Bridges Bridges andand divides divides in high stakes in high stakes curriculum curriculum

knowledge, knowledge, language, language,

and and literacy literacy in the in the classroomclassroom

Peter FreebodyPeter Freebody

withwithEveline ChanEveline ChanThe University of SydneyThe University of Sydney Hobart 2009Hobart 2009

Acknowledging our colleaguesAcknowledging our colleagues

• The University of Sydney: Tim Allender, Jim Martin, Karl Maton, Erika Matruglio

• National Institute of Education, Singapore: Paul Doyle, Hong Huaqing

• Macquarie University: John Hedberg, Penny van Bergen, Wilhelmina van Rooy

• University of Queensland: Georgina Barton, Kim Nichols, Tony Wright

PreviewPreview

1. literacy lessons across the school years?

2. the changing qualities of literacy practices / capabilities across the school curriculum areas?

3. high stakes in learning, teaching and assessing ‘school literacy’?

My aimsMy aims

• to examine the curricular location of literacy

• to convince you, with some illustrations, of the urgency of acting on both ‘support-’ and curriculum-literacy across the middle and secondary years

• to reconsider our concept of literacy as inextricably bound up with our notions about knowledge

From what category is the concept From what category is the concept “literacy” drawn?“literacy” drawn?

• not curriculum (as in ‘Mathematics’)

• not a single ‘skill’ (as in ‘spelling’)

• not a disposition (as in ‘creativity’)

So what or where is So what or where is ‘essence of literacy’?‘essence of literacy’?

• A cognitive category related to information processing and acquisition? ... but

• A developmental phenomenon, with a specific ‘normal’ developmental moment? ... but

• A problem or need which needs remediation?... but

Literacy as socially mediatedLiteracy as socially mediated

Unless we attend to procedural definitions, and how teaching and learning activities are organized to produce them, we can never know whether our uses of reading the theories are appropriate to the interactional contexts of their application … students’ knowledge of the what and how of reading is culturally and socially mediated through interactions with other persons (Heap, 1985, p. 276)

James HeapBrock UniversityOntario, Canada

What does literacy education look What does literacy education look like in classrooms?like in classrooms?

• the aspiration: ‘every teacher is a teacher of literacy’(or so say all of us)

• but we knew that already:

“schooling is a matter of mediating the relationship between children and the printed text” (Olson, 1977, p. 66)

David R. OlsonUniversity of Toronto, OISE

Canada

So...So...

• how do teachers mediate ‘the relationship between children and texts’ in Year 1 and Year 11?

E.g. ts Year 1 “reading post” E.g. ts Year 1 “reading post” Carefully turn over the page from the outside edge.

Here’s Mrs Wishy Washy

She doesn’t really look very happy, does she? You can tell because her hands are on her hips. And she isn’t smiling.

Let’s read page number 8.

Point to the number 8.

That’s right. The first word is ALONG. Point to it. Read it with me now. …

JUST LOOK AT YOU, SHE SCREAMED.

She definitely not very happy, but I wonder what she’s going to do about it. Let’s find out. Turn over the page.

(from Baker & Freebody, 1989)

Feature 1: Establishing procedures and routines for reading

Teacher mediates what students should do and what they should think in relation to the text:

• establishes certain routines and procedures for ‘reading’, here and now, in this classroom – carefully turn over the page…, let’s read…, point to…, read it with me now…, turn over the page…

• provides an interpretation of the text orienting students toward a particular reading of it - She doesn’t really look very happy, does she?… I wonder what she’s going to do about it. Let’s find out.

…… and again, a and again, a Year 1 reading lesson, Year 1 reading lesson, this time with interactionthis time with interaction

Feature 2: Question-Answer-Evaluation exchanges around reading of the text

ss I SELL CHOPS AND STEAK. I MAKE SAUSAGES

FOR YOU TO EAT. t Who am I? Leonie ? [INITIATION]

s-L The baker ? [RESPONSE]

t The baker ? Let's see if the baker is the one. [EVALUATION/FEEDBACK]

ss No, I'M A BUTCHER [RESPONSE]

Feature 3. Modeling / focusing cognitive processes for reading -> knowledge

t Right we didn't talk about each one because we wanted to read it all through first but we can talk about each one now.

Let's have a look at what the elephant eats and let's have a think if the elephant is a meat eater or a plant eater, by what he eats.

Have a look at his food there, THREE BALES OF HAY, CEREAL CAKE, TWO LOAVES OF BREAD AND A BUCKET FULL OF CARROTS.

What do you think he eats, Leigh?

Feature 4: Developing systematic curriculum knowledge around the text

t Let's have a look at what the elephant eats and let's have a think if the elephant is a meat eater or a plant eater, by what he eats.

Have a look at his food there Julie - THREE BALES OF HAY, CEREAL CAKE, TWO LOAVES OF BREAD AND A BUCKET FULL OF CARROTS. What do you think he eats Julie?s-J A big eater.t Well we have got to decide if he is a plant eater or a meat eater. s-J I knowt What do you think Mario?sA plant eatert Yes because before all these things were baled for hay what were they?

Feature 5: Elaborating on student responses, training continuity of relevance (in this case)

t Yes because before all these things were baled for hay what were they? sFlowers t Where did it come from?sThe grasst Good girl - it grew out in the paddocks didn't it. They were plants weren't they? …t What about this cat food down here? Where would that come from do you think?sThe shopst Well it would come from the shops. Where did it come from before it came to the shops - James?sFrom the groundt Well they don't just dig it out of the ground do they?

Skipping ahead 10 years to Senior Biology

• lesson on the structural and functional relationships in cells

• linking previous lessons and pracs

• orchestrating a ‘reading + commentary’

• using this specialised Biology text (handout)

Year 11 Biology: Root structure (moving pictures #1 please [Bio_Clip1.mp4])

Where is literacy education located here?

Establishing reading practices & developing curriculum knowledge around the text

t Now we need to look at root structure cause I want to look at this surface area to volume ratio um and look at an example in plants (.) how it works. Can you please read for us^ ROOT STRUCTURE. Nathal could you read for us. Thank you (2) ROOTS ARE ESSENTIAL v Everyone’s with us^ we need to have a look at this v . Go for it

s ROOTS ARE ESSENTIAL PLANT ORGANS. THEY ANCHOR THE PLANT IN THE GROUND AND ABSORB WATER AND MINERALS FROM THE SOIL. THESE MINERALS ARE THEN TRANSPORTED THROUGHOUT THE PLANT...

Question-Answer-Evaluation exchanges around reading of the text

s… LIKE OTHER PARTS OF THE PLANT, ROOTS ARE COVERED IN EPIDERMIS, BUT THE EPIDERMIS DOES NOT HAVE A WAXY LAYER SINCE THIS WOULD =

t = Why doesn’t -- sorry, stop there. Why doesn’t it have a waxy layer like the leaf? Please, Mischa? [INITIATION]

sThat’s- if it’s waxy the water would be able to-- [RESPONSE]

t Good [EVALUATION]

but what’s the point of having a waxy cuticle on top of a leaf^ though [INITIATION]

s It keeps the water in, it stops it evaporating [RESPONSE]

Focusing cognitive processes for reading -> knowledge

s um MANY PLANTS… DEPEND ON A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL SYMBIOTIC ASSOCIATION WITH FUNGI … THE ROOTS, HOWEVER, BECOME INFECTED WITH A FUNGUS, …, FORMING A MY- (.)

t It’s a condition. Don’t worry about it. Yep. Keep going.

…

s … THE FUNGUS OBTAINS IMPORTANT ORGANIC COMPOUNDS SUCH AS SUGARS AND AMINO ACIDS . IN RETURN, THE FUNGUS GREATLY INCREASES THE ABSORPTION OF WATER AND MINERALS BY THE PLANT.

t Highlight that. That’s- the key idea of this whole article is there’s symbiotic relationships in which both are benefitting - the fungus gets sugars from the plant and the plant increases its surface area for absorption of minerals. Yes um keep going please…

s ALSO, THE FUNGUS OFTEN PROVIDES CERTAIN GROWTH SUBSTANCES… PROTECTION AGAINST ATTACK BY MICROORGANISMS.

t Good because the fungus- you can also almost call it an aleopathy as well because it secretes substances that don’t allow other microorganisms to infect the plant because it’s protecting its food source basically. Keep going.

Elaboration / commentary on text

Summary: secondary school classrooms Summary: secondary school classrooms vs ‘reading’ in the early years?vs ‘reading’ in the early years?

• inferring outward to both earlier knowledge and subsequent learning

• structuring levels of importance

• similar routines, focusing on content and conceptual understandings

• secondary students more likely to be held accountable for knowledge

How is literacy in the secondary school more than a ‘reading lesson’?

• A variety of texts used as sources of curriculum knowledge

• Students apprenticed into distinctive ways of reading these texts, and using them for further curriculum-specific learning and the creation of new texts

• Curricular knowledge is mediated by how students textualise their understandings

Example from a senior Music lessonExample from a senior Music lesson

• students analyse a piece of music (a pavane) and compare its features with another (an estampie)

• listen to music, read from score, discuss in groups and write a description

• “alien observation” vs structuring description around musical elements: rhythm, texture, phrase structure

freely analyse it… just do it as if an alien landed from outer space and you’re trying to describe to them what a pavane is like. What would you tell them? That’s what I’m asking you to do. But you need your music beside you to help you.

Senior Music lesson: Pavane cf. estampie(moving pictures #2 please [(moving pictures #2 please [Music_Clip2.mp4]))

Knowledge building through Knowledge building through … gradually … talking like a textbook… gradually … talking like a textbook

• bring to bear sensory and theoretical knowledge to describe what is heard

• recognise musical elements of and the specialised terms used to describe them, and analyse how they work together

• articulate these understandings through the logic of the discourses of music

t … So have we all written this, “a clear sense of phrasing or a clear sense of sections”?

• regular shuttling between everyday language and specialised language

Shuttling between everyday & Shuttling between everyday & specialised langaugespecialised langauge

• For final assessment, students will write an essay which involves evaluating evidence from multiple sources

• In the excerpt, major concepts are reviewed:t … I’m going to assign those terms to you in pairs^ and I

want you to write some definitionsv just to remind us about what they mean ((…))

s Ah I think I was supposed to do rationalism … um it’s just like (.1) the ideology of (.) where you (.) make decisions based on scientific evidence^ and like (.) like hard facts^

t OK^ (.) hard facts-or observable data^. A belief in science (.1) again as opposed to the religious (.1) or the dominance of the catholic church the dominance of a religious understanding of life during the middle agesv…

Example from Year 11 History lessonExample from Year 11 History lesson

Year 11 History: Evaluating multiple sources & defining ‘-isms’

(moving pictures #3 please [(moving pictures #3 please [History_Clip3.mp4]))

The literacy work of History?Decoding unfamiliar (technical) vocabulary

• History: ideology, middle ages, renaissance

Understanding abstract concepts & relationships

• History: rationalism, dominance of a religious understanding

Negotiating specialised patterns in text & grammar

• History: to construct chronology; to generalise from particular events; to interpret, evaluate and synthesise knowledge from multiple sources

Literacy and disciplinary knowledgeLiteracy and disciplinary knowledge

• Sources of variation across the curriculum areas:-- Are the criteria for knowledge production

implicit or explicit?– Is the central social work of text descriptive,

interpretive, explanatory or advocatory?– How resolutely separated are the technical vs

everyday discourses / registers?

(adapted from MacDonald, 1994)

Two myths about literacy development (that no one believes)

• literacy learning is completed in the early years of schooling and this is best achieved through phonics programs

• middle and secondary school students have the literacy resources for learning in the disciplines

• but in our classrooms, assessment practices and school systems, we act as though these myths are truths

If you want to test….If you want to test….Students, teachers, schools, Students, teachers, schools,

communities, systems and communities, systems and governments governments shouldshould want to know want to know

• about students’ understanding, appreciation, use, and production of texts that have ecological validity both in and for school, and in and for the growing experiences as members of our society

by ‘by ‘ecological validity’, we mean …ecological validity’, we mean …“ecological validity”: “to give accurate portrayals of the realities of

social situations in their own terms, in their natural or conventional settings”

(Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000, p. 110)

• for us, learning that establishes portable knowledge about interpretation and textuality, across disciplines, that is:– learning that is accompanied and driven by an

appropriately rich and comprehensive metalanguage

– learning that is focused on interpretation -- broadly construed -- including interpretation informed by multimodalities and ‘critical analysis’, as appropriate to the discipline/curriculum

Bridges to be builtBridges to be built

2 professional bridges:• Literacy educators and English

educators• English & literacy educators and

their colleagues – the curriculum specialists across the middle and school years

• … these 2 professional bridges can only be built if the conceptual bridgeconceptual bridge from literacy to (specialised, curricular) knowledge is named, debated, studied and built in schools

BUT …BUT …

ReferencesReferencesBaker, C.D., & Freebody, P. (1989). Children's First School Books: Introductions to the Culture of Literacy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2000). Research Methods in Education, 5th Ed. London: Routledge/Falmer.

Freebody, P. (2007). Literacy education in schools: Research perspectives from the past, for the future. Camberwell, Vic.: Australian Council for Educational Research.

Heap, J.L. (1985). Discourse in the production of classroom knowledge: Reading lessons. Curriculum Inquiry, 15, 245-279.

MacDonald, S.P. (1994). Professional academic writing in the humanities and social sciences. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press

Olson, D. R. (1997). The languages of instruction: The literate bias of schooling. In R. C. Anderson, R. J. Spiro, & W. E. Montague (Eds.), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.