What’s the problem? Students are unable to translate their
literacy skills into school literacy success
What do students have to say about reading? It’s boring
What does student perception of in-school reading and
writing curriculum indicate? Disengagement
What does research suggest for counteracting disengagement?
Relevant curriculum, increased self-efficacy among students, fostering meaningful
relationships among students and between students and adults
What questions do we, as educators, need answered in order
to achieve the above?
How can we bridge the
gap between the literacy demands of school and those of adolescents’ out of
school world?
How do we leverage
what students already know how to do to help them develop the literacy skills
necessary for school success?
How can we create
space for this within the real world constraints of a public education
classroom?
Certainly integrating community FOK
and student voice into our curricular design is essential for cultivating an
environment which inspires and supports student engagement. From sociocultural,
neurobiological, cognitive developmental, and plain old common sense points of
view, student directed curriculum represents modern day educational utopia. This
pedagogical approach is inspiring and promising, albeit daunting. As is often
the case, while reading these articles, I found myself nodding along. Of course
students tune out when presented with dense indecipherable discipline specific
texts that don’t relate to their lived experiences! Teachers should listen to
students and design curriculum around issues and ideas that are important to
the students – right on! Effective literacy instruction should be leveraging
students’ current literacy practices – completely agree! Wait… what? I should
be doing what?...HOW?!?
I am often frustrated by this
disconnect between theory and practice, as I am sure that our students are
frustrated by the disconnect between their in school and out of school lives.
The following video seems to bridge both gaps. As suggested by Intrator and
Kunzman (2009), the teachers depicted appear to be successfully engaging in a
“dialogical encounter” with their students. They are encouraging youth voice
and choice, they are providing opportunities for students to explore culturally
relevant curriculum, and they are creating space for the students to inhabit
the role of authority – not to mention continuing to develop students’ multiple
literacies. It has quelled some of my fears… for now.
ciao,
Elizabeth
I agree that the curriculum has to be more relevant. Students today do not see many things on paper. I myself only read and get current news by watching stories on snapchat which is a totally different design from newspapers and books. It is interesting and holds my attention because there are moving pictures and different fonts and yet I am not overly distracted and I retain information that I could later on talk to my friends about. I hear all the time how school needs to be more relevant and you make the point of the frustration between things sounding great in theory but we are not seeing it in practice. In the articles there is a lot of talk about more talk between teachers and students. The teachers need to be actively listening to the students and learning from them about how they learn. Only then can the teacher make the curriculum more relevant and more interesting
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Sara. I think that what you wrote about using snapchat to stay informed is really interesting. Do you envision using it in your classes?
DeleteI think making the classroom and what assignments/readings students do more relevant is very important. Reading exists in all kinds of iterations, not just reading a hand-held novel, and working within that system, rather than against it, would benefit students and the teacher. It would provide students with more accessible learning and educational goals while also simply helping them feel more related to their work. It also benefits the teacher who can then build a more creative relationship with their students while also learning about current trends/their students lives in a productive, educational way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Dane. You make a great point that reading takes many shapes and forms. What does curriculum that leverages these different varieties of literacy look like to you?
DeleteI absolutely agree with you that what seems straightforward in theory can be very difficult in practice. According to the "The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries" by Moje, Overby Tysvaer and Morris, the only reading that has been linked to better school performance is reading novels outside of school. However, I do not believe that students should only be reading novels, rather it is a more complicated issue than that. I really enjoyed the video you posted as well and I think it is indicative of what we should all be striving for as educators, unfortunately I think it is a more difficult approach than a teacher-driven curriculum, which is probably why it has taken so long to make the change to a more student-driven learning environment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Erin. I agree that the amount of work and creativity required to produce student driven curriculum has probably been a deterrent. I imagine that it would take a lot of collaboration and sharing of materials amongst teachers in order to maintain a high enough quality of curriculum to be effective.
DeleteElizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. If we want our students to succeed, we, as educators, must try to engage students in the classroom. I have been hearing about the importance of relevant curriculum and how demanding it can be for a teacher who is serving students with no resources and has no support from administration. I am not a teacher yet, and I was raised in a country where there was a teacher-centered approach. For the longest, I did not see anything wrong with it, but after a few semesters in this program, I have come to understand the importance of what students bring to the classroom and how it can be used to engage and help them succeed.
Thanks for commenting - I'm interested to hear more about what your experiences were like.
DeleteI absolutely agree with you that educators need to make the curriculum much more relevant and engaging to the students. I find myself reading outside of class material that is unrelated to the class. Perhaps if educators can incorporate outside readings that connect to the material, then students will be much more active in the class. The old way of reading a textbook with page after page of words is boring. Unless a student is really into that sort of thing, it will only lead to disinterest from the student. It seems now that teachers may finally be more willing to solicit input from students. Hopefully as this becomes more widespread, we will see an increase in student's interest in the class.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Nate. I think it comes down to trusting that our students are going to use those outside readings to further their progress in class
DeleteI totally agree with your opinion on the relevant curriculum. Only put what students have learned and should learn in reality, they would like to learn more and engage in learning. relating the study materials with students daily life. My son is 7 years old, second grade student. I really appreciate he loves to read. And I found that it is because what he read are all about animals, biography, handwork books which are more close to our life that he could easier understand, or happened around us that we could actually see them, feel them, practice them. Engaging helps to succeed.
ReplyDeleteHey Elizabeth, I agree with you. With the technology developing more and more students would like to watch and listen to what other people said online and have less interested in literacy reading. As educators, we should encourage adolescents select what they are interested in to read as much reading materials as they can. Maybe the paper can be boring but I also agree to the last commoner Nate,educators can try to let students read outside.I think that sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeletePersonalized learning is a huge push and buzz word in education right now. I think you bring up great points about them. Giving students a choice lets them have a say and gives them ownership. (we stated this in Destiny's discussion). However, personalized learning is so much more than giving them a choice. It is giving them an opportunity to work through things at their own pace. It takes the competition out of education, which I believe is somewhat toxic when it comes to learning. -Kiley
ReplyDeleteYes,I really agree with you about this.I think that most of students wouldn't do much reading out of school.When I was in high school,I don't like to read after school.I think the thing that we can do in the future as teachers is to find things that are relevant to the textbooks but have more fun in them,such as video ,music and movie.Students can find what they really like and they can learn from it.I think this is great for both of us.
ReplyDelete