SUBJECT DISCOURSE AND THE ROLE OF THE MIDDLE LEADER IN SCHOOLS

Live to you today from Waitara....

OUR DAY:

9-11 amGetting to grips with Subject Discourse‘Climbing that mountain and assisting others to do the

same’Morning Tea: 11-11.3011.30- 1pmLiteracy Leaders as Agents of Change:Challenging, confronting and transformingLunch: 1-1.30pmReporting segment (Hillary)

SUBJECT DISCOURSE

The objective of this section is to: Establish a baseline-what IS the state

of the nation in your school? Identify our challenges Celebrate (and share) our triumphs Come together as a learning

community to explore wider issues inside this notion

SOME OF THE CHALLENGES:

Various disciplines ask different questions of texts, require different background knowledge to decode a text and differs in the notion of what counts as evidence.

Teachers frequently make assumptions and underestimate the importance of deliberately teaching subject specific vocab.

Subject vocab is often taught in isolation. There are many reasons as to why a student my struggle

with a text –there is not one answer to this! Students today are facing highly complex and pervasive

challenges inside their learning Teaching does not always aim for deep vocab knowledge

...AND THE CHALLENGES KEEP COMIN’! Some teachers do not believe that it is their

responsibility to support literacy in a deliberate fashion

Many teachers do not use literacy data as a baseline of their inquiry

Teacher efficacy in regards to effective literacy pedagogy is a HUGE issue in NZ schools

PD to support this issue is often using the ‘dine and dash’ model in NZ schools

LET’S GET OUR THINKING CAPS ON:

In pairs, you will be assigned a learning area to consider in terms of the subject specific discourse a student will have to grow. You do not have to be an expert or a teacher in this subject to work through this activity. It will be modelled for you first. You will be provided with a ‘formula’ to work with.

Key Objective: To get us all thinking of just what we are asking of our secondary students as they move from subject to subject and to consider how the teacher is the maker or the breaker of success in many ways!

SUBJECT DISCOURSE CONTINUED:

Geography History PE/Health Visual Arts1. What is the purpose of the study of this learning

area?2. What are the skills required by a student to access

the learning?3. What are the typical ‘products’ of the learning

experience?4. What sorts of texts are given to the students to

read/view?

WHAT ARE THE REASONS STUDENTS’ MAY STUGGLE WITH A TEXT?

Take a minute to have a chat with your neighbour and dot and jot your ideas!

WHY?

Lack of vocabulary knowledge Lack of general knowledge of a specific

topic Overwhelmed by text structure No pre-reading activities have been

offered first Text chosen has been ill-chosen by the

teacher? Student does not have ‘fix up’

strategies when comprehension breaks down

BUILDING VOCAB IN A LEARNING AREA Vocab is a robust predictor of reading

comprehension Direct instruction of relevant vocab WILL

improve comprehension Indirect learning also accounts for increased

improvement in vocab acquisition Multiple exposures are critical Pre-instruction of words before reading is

also helpful

LET’S TALK ABOUT MARZANO...

Think about how Marzano’s work could help support your teachers around building subject specific language-let’s discuss!