Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas: A Classroom Guide PDF
Preview Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas: A Classroom Guide
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SERIES Dorothy S. Strickland, FOUNDING EDITOR Celia Genishi and Donna E. Alvermann, SERIES EDITORS ADVISORY BOARD: Richard Allington, Kathryn Au, Bernice Cullinan, Colette Daiute, Anne Haas Dyson, Carole Edelsky, Shirley Brice Heath, Connie Juel, Susan Lytle, Timothy Shanahan Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas: The ELL Writer: A Classroom Guide Moving Beyond Basics in the Secondary Classroom AMY ALEXANDRA WILSON & KATHRYN J. CHAVEZ CHRISTINA ORTMEIER-HOOPER Writing and Teaching to Change the World: Reading in a Participatory Culture: Connecting with Our Most Vulnerable Students Remixing Moby-Dick in the English Classroom STEPHANIE JONES, ED. HENRY JENKINS & WYN KELLEY, WITH KATIE CLINTON, JENNA Educating Literacy Teachers Online: MCWILLIAMS, RICARDO PITTS-WILEY, AND ERIN REILLY, EDS. Tools, Techniques, and Transformations Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Achievement Gap LANE W. CLARKE & SUSAN WATTS-TAFFE RICHARD L. ALLINGTON & ANNE MCGILL-FRANZEN, EDS. Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, Real World Writing for Secondary Students: and African American Literacy Teaching the College Admission Essay and Other VERSHAWN ASHANTI YOUNG, RUSTY BARRETT, Gate-Openers for Higher Education Y'SHANDA YOUNG-RIVERA, & KIM BRIAN LOVEJOY JESSICA SINGER EARLY & MEREDITH DECOSTA WHAM! Teaching with Graphic Novels Across Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners the Curriculum MICHAEL F. GRAVES, DIANE AUGUST, WILLIAM G. BROZO, GARY MOORMAN, & CARLA K. MEYER & JEANNETTE MANCILLA-MARTINEZ The Administration and Supervision of Reading Programs, Literacy for a Better World: 5th Edition The Promise of Teaching in Diverse Schools SHELLEY B. WEPNER, DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, & LAURA SCHNEIDER VANDERPLOEG DIANA J. QUATROCHE, EDS. Socially Responsible Literacy: Critical Literacy in the Early Childhood Classroom: Teaching Adolescents for Purpose and Power Unpacking Histories, Unlearning Privilege PAULA M. SELVESTER & DEBORAH G. SUMMERS CANDACE R. KUBY Learning from Culturally and Linguistically Inspiring Dialogue: Diverse Classrooms: Using Inquiry to Inform Practice Talking to Learn in the English Classroom JOAN C. FINGON & SHARON H. ULANOFF, EDS. MARY M. JUZWIK, CARLIN BORSHEIM-BLACK, SAMANTHA Bridging Literacy and Equity CAUGHLAN, & ANNE HEINTZ ALTHIER M. LAZAR, PATRICIA A. EDWARDS, & Reading the Visual: GWENDOLYN THOMPSON MCMILLON An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy "Trust Me! I Can Read" FRANK SERAFINI SALLY LAMPING & DEAN WOODRING BLASE Race, Community, and Urban Schools: Reading Girls Partnering with African American Families HADAR DUBOWSKY MA'AYAN STUART GREENE Reading Time ReWRITING the Basics: CATHERINE COMPTON-LILLY Literacy Learning in Children’s Cultures A Call to Creativity ANNE HAAS DYSON LUKE REYNOLDS Writing Instruction That Works: Literacy and Justice Through Photography Proven Methods for Middle and High School Classrooms WENDY EWALD, KATHERINE HYDE, & LISA LORD ARTHUR N. APPLEBEE & JUDITH A. LANGER, WITH The Successful High School Writing Center KRISTEN CAMPBELL WILCOX, MARC NACHOWITZ, DAWN FELS & JENNIFER WELLS, EDS. MICHAEL P. MASTROIANNI, AND CHRISTINE DAWSON Interrupting Hate Literacy Playshop: New Literacies, Popular Media, MOLLIE V. BLACKBURN and Play in the Early Childhood Classroom Playing Their Way into Literacies KAREN E. WOHLWEND KAREN E. WOHLWEND Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom Teaching for Achievement in City Schools JEFFREY D. WILHELM & BRUCE NOVAK ERNEST MORRELL, RUDY DUEÑAS, VERONICA GARCIA, Overtested & JORGE LOPEZ JESSICA ZACHER PANDYA A Search Past Silence: Restructuring Schools for Linguistic Diversity, The Literacy of Young Black Men Second Edition DAVID E. KIRKLAND OFELIA B. MIRAMONTES, ADEL NADEAU, & NANCY L. COMMINS (continued) For volumes in the NCRLL Collection (edited by JoBeth Allen and Donna E. Alvermann) and the Practitioners Bookshelf Series (edited by Celia Genishi and Donna E. Alvermann), as well as a complete list of titles in this series, please visit www.tcpress.com. LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SERIES (continued) Words Were All We Had The Effective Literacy Coach MARÍA DE LA LUZ REYES, ED. ADRIAN RODGERS & EMILY M. RODGERS Urban Literacies Writing in Rhythm VALERIE KINLOCH, ED. MAISHA T. FISHER Reading the Media Bedtime Stories and Book Reports CATHERINE COMPTON-LILLY & STUART GREENE, EDS. RENEE HOBBS teachingmedialiteracy.com Envisioning Knowledge RICHARD BEACH JUDITH A. LANGER What Was It Like? Envisioning Literature, Second Edition LINDA J. RICE JUDITH A. LANGER Research on Composition Writing Assessment and the Revolution in PETER SMAGORINSKY, ED. Digital Texts and Technologies The Vocabulary Book MICHAEL R. NEAL MICHAEL F. GRAVES Artifactual Literacies Powerful Magic KATE PAHL & JENNIFER ROWSELL NINA MIKKELSEN Educating Emergent Bilinguals New Literacies in Action OFELIA GARCíA & JO ANNE KLEIFGEN WILLIAM KIST (Re)Imagining Content-Area Literacy Instruction Teaching English Today RONI JO DRAPER, ED. BARRIE R.C. BARRELL ET AL., EDS. Change Is Gonna Come Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, 4–12 PATRICIA A. EDWARDS, GWENDOLYN THOMPSON MCMILLON, & DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND & DONNA E. ALVERMANN, EDS. JENNIFER D. TURNER Out of This World When Commas Meet Kryptonite HOLLY VIRGINIA BLACKFORD MICHAEL BITZ Critical Passages Literacy Tools in the Classroom KRISTIN DOMBEK & SCOTT HERNDON RICHARD BEACH, GERALD CAMPANO, BRIAN EDMISTON, & MELISSA BORGMANN Making Race Visible Harlem on Our Minds STUART GREENE & DAWN ABT-PERKINS, EDS. VALERIE KINLOCH The Child as Critic, Fourth Edition Teaching the New Writing GLENNA SLOAN ANNE HERRINGTON, KEVIN HODGSON, & CHARLES MORAN, EDS. Room for Talk Critical Encounters in High School English, Second Edition REBEKAH FASSLER DEBORAH APPLEMAN Give Them Poetry! Children, Language, and Literacy GLENNA SLOAN CELIA GENISHI & ANNE HAAS DYSON The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write Children's Language ANNE HAAS DYSON JUDITH WELLS LINDFORS “Just Playing the Part” CHRISTOPHER WORTHMAN “You Gotta BE the Book,” Second Edition The Testing Trap JEFFREY D. WILHELM GEORGE HILLOCKS, JR. No Quick Fix Inquiry Into Meaning RICHARD L. ALLINGTON & SEAN A. WALMSLEY, EDS. EDWARD CHITTENDEN & TERRY SALINGER, WITH ANNE M. BUSSIS Children's Literature and Learning “Why Don’t They Learn English?” BARBARA A. LEHMAN LUCY TSE Storytime Conversational Borderlands LARWRENCE R. SIPE BETSY RYMES Effective Instruction for Struggling Readers, K–6 Inquiry-Based English Instruction BARBARA M. TAYLOR & JAMES E. YSSELDYKE, EDS. RICHARD BEACH & JAMIE MYERS Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas A CLASSROOM GUIDE Amy Alexandra Wilson Kathryn J. Chavez Foreword by Marjorie Siegel Teachers College, Columbia University New York and London Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 Copyright © 2014 by Teachers College, Columbia University All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilson, Amy Alexandria. Reading and representing across the content areas : a classroom guide / Amy Alexandra Wilson, Kathryn Chavez ; foreword by Marjorie Siegel. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8077-5567-9 (pbk.)—ISBN 978-0-8077-5571-6 (hardcover)— ISBN 978-0-8077-7319-2 (ebook) 1. Content area reading—United States. 2. Language arts—Correlation with content subjects—United States. I. Chavez, Kathryn. II. Title. LB1050.455.W55 2014 428.4071’2—dc23 2014005970 ISBN 978-0-8077-5567-9 (paper) ISBN 978-0-8077-5571-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-8077-7319-2 (ebook) Printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Foreword Marjorie Siegel vii 1. Introduction 1 Why Provide Disciplinary Literacy Instruction on Multiple Representations? 2 What Is a Text? 4 Disciplinary Literacy Instruction as Instruction in Representation 6 2. Reading and Representing in Earth Science 18 Reading and Representing in Three Dimensions and Beyond 20 When Materiality Matters: Interpreting Labs, Physical Models, and the Natural World 26 Multimodal Representational Competence and Scientific Argumentation 39 Supporting Multimodal Science Literacy Through Think-Alouds 42 Chapter Insights 44 3. Reading and Representing in English/Language Arts 46 Image, Music, Speech, Writing: Producing Digital Narratives in English/Language Arts 48 Embodied Representation in English/Language Arts 56 Multimodal Representational Competence and Persuasive Compositions 60 Supporting Multimodal Literacy Through Think-Alouds 70 Chapter Insights 72 4. Reading and Representing in Mathematics 73 Symbols and Speech: Developing Representational Competence with Numbers in Mathematics 75 v vi Contents Picturing Mathematics: Literacy Instruction on Visuals 82 Multimodal Representational Competence and Mathematical Argumentation 92 Supporting Multimodal Numeracy Through Think-Alouds 96 Chapter Insights 99 5. Reading and Representing in Social Studies 100 Photographs, Maps, Graphs, Cartoons: Reading Images in Social Studies 103 Embodied Representation in Social Studies 111 Multimodal Representational Competence and Argumentation 116 Supporting Historical Thinking on Multimodal Texts Through Think-Alouds 125 Chapter Insights 127 6. Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas 128 Embracing Students’ Diverse Representational Practices 130 Representational Instruction Grounded in Design 132 References 137 Index 145 About the Authors 151 Foreword Language occupies a privileged place in classrooms. Even when studying science and social studies—where knowledge is represented by graphs, diagrams, and maps as well as written language—alternatives to talk- and text-heavy teaching practices are rare. The seeming inevitability of lan- guage as a tool for learning makes it difficult for many teachers to imagine what multimodal texts and practices could contribute to content area teaching and learning. Fortunately, the publication of Reading and Rep- resenting Across the Content Areas: A Classroom Guide by Amy Alexandra Wilson and Kathryn Chavez is perfectly timed to set imaginations in mo- tion by showing how multimodality works in different disciplines, what it looks and sounds like in content-area classrooms, and why it matters. Multimodality—the social practice of making meaning by combining multiple semiotic resources—has taken the field of literacy education by storm. A quick glance at professional journals and conference programs re- veals a growing awareness that youth are immersed in a multimodal world and brings knowledge of how to combine different symbolic resources to their participation in social spaces near and far. Despite the profession’s enthusiasm, there is a striking absence of attention to multimodality in school. And when multimodality is included, it is often considered a cur- ricular frill to motivate students rather than a basis for understanding. Trivializing multimodality in this way not only discounts the essential role multiple representations play in fields such as science, history, and math- ematics, but also treats multimodality as a generic or universal practice that works the same way regardless of purpose and context. Wilson and Chavez start from a completely different premise, one that situates multimodal representations within a discipline. Disciplines are commonly thought of as bodies of knowledge untethered from the circumstances that produce knowledge. In school, they become “school subjects” that treat knowledge as if it were a flat factual statement (usually in a textbook) rather than an artifact of lively debates over appropriate vii viii Foreword modes of inquiry and the resulting truth value of knowledge claims. In short, disciplines are discourse communities and multimodal representa- tions are what they argue over. Multimodality will remain a trivial pursuit in classrooms unless it is positioned as the pivot point for understanding disciplinary knowledge as mediated by signs, not a mirror of reality. Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas: A Classroom Guide is a breakthrough book that will change the conversation about multimo- dality in content area teaching. In showing how different disciplines tap semiotic resources to represent the world and how teachers seamlessly in- corporate these resources into instructional practices, Wilson and Chavez convince us that developing multimodal representational competence mat- ters. Knowing how knowledge is produced and represented provides stu- dents with an insider view that challenges the elitism that can leave them standing on the outside. Firsthand experience with the modes, tools, texts, and talk that disciplinary discourse communities employ to learn about the world will not by itself provide access, but it may inspire students to view knowledge and themselves differently. In bringing together what have been disparate lines of scholarship— multimodality, disciplinary literacy, critical literacy, classroom discourse, and content area teaching and curriculum—Wilson and Chavez make a unique contribution to the field just in time for the challenges posed by the Common Core State Standards. Teachers, teacher educators, and university-based scholars will find rich rewards in the classrooms vignettes and detailed analyses of the teachers’ multimodal practices and represen- tations across four distinct content areas: earth science, English language arts, mathematics, and social studies. This is the best kind of classroom guide, one that offers examples and images to ponder and transform rath- er than a list of “best practices” to implement. One of the hidden gems is the repeated focus on how to talk about multimodality. There is a need for us to expand our own multimodal representational competence, and this includes learning how to talk about multimodal choices and meanings in ways that make visible the semiotics of the discipline, or what differ- ent signs stand for in a disciplinary discourse community. Language can continue to be a productive pedagogical resource when it stops serving solely as a channel for transmitting knowledge and becomes one among many ways to represent knowing and learning. In the classrooms that we enter in this book, multimodality has toppled language from its privileged position, but words remain an important part of the multimodal mix. Marjorie Siegel CHAPTER 1 Introduction In a 6th-grade classroom four students sit together at a mineral center, reading the instructions that direct them to scratch samples of calcite and fluorite with a copper penny and a steel nail. They record their observa- tions, noting which mineral is harder, then read Mohs Hardness Scale in their textbooks in order to compare the calcite and fluorite to other min- erals. After rotating to the next center, the students test the property of streak by sliding hematite and pyrite across a white ceramic tile, recording their observations, and reading a brief section in their textbooks about streak. In a different classroom a teacher introduces the concept of style by displaying a photograph of a character from a popular television show and asking students to notice her distinctive clothes that were designed to “grab your attention.” She continues, “We all have different styles, don’t we? For example, I love how Sarah [points to student] dresses. I think Sarah has style. But is my style the same as Sarah’s?” After students briefly analyze different styles in clothing, famous paintings, and popular songs, they identify stylistic differences in short stories. They then write their own letters using the voice and style of fictional characters they had read about. Another class consisting of 8 boys and 16 girls lines up on either side of the hallway as part of a larger discussion about ratio. “We can see our ratio, 8 to 16,” the teacher says. “Now if we wanted to use everybody and make even groups, is there a way we can do that?” A student responds, “Divide the boys into two groups of 4,” and the teacher rejoins, “Okay, if we divided the boys into two groups of 4, how many girls would need to be in each group?” Students rearrange their bodies accordingly, with boys dividing themselves into two groups of 4 on the right side of the hall, and girls standing directly across from them in two groups of 8 on the left side of the hall. Individuals name other groupings they could make—2 to 4, 1 to 2, 8 to 16—and they again rearrange their bodies 1
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