Life Lessons

1. Life Lessons By: Tory Meneses I love the sound of that…

2. What is literacy? • As defined in the article: • We approach literacy as a set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and disseminating it. Literacy is not simply knowing how to read and write a particular script but applying this knowledge for specific purposes in specific contexts of use. The nature of these practices, including, of course, their technological aspects, will determine the kinds of skills (consequences) associated with literacy • Literacy deals with social skills, much like math develops logic!

3. The Study • The purpose of the study was to see how teachers implicate literacy in their classroom, more specifically a chemistry teacher’s class for two years with two different sets of students. Guiding questions: • What is the nature of the literacy even and practices in one chemistry class? • How do students and the teacher make decisions about using literacy to learn chemistry • How are these decisions about literacy events and practices shaped by the teacher’s and students’ life experiences and histories • How are these decisions shaped by classroom interactions?

4. Findings/Answers • The chemistry teacher used literacy as an organizational tool and social development tool. • The teacher assigned graphic organizers or assignments based on reading and comprehending the text. The students responded according by doing these assignments and creating meaning for chemistry texts. • The teacher used what she saw worked in the past, while the students used other tools they learned to comprehend text. This is good practice for other content and real world applications. • Using these practices creates an organized and positive learning environment and class culture. It helps the flow and momentum of the lesson, while the students do their part because they want to not because they have to.

5. Some Implications: • In my class, the most important thing will be classroom culture. Keeping that student-teacher relationship. • The way literacy will be implicated into my class: • Organizers will be offered, but few required • Class and group discussion • During discussion I will ask questions to provoke higher levels of thinking and cognition. • I will help students understand literacy without strong evaluations so it is more informal and natural • Help students develop meaning for content and things outside of content through clarificationand connections • Bring examples that happened to you, or make some up • Relate to students, understand their backgrounds, give them what they want out of math.

6. Reference to original text: • Moje, Elizabeth B. ""I Teach Students, Not Subjects": Teacher-Student Relationships as Contexts for Secondary Literacy." Reading Research Quarterly 31.2 (1996): 172-95. HELIN /All Locations. Web. 20 June 2010. [[http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/748120?seq=2&Search=yes&term=math&term=literacy&term=student&list=hide&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=((literacy) AND (student) AND (math))&gw=jtx&prq=((literacy) AND (student) AND (music))&Search=Search&hp=25&wc=on&item=16&ttl=5657&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doBasicResultsFromArticle]]