Good Morning!

Please find your district table and introduce

yourselves

LITERACY– A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

NWESD February 12, 2013

We’re all in the same room, but we’re not in the same place.

Please stand if…

You have ever read this document

Please stand if…

You have ever read this document

What to Expect:Professional Outcomes

Build a common understanding of the unique set of characteristic

literacy practices in each academic discipline

for the importance of reading and writing to the acquisition of knowledge in all fields, including science

of the research regarding the shared responsibility for literacy

Modeling

Time for science!

Convection Currents

Follow the procedures on pages 1 and 2 to construct and observe a model.

When you are done, wait for further instructions.

Thinking with Evidence

What patterns did you observe as the water moved?

Describe the flow of energy and matter in the set-up.

Applying Your Observations

Read Convection

Currents in the Mantle

Read the selection in order to compare the natural phenomena to the model you created.

Complete the “Thinking With Evidence” questions to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena that is being compared that phenomena to the observation you recorded about the model.

Thinking and Writing with Evidence

How does this information about the mantle compare to the lab you completed? Cite evidence from your laboratory notebook and the reading selection in your response.

The Bell Rang…

Take your break.

Debrief

What barriers did you encounter as you read and drew meaning from the text?

What did you do to help you overcome those barriers?

With these observations, what literacy tasks would you need to include in your lesson to address the barriers in order to foster scientific understanding?

Talk Time

What does it mean to have a shared responsibility for students’ literacy development?

Now that we have participated in and deconstructed this science lesson, please discuss this question with your table group.

LUNCH!

Academic Literacy

All students are multi-lingual

They speak:

The language of the home

The language of the street

The language of the classroom

(Academic Language)

Academic literacy is usually defined as the kind of reading proficiency required to construct the meaning of content-area texts and literature encountered in school.

Center on Instruction, Bringing Literacy Strategies into Content Instruction, p. 1

Specific Text Challenges

Read the information about the unique nature of the literacy demands in your discipline.

Note those demands with marginal annotations.

With your content group, create a chart listing the demands your discipline’s text materials make on readers.

When you have finished, both table content groups post charts side-by-side.

Sharing: Similarities and Differences Post your charts side-by-side Compare the charts and look for similarities and differences.

What barriers are commonto the academic areas?

Which ones are unique to specificacademic areas?

Bottom Line

All teachers, in every discipline, have reasons to emphasize certain kinds of reading and writing over others, depending on the nature of the specific content and skills they want their students to learn.

Alliance for Excellence, Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas, p. 11.

Specific Challenges Adolescent literacy is a shifting landscape where

the heights get higher, the inclines steeper and the terrain rockier.

Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success, p. 10

Each year skills and knowledge required to understand text materials increases (FCRR)

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th

Must learn to recognize many new words automatically

Must acquire many new vocabulary words

Must be able to draw upon more extensive background knowledge

Must learn to deal with longer sentences and more complex ideas

Specific Challenges

Literacy Demands ChangeStudents ChangeYet Schools Have Not Changed

So. . .What Needs to be Rethought about Literacy?

“Ownership” of literacy and thinking skills

Roles and responsibilities of all teachers

Talk Time

Making it real. Why is an interdisciplinary

approach to literacy development important?

Science is about generating and interpreting data, but it is also about communicating facts, ideas, and hypotheses. Scientists write, speak, debate, visualize, listen, and read about their specialties daily. For students unfamiliar with the language or style of science, the deceptively simple act of communication can be a barrier to understanding or becoming involved with science (Science 23 April 2010, p. 447).

The CCSS recognize that ELA teachers cannot accomplish this alone and that all ELA experiences cannot focus on informational text. Therefore, as part of a school wide literacy program, much of the responsibility for teaching students how to engage with informational text should rest with teachers of social studies, history, science, and technical subjects, as well as teachers of other subjects in the school.

“Science cannot advance if scientists are unable to communicate their findings clearly and persuasively or learn about the findings of others.”

A Final Thought. . .

“ If students are to be truly prepared for college, work, and citizenship, they cannot settle for a modest level of proficiency in reading and writing. . . .

Inasmuch as the academic content areas comprise the heart of the secondary school curriculum, content area literacy instruction must be a cornerstone of any movement to build the high-quality secondary schools that you people deserve and on which the nation’s social and economic health will depend.”

Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas, Executive Summary, p. 1.

Talk Time

Making it real. What kinds of support do

teachers need to be able to rethink literacy instruction in their content areas?

A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world

The Plan

• Work in your teams to begin designing a plan to further the collaboration between the science and ELA groups in your school and/or district.

• Choose one literacy and one science person to stay with the plan at your table while we do a Walk and Talk to see two or three other groups’ plans.

Planning

Where are we now?

Where do we want to be?

How will we know when we get there??

What do we need to make it happen?

And finally…

Complete communication plan, leaving page 2 on your table for us.

THANK YOU

Adrienne Somera Beth Niemi

Regional Science Coordinator Literacy Coordinator

asomera@nwesd.org bniemi@nwesd.org