Title: Thinking Critically about Our Practice: Drawing from Book Club Research
1Thinking Critically about Our Practice Drawing
from Book Club Research
- Taffy E. Raphael
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- IRA 2003
- taffy_at_uic.edu
2Bases for Improving Our Practice
Professional development
Literature-Based Curriculum
Balanced Instruction
3New Conventional Thinking
- Professional development bring new ideas to the
teaching population through the more
knowledgeable other (i.e, the outside expert)
- Balanced Instruction bringing literature to
skills programs or skills to literature programs - Literature-based Curriculum literature is
motivating and engages young learners
4Getting Beneath the Surface
- Collaborative Study Groups
- 1989-2003
5Thinking Critically about These New Conventions
- Professional development partnerships to solve
problems of practice (Florio-Ruane, Berne
Raphael, New Advocate, 2001) - Balanced Instruction Meeting our dual
obligations (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, Kehus,
George, Hasty, Highfield, Reading Teacher,
2001, 2003) - Literature-based Curriculum literature is the
source of substantive content learning in the
literacy curriculum (Raphael, Florio-Ruane,
George, 2001, Language Arts)
6The Book Club Plus Project
- Focus 1 Professional Development
- Working in Study Groups, Work Circles, Inquiry
Groups - Crossing Borders geographic (school/district),
economic, ethnic, racial)
7Professional Development through Teacher Study
Groups
Book Club Project Team Conceptualize Book Club
1989
Book Club Teacher Research Group extend initial
Book Club format to new populations (e.g.,
1st/2nd grade read aloud high school
intervention integrating with content area)
1992
1994
Literacy Circle
1996
Teachers Learning Collaborative
Book Club Plus Study Group
2001
Literacy Circle Study Group
2003 --?
Supporting ELL through Book Club Plus
8Crossing Borders in TLC An Example
TLC Network Participant School District Location
9Our ApproachAddress Problems-of-Practice
- Frame a Problem of Practice
- Experience authentic learning activities in
addressing it - Take from the experiences insights for teaching
- Design, teach, and assess curriculum reflecting
insights and needs of struggling readers - Share what was learned
- Transform understandings of literacy education
10Our Focus in TLC
- Problem of Practice the struggling, dis-engaged
reader - Why are many of our children -- especially 2nd
above able to read words but do not understand
what they are reading? - Why do some of our students seem to fall further
and further behind instead of catching up with
their peers? - What can we do about it?
- Our Experiences
- Teacher book clubs - experience reading, writing,
and talk about challenging text (immigrant
autobiography and related text) - Teacher writing groups - experience sustained
writing for an audience (memoirs)
11Experience 1Teacher Book Clubs
- Author Study Julia Alvarez
- Autobiographical Fiction
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent
- Yo!
- Historical Fiction
- In the Time of the Butterflies
- Non fiction
- Something to Declare
- Poetry
- Homecoming
- The Other Side
- Maintaining a Reading Log/Sketch Book
- Participating in Book Clubs
12Experience 2Literacy and Culture Memoirs
- Three Entries
- Based on artifact
- Essay for each
- Reflecting who you are, major influences
- As a teacher
- As a literate person
13Drawing from our Experiences
- Surfaced importance of substantive,
age-appropriate content for all readers - Surfaced potential of autobiography for
increasing cultural capital, valuing diversity
within the classroom - Led to
- Dual obligations concept
- Addressing Equity re-engaging struggling and
marginalized students by emphasizing cultural
capital --gt Storied Lives Curriculum - Research focused on teacher learning and
curriculum impact
14What are our Dual Obligations?
- Obligation 1
- Insure all students have reading instruction that
is at their instruction level - Texts written at students instructional level
-
- Obligation 2
- Insure all students have reading instruction that
develops critical thinking skills - Texts written for students age group
Note Instructional level for struggling readers
is often below age-level and we know that
students from underrepresented cultural and
linguistic groups are disproportionately large in
numbers in this group -- equity issue -- how to
re-engage
15How Can We Restructure the Curriculum
Organization to Address Our Dual Obligations?
Book Club
Literacy Block
Community Share Reading Writing
Book Club/Fishbowl Writing Community
Share
Guided Reading Independent Work writing
connected to theme skill/strategy practice
in dyads paper-pencil tasks
reading connected text etc.
16How Can We Rethink Our Curriculum Content?
- The content of literature recorded history of
humanity, told through a variety of genres - Content of the curriculum to build cultural
capital Our Storied Lives - Stories of Self
- Stories of Family
- Stories of Culture
- Bringing together read, writing, talk
17Stories of Culture
18Reading FocusEnhancing Comprehension Instruction
- Linking comprehension instruction to changing
teacher roles - Gradual transfer of control from explicit
instruction through modeling/ scaffolding/
coaching to independent practice - Focusing on comprehension instruction across
contexts - Opening community share teach those strategies
ALL students need (e.g., questioning skills,
identifying important information) - Guided reading teach those strategies
appropriate to particular reading levels - Writers Workshop teach strategies unlinked to
reading ability through flexible groups
19WritingMaking Writing Central
- Writing into the unit
- Writing through the unit
- Writing out of the unit
20Writing Into Life-Timeline
21Writing Through
- Using Logs to support thinking
- Questions to ask during fishbowl/book club
- Assignments to help identify important
information - Beginning
- Middle
- end
22Writing Out Family Stories
23Class Quilt
24Promoting Meaningful Talk
- Passion about ideas
- Evidence of text comprehension
- Intertextual connections
- Respect of others ideas
25Mississippi Bridge Grade 5
26The Book Club Research LineSummary of Key
Questions
- How can we create an authentic literacy learning
environment that still has multiple opportunity
for instruction? - What constitutes literacy instruction?
- What constitutes effective professional
development? - How do we re-engage struggling readers across all
grade levels? - How do we demonstrate progress?
- Current Book Club and the English Language
Learner
27Useful Resources
- Book Club resources
- www.planetbookclub.com
- Language Arts, November, 2001
- The Reading Teacher, February, 2001
- Heinemann Workshop April 7, Hartford
- QAR Resources
- Wright Group Super QAR for Test-wise Students
(www.wrightgroup.com) - www.uic.edu/taffy