Today's post is brought to you by Carrie.
Recently I drove home...many hours...from a great meeting full of “Literacy” people. Long after my iPod died (surprise) and I had been through my mental to-do list (twice), I found myself reflecting back on the meeting. I felt inspired by the excitement, knowledge, and passion by the people who were present, and as I mentally catalogued the day I noticed that at any (every) given moment someone was pulling a new resource out of their bag. Books, webpages, expert names, videos, documents….someone always had “just the thing.” We would all stop, nod if we knew about it--grab for it if we didn’t, and then continue on. As I thought more about it, I began to wonder…..is it just literacy people or are all teachers that excited to share resources??
Or in other words, how weird are we literacy folk?
Recently I decided to put my question to a very unscientific experiment with a group of the most scientific people I know: the Science PLC team. I was invited to a discussion about meeting the Common Core State Standards for disciplinary literacy. I knew that the PLC included a range of opinions about incorporating literacy standards in content areas. I thought asking the team to come into the PLC meeting ready to share a “new” favorite resource might work in my favor in a few ways: a conversation spark, a new resource, me in a coaching role rather than teaching or inservicing, and, of course, my natural curiosity regarding literacy people satisfied.
Cut to day of the meeting: everyone walks in with arms full...good.
Some arms contain more than a resource (like papers to grade)...ok.
“Let the sharing begin!” (Me)
“Um this is mine” (Teacher holding ...the science curriculum textbook)...oh no.
So it started off rocky, I will admit. But then one person shared a resource that the biology teacher had also read; and then another person showed this website that lets kids do all these science things interactively (http://interactivesites.weebly.com/science.html)… and before I knew it, things were a little chaotic in a good way because I couldn’t get people to stop talking.
Slowly, I steered the conversation to the standards. I wanted to provide a quick resource that could also be an “anchor” for future conversations so I showed DPI’s LiveBinder resource on Disciplinary Literacy (http://bit.ly/WIdislit).
I explained what the resource was and let them know it was available for further investigation should they be so inclined. Then I showed them two specific parts: the cheat sheet for anchor standards and the close reading technique (both found under the tab on the left side called: Half Day/Full Day Module). By providing these two resources, I felt teachers were receptive and open. My future plan is to continue building in support by slowly adding the text feature and text structure resources (in the same place) and also training a member of the Science PLC team to lead the group through the rest of the module and resources.
All in all, I was able to accomplish my PLC task: provide a brief introduction and a tangible, realistic resource for disciplinary literacy as part of the standards outlined by the Common Core. One problem---my experiment remains inconclusive; the good news is the Social Studies PLC called and I plan on collecting some data!
Carrie,
ReplyDeleteI've had similar experiences jumpstarting the DL work with MS and HS staffs this year using those same rich resources provided by the state. The absolute relief and celebration for me has been the discovery that Gradual Release of Responsibility is the tangible tool that connects all educators when we pose the question, "So, what do you want your students to do independently?" I've noticed that once we joke about "just bring a pencil to class" as a goal for independence, SS and Science folks quickly draw a straight line to the critical thinking, problem solving, and in-depth reading ELA teachers long for as well (not just command of content). Good luck in your continued experiment!