• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org

Aims and Criteria for Collaboration in Content-Area Classrooms

123 views 0

Author: Roni Jo Draper, Paul Broomhead, Amy Petersen Jensen, and Daniel Siebert

Summary: If you are looking for a book chapter that will help you think through content area reading and writing beyond taking tests and basic writing, read this. Facilitators planning and/or framing the thinking of a group that includes content and literacy specialists will appreciate how the authors propose powerful common “aims” for adolescents’ content area learning and offer specific examples to illustrate their thinking.

Original Date of Publication: October 23, 2012


Download “Aims and Criteria for Collaboration in Content-Area Classrooms” from (Re)Imagining Content-Area Literacy Instruction

Excerpt

We believe that change begins with imagination. Just as the composition of a poem begins with the imagination of the author, change in classroom instruction must begin with the imagination of teachers. Indeed, we worry that the rush to implement changes in classrooms will remain hindered if educators do not allocate sufficient time and space to imagine. Therefore, our position is that content-area teachers and literacy specialists must initiate reform efforts by first taking time to imagine together.

 

Our confidence in collaboration and imagination stems from our own participation in collaborative activities over the past 5 years. During this time the authors of this book have met frequently to discuss literacy and content instruction and to (re)imagine instruction for content-area classrooms. We, like other educators, have taken advantage of the imagination of others who have described the nature of literacy instruction for content-area classrooms (e.g., Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, 2010; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). However, we describe our work as (re)imagining because we have rethought or (re)imagined what has been written about content-area literacy instruction.

 

We believe that a (re)imagining of content-area literacy instruction is essential to meet adolescents’ literacy needs. Generally, descriptions of content-area literacy either have focused narrowly on traditional print texts (which may be only tangentially related to the discipline) or have suggested interaction with particular disciplinary texts that is not consistent with the way in which disciplinary experts would read or write the texts (see Siebert & Draper, 2008, for a more in-depth discussion of this criticism as it relates to mathematics). Consequently, the instruction described in much of the literature surrounding content-area literacy leads simply to a general form of literacy that is meaningful and applicable only while one is engaged in the activity of “doing school.” This general school literacy may be useful neither within the various disciplines nor in adolescents’ lives outside of school. Therefore, we have worked to (re)imagine content-area literacy so that it truly would prepare adolescents to negotiate and create texts central to the disciplines and enable them to address the problems they confront in their roles as citizens of various communities. This book represents both our attempt to (re)imagine together and our desire to encourage others to do the same.

 


Related Resources

  • How Language Minority Students Can Learn in the Content Areas: An Alternative to Silence
  • Disciplinary Literacy and Reading Across the Content Areas
  • Making the Right Connections in High School: Developing Teaching Teams to Integrate the Curriculum

Original Source: National Writing Project, http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3970

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
Tags:reading/writing connectionmiddle/high schoolcross-disciplinaryprofessional learning
Attached Files
#
File Type
File Size
Download
1 .pdf 168.34 KB aims_and_criteria

Would you recommend this resource to others?

Yes  No
ABOUT

write.learn.lead. is a collection of resources, insights, and reflections from National Writing Project teacher-leaders. You can also find us at nwp.org and Educator Innovator.

SEARCH BY TAG
access advocacy art badge bibliography Building New Pathways to Leadership career technical coaching college/university community connected learning coronavirus cross-disciplinary dual language elementary environmental studies framework grammar/correctness immigrant journalism KB Feature key reading language acquisition math multimodal music online learning out of school literacies parent involvement partnership poetry reading reading/writing connection research revision school-year program social justice standards student samples teacher leadership technology testing urban video writing process
NWP Logo
NWP ON THE WEB
NWP.org
Educator Innovator
The Current
STAY CONNECTED WITH NWP
Get more great resources on teaching and writing delivered to your inbox every month by subscribing to our Write Now Newsletter.
  • © 2020 National Writing Project. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

 

Loading Comments...