Literacy Jigsaw Exercise
1. This exercise is based on teams of 5. It could be done with a whole staff to
deepen their understanding of literacy. With your literacy team, you might
choose to get one person covering each of the areas by themselves and just
feed back to the wider group.
2. Each member of the team will be given 2 documents.
a. Document A).The list of musings on literacy
b. Document B). One of the following: A page with:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
A school that values literacy...
A parent that values literacy...
A student who is literate...
A classroom that values literacy...
A teacher that values literacy...
3. They are then asked to leave this group of five, all who got the parent sheet
join up, and all who got the teacher sheet join up and so on...
4. They discuss and write down (on document B) what they discussed based on
the list of musings (document A) and their own experience. This should take
no more than 10 minutes.
5. They then rejoin their original group and feedback on each area. This should
take no more than 20 minutes.
6. By the end of this exercise, all members of the team will have had a chance
to read, write, speak and listen on various different aspects of literacy in the
school community.
Literacy Definitions and Musings
Literacy includes the capacity to read,
understand and critically appreciate
various forms of communication including
spoken language, printed text, broadcast
media, and digital media.
(Literacy and numeracy for learning and
for life DES 2011)
The lack of a bridge between the learner’s
experiences of English and Irish in sixth
class and first year at present means that
first-year English and Irish is often a
missed opportunity for raising students’
literacy levels.(Literacy and numeracy for
learning and for life DES 2011)
In a classroom that encourages literacy
learning, one may find examples of displayed
print on the walls, a classroom library,
grouped tables and chairs to promote
classroom conversations, independent use of
classroom resources on labelled shelves, and
places for students to work independently or
in small and large groups. (www.prel.org)
Literacy is fluid. There are multiple literacies
which are a currency into the social, cultural,
economic and personal worlds. They are
interdependent and enable everyone to
navigate their way in the world.
(Quote from a teacher)
The major goal of education should be the
development of critical thinkers and active
learners who can use the literacy processes
to pursue knowledge and solve problems
(Brozo & Simpson, 2003)
“They [teachers] sometimes ignore the
problems of their struggling readers or
compensate for them by giving students notes
from a reading assignment or reading a text
aloud instead of helping students learn to
extract information from a text themselves.
(Berman and Biancarosa 2005, p8)
Students may show literacy skills outside of
school that exceed, or seem inconsistent
with, those they typically manifest in school
settings
(Alvermann, 2001; Moje, 2000)
We suggest that teachers, with the help of their
students create learning environments in
content classroom that are language based,
where students use literacy and technology to
acquire new knowledge to grow personally, to
find pleasure, and to transform themselves and
their world.
(Brozo & Simpson, 2003)
Definitions and Musings Exercise (contd.)
The literacy levels of our secondary
students are languishing because our kids
are not reading what they need to be
reading.
This syllabus aims at initiating students into enriching
experience with language so that they become more
adept and thoughtful users of it and more critically
aware of its power and significance in their lives.
LC ENGLISH SYLLABUS
(Jager Adams)
“To be a companion in student literacy
requires that we as teachers read and know
books”
(Brozo &Simpson, 2003)
Not only is language at the centre of all transmission
of educational knowledge, whether arts, social
science, natural science or technology, but ...as one
moves across from one subject area to another
language is likely to be functioning in rather
different ways.
(Halliday, 2007; Schleppgrell, 2004
Why is there such a disparity between what
we observe youth doing with literacy
outside school, as they engage with
particular kinds of texts and what we
observe them doing in formal standardised
constrained literacy activities?
“As secondary school teachers we are all good
readers and therefore we don’t always appreciate
the linguistic challenges of some of our content
area.”
(Schleppegrell, 2007
(Moje)
Students who are highly engaged in a wide
range of reading activities are more likely
than other students to be effective learners
and to perform well at school.
PISA in focus 2009