Major Updates Made to the Literacy Glossary and Reading Lists

Some may downplay this announcement as merely routine site maintenance. In actual fact, an update to the site's glossaries and reading lists is news that significant progress has been made to the very foundations of the online resource. 

Firstly, progress is finally being made to the Literacy Glossary. This resource is a work-in-progress. A core list of 70 terms/concepts will be part of the initial list. These terms/concepts will be added over the coming weeks. A further announcement will be made once the Literacy Glossary is fully drafted.

Secondly, there is a range of additions that have been made to the Literacy-Related Reading Lists. In the Contexts of Literacy Instruction section, I have added readings related to the Language Experience Approach (LEA). LEA is an pedagogy whereby shared experiences (e.g. gardening, going out bush, cooking, etc) become the basis for interactive writing exercises which - in turn - produce texts that serve as sources of further reading practice. Teachers and students can use digital photography and information scaffolds to document experiences, and this documentation can be used to recreate, recount and extend upon the shared experiences. Teachers are also encourage to focus on particular words for word study and vocabulary exercises. LEA is an effective teaching technique for younger students and beginning English language learners. More about the Language Experience Approach will be written in the near future. In the meantime, please explore the readings. 

Two reading lists have also been added to the Elements of Instruction section of the readings: Supporting Fluency and Assessment Tools. This rounds out the Elements section. The lists mirror the five pillars of effective reading instruction (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), whilst also including an emphasis on writing and oral language development. Effective instruction must foster the development of phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence (including spelling), vocabulary, oral language, reading fluency, reading comprehension and writing/composing. The Supporting Fluency reading list provides a brief yet comprehensive list of references, whilst the Assessment Tools reading list will grow over time.

Last but not least, word clouds have been added to each of the reading lists in the Elements of Instruction section. The logic of the word clouds will be revealed in a future resource. In the meantime, the following is a gallery of the collected clouds. Please enjoy and explore!

Reference

  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

 

Coming Soon ... The Literacy Bug

In a recent Journal Entry, I mentioned that Changes Were Afoot. The change mentioned at the time was quite minor. It involved the mere change of one word. Wittgenstein on Learning became Wittgenstein on Literacy. That was all in preparation for another change, which is being announced today and which will take effect over the coming weeks. 

Today, I can announce that the site will have a new name, but not necessarily a new direction. Please welcome The Literacy Bug (http://theliteracybug.com). The change acknowledges that the site has been moving toward a particular focus on literacy. The new name allows us to simultaneously break from an explicit link to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, whilst also celebrating this link. 

For the general visitor, the new name has a certain attraction. We want people to Catch the Literacy Bug. We want learners to be infected with the desire to gain meaning from print and to codify ideas in the written word. In the interests of free-flowing information, we want to celebrate the proliferation of oral, print and visual literacies. 

For the nuanced visitor, the name alludes to Wittgenstein’s famous Beetle in the Box thought experiment. If you permit us to recap the experiment, it goes as follows … There are a certain number of people - perhaps around a table. Each one has a box before him or her. They are told that each one has a beetle in his/her box. The group is - then - asked, “do you know what is in each other’s box?” The group’s response is obvious, “of course, you just told us. We each have a beetle.” What is the point here? Well … because the group share a common language and certain common experiences, then they can understand what has been said without looking inside the “box”, which can metaphorically be taken as either “the mind” or “empirical verification”. Isn’t this the magic of language and - thereby - literacy? We can share ideas, mental pictures, concepts, etc. through the common language that we share. 

Sure … we may need to interpret others’ minds to get the point.  We may even need to share certain values, concepts and practices. And there will be certain texts that will elude the most literate person if the content lies too far outside one’s experience. And there will be cases where a text will richly provide its reader with new experiences and new ways of perceiving events that will leave an indelible impact on their world picture. Isn’t that magical?

Please welcome to The Literacy Bug. You can visit http://theliteracybug.com and you will be swept back to this site. The site's previous addresses will continue to work (wittgenstein-on-literacy.com and wittgenstein-on-learning.com), and the final version of the new logo is still under development. Enjoy and explore!

Structuring the rhythms of practice: the foundations for learning

Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images News / Getty Images

Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images News / Getty Images

We are pleased to announce that a new page has been added to the Teaching Folder. The Establishing Meaningful Practices page seeks to "get to the rough ground" and emphasise the importance of establishing effective practices in home, school and community environments, which are based on quality teaching principles. We are interested in contrasting what may appear as sporadic, isolated activities with those activities that are carefully arranged and which contribute to the development of meaningful literacy skills.

A practice “is something people do, not just once, but on a regular basis. But it is more than just a disposition to behave in a certain way; the identity of a practice depends on not only on what people do, but also on the significance of those actions and the surroundings in which they occur.” (Stern, 2004, pg 166). For some reason, people pray, brush their teeth, complete their tax, hike in National Parks, long for the next dance, etc. Each “activity” is part of - let’s says - religious practices, hygienic practices, economic practices, artistic practices, social practices and more. Each practice is much more than the sum of its parts. For instance, the combination of prayer, worship, scripture, and stewardship amounts to more than a collection of disparate activities. They amount to a form of life, and they rely upon resources, other participants, a sense of attachment, cultural artefacts, instruction (or initiation) and more. Likewise, literacy involves the orchestrations of many experiences which culminate in the fostering of the literate practitioner. Time and space must be carved out in the great hurly burly of life so that the practice can grow, flourish and evolve.

So ... how do we make certain activities part and parcel of the practices of home, school, the community, etc? What are the material and social conditions that make this happen? What role do adults and peers play in establishing the conditions of a practice? Is it realistic that all budding "apprentices" will have access to "teachers" (including parents) with sufficient expertise and wherewithal? Overall, how does something become a practice and, through practice, how does the learner's engagement with the world change?

Please click here to explore the Establishing (Literacy) Practices page in the Teaching Folder.

Changes are afoot

I have a question for the regular visitors out there, though I don’t have a prize for the first to answer. Does anyone notice anything different about the website’s logo? 

 
 

Perhaps, you notice something different about the website’s web address (wittgenstein-on-literacy.com), too.

If you said “Literacy”, you would be correct. Wittgenstein on Learning has subtly become Wittgenstein on Literacy, yet the subtitle for the site remains the same, A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Language, Literacy and Learning. The change acknowledges how the topic of literacy teaching and learning has become a significant, though not sole, emphasis of the site.

Regular visitors might also notice a couple other updates to the site. First, the Why Wittgenstein? essay has become the site’s homepage. Second, the General Introduction page has been updated and is now the Introduction to the Teaching Folder.

In other news, I’ll be working the Literacy Glossary over the next few weeks. I hope to have a draft soon, though I can’t provide a date at this stage.

In the meantime, please explore and enjoy!

Suggested Readings Have Been Added On a Range of Literacy-Related Topics

I am pleased to share some recommended readings on a range of literacy-related topics, such as supporting guided reading, assisting English language learners, benefiting from community volunteers, and attending to issues of motivation. At the moment, they are merely reference lists, which I hope to annotate in the future.

The many Language & Literacy Reading Lists (individual links below) include readings canvasing a range of issues that have been categorised into the following: contexts of instruction (e.g. classroom, home, and community setting), elements of learning (e.g. core skills, guided reading, oral language), needs of specific groups (e.g. English language learners), and issues related to understanding and becoming. The aim is to add readings and new categories over time.

For me, at least, literacy is an area that draws together the many strands of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. For instance, in the Tractatus, Wittgenstein digresses to make direct reference to literacy as something that stands beyond language, “At first sight a proposition - one set out on the printed page, for example - does not seem to be a picture of the reality with which it is concerned. But neither do written notes seem at first sight to be a picture of a piece of music, nor our phonetic notation (the alphabet) to be a picture of our speech. And yet these sign languages prove to be pictures, even in the ordinary sense of what they represent. (TLP 4.011)”

As has been mentioned before, literate individuals benefit from enabling relationships as well as access to adequate spaces, time, resources and formative experiences that aid and reinforce what it means to be literate. It is indispensable to acknowledge that literate practices are refined in collaboration with others (having people to talk to, to read with and to write to/with). I hope many of the recommended readings help you help others learn, express, explore, discover and challenge. If you would like to suggest a reading to be added to a list, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please explore and enjoy! 

Contexts of Literacy Learning

Despite popular myth, literacy is developed across contexts and benefits from the involvement of a range of players. Whilst individual classroom teachers do play key roles, there is much to say about the impact of the home, broader school cultures, and peers and mentors.

 

Fostering Knowledge & Purpose

In the end, literacy is not an end in itself. It is medium through which we receive and expresses messages. We develop knowledge. We conceptualise. We take part in communities of practice. We develop interests and pursue goals. 

Elements of Literacy Instruction

The National Reading Panel cited five pillars to reading development: phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, vocabulary development, fluency practice and comprehension. To those five, we would like to add oral language development and writing (composing) skills.

 

Focus on Specific Ages/Groups

As mentioned above, literate individuals benefit from enabling relationships as well as access to adequate spaces, time, resources and formative experiences which suitable to their various stages of development. Literacy is not a singular skill. Rather, it changes qualitatively across a learner's development. 

What have I been reading as of late?

For those who may be curious about the things I have been reading as of late, follow the list of articles that I have scoured in the past few weeks:

  • Alexander, P. A. (2005). The Path to Competence: A Lifespan Developmental Perspective on Reading. Journal of Literacy Research, 37(4), 413-436.
  • Allington, R. L. (2007). Intervention All Day Long: New Hope for Struggling Readers. Voices from the Middle, 14(4), 7–14.
  • Benseman, J. (2014). Adult Refugee Learners with Limited Literacy: Needs and Effective Responses. Refuge, 30(1), 93–103.
  • Craft, T. E. (2014). The Benefits and Limitations of the Leveled Literacy Intervention System. State University of New York.
  • Hammerberg, D. (2004). Comprehension instruction for socioculturally diverse classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 57(7), 684–658.
  • Hemphill, L., & Snow, C. (1996). Language and literacy development: Discontinuities and differences. In D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The handbook of education and human development: new models of teaching, learning and schooling (pp. 173–201). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
  • Justice, L. M., Mashburn, A., Hamre, B., & Pianta, R. (2008). Quality of Language and Literacy Instruction in Preschool Classrooms Serving At-Risk Pupils. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(1), 51–68. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.09.004
  • Lawrence, J., Rolland, R. G., Branum-Martin, L., & Snow, C. E. (2014). Generating Vocabulary Knowledge for At- Risk Middle School Readers: Contrasting Program Effects and Growth Trajectories. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 19(2), 37–41.
  • McNally, T., & McNally, S. (2012). Chomsky and Wittgenstein on Linguistic Competence. Nordic Wittgenstein Review. Retrieved from http://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/article/view/NWR-1_2012-McNallyMcNally/html
  • Moyal-Sharrock, D. (2010). Language-Game. In The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the Language Sciences (CELS) (pp. 417–419).
  • Moyal-Sharrock, D. (unpublished). Wittgenstein on Forms of Life, Patterns of Life and Ways of Living. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/9866115/Wittgenstein_on_Forms_of_Life_Patterns_of_Life_and_Ways_of_Living on 5 January 2015.
  • Neuman, S. B., & Gambrell, L. B. (2014). Disruptive Innovations in Reading Research and Practice. Reading Research Quarterly, 1–6. doi:10.1002/rrq.93
  • Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360–407. doi:10.1598/RRQ.21.4.1
  • Walls, T. A., & Little, T. D. (2005). Relations Among Personal Agency, Motivation, and School Adjustment in Early Adolescence. Journal of Educational Psychology. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.97.1.23

Please explore and enjoy!

Five Key Wittgenstein Scholars on Academia.edu

Academia.edu provides a great way to stay abreast of key researcher in diverse areas of interest. The following provides links to some key Wittgenstein scholars (and selected papers) on the emerging network: 

Please enjoy and explore! Over the years, I have gained quite a bit from the writing of each of the academics listed above. Whilst there, feel free to visit my own academia.edu site.

 

Recommended: Unbalanced Comments on Balanced Literacy

The following link to a blog entry from Shanahan on Literacy is a welcome addition to the discussion/debate on balanced literacy instruction:

Update to the Balancing Instruction Page

The following paragraphs and diagrams have been added to the Balancing Instruction page ... Explore an enjoy!

The diagrams to the left/below specifically point to the levels of literacy activity that must be developed in tandem: constrained (core) skills, meaningful practices, disciplinary practices, and extended practices. This is consistent with Au's (2002) emphasis on local knowledge (code-breaking skills), global knowledge (comprehension/compositional skills) and affective knowledge (developing interests, affinities and attitudes). An image of an integrated approach to reading is presented in order to remind us that the balance/orchestration/integration of practices presents the greatest challenge for "teachers", whether we are referring to parents in the home or professionals in the classroom.

Perhaps contentiously, I will argue that a particular home environment provides a better avenue to explore how the multiple conceptions of literacy pedagogy can take shape (Heath, 1983). In some homes, one can imagine how bedtime reading, alphabetic flashcard practice, scaffolded writing instruction and language-in-context practice can occur with fairly fluid orchestration (which is reliant upon access to material and temporal resources). The adult has a regular routine of rich reading of favourite books ( building vocabulary ), time set aside to play with enticing alphabetic games ( enhancing word recognition ), time to write a birthday card to grandma ( modelling of genre conventions ), and an emphasis on language in the act of - for instance - baking a cake ( learning vocabulary connected to valued activity ). Each activity emphasises different aspects of language and literacy development within a social context. Each activity is integrated through the joint intentional activity of the adult & child. In this case, one can see how "a highly verbal and emotionally stable family environment greatly benefits vocabulary and reading." (Zhang et al, 2013, p. 665) 

Continue on to the page to explore more ...


Update to the Stages of Literacy Development Page

The following paragraphs and graphs have been added to the Stages of Literacy Development page ... Explore an enjoy!

Even though developmental accounts of literacy tend to focus predominantly on the early years, there is the need to account for the "long term developmental process ... to investigate how reading develops across the lifespan by building on the vast literatures in developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, expertise, motivation, and domain-specific learning, as well as reading research" (Anderson, 2007, pg. 415). In her article "The Paths to Competence", Patricia Anderson (2007) notes three domains that develop as a reader develops. These domains are represented in the three graphs that appear below, which bear an uncanny resemblance (schematically) to the graphs (in the main page). We've also added a fourth table from Olson (2007) that indicates cognitive strategies that must be fostered over time for mature, rich comprehension.

Anderson proposes the following three changes that occur as readers progress from the beginning (or acclimation) phase through to the competence stages and on to the status of proficient or expert readers:

  • First, the individual's topic/subject-matter knowledge must grow in tandem with one's knowledge of the attributes of reading. Consequently, early guided reading experiences of picture books require children to demonstrate limited knowledge in either area in order to engage in rich, reading on the lap of a caring adult. However, knowledge of reading and topic knowledge become "increasing interconnected as individuals achieve competence" and as individuals are expected to extract and process information more independently.
  • Second, in the early stages, individuals are motivated predominantly through "situational interest" such as the people involved (e.g. parents), their enthusiasm, engaging books and resources, etc. However, as time passes, individuals are motivated more by individual interests, such as preferred topics, goals and aspirations, and the formation of identities. 
  • Third (and perhaps most importantly), readers move from a reliance on surface-processing strategies to the increasing use of deep-processing strategies. Surface-processing strategies include such procedures as "rereading, altering reading rate, or omitting unfamiliar words" to monitor comprehension/attention. These strategies help one stay on task, correct mistakes, and gain a literal understanding of texts. Deep-processing strategies include "cross-text comparisons, creating alternative representations or questioning a source." Deep-processing strategies focus greater energies on synthesing, analysing and critiquing texts.

Continue on to the page to explore more ...

Traversing the Topical Landscape of Reading and Writing

In Philosophical Investigations (1958), Wittgenstein characterized the philosophical remarks that comprise his book as journeyings across a landscape. McGinley and Tierney (1989, p. 250) adopted that representation in depicting reading and writing as ways of traversing a topical landscape: 

“After Wittgenstein (1953), we also take the theoretical position that a topic of study is analogous to a landscape about which knowledge is best acquired by ‘traversing’ it from a variety of perspectives. However, in our system, different forms of reading and writing represent the ‘traversal routes’ or cases through which an individual can explore a given content domain. As the combined assemblages of several cases provide multiple routes for acquiring knowledge, we argue that more complex or diverse combinations of different forms of reading and writing provide a learner with the means to conduct a more critical examination of a topic by way of the multiple perspectives or ways of ‘seeing’ and thinking that these reading and writing exchanges permit.”

I am quite confident that I will be using the above quote in the near future to characterise my approach to literacy since it shares the sentiment of A Teacher for All Seasons.

Reference
McGinley, W., & Tierney, R. J. (1989). Traversing the topical landscape: reading and writing as ways of knowing. Written Communication, 6(3), 243–269.

Language Games and Language Learning

When one mentions the concept of language game in relation to Wittgenstein, there are four related concepts that come to mind: context, intention, other people and purpose. That is, as one develops into a language, one comes to use language in a range of contexts with learned intentions amongst a community of people for diverse purposes. To be proficient in one language game is only a partial proficiency as it is the amalgamation of language practices that will make up that which will be referred to as proficiency.

There will be certain practices that we assume all members of a community of practice will share. We will call this extensive knowledge (Gee 2008). There will be other, specialised practices that some members of the community will have deep knowledge/experience of and which will be called upon by the general community. We will call this intensive knowledge (Gee, 2008). We encourage individuals to specialise and build up intensive knowledge, so that it can be supplied to others (usually for a price). How else would a comedian make a living?

Therefore, we would like all members of a community to be able to report information, reflect and record, speculate, joke, contemplate, etc. We would like all members of a community to be appreciative of the language practices that help one make decisions, rationalise, etc. However, this does not mean that we want everyone to be Shakespeare, a person who attained an intensive, poetical knowledge for his generation and who was called upon by his community to present for public education, entertainment, etc. Does this mean that we leave poetic practice to Shakespeare? No, extensive practices are expected across the population even if certain individuals attain intensive practice. Across the community, there is a need for extensive practice in the contemplative, speculative, political and aesthetic function of poetry.

As noted by Ken Hyland, “the last decade or so has seen increasing attention given to the notion of genre and its application in language teaching and learning. This is largely a response to changing views of discourse and of learning to write which incorporate better understandings of how language is structured to achieve social purposes in particular contexts of use” (Hyland, 2007, pg. 148).

 

Reference

Gee, J. P. (2008) A sociocultural perspective on opportunity to learn. In P. Moss, D. Pullin, J.P. Gee, E. Haertel, and L. Young (Eds). Assessment, equity, and opportunity to learn (pp. 76-108). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16(3), 148–164. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2007.07.005