I think that a lot of what I have read and watched makes complete sense and I agree with it. But I am still struggling to see the exact connection with how (maybe there isn't a difference, it's just in the way you teach it) comprehension and comprehension within Disciplinary Literacy are different.
I did have some aha's while reading Lee and Spratley's 20120 article The Challenges of Adolescent Literacy. I was amazed and excited to find out that they actually have an intervention to help in content areas. I think that they are correct in saying that high readers still need explicit instruction because they may be able to read higher leveled books but they do not possess the skills necessary.
For me the most obvious statement from Daniel Willingham's YouTube video was that "attempts to boost comprehension through reading strategies alone will fail." Well....OF COURSE THEY WILL. I know that I need to teach (yes-once again referring to my kindergartners) comprehension strategies to my kids who are ready for them. I have many children that can 'word call' read off the charts but can tell you absolutely nothing about what they read.
I loved and am going to incorporate the Chicago Reading Initiative's teaching strategies that Dr. Manderino put in his PowerPoint with my high readers who need major comprehension work. I love the layout, it's something I could easily have in my binder that I use during guided reading to help me remember what steps are involved.
I found an article that was interesting. interesting in the way that I do not know enough yet about Disciplinary Literacy to have a true opinion about it and that it sparked my curiosity about what someone who does know more might say to it. It's from Topics in Language Disorders: Building a House on Sand: Why Disciplinary Literacy Is Not Sufficient to Replace General Strategies for Adolescent Learners Who Struggle by: Faggella-Luby, Michael N.; Graner, Patricia Sampson; Deshler, Donald D.; Drew, Sally Valentino. They found that in the research done by (Taylor, Alber, & Walker, 2002) showed that only 1 in 5 groups showed that disciplinary literacy strategies outperformed control or typical strategies. It made me curious in the way of what is the best way, do we know enough about disciplinary literacy to make judgments without long-term studies, and what would someone from a disciplinary literacy background say?
Christina I like your awareness of comprehension strategies for your kindergartners, that they need to not just be "word callers." I think it is very important that they have instilled with in them that the purpose of reading is to understand and learn, not just say the words on the page. I read through some of the article you mentioned Building A House on Sand by Faggella-Luby, Graner, Deshler and Drew. I think your questioning the authenticity of the research behind disciplinary literacy is very impressive. From my understanding the idea is not to replace general reading comprehension strategies with those from disciplinary literacy, but rather use the knowledge of the discipline and the tasks required of a reader in that discipline to improve students' comprehension of the entire topic. Based on that article do you think disciplinary teachers (science, math, social studies etc) at the secondary level should be teaching content with general comprehension strategies only or teaching disciplinary literacy strategies?
ReplyDeleteChristina, I was able to really connect to your blog post, given that I teach first grade and the idea of disciplinary literacy was pretty foreign to me in the beginning. I think I have found clarity however, learning that throughout disciplines, literacy and comprehension looks differently, strategies don’t necessarily change. I like how you said that even high readers do still need that explicit instruction, there is really no end point to comprehension. One thing that it has me thinking is that since we both teach primary grades and our readers are still developing, how can comprehension be included in the various disciplines?
ReplyDeleteChristina, I can definitely relate to how you were feeling about Disciplinary Literacy at the beginning of this class, however, it has been wonderful to read your blog post because I was able to connect to some of the same situations that you wrote about. I too have a few students that can "word call' and read off the charts but can tell you absolutely nothing about what they read." That is why I agree with you that we need to make sure to continuously teach comprehension strategies in all disciplines. Although I know this is true, I still struggle to figure out how I can make this happen as a primary special education teacher on a daily basis. Have you been able to start including these different comprehension strategies throughout your day?
ReplyDeleteHi Christina!
ReplyDeleteI love your question at the end of your post! I'm actually not very familiar with long-term studies with the disciplinary literacy approach. I know we both work in the same district and I think that our district has the perfect opportunity to start disciplinary literacy in the math and science portion of the day. I saw some of the first grade teachers in my building running off copies that looked like it went with a unit called "I am a Scientist!" I thought this really connected with what Jennifer Berne and her "I am a Reader" presentation we had in LTRE 505 tonight. My question is, do you think that you could see disciplinary literacy being used in Kindergarten? Why or why not?