Dr. Moje’s article “Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change” was very thought provoking and brought up many good points. The extra attention that Dr. Moje speaks of that has been shown toward improving literacy because of declining test scores had almost reached epidemic proportion.
Obrien’s work stated “that student’s beliefs, values and knowledge constrain the practice of teachers”. I totally agree with this research. Most students, adults and even educators look at different subject areas with preconceived ideas of the types of work that should be done in each discipline area. An educator feeling an “unfair burden of teaching reading” is ludicrous. Students read in every subject area so it is an educator’s duty to teach reading in some form to ensure student success in all discipline areas. I feel it gets even narrower when it comes to literacy instruction in the discipline areas. The disciplinary norms that Moje speaks of that students must be aware of for each discipline make learning even more confusing for some students.
Dr. Moje suggested building “disciplinary literacy instructional programs”. The suggestion of these programs due in part to the varied approach to literacy in discipline areas and the expanding media areas of literacy materials.
Even though each discipline area has their own form of literacy instruction, they all need to be on a uniform literacy instruction model as well. Using literacy to explore and enhance content knowledge seems to be what most disciplines lean toward. But, as the article stated, being able to make sense of the texts requires some background knowledge. Traditional texts can be used to provide the basic content knowledge and then the discipline areas can be vastly explored using the different forms of literacy media.
The discussion of the need for students to be metadiscursive not only in society but in their education can only help enhance their success. I agree with the Dr. Moje and the other researchers when they alluded to the need for students to be literate thinkers across many school disciplines. The more adaptive in terms of literacy students are, the more successful they will be. But, until educators and society revamp their ideas toward literacy in the disciplines the struggle to improve test scores will continue.
In conclusion, educators and students need to reconfigure their ideas toward literacy education. This can only be done by a total new open minded outlook for students, educators and society toward literacy in all discipline areas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that students need to be literate thinkers across many subject areas. That point struck me as I was reading the article. Another classmate pointed out that not all students are going to be masters in all subject areas and we need to realize that this is ok.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should teach literacy across the content areas, but would also parallel Dr. Moje's comment that it should be in ways that are authentic to that content area, so that the diverse ways of thinking and looking at the world that are specific to a given content area are still preserved.
ReplyDeleteYour response honed in on Moje’s belief in literacy in content areas. I think that whether a student masters everything isn’t as important as offering the opportunity to excel.
ReplyDeleteThe educational system is in need of a drastic makeover as far as how they approach student learning. Many of our students appear to be bored with everything that is being done in the classroom. I agree we need to find a more innovative approach to classroom instruction.
ReplyDeleteThis blog offers many, many points that expose potential disagreement among educators. Each gives us the opportunity to be mindful that while there are many factors that may produce contention amongst educators, at the same time, the need for immediate and positively directed action still exists. The quote by Obrien that you offered reminded me of one such contentious idea that lead me to consider two related rhetorical questions:
ReplyDeleteIs the notion, “that students' beliefs, values and knowledge constrain the practice of teachers ” the antithesis of the assertion that it is the students themselves who drive the teaching profession into a constant scientific fervor to renovate the whole notion of teaching, all together? Further, which perspective offers the appropriate connotation to drive a climate of change?
I totally agree with you as it relates to reading across the content areas. Bottom line, a child cannot be successful in Reading, Math, Science or Social Studies if he or she is not literate. Some teachers feel like that it is not their "responsibility" to teach reading, and that is a sad attitude to have. Any influential teacher has stepped out of their boundaries at some point in time in their career.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI like the point that was made about different medias that can be used today. If we use different modes of representation of literacy in the content areas we can bring something that the students already use and know to their experience with the contents as well as literacy. This is were content and literacy can be combined with the use of the different media like hyperlinking, blogs, webpages, etc. Literacy is not just linear (reading on paper, left to right) but can have more dimension where content area teachers can modify material to fit their lessons that includes literacy. This can engage the students to learn more because it includes what they already use at home. Keeping the students engaged the teacher can include critical reading text that will keep the students hooked on the lesson because the students can express their own thoughts without fear.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the previous posters that literacy is the responsibility of each teacher. Educators as a whole are responsible for the entire education of a child. If educators aren't reinforcing the same important aspects of education, students will think that those skills are only necessary in that subject area and not education as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI agree that students read in every subject area. Our students also have to be multi-lingual as each subject has their own language. If we as educators are to respond to these multiple languages students learn daily we must adjust how we introduce and reinforces the new languages they learn.
ReplyDelete