Sept 23, 2011: NATSAP Midwest Region Conference, Hilton Oakbrook Terrace, Chicago, IL

Making the Implicit Explicit: Teaching subject-matter literacy skills to previously unsuccessful learners

Ike & Burroughs, Educational Consultants

Robert Burroughs, PhD

Introduction

Research has found that struggling learners have poor literacy skills in discipline-specific classes, such as science, history, or math (Klenck & Kibby, 2000).

Moving from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” is the crucial educational pivot.

One factor in the difficulty of “reading to learn” is the implicit differences in the ways that different subjects organize and communicate information.

Explicit instruction in implicit subject-matter differences will benefit struggling students.

Goals and Objectives

Demonstrate the concept of multiple literacies through an experiential activity.

Understand the importance of subject-matter literacies in curriculum and instruction.

Demonstrate activities to use with students to strengthen subject-matter literacies.

A Brief Quiz on “Blue Notes”

1. What is a “blue note”?

2. Why does the author consider blue notes important to harmonies of popular songs?

3. How does “blue note” harmony differ from “classical” harmony?

Processing “Blue Notes”

1. Write down all the words (vocabulary) you find difficult to understand in this excerpt.

2. Underline the “thesis” or main idea of this excerpt.

3. Write three questions, the answers to which would help you understand this passage.

Why “Blue Notes” Is Hard To Read Vocabulary

Technical music terms: eg, harmony, tonality, chord

Adapted technical terms: eg, minor key, cadential, scale

Metaphors: eg, excursion, resolve

Symbols

Background knowledge

Audience

Ways of Knowing

The specialized literacies of academic subjects: “ways of knowing, thinking and doing” (Applebee, 1996)

Form the boundaries of subject matter, as well as participation criteria; for example:

Acceptable topics of investigation

Acceptable methods of inquiry

What counts as compelling evidence

What counts as persuasive modes of argument

Nominalization

Transformation of one grammatical form into another; typically actions (verbs) into things (nouns).

Example:

“The production of rock waste by mechanical processes and chemical changes is called weathering.”

Producing rock waste (an action) = “weathering” (a thing).

Nominalization: Science Text

Nominalization: History Text

Nominalization: Science vs History

Both texts use nominalization, but in different ways

Science text uses it to further technical vocabulary of science

History texts use it to create abstractions.

Text Structure: Science vs History

Science argument often begins with hypothesis

Implicit structure based on “scientific method”

Focus on procedure, process, and methods

Evidence stresses observations, data, experiments

History often structured as narrative

Focus on sequence of events and chronology

Trends or generalizations highlighted from narrative

Evidence stresses documents and artifacts

Disciplinary Patterns of Thought and Langage

Function Biology Physics History

Orienting attention

Used guiding questions to focus students on bio functions, their labels, and place within systems

Focused students on observing and investigating

Contextualized historical info; focused on cultural perspectives

Refining Understanding

Encouraged review of terms and patterns

Examined possible explanations based on related scientific knowledge

Explored content from multiple social and cultural perspectives

Selecting Evidence

Used proper labels for parts and related them to systems

Made direct links between observed phenomenon and principles of physics

Explained interpretations through references to documents and artifacts

Adapted from:

Langer, J.A. (1992). Speaking of knowing: Conceptions of understanding in the academic disciplines. In J. Mangieri & K. Collins (Eds.), Teaching thinking: An agenda for the twenty-first century (pp. 69-85). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

So What?

“Ways of knowing” are so internalized by teachers that it is automatic and unexpressed.

Yet, students are often stumped by vocabulary and limited background knowledge.

For many texts they read and write, students end up being the wrong audience.

Reading Algebra

“Difficulties that students encounter in algebra are often the results of difficulties in reading”

“Diagrams and other visual aids often accompany the exposition and the examples.”

“Many familiar words--for example power, variable, simplify--take on specialized meanings in algebra.”

“Identifying and interpreting the information provided by diagrams, graphs, and tables is a skill that has to be learned”

Sample Activities & Approaches

Explicitly orienting attention, refining understanding, and citing evidence in texts that students read.

Explicitly addressing text structures as a way to improve reading and writing.

“Doing” science: Footprints

Orienting Students’ Attention

What is this phenomenon (bomb shelters) an example of?

Cold War paranoia?

Nuclear warfare naivete?

Government show?

Explicit rationales and connections to previous material give students context for instruction.

Refining Understanding

Questions that are related to how you frame the passage have the most coherence for students.

What questions would you want your students to ask about this passage?

Explicitly telling students the purpose of your questions will help clarify your questions for students.

Citing Evidence

Grammar school children in the 1950s--as I did--”duck and cover” to survive a nuclear blast.

Structure Frame & Summary Template

Note how explicit these organizers are.

Other Text Structures

Armbruster (1989) identifies several other text structures and provides frames and templates:

Cause/effect text structure

Sequence text structure

Compare/contrast text structure

Footprints Instructions

1. With a partner, read your copy of the case below and study the footprint patterns on the back page.

2. On the data sheet, use the prompts to note what you observe in the footprints.

3. Write down all the hypotheses you can think of that could explain these footprints.

4. Discuss the different hypotheses you have generated, think about what information you would need to test or explain your hypotheses.

Footprints Scenarios

You and a few close friends have taken a trip to Hawaii for the winter break. You really felt you needed to get away from the gloom of the mid-western winters to feel the warm sunshine and get out of those dreary winter clothes. Each day you and your friend have explored a new beach along the coastline. The edges by the water have new shell finds each day, the interiors of the beach have sand patterns and ripples where it is exposed to the wind, and interesting little sheltered spots that seem unchanged over time.

One day when you and your friend are walking along a new stretch of beach you see the most unusual footprint patterns in the sand.

Thank You for Your Attendance

Questions?