Factors Contributing to Comprehensive Literacy Development

Previously, we have alluded to the changing direction of this website; it will focus more space on the many dimension of literacy and less space on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In an effort to outline the dimensions of factors contributing to comprehensive literacy development, we would include:

  1. Robust development of oral language in language-rich and literacy-rich environments;
  2. Clear, systematic and intensive development of phonemic awareness (when suitable);
  3. Further systematic and progressive development of alphabetic skills, including phonics, spelling and morphology;
  4. Wide ranging support of vocabulary development from a very young age;
  5. Expert utilisation of read-alouds;
  6. Skilled orchestration of language experiences;
  7. Substantial time set aside for fluency practice (include time for independent reading);
  8. Attention to ultimate goal of reading instruction: comprehension; and
  9. Apprenticeship into the craft of composition; and
  10. Ongoing and deepening construction of knowledge (the real goal of learning).

The above areas are not mutually exclusive. Ultimately, they should also be unified by thematic investigation(s).

In this pursuit, we want learners to develop:

  1. Cognitive skills (e.g. pattern recognition, memory retrieval) and meta-cognitive awareness;
  2. Motivation, attitudes, interests and expertise;
  3. Non-verbal skills and talents; and
  4. Careers and identities.

Therefore, the developing website will come to include specific advice in such areas as:

  • Fostering Oral Language;
  • Developing Phonemic Awareness;
  • Solidifying Alphabetic Knowledge;
  • Extending Vocabulary;
  • Utilising Read-Alouds;
  • Orchestrating Language Experiences;
  • Shaping Fluency;
  • Ensuring Comprehension;
  • Facilitating Composition;
  • Integrating Content Learning;
  • Building and Representing Knowledge;
  • Scaffolding Action;
  • Fostering Interests and Expertise;
  • Pulling All of This Together Into Integrated Teaching and Learning.

Getting to the Rough Ground of Language and Literacy Learning Through the Language Experience Approach

Early language learners benefit from rich tasks that provide learners with ample opportunities to hear, see, use and manipulate language in contextualised, purposeful ways. The videos to the lower right provide compelling examples of the multiple learnings achieved through a humble kitchen garden project for newly arrived refugee children at a primary school in an urban Australian community. The project illustrates the potential for deep learning when the learning develops from authentic, engaging experiences.

I'd like readers/viewers to notice how the kitchen garden becomes a central device to develop language, literacy, culture and knowledge. You should notice how language is reinforced through practical activity, how language is assisted visually in the classroom, and how it is transformed into knowledge through writing.

This is an example of a teaching method known as the Language Experience Approach (LEA), which is a catch-all term for teaching that anchors literacy and language learning in shared experiences. In most cases, the “experience” is a physically, shared experience, but there is a more and more avenues to share experience virtually through video, interactive tools and online content (such as web quests). 

The Language Experience Approach emphasises language learning through carefully scaffolded and reinforced language in context and through activity. Teachers and learners diligently document the experience, so the experience can be revisited and developed through further reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing in the classroom.

The following are a number of questions to consider when building language and literacy through authentic, mutual practices. Even though we will elaborated on the teaching method in the future, these initial questions illustrate the significance of a number of essential practices in the LEA, such as scaffolded talk, documenting the experience, revisiting the experience in the classroom, pulling out rich vocabulary, expanding the experience through writing, and using the experience for further comprehension and [content] learning. In this system, the teacher must be adept at orchestrating, sequencing and extending a variety practices (often within a tight timetable).


Before and During the Experience

  1. What is the experience? Is this an actual or virtual experience?
  2. How is joint attention achieved and how is language being scaffolded?
  3. How is vocabulary emphasised/reinforced/introduced/recorded during the experience
  4. How is the experience being documented (digital cameras, information scaffolds, graphic organisers, scaffolded questions, etc)?
  5. How do the instructional conversations that take place throughout the experience build a common discourse and assist learning?


After the Experience

Students benefit from a variety of activities that reinforce language and literacy in the classroom: word walls, flow charts, exemplary texts and further hands-on learning.

  1. Are word walls / glossaries / semantic maps / flow charts / storyboards developed from the experience? Are they prominent, accessible and rigorous?
  2. How is the documentation used to help the class jointly and/or individually re-construct the experience? Is the sentence cycle used to generate rich, juicy sentences?
  3. How is the joint construction phase used to refresh people’s memory and knowledge of events?
  4. Can the newly constructed text(s) be used as “familiar text(s)” that can be re-read as fluency practice?
  5. Has the teacher selected a portion of words to use for further word study?

 

Extending the Experience

  1. Can you link new readings to the shared experience? For instance, now that we have explored the world of the garden, can we explore:
    • poetry about gardens or which use gardens as a motif;
    • procedural/information texts about gardening;
    • stories and/or picture books which takes place in a garden; and 
    • news articles about community gardens?
  2. Can the writing be extended to the inclusion of the writing of recognised genres related to the experience? (procedural texts, brochures, etc)
  3. How have non-verbal knowledge, expertise and attitudes been fostered through the activity?

 

Final Note

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) does not replace systematic, intensive instruction in word study, nor does the LEA replace the importance of regular shared and guided reading of age- and skill-appropriate texts. That said, shared and guided can be incorporated into the LEA. The LEA provides an important avenue for the exploration of guided and extended writing and language learning. Within the LEA, there are many micro-teaching moments which should take advantage of best practice language and literacy methods.

 

Further Reading

Au, K. H. (1979). Using the Experience-Text Relationship Method with Minority Children. The Reading Teacher, (March), 677–679.

Labbo, L. D., Eakle, A. J., & Montero, M. K. (2002). Digital Language Experience Approach: Using Digital Photographs and Software as a Language Experience Approach Innovation. Reading Online, 5(8), 1–19. Retrieved from http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/labbo2/

Landis, D., Umolo, J., & Mancha, S. (2010). The power of language experience for cross-cultural reading and writing. The Reading Teacher, 63(7), 580–589.

Moustafa, M. (2008). Exceeding the standards: a strategic approach to linking state standards to best practices in reading and writing instruction. New York: Scholastic.

Nessel, D. D., & Dixon, C. N. (2008). Using the language experience approach with English language learners: Strategies for engaging students and developing literacy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Wurr, A. J. (2002). Language Experience Approach Revisited: The Use of Personal Narratives in Adult L2 Literacy Instruction. The Reading Matrix, 2(1), 1–8. Retrieved from http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/wurr/?collection=col10460/1.

An Ode to the Sentence: A Vehicle to Express Thought

It might sound a bit pompous, but we do like the elegance of the Commanding Sentences quotes/notes on this site. Also, we’d like to say that the notes section is a part of the site that probably does not get as much attention as it deserves. In fact, the collected quotes/notes is where everything started in the first place.  

In relation to Commanding Sentences, Wittgenstein exudes a respect for the sentence (or proposition), particularly in his early work. There is a respect for the ability of a sentence to capture, express and shape meaning. In fact, there is also a respect for the time and care that one takes to reconstruct experiences and ideas for re-examination. 

“PI 280: Someone paints a picture in order to show how he imagines a theatre scene. And now I say: “This picture has a double function: it informs others, as pictures or words inform — but for one who gives the information it is a representation (or piece of information?) of another kind: for him it is the picture of his image.”

However, the time necessary to attend to our words can be lacking in the stream of language and living. Even though we speak regularly and often, it is important to draw a distinction between sentences and proposition. We speak lots of sentences, but not every sentence proposes a state of affairs worthy of reflection.

“TLP 3.141: A proposition is not a blend of words. — (Just as a theme of music is not a blend of notes.) A proposition is articulate.”

There is something admirable about the time one takes to arrange  sentences in such a way that they represent the inter-relationships amongst ideas, events, actors, and more. 

If you have the chance, please visit the Commanding Sentences notes/quote section. To help guide you, the following represents the logical sequence of the categorised quotes:

  • Introduction: We start with the recognition that a sentence has the capacity to “communicates a situation to us”;
  • Picture Theory: That in a proposition “a situation is, as it were, constructed by way of experiment”;
  • Decoding/Projecting/Processing: However, a proposition stands in need of decoding and processing, since “a sentence is given [to] me in code together with the key”;
  • Reasoning: Every sensical sentence expresses a sense but it is up to us to determine “its truth or falsity” and to decipher its purpose/intention;
  • Making Meaning: It is up to use to determine the meaning of a sentence, and “some sentences have to be read several times to be understood”;
  • Discussing & Discourse: To understand a sentence, we must also appeal to the conversation it is part of, because if you are to “understand anything in language, you must understand what the dialogue is, and you must see how understanding grows as the dialogue grow.”
  • Linguistic & Intellectual Turns: We come to develop a rich set of grammatical forms that allow us to make intellectual moves, since a “discipline in form is a discipline in thought” (also see Building knowledge through discussion); and
  • Action: We apply these sentences to get things done, since “*speaking* of language is part of an activity, or of a life-form”. Therefore, “reading and writing in any domain … are not just ways of decoding print, they are also caught up with and in social practices.”

I welcome you to explore and enjoy!

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 ...