Cognitive Engagement and Identity Investment in Literacy Development among English Language Learners

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Cognitive Engagement and Identity Investment in
Literacy Development among English Language
Learners Evidence from the Early Authors
Program  Judith K. Bernhard, Ryerson
University (Toronto)Jim Cummins, The University
of Toronto
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• Science A Reality Check
• Narrow interpretations of what constitutes
  scientificevidence
• Cognitive engagement, identity investment not
  easily quantified in quasi experimental research
  paradigms
• Persuasive claims to knowledge can be made on the
  basis of qualitative case study research

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• Reading A Reality Check
• Minimal evidence to support drill and practice
  orientations favored by current policies
• Intensive and sustained phonics instruction has
  minimal effects on low achieving and normally
  achieving students beyond grade 1

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• Avoidance of Pedagogically Induced LD
• Valid identification of learning disabilities
  among ELL students necessitates a classroom
  environment that includes both
• an emphasis on maximizing students cognitive
  engagement and identity investment, and
• Basic phonics and other aspects of how the
  linguistic code operates

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• Change Happens at the Local Level
• Regardless of institutional constraints,
  educators have individual and collective choice
  in how they interact with students, in how they
  engage them cognitively, in how they activate
  their prior (cultural) knowledge, in how they use
  technology to amplify imagination, and in how
  they involve parents in their childrens
  education.
• Educators have a vested interest in educating
  children their sense of personal self-worth and
  job satisfaction depends on it.

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Pedagogical Orientations
    Transmission-oriented pedagogy aims to
transmit the information and skills articulated
in curriculum standards directly to students.
       Social constructivist pedagogy
incorporates transmission of information and
skills but broadens the focus to include the
co-construction of knowledge and understanding by
teachers and students working together. A major
goal is the development of higher-order thinking
abilities.   Transformative approaches to
pedagogy broaden the focus still further by
emphasizing not only transmitting the curriculum
and constructing knowledge but also the promotion
of critical literacy among students. Critical
literacy focuses on demystifying societal power
relations embedded in discourse and text (e.g.
curriculum materials). It aims to enable students
to identify how language is used to reinforce
unequal power relations and how language can be
used to uncover and dismantle these power
relations.
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• The Normalized Default Option
• The following assumptions and practices have
  become normalized in ways that constrict both the
  identity options for culturally diverse students
  and their cognitive and academic engagement
• Literacy is assumed to equal English literacy
• There is minimal acknowledgement or promotion
  of students cultural/linguistic/imaginative
  capital
• The involvement of culturally and
  linguistically diverse parents is limited and
  passive
• Technology use is sporadic and unconnected to
  coherent pedagogical philosophies and practices.

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How People Learn(Bransford, Brown Cocking,
2000)
Learning with Deep Understanding Knowledge is
more than just the ability to remember deeper
levels of understanding are required to transfer
knowledge from one context to another. This
implies that instruction for deep understanding
involves the development of critical literacy
(reading between the lines) rather than simply
literal comprehension of text.
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Building on Pre-existing Knowledge Prior
knowledge, skills, beliefs, and concepts
significantly influence what learners notice
about their environment and how they organize
and interpret it. This principle implies that in
classrooms with students from linguistically
diverse backgrounds, instruction must explicitly
activate students prior knowledge and build
relevant background knowledge as necessary. The
implied acknowledgment and affirmation of
students language and cultural backgrounds is
not sociopolitically neutral. Rather it
explicitly challenges the omission and
subordination of students culture and language
within typical transmission-oriented classrooms.

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  Promoting Active Learning Learners should be
supported in taking control of, and
self-regulating, their own learning. When
students take ownership of the learning process
and invest their identities in the outcomes of
learning, the resulting understanding will be
deeper than when learning is passive.
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         Support within the Community of
Learners Learning takes place in a social context
and a supportive learning community encourages
dialogue, apprenticeship, and mentoring. Learning
is not simply a cognitive process that takes
place inside the heads of individual students it
also involves socialization into particular
communities of practice.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC EXPERTISE
Teacher Student Interactions
Maximum Cognitive Engagement
Maximum Identity Investment

• Focus on Use
• Using language to
• Generate new knowledge
• Create literature and art
• Act on social realities

• Focus on Meaning
• Making input comprehensible
• Developing critical literacy

• Focus on Language
• Awareness of language forms and uses
• Critical analysis of language forms and uses

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School Transformation through the Creation of
Identity Texts

• Identity texts refer to artifacts that students
  produce. Students take ownership of these
  artifacts as a result of having invested their
  identities in them.
• Once produced, these texts (written, spoken,
  visual, musical, or combinations in multimodal
  form) hold a mirror up to the student in which
  his or her identity is reflected back in a
  positive light.
• Students invest their identities in these texts
  which then become ambassadors of students
  identities. When students share identity texts
  with multiple audiences (peers, teachers,
  parents, grandparents, sister classes, the media,
  etc.) they are likely to receive positive
  feedback and affirmation of self in interaction
  with these audiences.

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The Context Project The Early Authors Project
(Bernhard, Winsler Bleiker, 2004) Miami-Dade
More than half residents born out of US Over
50 of low income population cannot read at 8th
gr level Increasing number of high school drop
outs Coalition efforts to increase literacy
levels of children
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The Early Authors Program

• Authoring 3000 books for and about the children.
• 32 child dev. centers
• 57 Teachers
• 13 Literacy Specialists
• 1179 Children
• 800 Families

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Improvement in EAP classroom literacy environment
from pre to post.
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Use of Literacy-Supportive Teaching
Strategies/Practices
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Gain scores (in months) in LAPD age from pre to
post for EAP and Control
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Results of Literacy Specialists Interviews

• I think making their own books to see themselves
  in the books and to talk about themselves. And,
  I think there was a lot of pride when the book
  was finished, when they got their final book,
  they shared it with the class and they just
  beamed. They were so excited to show their book
  and they felt so proud. (Literacy Specialist)

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• The Context
• Project From Literacy to Multiliteracies
  Designing Learning Environments for Knowledge
  Generation within the New Economy
• Canada Strong bilingual/multicultural rhetoric
  but weak reality
• Rapid language loss among bilingual students
  (Toronto and Vancouver linguistic graveyards)
• Genuine bilingual programs for non-aboriginal
  students only in Alberta

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• Essential Elements
• Children see themselves in identity texts, talk
  about themselves
• Identity Investment -- Increased Pride
• Develop affective bond to literacy
• Cognitive engagement

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AERA Standards for Educational and Psychological
Testing (1999)   Opportunity to learn is
crucial in making high stakes decisions regarding
student placement or special education status
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Research Based Claims

• Students home language (L1) knowledge is an
  educationally significant component of their
  cultural capital
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• Even in an English-medium instructional context,
  teachers can create an environment that
  acknowledges, communicates respect for, and
  promotes students linguistic and cultural
  capital
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• Newly-arrived students whose knowledge of English
  is minimal are enabled to express their artistic
  and linguistic talents, intelligence and
  imagination through the creation of identity
  texts written initially in their L1. In this
  way, they quickly join the classroom and school
  learning community as valued members rather than
  remaining at the periphery for an extended
  period.
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• Students attitude towards and use of L1 changes
  positively in L1-supportive classroom contexts
•  

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Research Based Claims (cont.)

• Parent-student communication and collaboration
  increase when dual language literacy projects
  such as book authoring are initiated
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• Technology can increase the audience for
  students books and provide reinforcement for
  students literacy practices
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• 7.   Dual language initiatives can serve to
  normalize linguistic diversity within the school
  and result in more coherent and effective school
  policies with respect to (a) affirming students
  linguistic and cultural identities (b) parental
  involvement, and (c) technology use within the
  school.

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•  Multiliteracies Pedagogy Revisited
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• 1. Multiliteracies pedagogy constructs an image
  of the child as intelligent, imaginative, and
  linguistically talented individual differences
  in these traits do not diminish the potential of
  each child to shine in specific ways.
• 2. Multiliteracies pedagogy acknowledges and
  builds on the cultural and linguistic capital
  (prior knowledge) of students and communities.
• 3. Multiliteracies pedagogy aims explicitly to
  promote cognitive engagement and identity
  investment on the part of students.
• 4. Multiliteracies pedagogy enables students to
  construct knowledge, create literature and art,
  and act on social realities through dialogue and
  critical inquiry.
• 5. Multiliteracies pedagogy employs a variety of
  technological tools to support students
  construction of knowledge, literature, and art
  and their presentation of this intellectual work
  to multiple audiences through the creation of
  identity texts.

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Multiliteracies Pedagogy (cont.) The essence of
this framework is that students should be given
opportunities to engage in meaningful experience
and practice within a learning community, and the
development of concepts and understanding should
be supported by explicit instruction as required.
Students should also have opportunities to step
back from what they have learned and examine
concepts and ideas critically in relation to
their social relevance. Finally, they should be
given opportunities to take the knowledge they
have gained furtherto put it into play in the
world of ideas and come to understand how their
insights can exert an impact on people and issues
in the real world.