Running Head: FINAL 1

Final Reflection

Katherine Kilgore

Arizona State University

This year I took this class, literary processes for content areas with the goal of learning

effective strategies for implementing literacy in environmental science at the high school level. I

learned what disciplinary literacy means in my classroom, I learned how to integrate not only

literacy into my class but other content areas as well. I learned how to work with a diverse group

of learners, and I gained a lot of resources I can use to promote literacy in my classroom.

Disciplinary literacy is the specific reading, writing, listening, communicating, the use of

technology and critical thinking skills used in a discipline(Stevens, 2017.) For students to fully

understand concepts in any discipline and to have more opportunities in life it is important that

they are literate. Some examples of literacy in the science content area are reading, writing, and

analysing scientific publications, news articles, graphs, observations, and much more.

The struggle with literacy in teaching is that every student is at a different level. Students

come from different cultures and sociopolitical environments, this calls for a change to bring

equity to education(2018.) We live in the United States, so all students must be literate in the

English language. While some students' literary skills are proficient, others may be lacking or

even non-existent. While in the past these students that struggle with disciplinary literacy have

fallen through the cracks as they say, educators, schools, and officials are working toward a

higher standard for these students. This means providing extra support for students struggling to

reach proficiency standards, holding teachers and schools accountable for setting high

expectations for students and making sure their students reach them, and preparing teachers to

accommodate and modify their instruction for their students with needs.

Teachers are expected to differentiate their instruction in order to engage and motivate

their students, resulting in closing the gaps in the learning for their students (Irvin, Meltzer, &

Dukes, 2007.) Differentiating instruction means that the teacher designs their instruction to meet
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the needs of the diverse student group. Some examples of differentiated instruction are to allow

students to pick the topic they work with, to let students work in collaborative groups , or assess

students in different ways(Ferlazzo & Hull-Sypnieski, 2018.) A teacher may allow students to

pick their favorite topic from the chapter to write about or favorite animal to research. Teachers

may group students by putting students with similar interests in one group, groups may be made

up of students with different strengths of teachers and may even pair higher level students with

lower level students. Teachers can assess students using a standard multiple choice test, a

research paper, or a presentation.

Disciplinary literacy is important because when students are in a specialized class like

English, history, math, science, and so on, the literacy aspect in that class becomes more

specialized. For example in a science class we are teaching our students to read, write, listen,

communicate and think critically like a scientist. Students attend all of these classes so that they

develop the skills of a well rounded student but also so that they get their feet wet in a field that

interests them. So in science the science teacher must teach the students the literary skills needed

in a science field. While there is a vast variety of science fields there is a common overlap in

vocabulary and other literacy skills. It is important that teachers teach or work toward developing

a foundation in literacy skills needed in a science career or higher level science courses. These

foundational skills are skills such as, how to read and write, how information is communicated or

presented, and vocabulary in the science realm(Kerkhoff Vessa, 2013.) So the more students

read, and write in a science class the better they will get at understanding how literacy is

structured in the science realm.

In module two we covered engagement and motivation. Engagement is holding students

focus and attention, while motivation is inspiring students to participate in the learning process. I
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think the way that I can design my instruction so that students will be actively engaged and

motivated in literacy and science activities is by making the content meaningful to my students

(Heath Wickline, 2018.) When students feel that what they are learning is important in their

personal lives they are more likely to be engaged and motivated. I think that it is all too easy to

relate environmental science to anyone's life. I also think that when students are aware of what

skill they are learning that will aid them in their future careers will entice them to engage in

deeper learning rather than just surface learning. Some examples of skills deeper learning

strengthens is having an understanding of a broad sense of knowledge, problem solving, literacy,

communication skills, leadership, etc. (Seif , 2018.)

Module two also touches on moving your face to face environment to online. While

there are aspects of both that overlap teachers may find that teaching online is more difficult or

maybe just different. While it can take some getting used to I found some very helpful tech tools

that would help me teach my online class. Some of these tools are screencastify, an online tool

for making screencasts, this tool would be useful for modeling an activity or lesson to students or

while giving instructions. Flipgrid is a video discussion tool, this is good for having whole class

discussions online. Another tool I really like is GOOGLE suits, students can share documents

and slides to work together collaboratively (Tucker, 2020.)

This weekend's model talks about formative assessments, the importance of them, and

they even provided us with some ideas of formative assessments to use in our classes. A

formative assessment is the collection of student data during a lesson and using that information

to make decisions about the next steps you take in your lessons. Formative assessments give us

instant feedback on what our students are learning and what they are struggling to understand.

Some examples of formative assessments ideas for class are, think/pair/share, using whiteboards,
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having students draw what they understand, you also use tech tools where students can ask

questions anonymously. (GFPS, n/d)

For module three we focused on a lot of strategies to use while reading. All of these

strategies can be used whether your class is in person and face to face or virtually. Some of my

favorite strategies we learned were the protocols for student lead discussions, using multiple text,

accessing prior knowledge, and using think-out alouds. I will be reflecting on these concepts

through my paper.

In module three we watched a video of one class's protocols for student lead discussions.

This strategy allows students to take the lead, collaborate, be the voice in the class and this

allows students to be active learners. Students learn how to and become more comfortable

speaking and listening to each other. In a student led discussion there is one student who is

assigned as a moderator and keeps the discussion on track. This strategy can also be used in a

virtual classroom environment, we have even used it in another class online. This strategy leads

to deeper learning and allows for students to open up in your classroom.

One concept I liked learning about in this module was the use of multiple text when

teaching a lesson. Using multiple text deepens student understanding and makes them more

knowledgeable on the topic. In our class we visited a webpage where a teacher documented her

success fostering comprehension using multiple text. She guided her students to explore

different perspectives and dive deeper into learning. She had her students read an informative

news article on whales getting trapped in a fisherman net then, her students read a book excerpt.

The students learned about the topic from different perspectives and deepened their

understanding. In this article we also looked at a graphic organizer that I really liked and I plan

on using in my own class. The graphic organizer is an inquiry chart, I have never seen one of
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these but it looks like a KWL chart for research. This definitely helps with organization and asks

for answers to your questions using multiple text.

Accessing prior knowledge is essential when teaching new topics. Students combine

known information with new information to understand new topics. It is important that we access

prior knowledge when teaching because it gives the students purpose and engages the students in

the new information they are learning. The students combine prior knowledge with their new

information to create and understand. When accessing prior knowledge student motivation also

increases because they find connections to the new information and find it relevant to their own

lives. It is important to build relationships with your students so that you can better relate new

information to their personal lives. Some ways to interest students and allow them time to access

prior knowledge before presenting information is to present them with text about the topic,

present the class with a problem, or to present images about the new information.

We went over using think aloud in this module. Think aloud are the expectations of the

internal dialogue of the thinking process you have for your students. A teacher works through a

process for an example in front of the class and they say aloud what they are thinking or how

they would expect the students' thought processes to occur. For this module we looked at a

video of how two co-teachers use think aloud in their classrooms. We also made a thought aloud

for our class. This strategy allows students to understand expectations for comprehension and

allows the teacher to show students what strategies they need to use to be successful. I really

liked this strategy because students learn the expected thought process.

This class taught me what disciplinary literacy means and really opened my mind to cross

curricular teaching. I gained so many new skills and strategies that I will be able to carry on into

my student teaching. I have strategies to implement when teaching a diverse set of learners. I
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have discussion protocols and new ideas of how to implement effective literacy practices in

environmental science. I have learned so much this short semester.

Sources Cited

Ferlazzo, L., & Hull-Sypnieski, K. (Writers). (2018, September 11). Differentiating

Instruction: It’s Not as Hard as You Think [Video file]. Retrieved September 19, 2020,

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-D3gi2lL8

GFPS. (n.d.). 54 different examples of formative assessment. Retrieved November 20,

2020, from

http://cmrweb.gfps.k12.mt.us/uploads/2/7/3/6/27366965/formative_assessment_ppt.pdf

Heath Wickline March 4, 2. (2018, February 06). Creating the Conditions for Deeper

Learning. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://hewlett.org/creating-the-

conditions-for-deeper-learning/

Irvin, J. L., Meltzer, J., & Dukes, M. S. (2007). Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy.

Retrieved September 19, 2020, from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107034/chapters/Student-Motivation,-

Engagement,-and-Achievement.aspx

Kerkhoff Vessa, S. (2013, August 28). Why Disciplinary Literacy is Important. Retrieved

September 19, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unt4pR2HAb4

Seif, E. (2018, September 24). Why Deep Learning? Retrieved November 20, 2020, from

https://inservice.ascd.org/why-deep-learning/

Stevens, D. (Director). (2017, February 7). Content Area Literacy vs Disciplinary

Literacy Minilecture [Video file]. Retrieved September 19, 2020, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH49UMw02Jc&feature=emb_title
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T. (Producer). (2018, October 5). XQ: Equity in Education [Video file]. Retrieved

September 19, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=dirLB5uRQPQ&feature=emb_title

Tucker, C. (2020). Successfully Taking Offline Classes Online. Retrieved November 19, 2020,

from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/summer20/vol77/num10/Successfully-Taking-Offline-Classes-Online.aspx