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Framework Fuels the NEED to READ

Strategies boost literacy of students in content-area classes

Heather ManningEDC448

“ As teachers develop knowledge about disciplinary literacy that

they can modify and adapt for the content of their classrooms, they gain confidence in their ability to

help students become independent learners in their

subject areas.”

Tools to Teach

The development of a set of inquiry- based professional development tools have leveraged teachers’ expertise as readers, writers, and thinkers in their own discipline

Teacher learned to apprentice their students to the practice of reading and comprehending complex subject matter texts.

“Through numerous studies, this approach has lead to significant changes in teachers’ classroom practice, thus leading to changes in students’ academic motivation, content learning, and reading comprehension”

The Reading Apprenticeship

Instructional Framework Helps teachers support secondary students to develop

positive literacy identities and engage productively with challenging academic texts.

This instructional framework has four interacting dimensions of classroom life to support reading development and writing Social, Personal, Cognitive, and Knowledge-building

The Reading Apprenticeship Instructional Framework lets content- area teachers do what classroom teaching rarely does, and that is let the teacher listen closely to how students are thinking and approaching reading (Greenleaf, Hull, & Reilly, 1994)

SOCIAL

Draws on students’ interests in peer interaction as well as larger social, political, economic, and cultural issues.

It lets student’s share their confusions and difficulties with texts and to recognize their diverse perspectives and knowledge

PERSONAL

1.) Builds on strategic skills used by students in out-of-school settings

2.) Builds on their interests in exploring new aspects of their own identities and self-awareness as readers

3.) Builds on their purposes for reading and goals for reading improvements

COGNITIVE

Focuses on developing readers’ mental process, including specific comprehension and problem-solving strategies Summarizing Questioning Visualizing Making inferences

KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING

Involves surfacing and expanding their knowledge that readers bring to a text and develop further through personal and social interaction with the text Examples: word construction, vocabulary, text

structure, genre, language, topics, etc.

Metacognition

The four dimensions (social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building) are weaved into subject areas through metacognitive conversations (conversations about how students and teachers make sense of what they read)

For example, students will share their difficulties and ways of reading, and will also work together with the teacher to clarify the confusion and make sense of the material through the teachers’ support.

Ways to help

Extensive reading This means that teachers increase opportunity for students to

read a wider range of texts on a topic (TEXT SETS)

Response Writing Examples: writing responses to the reading, reading with

questions, connections, reactions, and summaries

Metagcognitive Routines Think-aloud Talking to the text

These examples help the reader slow down and think about what they are reading

“ With these new insights, teachers collaboratively design

content-embedded literacy lessons designed to build on

students’ observed strengths and accelerate literacy growth and

content learning simultaneously”

Evidence of Effectiveness

Before

“Middle and high school teachers feel that the suggestion that they teach reading and writing as well as disciplinary content seems an impossible addition to an already-packed syllabus”

“Most secondary teachers have not been prepared to teach reading in their discipline, and therefore do not see it as a viable way for students to learn.”

After

“Teaching Literacy in my content area is teaching my content area”

“I have seen changes in my classroom as the students have become more independent readers, writers, and thinkers. During group work, I overheard students talking about a topic that I haven’t even taught them! But it’s good, I like to see that they are helping each other learn”

MLA Citation

Schoenbach, Ruth, Cynthia L. Greenleaf, and Gina Hale. "Framework Fuels the Need to Read." Journal of Staff Development 31.5 (2010): 38-42. Print.