multiple literacies - reading and righting?

I went off on a quest to try and define terms like; language, reading, literacy, multiple literacies, discourse and traced the coining of the term “multiliteracies” to this 1996 Harvard Education Review.

http://www.hepg.org/her/abstract/290

an unprotected copy of the work is at:

http://wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.htm#11

According to both Wikipedia and the authors of the review itself, mulitliteracies was coined here.
From the abstract we read, “a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they call "multiliteracies."”

Discourse is described and defined. It presents many of the ways our CU program as been prompting us to think about language, literacy and culture.

HOWEVER when I get to the bottom of the article and try to figure out what they are suggesting in terms of what it would mean for the classroom – I’m lost. This is in spite of such promising topic headings as “What Schools Do and What We Can Do in Schools”.

There’s a very appealing view of multiliteracies as including more than print, it includes digital media, hyperlinks, multimedia and such. That’s something I can grasp. Literacy as print in many other forms and extended forms makes good sense.

What they seem to be calling for schools to do is to constantly design delivery of instruction to leverage cultural resources in our classroom.

Good grief. That image is fine if you give me a few hours of prep for every hour of class. I’m schooled in design. Engineers design, however, they also implement. At some point the design is frozen and the product built. Design is time consuming and error prone. In a real classroom with real constraints of time and numbers of students I mostly need to implement.

What’s possible within economic limits?
Much of what we study is focused on the maximum we can do for our students. How high can we set our expectations? What would we possible for every student under optimal conditions.

How about some focus on the floor as well as the ceiling? What are the minimum mandatory expectations we should have for a student – what are the public school exit criteria? Not the entry into MIT criteria – but the minimum madatories.

How about knowing how to read and write English?
Want to make that English or some other languages too? It’s ok with me from an educational standpoint, but I think that question is beyond the scope of an educational stand. It’s a political question. Educators can be part of the discourse, but not the final decision makers.

If a student meets the minimum mandatory requirements, let’s say, reading and writing English, then let’s look at where we can go beyond that – let us then think about getting the student ready for Stanford or MIT.

Treasures found on You Tube

My assignment included reponses to postings by classmates on literacy and diversity issues. Someone wrote that not every one could be taught as if they came from "cookie cutter white middle class families" and so I posted the following:

Goodness we are hard on ourselves!"not the cookie cutter, white middle class family."?

There is at least a little bit of character from family to family on the cul-de-sac I live on, or the surburb I grew up in.

Cookie cutter could be applied to other groups as well, any group that tends to have things in common.cookie cutter seems judgemental somehow - maybe I'm just too sensitive.

What else could be used?
"not the cool, white middle class family"
"not the enviable, white middle class family that the world covets to create in it's own national boarders"

then again Malvina Reynolds agreed with you when she wrote "little boxes", I like that song - maybe I'll just chill and agree that cookie cutter is an ok description. Check out one of the early protests against cookie cutters:Malvina sings little boxes on the intro to Weeds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9s-KYMxjMs&feature=related

You can see who Malvina was at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sooNNv9qHg

Differentiation, accomodation and social promotion

I took the rant I had below and processed it into a thesis.

Social promotion is when we move students up a grade level when they haven't earned it.
(sorry - slipped out of eduspeak - let me try again)
Social promotion is when we move students up a grade level in spite of the fact that the teacher has failed to allow them to uncover the current grade content.

I submit that at least one enabler for social promotion is slippage between differentiation and accommodation. The line between the two is clear and broad in theory, but not so much in practice.

For more discussion see my rant below.

Differentiation, Grades and High Expectations

Something I keep wrestling with is how to give differentiated grades when I give differentiated instruction.

I just attended a seminar on Differentiation and Equity. It seems like the information I get is always from folks teaching lower grades and non-technical subjects. I was pleased when the presenter ventured close to my territory with an example from Science. http://www.angelamaiers.com/2008/08/differentiation.html


For an English Language Learner (which is one dimension I differentiate along) the presentater gave the following examples as an expected and adequate response:

Native speaker: Matter changes on earth most often as a result of chemical processes.
New English Speaker: Matter changes.

Question: What does it mean to give a "A" to both students?

The answer supplied was that the ABCD grading system doesn't provide adequate descriptions for this case. A 4321 system would be more appropiate. (gee - wouldn't you think 4=A and so on? N0. 4 means meets the standard, 3, 2 and 1 are degrees of approacing the standard).

So the New English Speaker might get a 1 for his answer to indicate that progress has started towards the standards. But she wouldn't feel the New English Speaker deserved a D. No better suggestion than change the grading system was forthcoming.

-------RATS----- I was hoping for the answer!!!

Here's my current thought. Let's agree on terms first.

Differentiation means we provide many paths to our students to reach the SAME goals.

I’m going to offer this definition without citation. Mostly because I can’t find a brief citation to note, and also because I don’t think the definition is controversial.

Accommodation can include CHANGING the goals to accommodate a students abilities and needs.

“Accommodation may involve the use of modified instructional techniques, more flexible administrative practices, modified academic requirements (emphasis mine), or any compensatory activity that emphasizes the use of stronger, more intact capabilities or that provides modified or alternative educational processes and/or goals. “
Chapter 6
SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS Price, Mayfield, McFadden, and Marsh Copyright © 2000-2001 Parrot Publishing, L.L.C.

I think the reason I struggle to know how to give a differentiated grade for differentiated work is because that ain’t what I got. I got work done by students that I have given an accommodation to.

It is a real problem to name what’s being done with the name of accommodation because it brings up issues of equity, having high expectations, and not discriminating. I 100% agree that we shouldn't label ESL students as "special needs" which the accomodation tag implies As a matter of principle I would say that a teacher would really not be allowed to provide an accommodation that involved an modification of an academic requirement short of directions from a special ed authority. And yet, I think that’s what we do. I think the example of the two different answers that are deemed acceptable in the science class is an accommodation and that’s why it’s hard to talk about grading it. I’ve got another example from an educator who’s IN the classroom and I think it illuminates the same point.

(Ed. Note, I used the term “High Expectations” above. Whenever I write "High Expectations" please genuflect upon reading the term. The term is a non-negotiable matter of faith in our modern education creed and should be shown god-like respect. Terms like "Achievable Expectations", "Realistic Expectations", "Obtainable Expectations", and "Sensible Expectations", are anathema.).

I ask the reader to consider the following excerpt “differentiating the Islamic empire”. The author finds differentiating for “readiness” to be the hardest. This is a secondary teacher with a Master Teaching License. His ‘out’ is that he allows the students to choose which of the tasks they will do under readiness and so he eliminates the equity issue. I wonder if the smarter students might not choose the easiest task! (DO YOU THINK!!!????) and thus lower the expectations for everyone.

The writer avoids this trap as follows:
assertion #1: The critical element in this lesson was that I gave students a choice.

but

fact #2: the "A" students were expected to select one of two assignment choices I had perceived as challenging

HELLO! That’s making an accommodation for the non-A students. In educspeak we would prefer to say we were enriching the A students.

Whatever you call it the question remains.
A student takes the 1st readiness task and performs to expectation.
A student takes the 5th readiness task and performs to expectation
What grade does each student get? I DUNNO! The point is not addressed by the writer. I think that each student who does any of the 5 tasks and meets all points in the rubric should get an A. But they haven't all acheived the same high expecation - hmmm - thus my conundrum. What do YOU think the grading should be?????


From: http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/voice/voice143.shtml

DIFFERENTIATING THE ISLAMIC EMPIRE
After the students and I had read and discussed some of the background information from our textbook, I devised a day of differentiated comprehension activities. I attempted to combine all three aspects of differentiation: topical interest, readiness, and learning style.
Topical Interest. Each student would choose to focus on one of two topics, each a state instructional indicator.
· How ancient Baghdad developed into an opulent society via trade (rather than conquest)
· Cultural contributions of the medieval Arab/Islamic world
Readiness. For me, the critical stumbling block toward readiness differentiation has always been How can I present different levels of instruction without making any student feel inferior?* For this lesson, I developed five activities from which students could choose. I developed activities with the students' classroom grade averages in mind. For example,
· With my "A" students in mind, I created the most abstract assignment: I presented 17 objects that symbolized lifestyle advances in Baghdad or scientific and/or cultural advances spurred by medieval Islam. The objects ranged from a croquet mallet (representing the invention of polo) to a test tube (symbolizing the introduction of chemistry). Students could select any ten items and write an explanation of how each was representative of a milestone.
· I gave another assignment with my "A" students in mind: Write a poem to demonstrate your knowledge of one of the two instructional indicators. (See Topical Interest above.)
· With my "B" and "C" students in mind, I presented two other assignments: Create a display board related to either of the topics/indicators, or draw pictographs to represent key Arab contributions or elements of affluent life in Baghdad.
· At the other end of the spectrum, with my low-average students -- and a specific one-page segment of the textbook text -- in mind, I gave the following assignment: Read page 126 and create a bullet-point list of Arab/Islamic contributions.
Learning Style. The assignments targeted a couple of Howard Gardner's intelligences. Comprehension and writing promote linguistic intelligence. The display board and pictograph activities targeted visual/spatial intelligence. In addition, with the possible exception of the last activity, all the choices challenged students to use high-level thinking skills to create a product.
The critical element in this lesson was that I gave students a choice. No student was kept from "climbing the ladder." While the "A" students were expected to select one of two assignment choices I had perceived as challenging, the other students had five activity options.
On the day set aside for this activity period, I met with each task group to clarify lingering questions about instructions and expectations, and to give students an opportunity to share some of their ideas. Students had the entire period to complete the activity. Many students ended up completing their work at home.


*Note - I submit that this teacher has trouble offering easier requirements to students without making them feel inferior for just the same reason that I have trouble knowing what it means to give the same grade to differentiated work. He has actually given an accmodattion to his lower performing students. He does NOT have the same thinking standard and therefore learning standard for them. I COULDN'T DO ANY BETTER and I feel just as conflicted. I submit it's because we're not allowed to give the right name to what we do.