Select either chapters 7 or 8, depending on your needs.
For chapter 7: Respond to thinking point 1 on page 125. Are there conditions in your school that contribute to students' reading difficulty? How can your program address them?
For chapter 8: What do you think about the checklist on page 155? And what is your reaction to Judy's situation described in the vignette? Respond to Thinking Point 2 on page 159.
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4 comments:
Based on the vignette, there were a number of classroom and school-based issues that may be contributing to Visal’s difficulties in reading. It would appear that there are few to no opportunities for Visal to make choices about what he is reading and that the primary source of reading material is an assigned anthology, which is likely not providing him with material that he finds relevant or motivating. Furthermore, classroom instruction appears to be whole class and unlikely to be addressing his specific needs as a learner. Lastly, it appears that Visal may not have opportunities for seeing successful reading models, or simply enjoying hearing a rich story or selection read to him.
While there are many components of Visal’s literacy program that could be modified to foster greater opportunity for Visal to make gains, I would also want to consider that Claudio is new to the school and probably would want to tread lightly when suggesting sweeping pedagogical changes. One suggestion would be to offer to work with Marcia, a first year teacher who has sought help, to work collaboratively. My thinking here is based on the idea that school change begins one teacher at a time. Claudio could offer to work with a couple groups of students which would include Visal in the regular classroom, modeling instructional practices that would be more supportive of Visal and a wide range of learners. In visiting and participating in this classroom, Claudio might consider bringing along buckets of books that would engage students, thereby modeling that a rich and diverse collection of books meets a wide range of readers. My thinking is that this early contact with a classroom teacher should offer lots of side by side support. I also think that by providing high quality books, other teachers are likely to notice and find inspiration and will either invite Claudio in for assistance or find access to similarly rich collections of literature.
In thinking about my own school, I think we have made many great strides in the last few years addressing some of the issues evident in this vignette. Access to a wide range of quality print continues to vary from classroom to classroom, albeit all classrooms have expanded collections. Most classrooms have improved the organization of books, organizing books around topics, common authors, series and themes. Nonfiction materials are still profoundly lacking. Some teachers are more actively engaging with children about book selections, but there are still some teachers who use this time to catch up on emails. It is in these classrooms that I see wanderers and fake-reading. I have been working with one grade level at a time to support highly engaged choice reading times. By working with grade levels, teachers are able to share strategies and inspire each other. Much of this work, once started is self-sustaining. A couple teachers in my school have become experts in finding great books for reluctant readers. These two teachers are the first people I go to when I am looking for a “just right” book for a reluctant boy reader. I will continue to work with one grade level at a time to address issues of equity and access to books and engagement of all readers.
There is a wide variation in the skills of our primary teachers and the variability from classroom to classroom is evident in data and classroom practices. There has been reluctance in the primary level to change practices. I suspect the reluctance speaks to how overwhelmed teachers are by changing reform efforts and they have developed a “this too shall pass attitude.” Consequently, I realize that any moves towards change at this level has to be involve small steps and must be done with my being right there in the thick of it all. Change, here, is not going to happen in traditional staff development “sessions”, but by my asking if I can try something out with their kids. These are teachers who are afraid to take risks, but may be willing to if I can mess up first. Part of my hopes is that by modeling my own risk taking and reflection that I can essentially disarm these teachers.
I certainly appreciate the checklist found on page 155. In reviewing the list I found that many of the elements exist--or are at least beginning to exist--at LFHS. It is a great and comprehensive tool.
Of course, it is a little TOO comprehensive. I could probably work with a school to get it to include all of the elements in the checklist but the school would do nothing except literacy. In fact, a close look at the elements reveals that all of them include subjective descriptors. This means that even if a school did include all the elements an outside observer could say that it did not. What one person considers "adequate" another person could consider inadequate.
I suppose the subjective nature of the list supports the contention made elsewhere in the text that success in literacy has more to do with the journey than the destination. Working to ensure that those elements exist means working to create an effective literacy environment.
I wonder whether Judy thinks her school has those elements? If so, I wonder if she changed her mind after her binders were ignored...
Actually, I can relate to Judy's situation and I would bet that every person who has ever had a leadership role--formal or informal--in a high school has dealt with what Judy experienced. I know that I have discovered "magic bullets" before and tried to get others to use them to no avail. Her binder, no matter how well done, was her idea. The key is to get people to buy in. It took me a while to learn this and I still find the balance between telling people what to do and empowering them to make decisions on their own the most difficult one to strike in my job. My default is to defer to what my colleagues think is right and support them as much as possible. Sometimes, though, they want direction (or at least say they do) and I have to give them the binder, so to speak.
At any rate, Judy has learned from her mistake and is now working with her colleagues instead of through them. Her efforts have a fighting chance now.
The checklist on page 155 was the one page that I folded over from this chapter! I agree with Shawn that it is a daunting list. I do not, however, read it as a list of conditions that must be in place before embarking on the literacy journey in a secondary school. Rather, the question is "to what extent" each of those elements exist in a particular school. In that sense, I read it as an ideal list of conditions to work towards in a literacy program in order for it become self-sustaining and, perhaps if it is truly successful, put itself out of business.
In the case of my school, we have fulfilled a few of those conditions, or at least are on the way. We have a literacy team in place. We have pieces of an assessment system in place, though we have a ways to go before it is complete. We have administrative support and some resource support. We have a literacy teacher in place.
On the other hand, while we have buy-in in principle for the program, we are long way from establishing buy-in in teacher practice. I agree with Jill that gaining that degree of buy-in is slow. It depends on developing a critical mass of teacher who are willing to experiment, beginning with the members of the literacy team. The first task of that literacy team is to conduct a specific needs assessment and create a plan. Again, we have a sense of that and certainly have looked at data that have prompted the creation of a program, but the early stages of our program will be experimental.
Regarding the vignette in the beginning of the chapter, Judy was quite naive to think that presenting teachers with a binder of strategies is the way to their hearts--and their practice. That approach rests on several assumptions, all of which are questionable:
That teachers recognize is as their job to incorporate effective literacy strategies into their practice
That teachers recognize deficiencies in their practice in the area of literacy strategies
That they want to improve by incorporating those strategies
That their failure to incorporate such strategies in the past is the result of a lack of knowledge
That giving the binders is a good way to build the knowledge and affect the practice
Additionally, there are two underlying probems behind the binder fiasco. First, it raises serious questions about the leadership of the principal. The principal should have had the sense to put the brakes on that approach. The failure to do so may suggest ambivalence about the program that may hurt it in the future unless it gets resolved.
Second, I wonder about the strategy of not including in Judy's assignment an element of working with a classroom(s) of kids. For a teacher who is evidently new to the system, in particular, credibility may depend on showing results with kids. How better to do that than by teaching? Politically, too, it seems to me that a litearcy teacher position is more defensible to the extent it includes some classroom assignment. In a time of declining enrollment and increased economic pinch, a non-Special Ed. specialist is likely to be among the first to go when the budget gets tight.
Regarding the thinking question on page 159, I think I have already addressed it indirectly above. In a big picture way, the binder approach may have been the result of a failure to carefully identify needs and a plan first. The literacy team (and the principal, as noted above) should help to avoid such missteps in the future!
I really liked JShedd's list of questionable assumptions and underlying problems related to the Judy vignette - thoughtful, comprehensive and helpful to me personally. Leadership and "street-cred" are key.
Judy's vignette is the first one I have read in the book that made me feel like they were describing me as they wrote it. I have not handed out the 'bad binder' thank goodness, but I have certainly planned 'great' PD sessions that did not reflect the stated/researched interests of the teachers I work with (for). I did allow choice in topic, but I did not empower the individuals. Fortunately in my experience I have been wise enough to see that teachers see Judy’s first kind of coaching or intervention as intrusion. They already have so much to do and, as Shedd pointed out, they often do not see their own limitations relative to literacy and teaching skills. Frankly it bears repeating that most teachers at the secondary level think of literacy as an elementary school issue and so would not want to 'revert' to teaching literacy skills. Teaching a renewed vision of literacy is the first step.
The question is how does a literacy specialist trained in a wealth of research and strategies prepare her/himself to facilitate people as they do as Brenda Shearer states they (we) must: "to change behavior, they must change internally. They must change what they believe. In effect, they must change who they are." Or at least their current understanding of whom they think they are. In general we all (even teachers) are much more than we think we are.
One of the ways I have tried to train and facilitate change is to teach people using the same strategies or similar teaching tactics I would like them to try out or adopt in the classroom. Of course, a deep study of a book, action research, risk taking and relationship building are ways I would hope my students could develop literacy. All the more reason then to allow teachers to access these methods of learning for themselves. The irony of Judy's binder approach is that it does not build community and, ironically, it relies on the same ethic of learning employed in the dreaded transmission method of instruction!
As for the list on 155, I echo the sentiments of the others. Sadly, as I looked over the list, I considered the reality that my school is not really a literacy community at all. However, when I look over my surveys that people turned back into me – an adaptation of Vogt’s chapter 3 needs assessment survey – the news is less grim.
I want my life to be like Judy’s in the second vignette – the take two. I may type it up and tape it on my bedroom mirror.
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