V&F Chapter 1: Setting a Context for Exploring Critical Literacies Using Technology
New technologies provide many more opportunities for students to interact with texts via critical literacy, but can also serve as another limiting factor as not all students have equal access. Technology can also provide the opportunity for students to construct multimodal texts with a purpose and to distribute their works to the appropriate audiences. For early elementary students, technology can be a new and exciting way to explore the world around them in a way that they may not be able to via traditional methods.
Critical literacy is composed of principles which include having a critical perspective when interacting with texts and lessons and incorporating students' diversity and backgrounds within the classroom. Another principle is understanding that all texts have purpose and are constructed with perspective so that none are neutral but all connect the reader to the world. And, just as texts are constructed with perspective, the reader brings his/her own perspective to the reading, so there is always discourse occurring, there are always sociopolitical systems working, and there is always an opportunity for change and transformation through critical literacy. Texts are designed (created) in order to convey information through social interaction and can be written in ways that promote change; change occurs when texts are redesigned (analyzed/rewritten) in response to an analysis of the problem and to the creation of a possible solution.
Questions:
How can educators best balance incorporating new technology into the classroom, responsibly engaging in critical literacy, and encouraging text design and redesign without overshadowing traditional instruction?
What is the best way for technology to be responsibly incorporated into the classroom so that students understand the bias, perspective, and validity of texts?
B&M Chapter 12: Real Books, Real Reading: Effective Fluency Instruction
Fluency is a combination of three factors that combine to enhance comprehension, and it is imperative that the three aspects of fluency are emphasized so that one or two are not developed at the expense of the other. Accuracy and automaticity are important components as they require students to recognize words quickly (automatically) and accurately so that they are not mired down in decoding thereby losing the ability to comprehend what is being read. Prosody, however, is as equally important, but it often focused on less frequently than the other two because the majority of reading assessments such as DIBELS and AIMsweb focus on reading rates. Prosodic ability, reading with with proper intonation and expression, plays a vital role in comprehension as well because it allows students to become more engaged and connected with the text which leads to deeper levels of comprehension as well as more motivation to read.
Accuracy, automaticity, and prosody cannot be taught independently with the expectation of increased comprehension, and modeling, scaffolding, and practice are the most effective ways to teach them equally. Prosodic readings encourage comprehension and demonstrate what good reading sounds like. Read alouds are beneficial and should be continued into the upper grades, but they should also be balanced with plenty of opportunities for students to read independently with proper scaffolded instruction such as echo and choral readings. Students must be exposed to a variety of challenging texts and given plenty of opportunities to explore and interact with them as well. Oral Recitation, Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading/Wide Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading (FOOR/WIDE FOOR), and Repeated Readings are three effective, researched-based instructional strategies that will increase fluency.
Questions:
How do you ensure you balance teaching accuracy and automaticity with teaching prosody? Are there other techniques that you use besides the ones listed above?
Short, challenging, interesting texts should be used for repeated readings. Should these readings be from a grade level higher than they typically read? What genres of texts do you have the most success with?
Reading Comprehension: What Every Teacher Needs to Know
Comprehension comes when a reader is able to successfully read and interact with a text, make connections to and with the information it contains, and construct meaning through social mediation. Good readers actively participate in reading and construct meaning by implementing metacognitive and reading strategies that allow them to monitor and question their reading, decode unfamiliar words, and use text structures to their advantage. Good readers are motivated and engaged; they read more frequently, read a wider variety of texts, and read for more reasons than unmotivated readers. They also want to learn and and can make connections more easily with the text.
Effective teachers know that comprehension is of the utmost importance and that their role is to assist students' engagement with the text through strategic lessons incorporating explicit instruction, scaffolding, and student participation. In addition, effective teachers know (and believe) that all students are able to learn and provide differentiation, motivation, and the correct texts to encourage learning and that it is important to have extensive opportunities for students to interact with texts and writing in a print-rich environment. They also apply their students' needs and interests to their extensive literacy knowledge so they can create diverse lessons with a variety of purposes and modify their lessons as needed as they monitor via formative assessments. Finally, they use formative assessments to drive and differentiate student instruction. These can take the form of observations, discussions, informal responses, and others.
Comprehension strategies (previewing, self-questioning, making connections, visualizing, knowing how words work, monitoring, summarizing, and evaluating) must be explicitly taught through gradual release of responsibility, scaffolding, and appropriate differentiation. In addition to comprehension strategies, vocabulary strategies must also be taught explicitly and independently through context clues. Vocabulary development can be influenced by the amount and frequency of reading a students does, teacher read alouds, multiple exposures, and opportunities to use words multiple times. Vocabulary words should be intentionally chosen and should be cross-curricular and categorized as often as possible, and students should learn both denotation as well as the contextual meaning of words.
Frequent interaction with multiple types of texts also increases comprehension. Students should be able to interact easy and independent-level texts on their own, with instructional-level texts with some teacher guidance, and with frustration-level texts via read alouds, books on CDs, and other scaffolded approaches. Students should be encouraged to read increasingly difficult selections especially when taking their interests into consideration. Students' responses to texts also increases comprehension, and responses should include oral, written, and alternative options that appeal to student interests and learning styles.
Finally, deeper-level comprehension should be encouraged through critical literacy. That is, students should be able to understand more than just the words on the page by actively questioning the text and the author's purpose. Critical literacy is the deep analyzation and evaluation, not passive acceptance of, a text by examining and questioning the relationship between the reader and author. This process is taught by modeling critical reading and questioning and ensuring students interact with a wide variety of critical literacy texts.
Questions:
How do you incorporate critical literacy in your classroom? What have you found to be the most effective way for students to interact with and question what they have read?
Do you incorporate thematic units into your classroom as a means to introduce a variety of texts, cross-curricular vocabulary, and a variety of responses? How do your students respond? Is there a higher rate of comprehension and vocabulary success?
List of strategies:
Here are a list of some strategies listed in the readings. I do not have experience in the elementary classroom, but I've listed a couple of the strategies that I use in the hopes that maybe they'd be applicable to the elementary level.
Oral Recitation (fluency)
FOOR/Wide FOOR (fluency)
Repeated Readings (fluency)
Draw and Write Retelling (summarizing)
Think alouds (comprehension strategies)
Bookmark Technique (formative assessment)
Concept of Definition Map (formative assessment)
K-W-L (formative assessment)
GIST (summary)
Summarize a story/section in a picture
5-Finger summary
Vocabulary Squares
Annotating text (metacognition)
How can educators best balance incorporating new technology into the classroom, responsibly engaging in critical literacy, and encouraging text design and redesign without overshadowing traditional instruction?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very difficult question to answer. Until I read this first chapter of our new book, I had never heard of critical literacy. I highlighted this portion of the chapter to guide my own thinking: What this means is that the issues and topics of interest that capture learners’ interests as they participate in the world around them can and should be used as text to build a curriculum that has significance in their lives and that are developmentally sensible.
I can see how this could work in an early childhood classroom. Instead of creating thematic units through which to weave your curriculum, a teacher would plan lessons around a topic the children are interested in, that lends itself to the idea of making change and being a positive light in the world. The authors gave an example of children learning to write petitions not for the sake of simply learning a skill and meeting a standard objective, but to be able to act on a real issue they care about. In order to create a curriculum that was truly meaningful to the students, the teacher would definitely need to be aware of the interests of the children. This would be easy to ascertain after you develop a relationship with the students. I think that the difficult part of this type of instruction would be making sure that it was developmentally appropriate, particularly for younger students. Also, teaching children that all text is socially constructed and is written from a particular perspective would be a tall order. It might be helpful if you could find a book that has chapters written in alternating perspectives, with the events told through the eyes of two different characters. Leading a discussion comparing the events as told by one character versus how they were perceived by another could help children understand this concept.
I have to say that when I saw the picture drawn by the little boy of everyone in his family holding iPods it made me a little sad. I know that these children are digital natives, but sometimes the new technology can interfere with real experiences and opportunities for socialization. At the same time, having access to technology in the classroom can be a real motivator for students to engage in learning. Even those children who do not enjoy reading do indeed like to read books on their iPads. They may dislike writing with pencil and paper, but enjoy texting with their families and friends. In this sense, technology can be a great way to help students interact with their world, create meaning, and effect change - all while expanding their early literacy skills.
Lindsay,
DeleteGood thoughts! I was just thinking about kids that dislike writing that you mentioned in your writing. Technology can also help kids who have dysgraphia. They don't have the hurdle of overcoming the actual writing with hand difficulties.
Cathy, I hadn't thought of that before! Do you think it still benefits them as they get older, when they're more likely to need to write by hand?
DeleteI have a student with dysgraphia, and he uses a netbook to do extended assignments. While beneficial to a certain extent, I find that using technology becomes an excuse for not getting everything done sometimes. I think that they do need to practice writing as well because there will be several times when they will be required to do so.
DeleteAlso, I'm sorry I had to leave our online meeting a little early. I wanted to let everyone know I will be posting on the early writing chapter in B&M shortly.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the best way for technology to be responsibly incorporated into the classroom so that students understand the bias, perspective, and validity of texts?
ReplyDeleteI think even younger children can participate in discussions about critical literacy. You could definitely pull up some websites that would work as a good springboard for talking about bias and perspective. You could also have them do some sort of project where you send each student to a different website about the same topic, and they have to teach the class about what their website said, and the other students brainstorm the differences and possible biases. I feel like something like that would work with, maybe, 2nd or 3rd grade?
Short, challenging, interesting texts should be used for repeated readings. Should these readings be from a grade level higher than they typically read?
I’ll have to double-check for the details, but I think one of the studies in my exploration project actually addressed this. I think they had a lot of success with having students read grade-level texts, but they posit that it’s because most students were not on grade level, so the texts were fairly challenging for them. I think it depends on where your students are overall and what the instructional level for most of them is.
How do you incorporate critical literacy in your classroom? What have you found to be the most effective way for students to interact with and question what they have read?
Personally, I like using graphic organizers and post-it annotations while they read, followed by small-group discussions and then whole-group discussions to give students plenty of opportunities to examine the text and gain exposure to others’ ideas. I think they could definitely handle discussions about bias, perspective, and author’s purpose, though. You could maybe even have them “recreate” a picture book that you read, but have it be from a different perspective.
I’m curious, since I feel like discussion is so important for critical literacy: How do you, as current or future elementary school teachers, usually structure classroom discussions? I’m curious if, in practice, the same discussion structures are used with younger students, or if you approach it differently than I do.
I enjoy using graphic organizers as well! I think this helps the student focus their thinking as they read which aids in comprehension. As to leading a class in discussions, I have had student meeting. We talk about a particular problem or something positive. I usually just teach meeting etiquette and leave the discussion fairly open w/ my role being that of a facilitator.
DeleteAngela, I agree that discussion would be a very important part of teaching critical literacy. Cathy, I was just going to mention morning meetings as a way to facilitate these discussions with younger children. Last year in one of my early childhood classes, we spent almost two weeks learning about morning meetings. The professor encouraged us to use these meetings as forums and ways to encourage higher thinking, and nurture student's social and emotional development, rather than as time to just go over the weather and the calendar. He talked about how when he was a first grade teacher, he introduced students to the concept of democracy, and tied it together with social studies, readings and the morning meeting. Children created simple class rules together during the morning meeting at the beginning of the school year. Rules were discussed in terms of importance and benefits to the classroom community. The children voted on the rules, and those rules were listed on a wall as official guidelines. The professor said that having the children think about why the rules are important, and giving them the opportunity to create rules for themselves actually resulted in better behavior than in years past when he had created the rules.
DeleteI agree that graphic organizers are extremely beneficial, and I think that all learning styles can benefit from using them.
DeleteAngela, I didn't think about having them recreate a picture book from a different perspective, but that's a good idea! I've done something similar in my room, and I bet that they would come up with some great stories!
Cathy, when you have student meetings, are they one-on-one or do you have a student facilitate a whole group meeting? Lindsay, I can see how morning meetings can be a great time to have an organized discussion.
Melissa,
DeleteI normally lead the meeting, but it could eventually be student lead. This is in part due to the age of the student I teach.
Chapter 1: Critical Literacy V&F
ReplyDeleteHonestly, at the beginning of this chapter I wasn’t sure exactly what was meant by critical literacy. The name gave me a clue, but I still wasn’t sure. I think the author did a great job saying what it was. I like the fact that the authors made a distinction that the use of technology doesn’t mean that the child is engaging in critical literacy. My view on incorporating technology in the classroom is that it needs to be balanced with a variety of methods. My goal is to reach all learners. To do this, I think we have to engage all students which requires a variety of tools and techniques. I think we have to teach students that not everything they read is true. In second grade this is really difficult. Some are still grasping at the separation of fantasy and reality. I am not sure of the best way to teach kids bias and validity of text in the younger grades.
B&M Ch. 12
In my classroom I try to continually remind kids why we read. We have been spending time discussing that reading with great speed is not the goal, but that reading with understanding is. In the past I have used poetry to help develop fluency. It provides students with repetition, often rhymes, and helps with prosody. We had poetry folders that would go home and beread as homework nightly. Also, this week we are reading a play and doing reader’s theatre. This helps students read with proper intonation. I think this help kids become fluent readers as well.
Regarding the text used, I think it is important to have a variety of genres. I think the level of the text used in the class depends on how it is being read. Is it for independent reading or whole or small group instruction? When I read a book aloud I can read on that is slightly higher because the kids don’t have to worry about decoding just listening comprehension.
Comprehension:
I have used thematic units for a variety of reasons. One is to engage the child and access background knowledge. Also, it does provide opportunity to present various genres to a child. In general I think this does lead to greater comprehension for a student.
Cathy, I was just curious- what types of plays do you use for Readers Theater? Do most of the children enjoy this, or do those that are struggling readers become nervous about the activity? Also, where do you find the poems you send home with the students? That is a fantastic idea that I never would never have thought to do.
DeleteAngela, since I don't have a classroom, when I think about prosody and texts appropriate for younger students, I have to frame it in terms of my own experience with my own first grader. He is not a struggling reader - he reads at grade level but does not enjoy reading at all (which breaks my heart). I make him read aloud to me every night for 15 minutes because otherwise he sits and turns pages for a few minutes and declares he's done. I try to alternate between books that are easy for him, on his reading level, and books that are a little above his reading level. I've noticed that when he is reading easier books, his reading actually incorporates exclamation points, question marks, bold words that are emphasized, etc. He uses the correct intonation and expression. I do not know whether he has been taught that quotation marks indicate someone is speaking, but when they appear, he changes his voice pitch slightly and knows that a character is speaking. On the other hand, if he is reading a book at his level, he misses some of these things. When presented with a small chapter book (70 page books along the lines of the first Magic Tree House book), he spends more time decoding and blending sounds, and I do not expect him to read these books fluently. I have tried to mix it up so that he can practice learned skills, and test out some more difficult texts. I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but he is reading on grade level, and last year he was struggling. Even though my kids are in first and third grade, I still read to them before bed. I pick books that they would never choose to read on their own, and that are sometimes well above their reading levels. I read a few chapters each night and even the one that hates to read looks forward to it. I figure it is an easy way to expose them to new words, new ideas, etc. I imagine I would do the same in my classroom.
Lindsay, based on most of the research I did for my exploration project, it looks like your son is pretty typical. He's reading books on his independent level with good prosody because he's not having to focus on decoding or anything as much. Those more challenging texts are actually likely benefiting him quite a bit. Most of the research shows that challenging texts help students develop automaticity with word recognition, which helps their fluency. His prosody will not be as good while he's reading, but I think that's because he's in the process of improving his fluency skills. He's in the "zone of proximal development," if you will.
DeleteI'm also curious about your students' responses to readers' theater as well, Cathy. I think that's a creative way to encourage and develop prosody without having to read extended passages. I think you're supporting your kids' reading development, Lindsay!
DeleteLindsay,
DeleteRegarding reader's theatre, the kids love doing this, even the struggling readers. I try to give the student time to practice reading the part prior to asking them to read it aloud. In the past I have used plays from teacher resource books I have or just some on the internet. Regarding the poems, I have just slowly collected them over the years! I think there are a ton available online.
This week I was responsible for reading “How Do I Write…? Scaffolding Preschoolers’ Early Writing Skills.” The authors relayed that literacy learning’s foundation is in writing experiences. They presented a plan to accommodate individualized, explicit writing instruction.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it is important to identify the the early stages of writing in order to plan appropriate instruction. Early writing or emergent writing is the stage of development that a child puts markings on paper, can give meaning to the markings, and understands how written language works (orthographic knowledge). One predictor of a child’s future reading success is in early writing.
Writing is a key component to foundational literacy skills. This includes print knowledge. This is the ability to apprehend how print works like left-to-right directionality and identify the names and sounds of the alphabet. Phonological Awareness is the knowledge about sound. This is the ability to manipulate units of oral language like rhyme, blending segments, etc. This includes phonemic awareness; the knowledge of sound to the smallest unit. With all of these parts developing, the child develops alphabetic principle. This is the understanding that letters represent sounds which form words; it is the knowledge of predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.
Writing is composed of various stages. One of the earliest stages is drawing and scribbling. This is when a child learns to make separate marks for writing that is isolated from the picture, usually this writing is void of directionality. The child in this stage is just beginning to gain some phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. After this, the child will use letter-like forms and shapes; however children at this stage haven’t made the speech-to-print connection. The third stage is salient and beginning sound knowledge. This is when a child begins to produce sounds in spoken language through inventive spelling. Salient sounds are the more prominent, like B in baby. Following this, the child will begin to use beginning and ending sounds in writing.
Given this knowledge, it is important to scaffold a child’s writing through individualized strategies based on their level of development. Here are a few strategies to help students’ writing across various stages of early writing development.
Strategies for Centers:
Incorporate writing into play.
Write down words that students’ speak.
Play activities with the opportunity to write names.
Activities to practice letter-sound correspondence.
Sort picture cards by beginning sound.
Sort simple word family sort.
Provide opportunities to create sentences.
Create a writing center.
Strategies for Journal Writing:
Ask children to tell about their pictures and dictate what the student says.
Ask the student to sign their artwork.
Ask children to write the initial sound of words in writing.
Ask the children to write the beginning and ending sound of words.
Use writing prompts that encourage students to draw and label.
Ask children to share their creations with the class.
Strategies for Morning Message:
Point out children’s names in the message.
Model writing with a focus on enunciation.
Have the children respond to the morning message and dictate what is being said.
Draw students’ attention to a particular beginning sound.
Invite the children to write their names on dictated sentences.
Use interactive writing.
This information can be used by teachers to assist them in understanding goals and strategies for helping young writers. Observing the child’s writing is the first step in providing appropriate instruction. This helps provide a foundation for the child in developing other critical literacy skills and leads to greater reading achievement.
Your discussion of print knowledge reminds me of some aspects of the article I read about interpreting pictures. It talks about how students had misinterpreted an illustration as having bubbles, when they were really rain drops. The teacher in the situation corrected them, but she did not explain how they were supposed to know this. I think that requires the same kinds of interpretations that print knowledge requires. Students need to know that pictures and words are usually connected in meaning, and they need to know that the pictures are probably continuations of the ones that came before. The story had already contained the words "rain" and "raindrops" several times so far, but the students did not know to make that connection when interpreting the picture.
DeleteOther than exposing children to print and pointing to words as they are read, how can you effectively help children understand the speech-to-text connection? I saw one of your strategies is to write the words they say--could this help them make that connection?
DeleteCathy, I read B&M chapter 13 on early writing instruction (and am reporting on it a day late). Similar to the article you read, the idea that children's writing emerges in a pattern is discussed in this chapter. The results of a study are examined, and according to the researchers, there are twelve categories that children's early writing skills progress through over time. Children begin with no marks, then draw pictures, followed by scribbles, then make letter-like forms using lines, to some letters, to the first sound of a letter, to identifying all of the letters correctly in a word when using invented spelling.
ReplyDeleteIt was noted that while children are progressing through these stages, they are constructing their ideas as to their roles as writers, and learning to assign meaning to their writing. Children develop awareness of purposes for writing, and meanings for writings in different ways, and this knowledge does not always follow a predictable pattern.
Similar to your article, chapter 13 also described ways that teachers can support the development of early writing skills:
- Immersion: Learners are saturated in print.
- Demonstration: Learners see writing in use.
- Expectation: Learners are expected to be capable of participating as writers.
- Response: Learners get feedback from knowledgeable others.
- Responsibility: Learners make choices about what demonstrations to engage with and what kinds of texts they write.
- Approximation: Learners have freedom to make mistakes as they learn to write.
- Use: Learners have opportunities to use the writing skills they have acquired
In addition, it was noted that teachers need to consider early writing instruction when designing their classrooms. Materials that facilitate writing should be easily accessible and within reach of the students. Classrooms should have spaces for collaborative writing.
Teachers must also sit next to the children when they are engaged in an early writing activity to facilitate collaborative writing, and scaffolding.