Memory at work in the classroom- literacy orientation

Francis Bailey and Ken Pransky's book, Memory at Work in the Classroom: Strategies to Help Underachieving Students, originates from their experience working with English Language Learners, a traditionally underachieving group. Their insights are true for many underachievers, especially those who have language weaknesses, regardless of whether they are language learners or not. In the opening of their book they discuss core social learning concepts: memory is socially and culturally constructed, there are two distinct communities of learners and quality learning interactions are predicated on mediated learning experiences.

Their idea of two distinct learning communities is an intriguing one. They group learners into literacy and non-literacy oriented. Literacy oriented ones usually come from families with more formal education. Schools are designed to work with these students and consequently they tend to be more successful in schools. Non-literacy oriented communities also want their children to do well, but tend to fail to support their children in as productive manner when it relates to school- they use less academic vocabulary and sophisticated grammar structures commonly utilized in school settings. They present the slightly modified chart below to highlight the differences between the two orientations (p. 29-30).

Non-literacy orientation	Literacy orientation
Limited ability to independently use written texts, such as dictionaries, references and subject matter texts to mediate their own learning	More ability to independently use written texts, such as dictionaries, references and subject matter texts to mediate their own learning
Limited metalinguistic awareness, especially at younger ages	Greater metalinguistic awareness, especially at younger ages
Limited ability to independently use genres of economic, etc literacy- academic,.	More skillful at independently using genres of literacy
Limited ability to independently and skillfully use a variety of written texts	Able to independently and skillfully use a variety of written texts
Often less willing to independently persevere in learning challenging content that is not seen as valuable or of immediate personal interest, especially as students get older	More apt to independently persevere in learning challenging content that is not seen as valuable or of immediate personal interest, especially as students get older
Smaller and less sophisticated knowledge of vocabulary (for ELLs this includes in their native language)	Larger and more sophisticated knowledge of vocabulary
Less developed grammatical complexity in oral and written language (for ELLs this includes in their native language)	More developed grammatical complexity in oral and written language
Typically less confident as an independent, self-directed learner in academic settings, needing more teacher direction	Typically more confident as an independent, self-directed learner in academic settings, needing less teacher direction

The authors fail to recognize the types of settings and skills in which non-literacy oriented students may be more successful. These might include greater social skills, community awareness and an increased ability to be successful when perfect performance rather than graduated performance is correct.

Obviously these children struggle in schools; their foundation in the art of doing school is remarkably less well developed. That does not mean they cannot be successful, rather that they need increased support to reach the same point because of their different orientation. Some of their general strategies to help them succeed include: developing relationships, increased vocabulary focus (not the present 20 words on Monday and test on Friday variety!), increased chunking and supported practice, more concrete and visual basis for learning, teaching weak executive function skills, and increased discussion and reflection time. Every classroom would benefit from these adaptations- not just ones with students with disabilities or non-native speakers. By increasing awareness of the challenges that orientation present, a teacher can modify instruction to develop and increase motivation as well as make explicit the keys to learning.