Annenberg Foundation (2002)
P.B.S. Video Library
“Making Meaning in Literature”
Grades 6-8
Last week I promised to keep you all abreast of the PBS video series that I am reviewing for my Class Project. “Making Meaning in Literature” promotes the envisionment-building classroom, a concept which fosters literacy in students. The key to enhancing literacy is effective instruction. The first video includes three segments: Introducing the Envisionment-Building Classroom, Building a Literary Community, and Asking Questions. The video is narrated by Dr. Judith Langer, a professor at the University of Albany and director/author of CELA. Dr. Langer presents the latest literacy research findings while providing viewers with several examples of model teachers who promote success among their students.
Introducing the Envisionment-Building Classroom
The first segment “Introducing the Envisionment-Building Classroom” opens in a Seattle classroom to describe the concept and illustrate its benefits. Groups of students are seated at tables discussing a book that they are reading. The classroom is fairly noisy with the discussions. The camera zooms in on one group’s conversation where the students seem very engaged in discussion as they exchange their views. The teacher reports that the groups allow students to share their understanding of literature, provides challenges for students to think more deeply about their ideas, and compels students to question others for more information about literature. Dr. Langer interjects that ideas are central for students to be able to make meaning in literature. Students are challenged to see their ideas in a different light and modify them to make new meanings. The teacher’s role is to provoke students to discuss their ideas about literature. The research suggests that teachers can enhance literacy among students while increasing their scores on the high-stakes state tests through effective instruction.
Dr. Langer discusses the principles underlying the envisionment-building concept and the application of them in the classroom. According to Langer, ideas and questions are principle guideposts of an effective literacy program. By listening, responding, and creating new and diverse ideas about literature, students are able to make sense of their world. Questions are at the center of the literary experience. A model teacher demonstrates these principles in action as she engages her students in a literary experience. The teacher contends that the act of making sense involves asking questions. Students are frequently invited to come up with their own questions to delve more deeply into literature. Students are expected to develop a deeper understanding during class meetings where they interact with the ideas of other students. The teacher suggests that multiple perspectives are useful and enhance understanding so students can reach a more complex interpretation.
Another teacher agrees that students learn to think more deeply and become more skillful with effective literacy instruction. She adds that students become more social, develop a greater sense of humanity, and increase their intelligence through the envisionment-building classroom.
I was skeptical that a noisy classroom could enhance literacy in any way, shape, or form.
Building a Literary Community
This segment focuses on an envisionment-building classroom in action. The goal of this 7th grade Houston model teacher is to provide students with guidance in a way that makes their literary experience meaningful. The teacher demonstrates how his students acquire a meaningful interaction. The texts, chosen by the teacher, engage students through their multiple levels of depth and culturally diverse protagonists. Examples include Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper, Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake, Necessary Roughness by Marie Lee, and Forded by Fire by Sharon Draper. The students participate in activities such as the following: responding to a general prompt in their “Writer’s Notebook,” breaking into small groups to discuss the text, journaling in their O.W.L. log, and completing projects after discussing the text. In the O.W.L. log, students record their Observations, Wonderings, and Links to the literature. Each group follows a general procedure in which they read the text aloud, discuss the passage, and question each other for clarification of the text. The group discussions allow each sudent to think more deeply about their ideas, consider ideas uniquely different from their own, and modify them to make new meanings. While groups interact with the text, the teacher visits the groups, provides guidance, and answers questions. The teacher provides support through this interaction with the groups and by providing a framework of questions which prompt group discussions. One of the biggest problems with this type of instruction is that it is difficult for the teacher to listen to every group discussion. This model teacher meaures success by his students' reactions to the texts. He contends that when students smile and laugh in their interactions with the text, they will walk away from it with a memorable literary expereince.
Asking Questions
The final segment opens in a 7th grade classroom with a model teacher demonstrating how questions effectively guide her students through their literary experience of Sharon Draper's Tears of a Tiger. She stresses the importance of asking questions that do not require one specific answer. Instead, the questions must allow for multiple interpretations. She also contends that reading the text aloud allows students the opportunity to ask their own questions and see other possibilities. Students learn to look at larger questions and apply these possibilities later in life.
One problem that may surface is that teachers may monopolize the questioning. It is important that teachers learn to monitor their questions, keeping them minimal. Teachers should instead encourage students to come up with the questions.
A literary community develops as students learn to look at themselves for approval, ask for clarification through questions, and look to each other for support.
The strategies and instruction discussed in Langer's video echo our ENG 619 class discussions and activities. For additional information, go to www.learner.org/envisioningliterature. I hope that you are looking forward to the next video as much as I am.
Nancy
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