Total literacy tools

Having read Total Participation Techniques (TPT) by Persida and William Himmele, I was familiar with their focus on increasing student response rates within the classroom. This website has some great summaries of the techniques. I delayed  reading their new book, Total Literacy Techniques: Tools to Help Students Analyze Literature and Informational Texts, coauthored with Keeley Potter. Adapting the TPT to literacy activities did not seem that big a leap so as to need a new book. This book is not a recap of their old one.

One of the early concepts they discuss is the difference between academic vocabulary and academic language. On page 9 they quote a student, "Books carry truth, whether truth be light or dark; and by reading these books, we build our hearts out of words." This sentence contains only tier 1, common vocabulary. It is not a sentence whose language is tier 1. This sentence has a complex deep meaning that, if read quickly by an unsophisticated reader, loses its depth. It highlights an aspect of level of meaning that all our reading level measures miss. The language is put together in a way that is beautiful and complex. Lexiles would not recognize it as challenging as it is. When I look at leveled books I often think that the people who assessed the challenge level missed something. We cannot assume that students can read something because of its Lexile number. Part of literacy instruction is to examine the language and understand the author's meaning, not merely the literal meaning of the words. To be able to understand the multiple connotations and denotations of a word in its application.

Another of the big ideas of this text is that free choice reading is critical to literacy development. Our spoken language reveals a fragment of our vocabulary and verbal complexity. When we read we are exposed to new words, different sentence structures and purposes, and topics of interest. This winter a student looked at me and said, "I hate to read and so do all students." Yes, other students protested that reading was not the evil empire, but she was merely expressing a feeling shared by many of her classmates. Years ago I worked with a student on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He shared that he did not know why the author used the language he did because, "No one talks like that." Students need to be read interesting stories, poems and articles, not for analysis, but simply to be exposed to vocabulary and language outside of their norm- this is academic language and vocabulary. Don't get me wrong- I believe that students need to dig into literature they would not personally pick up and learn to analyze the human condition and universal truths, to understand rhetoric and how it impacts meaning, and to develop cultural norms, but they also need to read "easy" books that are at their level that interest them. Graphic novel, joke book, identification book, biography, fashion magazine, poetry anthology, novel, whatever- they all share the virtue of being reading. This is part of the balance of reading essential to student development.

One tool from their chapter that I like is collecting words bookmarks (p. 31). Students read and collect new words. Later look up their meaning and share them. This reminds me of a strategy- words in a jar- where students were asked to record interesting words and put them in a jar. Periodically they would be shared with the group. Whether it is the sound or meaning, it expands exposure to words that hold personal meaning to students.

Another great tool the authors shared were prompts for analyzing literature and informational texts. They suggest posting and/or sharing with students the list of general prompts so that during discussions or quick writes or reading responses students can learn to use the questions to guide deeper thinking. Questions like How does the author use metaphors to develop the story? or What specific words does the author use to make a case for, and against, certain characters? lead to deep thought (p. 48). They also introduced a relevance wheel. An example is below.

One thing that I was expecting was some discussion of total participation techniques. They discuss bounce cards which I have read about elsewhere. These are sentence starters that require students listen to what is said and then move the conversation forward. Some examples of bounce cards are here, here and here and a video math lesson using them is here. One TPT they suggest is that on a smooth top desk you can write with a dry erase marker. Students can use their desk rather than a  white board to write responses. One example of a type of response would be a fill in the blank idea such as complete the analogy:

• white is to black as (concept under discussion) is to ___________________.
• three is to four as (concept under discussion) is to ___________________.

These could become:

• white is to black as Eliza's external appearance at the beginning of Pygmalion  is to Eliza at the end of Pygmalion.
• white is to black as Northern pre-Civil War industry is to that of the South.
• three is to four as glacier is to sediment.
• three is to four as parenthesis is to multiplication. (Order of operations)

Students could quickly record their ideas and erase them.

The chapter on informational texts contains one of the best descriptors of concept mapping I have encountered. Concept mapping allows students to explore the connectedness of various concepts. Students could be given a set of cards, sticky notes, or a sheet with the cards ready to be cut out and be asked to arrange them by category and relationship. Once that was done they secure them to another sheet and write explanations of how they are connected or related. Portions that might be used are shown below:

                        w/ all parallel sides                                      w/ all equal sides                    
Quadrilateral---------------------------> parallelogram --------------------------------> square

                    is splitting                                  and can be a form of
Mitosis -------------------------------> cells -----------------------------------------> asexual reproduction

The words between the arrows would be the ones students were given to use and those above the arrows were added to show connections. Students might arrange them differently, but if their description of relationships is correct, then they should be accepted. Teachers can look for deeper connections with probing questions.

This book was an unexpected read with some great ideas. It provides some nice examples of their ideas and shows how literacy techniques can be used in classes other than ELA. Their focus on vocabulary is a boon to English language learners and students with disabilities alike.