Literacy Engagement

I think the strength of this lesson was that it promoted student-centered learning and social literacy.

The class as a whole created the brainstorming map of background knowledge about MLK, helped

each other formulate ideas for their essays, and supported each other through various steps of the

writing process. While students were talking with a partner to come up with more ideas, one of my

students raised their hand and asked why they didnt get to talk about their essays all the time when

we write in class. This made an impression on me, because as much as I theoretically know about

language development, I often find myself getting caught up in just barely creating lessons on time,

scrambling to get papers graded, all the while, doing my students a disservice because I do not

typically give them the discussion time needed to formulate ideas. Enright discusses this clearly and

powerfully: Practitioners, overwhelmed by standardized tests and pacing guides, often become less

thoughtful about the ways in which students language and literacy experiences in their classrooms

encourage particular ways of thinking about language, literacy, the curriculum, and the world.

(Enright)

All students (at least the ones who were following directions) were engaged in speaking and

listening to each others ideas, reading the questions and directions in the prompt, and writing down

their brainstorming notes in a casual form, then transferring those ideas into sentence form.

A great example of critical literacy that was activated in this lesson was requiring students to argue a

position that may not be their own. We have been studying Malcolm X for the past few months, so

many students do not often speak about the valid points of MLK. This prompt pushed them to

acknowledge the opposing views to an issue they may personally believe in. As Kucer explains,

children themselves bring ideologies and positional frameworks to the classroom that are reflected

in what they read and write (538) Having practice arguing for the philosophies of both civil rights

leaders helps students avoid developing a single story- they see that there are always multiple valid
sides to a story and that they should view everything critically, always thinking about gaps in

knowledge and the strength of the arguments they are being presented.

What to do differently?

While watching the lesson over again, I realized that a major upgrade is figuring out how to keep

every student engaged in the lesson activities. The students who need partner discussion the most

were the ones who goofed off the entire time and were making silly noises instead of working. For

next year, I think this means practicing discussion norms so that students know exactly what I expect

from them when I say turn and talk. During this lesson especially, I was trying to observe students

writing patterns and process, but I was frequently interrupted by students being very disruptive and

refusing to follow directions.

I also notice in the video that I am talking a lot- I want to find ways to make sure that students are

being held accountable for moving the lesson forward, not just relying on me to make things happen.

Next Steps

Moving forward to next year, I want the focus of my writing instruction to be about making meaning. I

feel that so much of this year has focused on a product- students asking how much they have to

write, how many words they have to have, or how something will be graded. We spend very little

time discussing what our writing means. Scarcella explains that The most promising approaches to

preparing language learners with academic literacy in English incorporate some level of attention to

the linguistic, social, political, and cultural aspects of language with regard to making meaning with

texts for academic purposes (4). I want students to be excited about writing and to see that it is an

essential element of being a human in community with others. It is more than just the claim,

evidence, reasoning model that Ive been pushing all year. I need to help students view their

language through more lenses so they can use it and observe it more critically.
 References

Kucer, Stephen B.. Dimensions of Literacy, Taylor and Francis, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, .

(Scarcella, R. (2002). Chapter 11: Some key factors affecting English learners' development of
advanced literacy (pp. 209-226) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. In M.J.
Schleppegrell & M.C. Colombi (Eds.), Developing Advanced Literacy in First and Second
Languages: Meaning with Power. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.)

Enright, K.A. (2010). Academic literacies and adolescent learners: English for subject-matter
secondary classrooms (pp. 804-810) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. TESOL
Quarterly, 44(4), 804-810.)