Using Multiple Text in the Classroom

            In any classroom, at any grade level, it is essential for educators to be aware of the different text types that support student learning. We need to use more than just fiction and nonfiction books to teach our students the concepts within the disciplines. We need to be teaching our students through videos, newspaper articles, recipes, poetry, websites, etc. Printed text cannot be the end all and be all.  As Dr. Manderino stated in his video from the summer reading conference, literacy is essential in all disciplines.  Whether the students are in a history, math, or science class they are expected to read, write, think, listen, and speak. I enjoyed how Dr. Manderino shared that teachers need to pull a variety of text types into the classroom setting and that we as teachers are just one of many resources students should be learning from.

            I found Megan Shedd’s article entitled, Using Multiple Texts to Guide Children’s Learning very insightful. Shedd stated, “When helping children look for information in a nonfiction book, the teachers model how to flip through the pages, looking for photos and captions, text boxes, and diagrams. This lets the children learn about, use, and enjoy each type of text.” (Article found at http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/multiple-texts)

            With the Common Core State Standards now in play in all school districts students are now being held to a higher standard. Students need to be able to justify their answers to show their comprehension of the text. It is stated within the State Standards that students need to be exposed to different media formats. We need to move our students away from answering basic leveled questions and more to the inquiry and argumentative approach. Providing students with resources and opportunities to showcase their knowledge with this approach to higher level thinking will create students that can look at any text and be able to critically think about the information presented.

            In my classroom I try to incorporate as many text types that I can in conjunction to the concepts that are being taught. I often use short educational videos and clips that support the concept we are learning in social studies, science, and math. I also do a pair share using a fiction book with our nonfiction books, so the students can relate the concepts in an easier and more interesting format. Each week in computer lab we play educational games, centered around the topics we are learning.

            Currently, in my first grade class we have begun to learn about life in the desert. For the past week we have read a variety of fiction and nonfiction books about plants, animals, and the climate and completed activities based around the books. The next part of the unit will be devoted to having the students research one desert plant or animal. The students will be provided with books, videos, and website articles to find their information. They will need to find information about what their animal eats, looks like, where is lives, and an interesting fact they learn. They will be working on these projects with a partner to read and find the needed information. This will give the students an opportunity to collaborate with their peers.   

Topic: Frogs

Informative:

Frogs by Nic Bishop

 Qualitative:

The qualitative measure of this book is at an interest level of a third through fifth grade student. The book is developmentally above first grade, which I teach. However, I would only use a few pages to expose the students to the photographs, rich information, and vocabulary. Some vocabulary words that are introduced though the use of this text are swamps, toads, damp, and amphibian. On each page valuable information is in a larger, bold font. This is an advantage for the students to see what the author views as the most essential facts. The large, bold font stands out as soon as you turn the page, making it easier to read the text. There are also captions for each picture depicting what type of frog or toad is photographed and an interesting fact about that particular amphibian.

Quantitative:

The quantitative measure of this text is lexile level of 890L and grade level equivalent to 5.7.  This book's interest level is for students in third though fifth grade. Most sentences are longer in length exposing the student to a complex text that is full of valuable information.

Reader/Text Factors:

First grade students would enjoy the layout of this book and the photographs that are shown. The students would be exposed to this text after building some background knowledge on frogs. They would be familiar with the different parts of the frog and how they differ from toads. The students would also be able to clearly see what the author views as important from the large, bold print that is used.

  

  

Fictional:

 Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner

                                                     

Qualitative:

The qualitative measure of this book is for students who are kindergarten to second grade. The students are exposed through this book to what frogs eat, along with other animals that live in the same habitat. It explains how the frog has a sticky tongue and can catch flies as it hops into the pond. This is a pop-up book and shows the illustrations coming out at the reader. This will pull the students into the story making them want to continue reading.

Quantitative:

The quantitative measure of this book is grade level equivalent to 2.6 and has a lexile measure of 310L. This book is developmentally appropriate for students who are in kindergarten through second grade. The sentences are shorter in length and the pop-up features make this book perfect for the younger reader.

Reader/Text Factors:

In first grade students have a science unit on frogs and this book will help to introduce the topic. The students would enjoy the different pages providing a variety of pop-up illustrations. This would also help motivate them to continue to learn about frogs and their life cycle.

Informational:

 From Tadpole to Frog by Wendy Pfeffer 

                                                     

Qualitative:

The qualitative measure of this book is for students who are kindergarten to second grade. Through this book students are shown illustrations of the habitat of a frog, along with what they eat, the dangers they face, and the life cycle they transition through. A few vocabulary words that are in this book are hibernate, tadpole, hatch, and gills. The illustrations will help provide the students with what it looks like during the different stages of a frog’s life and where it lives during the year.

Quantitative:

The quantitative measure of this book is grade level equivalent to 2.0 and has a lexile measure of 520L. This book is developmentally appropriate for students who are in kindergarten through second grade. The sentences are short and each page only contains a few details about frogs.

Reader/Text Factors:

The students will have background knowledge of a frog and the different stages it goes through from tadpole to adulthood. The information in the book goes into detail for the students to fully grasp where the frogs live and the names of each of their developmental stages. From the illustrations and information they will learn about frogs from this book will allow them to take what they have learned and transfer that knowledge to other books about frogs.

  

Vocabulary

            Through these texts the students will be exposed to a wide variety and rich vocabulary. From our reading The Challenge of Challenging Text written by Shanahan, Fisher, and Frey state, “Student’s ability to comprehend a piece of text depends on the number of unfamiliar domain-specific words and new general academic terms they encounter.” This unit will lend itself to the students tapping into their prior knowledge of certain key vocabulary words, but will also expose them to new vocabulary words centered around a frog’s life. With the informational texts the students may need to be guided in learning and understanding the key vocabulary words presented in the book. The students can use contextual clues to help comprehend words, look at illustrations, or activate their prior knowledge on the topic for the words being read.  

          

                           Comprehension Within Disciplinary Literacy

       Students face many challenges throughout their academic career and for many students reading comprehension is a major obstacle they must overcome. I think Carol Lee and Anika Spratley said it best as, “Struggling adolescent readers in our schools face more complex and pervasive challenges. Supporting these readers as they grapple with the highly specific demands of texts written for different content-areas will help prepare them for citizenship, encourage personal growth and life-satisfaction on many levels, and open up opportunities for future education and employment.” As teachers we must prepare our students to be college and career ready. We can achieve this by teaching them to be experts in each content area. Students need exposure to a variety of texts and taught strategies to use in order to comprehend the information. Exposing students to the different reading strategies will help them to be strong, independent readers.

        In all content areas students need to be literate. However, within each content area being literate takes on new meaning. Every content area students have throughout their day means reading different text types. The teacher’s role is to educate their students on how they can be successful readers within their class. Even when a student is not in a ‘reading’ class they should still be learning and using reading strategies that will help them comprehend the information. Through the information presented or assigned to students they should be able to dig deeper at the author’s true purpose and underlying meaning of the text. Dr. Manderino pointed out that research shows students build comprehension when they have explicit teaching of the reading strategies. Depending on the text being read students can use a variety of strategies such as, summarizing, questioning, connecting, visualizing, and making inferences. As the students grow in the knowledge of the strategies they need to be taught and given time to practice these strategies strategically. This means students need to be aware of when it’s appropriate to use each strategy.  

          I found this image from Jade Jones where she outlines the strategies that teachers should use in the classroom as it relates to disciplinary literacy. I found it interesting how she outlined what strategies the students can/should be using before, during, and after reading.

           However, students should not only use and rely on reading strategies. I really enjoyed watching the short video clip made by Professor Daniel Willingham where he explained that the key to the students’ comprehension is prior knowledge. We need to teach our students content and supply them with plenty of opportunities to read about the topics being taught.

          As Dr. Sunday Cummins explained we can help with students comprehension by ‘close reading’.  Through this students can navigate a complex nonfiction text to gain a deeper understanding of the information.  The students, along with modeling from the teacher and scaffolding instruction, can break a particular writing piece into words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to get the main ideas that the author is trying to convey. After watching this video on Dr. Sunday Cummins, I did some additional research and found this website on Scholastic that answered several of my questions I still had about close reading.  

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/04/investigating-nonfiction-part-2-digging-deeper-close-reading

        This article is written by an elementary teacher that shows posters she has used, along with detailed instruction in how she incorporates close reading in her classroom.

Disciplinary Literacy

Disciplinary Literacy

Written by: Lauren Skok

                 Disciplinary Literacy is a new concept for me and was confusing to fully grasp at first. I am a first grade teacher and never took any courses on teaching secondary education. In the webinar Disciplinary Literacy: Navigating Literacy Context Across Secondary Schools Elizabeth Birr Moje stated that as educators we need to help our students “move across the many different literacy contexts of their lives.” She goes on to say how we need to assist the students in learning how to navigate through these contexts daily. Students, especially those, in secondary education, have so many different aspects of their lives they have to transition into on a daily basis. Students are expected to transition from academic to social situations, to different teachers, disciplines, and relationships. I think that what struck me was the way she used the word navigate. Students have to be able to read, think critically, speak, investigate, and write to develop deeper understanding in a particular discipline. It is not a set of tools to improve reading and writing. It is the ability to look at a topic as an expert, whether as a historian, artist, mathematician, scientist, or technician.  Every teacher’s goal is to help prepare students for the next grade. However, each student learns and comprehends differently from one to another. The teacher must be aware of different strategies and skills that can be used to create students who are college and career ready.

                 I found this venn-diagram below created by Erik Byker and Leah Kahn found from The English Language Arts Collaborative Program from the University of Texas Austin. I liked the clear and concise way it compared and contrasted content literacy and disciplinary literacy. We all have been exposed to content literacy and are comfortable with the practices, most of us were taught using this type of literacy. However, disciplinary literacy is going further for the students to learn specific strategies within each discipline and focusing on key vocabulary. Disciplinary literacy is scaffolding instruction to create students that can problem solve and think critically in a particular discipline.    

                                    

                 As a primary elementary teacher, I feel that I am able to navigate my students from discipline to discipline in the content areas and help them to transition from one activity to another throughout the day. During elementary school, teachers build the foundation that will later be built upon in secondary education. As an elementary teacher, I am there to assess my students in all their subject areas, take them to specials, and create that very important home to school connection between their parents. I believe this is another major difference between elementary and secondary education, the involvement the teacher and parents play together in the students’ educational success. I can help prepare my students for secondary education by exposing them to a variety of different expository texts. This will help them to become comfortable and knowledgeable with this type of text. As students get older the texts become more informative and factual and less literature based. I do feel that students need to be exposed to all genres of reading and writing. However, I do understand that because of the Common Core State Standards students will be expected to read and comprehend more expository texts. At an early age students can become aware of the different modes of literacy such as tables, charts, short informative articles, menus, textbooks, novels, and computer images. They can be introduced and taught how to look at headings, captions, and photographs to enhance their learning on a topic. I also expose my students to a variety of vocabulary terms in all disciplines. Every week we learn four new vocabulary words from the story of the week. During this time students are expected to ‘turn and talk’ with their reading partner using the word in a variety of different ways. The students also get to see a picture card showcasing the vocabulary word. As a class we also learn key vocabulary words in science and social studies. This provides background knowledge for my students to better equip them for the more challenging content they will experience in their school career. 

References

Byker, E & Kahn, L. (2013) Disciplinary literacy online seminar. Retrieved from   https://ccri.meadowscenter.org/Mod3

Moje, E. (2013). Disciplinary literacy: navigating literacy context across secondary schools. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fMncjLc1iQ&feature=youtu.be