I am currently participating in a preview to the Kentucky
Reading Association Annual Conference through an online book
discussion group using the Thinkfinity platform. Our discussion facilitator posts thoughts and
questions for each chapter of Developing
Readers in the Academic Disciplines by Doug Buehl, and each of the book
discussion group participants responds to the chapter. Since our discussion facilitator also happens
to be the state literacy coordinator, she presented us each with a challenge,
of sorts, as we read this week's chapter stating “the examples
Buehl gives in the rest of the chapter, organized by content areas…we just need
to get the information into the right hands. I hope each of you will be the
vehicle for that!”
I take this challenge seriously because it speaks to my
interests and goals in my new position. After spending six of my first eleven
days on the new job with teachers, I must say I am very pleased with my
decision to accept this district level position. I’m
now serving at the Secondary English/Language Arts Specialist for the second
largest district in Kentucky. The title
is slightly erroneous, given that I am doing more work of literacy specialist
than just English/language arts, but I don’t care about the title as much as I
care about the work I’m doing and the challenge ahead for helping discipline
area literacy be a focus for improving student achievement in Lexington’s
schools.
While I’ll do my part, I can’t do this work alone, so I’m
thankful for a team of colleagues who are also committed to discipline area
literacy. Yesterday, several of these
colleagues witnessed my passion for literacy & education for the first
time. I was heated up as I talked
with them about Buehl’s book and my online discussion group. We are planning ways to bring the contents of
this book into regular conversations with educators around the district whenever we are able. Meetings with principals? Discuss discipline literacy. Meetings with teachers? Discuss discipline literacy. Meetings with instructional coaches? Discuss discipline literacy. What will we share? We will always share the impact discipline
literacy has on student achievement and the importance of bridging the academic
gap, but other specifics will vary depending upon our audience. Thankfully, Buehl offers many specifics in
his book, providing us research, theories, and practical examples which often
speak to educators.
Two of my favorite quotes so far come from chapter three
about bridging academic knowledge gaps.
This very rich chapter has thus far brought the most in-depth
conversation in our online discussion, too.
Buehl writes about disciplinary
learning and students’ lives and worlds, stating— “students will be at risk for
feeling marginalized, becoming disconnected from academic tasks and texts, and
be resistant to developing identities that area compatible with reading,
writing, and thinking through different disciplinary lenses… the persistence
of achievement gaps is one result (p.91).”
My second favorite quote so far became my favorite as
another discussion ensued among my new colleagues. Our boss sent us a link to a story by USA
today and commented that the approach hi to teaching history highlighted in the story might be more
relevant for students. He then asked us
what we thought. Well, since I was
already fired up from my online discussion with the KRA preview group and had
already shared my excitement with others in the content specialists’ office, I
decided to send my favorite quotes from Buehl’s book to our department and our
boss to encourage everyone to join me in reading the book.
“A major issue of teaching social science is
generational knowledge, in which our students are immersed and which is highly
motivational, can be hooked into the specific disciplinary goals for the social
studies curriculum (p.93).” Buehl goes on to discuss the need to narrow
history curriculum to get at the most important parts of history by using events
of today to connect to the past and to make it relevant for students who
are likely asking—“so what?”
