Understanding Literacy as Social Practices

Kucer Chapter 9

In the English language (and every language) we have a set of rules that helps our language operate. We all have an understanding of these rules and use them to interact with (and listen to) others and interact with text. Although English has a common set of rules, language can change based upon different social and cultural groups.

"The way in which literacy is used or performed by the participants within a particular social configuration (i.e., literacy practices) reflects the very nature of the group and the group's position within the society (literacy performances)" (p. 230).

Examining Our Own Language Practices

Although not intentionally, sometimes we can view our literacy behaviors as superior to others. When this happens, others are seen as multicultural or ethnic and are believed to have a dialect, but we do not. This is an unfair privilege that we give ourselves that can be dangerous.

Dr. Beach had us list our last 10 literacy experiences. From looking at the responses, many were similar to mine. We use e-mail and read textbooks for educational and work purposes, and many of us read blogs and lesson plan books to help us with our teaching career. It makes sense that we would have similar literacy experiences since we are all teachers and live in a social country with internet access everywhere. But, if we were able to look at the last 10 literacy experiences of someone with a much different occupation, like a singer or an actress, I can imagine the experiences wouldn't look the same. The experiences may involve reading scripts, looking at lyrics, or writing a new song. Similarly, if someone is from a different country or has a different socioeconomic class, the list may look different. Someone with less financial privilege may not have the ability to interact with online text and may have a limited access to books in general.

Impact of Belonging and Group Membership 

We self-identify ourselves with certain groups. For example, we are all students, in graduate school. teachers, living in Oklahoma, etc. We might also belong to a church or other religious or social organization. Each of these groups has a set of standards that are expected, and these standards affect our behavior and beliefs. Sometimes these beliefs are stated, and sometimes they are not. Also, it is important to note, that an individual could belong to a group without sharing the exact same values. This particular situation brings to mind the recent OU SAE situation. It is my belief that not all of the students of that fraternity agreed with the racist chant. It was just those particular members of the video that chose to participate in the chant, and therefore made a bad name of the entire fraternity.

Social groups are always evolving. As the members and the leadership change, the group can change along with it. I am positive that if the OU SAE ever gets reinstated, it will have different leadership and different rules than before.

Multiple Literacies and Social Identities 

Our social groups affect how we use language. But, as previously noted, most of us belong to multiple social groups which each can have their own rules.

"Group conflict can occur, however, because different discourse communities hold different preferences for how language is to be used and may see other forms as illegitimate" (p. 240).

Before we go further, we need to make an important distinction: Discourse vs. discourse

• "discourse, with a lower-case d, is defined as a connected stretch of language that is unified (coherent) and meaningful to some social group."
• "Discourse, with an upper-case D, signified the appropriate way to use discourse within a particular social setting as part of the membership within a particular social group". 
• In other words, discourse is the language of a social group and Discourse is the language rules within a social group. 

It is also important to note that within a particular social group there is variation. Individuals may not use the discourse and may not agree with the Discourse (rules) in all instances. 

Literacy in School 

Schools can be a melting-pot of sorts for different cultures, languages, and social groups. Schooling often requires a change in the student's language practices. These changes vary depending on the student. 

1. "Affirm, build on, and extend the way in which language is used in the child's home
2. May require adaptation in how thought and language are used as regulatory systems
3. May directly contradict home language patterns" (p. 241). 

There are regulations for school literacy performance, and some students may need more assistance than others in order to achieve this literacy performance. The text mentions how a school literacy form, the essay, goes against the usual literacy and social rules. Essays are usually written to present information in a informative, unbiased manner, and there is a clear distinction between the reader and writer. 

There are also norms for school lessons and interactions between teachers and students. Many classes use the IRE question sequence. 

• I - Initiation - teacher asks the question; teacher knows the answer
• R - Reply - student(s) replies to question 
• E - Evaluation - teacher evaluates the response, usually openly 

This type of questioning often leads to very fact-based discussions in order for students to share their knowledge. IRE questioning is great for students in the early stages of reading. 

The literacy demands of schools on students can be different depending on the circumstance. Different settings: independent reading, small group reading, and group reading can all affect a student literacy experience. Also, a student's book choice can affect understanding, as each text has it's own code that has to be unlocked to make meaning. 

Literacy at Home and Worship

Literacy at home can have a great impact on students in the school setting. Children usually come into schools with some knowledge of literacy, but the extent of knowledge and the context can vary greatly. An interesting study by Heath showed a study of three different cities. Maintown (middle class with African Americans and European Americans), Roadville (working class with European Americans), and Trackton (working class with African Americans) were the three communities. Maintain children were the most successful in literacy development and school success. Roadville kids succeeded in the primary grades and tended to fall behind later in schooling. On the other hand, Trackton kids struggled from the start of schooling, and it did not get better. 

The parents and communities of Maintown valued education. In these towns, "children has been socialized at home to interact with language in a manner that parallel rear of formal school instruction" (p. 245). Roadville shared similar values, but did not provide a running commentary of responses as they read to children, an important literacy practice that teachers use often during read alouds. Since these children did not have experience linking text to themselves and their own experiences, these children began to fall behind after third grade. 

For the Trackton students, their literacy events at home usually did not connect with literacy events at school. Most of the children also had a limited access to books and book-based activities and games at home. As a result of their limited literacy interactions, many of these children entered school to encounter unfamiliar types of questions and demands. "What" questions, idolization and identifying items, labeling features, and responding to questions about the text were considered to be difficult tasks by many of the students examined. 

Heath (1983) suggested that the Roadville and Trackton communities needed to build on the abilities that the students bring to the classroom. It is important to remember that it is not the student's fault for a lack of learning. The social and economic forces surrounding the student strongly impacts the literacy learning. 

A valuable instructional practice to help students build upon their home literacy background is cultural modeling - out-of-schools literacy practices and routines are linked to school literacy practices to support academic learning. This requires the teacher  to have a great knowledge of her students and an understanding of home literacy practices. For example, if any student translates language at home (such as Spanish to English) we can relate that skill to summarizing or paraphrasing. 

A child's worship home can affect literacy development as well. Many sermons and religious services are written in such as way that they require dialogue from the congregation. The services often have readings that are to be recited every week and exactly as they are written. In contrast, schools often change what text they read daily and deviations from the exact text are common. Oral reading is also not common outside of the primary grades. 

Literacy Among Those Living in Poverty 

Of course, we should not assume that someone of color or low socioeconomic status has limited literacy abilities or exposure. Each family and community is unique. 

One of the trends of a literacy study (Purcell-Gates, 1996) found that low-literacy families often use literacy just for entertainment purposes. This could involve watching tv or reading a recipe. High-literacy families engaged with literacy eight times more often than low-literacy families. Socioeconomics, however, is not reliable on predicting literacy abilities. In fact, many families in urban areas value reading, own books, and engage in various types of reading at home. Also, parents are usually aware of how they are sometimes perceived by teachers (not caring, lazy, etc). This often discouraged their involvement in the school and with working with the teacher. 

Low-income communities often have a limited number of print available compared to middle-income communities. In low-economic neighborhoods, coloring books are more readily available than books, magazines, and comic books. Also, street signs often lack color or are damaged in some way that affect the print. On the other hand, middle-class communities are surrounded by businesses with plenty of print and environmental print is easier to read. 

Literacy Among Adults 

Cohen, White, and Cohen (2011) conducted a study examining adult literacy habits. Adults wrote and interacted with documents more so than prose. Documents were defined as lists, tables, and forms, and prose was defined as continuous text of at least one sentence. The researchers believed this result was due to the efficiency and the ability of documents to fulfill a purpose. 

Literacy's Effect on Cognitive and Social Development  

"Literacy as Development"
"From a developmental perspective, literacy is believed to create a "great divide" between those who are and are not print oriented" (p. 254). This type of thinking regards meaning as being found within the text itself. Readers only use the evidence provided in the text, rather than relying on outside sources. This view encourages an "us vs them" way of thinking.

Smith (1989) - "When literacy is promoted as the solution to all economic, social, and educational problems, it is easy to assume that inability to read and write creates those same economic, social, and educational problems" (p. 256).

"Literacy as Practice"
This understands literacy as embedded and operating within our social groups and during our social activities. Literacy is not isolated from the world, but it is part of the world and a part of our everyday lives.

*QUESTIONS!!

1. Do you think the importance of essay writing (especially in secondary schools) is harmful for developing students that are critical thinkers and students that think for themselves (rather than relying strictly on the text)?

2.  Along those same lines, do you think that we need to allow students to do more document writing in school (lists, forms, notes), since that is the dominant form of writing amongst adults?

3.  How can we prevent an "us vs them" way of thinking when it comes to literacy? I feel that this can be hard to avoid when dividing groups based on literacy abilities.

4.  Were there any terms in the text that you weren't as familiar with? I wasn't aware of the differences of discourse and Discourse!

5.  Is there anything you'd like to ask our discussion group, or just something you found interesting while reading?

I invite you to incorporate these terms in your discussion! literacy event, literacy practice, literacy performance, identity, intersectionality, social group, multiple literacies, discourse/Discourse, funds of knowledge, cultural modeling, literacy as development, literacy as practice 

Week 11- V&F 6

Jenny, Marti, and Megan will post about their readings here.  The rest of us will respond and comment.

Week 11- V&F 5

Courtney and I will post about our readings here.  The rest of you will respond and comment.

Week 11- S&H 8

Jenny, Marti, and Megan will post about their readings here.  The rest of us will respond and comment.

Week 11- B&M 6

This article will be assigned to Courtney and I. We will blog and the rest  will respond.

Week 11- Common Readings

B&M 5 Early Literacy Development in the Digital Age

Over the decades literacy has changed from written text to a screen-based media.  Instead of relying on one mode of communication, we have multiple modes with which we communicate.  Communication ranges from written text to face to face modes on cellphones.  There are multiple ways for people to relay a message.  No longer do we only teach decoding and encode skills for writing/reading, but we must teach process of design for media selection, modal choice, and arrangement constraints on how knowledge is defined.  Viewing young children as “emerging specialist in design” in the new literacy domain.  

Within the digital world anyone can be an author, thus have access to a wealth of information.  There are no longer privileged authors who decided what is read or written.  Understanding this principal sets the foundation for the case study discussed in this chapter.  The study involves two teachers, Alice and Zubeda, both nursery school teachers in a multicultural classroom.  The students are three and four years of age.  Both teachers want to learn to use digital technology to promote oral language, reading and writing.  They begin by introducing a unit of study over farm animals.  Using an array of picture books to introduce the topic they also use a digital camera, iPads, and desktop computers.  The teachers set up a blog to document the project and communicate to the parents.  

The project began with letting children take pictures of the farm animals and toys in the classroom.  Then the images were uploaded to the blog with plenty of opportunities to access the blog.  The children then went on a field trip to a farm were they were given digital cameras to document their adventures.  Again, the images and podcast were uploaded to the blog.  Lastly, the children were introduced to iPads to be used as a drawing tools.  Students spent time drawing the animals and scenes they saw at the farm.  

These teachers illustrate a number of successful strategies referred to as the 6 C’s.  They are as followed:

1. Collaboration- Many grouping types were implemented throughout the project- small group, large group, individual, friends/non friend groups, mixed abilities, and similar skills groups.  
2. Co-construction- The teachers were there to help scaffold the students when needed. 
3. Choice-  Giving the children choice in the direction their projects go allowed student to prioritize, sequence task effectively, and solve problems.
4. Control- Allowing children to have more control over the project.  The project allowed students to experiment with digital technology.
5. Creativity- The students had control and choice over their projects, which allowed them to take risk and experiment.
6. Community Engagement- Blogging their journey opened the classroom to the external community.  It created a purpose for reading and an audience.    

This case study shows how one classroom links old and new literacy in the digital age.  There are endless possibilities that teachers can employ in their classrooms using digital technology.  The goal is to create a wide range of skills that not only involved old literacies but includes new literacies.

Digital Storytelling Article

Being literate in todays world, no longer means only being able to read.  It now includes multiple forms of new media.  Teachers must help students develop strategies to equip students to participate in the digital age.  Creating opportunities for students to work within the realms of the digital age, helps broaden their understanding of living in a new literacies environment.  The article discuss how Bethany, a fifth grade teacher, uses digital story telling in her classroom.  She interweaves traditional literacy components with new literacy practices.  Digital storytelling encourages the engagement along with critical thinking and technology skills.  It is the “act of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create short movies.”  

Bethany was awarded a technology grant that allowed her to purchase a SMART Board, laptop, document reader, Flip cameras, and other technology.  She, like many, felt overwhelmed and incapable of figuring out how to incorporate the new technology successfully.  She received training on how to use and engage students with the technology.  She chose to add storytelling to her instruction to help teach literacy elements, sequencing, and summarizing.  Bethany taught strategies for these literacy elements, along with implementing literacy circles.  This ensured students understood the book because the language could be difficult.  Once the class finished the novel, instruction shifted towards more practice and application of strategies and skills.  The class drew pictures to retell the story.  Then they sequenced the drawings.  Bethany had each group decide on 10 pictures that best told the story they read.  The illustrations were used as prompts for summarizing.  The prior experience involved the use of old literacy techniques, but Bethany had them focused on blending new literacy approaches.  Then the groups worked on finalizing scripts of the story.   Props, costumes, and staging ideas were decided and filming took place.  Cellphone cameras and personal cameras were used to film the plays.  The videos were then downloaded to iMovie.   

Through the use of effective digital story telling seven characteristics are practiced.  

1. Point of View
2. Dramatic Questions
3. Emotional Content
4. Economy
5. Pacing
6. The gift of Voice
7. Soundtrack

The Matthew E-ffect is when students with access to technology develop skills, proficiency, and interest therefore they further cultivate their interest and abilities.  Those who do not have free access to technology, lead to students not furthering their digital skills.  This contributes to the digital divide within schools.  Therefore it is important for teachers to cultivate technology use within the classroom by providing instruction and support.  As the teacher, you must get student buy in to get full participation.     

Overall, Bethany felt the project was successful.  Students were engaged and motivated using old and new literacies.  They were excited to write and create stories.  Working in groups benefited all students, but especially helped struggling writers.  Struggling readers benefited from hearing Bethany read aloud.  Repeated readings of the scripted helps build fluency.  Students had control over their groups production which allowed for creativity and experimenting.  

V&F 8

Using Multimedia to Support Word Learning in the Digital Age

When using multimedia it is important to enhance learning instead of  using it as a non-instructional babysitter.  When effectively planned, multimedia can boost vocabulary instruction.  Media makes learning vocabulary multidimensional.  Multimedia approach is rooted in dual coding theory.  One way to use this theory is explain a new term verbally to a student, then support the term using a follow up video clip.  This helps children experience the word.

There are many different types of multimedia available for classroom use, ranging from electronic books to computers programs, games, and applications.  Video is one form of multimedia that helps support vocabulary development.  One way to use videos effective is called 3-day sequence. First and second days are used to read books on a subject, and day three is used to supplement appropriate videos.  Digital text are another form of media to help expand vocabulary.  Digital stories have multidimensional options threaded throughout the book.  This can be particular beneficial to struggling readers.  The last type of media mentioned was  computer programs, games, and apps.  These types of programs are tailored towards students needs and likes. The games advance as the child progresses.  Games and apps are fun and engaging for student learning.  

As teachers, it is important to decide which multimedia resources are quality programs.  Teachers need to be critical of multimedia products, since not all are created equally.  When selecting videos for vocabulary enhancement, the following needs to be evaluated: word repetition, pace, visuals that support and verbal cues.   When selecting digital text books, they should be engaging and thoughtful.  The pictures and animations should support each other.  There should be meaningful and extensive interactions.  To evaluate computer programs, the chapter suggest using interface design criteria for digital vocabulary media forms.  The evaluation looks at design interface, instructional design, and content criteria.  

This chapter reviewed many ways to incorporate multimedia in to vocabulary instruction.  Using media provides verbal and nonverbal information which adds to breadth and depth of word learning.   Yet, as a teacher, having a critical eye when selecting appropriate media is crucial for effective instruction. 

Questions:
* You do not have to answer every questions, please pick and choose several.  Make sure though every question has been answered by someone.

1.  Do you use videos to add to instruction?  Other multimedias? 

2.  What are some websites, programs, or apps that have quality instructional videos that you've use?

3.  Do you feel overwhelmed when using technology in the classroom?  Do you feel confused and 
     unsure how to implement it effectively?  What would help ease these fears?

4.  Which approach do you find to be the best for young children
      - Teaching old literacies first, then implementing new once they have a foundation?
      - Introducing new literacies to get kids excited and then teach old literacies?
      - Teach them as a blended approach simultaneously?   

5. How would you adapt the digital storytelling article this to a kindergarten class? 

6.  Have you used cameras integrated in literacy projects?

7.  If you classroom doesn't have access to a lot of technology, how would you handle integrating   
     technology?  Grants?  Library? Parental involvement?  

Week 9-Common Readings

B&M 10-Comprehension

Comprehension cannot be isolated, it must be taught in context and in consideration with engaging content. Students need exposure to experiences, oral language, visual representations, writing, and reading that goes with a challenging curriculum. Teachers in the elementary grades must segue between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. This includes finding a balance between decoding, phonics, and fluency and working toward determining meaning. Comprehension instruction must start early, even before students can by themselves. This can be easily done with young children who are familiar with different types of media, as comprehension skills are transferable across media.

Table 10.1 has a comprehensive list of evidence based practices for comprehension in the early grades.  I have reorganized them by strength of the practice.

·         Teachers should teach students how to use comprehension strategies (strong)

·         Teach students to identify and use the text’s structure to comprehend, learn, and remember content (moderate)

·         Establish an engaging and motivating context in which to teach comprehension (moderate)

·         Guide students through focused, high-quality discussion on the meaning of text (minimal)

·         Select texts purposefully to support comprehension (minimal)

Comprehension Strategies:

ü  Targeted activation of prior knowledge leading to purposeful predictions

ü  Identification of narrative and expository text structures

ü  Visualizing

ü  Questions: answering and high-level questions

ü  Taking stock: summarizing and retelling

ü  Generating inferences

ü  Monitoring and applying fix-up strategies

B&M 12-Real Books, Real Reading

Fluency combines many aspects including: accuracy, automaticity, prosody. These all contribute to the construction of meaning. Achieving fluency is important, but it must always be down with interpreting meaning as the end goal. Teaching must teach the elements of fluency and guide the instruction toward comprehension. The automaticity aspect involves being able to recognize words, but this should not be done without use of a text: it should not be done in isolation. Prosody helps to bring a text to life, which causes it to be deeply tied to comprehension.

Strategies:

ü  Oral Recitation lesson

ü  FOOR/Wide FOOR- Fluency Oriented Oral Reading

ü  Repeated Readings

B&M 13-Writing

Young children are usually fascinated with writing, and will make various attempts. However, sometimes students need extra help when learning to write. It is important to “get the pen in the child’s hand .  Young learners take in information about print from their environment and the constantly test their hypotheses about writing.  There are different varieties of marks that students make as they progress, which can be telling about their development. Significant information can be learned from the verbal meanings that students dictate. This can be related to the content and the quantity of information provided. The FISSIS model guides teacher interactions that motivate students to write. The steps include finding common ground, invitation to write, suggestion/ask about the message, support, invitation to read, and sharing with an audience

Overall strategies:

ü  Adult read aloud

ü  Think out loud

ü  Reciprocal Teaching

ü  Transactional strategy instruction

I am touching on some vocabulary- please feel free to add to or revise my meanings. Some will be defined/ used during our discussions.

Vocabulary:

o   (V& F)-Critical Literacy- Critical literacy-a frame through which learners participate in the world that the world is a text to be viewed critically. So, the issues of the world become the themes for which we build our educational curriculum; critical literacy brings in current technology (as a tool) and cultural issues. It challenges learners to critique and reform. It helps students to understand how text functions in real life.

o   Deeper levels of vocabulary-applies to word meaning that is not just definition, but refers to knowledge of related words and different contexts

o   Automaticity-automatic word recognition

o   Accuracy-accurate decoding

o   Prosody-oral reading prosody-reading with prosodic elements such as intonation, proper phrasing, and pacing that reflect meaning

o   High level discussions-High level discussions are discussion that address text themes, personal connection, and making inferences on a deeper level

o   Motivation and engagement-Motivation is the reasons students try to learn. Engagement is how students are influenced to connect with a text or lesson.

What I wish I’d known as a novice teacher:

What I wish I’d know was how to set up a classroom. Through my observations and student teaching, I never got to go to the first days of school. I really wish I had seen someone set up procedures, rules, building a classroom environment, physical set up of the room.

Also, I wish I’d known how hard it is to teach comprehension better. I think I get bogged down with asking questions, and feeling like that’s more of an assessment than a tool. I struggle with how to teach kids how to think.

I wish I’d known more about strategies, I feel like I am learning a great deal from this class that will be very helpful .

Questions:

1.)    What do you wish you had known as a novice teacher/if you have been teaching, what advice would you give now?

2.)    What are the essential elements of a comprehensive comprehension curriculum? How do you teach comprehension in your classroom/ what is important to remember when teaching younger students?

3.)    How do/would you approach fluency in your classroom? How do you/would you generally approach the conundrum of reading out loud?

4.)    How do you build your classroom environment so that it is conducive to writing?

5.)    Choose a strategy from these readings, explain the background and thought behind it and explain how you could use it in an elementary classroom. (No repeats)

6.)    What does critical literacy mean to you?

Week 9-Interpreting Pictures

This article will be assigned to Marti. The rest of us will respond.

Week 9-Reading Comprehension

This article will be assigned to Jenny & Courtney. The rest of us will respond.

Week 9- Writing in PreK

This article will be assigned to Kaitlin and I. We will blog and the rest  will respond.

Week 8: The Writing Process

Kucer’s Model: 

Kucer adds 5 features to Flower’s and Hayes’s model of the Writing Process (which is seen below)

WriteràPlanningàWritingà Revisingà Surface Structure

Kucer's 5 Features:

1.  Knowledge Search: Writing simply conveys the meanings, ideas, and information the writer already knows. Writers must learn to reorganize what they know to fit into the writing task at hand. Students’ opinions and knowledge can change as they engage in the writing process.
2. Context/Situational Dependency of Writing: Writing does not happen in a vacuum. Writers must consider their audience, purpose for writing, genre, and structure when writing. Answering these questions allows them to sift through their background knowledge, understand the context in which they are writing, and adjust their writing appropriately. 
3. Goals and Plans: The ultimate goal of writing is to build continuity and produce a coherent piece of writing that can be easily understood. Using mentor texts, allows student so rely on intertextuality as models for their own writing. Plans and goals should be fluid hypotheses that can easily change, but writers need some kind of goal or plan. Without a general direction, struggling writers’ work usually fall apart.
4. Strategies: Strategies are cognitive activities to help writers construct meaning. Many strategies focus revision—adding, changing, substituting, and deleting. Editing and idea generation are also strategies employed. Writing is a dynamic process that should not be seen as a rigid, step-by-step recipe. Rather, teachers should allow children’s writing progress to be fluid and view the stages as guide for writing.
5.  Evolving Text: Text is always evolving because the writer is always trying to convey the meaning in his/her mind on paper. He/she is trying to have the surface structure match the deep, cognitive structure. Kucer quotes Pearson saying, “We never usually finish a text; rather, we decide to stop.”

Emergent Writing Model: 3 Domains

1. Conceptual Knowledge: Writers must understand how writing works. The skills in this domain include knowledge of the universal principles of print (used to convey meaning), concepts about writing (understanding what a unit of writing is), and functions of writing (purposes for writing).
2. Procedural Knowledge: Writers must have an understanding of the symbols (letters) used in writing and the conventions of writing in order to produce coherent text. Letter-naming, letter-sound correspondence, letter writing, spelling, and name writing skills are all included in this domain.
3.  Generative Knowledge: Writers must be able to create words and phrases. Children have to be developmentally ready to use the letters they know to convey meaning. Some skills that fall under this domain are the ability to compose more than a single word. This domain shows integration of skills from the other two domains.

Similarities between models:

One similarity between these two models is they both recognize young writers must understand the purpose and reason they are writing.  These purposes also help the writer choose an appropriate structure. These two ideas of purpose and structure are addressed in Kucer’s area of Situational Dependency and the Emergent Writing Model’s area of Conceptual Knowledge.

Another similarity seen here is the importance of conveying meaning. The Emergent Writing Model wants preschool students to be able to create meaning through a phrase or sentence. Kucer emphasizes this idea in his area of knowledge search and helping children get the background knowledge from their minds onto paper. The Generative Domain also ties into the Kucer’s idea that text is always evolving. We know preschool children have a deep structure in their mind, but helping them produce a phrase (surface structure) is the trickier part.

Neither model emphasize a structured set of steps. Both Kucer and the Emergent Writing Model see view writing more as a free-flowing process. They allow children to move back and forth through the domains/areas naturally.

Differences:

These two models differ in a few ways, but I think the root of their differences is the demographic each model was created for. The Emergent Writing Model is for preschool children who are 4-5 years old while Kucer’s model is meant to include children as well as adults. One main difference in these two models is that Kucer emphasizes the need for a child to have a global goal or outcome in their mind as they write. They have a direction of where they want their piece of writing to go. The Emergent Writing Model doesn’t focus on that as much. This could be because the Emergent Writing Model is really geared for younger students who may not be developmentally ready for this yet. Revision is also not mentioned in The Emergent Writing Model, whereas it is the focus of Kucer’s strategies. Perhaps the Emergent Writing Model is concerned with helping younger children just generate ideas and is less concerned with the quality of ideas.

Proficient and Struggling Writers: 

What do the differences between proficient and less proficient writers mean for teaching in primary grades?

The main difference between the proficient and struggling writers is that proficient writers have a plan in their minds of where they want their writing to end up. Teachers can implement brainstorming, webbing, list-making activities to help students practice coming up with global ideas to write about. I have also seen teachers who do daily, continual writing which gets kids in the habit of coming up with writing topics on a regular basis. Emphasizing the importance of getting out your ideas over correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation is also a helpful teaching point for struggling writers. Teacher should also teach the strategies listed in Table 8.9 and 8.10 to help struggling writers overcome mental blocks. To avoid some of these mental blocks, primary educators should also emphasize the process of writing, not the stages. Hopefully this will help blocked writers to see writing as fluid and dynamic instead of rigid steps. Modeling and thinking aloud the mental processes associated with writing also helps struggling writers.

Discussion Questions:

1. One part of Kucer’s model of writing includes situational dependency of writing. How do you implement this concept (writing for different audiences, different purposes, and different forms) in this classroom?

2. Do you believe the use of computers/technology helps or hinders the writing process? What have you noticed in your experiences in the classroom and with yourself?

3. What activities and strategies have you used or seen to help struggling writers? 

Week 8: Factors that Influence Comprehension

There are multiple factors that influence how and if meaning is made from a text. 

Factor 1: Background Knowledge

One that significantly impacts how a reader interprets a text is prior knowledge. I thought the story in Table 7.1, Pat, was about a prisoner trying to escape. My background knowledge word like escape, charge, penalty, severe, failure, and success led me to that conclusion. I agreed with the children from the study immediately that assumed that Pat was a male. After seeing the other options of a pet and wrestler from Table 7.2, I could see how others came to those conclusions.

Other types of knowledge that affect comprehension are content, process, and disciplinary knowledges. I did not possess content knowledge (knowledge of and experiences with events, objects, and situations) of having my own pet, so I did not think that Pat was a pet or had anything to do with pets. Another type of knowledge at work here was process knowledge (knowledge of processes, procedures or strategies).  I used my process knowledge of reading to employ strategies such as predicting, rereading, and inferencing to try to figure what situation Pat was in. When content and process knowledge interact, disciplinary knowledge (knowledge about how that knowledge was created, used, and evaluated) is born. In reading comprehension, disciplinary knowledge seems to be similar to metacognition—thinking about our thinking.

Factor 2: Cultural Experiences

Cultural experiences also influence comprehension. When the reader and the author share cultural background or experiences, the reader gains more meaning from the text, can accurately retell more information, and can read the text more quickly. Even when presented with information that is similar to our cultural background yet contains some differences, we tend to focus on what is the same and assimilate the new information to our schemata.

With Table 7.3, The Procedure, Kucer suggested that sometimes writers don’t give readers enough information to activate their prior knowledge. In this case, there is no way for the reader to relate the text to himself/herself. I was surprised that my guess that Table 7.3 was about laundry was correct. (Maybe this is because even with only two people living in my house, there seems to be a never-ending heap of dirty clothes.). Though there were a few clues to help me draw this conclusion, the use of more content-specific words would have helped me activate my prior knowledge. Research also suggests the use of teaching with metaphors to help students connect what they know to what they don’t know. The teacher’s example in Figure 7.2 with the word “terrace” is a great model.

Factor 3: Situational Nature of Comprehension

The situational nature of comprehension was best displayed in the Table 7.7. On my first read, I thought perhaps the boys were just ditching school until I got to the end. The leaky roof stopped me in my tracks. Rereading the text the following two more times with different lenses emphasized that the purpose for reading determines what details a reader attends to. In addition, the context determines if the reader maintains a high or low text integrity.

Factor 4: Transactional and Dynamic Aspects

The transactional and dynamic aspects of comprehension were seen in the activity using Table 7.8. I read the Table 7.8, and then worked on other homework for an hour before completing the recall activity. An hour later, there were many omissions, substitutions, additions, rearrangements, and a summary (Table 7.9) of what I had read. I transformed what I read into a new event, a simpler version, with less specific numbers and descriptive language. Comprehension is dynamic and transactional because it is based on interactions between the text and the person reading it. No two people comprehend a text in the exact same way even though both people have fully comprehended the text. In order to have shared meaning, there must be shared background knowledge and cross-checking of what the reader is understanding. See Figure 7.2 for a visual representation of this concept.

Table 7.10 Instructional Implications 

(Number in parenthesis match the number of principle in the table) 

Using texts that match readers’ world knowledge will help students when trying to recall information or events (1). Before having students read a passage or participate in a read aloud, teachers should set the purpose for reading and listening. This will help students attend to the most important information, thus letting them know what is and is not incidental information (5). Another strategy that should be emphasized to aid in comprehension is looking back at the text to answer questions or to check oneself. Because readers tend to alter/confuse information from the passage to make it fit into their background knowledge (3, 4) and readers can’t distinguish between ideas that are stated and not stated in the text (6), this will ensure they are gaining the intended meaning. Helping students focus on the structures of narrative and expository texts will help them find patterns in texts, and therefore find the necessary information to recall (2).

Factor 5: Vocabulary

Word knowledge and vocabulary play a huge role in comprehension. The exercises involving Table 7.4 and Table 7.5 were extremely challenging. I skimmed the word list in Table 7.4 and thought I was familiar enough with most of those words. After reading Table 7.5, I realized that my surface level of knowledge of those words weren’t enough to help me understand the statistical paragraph. Vocabulary instruction is more than dictionary definitions in isolation; semantics is crucial to word meanings as they relate to the text , which was seen in the Text Complexity article last week.

Similarities and Differences in Vocabulary between Kucer and S&H: 

Kucer and S&H have very similar ideas about vocabulary selection and instruction. Though some of the terminology is different, their principles are very close. Both researchers are highly committed to the idea that increased vocabulary knowledge also increases reading comprehension.

Both authors recognize that vocabulary depth is the extent or amount to which a concept/word is developed. Vocabulary depth refers to robust knowledge of the word’s various shades of meaning. They both share the concept of having a limited knowledge of many words (surface level), so students can see how they are related. Kucer refers to this as vocabulary width while S&H refers to this concept as vocabulary breadth.

Thematic units and inquiry units are seen by both books as the best way to help students experience concepts and create a depth of knowledge about a topic and its vocabulary. These units also help students create connections between words by making mental concept maps.

Both Kucer and S&H believe in the merits of multimedia to support word learning. Kucer posits that one way to aid rich word knowledge is to use hypermedia or hypertext reading. Hypermedia is the use of various mediums and modalities to show what a word means, such as print, visual, and sounds. As the Text Complexity article stated, these various mediums increase the imageability of words, and the mediums can create mental pictures in their minds.

Other commonalities between the two authors were the importance of choosing target words that will be important later on for the student, such as academic vocabulary and content area words. Kucer calls this flexibility.

Reading Process Discussion Questions:

1. Choose one of the tables in Chapter 7 and describe your experience with it. 

2. Look at Figure 7.2 (Kucer pg. 196) and think about the idea that a reader can fully comprehend a text, but that comprehension may be different than another reader. Have you experienced this paradox in life or in the classroom? How do we help students have a shared meaning of a text when it is necessary (formal assessments, state-testing)?