, all. As the initiator for this week, I am starting things off. My post is too long to fit into one post, so I will post it in two posts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started reading the International Reading Association (IRA) Position Statement on Adolescent Literacy, I asked myself “What is the purpose of this? Is this some sort of high-level policy statement that won’t have any day-to-day relevance to us as teachers?” I asked myself this because we have been exposed to a lot of reading material in the past year and a half; while some has been dull and some inspiring, and some has spoken to our passions and some has made no connection with us whatsoever, we have all probably developed a much stronger sense of what we think is relevant to us now, and what will be relevant to us when we start teaching. Speaking for myself, I know that I am spending a lot of time thinking about student teaching, and the thought of standing up in front of the school board to tell everyone the way things ought to be a la Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman” is not at the top of my list of things I am planning on doing to start my teaching career. So whenever I start reading something that appears to be a policy statement, I ask “How will this help me to teach my students right now?” I think that our initial impressions of a text really frame the way we read the text. What sorts of expectations did you all have when you started reading this text?
Fortunately, the position statement had a lot of items we could take away and implement in the classroom. First, the text points out that although students may have problems with academic literacy, they still have daily interaction with texts of all kinds. The problem with academic literacy involves the lack of connections students are able to make with the text. The whole point of the position statement, as I interpreted it, is that we need to find ways to help students make academic texts personally meaningful to them. The eight-point list of “What Adolescent Learners Deserve” summarizes ways that we can do this. However, it seems like there is too much to do if we try to do it all. What kinds of ideas do you have to incorporate the recommendations of International Reading Association? For example, can the use of diversified, small groups provide the opportunities to engage in oral conversations that they discuss in item 5? What sorts of ways can you think of to address that item and the rest?
Mike, I appreciate the question you ask yourself, "How will this help me teach my students right now?" My expectations were similar to yours when I began the first reading. In all honesty, I skip a lot of the research/stats part of the readings, skim through the analysis, and spend a lot of time reading the vignettes that illustrate specific types of learners and readers, because that is my personal reading and learning preference. Most of the things I took away from the reading came from those scenarios. My favorite was the story told at the beginning of bullet point #8, on page 12, that talks about Mario and his sister Rosetta, and how Mario helped introduce a variety of materials to Rosetta to spark her interest in reading BOTH text and non-text materials. What a fabulous demonstration of learning in different contexts, and catering to individual learning/literacy needs.
DeleteWhenever I read assigned articles/text or class like this one, I think about how I can specifically apply it to my classroom. This reading in particular overwhelmed me (like readings of this type always do) and made me feel like it's my responsibility (or burden...) to teach to EVERY individual student in EVERY class in EVERY context in EVERY subject how to learn EVERY single aspect of literacy…of course this is completely unrealistic, but it's what the overload of information does for me, and is probably why I do better when I simply read through the vignettes because they help me process information in a way that makes sense to me. I was able to apply this information to a unit I’m creating for another. We have to incorporate reading and literacy into the art room. In order to do this I've designed my unit to cater to as many aspects of connecting information that I can. Students will read print, research via web, watch and discuss video clips, and use a variety of media to express an interpretation of all these materials. Personally, I need to remind myself that not every lesson needs to lead to an earth shattering revelation or epiphany from every student, and as long as I’m slowly but surely incorporating these strategies into my classroom, I'm on the right track (and so are my students!)
(This is the second half of my post to start things off as the initiator.)
ReplyDeleteThe second reading (Delbridge) intimidated me just by looking at it because I thought it was going to be a dry, scholarly text filled with references to other people’s work and basically incomprehensible. I’m glad that first impression was wrong. One of the first things I noticed was the clarity and cohesion of her writing. Being pressed for time, I am a skimmer and a scanner when I read. I noticed almost right away that the first sentence of almost every paragraph provided clues as to what to expect in the rest of the paragraph. The ability to skim and scan are skills that I know were presented to me when I was younger, but only on a very basic level; it’s a skill I developed mostly on my own. As teachers, we will have students who are pressed for time the way we are now, or who have difficulty reading some of the texts we assign, just like some of us (I for one) do now. How important are these kinds of reading skills to you in your personal and academic reading? Have you given much thought to helping your students develop these kinds of reading skills?
The gist of Delbridge’s text focused on students’ ability to make meaning from text, especially with respect to their own backgrounds – their background knowledge, their background (family, culture, socioeconomic status), and the personality. She describes reading as a developmental thought process, rather than a process of one-time acquisition. On page 167 of the text (page 5 of my version of the pdf), Delbridge mentions the different levels of comprehension readers might achieve with a given text. In order to help our students become better readers, it seems we need to help them develop the ability to comprehend at all of these levels. Is it possible to achieve all of these levels simultaneously? Do we give our students enough time to do this? How hard do you think it will be to help students understand how to read in the different ways Delbridge describes in this paragraph?
Way to be an awesome illuminator. I'm glad you provided specific questions to get us talking.
DeleteI had similar expectations about this reading at first. Just about everything I read for class starts out with me being afraid it will be something unnecessarily lengthy and impractical. I actually think this is a problem some of the students this reading addresses face, but I'll get to that later. Thankfully, both readings broke things down nicely and despite initial appearances were worth the read.
As far as techniques to implement the concerns addressed in the first reading, I think that this is where our content specialities comes into play. All our students have the base "needs" outlined in the reading. These needs serve as our starting point. It's now our job to come up with ways to incorporate things into our content.
I do use certain strategies like skimming when I read. Though I usually only use it when trying to gather information from the material. If I am reading for fun I tend to slow down and enjoy it.
You mentioned the idea of time in your post and I think you hit the nail on the head. I know time was (and still is) the biggest obstacle I have when I need to read something. I think students, especially older student, feel that pressure too. It doesn't help that the "natural environment" students increasingly experience outside of school (that is, the digital environment) values brevity. I think this is counter to a lot of what they (and even we) have to read and this leads to a lot of resistance even when the reader has all the skills needed to do so. I know my motivation goes out the window the minute a giant chunk of text is dropped in front of me. How can I expect my students to not feel the same way? I guess my point is that even with necessary skills or strategies, students ultimately need motivation to read (or do) anything. I think the longer it takes to read something, the more we have to convince our students it is worth reading. That's not an easy task by any means.
Ian and Michael, I like how you've begun to discuss given students enough time to process and make meaning of text. Realistically, I think the “levels” that Mike mentioned on page 167 (interpreting, applying, visualizing, and synthesizing) simply represent the ideal scenario. Unfortunately, this is not how many students read naturally. If they did, I would be out of a tutoring job because we spend hours upon hours helping students to find meaning using strategies that align with each of these levels. I recently had a conversation with one of my students who is currently in college and comes to tutoring because she struggles with study skills and reading comprehension. We were talking about finding meaning in the reading and relating it to our lives in some way. She was amazed at all of the connections she was able to find when had the time to think about it and really process the information. She even seemed angry because she mentioned, “Why don’t teachers do this for us in high school??” I told her that unfortunately, MANY (probably most) teachers work to develop these levels, but often high school students don’t take the time, or don’t have the time, to really interpret, apply, visualize, and synthesize what they’re reading.
DeleteI asked her to think back to when she was 16, and to think about how engaged she was in her classes then. She mentioned she didn’t care at all about school and couldn’t see the importance in reading because it was boring, and blamed the teachers for making it boring. We discussed how this is often a huge challenge in the classroom, because it’s difficult for teachers to find “text” in which every student is able to find a connection. I think this ties in with the ideas Delbridge discusses on pages 168-169, when she mentions how it’s the responsibility of all teachers to help students see connections and meanings in their readings. Different subjects are structured in different ways, and interpreting, applying, visualizing, and synthesizing happen differently for every student, and vary from subject to subject. Students will take different paths, teachers will use different strategies, but I think it’s our job as teachers to find ways to EXPLICITLY remind students they should be working towards these four levels (and the ways we do that will be completely dependent on the subjects we teach and our student’s personalities).
I’d like to look at some of Mike’s points and expand on them a bit. Mike mentioned looking at articles and asking yourself, “What is the purpose of this? Is this some sort of high-level policy statement that won’t have any day-to-day relevance to us as teachers?” I think with all of the different texts we are required to read throughout grad school, we (or I) often like to skip over the policy/research/ very wordy articles so we can connect on the ones that are more currently relevant. Throughout my entire educational life, I’ve asked myself in certain situations, “Why do we have to learn this? How am I ever going to use this information in the future?” It hasn’t been until grad school that I realized we are always learning something for a reason. We needed to take math to learn problem skills. We now need to read research papers to see if they are applicable to our field and close the research-to-practice gap that the educational world is lacking.
DeleteYou touched base on the eight-point list of what adolescent learners deserve. I think it’s important to look at the group of students you are working with and decide from there how to incorporate the recommendations of the International Reading Association. Maybe they already have assessments that highlight their strengths and challenges, and the focus needs to be more on access and instruction to multiple texts. It can be overwhelming at times to look at everything we need to incorporate as teachers, but it’s important to look at one thing at a time.
As for our second reading, it had to do with the students’ ability to make meaning from text, especially their background. (Not sure if I’ve talked about this in this class yet…) In one of my other classes, we talked about looking at the students’ biography to help determine their linguistic, socio-cultural and cognitive skill set. By looking at these aspects, we as teacher are able to gain insight the level of comprehension a student may have on a text and work from there. I don’t know if we can achieve all the levels simultaneously, but in order to gain maximum achievement we need to look at the knowledge the students already have.
Hey group, if anyone else has things to add to the discussion today, I will wait until later this evening to complete/post the summary of our discussion. I'm glued to the computer today to hopefully finish all things homework related, so I'll be available to respond/comment on expanded ideas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can collect our questions from B & C into a nice little package to post tonight if no one else has their heart set on that task ;) Again, I'll wait until later tonight just in case anyone has anything else to add.
Summary
ReplyDeleteOur group’s conversation regarding this week’s readings started when Mike posed many great questions (so many in fact that we were unable to fully discuss/answer each of them fully). Several of Mikes questions included: How important are readings skills [like skimming/scanning] in our personal and academic reading? What sorts of expectations did [we] have when reading the [Delbridge] text? And is it possible to achieve the [4 levels of reading comprehension mentioned in Delbridge’s article] simultaneously? Mike began answering parts of his questions by stating that, “the problem with academic literacy involves the lack of connections students are able to make with the text…we need to find ways to help students make academic texts personally meaningful to them.” The rest of us expanded on the idea of helping students to create meaning from the text, by applying it in different ways to our own content areas.
Ian suggested that as teachers, we should be aware of the length of our texts. Shorter texts may have more meaning to students because shorter texts are less of a time commitment for students (especially teenagers with short academic attention spans). Once we have determined the amount of time our students are able to pay attention to specific readings, “it is our job to come up with ways to incorporate [reading] into our content.”
I was able to connect Ian’s ideas of relating reading to content/interest areas by reiterating one of the vignettes mentioned in the Delbridge article, in which an older brother helps his younger sister find meaning in reading by encouraging her to read about something she’s passionate about. Molly touched on this idea as well when she mentioned, “in order to gain maximum achievement, we need to look at the knowledge students already have.” We agreed that student’s personal interests and abilities play a big role in developing literacy instruction within our content areas. We recognized that different subjects are structured in different ways, and incorporating the 4 levels of literacy acquisition (interpreting, applying, visualizing, and synthesizing) happen differently for every student, and vary from subject to subject).
We also agreed that in general, this was a lot of information to take in, and the subject of literacy encompasses a huge array of strategies and contexts that we may not have thought of applying in our classrooms until now. From skimming/scanning articles, to finding material that students can easily relate to, we ultimately agreed that not every lesson will address every literacy demand for every student. Molly stated it perfectly when said, “It can be overwhelming at times to look at everything we need to incorporate as teachers, but it’s important to look at one thing at a time.” Step by step is key. As long as we are paying attention to lesson modification and incorporating a multitude of teaching/learning styles, our students will be on the right path.