EDLIT 730, Language, literacy, and culture
Course project: Becoming an expert for advocacy
This project has two parts:
1. Becoming an expert (35 points )
2. Developing strategies for advocacy (key assessment - 15 points)
The key assessment is on a separate handout, which also includes background information about
the diversity standard from the International Reading Association.
For your ‘becoming an expert’ project, you first need to decide on a social group you’d like to
focus on and a particular aspect of their language and literacy development (IRA 1.1). Here are
some examples that reflect current topics and issues in the field, along with starter authors that
you might want to read:
1. Children of poverty and vocabulary development (Betty Hart & Todd Risley)
2. Speakers of African American Vernacular English and judgments that they speak ‘bad
grammar’(John McWhorter)
3. Authentic and stereotyped representation of children of color in children’s literature
(Dana Fox and Kathy Short)
4. Family and community literacy in diverse communities (race and/or social class)
(Shirley Brice Heath)
5. Policy and classroom issues for English language learners (reference list in Crawford
& Krashen; David & Yvonne Freeman)
6. The linguistics of language variation in America (Robert MacNeil & William Cran)
7. Issues in spelling, reading, and phonics assessment for speakers of diverse languages
and versions of English (Sandra Wilde)
8. Adequate education for English language learners or other students with special needs
in literacy (Beth Fertig)
9. The impact of high-stakes literacy testing on students of diverse language backgrounds
(Angela Valenzuela)
The topic should be one that addresses diversity and leads toward advocacy, as expressed either
in communication with adults such as teachers, parents, or the community; or curriculum for kids
that focuses on social justice issues as part of the curriculum (IRA 4.1, 4.3). We’ll plan to set up
small groups on similar topics to spend some class time in working groups to help each other
explore the issues. Please be willing to be flexible in your topic so that we can have groups of
similar sizes. Even though there are groups arranged to discuss the topics, each candidate is
responsible for completing and submitting his/her own project.
The level of expertise you should aim for can include a combination of reading and work with
students. If you’re working with kids in some way as part of developing your expertise, you
should do about 300 pages of background reading. If you’re just reading and not working with
kids, read more than that.
What you hand in for this part of the project should be a paper of about 2500 words that
demonstrates your expertise and will then lead into the advocacy project.
EDLIT 730: Language, Literacy, and Culture
Assignment: Strategies to Advocate for Diversity Assignment
This key assessment is aligned with the following IRA Standards (2010):
1.1: Understand major theories and empirical research that describe the cognitive, linguistic,
motivational, and sociocultural foundations of reading and writing development, processes, and
components, including word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and
reading–writing connections.
4.1: Recognize, understand, and value the forms of diversity that exist in society and their
importance in learning to read and write.
4.3 Candidates develop and implement strategies to advocate for equity.
It constitutes one part of a larger research project and will count for 15% of your grade in the
course.
Background from the International Reading Association website: The Diversity Standard focuses
on the need to prepare teachers to build and engage their students in a curriculum that places
value on the diversity that exists in our society, as featured in elements such as race, ethnicity,
class, gender, religion, and language. This standard is grounded in a set of principles and
understandings that reflect a vision for a democratic and just society and inform the effective
preparation of reading professionals.
The following are the major assumptions of the Standards 2010 Committee for developing this
standard and its elements:
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Diversity will be as much a reality in the future as it is in our lives today and has been in
the lives of our predecessors.
There is a tradition of “deficit” thinking and discourse in the context of diversity and
schooling. As a society, we are not far removed from a time when cultural deprivation
was an accepted term.
Diversity is a potential source of strength of a society to be encouraged not discouraged.
Diversity is the basis for adaptability to change, and change is the only certainty in the
future.
Creating a curriculum that values diversity requires that teacher educators and teachers
step outside their personal experiences within a particular linguistic, ethnic, or cultural
group to experience the offerings of other groups.
The elements of diversity in a society cannot be isolated within that society and certainly
not within an individual. The elements of diversity interact in the form of multiple
identities that may move from the background into the foreground as a function of the
context and the moment.
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There is a danger in overgeneralizing (i.e., stereotyping) characteristics to all members of
a group.
Language-minority students need appropriate and different language and literacy
instruction if they are to be successful academically while they learn English.
It is the responsibility of teachers and schools not only to prepare learners in ways that
value their diversity but also to prepare those learners to engage in active citizenship to
redress areas of inequity and privilege.
For Reading Specialist/Literacy Coach Candidates, IRA suggests the following as
possible evidence of competence:
•Provide students with linguistic, academic, and cultural experiences that link their
communities with the school.
•Advocate for change in societal practices and institutional structures that are inherently
biased or prejudiced against certain groups.
•Demonstrate how issues of inequity and opportunities for social justice activism and
resiliency can be incorporated into the literacy curriculum.
•Collaborate with teachers, parents and guardians, and administrators to implement
policies and instructional practices that promote equity and draw connections between
home and community literacy and school literacy.
Based on all of this information from the standards, please develop strategies, based on your
research project (IRA 1.1), that recognize the value of diversity (IRA 4.1) and advocate equity
for the literacy education of a group such as English language learners, speakers of African
American Vernacular English, or those of lower socio-economic status (IRA 4.3). These
strategies can take the form of a workshop for teachers, curriculum for students, developing
parent involvement programs, social activism, writing for publication, and so on. These
possibilities will be discussed in class. What you do should reflect new expertise that you’ve
gained as a result of carrying out your research project with a particular focus on diversity and
equity and their importance in learning to read and write (IRA 4.1). Note that the standard refers
to both developing and implementing strategies that advocate equity (IRA 4.3). You’re
encouraged to carry this project out into the real world as much as possible.
Rubric for Strategies to Advocate for Diversity Assignment
Each criterion will count for 1/3 of the total grade
Criteria for Assessment
Reflects expertise on the topic based
on your research (IRA 1.1)
Presents good ideas that reflect
IRA’s major assumptions about the
value of diversity and their
importance to reading and writing
(IRA 4.1)
Implementation of strategies that
advocate for equity
(IRA 4.3)
Meets standard
Presents evidence from
library research, field
research, or both, with
appropriate documentation
Original strategies that will
affect the thinking or practice
of those who are exposed to
them
Partially meets standard
Provides evidence of
expertise without
demonstrating adequate
documentation
Adequate but conventional
strategies
Doesn’t meet standard
Little evidence of expertise on
the topic
Submission of writing for
publication, leading a
workshop, teaching
curriculum to students, work
with or creation of an
advocacy group, and so on
Specific plans for
implementation, not yet
carried out
No real plans for
implementation
Strategies that are weakly
planned or don’t reflect the
standard