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Unit 4:
EQ and rationale
Lesson #1:
The Power of Discourse
How can understanding Discourse communities impact work with students in ELA?
Unit 6:
Unit 3: Defining Our Communities
Lesson #2:
Embracing Wobble
How can experts outside of education help shape our practices as ELA teachers? How might this impact or change the way we approach ELA instruction?
Lesson #7:
Fact Checking Reality
TCH 306 Literacy & Technology Across Middle Level Disciplines Fall 2022
Developing a Stronger ELA Classroom with Literacy and Technology
Unit 4: Imagining Possibilities Through Ideation
How have others made change in their communities?
How can WE make change in our communities?
Lesson #6:
Interrogating Creators of Texts
Lesson #3:
The Facets of Reading
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PURSUIT 1: IDENTITY
"How will my ELA instruction help students to learn something about themselves and/or about others?"
PURSUIT 2: SKILLS
"How will my classroom instruction build students' skills for ELA?"
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Lesson #4:
Seeing Meaning
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PURSUIT 3: INTELLECT
"How will my ELA instruction build students' knowledge and mental powers?"
Lesson #5:
How can understanding the facets of reading impact ELA instruction?
How can understanding visual literacy impact how students interact with visuals in ELA?
PURSUIT 4: CRITICALITY
""How will my ELA instruction engage students' thinking about power and equity and the disruption of oppression?"
It’s All About the Questions
How can asking questions lead to or impact our work with students in ELA?
How can ELA students engage in critical thinking, equity and power structures in the field?
How do understanding various perspectives in ELA help students think more about ELA criticality?
PURSUIT #1: IDENTITY
"How will my ELA instruction help students to learn
something about themselves and/or about others?"
Lesson #1: The Power of Discourse | |||
Questions to Consider | Professional Readings/Research to Support | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How can understanding my students’ Discourse communities impact my work with students in ELA? | The language of the school, especially the language of school books, is explicit. The explicit language that more affluent children learn at home prepares them for the ever so much more explicit language of the school, particularly the language of books. The implicit language that working-class children become accustomed to at home doesn't. - From Literacy with an Attitude |
| https://humanlibrary.org/ - The Human Library® creates a safe space for dialogue where topics are discussed openly between our human books and their readers. https://penzu.com/ - online private journaling tool |
How can we utilize students funds of knowledge in lessons? | It is important to educate yourself on your students and their lives outside of school. As mentioned in, Theory of Practice,“Classroom learning can be enhanced when teachers learn more about their particular students”. Once learning about your students and who they are, you can utilize what they have shared to connect to lessons. |
| https://www.mentimeter.com/ - Anonymously asking questions https://www.goosechase.com/ - Encourages students to get to know each other |
How can we use books to infuse conversations with kids? | Books empower kids with stories, they help kids feel seen and valued, they help kids know and understand other people’s truths, and they inspire more conversation. Recommending various books can help adults tackle difficult conversations with young adolescents. |
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How does teaching different discourses address students social emotional needs | What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know discusses how students start realizing social differences between peers, addressing this in classes normalizes their feelings. |
| Linkedin.com - Helps students explore different communities. Offers professional platform for discussion calm.com - Offers self-soothing practices that help your recognise and regulate emotions. |
How do encourage students to read books? | They should be surrounded by titles that reflect the lives of themselves as well as their classmates. When students find titles with characters that look like them and families that resemble their own or their neighbors, their interest level increases. Making these connections also increases student comprehension.- EDU |
| IXL- personalized learning that helps students explore their skills Quill- provides free literacy activities that build reading comprehension, writing, and language skills for all students/ |
How can we incorporate students backgrounds through literacy, that way they enjoy what they are reading? | Culturally responsive teaching with social justice brings cultural and linguistic strengths of students into the classroom. This approach requires being deliberate about getting to know and understand the knowledge and experiences students have acquired outside of school, along with respecting, valuing, and using these “funds of knowledge” |
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How can we offer our students a variety of windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors? | “According to my sponsor teacher, students couldn’t handle working in groups” (24). Social constructivism is an educational philosophy that allows for students to learn from with one another via small group discussions and conversations. The quote reveals that the teacher can be an obstacle in the learning process if they don’t have the mindset that students can be each other’s resources for learning. |
| Facing History and Ourselves - This site promotes various cultures and how to have productive discussions with those like and unlike a student. Fundamentals, Core Concepts, Racism (racialequitytools.org) - This site shares teachable moments about what equity means, as students may have not heard about the concept up to this point. CRE By Design – Member Area - This site champions for equitable classroom set up and allows for students to see where to teacher is coming from when designing lessons and giving instruction. |
PURSUIT #1: IDENTITY
"How will my ELA instruction help students to learn
something about themselves and/or about others?"
Lesson #2: Embracing Wobble | |||
Questions to Consider | Professional Readings/Research to Support | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How might studying outside experts impact or change the way I approach ELA instruction with my students? | “A Classroom Full of Risk Takers” - Edutopia “Teachers can model desired behaviors in all aspects of teaching, including how to handle a mistake and move forward” |
| Peergrade - a peer feedback tool for students to share their work and get feedback to revise |
How can we engage students with practices learned from outside experts? | Students can use a specific discourse or “gamer mode” language in order to engage students- Cora Kennedy |
| Discord- students are able to create a space of “gamer language” for class that can be incorporated into an assignment |
How can we incorporate media within our lessons? | “ Learning best occurs when a learner is placed into an experience that looks both familiar and strange, the former causing a sense of confidence and the latter necessitating learning.” (pg. 43) Middle level students are very familiar with technology and their lives revolve around it. Introducing students to new forms of technology challenges them in a familiar way. |
| https://www.classdojo.com/new-index/ - creating your own media Simple cast - Creating with a different media outlet |
PURSUIT #1: IDENTITY
"How will my ELA instruction help students to learn
something about themselves and/or about others?"
CHALLENGES & ASSIGNMENTS | HOW DOES THIS ASSIGNMENT CONNECT TO OUR LITERACY PURSUITS IN MY DISCIPLINE? |
Challenge #1 The Power of Discourse |
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Challenge #2 Embracing Wobble |
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HOMAGO Week 1 Technology Inquiry |
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Course Assignments Related to this Work
PURSUIT #2: SKILLS
"How will my classroom instruction build students' skills for ELA?"
Lesson #3: The Facets of Reading | |||
Questions to Consider | Professional Readings/Research to Support | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
Example Question: How can understanding the facets of reading impact ELA instruction? | Not all students enjoy reading in the typical fashion. Some students need a variety of supports. |
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How do the the texts we choose impact student engagement? | “Teaching needs to be reflective of cultural needs.“ (Culturally Responsive Disciplinary Literacy Strategies Instruction ) | Our ability to appeal to our students and choose developmentally appropriate books directly impacts our students participation and enjoyment. |
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Why is choosing culturally relevant texts important for our students? | “with today’s changing student demographics, finding culturally appropriate texts can be a real challenge—especially when it comes to meeting the unique needs of English Learner (EL) students. Culturally relevant texts reflect or incorporate our students’ identities, cultures, mindsets, and personal experiences. |
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Are all facets of reading created equal or is there more value in one facet compared to the rest? | “In order to teach the kind of knowledge-rich lessons that will improve students’ reading comprehension, Willingham says, teachers should emphasize a cohesive, well-sequenced curriculum with lots of background information on different topics embedded within it so that no students are left hanging when they read” (P. N/A - Edutopia) |
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How does letting our students choose texts effect classroom culture? | “Teachers can show they value students’ lives and identities in a variety of ways. Some are small, like taking the time to learn the proper pronunciation of every student’s name or getting to know young people’s families. Others require more time and investment, like building curriculum around personal narratives or incorporating identity-based responses into the study of texts”. |
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How can we provide our students with engaging and comprehensible readings? | “Having students comprehend in their own way with readings that they enjoy.”(EDUtopia) |
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PURSUIT #2: SKILLS
"How will my classroom instruction build students' skills for ELA?"
Lesson #4: Seeing Meaning | |||
Questions to Consider | Professional Readings/Research to Support | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How can understanding visual literacy impact how students interact with visuals in ELA? | “Visual literacy builds stronger readers, readers who are able to think about texts in numerous ways through a different lens, an important skill for critical readers and thinkers in the 21st century. Students skilled in visual literacy are able to create meaning from images, which in turn improves their writing proficiency and critical thinking skills. By integrating visual literacy into classrooms, we help students learn to collaborate and to discuss a wide range of ideas while expressing their own”. |
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How can we use different media to assist students in reading? | https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-video-content-amplify-learning
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How can we use advancing technology to assist in our teaching? | “With access to greater resources, a child from a middle- or upper-class family is more likely to be taken on trips, attend events, or be exposed to experiences that deepen their cultural and social knowledge base.” | Using new technology in class to hold student engagement. |
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PURSUIT #2: SKILLS
"How will my classroom instruction build students' skills for ELA?"
CHALLENGES & ASSIGNMENTS | HOW DOES THIS ASSIGNMENT CONNECT TO OUR LITERACY PURSUITS IN MY DISCIPLINE? |
Challenge #3 The Facets of Reading |
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Challenge #4 Visual Literacy |
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HOMAGO - Mess Around Weeks 3-4 |
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Course Assignments Related to this Work
PURSUIT #3: INTELLECT
“How will my ELA instruction build students' knowledge and mental powers?"
Lesson #5: It’s All About the Questions | |||
Questions to Consider | Professional Readings/Research to Support | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How can we connect students prior knowledge to new learning in order to help them succeed? |
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why could having students form their own questions instead of answering given ones be important to their learning? |
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How can you effectively build relationships with your students and coworkers? |
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How can you utilize technology within ELA classroom? |
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How do we guide students to create deeper thinking questions that connect them to their community? |
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How can we as educators choose the best questions to ask, along with choosing the right words to include? |
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PURSUIT #3: INTELLECT
“How will my ELA instruction build students' knowledge and mental powers?"
CHALLENGES & ASSIGNMENTS | HOW DOES THIS ASSIGNMENT CONNECT TO OUR LITERACY PURSUITS IN MY DISCIPLINE? |
Challenge #5 One Simple Question |
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HOMAGO - Mess Around Week 5-6 |
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Challenge #1 Discouces |
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Snowball: |
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Course Assignments Related to this Work
PURSUIT #4: CRITICALITY
"How will my ELA instruction engage students' thinking about power
and equity and the disruption of oppression?"
Lesson #6: Interrogating Creators of Texts | ||
Questions to Consider | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How can we utilize the diversity of our students to incorporate equity in our classroom? | utilize students diverse identity markers in order to teach each other find readings that students can relate too but others can learn from | |
Why is it important to consider context when thinking about literature (online or physical)? | Find definitions of “context” along with various literary devices. Utilize fact checking resources to learn if a source is stating an explicit or implicit lie or a truth. | |
How does our curriculum change based on the resources we chose to implement? | Having students check their research for bias. Learning how to assess an articles credibility. | |
PURSUIT #4: CRITICALITY
"How will my ELA instruction engage students' thinking about power
and equity and the disruption of oppression?"
Lesson #7: Fact Checking Reality | ||
Questions to Consider | Classroom Applications | Technology Tools to Support this Work |
How do understanding various perspectives in ELA help students think more about ELA criticality? |
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What diverse texts can we utilize in our classrooms? |
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How does verifying reliability of texts help influence our perspectives of relevant topics? |
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PURSUIT #4: CRITICALITY
"How will my ELA instruction engage students' thinking about power
and equity and the disruption of oppression?"
CHALLENGES & ASSIGNMENTS | HOW DOES THIS ASSIGNMENT CONNECT TO OUR LITERACY PURSUITS IN MY DISCIPLINE? |
Challenge #6 Deconstructing the Familiar | Using credible sources is incredibly important in ELA, especially in projects like research papers, or informative writing. Furthermore, students need to consider the importance of incorporating ideas from a variety of perspectives to ensure their work encompasses all aspects of their selected issue. A students ability to evaluate the sources they are using contributes to the overall success and relevancy of their creative works. |
Course Assignments Related to this Work