Task 2: What are the language demands of your content area? (Essential Question B)
Academic language, broadly defined, includes the language students need to meaningfully engage with academic content within the academic context. This should not be interpreted to suggest that separate word lists and/or definitions of content-related language should be developed for each academic subject. Rather, academic language includes the words, grammatical structures, and discourse markers needed in, for example, describing, sequencing, summarizing, and evaluating — these are language demands (skills, knowledge) that facilitate student access to and engagement with grade-level academic content. These academic language demands are different from cognitive demands (e.g., per Bloom’s taxonomy). Although there may not be just one accepted definition of academic language, there are a good number of resources available that address the issue of academic language and may be considered in the development of state ELP standards and assessments. For example: Aguirre-Munoz, Parks, Benner, Amabisca, & Boscardin, 2006; Bailey, 2007; Bailey, Butler, & Sato, 2007; Butler, Bailey, Stevens, Huang, & Lord, 2004; Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Cummins, 1980; Cummins, 2005; Halliday, 1994; Sato, 2007; Scarcella & Zimmerman, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2001.
Pre-Posting –
Part A - Watch the video/PPT on Content Objectives and Language Objectives (See below). Think about the work we have completed already (What does it mean to read? Who are we as readers? Who are adolescent readers? What does research tell us about learning from texts) how does this build the foundation of rethinking how we plan for instruction in our content areas.
Now. . . Think about what it means to be literate in your specific discipline (e.g., what does it mean to read, write, speak and listen within your discipline).
Pre-Posting-
Part B - Conduct an internet search and see if you can find any sites/information on what it means to be literate in your specific discipline.
Initial Posting – After viewing the ppt. on content objectives versus language objectives I invite each member within your small discussion group to share their specific discipline and what it means to be literate within that discipline (e.g., What does it mean to be mathematically literate?). Think about the types of texts (oral and written) you need to read and comprehend. Think about the tasks that you are asked to do within your discipline and how is language used to support and complete these tasks. Post your interpretation of what it means to be literate within your discipline include any information you located in your web search (don’t forget to cite your sources or provide links for others to view).
Fri. November 15, Initial posting
Response Postings – Everyone should respond at least once to each group member with a question, clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their specific information. You might consider other information, questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
Response Postings:
By Sunday, November 17: 11:59 PM. Response postings
Read this --> http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/vsa/resources/VSAKleegeBlindImagination.pdf
ReplyDeleteSeriously. Read it.
It’s a beautiful, poetic interpretation of the differences between verbal and visual communication when looking at and describing images. The author, Georgia, Kleege, uses the example of explaining/defining specific colors, and color in general, to people who are blind. It describes how humans are both intensely visual and verbal creatures, and we require both these elements to successfully interpret images and ideas, and expresses the importance of visual culture and visual arts literacy better than I could in one blog post.
This is what art is all about. Being literate in visual arts means to be able to understand and express ideas through visual images. I’ve mentioned the aspect of “visual culture” before, which is an idea we talk about a lot in our art education content courses. The definition of “visual culture” is long and kind of drawn out, but it’s a huge component in what it means to be literate as an artist, or as an art educator.
Visual culture – visual artifacts and performances of all kinds, as well as new and emerging technologies, inside and outside the art museum, and the beliefs, values, and attitudes imbued in those artifacts and performances by the people who make, present, and use them. The primary means of understanding visual culture in art for life is critique.
Anderson, Tom and Milbrandt, Melody K., Art for Life: Authentic Instruction in Art, McGraw Hill, New York, NY, 2005.
Being literate as an artist/art teacher requires us to understand ideas beyond “art” in society. In encourages us to understand the connections between images and cultural/societal values. Like the definition mentions, the primary way we’re able to do this is through critique and art production. DBAE (Discipline Based Arts Education) is a curriculum approach that art educators have used for years that encourages understanding of visual culture through analyzing and making art. The link below is a very short PDF explaining the 4 categories of DBAE.
http://www.mcfarland.k12.wi.us/uploads/File/WIS/Related%20Arts/DBAE.pdf
Visual culture education expands on DBAE by incorporating technology and adding social and cultural values to art education. As literate, professional art teachers, we’re expected to have a strong understanding of how to pick apart images and help students understand those images in context. The context in which the images were created, as well as the student’s personal context/surroundings. We have several methods for critique and criticism that’s I’ve mentioned in a previous post, but I’ll post them again to reiterate the importance of critique and reflection in terms of art literacy.
There’s Feldman’s Critique which is very structured. Ian created a fabulous prezi last year about Feldman’s Critique that breaks it down into a very simple, easy to understand process (thanks Ian!)
http://prezi.com/5molyobzs4af/feldmans-model-of-art-criticism/
And there’s the feminist critique that focuses more on connections to personal stories and emotions. This is the Terry Barrett strategy I mentioned in my response post for Task 1 this week.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-6-8/Analyzing_Photographs_From_Theory_To_Practice.aspx
Karin, I'm really enjoying being in your group! I think you bring such interesting points to the table; insights and comments that I never would of thought of. The world of art has been so foreign to me, not because I don't enjoy it, but because I was so bad at physically creating it growing up. As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve sort of dipped my toes into aspects I didn’t know much about growing up (calligraphy and letter form). I really like that you said “being literate in visual arts means it be able to understand and express ideas through visual images”. This gives me a clear image of what it means to be literate in your discipline.
DeleteThe article you found on Georgina Kleege was fascinating. I have always had love for special education and attempt to look at things through individuals with disabilities perspectives. In high school, I took American Sign Language as my language and I remember learning about music through people that are deaf perspective. It does not mean that they cannot enjoy what we, able bodied, people can, and they just look at it from a different perspective. You’re right when you said that the article did an incredible job visual culture and visual arts literacy. Thanks for sharing!
Visual culture is an important aspect that I failed to explicitly connect in my own post. It was sort of integrated into my thoughts, but I'm glad you brought it up. Also, my Prezi! I'm surprised you still have that thing.
DeleteAnyway, you mentioned the feminist critique and the emotional side of things at the end of your post. That is something I commonly overlook. I didn't used to be that way, but a lot of teacher prep has been about creating and clarifying a sort of scientific approach to visual arts and this has left the emotional component by the wayside. We have talked about the feelings side of things in Gina's class, but I don't think I've really considered it in the way I should.
I would love to just have a class where I'm like, "today we are just going to paint how we feel." I'm pretty sure I'd have a tough time supporting the academic merit of that lesson. Then again, maybe not. I did have that lesson last year with abstract painting and music. Did you do that one in my group Karin? Anyway, yeah...emotions. That's part of art too.
Karin, I appreciate your discussion of the visual culture. This is a great example of developing a new mindset to use in a discipline. We talk about this a lot in our ESL classes - the relationship between language and culture, how they interact and influence each other. It's just as true in an academic discipline. As for the methods like Feldman's Critique, providing access to these different methods of criticism is essential to helping students develop their ability to think critically, and these skills can transfer over to so many other disciplines. It's not always direct, but they can certainly draw from their experience and exercise the same "mental muscle."
DeleteAw man :( I just read Karin's. Her's is way better. Yours is better Karin!
ReplyDelete"What does it mean to be literate in the visual arts?"
This question was a tough one for me. Not because I didn't know the answer (at least I think I know the answer), but because I found it hard to put into the right words. I know what it means, but how do I explain it? I suppose that's one of the big challenges of teaching in general.
I think I've started to blur the lines between content and literacy and I don't know if that is good or bad or just is. I feel like the goal of the content is visual literacy instead of visual literacy serving as access to the content. It all seems kind of backwards. Maybe I don't get it or maybe I'm just thinking about it too much. The more I think about what it means to be literate in the visual arts, the further away I get from what it actually means. Regardless of my reservations, this is how I understand literacy in the visual arts.
In simple terms, when people talk about "visual literacy" they are talking about the ability to see and understand images. This means thinking, creating, and communicating in images. This process is either critically informed by, or looking for, intent and ultimately results in judgement.
The purpose of visual literacy is to
- Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of visual representation.
- Improve the shortcomings of visual representation.
- Use visual representation to communicate knowledge
- Create new types of representation.
Visual literacy "roots visualization in its application contexts, i.e. giving the necessary critical attitude, principles, tools and feedback to develop an artist's own visualization for specific problems.
Delving into specifics, I see literacy in visual arts as a tiered system, each level increases in complexity and is informed by the level before it. Of course, there is some fluidity between the tiers and this isn't a teaching model by any means, but rather a model used for communication and my own compartmentalization of information.
1. On the most basic level of artistic literacy there is the elements and principles of art and design. The elements are line, shape, value, color, texture, space, and form. The principles are unity, balance, emphasis, contrast, movement, pattern, and rhythm. Someone who is literate in the visual arts can define, identify, and use all these
separately and in combination with one another.
2. There is of course knowledge of specific artistic media. This is not only the related vocabulary, but the knowledge of the process embedded within each word and, in turn, each medium. For example: what is a "glaze", how do you make one/apply it, and what is it used for?
This knowledge extends beyond the word/concept itself to an understanding of the relationship between this concept and other media. To continue using the "glaze" example, a visually literate person understands that glaze could be a glaze used in ceramics or a glaze used in painting. Even within these two mediums there is a further distinction. For example, applying a glaze in acrylic paint is different than applying one with oil paint. So again, literacy in this sense goes beyond defining vocabulary to knowledge of everything packed within that vocabulary.
3. The next tier is context. This includes the historical, contemporary, and cultural relationships between art and or artists and the intended (or unintended) function of the piece of art (literally or figuratively).
P.S. Mine's totally not better. I really like the idea of "three tiers" ideology you've developed! Breaking things down is incredibly daunting; we can discuss what it means to be literate as artists for days and still not even scratch the surface. I think this just solidifies the complexity and importance of language, communication, and connection and how in the end, EVERYTHING we learn is related in one way or another.
DeleteThese three tiers (elements and principles, medium-specific language, and context) are combined to make up visual literacy. As a single statement, visual literacy means communicating an idea, message, or intent (or inferring another artist's idea, message, or intent) using medium-specific language and the elements and principles of art and design through a relevant contextual lens.When literate in such a way, people can understand nearly any work of art, which (in my opinion) leads to a better understanding of life in general.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to traditional "word-based" literacy, this is useful when building visual literacy. It primarily serves as a support for communication. When a student writes an artist statement for example, it allows them to purposefully think about their intentions and their process. It is easy to internally understand intent, but getting intentions across to other people is one of the hardest things to do in art and written/verbal language is used as a support. In this way, traditional language has an interdependent relationship with artwork. This language informs the work or "visual language" and the visual language informs the traditional language. This is the kind of ideal relationship supported by the "New London Group" academics. They call this relationship "linguistic literacies and visual literacies as interacting and interlacing modalities which complement one another in the meaning making process."
Certain language within other academic disciplines supports the visual arts as well. For example:
- Observation - Science (identification of elements and principles and content)
- Deconstruction - Math (selecting specifics and examine how they relate to the whole)
- Discerning bias and context - Social Studies (cultural/historical relevance and context, personal/cultural lens)
- Critique - Language Arts (assigning value, identifying form, editing/refining)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy (I know it is a wiki, but it is actually really informative)
https://sites.google.com/a/dpi.wi.gov/disciplinary-literacy-in-fine-arts/home
http://www.newliteracies.com.au/what-are-new-literacies?/138/
http://tinyurl.com/n58kcp7 (This is an interesting read. I found it was worth the price.)
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675
Ian, the paragraph in which you discuss the relationship between "linguistic literacies and visual literacies" is PERFECT for understanding what it means to be literate in the art room. Literacy, as I understand it, is all about creating meaning from language (whatever kind of language it may be) and finding ways to communicate that language to others. I wish it was easier for other disciplines to see how these fundamental ideas are incorporated into the art room on a daily basis through both traditional linguistic and visual languages. Artist statements, critique discussion, personal evaluation, and reflection, are all HUGE components of visual arts literacy, and so easily tie into the "common core" of academics.
DeleteKathy Schwartz is a professor of art education at James Madison University. Ian and I had the pleasure of meeting her and doing a workshop with her that gave us some really great tools for incorporating discussion, criticism, communication, and literacy (both visual and verbal) into our every day art lessons. She does a fantastic job of helping districts understand how crucial the art department is to the development of their students because of art's powerful ability to carry and communicate culture. She's definitely worth mentioning in this conversation because she has done some great work incorporating both traditional and non-traditional elements of literacy into the many art rooms she's led.
https://www.jmu.edu/artandarthistory/FacultyBios/KatherineSchwartz/kschwartz.html
Ian, I’m with you on the difficulty of explaining what it means to be literate in our specific context. I felt when I was writing my post, I was rambling on and on, attempting to put into words what I know. I love that you said, “thinking, creating and communicating in visual images” is visual literacy. Those are very simple, but yet clear words to describe your focus. I think you should take that phrase with you into your teaching and let your students know what it means to be visually literate.
DeleteThe way that you broke your field down into tiers is EXTREMELY helpful to an outside source, such as myself. Once again, you are clearly stating what your purpose is. The other phrase that I took away from your post had to do with the first one I talked about. You said, “As a single statement, visual literacy means communicating an idea, message, or intent (or inferring another artist's idea, message, or intent) using medium-specific language and the elements and principles of art and design through a relevant contextual lens”. Did you get that from somewhere or make it up? Either way that powerful statement pretty much describes to me what visual arts is all about. Really great. Wish I could take an art class from you and Karin, you guys are going to be amazing teachers.
Thanks for the link Karin. You are my illuminator every week. You always find the best/most useful resources. Do you just browse around a lot or do you have a secret method or site?
DeleteThe tiered system is my own creation, or at least I arrived their independently but I'm sure others have made similar connections and I'm sure I've been influenced along the way. As for that "single statement", that is all me!
Your support actually mean a lot. I go back and forth on a daily basis as to whether I can actually teach, so hearing a third so it'll be okay makes me feel a lot better. This is actually one of the reasons activities like these are helpful. I usually don't think I know a lot about anything, but then I am asked to define what I know and I realize I actually might have an idea of what I'm doing.
There are two aspects to literacy: receiving and producing. They overlap a lot, but It seems that the importance of literacy is not only that students can understand what they are engaging with, whether it's a written text or a work of art, but that they can also express that to someone else. Art seems like a great way to really expand a student’s literacy, because while it is a discrete academic discipline in its own right, it often engages more senses and emotions than we might engage in another content area. It makes me wonder about the development of the visual literacy and culture; is it something students have already begun developing, and you and Karin (and Laura!) are simply making them conscious of it, and developing it into a skill?
DeleteMike, visual literacy/visual culture is absolutely something that's naturally a part of every one's lives - from how we perceive advertisements to our personal aesthetics and beyond. We ALL teach visual culture and visual literacy, but yes, to a certain extent I do think it's our responsibility as art teachers to help students (and people in general!) understand how to interpret it and apply it to their own contexts.
DeleteAnd Ian, unfortunately no, I don't have a secret stockpile, method, or site. I just wander and browse. A lot. I like to think of myself as proof that "not all those who wander are lost." ;)
DeleteSorry for the stupid formatting. My iPad hates Blogger. I can't do anything with it. It just took me fifteen minutes to copy paste my entry.
ReplyDeleteHi, there. Sorry I haven't been around. It's after 11:00 on Friday and it feels like I finally got a chance to sit down and check out the blog. You two have done a lot of work here already, so I hope you don't feel disrespected that I haven't added my comments yet. Look for my posts this weekend.
ReplyDeleteOh Mike don't feel bad at all. We're all really busy and totally understand!
DeleteMy content area, as you all know by now, is English as a Second Language (ESL). For me, literacy in ESL involves two things: literacy in general and academic literacy. Literacy in general is the base literacy that mainstream learners take for granted. Basic literacy involves being able to understand written and spoken English, and to produce language by speaking or writing it. Academic literacy involves the things we talked about last week and that we’ve been reading about and discussing this week: being able to think in the discipline, and to communicate one’s ideas, questions, and understanding effectively.
ReplyDeleteSo, in the content of ESL, the English language is academic content. Grammar, pronunciation, syntax, and things like that are part of the academic content from the standpoint of English language proficiency. Knowing how language works is part of developing basic literacy in English, but there are levels of knowledge and understanding. There is a level at which someone can be proficient and fluent in English and live a satisfactory life. It varies with each person, depending on their needs and desires. Some people really get into language, others don’t.
However, students don’t use their language skills in a vacuum. They will need to apply their language skills in all of their classes: science, art, math, literature, health, FACS, and social studies. Where it gets tricky is when the view of outsiders is considered. A lot of people think ESL is just about teaching kids how to speak English, and how to read and write. There is a lot of truth to that stereotype, because that’s the basis for everything else; if students can’t communicate in English, the ESL teacher isn’t doing the most basic part of their job. That’s the easy part of being an ESL teacher. What’s challenging is developing the academic literacy.
If you’ve stuck with me this far, you’re probably wondering why I’ve talked so much about other content areas. The reason that I’ve framed my post this way is that the content in ESL isn’t just language, but using the language in the other content areas. In many ways, an ESL teacher is a support teacher, supporting the mainstream teachers to ensure the students are proficient in their disciplines as well as the English language. One thing I want to do as an ESL teacher is to integrate language instruction with the other content areas. To that end, I found a brief article about integrating content with English language development. http://www.glencoe.com/glencoe_research/Math/icawp.pdf
This article briefly describes integrating ESL instruction with a content area; in this case, it’s science. They list strategies that help all students develop academic language proficiency specific to the discipline, and they list language support strategies to more specifically help ELLs. It sure would seem that using the content of other classes would help to make the language more meaningful and relevant for my students; it would resonate with them and help them to make the necessary connections to progress further linguistically and academically.
P.S.: I don't know why the URL for my article has the word "Math" in it; it was about science.
DeleteMike, I always enjoy reading your posts. You are so intellectual and I often feel that I learn so much from you. I am lucky to be in this program with you, gaining a wide perspective from not only our professors, but from you as well. Our field is centered on literacy and cannot exist without it. You so clearly stated that ESL involves both literacy in general and academic literacy. Being generally literate means that an individual is able to understand written and spoken English AND being able to produce the language by speaking or writing it. Then we have the academic piece of literacy that involves grammar, pronunciation, syntax, etc. and knowing how the language works.
DeleteI’m so happy you touched base on the importance of our ELL students applying their language skills in their content classes. I think this is REALLY where our students struggle and you couldn’t be more right when you say that outsiders don’t understand this aspect. We are teaching our ESL students so much more than just the basic English language. When I tell people what my content area is, they often have difficulty grasping what exactly it is we do. Ever heard this question…”So what other language do you speak then to help your students?” My answer? “English is my only language”. People are dumbfounded that I can teach non-English proficient students without using their native language. I often want to shake these people and tell them that it’s so more than JUST teaching English. We are lucky to have such a great KSP class that understands the importance of teaching our ESL students in their classroom. I have no doubt that you will, but continue to talk about other content areas. Continue to advocate for our students that they need support from not only us, but academic content areas as well.
I think ESL teachers might even be more on the fringe than I assumed. I suppose that's the problem in general. Everyone has preconceptions about what teaching in a certain area entails when the people who really do are the ones that teach in that area. I hope that made sense. Anyway, you did a great job communicating what an ESL teacher actually does. I knew ESL teachers had to work in all content areas, but I guess the reality of what that really means didn't click until just now.
DeleteI've seen a lot of similarities between Molly and your own thoughts, mainly advocating for literacy within content classes to create meaningful connections to language. This integration seems like a win for everyone involved. It really seems like a natural relationship. Content teachers use language to make content meaningful and content is used to make language more meaningful. Is there other approaches or opposition to this method or is the problem with teachers who want language to solely inform content? I guess I am unaware of what's broken with ESL as I am unaware of a lot of things related to ESL in general. Or is that what's broken? That I know little about ESL as a content teacher.
Ian, I think the issue with literacy (as an ESL teacher, and even as it relates to other students) is that a lot of teachers don't spend the time on making sure their students really "get it" when they are reading a text of some kind. Using the example we had in our last face-to-face class, about women and the industrial revolution, a lot of students might have trouble comprehending that passage, or rephrasing it in their own words that showed they clearly grasped all of the data that was packed in there. Does that make sense? I'm not sure if I answered your original question.
DeleteMike, for me, your statement, "students don’t use their language skills in a vacuum" embraces the essence of what this class and the academic language aspect of the edTPA are all about. Language permeates all disciplines, and is the ultimate interdisciplinary tool; without it (all aspects of it, visual, verbal, written, etc.) we're simply unable to teach or communicate, period. We've had to spend a lot of time developing our personal teaching philosophies throughout this program, and a huge part of mine is making sure I find ways to connect what's happening in my classroom, to as many other disciplines aspects of life - both academic and social - as I possibly can. I look forward to talking more with you about ways I can do this for my ELL students in particular!
DeleteMike did a REALLY great job explaining the key aspects of ESL, general and academic literacy. He hit the nail on the head describing the importance of language skills in content areas and how we (ESL teachers) often act as a support for content area teachers. What Mike said was very important, but I’m going to take a different approach on what it means to be literate from an ESL perspective.
ReplyDeleteDifferent cultural groups have different ways of making meaning, as well as ways to induct their children in different forms of literacy. Therefore I am thinking of literacy more as a social practice. This past week, I completed a presentation on what it means to be communicative competent. M. Halliday’s view taught us that language is a social-meaning making process and so most of what we have learned about language, we have learned from others. This means that students will have many opportunities to make meaning in the classroom in different ways.
In ESL content area classes, we frequently talk about social verses academic language. ESL students will typically acquire their social language skills between 1-3 years, while their academic language can take a lifetime to achieve. The social aspect is being learned all day, everyday, both in and out of school. Academic language is primarily a focus only in school, and sometimes the ESL students aren’t even grasping the knowledge then. I wanted to focus on what it means to be literate in the social and academic spheres of ESL. Becoming literate on a social level means the individual is able to express and communicate in an informal manner to get their meaning across. Becoming literate on an academic level are many of the points that Mike touched base on: grammar, pronunciation, syntax, vocabulary, etc. Once again, looking at literacy as a social practice, I believe that academic literacy can begin with social literacy. Writing begins with a voice and if you have students start to write what is on their mind, they are starting to develop academic literacy skills. Also by writing what the students have on their minds, we can start teaching them how their social and cultural ways have positioned them in certain ways. If we are tying in the students social and cultural practices with academic literacy, they will be more inclined to develop a stronger sense of academic literacy. Our goal as teachers is to take the academic and social literacy skills of our students and turn them into critically literate individuals who know how to make meaning out of language in order to position them as personal advocates.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/academic/
This website in general is an amazing resource for both family’s and educators of English language learners. If you ever have any questions about ELL’s this website is almost guaranteed to have an answer. This specific link I brought you to describes the difference between social and academic English and how to develop those skills.
Molly, this is a great discussion you bring up. ESL students often feel like outsiders for a variety of reasons (different home language, different culture, being labeled as an "ELL" and having to go to a special class). Developing their social literacy is essential to helping them establish an identity as an English-speaking person; not in the sense that they abandon their original identity, or their culture or their heritage, but that they are adding English to their identity, and answering the question "What does that mean to you?" Regardless of what we teach, we play a role in helping our students to understand who they are in the world and how they will lead their lives.
DeleteYour discussion of using social literacy as the bridge or scaffold to develop academic literacy is spot-on. Students will be more prepared to become critical thinking, independent learners when they are comfortable with their ability to communicate in English, and receive the positive reinforcement and instructional feedback that lets them know their insights are valuable and meaningful.
Molly, I really enjoyed the Colorín Colorado link! I just commented on one of Ian's earlier posts about how intimidating it can be to pick apart the roles literacy plays in specific content areas, and when it comes to language, ESL is at the top of the list for literacy and language comprehension! I'm a huge fan of breaking things down into very simple, easy to understand formats whether it's graphic organizers (I know, I know, my "visual learner" is showing...), videos and explanations, or simple question and answer pages like the Colorín Colorado page. I love how straightforward and simple the information is presented. It reminds me to always be sure that no matter what kind of information I'm presenting, I need to make sure I'm doing it in the easiest, most simple to understand way possible. After exploring this website, I feel like I have a better understanding of the role literacy plays in academic and social contexts for students, thank you!
DeleteYour link (and Mike's before it) are really useful, especially as an ESL layman. I appreciate your deviation from Mike. I'm pleased that our group's composition has multiple content areas represented, but also multiple people within those areas. It helps to understand the content areas a little better. We don't have to serve as the sole representative of our content within our group, which I think leads to more accurate understandings.
ReplyDeleteAs far as your specific talking points are concerned, I thought your distinction between social and academic literacy is a wise one. It illustrates just how complex literacy is even within traditional language. If I am understanding your method right, it seems similar to a fluency-to-skill approach. Getting students communicating and then teach them the specific skills. Or is it more fluid than that and you develop social and academic fluency and skills in tandem? I suppose just like everywhere else, some students are more fluent or have more skills than others so the teaching method is ideally individualized as best as possible. Or am I completely off the mark entirely and it is really just about bringing the student's social environment into their academic lives?