Instructions

As we progress through the course and experience a variety of readings, you will come across scholars and terms that are associated with language and literacy learning theory. As literacy professional you should be conversant in these terms, the research, and the educational policies. As these terms and scholars arise in your reading, post them here along with your definition of the term or description of contributions the scholar made to literacy research. If someone has already posted a term or scholar, you can and should add to, revise, or clarify as appropriate.

 

Terms & People to know

Add them in alphabetical order - last name first for people

 

Acquisition vs. Learning: 

Acquisition:  a process of acquiring something subconsciously by exposure to models and process of trial and error; no formal teaching; acquisition happens in natural settings

Learning: a process that involves conscious knowledge gained through teaching; knowledge does not necessarily come from someone who is designated as "the teacher"; teaching involves both analysis and explanation (breaking something down into smaller parts)

 

• "We are better at what we acquire, but we consciously know more about what we have learned" (Gee, pg. 540)          (Jillian Stenger)

 

Assimilation vs. Accommodation:  two basic processes of learning

Assimilation:  When the information presented already fits within the knowledge structure of the reader or write, this addition of information results in an elaboration or expanding of the existing knowldege.  Therefore, new knowledge is simply added to what is already known.

Accommodation: When the information presented does not easily fit into the knowledge structure of the reader or writer, the learner discovers new meanings or insights and for that information to be understood, a restructuring of what is known is required.  (Kucer, pp. 121)    (Lisa Ventress)

 

Autonomous Model vs. Ideological Model of Literacy

Autonomous Model: Is a discrete set of skills that can be taught in similar ways regardless of the various needs and experiences of the learners.

Ideological Model: Based on a primarily social practice.  The literacy is shaped by a variety of contexts (social, cultural, economic, and/or political).  Learning carries meaning based on the social interactions of the learners.

(Megan McElheran)

** These two terms were briefly introduced in chapter 1 of Making Literacy Real, it will be discussed further in chapter 2**

 

Baron, Dennis:  an English and linguistics professor, situates the computer in a series of communication technologies, including writing, the pencil, and the telephone, to argue that different technologies interact wtih literacy in often unexpected ways. (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Boling, Erica: a professor at Rutgers University researches the benefits of blogs and new technologies in classrooms. These benefits include authentic writing and the engagement of collaborative writing. For an example, Boling uses two classrooms, a third grade classroom who writes responsive blogs to the classroom teddy bear Jefferson who asks them questions that need research and critical thinking in order to answer. The second example is a teacher who created a class blog for her fourth graders for an online literature discussion and creative writing for fifth graders. These blogs allow the classrooms to connect to other towns and cities for more engaging discussions and more opportunities for learning literacy using these new technologies. (Kendra Leckie)

 

Callow, Jon:  an experienced teacher, having worked in primary schools, universities and in professional development for teachers. His Research includes, visual literacy, using digital media and engaging students in these literacy practices.  (Ali Schenk)

 

Child’s model of language as defined by Halliday (1969):

A child’s model of language is comprised of seven parts:

Instrumental model-child becomes aware that language is used as a means of getting things done.

Regulatory- language is used to regulate the behavior of others.

Interactional-language is used in the interaction between self and others.

Personal- language is used as a form of individuality.

Heuristic-child’s knowledge of language enables them to explore their environment.

Imaginative-child’s ability to create a world through language.

Representational-language is a means of communicating something; expressing propositions. This is generally the only model adults think of but is the last piece of the model for children to develop.

 (Megan Bowen)

 

Chomsky, Noam (1965) Noam Chomsky was a linguist who revolutionized the way people looked at the acquisition of language.  His work was focused on the belief that language is rule-governed and that children are predisposed to language.  He believed that children are active participants in learning language and does it much like a scientist testing hypothesis. (Fresch, 2008)  Lynn Patriquin

 

Community(Lee & Smagorinsky):  more than a sense of harmony, but rather to a shared set of social practices and goals that become differentiated among subgroups.  (From Larson & Marsh, Ch. 5)    (Cheryl Newton)

 

Community of Practice(Lave & Wenger):  a set of relations among persons, activity, and world over time and in elation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice.  (From Larson & Marsh, Ch. 5)     (Cheryl Newton)

 

Critical Literacy - (Anderson and Irvine) learning to read and write as part of th eprocesses of becoming conscious of one's experience as historically constructed within specific power relations.  Suppose to challenge these unequal power relations. (Larson and Marsh; Chapter 3 pg. 45) (Brenda Seely)

                    -uses text to affect change (Samantha Martin)

 

CMC -- Computer-mediated communication (Jacobs, 2008)

(Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

 

Cultural Mediation - how human beings change mental and material objects to keep interaction with the world and others consistent

(Larson and Marsh, p 102) (Brenda Seely)

 

Delpit, Lisa:  She qualifies Gee's statements and analysis, but argues that linguistic acquistion is possible through classroom immersion in secondary discourse, yet also acknoledges how problematic the move between discursive communities has been for many African Americans.  (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Delpit, Lisa (biography): Lisa Delpit is the professor of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State University. She earned her Master’s and her Educational Doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a Director of Urban Educational Excellence. Also, Lisa received a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. Lisa’s research generally focuses on race and cultural issues within the classroom. She has published various books on teaching and learning in an urban setting and the way in which culture/education conflict with a child’s classroom.           (Megan Bowen)

 

Detournement: "It is a turning around and reclamation of lost meaning: a way of putting the stasis of the spectacle in motion.  It is plagaristic, because the materials are those which already appear within the spectalce, and subversive, since its tactics are those of the 'reversal of perspective', a challenge to meaning aimed atthe context in which it arises" (Plant 1992 as quoted in Trier 2008).  Trier (2008) also quotes Sussman (1989) and defines detournement as "a violent excision of elements - painting, architecture, literature, film, urban sites, sounds, gestures, words, signs - from their original contexts, and a consequential restabilization and recontextualization through rupture and realignment."   (Michelle Roberts)

 

Dialect: LInguistic term used to describe the patterns in the way people use language (Wolfram 2000).  Dialectical patterns include pronunciation, vocabualry, and gramatical structure.  Kucer argues that dialect is any variation in spoken language.  Dialect represents a culutural influence or a geographical/regional influence on oral language.  Dialect does not appear to affect written discourse as much.  Dialect is an emotional term for many people, and many feel that if someone is not speaking "proper {standard} English" then there is a deficit with the speaker, their culture, or upbringing.  (Michelle Roberts)

          -Dialect is not just a variation in spoken language, but also can be seen by users of American Sign Language as well (Wolfram, 2000). (Samantha Martin)

 

Dialect Discrimination: A term used to describe the perceptions people have of one another after hearing different accents and dialects. Many do not disguise dialect discrimination and their feelings of people who speak differently.  (Kendra Leckie)

          -People's intelligence, capability and character are often judged on the basis of a sentence, a few phrases or even a single word (Wolfram, 2000).

 

Dialect type: Dialect type as defined by Labov (2003) “phonological or grammatical feature which varies with reader’s language background” (Labov, 2003).           (Megan Bowen)

 

Discourse:  A socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a memeber of a socially meaningful group of "social nework."  EX: Every act of speaking, writing, and behaving a linguist does as a linguist is meaningful only against the background of the whole social institution of linguists (Gee, pg 537-538). 

(Natalie Nicoletti)

 

Discourse(with a capital "D"):  Included in Mays works, Gee defines Discourse as ways of combining and coordinating words, deeds, thoughts, values, bodies, objects, tools, and technologies, and other people (at the appropriate times and places) so as to enact and recognize the specific socially situated identities and activities.  (Cheryl Newton)

 

discourse(with a lower-case "d"):  Gee (in his own work) defines discourse as a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a memeber of a socially meaningful group or "social network."  (Cheryl Newton)

 

Dyson, Anne Haas:  Anne Haas Dyson is currently a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlaign.  She has a Ph.D., in Education and a M.Ed., in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas.  She also has a B.S. in Elementary Education with a concentration in English from the University of Wisconsin.  Dyson's research primarily focuses on language and literacy development in the early childhood years.  Currently, Dyson has been studying the philosophy of the basics for literacy learning; her ultimate goal is to reconceptualize what is basic in literacy learning.                (Sarah Homer)

 

Eakle, A. Jonathan: Jonathan Eakle is a researcher who has been investigating the educational benefits of museums and literacy experiences. He teaches and work at John Hopkins University School of Education as a Reading Program Director. His work with authentic literacy practices and experiences have helped children learn literacy in a new way.   

(Kendra Leckie)

 

Epistemology- concerned with what one is capable of knowing about reality and how one can know it. (Samantha Martin)

  

Four Resources Model of Literacy Education:  Created by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke, the Four Resources Model of Literacy Education proposes that to be literate one has to have the ability to use the four families of resources of literacy listed below. 

Code Breaker:  the ability to know the relationship between the sounds of language and the written text

Text user:  the ability to know what the use of the text is within a given context

Text Participant:  the ability to make connections with prior knowledge and to make inferences

Text Analyst:  the ability to be consciously aware of the language; to know what position a text is forcing one to take

(Sarah Homer)

     

          Family of Practices in Literacy

               describes literacy as being an aspect of an individual's history, capability, and possibilities as well as the collective or joint capabilities of a group, community, or society.  ~defined by Luke and Freebody (1999)

               This takes in everything around a student, not only just them, but those factors that interact with the student.  The four resources model is now being described as something that is being done in an everyday contexts that is always changing and evolving everyday.

(Brenda Seely)

 

 

Fluency:  "The ability to read meaningfully, as well as accurately and with appropriate speed.  Fluency enables readers to acquire control over surface-level text processing so that decoding and comprehending can occur simultaneoulsy."  (Fresch, pp116)        (Lisa Ventress)

 

Freebody, Peter: Freebody, Peter: Peter Freebody is a Professional research Fellow in the Department of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney in Australia. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney in 1973 and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has taught at high schools in Australia, served as a research assistant in America, and taught as a Professor of Education at several universities throughout Australia. Furthermore, he worked with Allan Luke to create the Four Literacy Resources Model in 1992.   (Megan Bowen)

 

Freire, Paulo: his work has been central to the concept of critical literacy; carried out successful literacy campaign in the early 1960's that incorporated critical pedagogy; key concepts of Freire's pedagogy include: critical consciousness of learners, dialogue between teachers and students being at the heart of learning, and that teachers must recognize students' prior knowledge. (Jillian Stenger)

 

Funds of knowledge:  historically accumulated and culturally develped bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being.  As households interact within circles of kinship and friendship, children are "participant-observers" of the exchange of goods, services, and symbolic capital which are part of each household's functioning.  (Natalie Nicoletti)

 

 Gatto, Lynn: Gatto is an Elementary school teacher in the Rochester City School District and has taught for over 30 years. She is an influential teacher that Larson and Marsh use to illustrate New Literacy Studies when completely implimented into the classroom. Her physical organization and family atmosphere are unique in the teaching world as she allows her student to know her not only as a teacher, but most importantly as a person. She grounds her students in authentic interations and brings in a sense of importance of community into her classroom. Her curriculum units and lessons are unique, detailed, and child-oriented. These authentic literacy lessons are beneficial to the children because they are learning about subjects inside and outside of a school building.                   (Kendra Leckie)

"My students understand that learning does not take place just in school; they leave my classroom with a passion for experiencing new places and meeting new people" Lynn Gatto (Larson&Marsh, pp. 26)

 

Gee, James Paul:  Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He received both his M.A. and Ph.D from Stanford University in linguistics. His research covers a multitude of topics including discourse studies, theory, and linguistics. Most recently he has been examing the way children learn through video games.                (Kendra Leckie) 

 

genre theorists: systemic functional linguists from Austrailia who adapted Halliday's functional linguistic theory and work and intended to invest it with the possibilities of social transformation; they believed that some social groups and their characteristic genres enjoyed more power than other social groups and their genres; social power was associated with mastery of genres; argued that powerful genres and their particular social purposes not only can be identified and taught to students, but that they should be identified and taught to students, especially those whose first language is something other than English (Jillian Stenger)

 

Goodman, Yetta:  Goodman is a professor of education as well as a well-profound researcher of literacy in young children.  She is known for popularizing the term "kid watching" and is a major spokesperson for the whole language approach. Goodman has also authored many scholarly books and articles.  (Jessi Laemlein)

 

graphic novels: Graphic novels are "comic books" that use visual images and text that bridges the gap between media we watch and media we read which allows the reader to control the pace at which the story unfolds.  They are highly engaging and are available in all subject areas, as well as, classic stories and new art forms.  Lynn Patriquin

 

graphophonemic system: the system of rules that relates letters and sounds within a language.  In English ther are 26 letters or graphemes that make about 44 sounds or phonemes. (Kucer, 2005)

Lynn Patriquin

 

Halliday, M.A.K:  Halliday is researcher in linguist studies.  His contribution to language study is primarily in defining the functions of language.  He concentrates on the meanings and purposes children ascribe to languages as they learn.  He developed a scheme for classifying differnt types of utterances.  There are seven in total: instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, reprensentational. (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Description of Halliday's seven models of language:

Instrumental (I want) - used as a means of getting things; satisfying material needs.

Regulatory (Do as I tell you/How it must be) - used to control the behaviors, feelings, or attitudes or others.

Interactional (Me and you/Me against you) - used to interact with others; forming and maintaining personal relationships; establishing separateness.

Personal (Here I come) - used to express individuality and uniqueness; awareness of self; pride.

Heuristic (Tell me why) - used to explore the environment; to ask questions; to seek and test knowledge.

Imaginitive (Let's pretend) - used to create new worlds.

Informative (I've got something to tell you) - used as a means of communicating information to someone who does not possess that information. 

(Natalie Nicoletti)

 

Heath, Shirley Brice: Heath is a Professor of lnguistics and english. Heath is a linguistic anthropologist whose research has centered on the out-of-school lives of young people in subordinated communities. Key themes in her work have been adolescents' own language and symbolic representations of themselves, as well as their leadership and initiative in identifying and solving what they see as community problems. The focus of Heath's research is now on linguistic and cognitive learning that takes place through means such as apprenticeship, mentoring, organizational management, and financial planning that depend on observing, listening, and modeling and go beyond direct verbal instruction.  (Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

 

Ideological literacy: ideological literacy is a social practice connected to social, cultural and historical perspectives.  In this view meaning is constructed in particular social and cultural settings and is explored in the linguistic and social pracitice that gives them meaning. Larson and Marsh.  (Lynn Patriquin)

 

Instructional Detours: Term used by Kucer that is interchangeable with differentiated mediaton and overt instruction.  In this type of instruction, students engage in ongoing, authentic literacy activities.  When the teacher observes the student struggling with a particular dimension, the student is provided direct, focused instruction that address the area of difficulty. (Michelle Roberts)

 

Interpretivism--An approach to social science research that rejects the positivist idea that the same research methods can be used to study human behavior as are successfully used in fields such as checmistry and physics.  The view that cultures can be understood by studying what people think about, their ideas, and the meanings that are important to them (Kathrine Johnson)

 

Intertextuality:  There is an intertextual nature of written language; that is, there are both conceptual and linguistic links among a variety of texts. Texts that serve similar purposes in similar contexts share many of the same characteristics and meanings (e.g. all narratives have certain characteristics, all folktales share certain characteristics, etc).  This intertextuality is significant because as students begin to recognize patterns in texts they are reading, they also learn that the same patterns should be applied to writing as well (Kucer, pg. 282).  (Jill Stenger)

 

Jenkins, Henry: Henry Jenkins earned his Master’s in Communications from the University of Iowa and his PhD in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a currently a professor of humanities and a Co-Director of Comparative Media Studies at MIT. He has done a great deal of research regarding games used for learning and was asked to present information on this topic to Congress in 1999. Jenkins has published numerous articles discussing games for learning and media literacy. He also has his own weblog, which can be found at http://www.henryjenkins.org/             (Megan Bowen)

 

Knobel, Michele:  a professor of Education at Montclair State university, where she coordinates the graduate and undergraduate literacy programs.  Her interests include school students' everyday literacy practices and digital technology use.  (Ali Schenk) 

 

Labov, William:  William Labov is am American linguist who is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of scoicolinguists. (Therefore Labov is a sociolinguist himself) He pursues research in language change, sociolinguistics, and dialectology.  Labov is also a professor in linguists department at the University of Pennsylvania. (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Lankshear, Colin:Colin Lankshear is a Professor of Literacy and Technology at James Cook University in Australia. He has conducted various research concerning literacy and new technologies (i.e. the internet). Lankshear is also a visiting scholar at McGill University. He has an “Everyday Literacies” blog with co-author of New Literacies: Changing knowledge and classroom learning, Michele Knobel. The blog can be found at http://everydayliteracies.blogspot.com/                   (Megan Bowen)

 

Lankshear and Knobel's Four Roles for Learners in a New Media Age:Lankshear and Knobel identify four roles which they suggest characterize the practices people engage in as they learn to produce, distribute and exchange texts in a new media age:

• Text Designer:  the concept of design, rather than traditional conceptions of authorship, is important in the production of multimodel, digital texts
• Text Bricoleur:  'artist like inventivenss' of people's everyday practices in which they draw on whatever is on hand to create texts
• Text Broker:  mediates texts between the author and the reader
• Text Jammer:  the process of changing or adapting electronic texts in order to subvert the messages given-- basically, online critical literacy practices

(Sarah Homer)

 

 

Lankshear and Knobel’s Four Principles of Learning:

 

 

 Larsen, Joanne: Joanne Larsen is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum program at the University of Rochester's Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development.  She earned a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995.  Larsen is currently focusing her research on Literacy as a Social Practice and has recently authored several articlas and produced a documentary film.

Michelle Roberts

 

Literacy -- a multifaced set of social practices with a material technology, entailing code breaking, participation with knowledge of text, social uses of texts, and analysis and critique of the texts" (Freebody & Luke, 1990).  (Kathrine Johnson)

 

Literacy Events (as defined by Heath): a key concept for the study of different ways of taking meaning from written sources across various communities; literacy events include those occasions "in which language is integral to the nature of participants' interactions and their interpretive processes and strategies" (Heath, 1982, p.74).  Examples of familiar literacy events for mainstream students are bedtime stories, reading stop signs, grocery lists, and cereal boxes.  Each community has its own distinct set of rules for social interaction and sharing of knowledge and information through literacy events.  (Jillian Stenger)

     -students draw on their culture and what is socially excepted in order to respond to what they know from reading and what they know based on the reading material (Brenda Seely)

 

Literacies (as defined by Lankshear and Knobel):  socially recognized ways of generating, communicating, and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses.  (Cheryl Newton)

 

Dominant Literacy: control of seconday use of language used in dominant discourse.

Powerful Literacy: control of a secondary use of language used in a secondary discourse that can serve as a meta-discourse to critique the primary discourse or other secondary discourses, including dominant discourses (Gee, p.542, 2001).

(Kathrine Johnson)

 

Luke, Allen:  Allen Luke is an educator, researcher, and theorist studying multiliteracies, linguistics, family literacy, and educational policy.  Luke received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972.  He received his PH. D. from Simon Fraser Universtiy in 1985.  Luke has written or edited over 14 books and more than 140 articles and book chapters.  He worked with Peter Freebody to create the Four Resources Model of literacy education.  Currently, Luke is a Research Professor at a University in Australia.

(Megan McElheran)

 

Marsh, Jackie: Jackie Marsh is a Professor of Education and the Program Director of Education at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. She also teaches graduate classes for New Literacies and Early Childhood Education at the university while supervising students who are completing their doctorates. She was the President of the United Kingdom Literacy Association from 2005-2007. She has conducted various surveys and research about digital imagery, media, and technology impact children. Her most recent survey is called “Digital Beginnings” and was completed in 2005.            (Megan Bowen)

 

Mendelman, Lisa  Lisa Mendelman has attained her Master’s degree in English from Stanford University. Mendelman has recently moved to Los Angeles to be a PhD candidate at UCLA in the English Literature department. Lisa has been writing, editing, and teaching for the past eight years for the “Stanford Daily: An Independent Publication”, and has taught English, Writing and Journalism at several private schools in the in the San Francisco Bay area. Mendelman is most interested in 19^th and 20^th century American feminist authorship, film, and contemporary non-fiction.  (Danielle Allen)

 

Moll, Luis C. - Moll is a professor of Language, Reading, & Culture at the University of Arizona.  He conducts research on literacy, as well as bilingual learning and telecommunications.  Recently, he has taken studies of how knowledge is used in households such as Latino households and combined them with teaching experiments in order to apply his findings in bilingual classrooms. (Jillian Stenger)

 

Monolingualism (Monoliteracy): knowing or able to use only one language/literacy.  Limits the possibilities of both parents and teachers.  "Can be an annoying constraint in bilingual contexts" (Cushman, 2001).

(Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

  

New Literacy Studies (NLS):  According to Larson and Marsh, NLS offers a theoretical framework that assumes literacy is a critical social practice constructed in everyday interactions across local contexts.  NLS emphasizes literacy as a more complex social practice than mandated curricula and assessments address.  (Sarah Homer) 

 

New Literacy Technologies:New forms of technology that are created to offer new opportunities for producing and manipulating text.  New literacy technologies adapt to familiar functions often associated with an older, accepted form of communication and the new form gradually becomes the more accepted form because it offers new and more advanced ways of communicating - Dennis Baron. (Natalie Nicoletti)

 

Normative - Involves a set of moral and Political, cultural and social decisions about how things should be, rather

than a simple description of what it is.

 

Nuclear Household Responsibilities (Heath):

1. As early as 6 months - the room should be filled with books, stuffed animals and murals that represent characters from books
2. age six months and beyond - adults should be expanding a child's  responses and interactions with text by starting with simple, coupleword answers and develop to more complex questions that entail the child to get descriptive
3. Talking age - relating the outside world events to an event that occurred in a book
4. 2 years and beyond - encouragae a child to tell their own kind of stories and reward them on this fact whether the story is true or not
5. Preschool age - continue to use book related activities as a form of entertainment to keep the child occupied
6. Preschool age - child gives their own ideas and thoughts about the story and what is happening
7. Age three and older - the student must take the listening role and wait to break into the middle of a story to ask a question or to say a comment; encurage the child to start readig to the parent

(Brenda Seely)

 

Ohanian, Susan: Former teacher in New York and California.  Author of several books including One Size Fits Few The Folly of Educational Standards.  She also has had articles appear in Phi Delta Kappan and Education Week.  Ohanian looks critically at the education standards, and asks us to question why we continue to raise the bar in what we expect students to learn in school, when we are not providing a level playing field in terms of home life, access, and socioeconomics.  Her book is a great read, full of authentic stories and questions every teacher should be asking. (Michelle Roberts)

 

Olson, David     David R. Olson is a cognitive psychologist who has devoted much of the past two decades to the study of writing and literacy.  He also has studied children’s understanding of language and mind, and the psychology of teaching.  He is a professor at the University of Toronto and has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Gotherberg, Sweden and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. (Lisa Ventress)

 

 

Ontology- concerned with reality and existence  (Samantha Martin)

 

 

Participatory culture:   the notion that is emerging as the culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to achieve, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content in powerful new ways.  Therefore, young people are acquiring the skills that will send them well into the future with more opportunities to activiate and participate.  The five main characteristics of participatory culture are:

     1. relatively low barriers to articstic expression and civic engagement

     2. strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others

     3. some type of informal mentorsip whereby what is known by the most experiences is passes along to novices

     4. members believe that their contributions matter

     5. members feel some degreee of social connection with one another    (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Pearson, P. David: P. David Pearson is a reaseacher in the field of reading assessment and reading instruction.  He has previously worked at several Universities, the most recent returning to teach at Berkeley, the school in which he completed his B.A.  He received his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in education the year 1969. Pearson  is interested in how several disciplines have shaped the field of literacy education.         (Kendra Leckie) 

 

Pedagogization- defined by Street (1995) is the socially constructed link between institutionalized processes of teaching and learning and literacy. (Larson and Marsh Ch. 2)

(Megan McElheran)

 

Pragmatics (a system of language):  expresses the various functions, uses, and intentions that the language can seve.  It governs what forms of language are appropriate in particular contexts.  The purpose underlying the use of literacy will influence the type of text read or written, the structure of the text,its genre, teh meaning and the structure of the sentences within the text, the words selected, and so on.  The Pragmatic System of Language includes: Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal, Heuristic, Imaginative, and Informative.  (Kucer, pp 23-24)   (Jessi Laemlein)

 

Primary Discourse: Defined by Gee, the discourse of our home, the language and culture of our families and home (Samantha Martin)

 

Principles About Written Language (3 major principles according to Goodman):

1) relational/semiotic principles: the understandings that children have about the ways in which meaning is represented in written language, the ways in which oral language is represented in written language, and the ways in which both oral and writtten language are interrelated in order to represent meaning

2) functional principles: the understandings that children have about the reasons and purposes for written language

3) linguistic principles: the understandings children have about how written language is organized and displayed in order for communication to occur

(Goodman, p.320)   (Jillian Stenger)

 

"Radical Change": identified by Dresang (1999) as an increasing trend in literature for children; "Radical Change" texts have three characteristics, including:

     1) changing forms and formats (like new forms of graphics)

     2) changing perspectives (like several points of view, voices that have been previously unheard - includes both visual and verbal)

     3) changing boundaries (like dealing with subjects that have previously been forbidden or overlooked; new types of communities)      (Jillian Stenger)

 

Reading Error- The selection of the wrong word in a printed text that is not the word intended by the writer of the text. (Megan McElheran)

 

Secondary Discourse: defined by Gee, the discourse/language of institutions we're associated with such as school, church, place of work (Samantha Martin)

 

Semantics: relationships of meaning among words. (Samantha Martin)

 

Semantic Shadow: A technical term used by Labov in his analysis of data gathered on oral reading.  A semantic shadow occurs when a student misreads part of a text, and then continues to make errors realted to the first miscue.  For example:

Text: My blood began to boil.

Reading: My boat began to bill. (Labov 2003)

Analysis: The second error (bill) is in the semantic shadow of the first error (boat).  If the student had not made the first error, or was familiar with the idiom, chances are the student would have decoded boil correctly. (Michelle Roberts)

 

Sociocultural-historical theory:  theory that defines the child as an active member of a constantly changing community of learners in which knowledge constructs and is constructed by larger cultural systems. Literacy is a tool for interpreting what people from different communities do, no simply what they do not do when compared to a dominant group.  Emphasizes the notion of literacy as a social practice and that skills are acquired.  (Larson and Marsh chapter 5).        ~ Jessi Laemlein

 

SPOTLIGHT ON READING is a reading program developed by William Labov.  It is not a complete reading program, but a specialized tool for dealing with the decoding of African-American, Latino and other minority children in low income schools.  It focuses attention on the small number of sound-to-sound problems that form the greatest obstacles to progress in reading.  SPOTLIGHT makes availabe to teachers the results of large-scale research on reading programs to guide their instructional efforts in the most efficient manner.  (Natalie Nicoletti)

 

Spotlight on reading research base:

1)  Linguistic analysis of reading errors in a computer controlled pre- and post- test of the reader's knowledge of graphemic/phonemic relations.

2)  Sociolinguistic studies of children's home language, in and out of school.

3)  Studies of the relative success of various methods of countering alienation from reading and the school process. 

(Cheryl Newton)

 

Strike:Something that stands out (Boling, 504)

(Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

 

Ten spotlighted decoding problems:

1)  The soft-c rule

2)  Digraphs

3)  Consonant clusters

4)  Unstable liquids

5)  The silent-e rule

6)  The invisible "Y" in regular vowel teams

7)  Irregular vowel teams: The problem of unpredictability

8)  The GHost letters

9)  Monsters past and present

10)  Contraction and possession

(Cheryl Newton)

 

Techno-literacy:  Emphasis on teacher as guide in navigating resources, co-constructor of knowledge (this vision is hampered by the fact that some teachers lack confidence and skills in relation to new technologies).  Literacy practices are informed by the rapid developments in technology occuring within contemporary societies.  These are creating fundamental epistemological and ontological shifts that are not reflected in schooled practices. (Larson and Marsh, 2005, pg. 131).

(Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

 

Text Type: Particular discourse forms with distinguishing features and patterns (e.g., narration, exposition, poetry) -taken from the vocabulary bookmark given to us in class (Samantha Martin)

 

Three-dimensional model - to be used and taken into account simultaneously

The Operational dimension focuses on the language aspect of literacy including but also going beyond competence with the tools, procedures, and techniques involved in being able to handle the written language system proficiently.  It includes being able to read and write in a range of contexts in an appropriate and adequate manner.

The Cultural dimension involves competence with the meaning system of a social practice; knowing how to make and grasp meanings approprately within the practice.  Knowing what it is about given contexts of practice that makes for appropriateness or inappropriateness of particular ways of reading and writing.

The Critical dimension involves awareness that all social practices, and thus all literacies, are socially constructed and selective.  They include some values, purposes, rules, standards, and perspectives and exclude others.   (Cheryl Newton)

 

Yang, Gene: Gene Yang earned his Master’s Degree from the University of California, Hayward; where he wrote his Master’s thesis on the use of comic books/graphic novels in education. Yang is currently a high school computer science teacher in California. Also, Yang is a prominent comic book/graphic novel writer. Yang wrote the first graphic novel to ever receive a National Book Award. He has also created a math unit, available online, that is a graphic novel.     (Megan Bowen)

 

Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky,1962;1978): Represents the range of a child's ability characterized by the discrepancy between a child's current level and the level of ability she/he reaches in solving problems with assistance. (From Larson & Marsh, Ch. 5) 

(Megan McElheran)

 

Williams, Bronwyn T.:  Bronwyn T. Williams is currently an associate professor at the University of Louisville where he is the Director of Composition.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.  His teaching areas include writing pedagogy and theory, literacy and popular culture and literacy and identity.  Williams has done countless research in the areas of literacy, popular culture, and pedagogy; literacy and identity; and cross-cultural literacy practices.  We have been previewed to his research in his article about teaching literacy across cultures: "Around the block and around the world:  Teaching literacy across cultures".     (Sarah Homer)

Wiki Website:  A type of site that makes it easy to share resources, write collaboratively, and dialogue about the process (Boling, 506).

(Kathrine Johnson-Torres)

 

Vygostsky, Lev Semenovich was a Russian developmental psychologist and the founder of cultural-historical psychology.  The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. A second aspect of Vygotsky's theory is the idea that the potential for cognitive development depends upon the "zone of proximal development." (Lisa Ventress)

 

The principle of efficacious learning—learning should be connected in meaningful ways to learners’ social and cultural practices. Learning should be inseparable from Discourses.

 

 

 

 

The principle of integrated learning—integrated learning is situated inside a practice and relates to our identities.  Learning is holistic and organic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The principle of productive appropriation and extension in learning—the process of learning should not involve conflict between social identities.  Learning should provide opportunities for learners to transfer specific discursive practices into new spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The principle of critical learning—learners should experience different and competing Discourses and be able to navigate critically these contested spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Larson and Marsh, p. 75)

Lisa Ventress

           

Larson, Joanne: Joanne Larson is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum program at the University of Rochester's Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development.  She earned a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995.  Larson is currently focusing her research on Literacy as a Social Practice and has recently authored several articles and produced a documentary film.