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Thinking Critically about Our Practice: Drawing from Book Club Research

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Thinking Critically about Our Practice: Drawing from Book Club Research Taffy E. Raphael University of Illinois at Chicago IRA 2003 taffy_at_uic.edu Bases for Improving ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Thinking Critically about Our Practice: Drawing from Book Club Research


1
Thinking Critically about Our Practice Drawing
from Book Club Research
  • Taffy E. Raphael
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
  • IRA 2003
  • taffy_at_uic.edu

2
Bases for Improving Our Practice
Professional development
Literature-Based Curriculum
Balanced Instruction
3
New 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

4
Getting Beneath the Surface
  • Collaborative Study Groups
  • 1989-2003

5
Thinking 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)

6
The Book Club Plus Project
  • Focus 1 Professional Development
  • Working in Study Groups, Work Circles, Inquiry
    Groups
  • Crossing Borders geographic (school/district),
    economic, ethnic, racial)

7
Professional 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
8
Crossing Borders in TLC An Example
TLC Network Participant School District Location
9
Our 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

10
Our 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)

11
Experience 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

12
Experience 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

13
Drawing 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

14
What 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
15
How 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.
16
How 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

17
Stories of Culture
18
Reading 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

19
WritingMaking Writing Central
  • Writing into the unit
  • Writing through the unit
  • Writing out of the unit

20
Writing Into Life-Timeline
21
Writing Through
  • Using Logs to support thinking
  • Questions to ask during fishbowl/book club
  • Assignments to help identify important
    information
  • Beginning
  • Middle
  • end

22
Writing Out Family Stories
23
Class Quilt
24
Promoting Meaningful Talk
  • Passion about ideas
  • Evidence of text comprehension
  • Intertextual connections
  • Respect of others ideas

25
Mississippi Bridge Grade 5
26
The 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

27
Useful 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
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