Reading Next has much in common with many of the texts we have read over the course of the semester. The first one that comes to mind is
Adolescent Literacy: A position statement which is similar to a "bill of rights" for adolescent readers. It talks about what young adolescent learners deseve in the classroom.
Reading Next takes it a step further by defining fifteen essential elements of effective adolescent literacy programs. The first nine of these in
Reading Next are very teacher directed and are within our control just as are many of the assertions in
Adolescent Literacy.
Reading Next can also be tied to the text we read on
What We Know About Collaboration. One of the key elements recommended in
Reading Next was text-based collaborative learning.
What We Know About Collaborative Learning delved deeper into why it is important to use collaborative learning in the classroom and gave concrete strategies for making collaborative learning more effective.
My content area is Art and I have been assigned to talk about how I would use Elements of Effective Literacy Programs #6, 2 and 8.
#6
Diverse texts, which are texts at a variety of difficulty levels and on a variety of topics.
I am very lucky in that we have an extensive collection of art books readily at my disposal within my classroom. I'm also going to add the three I 'm using for my annotated bibliography to help supplement our art library. In our introductory course, Line & Color, I often have my students go on a scavenger hunt to find examples of the elements and priniples of art by hunting for specific examples in our collection of art books. When we do our "Where in the World is ...(for example, rhythm and movement) the students have to locate works of art that show rhythm and movement, find the artist and title of the artwork and analyze and explain why they think this piece is a good example. When we do this activity, it usually involves at least one element & principle and they have to find at least three solid examples. This helps them to apply their knowlege of the elements and principles of art to other art works and to familiarize themselves with other artists.
In our Art History class students are able to broaden their knowledge base by having access to so many art books. Many of the illustraions and pictures in our collection of texts are not found on the Internet so again, students broaden their exposure to more art. In Portfolio, we are always bringing in visual aids by means of our classroom library. One of the most popular books for my Portfolio students is the reference book "1000 Facial Expressions." We know as artists that it is always good practice to draw from life, but if we need a picture of a woman crying, we can't always muster up a "cry-on-demand" scenario in the artroom. I explain to the students that if we draw most of the face from life and then go to "1000 Facial Expressions" and use it as a reference, we are not plagarizing because the whole purpose of the book is to be used as a visual reference.
The best part about our visual library is that it is truly diverse. We take anything that anyone will donate to us from childrens' art books to college level texts. There is something there for all reading levels and our collecion of texts ranges from specific "how-to" art techniques to art history.
#2 Effective instructional principles embedded in content, including language arts teachers using content-area texts and content-area teachers providing instruction and practice in reading and writing skills specific to their subject area.
So much depends on a good lesson plan.
It provides the framework for solid instruction and helps to keep you focused. There has to be a reason and purpose for everything you do in the classroom. The most important part of the lesson plan has to be the objective because it needs to cover what it is you want the students to know about the content that you are teaching. It is sort of like the thesis statement in a research paper- everything has to relate back to it.
I really do try to put thought into my objectives when I write them. Before I started taking classes at NDM my objective writing skills were more like a "What are we going to do today" sentence. I didn't put the proper thought into writing a good objective. The first class I took at NDM was my Methods class with John Crossin. He was the master of "to know " and "to do" which are the foundations of any good objective. Now, whenever I try to write an objective I try to model his instruction. One of the hardest things is to not start out writing an art objective like this: "Today, the student will create a Renaissance portrait." Just like
Reading Next said, the objective is not the product, the objective is what the student needs to learn in order to create the product. A better way to rewrite this objective would be, "The student will identifiy charcteristics of a Renaissance portrait by analyzing works from Renaissance masters in order to create a portrait done in a Renaissance manner." It's the "know" and the "do" coupled together. I'm not always the best at this but I do give it a good try.
I never used a "langauge objective" before when writng my lesson plan but I can see how it would work well when coupled with my content objective. We always have both a written and oral critique with each project and it would help to write a language objective using some of the verbs listed in
Reading Next's "Verbs for Language Objectives." I'm going to see if I can develop a really strong content and langauge objective for my next unit which will be Art and Social Justice. Maybe if I am clearer in my language objective I might have better written critiques which always seem to be lacking when compared to the artwork.
#8 A technology component, which includes technology as a tool for and a topic of literacy instruction.
I am going to compile a list of good websites for students to visit and have them posted on my Edline page. I already have some of the ones I've used for my annotated bibliography. By posting the sites to Edline, all the students have to do is click on the link and they are there. I've also started to assign homework in my Textiles class that revolves in finding new artists. The area of Textile Arts is expanding rapidily and the web is a great place to find new and emerging artists. Each week, two of my students are responsible for posting a new website to our Edline list with a brief synopsis of the site. It has helped to expand our knowledge base tremendously.
