My literacy question
Thanks to Angela for making me think about literacy at the high school level.
If I could pose one literacy question, it would probably be something like:
What does literacy look like in your content area?
Sounds simple, right? But when I was teaching math I would have had no idea how to answer this. Getting teachers to think about what they’re looking for is a good start. You know – beginning with the end in mind.
Good job, Scott! (No deductions for late work!) It is an A+ question. Beginning with the end in mind-great place to start the conversations! Looking forward to the response.
Hey – thanks. With my little Gmail snafu last week I’m just glad I was able to function enough to do anything…
Ooh…what a great question!
It is difficult for me to pinpoint an answer for this one. I am a learning centre teacher. In Quebec, that means I teach students who have language-based disabilities as well as more severe cognitive delays. So literacy is my content area!
My focus lately is on literacy for being active members of a community. What does that look like? To start:
-We can read each others’ names and recognize who they are
-We can read the headlines in the local paper and have a conversation about them
-We can communicate through a variety of technologies, including our blogs, because it makes us feel part of our class community
-We can have discussions around inspirational quotes and proverbs that include examples from our lives
-We can recognize monetary values of coins so we can purchase our bus tickets and lunches
…
That’s what it looked like last week. As we continue our year I am hoping that literacy and what it looks like continues to develop in our classroom.
(I am crossposting this comment on my blog. I like how this question reminds me of the central place literacy takes in my work, thanks!)