Jessica Scott Boston University, April 4, 2012 Session 11

Food for thought "As long as we have Deaf people on earth, we will have signs... our beautiful sign language is the noblest gift God has given to Deaf people." George W. Veditz (former NAD president, first to document ASL to be preserved on film), 1913

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Goals for the session To understand activity theory To consider literacy in content areas and how we might teach in the content area using reading and writing To think about what writing might tell us about student needs and its role in learning

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Discussion! Is it more important to spend content area time making sure students have access to the content in ASL, or time to learn the content through reading and writing? What are some ways you have seen writing incorporated across the curriculum? Do you have ideas for how to do this? What is challenging about assigning students to write research papers? How can we modify them to be more meaningful? Thoughts on Livingston’s “final thoughts” chapter (ASL proficiency, teacher training, adopt-a-family, speech teaching) ?

Discussion board interlude I loved the list on page 103: (1) prewriting, (2) drafting, (3) conferring with others, (4) revision, (5) editing, (6) publishing. I think that this list is an important mantra for all writers, and the foundation needs to be set when these children are young. I remember a couple friends in high school who would never prewrite or revise. They would just dash something down on the paper or computer, and then be done. I think that high school is too late to try to instill a step-by-step process for writing because these students usually want to finish work as soon as possible to go off and socialize. They are also fairly stubborn and set in their academic ways (in my experience, please correct me if I am wrong!)

Discussion Board Interlude Student writing can provide valuable insights into what a child understands about a text or activity. However, it is important to note (especially with ELLs) that student writing does not always reflect comprehension. When teaching Deaf students, I do think it is imperative to encourage writing on a daily basis. But, it is also important to practice developing ideas and playing with language in ASL. I’m curious, why did the author used this phrase, learner-centered and not child-centered? Are they different? (No – they are the same )

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Literacy as Activity Literacy is a purposeful activity where people express themselves and their perspectives When we teach students to read, we should move beyond recognizing vocabulary and individual words, and remember that the activity of literacy has its basis in communication Activity theory is designed to help us think about designing effective activities

Activity Theory Assumptions: Development is dynamic – it’s about the changes we make We work best toward goals Activities must have meaning/purpose Mental activities cannot be separated from interpersonal interactions Thinking dependant on actions, context and goal Biology AND culture influence activity Development varies for activities – we all have unique goals!

Activity Theory So when we design activities for our students, they should be: Meaningful Goal directed Personalized to our students’ needs Keep the broad purpose of literacy (communication) in mind

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Writing When thinking about writing, there is a continued emphasis on: Being learner/child-centered Teaching in the ZPD

Let’s share Take a minute to look over the section on Ms. Mabry’s class on pages (Vygotsky text) As a whole group, we will discuss this lesson – what do you like/dislike? What do you think of how Ms. Mabry interacts with students? What about the use of peer teachers?

Teaching writing The writing process: Prewriting Drafting Conferencing Revising Editing Publishing

Being authentic Writing is more meaningful when it’s for a real purpose Pen pals Letters to local government/principal/superintendant Stories to be submitted to children’s magazines Writing on topics that matter to the students Writing in a journal Any other ideas?

Thinking about writing Writing tells us a lot about what students know and what they are still learning In small groups, you will get two writing samples from three students One from 2004 or 2005 (fall), one from 2007 (spring) Think about: What did these students learn? What are they still learning about?

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Content Area Literacy Reading and writing in math, history, science, and other subjects involves unique literacy skills Historians look at the source first Scientists turn to the tables & graphs first Visuals can be essential or decorative Descriptive details could be essential to a poem but extraneous to a chapter on the circulatory system

Content area literacy Reading has different purposes in content areas Reading to solve a problem (science, social studies, math) Reading to understand a system (science, social studies) Reading to learn the steps in a process (science, math) Reading to analyze author’s use of literacy devices (literature) Reading to compare points of view (history, literature)

Thinking about content literacy It is important that educators think about the skills students need to read in content areas and teach these skills explicitly to students

How do we support content literacy? Provide hands-on experiences when possible to build background knowledge Have books at a variety of reading levels so all students CAN read about the content Have ASL “read alouds” of content books Allow students to respond to what they read in multiple ways Print (captions, journals, letters, etc) Drawing (with captions) ASL (presentations, vlogs, storytelling, etc)

“Snapshot Approach” Livingston explains how she used this approach with biography Goal is to learn about one moment in someone’s life Teacher signs the text to the students The students have time to take notes of important events on index cards In groups, students decide what was the most important Students arrange their cards in chronological order Students write a snapshot of one event

Any thoughts or questions? About writing? Content area literacy?

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Break!

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

CI Corner Dissertation Abstract: Speech and sign perception in deaf children with cochlear implants Giezen, 2011 University of Amsterdam Dissertation

What did they do? Looked at year old children with CI’s who were educated using either signed language or spoken language Compared them with 41 typically hearing peers (20 children, 21 young adults) in a variety of language-based tasks (both signed and spoken)

What did they find? Emphasize that CIs do not restore normal hearing Children with better sign vocabulary tended to have better speech perception Although people often think otherwise, students who learned sign language were also successful speech users Sign did not inhibit speech In fact, signed vocabulary seemed to support spoken vocabulary

What do you think?

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Teaching content through picture books Livingston strongly suggests using picture books to teach content-area literacy as well as content Picture books are visual and appealing There is usually less print, so they may be more accessible Many are well-written As well as preparing cross-curricular activities So students are exposed to content and literacy

In groups You get a picture book from a content area Social studies (slavery/civil rights) Science (water properties/molecules/water cycle) Math (money) All of the books are at the 3 rd grade level

What we will do In your groups: 1. Read the content area book (some are longer, so you can skim or choose a section instead of reading the whole thing) 2. Think about how you can teach using this book across to teach literacy as well as the content 3. Come up with three cross-curricular activities you could do with this book or topic Activities in both the content area and literacy

Sharing What did your groups think of?

Agenda Discussion Catch-up from last week: Activity Theory The importance of writing Teaching content area literacy Break! CI Corner Applications Housekeeping

Next week… We will begin to discuss the use of assessments Your final paper proposal is due Taichi will be our discussion leader

Have a great week!