What do you see when you look at this image?
Just as different people will see different things in this picture, we all have a different lens through which we look at the world, a different perspective. The prescription through which we each view our present and future experiences and encounters is formed by our past experiences and encounters. As we seen in the image above, we can all be looking at the same thing but seeing something very different!
Lets examine discipline! What lens do most people view this topic through? What are your experiences with discipline? I would think that most people who hear the word view it as something negative: maybe a trip to the principal's office, a time-out, a fine, a loss of a privilege, or, as I remember when I'd fight with my sister as a little girl, sitting on separate couches and not being aloud to talk until we could say something nice!! Why is that the common association with this topic? I believe it is because we learn by experience. However, when we reach a certain level, if we look at things through a different lens, 'discipline' actually turns into an opportunity to explore and grow!
One of the definitions listed in the dictionary for 'discipline' is "a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education." When discipline is viewed through this lens, it opens up a whole new world! As I venture into graduate school, I find my vision focused on this version of discipline, and it is a welcome change!! In the world of education, I believe the more we focus on disciplinary literacy, specifically on giving our students the right perspective or lens for each discipline, the more engaged they will be, and the less we will have to live in the world of the negative discipline!!
As we begin to explore disciplinary literacy, I am starting to see the importance of this focus as an educator and its critical role in accomplishing what we all strive for - to help our students reach their full potential and really be engaged in meaningful learning!!
"I just don't know how primary teachers teach students to read. They go from not reading, to reading, its amazing." As a middle school teacher, that is a thought that has gone through my mind so very often! When I get students, they generally have at least the very basic skills. So this week, as I was exploring materials, it struck me how as students get older, we do tend to just assume they already know how to read, we don't often look at the bigger picture - that just as we all have a different lens we view each situation from, students come into each discipline with their own views and to expect them to get the most out of the content, we cannot assume that the literacy lens with which they are looking is the right prescription. We need to address the fact that there are many factors that contribute to adjusting each persons view to see most clearly with-in each discipline!
A professor I once had said "elementary teachers get into teaching because they love the students and secondary teachers get into teaching because they love the topic." I think most teachers are in in because they love the students, but I do see how passionate about a specific topic that secondary teachers can be. I wonder if it could be a temptation to get so caught up on the content that we lose the student along the way because we fail to prepare them to be literate in the topic. The past few years, I have been working on getting my students to view each topic as an expert. So in math, I try to address them as mathematicians, in Science, as scientists, in history, as historians. However, I'm starting to realize that while I speak to them as such, I don't always set them up to successfully learn. This goes back to disciplinary literacy and the need to prepare students to receive the content. One common thing I found this week in the exploration into disciplinary literacy is the need for the teacher to take into account the many factors that contribute to how students view the content they are about to read and to set them up for success in this.
Yes, students generally know how to read by the time they get to middle school, but we need to continue to build on that foundation by teaching them the skills they need to read the content. As Buehl says, "Few teachers have been asked to teach the reading skills students need in each subject"(21).
While "A number of teachers feel that the strategies place an unfair burden of teaching reading
on them when they should be teaching content" (Moje, 98), I'd argue what is the point in teaching content if students are simply going to be caught up in the 'pedagody of telling' which is simply knowledge being transferred from the head of the teacher into the student (Moje, 98). We need to help our students to be literate in the disciplines by modeling - showing them how to think as historians, scientists, etc!
Kucer mentions that proficient readers are readers that are flexible and guided by a purpose (37). He also points out that people's prior experiences create a powerful influence on how a reader gets what they are reading (41). If readers don't have experience that has given them knowledge of a content, they will lack the knowledge to make sense of what they are reading (43). This makes a lot of sense. Once students reach the different disciplines, they are usually coming in with their foundational reading skills. They don't usually have the experiences needed to put the contents in perspective or to understand the purpose in what they are reading. That is when we, as educators need to start looking at how we can help model and teach disciplinary literacy!!
Each student comes into class with their own perspective and lens. I believe as a teacher, if I can start looking through the lens of teaching disciplinary literacy, my students will truly start gaining the skills to think with the lens of a historian, scientist, etc!
Question: Under a time crunch, how do you balance teaching disciplinary literacy and taking the time to make sure students are ready to learn in the different content areas with getting all the content you are required to get in?
Very clever image to support your point about meaning making. Every reading is dramatically shaped by first impressions and what we strategically seek out. In response to your question, I think that the goals of teaching disciplinary literacy are directly in line with teaching content (hopefully you will agree by the end of this course).
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent way to start off your blog!! It was so intriguing and I like how you quickly brought about the topic of having different opinions. As you mentioned, I think it is so important to realize, especially within education, that past and future experiences shape our opinion on a topic. I like how you addressed the connotation of the word discipline because when I first read the title of this class I automatically assumed that it would be about discipline/punishment because that was my only interaction with the word ‘discipline’. I love the points you made throughout your response, especially regarding modeling and showing students how to really become involved and explore the multiple disciplines. The idea of changing your lens perspective is something that really hit home with me, and I want to challenge myself to do the same. Thanks for sharing; I really enjoyed reading what you had to say!
ReplyDeleteTrisha,
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting how you brought up how it can feel like students go from not reading to reading. Obviously it is much more complex, and we wouldn’t be here if that were true. For myself and I think for a lot of people, we do not remember how we began to read and the strategies that taught us to be successful readers. I would be so useful if we did! The skills that we were taught were good enough to help us to get to a higher education level.
At the middle school level you are a great example for literacy. Students are generally beyond the learning to read phase and onto the reading to learn phase. So naturally the assumption is made that students will be able to use reading strategies on their own and appropriately from this point of change. This leads me to ask: does learning literacy in our lives ever stop? My answer is no. Even from personal experience I have in college, expanded my literacy skills; much beyond the learning to read to reading to learn switch.
I completely agree with you when you say that when students reach the discipline level that they do not have experience. When teachers say that it is not their job to teach literacy in their discipline, they are leaving it up to the student to figure it out. Students are expected to understand the material, however if they do not have a vehicle to do so, how much of the information is realistically going to be absorbed. Not much in my opinion. Teaching students how to be literate in the discipline you teach will make your teaching much more effective when all said and done.
If I had the answer to that question, I would be a very rich woman!!! Kidding aside, the question of how do we teach so much and work on disciplinary literacy with the time, resource, and workload constraints given is asked all the time. I would venture to say that if we could share the workload with others it would help. As I read the text, the thought running through my mind is that teachers can no longer teach in a vacuum. We need to work together with a common goal which is the academic excellence in the students we teach. The days of closing your door and just being responsible for the students in your classroom are long gone and collaboration is crucial to all student success.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder about how we can be more thoughtful in this. One thing that we have been working toward at my school is to be more deliberate in the types of reading we do in the classroom, even in kindergarten. Much of our resources this year at my building have been spent on expository text and instruction. It was great knowing that I am moving in the right direction to build more of the foundation for the disciplinary literacy in my kindergarten classroom.
The picture you used in your blog fit well with the idea of identities. It could be used in a lesson for kids - I think even second and third graders would be able to understand social and literacy identities using that picture in the lesson. I loved it!