2/16/16
Teaching English/Language And Literacy
In Middle And Secondary Schools:
An Inquiry into Adolescent Literacy
Fall 2009
Education 629.001, Wednesdays, 4:30 – 7 pm, Room 200
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Susan L. Lytle
lytle@gse.upenn.edu 215-898-8398
Office Hours GSE 331 Mon 2-5 by appointment
Molly Buckley
Heather Burchell Sarah Hobson
buckleym@dolphin burchell@dolphin shobson@dolphin
Jie Park
Jessica Whitelaw
jiepark@dolphin jwhi@dolphin
Fieldwork Placements: Katrina Bartow: kbartow@dolphin
Course Fieldnotes: Kathleen Riley rileyk@dolphin and Katrina Bartow
Course Design
Middle and secondary school educators have long been concerned with the possibilities and
challenges of teaching youth in a rapidly evolving world. As evidenced in recent reports and
position papers, the concept of adolescent literacy has also recently become the focus of
considerable national interest by many educational researchers, professional organizations, and
policymakers. The increasing prominence of the term “literacy” appears to signal a shift from
referring to what is taught in school as reading and writing, English education, or the English
language arts. Interestingly, attaching the concept of “adolescent” to the term “literacy” puts the
attention on the students, not the level of schooling (i.e. middle or secondary) and also carries
with it a range of new associations and interpretations. Widely used and variously defined, this
new nomenclature or conceptual framework has been taken up in a number of different ways
among practitioners, researchers, and policy makers. Over time, the concepts of literacy and
adolescence/youth culture have evolved into complex, interdisciplinary areas of study.
All of this attention to adolescent literacy and adolescent literacy education surfaces two of the
key organizing questions of this course:
(1) What do we know and need to know about adolescent literacy to try to improve access to
rich, meaningful learning opportunities for youth in middle and secondary schools?
(2) How do we make sense—individually and collectively--of what is currently going on in
middle and secondary literacy classrooms and the lives of adolescents outside of school?
• How do we read and interpret perspectives in the current literature written
by researchers, teacher researchers, and students themselves?
• How do we ‘read’ and understand the classrooms, schools and communities that
adolescents navigate daily? What can we learn from observing and
participating in a variety of settings?
• What stories do adolescents’ use of the internet and other digital technologies tell?
To explore these two overarching questions, we have designed this course as a collaborative
inquiry. Together, then, we will investigate and critique the dynamic concept of adolescent
literacy and its potential as an organizing construct for improving teaching and learning. Our
purpose is not to arrive at definitive understandings but rather to commit to an approach that
requires we seek information from a variety of resources to inform our understandings, which are
destined to remain tentative and open to further inquiry. This will require that we engage with
our own histories/herstories, with a variety of print, digital and visual texts, and with middle and
secondary school classrooms where youth are being positioned (and positioning themselves) as
literacy learners and where literacy is being defined, performed, practiced, interrogated, and
interpreted, within and beyond the school curricula. It requires that we engage with youth, in
various contexts and for a range of purposes, trying to make sense of how adolescents negotiate
their worlds, in school and out, and seeing what we can learn from that in order to make schools
and classrooms meaningful spaces for adolescents.
What’s a collaborative inquiry?
To design a graduate course as a “collaborative inquiry” entails a shift in the expectations and
practices of all involved. Rather than examine and master a predetermined body of knowledge,
we will try to engage each other, as well as students and teachers in middle and secondary
settings, and a range of texts, in an exploratory, experiential pursuit of understandings that will
by definition vary from student to student, instructor to instructor. Each participant in this
inquiry brings a distinctive history/herstory, cultural and linguistic resources, and unique goals.
We will spend some time articulating and interrogating our assumptions about and prior
experiences with literacy, learning, adolescents, pedagogy, curriculum and inquiry. We will try
to invent and adapt intentional and systematic ways of looking at data sources, including our own
lives, our writings, various texts, and our experiences observing and interacting with adolescents,
past and present. To guide our collaborative inquiry, we have structured the course so that we
consistently consider: What happens when we turn this course into a space for investigating our
own understandings of literacy, pedagogy and curriculum and at the same time work towards
transforming school and university culture with what we learn (and un-learn)? Along the way we
hope to pose and refine questions to guide our inquiries, such as what it would mean to teach
literacy in ways that take seriously what youth bring to school as their own knowledge and
passions, cultural and linguistic resources.
Throughout the course we will attempt to create respectful, intellectually challenging and
supportive relationships across our differences in race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, culture and
sexual orientation—intentionally mining differences in this classroom to yield insights for
teaching and learning in middle and secondary schools in these times. To complement and
extend the whole class experiences, our plan is for small groups to come together—in person and
on Blackboard-- on a regular basis for more focused inquiry. The course is premised on the idea
that a rich, intellectually demanding inquiry is built to a great extent on the quality of our social
practices and engagements with each other, in writing, reading, listening, viewing and talking.
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Who is this course designed for and why?
This course is an integral part of the RWL Master’s program because we believe that all
graduates of this program need to have a K-12 vision of education, regardless of one’s individual
preferences (e.g., elementary, adult education). The course is designed with the recognition that
students will enter with different amounts of experience in school or educational contexts,
particularly with adolescents. Given the complicated and dynamic nature of the field, we see this
course as an opportunity for all of our graduate students, regardless of their career goals, grade
level interests, or preferred institutional contexts to think deeply about how to make schools
more meaningful spaces for all students. We see teachers and other educational practitioners as
deliberative intellectuals who have theoretical and conceptual frameworks that guide their
practice and who are always in the process of developing and revising their theories of practice,
constantly learning from their local sites of practice and generating deep knowledge of their
practice. Thus, we see it as a project of this class to help graduate students, who are also current,
former or future practitioners in the field, identify, articulate, and develop their theories of
practice and think about how they might provide leadership in the field. We believe that teachers
and other practitioners' commitment to learning from practice, as part of their practice, is critical
to reshaping our schools and to improving education for all students.
How does this course relate to the RWL program?
This is one of several required courses in the RWL master’s program. It is being team taught by a
faculty member and five advanced doctoral students with extensive experience in the field of
adolescent literacy education. The course is also part of a larger research project on teaching and
learning in the RWL program, specifically as it pertains to adolescent literacy. Our focus is
reflected in the following question: What happens when a graduate-level course is intentionally
structured as an inquiry and when graduate students and faculty inquire collaboratively into
adolescent literacy education in university and school-based contexts?
We are envisioning a graduate course where faculty and graduate students (both participants and
instructors) build a collective understanding of a subject of significance in the field of RWL—in
this case, adolescent literacy education. Our hope is to do this together in self-conscious ways
that enable us both to generate local knowledge and to continually consider, revise, and improve
the learning environments we are creating for each other in this program and will create (for and
with students) beyond the context of this course. In order to help us do this, there will be two
doctoral students taking field notes during the semester. The fieldnotes will be made available to
all of you and we hope that you will find them to be a resource for you. [We plan to discuss this
more in the first several weeks of the course.]
The course is team taught with the explicit intention of bringing diverse experiences, knowledge
and understandings to the conversation and providing participants rich, ongoing feedback on all
aspects of the course. We will have several guest presenters, including middle and secondary
school teachers and their students, and author/teacher Linda Christensen will be with us for the
class just prior to the conference of the National Council of Teachers of English here in
Philadelphia in November.
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Course texts
Required readings include a bulk pack available for purchase from Campus Copy Center. Course
books are available at the House of Our Own Bookstore which is located at 3920 Spruce Street.
House of Our Own was created in 1971 by students at Penn. It carries a large selection of both
new and used books on a wide range of subjects, with an emphasis on titles from academic and
small press publishers. The bookstore specializes in history, literature, philosophy, and social
theory and is known for its extensive collections in African-American studies, women’s studies,
urban studies, education, current politics, and post-colonial and third world studies. House of
Our Own is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 to 7:00 and Sunday, 12:00 to 5:00. The phone
number is 215-222-1576. As a way to support independent bookstores that provide unique
resources for students and faculty, we would like to encourage you to purchase your course
books from House of Our Own.
In addition to the bulk pack and course texts, we will all read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
for talking about approaches to engaging with and performing texts. In addition to The Book
Thief, you will select a Young Adult novel from a list we provide and form small groups
(‘literature circles’) for discussion and response at one class meeting (see course schedule).
Course components
I. Fieldwork
Site of Inquiry: Middle or Secondary School Classroom(s)
One of the most important dimensions of our collaborative inquiry is made possible by weekly
visits to your fieldwork site (at least 10 times during the semester). The focus of this fieldwork is
to observe and interact with adolescents. To accomplish this, those of you who are not currently
teaching in a middle or secondary classroom will be assigned (most likely, in pairs) to a
classroom (you do not need to visit at the same time). We would like you to spend most of a
morning or afternoon at the site. Fieldwork is a critical component of learning in this class and
will consistently inform and support your inquiry projects.
If you are working full-time, we will need to make alternative arrangements for you to have
some experience with middle/secondary students/schools. Please talk to us at the end of the first
class if that is your situation.
Fieldwork Journal /Artifacts
We would like you to keep a weekly fieldwork journal that you bring to every class. The purpose
of this journal is to document what you see happening in the classroom and record your reactions
and questions. It is also intended to be a space where you make as many connections as possible
between our course readings/discussions and actual middle and secondary classrooms (and
adolescents in and out of school settings). Think of yourself as a participant observer; take as
rich field notes as possible and schedule time to review your notes after each visit [See
Fieldwork Packet handed out in class.] In addition to keeping this fieldwork journal, you should
collect artifacts (e.g., student work, class handouts, documents that provide insight into the
culture of the school/classroom). You will turn your fieldwork journal in with your portfolio on
the last class; we will return it to you in January.
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II. Course readings and writings
Reading Notes and Navigating the Readings
While you read, we encourage you to take reading notes to document your reactions, questions,
and emerging understandings about adolescent literacies and bring these ideas into discussions in
class and on Blackboard. Parts of your reading notes may be used to focus small group inquiries
during class. For select weeks, you will receive a “navigating the readings” handout. These
“navigating the readings” are meant to be used flexibly, in ways that are most helpful to you.
They are designed to highlight salient issues, themes and questions in the readings.
Blackboard Inquiry Groups
Each week—by 5 pm Monday-- you will post a comment to your small inquiry group (roughly
two paragraphs) based on the course readings and/or your fieldwork observations. By 5 pm
Tuesday you should read your group’s postings and respond to one or more of your group
members or to the group as a whole. The on-line conversations are meant to build an intellectual
community as well as deepen our questions and understandings about adolescent literacies that
most intrigue, excite or concern us. In class we will meet frequently in these small groups to
discuss what is emerging on Blackboard and to juxtapose the various perspectives the fieldwork
sites and readings are provoking. This space is an important site of our individual and collective
inquiries and is integral to learning in this course.
Literacy/Literacies Vignette
For Week 3, September 23rd, you will write a brief autobiographical narrative vignette as a way
of introducing yourself to the class. This vignette should tell a story about a significant (not
necessarily positive or negative) literacy experience you remember from your middle or high
school years. Vignettes should be one page max—titled and with your name at the upper right
hand corner for easy alphabetization. We will collect, xerox and publish copies, which will be
read for the following week.
Inquiries into Adolescent Literacy
Using your fieldwork placement, the readings (articles, books, websites, etc.) and ideas from
other participants in the course, you will link the following inquiries as closely as possible to
your fieldwork site and each other. Because your field placements will span a considerable range
of contexts (urban, rural, suburban; public and independent; middle and secondary), each of your
inquiries will contribute to the larger conversation we will build as a class about adolescent
literacies and adolescent literacy education. Fuller descriptions of each project will be handed out
in class the first week (see Inquiry Packet). Please turn in 2 copies of every inquiry.
Inquiry I: Autobiographical Inquiry into Literacy Learning: Narrative Analysis of Self In
and Out of School
Due Wednesday October 7, 2009 (4-6 pages)
This inquiry will offer you the opportunity to reflect on your experiences as a middle and
secondary school student with respect to learning, language and literacy.
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Inquiry II: Autobiographical and Biographical Inquiry into Literacy Learning:
Narrative Analysis of Self and Adolescent(s) In and Out of School
Due Wednesday October 14, 2009 (6-8 pages)
For this inquiry you will interview one (or two) adolescent(s) in a middle or secondary school in
order to explore their experiences, beliefs and literacy practices. Using the interview and the
autobiography you wrote for the last inquiry, you will write a narrative analysis that weaves
together your recollections of literacy learning in middle/secondary school with what you learned
about/from the student(s).
Inquiry III: Inquiry into Adolescents as Readers
Due Wednesday November 11, 2009 (4-6 pages)
The purpose of this inquiry is to explore the range of ways adolescents understand and engage
with “texts” in school. This is another opportunity to learn from adolescents about their
experiences with reading and as readers (print, on-line, visual, etc.). You will use your classroom
observations of the culture of reading in one classroom over time and investigate the readerly
identities students are constructing in school, as well as the range of ways students read
schools/classrooms.
Inquiry IV: Inquiry into Adolescent Writing
Due Wednesday December 2, 2009 (5-7 pages)
This inquiry provides an opportunity for investigating the contexts for writing in your fieldwork
classroom as well as an in-depth description and analysis of student writing. Working with a
small group of course participants (self-selected), you will read, describe and respond to studentproduced texts.
Inquiry V: Mini- Portfolio on Adolescent Literacy/Literacies
Due Wednesday, December 16, 2009
This inquiry project involves reviewing and pulling together your work this semester, including:
your fieldwork journal, Blackboard postings, Blackboard responses to classmates, inquiries I-IV,
writers’ memos, group leader’s written comments, and your responses to the comments. The
“data” for this final inquiry is your own work: re-read what you have already written in an effort
to become more aware of how your understandings of adolescent literacy have evolved
throughout the course and explore and reflect upon how you were informed about adolescent
literacy through your field –work site, what other classmates said or asked, and course readings
and discussions. The mini-portfolio is intended to be a space for you to make sense of our work
together this semester and to consider the implications of your work for further inquiries and
your current/future site of practice and leadership.
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Blackboard, Email listserv and the Internet
We will use Blackboard for a variety of purposes in this class.
Instructions for logging on to Blackboard:
(1) Key in web-site: http://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/
(2) Use your PENNkey to log-in and your password.
(3) A listing of your courses will appear on the screen after successful log-in.
We will also have another email list for sending out information or sharing
resources/attachments. Please be sure you have a dolphin account. Please feel free to send the
addresses of any websites you feel might be useful or of interest to our class members through
this email list or on the Blackboard site.
The email list address is Educ629-001-09c@lists.upenn.edu
The Curriculum and Instruction website for the School District of Philadelphia is
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/curriculum/
The websites for the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards for Reading and Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening are:
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/k12/lib/k12/reading.pdf
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/k12/lib/k12/RWSLstan.doc
Response, Assessment, Evaluation and Grading
Successful completion of the course will be based on:
 regular attendance and participation
 weekly engagement with Blackboard
 holistic assessment of Inquiries I-IV based on criteria provided on assignment sheets
 holistic evaluation and grading of final inquiry—the mini-portfolio—based on criteria
developed in the course
Please let the teaching team know if you need to be absent for any class sessions. For Inquiries
I-IV, you will receive written comments, but no letter grade. However, if you wish to discuss
your progress in the course, please feel free to speak with a member of the teaching team at any
time during the semester.
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Course Texts
Required Books
Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: Reading, writing and learning with adolescents.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. 2nd Edition.
Christensen, L. (2009). Teaching for joy and justice: Re-imagining the language arts
classroom. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.
Christensen, L. (2000). Reading, writing, and rising up: Teaching about social justice and
the power of the written word. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.
Kutz, E. & Roskelly, H. (1991). An unquiet pedagogy: Transforming practice in the English
classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Zusak, M. (2007). The book thief. NY: Knopf Books. *
Recommended Books *
Alvermann, Donna E. Ed. (2005). Adolescents and literacies in a digital world.
NY: Peter Lang.
Appleman, D. (2009). Critical encounters in high school English: Teaching literary
theory to adolescents. 2nd Edition. NY: Teachers College Press & Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Beach, R. & Myers, J. (2001). Inquiry-based English instruction: Engaging students in life and
literature. NY: Teachers College Press.
Benson, C. & Christian, S. (Eds.), Writing to make a difference: Classroom projects for
community change (pp. 105-123). New York: Teachers College Press.
Cammarota, J. & Fine, M. (2008). Revolutionizing education: Youth participatory action
research. London: Routledge.
Christenbury, L., Bomer, R. and Smagorinsky, P. (2009). Handbook of adolescent literacy
research. NY: Guilford Press,
Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S.L. (1993). Inside/outside: Teacher research and
knowledge. New York: Teachers College Press.
Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S.L. (2009) Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next
generation. NY: Teachers College Press.
Fecho, B. (2004). “Is this English?” Race, language and culture in the classroom. NY:
Teachers College Press.
Finders, M. (1997). Just girls. NY: Teachers College Press.
Fisher, M. (2007). Writing in rhythm: Spoken word poetry in urban classrooms. NY: Teachers
College Press.
Goodman, S. (2003). Teaching youth media: A critical guide to literacy, video production, and
social change. NY: Teachers College Press.
Hill, M.L. & Vasudevan, L. (2007). Media, learning, and sites of possibility. NY: Peter
Lang.
Horn, R. A. (2004). Standards: Primer. NY: Peter Lang.
Jewitt, C. & Kress, G. (2003). Multimodal literacy. NY: Peter Lang.
Morrell, E. (2007). Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and
liberation. London: Routledge.
Muller, L. Ed. (1996). June Jordan's poetry for the people: A revolutionary
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blueprint. New York and London: Routledge.
Perry, T. & Delpit, L. (1998). The real ebonics debate: Power, language and the
education of African American children. Beacon Press.
Robbins, S. & Dyer, M. (2004). Writing America. NY: Teachers College Press.
Romano, T. (2000). Blending genre, altering style: Writing multigenre papers.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Heinemann.
Weaver, C. (1996). Teaching grammar in context. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook
Heinemann
Weinbaum, A. et al. (2003). Teaching as inquiry: Asking hard questions to improve
practice and student achievement. NY: Teachers College Press.
Wilhelm, J. & Edmiston, B. (1998). Imagining to learn: Inquiry, ethics, and integration through
drama. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
* Not ordered at the House of Our Own Bookstore
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Teaching English/Language & Literacy in Middle and Secondary Schools
An Inquiry into Adolescent Literacy/Literacies
Dr. Susan L. Lytle
Course Overview—FALL 2009
10
WK
1
DATE
September 9
FOCUS
Introduction: Adolescent Literacy,
Inquiry and Policy
WRITING
Who’s Who in the Class
FRAMEWORKS FOR LEARNING ABOUT ADOLESCENTS & LITERACY EDUCATION
2
September 16
3
September 23
Teachers as Researchers:
Collaborative Inquiry
Literacy/Learning
4
September 30
Literacy and Autobiography
5
October 7
Adolescents’ Literacies and Youth
Culture In School and Out
6
October 14
Race, Language and Identity
Literacy/Literacies Vignette
Inquiry I: Autobiographical
Inquiry into Literacy
Learning: Narrative Analysis
of Self In and Out of School
STUDENTS AS READERS/WRITERS/RESEARCHERS: INQUIRY-BASED PEDAGOGIES
7
October 21
Adolescent Literacy: Reading as
Inquiry
8
October 28
Engaging with Texts and Contexts
9
November 4
Performing Texts: Drama as Inquiry
10
November 11
Frameworks for Teaching Writing In
These Times
Inquiry III: Inquiry into
Adolescents as Readers
11
November 18
-12
November 25
December 2
Learning from Adolescent
Reading/Writing/Literacy
No class--Thanksgiving
Adolescent Literacy: Writing as
Inquiry in School
Inquiry IV: Inquiry into
Adolescent Writing
13
December 9
14
December 16
Critical Inquiry By and With
Adolescents
Inquiry into Adolescent Literacies:
Reflections and Directions
Inquiry II: Autobiographical
and Biographical Inquiry into
Literacy Learning: Narrative
Analysis of Self and
Adolescent(s) In and Out of
School
Inquiry V: Mini-Portfolio:
Inquiry into Adolescent
Literacy/Literacies
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