Dr. Miller
Educ 5365 | Feb 25, 2015
Class focus:
Connecting Reading to Students’ Lived Realities: Building Relationships,
Learning Communities & Working with Families
Readings for today:
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D2L:
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Read Nieto, Ch. 10 and 11
Miller, Burns, Johnson, Ch.6, 8
Bomer, Chps 4-6
Lewinson et al. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The journey of newcomers and novices.
Beers & Probst- Notice & Note
Miller, s. (2014). Text complexity and “comparable literary merit” in young adult literature. Alan Review 41(2), 44-55.
Burns, Engaging and Motivating Marginalized Readers
Learning Extension:
 Perspective-Taking” by, Amanda Thein, et. Al.
Essential Questions
E
 What happens when we’re behind in the syllabus? 
 What role does critical literacy play in our classroom practice?
4:30: Check in and EQ’s (please let us know which CMT’s are posing concerns)
 Take the pulse of what is/isn’t working so I can make modifications
 Deleting geo-histories
 Text complexity next week
 **Reminders for student-led discussion connect practicum (use artifact) connect to readings, frame
with an EQ
4:35-5:10: Practicum-led discussion Teaching (Meals and Beth) (next week Ashton and Christine)
5:10-6:10: Notes/activities….
6:10-6:58: Micro-teachings (upload, share with me, respond by 3/2 5:00pm)(Christine, Alex, Meals)
6:58: Due next week
 Midterm portfolio is due- please submit the rubric with it (review items carefully- be sure to include
LP #1 and revisions)
 Please bring in your INS with field notes, observations, etc- spot check
 Read, Kirby text and optional D2L- reading is powerful though
 Keep looking for ways to do your PD—the queer YA conference def counts!
5:10-5:20 Review EQ: Can frame a lesson, a unit, a year…
Bomer, Chapter 4: Environments for Building Readers (Chapters 5 and 6 are taken up by my
project, Thein, Lewinson, etc)
1. Brief- History of English- new critics vs. reader response
2. Show how to conduct interviews on reading---(see handouts go to Beers and Probst, pp. ) as a class or as a
handout- get to know the reading lives of your students; needs assessment!
3. Reminders about reading- add this to your dream team (collaborative, individual, out loud, silent)
5:20 When Teaching Reading Consider…. (turn to handout)
(please add to your dream charts, and use as you move into EP#2)
Voices:
All over the world
Utilize what’s in your backyard~!
Whose voices do you want heard? Consider who has been decentered/marginalized/ignored and center those.
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Languages:
Some books can be taught in translation
Also consider having texts for ELL/MLL learners
Know your students so you can have translated copies
Time Periods:
Ancient World
Medieval Pd- Elizabethan Age
Renaissance
Puritan Age
Pre-Romantics
Victorian Age
20th Century
800BC-500AD
450AD-1300AD
1300-1650
1650-1800
1800-1890
1890-1945
1945-present
Genres:
Multi-modal
Graphic Novels
*YAL
Comics
The Canon
Short stories
Music
Poetry
Novellas
Plays
Series texts
Informational
Fiction
Non-fiction
Sci-fi/fantasy
Historical
“Genre-buster”
Ethnicities galore as well as hybrids/intersectionalities
Themes (so many choices, for example themes matter because they invite discussion):
GLBT*TSGCQAI
Anti-bullying
Anti-war, non-violence
Food justice
Healing/redemption
Tips:
Provide choice
Provide ranges in complexity
Provide myriad topics
Represent voices from around the world
Balance on gender
Try not to privilege one type of reading or genre over the other
Types of reading modalities:
Group
Independent
Peer
Teacher-led
Classroom time
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School-to-school
Homework
Across contexts
Multi-modal
Reading with someone at home
Question: Why is it important to have a classroom library?
5:30-6:05 Small groups of 3:
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b.
Brief overview of critical literacy (theory) (show children’s book of wolf)
 disrupting the commonplace
 interrogating multiple pov
 examining sociopolitical issues
 taking action and promoting social justice
Transactional Theory
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Do now:
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(5) mins: First, reflect on how you can foster a community of readers at school and at home? What
can building community of readers look like?
(5) mins: How will you know a student has read and comprehended text? Reflect on possible
assessments and add to your dream chart
STOP: with the remaining time…
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Accounting for critical literacy and transactional theory, reflect on how you would integrate CL and
transactional theory into a lesson on the text.
What types of activities would demonstrate these theories?
As a group please sketch out the following
a. Write, two objectives, each with a product- feel free to use the CCSS.
b. Describe one formative and one informal assessment
c. Describe 2 activities you would do to help students create the products (those that are
assessed)- and consider how you will know from the products a student has read and
comprehended text?
d. Consider how fostering a community of readers can inform these tasks
e.
Include one brief description for how you'd differentiate.
Full group, what are the benefits to students in employing critical literacy?
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