Supports for Literacy Leaders
Me Read? And How!
and GAINS
Spring 2010
Agenda
MINDS ON:
ACTION:
CONSOLIDATION:
MINDS ON:
ACTION:
CONSOLIDATION:
8:00
Breakfast and Registration
9:00
Welcome and Introductions
9:15
Making Connections
9:45
Me Read? And How!
10:45
Break
11:00
Digging Deeper – “Read Between the Lines”
11:30
Putting Critical Literacy Resources into Play
12:00
Lunch
12:45
Reconnecting, Literacy GAINS Stories
1:15
Online Resources: www.edugains.ca
1:30
Supports for Boys’ Literacy CD-ROM
2:10
Research: Boys’ Literacy and Adolescent Literacy
2:30
Board Team Conversations
2:50
Have Your Say: Literacy GAINS supports
3:10
Summary Reflection and Session Feedback
MINDS ON:
Making Connections
• Read the quotation on the card.
• Share, with a partner, what the quotation
means to you.
Mix and Mingle
– Introduce yourself to others around the room
– Share the message on your card
– Form small groups around connecting ideas
ACTION: Tour of
Me Read? And How!
Ontario teachers report on how
to improve boys’ literacy skills
Preparing for
“The MRAH Tour”
1. Think about actual experiences you have had
with boys and literacy, either at school or at home.
What are a few images that come to mind?
2. What do you know already about boys’
literacy from Me Read? No Way! 2004?
3. Share your responses with one table partner.
Images of
Boys and Literacy
And for Writing
‘Twas ever thus!
“And then the whining schoolboy
With his satchel and shiny morning face
Creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school.”
William Shakespeare
Current View
“Male youth mentally absent from
school and disengaged academically
are more often than not, disaffected
and struggling readers. These students
contribute to one of the most persistent
and ubiquitous achievement gaps
found in America.”
Brozo, 2002
EQAO OSSLT
Current Context
• Me Read? No Way! 2004
• The Boys’ Literacy Teacher Inquiry
Project 2005-2008
• The Road Ahead, 2009 Consultant’s
Report
www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/RoadAhead2009.
pdf
• Me Read? And How! 2009
Key Features
•
About the Resource Guide
– available electronically on the Ministry
of Education website:
– http://www.edu.gov.on.ca.
– Available in hard copy from
www.serviceontario.ca/publications
Key Features
Organized into 6 sections:
• Quotations –voices of students, teachers,
principals, and parents
• Strategy Recommendations – key strategies
• Putting Strategies into Practice – school
stories
• Try This! – quick tips and suggestions
• What the Literature Says – recent research
• Reflections –questions to use to deepen
understanding and application
Strategies for Success
13+1=14 Strategies
• Have the right stuff
• Help make it a habit
• Teach with purpose
• Embrace the arts
• Let them talk
• Find positive role models
• Read between the lines
Strategies for Success
13+1=14 Strategies (cont’d)
• Keep it real
• Get the Net
• Assess for success
• Be in their corner
• Drive the point home
• Build a school-wide focus
• Split them Up NEW!!!!!
“The MRAH Tour”
Instructions
• You each have a PASSPORT with your “Strategy
Destination” - ONE of the FOURTEEN strategies.
• You are invited to visit that “Strategy
Destination” in your copy of MRAH, to sample
the information in that section and to answer
THREE QUESTIONS on the post-its provided.
“Strategy Destination”
Questions
• Question #1. What ONE idea at this strategy
destination did you like best? (BLUE)
• Question #2. What are TWO challenges in
implementing this strategy? (ORANGE)
• Question #3. Are there professional development
needs for teachers/ principals/board leaders? Are
they different for each constituent group?
(YELLOW)
“The MRAH Tour”
Your Own Time - 20 min.
Explore your own “Strategy Destination” 5 min.
Respond to each question on a colour-coded
post it. 5 min.
Discuss with a partner your responses on each
other’s “Strategy Destination”.
5 min.
Post your “Notes” on the matching
“Strategy Destination” wall chart.
“The MRAH Tour”
10 minutes
Full Group Sharing
of the
Fourteen “Destinations”
Strategy Recommendations
#3 Teach with Purpose
Understanding boys’ learning styles
At Bishop Allen Academy, teachers structured their 76
minute periods into smaller sections…. A single class
period could involve a combination of: Internet browsing
and reading; conducting research for independent study
projects; reading and discussing a group of articles;
conducting debates; viewing online videos; writing
reviews of events, movies or documentaries; and
completing independent work.
MRAH p. 21
Strategy Recommendations
#4 Embrace the arts
Using the arts to bring literacy to life
At Hawthorne Village Public School the inquiry
team found that the integration of drama,
dance, music, and visual arts on boys’
motivation, comprehension, and overall
fluency in reading was profound and positive.
MRAH p. 28
Strategy Recommendations
#8 Keep it real
Making reading and writing relevant to boys
“The emphasis on ownership extended to allowing
boys to choose topics of interest to discuss or
write about in the classroom, such as cars,
snowboards, video games, physical survival,
drugs, gangs and musicians and accommodating
boys’ interest in non-traditional styles, forms, and
themes, such as humourous writing, rap songs,
and war.” Teacher Comment St. Edward Catholic School
MRAH p.47
Strategy Recommendations
#9 Get the Net
Using technology to get boys interested in literacy
“With the purchase of new resources and new
technologies, such as interactive whiteboards, digital
cameras, data projectors, and opaque projectors, the
teachers were able to try something new with their
instructional practices. These resources became a
catalyst for changing the rigidness of the language
programs…. ‘the technological learning curve that I
have been on the past three years has taken me places
I never imagined possible in my teaching practices.’ ”
Teacher Comment St. Paul Catholic School MRAH p. 54
Strategy Recommendations
#11 Be in their corner
The role of the teacher in boys’ literacy
“I look at the boys in my class in a little
different way, not as lazy or unmotivated, but
just needing a different way to learn. I’m
looking for ways in all my classes to go beyond
the textbook and put control of the learning in
the kids’ hands.”
Teacher Comment St. Anne Catholic H.S. MRAH p. 64
Strategy Recommendations
#14 Split them up
Using single-sex groupings
“Some proponents of this strategy argue that boys and
girls receive and process information differently, hear and
see differently, and develop at different rates; therefore,
different teaching styles and classroom structures should
be adopted to accommodate both sexes….
The ruling principle should be that a range of effective and
focused pedagogies…should be used in classrooms and
that schools should be organized to support learning for all
students whether that means single-sex or coed groupings
or a mixture of both.”
MRAH p.81
What is
your perception?
“The long well-documented history of
male underachievement has helped
contribute to an entrenched, popular
perception and indeed an expectation
that many boys simply will not become
thoughtful, accomplished readers.”
Brozo, 2002
On the other hand…
“Teachers who see potential in their
male students discover ways of
teaching and reaching them that are
personally meaningful, culturally
responsible and capitalize on the
resources they bring to the classroom.”
Alloway, Freebody, Gilbert, and Muspratt, 2002
Postcard Home
1. As you reflect on your whirlwind tour of MRAH
what comment might you write home to family,
friends, colleagues?
Some prompts:
– Did you encounter anything new?
– How will MRAH help you to address boys’ literacy improvement?
– What do you need to know more about or be able to do?
2. Record your comments on the Postcard Home
and then “mail” your postcard in the receptacle
provided.
THANK YOU!
Break
Please take 10 minutes and we will resume
again shortly
Digging Deeper
Strategy #7“Read
Between the Lines”
Bringing critical literacy skills
into the classroom
What is
Critical Literacy?
Critical literacy means that students adopt a
critical or questioning stance in regard to what
they are reading, hearing or viewing….
Students need to be helped to exercise their
critical thoughts and perceptions and
understand how texts are constructed and how
texts try to inform, persuade, entertain, and
influence the reader.
MRAH p. 43
Who is the narrator of
this story?
What points of view are
missing from this story?
Why is this important to
recognize?
Who produced the
video?
What values and beliefs
do the producers seem
to have? What
techniques are used to
influence the viewer?
www.conservation-ontario.on.ca/source_protection/indexswpeducate.htm
What are the labels on the x- and y-axes?
Is the data in one graph presented in a way that is more
favourable than the other? What is revealed or
concealed in each of the graphs?
What are differences
between the two
population density
maps?
http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/population-health/map-192.html
http://rs.resalliance.org/2006/02/16/another-world-population-map/
What do you think the
second map
cartographer wants to
emphasize? What
beliefs do you think
this cartographer
holds?
What does the son’s
body language
imply?
What does the
producer of the clip
want viewers to feel?
What techniques are
used to evoke these
feelings?
Example of
Best Practices
Problem-posing questions at F. W. Begley, Northwood,
Kingsville, Eastwood, Harrow Senior, and Lakeshore
Discovery P.S. - partnership with the humane society
and environmental awareness projects.
Exploration of critical literacy through examination of
textual features of graphic novels at Parkside Collegiate
Institute.
Focus on gender stereotyping in media and popular
cultures texts at St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School.
MRAH p. 44
CONSOLIDATION
Materials:
-Package titled Critical Literacy, Grades 7-12: Supports for
Boys’ Literacy
-12 selections on critical literacy drawn from the CD-ROM.
Instructions:
1. Number yourselves off around the table, 1, 2, etc.
2. Each person selects ONE of the pieces from the
package and skim reads the resource.
Time: 3 min.
Think-Pair-Share
• THINK about ONE KEY IDEA you have read.
Reflect on why it is significant for you.
• PAIR with a person with your matching
number at another table.
• In turn, SHARE your key idea with each
other.
Time: 4 min.
Putting Critical Literacy
Resources Into Play
Materials:
– Cover Sheet for the package of Critical Literacy Resources
– Placemat Sheet
Instructions:
– In your table group, decide which resource(s) would be most
practical and appropriate for which audience.
– Record the title of the resource in the designated box on the
placemat. For resources appropriate for all, use the ALL GROUPS
section.
– Discuss briefly how you might introduce ONE of the resources to
its designated audience.
Time: 5 min.
Placemat
Critical Literacy Sample Resources
Subject-specific Classroom Teacher
Professional Learning Team
Administrator
Cross-curricular Team
Adolescent Literacy Leader
All Groups
LUNCH
MINDS ON
On a blank piece of paper…
Why would this activity engage (some)
students?
Why would (some) teachers feel
uncomfortable with this activity?
What do we need to do to resolve the
tension which might exist?
Literacy GAINS Stories
Ministry Priorities
Emphases, Parameters & Principles
Adolescent Literacy Emphases
GAINS in
Achievement
GAINS in
Equity
GAINS in
Public
Confidence
Critical Literacy
Metacognition
Questioning
Strategies
Structures
Student Voice
GAINS Parameters
Questioning to evoke and expose thinking
Responding with appropriate levels of
challenge and support
Fearless speaking and listening
Practising principled practices for depth,
precision and power
Engaging learners in critical literacy
Addressing the indicators
Principles
Personalization
Precision
Professional Learning
Professional Learning
Resources
Networking
Leadership
Cross-curricular
literacy
Classroom
Reach every student
Subject-specific
literacy
Literacy GAINS
www.edugains.ca
ACTION
Supports for Boys Literacy
CD-ROM: A Tour
Purposes of the CD-ROM
Digging Deeper
Strategy #10“Assess for Success”
Bringing metacognition into the
classroom
Simply, metacognition is “thinking about
thinking.” Metacognition goes beyond
thinking (meta + cognition) in that it is the
active awareness and knowledge of one’s
own thinking processes. Metacognitive
skills are sometimes referred to as “selfdirection skills” (Burke, 2007, 151).
“Metacognition is a powerful
phenomenon that enables
students to set goals, plan,
problem solve, monitor
progress, and evaluate their
own thinking effectiveness…
It provides the means for
adolescents to oversee thinking
as it happens, to determine
what they know, to appraise
what they need to know, and to
orchestrate what they should
do in a learning situation.”
(Beamon, 2001)
Six Sections
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Read Me First
Comprehensive Table of Contents
Me Read? No Way! Strategies
Themes
Supports
Me Read And How
Read Me First
Comprehensive Table of
Contents
Me Read? No Way! Strategies
Themes
Supports
1 Boys' Literacy
Teacher Inquiry K12
2 Expert Panel
Reports & Guides
3 Produced by the
Literacy and
Numeracy Secretariat
4 Produced by
Curriculum &
Assessment Policy
Branch and Student
Success
Me Read? And How!
Supports for Boys’ Literacy CD-ROM
Place Mat
Research on
Boys’ and Adolescent Literacy
Teaching Boys: A Global Study of
Effective Practices, 2009
Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley
Effective Lessons
• Products – that go, illustrate, engage, are of
use
• Gaming - skills, operations, retention, inquiry
• Motor Activity – embodying a process,
concepts, experiences
• Role-play/Performance –process, world
roles, critical decisions
Effective Lessons
• Open Inquiry – experience and theory,
destinations without maps, personal
reflection
• Team Work/Competitions – energizing
collaboration, competitive edge, parts
into wholes
• Personal Realization – consideration of
others, self-discovery, masculinity.
The Transitive Factor
in Effective Lessons
There is a quality of transitivity running through
the effective practices reported.
That is, the motor activity or the adrenal boost of
competing or the power of an unexpected surprise
in the classroom does not merely engage or
delight; it is transitive to highly specific learning
outcomes.
E.g., the transitive power of physical movement in mastering tasks and
incorporating concepts documented in gaming, role play, competition,
and teamwork.
Your Thoughts…?
• Are there strategies identified in this
research that would address some of
the issues represented in the King
study?
• Stand, Mix and Mingle – Move about the
room and at the signal, STOP and with
your nearest elbow partner, discuss
your thoughts.
Adolescent Achievement
• Willms, J.D., Friesen, S. & Milton, P. (2009). What did you do in school
today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual
engagement. (First National Report) Toronto: Canadian Education
Association.
http://cea-ace.ca/res.cfm?subsection=wdy
• Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy. (2010). Time to act:
An agenda for advancing adolescent literacy for college and career
success. New York, NY: Carnegie Corporation of New York.
http://carnegie.org/programs/past-commissions-councils-and-taskforces/carnegie-council-for-advancing-adolescent-literacy/time-to-act/
Disciplinary Literacy
• Lee, C.D., Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The
challenges of adolescent literacy. New York, NY: Carnegie
Corporation of New York.
http://carnegie.org/programs/past-commissions-councils-and-taskforces/carnegie-council-for-advancing-adolescent-literacy/time-to-act/
• Moje, E. (2008, October). Foregrounding the Disciplines in
Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107.
http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/journals/jaal/v52/i2/abstrac
ts/jaal-52-2-moje.html&mode=redirect
• Shanahan, C. & Shanahan, T. (2008) Teaching Disciplinary
Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy,
Harvard Educational Review, Volume 78, Number 1, Pages 40-59.
http://her.hepg.org/content/v62444321p602101/?p=6fcdb14a95354af6bbb8b58c93
dae4a6&pi=1
Elbow Partners
What intrigues you in the studies and
articles presented?
Focused Mobilization
Against Inertia
Realization is a much more sophisticated,
systematic approach to deepening district-side
reform….
It requires on-the-ground expertise in every school,
…matched with authentic leaders who understand
not only successful instructional practices but also
strategic timing. Michael Fullan, Realization p. 92
Board Team Conversations
Agenda for Action
Context and
Readiness
What should be the
focus? What is the
rationale? Who is the
audience?
Goals
What are our goals?
What do we want for
adolescent literacy?
for our boys’ literacy?
Strategy
How will we proceed?
What boys’ literacy and
other GAINS resources
will we use? What
format will we use?
Solution
How will we
monitor our
results?
How will we know if
we achieved the
goal?
What supports will help you in your
work with the literacy needs of
students in Grades 7-12?
A Note out the Door
• One thing that I learned today…
• One thing that I want to know more
about…
• One thing that I will try in the next
few weeks…
• The support that would be useful
to me…
Thank you!
Safe journey home!