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Teaching Dilemmas and Solutions in Content-Area Literacy, Grades 6-12

By: Peter Smagorinsky

With this highly unique and comprehensive text, learn to deliver instruction that prepares secondary school students to be successful readers and writers across the curriculum.

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Product Details

Grade Level: 6-12
ISBN: 9781452229935
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2014
Page Count: 184
Publication date: September 10, 2014

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Description

Because literacy is not just the English teacher’s job
Think literacy is just for English teachers? Not anymore. Nor should it be when you consider that each discipline has its own unique values and means of expression. These days, it’s up to all teachers to communicate what it means to be literate in their disciplines. Here, finally, is a book ambitious enough to tackle the topic across all major subject areas.

Engage in this cross-disciplinary conversation with seasoned teachers and university researchers, and learn how to develop curriculum and instruction that are responsive to students’ needs across English/language arts, science, social studies, mathematics, visual space, and music and drama. Peter Smagorinsky and his colleagues provide an insider’s lens on both the states of their fields and their specific literacy demands, including:

Reviews of current issues and state-of-the-art research informing literacy education
Scenario-based activities for reflection and discussion, typifying the dilemmas and challenges faced by practicing teachers.
Considerations of the textual forms and conventions required in each discipline
Specific policy recommendations

Read this book on your own for immediate suggestions on how to improve literacy instruction within your course of study. Better yet, share it with colleagues and participate in a larger conversation about how your literacy expectations influence the ways students read and produce texts in other disciplines.

Key features

Each chapter considers the questions - What sorts of literacy practices are central to each academic discipline? From class to class, what literacy practices carry over, and which are unique to particular disciplines?
Addresses the school experience from an academic, social, political, and affective perspective rather than simply viewing it as cognitive and knowledge-driven.
Discusses what teachers can learn from each other's disciplines in terms of providing wide-ranging opportunities to engage with the curriculum and make interdisciplinary connections.
Suitable for book club settings among faculty members from across the content areas

Author(s)

Peter Smagorinsky

Peter Smagorinsky is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at The University of Georgia, emeritus; and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. From 2012-2020 he served as the faculty advisor to the student-edited Journal of Language and Literacy Education at UGA; and from 1996-2003 he coedited, with Michael W. Smith, Research in the Teaching of English. Recent awards include the 2020 Horace Mann League Outstanding Public Educator Award, 2018 International Federation for the Teaching of English Award, and 2018 Distinguished Scholar recognition by the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy. His research and teaching take a sociocultural approach to issues of literacy education, literacy teacher education, and related social concerns. These interests have produced two 2020 books from Bloomsbury: Learning to Teach English and Language Arts: A Vygotskian Perspective on Beginning Teachers’ Pedagogical Concept Development; and coedited with Yolanda Gayol and Patricia Rosas, Developing Culturally and Historical Sensitive Teacher Education: Global Lessons from a Literacy Education Program. His interest in neurodiversity has produced two recent edited collections: Creativity and Community among Autism-Spectrum Youth: Creating Positive Social Updrafts through Play and Performance from Palgrave Macmillan; and, coedited with Joe Tobin and Kyunghwa Lee, Dismantling the Disabling Environments of Education: Creating New Cultures and Contexts for Accommodating Difference from Peter Lang.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

How This Book is Organized

How to Use this Book

What Does it Meant to be Literate?

Content-Area Literacy

Implications for Practice

Policy Recommendations

Chapter 1. Literacy in the English/Language Arts Classroom

Changing Conceptions of Literacy

The Growing Debate Regarding What Students Should Be Reading

The Transformation of Instructional Strategies for English Language Arts

Forging a Path for Literacy Instruction

Scenarios

Scenario 1: Language Proficiency as Literacy

Scenario 2: The Literature Strand of the Language Arts Curriculum

Scenario 3: The Writing Strand of the Language Arts Curriculum

Scenario 4: Promoting Literacy Through the Use of a Variety of Textual Forms

Scenario 5: Developing Literacy in a Technical Age

Chapter 2. Toward Disciplinary Reading and Writing in History

Understanding the Discipline

What Is the Role of Literacy in History?

Reading History

Writing History

Practices That Help Students Write Historical Arguments

Scenarios

Scenario 1: When Reading Is a Struggle

Scenario 2: Shifting the Focus in History Class to Embrace the Common Core

Scenario 3: Transitioning From Writing Summary to Argument

Scenario 4: Helping Students Use and Select “Good” Evidence

Scenario 5: Balancing the Coverage Mandate With Historical Inquiry

Chapter 3. Literacy in the Science Classroom

What Is Science Literacy and Why Does It Matter?

Learning Science Literacy

Scenarios

Scenario 1: Engaged in Reading of Complex Text in the Service of Inquiry

Scenario 2: Integrating Content Instruction and Disciplinary Literacy Standards in Science

Scenario 3: Foregrounding Multimodal Literacy Practices in Concept Learning

Scenario 4: Connecting Hands-On Experiences With Textual Practices

Chapter 4. Literacy in the Mathematics Classroom

Texts, Mathematics, and Content Area Literacy

Writing and Content Area Literacy in Mathematics

Reading and Content Area Literacy in Mathematics

Literacy in Mathematics: More Than Vocabulary

Problem-Solving Literacy

Numerical Literacy

Number Line Literacy

Spatial Literacy in Mathematics

Graphing Literacy

Statistical Literacy

Models/Modeling Using Symbols

Technology

Proof

Scenarios

Scenario 1: A Learning Community

Scenario 2: Extended Responses on Standardized Tests

Scenario 3: Geometry and Technology—Why Do We Do Proofs?

Scenario 4: Evidence of Content-Area Literacy Practices

Chapter 5. The Visual Space of Literacy in Art Education

Dewey’s Vision of Art Education

From Perception to the Aesthetics of Care

The Challenges and Possibilities of Visual Literacy

Scenarios

Scenario 1: The Pieta Is a Love Letter

Scenario 2: PostSecret: Finding Narrative in Image and Text

Scenario 3: Doodles Can Mean Something

Scenario 4: Shifting Control: Teaching White Girl to Dance

Scenario 5: A Literacy of Listening: Relational Aesthetics

Chapter 6. Music and Drama Literacies

Music Literacy

Aural Discrimination and Reading Music

Alternate Musical Literacies

Scenario

Scenario 1: Musical Literacy With Informal Learning Practices

Drama Literacy

Why and How Does Drama Work?

Scenario

Scenario 1: Infused Drama Theatre Education Strategies as Multimodal Transmediated Literacy Practices

Other Titles in: Teaching Methods & Learning Styles | High School Teaching Methods | Literacy, K-12

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