Preservice Teacher Understandings of Adolescent Literacy Development: Naive Wonder to Dawning Realization to Intellectual Rigor

© 2007 INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION (pp. 654–665) doi:10.1598/JAAL.50.8.4

J O U R N A L O F A D O L E S C E N T & A D U L T L I T E R A C Y 5 0 : 8 M A Y 2 0 0 7654

Lauren Freedman, Cynthia Carver

Preservice teacher understandings of adolescentliteracy development: Naive wonder to dawning

realization to intellectual rigor

Preservice teacher understandings of adolescentliteracy development: Naive wonder to dawning

realization to intellectual rigor

Teachers need to understand how literacy

development and reading processes

actually work, to understand that

there are still skills and strategies

to be mastered in secondary

content areas, and to accept the

responsibility for incorporating

literacy development into their

instruction.

“All faculty members are being asked to becometeachers of reading strategies appropriate to theirdisciplines” (McGrath, 2005). This quotation sug-gests that for middle and high school teachers it ispedagogically unsound to expect that studentscome into their secondary classrooms with all ofthe reading skills needed to engage with contentarea texts. As Alvermann suggested (in McGrath,2005), “So much of what we do outside of narra-tives is tied to vocabulary—a water table is differ-ent from a math table is different from tabling amotion.” Research continues to support that sec-ondary literacy instruction is not a matter of“fixing” the kids who got lost along the way(Educational Research Service, 2004; Schoenbach,Greenleaf, Cziko, & Hurwitz, 1999). It is a matterfor all teachers to understand how literacy devel-opment and reading processes actually work, to

understand that there are still skills and strategiesto be mastered in secondary content areas, and to

accept the responsibility for incorpo-rating literacy development into theirinstruction. In this article, we sharefindings from an action research studyof our efforts as teacher educators tohelp secondary preservice candidatesrealize their literacy responsibilities asfuture teachers.

Our university’s secondaryteacher preparation program requires

all teacher candidates in the four core disciplines(science, mathematics, language arts, and socialstudies) and world languages to take two coursesearly in their professional sequence. One isGeneral Methods; the other is Secondary ContentLiteracy. General Methods is considered an intro-ductory course, responsible for laying a soundtheoretical and practical foundation for futurelearning about teaching. The course goals focuson helping teacher candidates gain knowledge andskill in the areas of instructional planning, teach-ing, and assessment. Secondary Content Literacyexplores content literacy as it relates to the acqui-sition of new knowledge and the strengthening ofprior knowledge in the four core content areasand world languages in order to facilitate second-ary teacher candidates’ understandings of the inte-grated nature of literacy and learning. The coursegoals are to build understandings of literacyprocesses; to develop an understanding of the fac-

Freedman teaches atWestern Michigan

University (3506 SangrenHall, Kalamazoo, MI 49008,

USA). [email protected] teaches at Michigan

State University in EastLansing. E-mail

[email protected].

Preservice teacher understandings of adolescent literacy development: Naive wonder to dawning realization to intellectual rigor

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tors involved in students’ acquisition of contentknowledge through the use of multiple print ma-terials; to recognize language as a common learn-ing tool; and to develop strategies that facilitatethe academic use of reading and writing as well asspeaking, listening, and thinking.

As instructors, we deliberately integrate thecontent of these two classes through readings,class discussions, and assignments to help stu-dents see teaching and learning as an inquiry-driven process enriched through content-literacystrategies. Candidates also engage in a middle orhigh school classroom field placement for 6–10hours per week across the semester in order toground themselves in the living, breathing realitiesof students, teachers, and classrooms. Anecdotalstudent reports, like the one cited next, providesome evidence that we are successful in these ef-forts. (All student names are pseudonyms.)

I looked at the course goals in both of the syllabi at thebeginning of the semester. I really didn’t think muchof them, and I wasn’t really sure what they meant. Inow understand how and why each of them has beenmet. I can provide examples of things we have done tomeet these goals.... These classes have been exciting,tough, but, most importantly, an experience fromwhich I have learned a great deal. (Tom, history)

Still, until initiating this action researchstudy (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Dana &Silva, 2003), we lacked reliable “data” to tell uswhat students learn in our courses and how ourefforts facilitate that learning. Specifically, thisstudy asks, How do students, in the context ofthese combined courses, come to understandtheir role as teachers of literacy? For the past threeyears, we’ve been collecting students’ writtenwork to study the development of their under-standings about content area literacy, and tomodel for them the inquiry process. In this arti-cle, we present our findings and discuss what wehave learned about our teaching and our stu-dents’ learning specifically with respect to adoles-cent literacy development.

Literature reviewThe desire for evidence of students’ learning iscertainly warranted. Research suggests that teach-ers who enter the profession without thoughtfulpreparation may learn to teach in counterproduc-tive ways (Grossman, 1992). Common areas ofdifficulty for new teachers include long-termplanning, the diagnosis of student learning needs,skill in adapting instruction to meet those needs,and managing the classroom. At the same time,there is growing awareness that skillful literacy in-struction is an essential ingredient of effective in-struction and that reading and writing arevehicles through which disciplinary content islearned (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000; Interstate NewTeacher Assessment and Support Consortium,1987; Schoenbach et al., 1999). It is not surprisingthat those without teacher preparation reportfeeling less prepared, and many end up leavingthe profession altogether (Darling-Hammond,1997; Ingersoll, 2001). With this as a backdrop,we believe that equipping our secondary candi-dates early with the skill and desire to plan for in-struction using a variety of content-appropriateliteracy strategies is critical to their future success.

The importance of content arealiteracy An understanding of the role of content literacyin academic learning at the secondary level is piv-otal to successful teaching for novice and careerteachers alike. As Smith (1998) put it, “The primevalue of reading and writing is the experiencethey provide through which we may constantlyand unobtrusively learn” (p. 24). New teachers es-pecially need to bring to their new role a bur-geoning expertise that allows them to guide theirstudents’ explorations into and experiences withscience, social studies, language arts, mathemat-ics, and world languages through the use of a va-riety of print materials and content-literacystrategies (Alvermann & Phelps, 2002; Bacon,2005). Guiding these explorations and experi-ences involves consideration of such factors as

concept understandings, vocabulary, interest, pri-or knowledge, and experience.

New teachers’ applications of content-literacyunderstandings, therefore, go well beyond assign-ing textbook chapters and the accompanyingquestions at the end. Rather, understanding con-tent literacy means being knowledgeable of theprint materials available in a particular contentarea and making these materials available to stu-dents. Furthermore, new teachers need to knowhow to evaluate texts for authenticity, accuracy,and readability so that their students are gainingcontent knowledge as they are continually in-creasing their literacy skill. New teachers in allcontent areas need to recognize that all teachersare teachers of literacy development. This is par-ticularly true at the secondary level for two rea-sons. First, each content area makes use ofreading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinkingin different ways for different purposes. Second,literacy researchers agree “that the best way to be-come a better reader and writer is to read andwrite often and widely within a variety of con-tents, using a variety of genres, for a variety ofpurposes” (Freedman & Johnson, 2004, p. 3).

The importance of teacher beliefsAs instructors, one of our overriding goals is tohelp candidates shift from a singular focus onthemselves as teachers to their students as learners.Simultaneously, we hope to push them to see be-yond the technical and procedural aspects of teach-ing to its moral and intellectual dimensions. Webelieve candidates are capable of this kind of criti-cal inquiry and reflection on practice (Donahue,2003). Moreover, we believe it is our responsibilityas instructors to facilitate such thinking, particular-ly with respect to the intersection between contentlearning and adolescent literacy development.

Much has been written about the importanceof beliefs or images in shaping teachers’ developingpractice (e.g., Brookhart & Freeman, 1992;Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Richardson, 1996). Itis now widely accepted that teachers’ personally

held beliefs and values help to guide their teachingpractices (Clark & Peterson, 1986). Once in theclassroom, it is believed that teachers use their be-liefs to “read” classroom situations and plan acourse of action (Bird, Anderson, Sullivan, &Swidler, 1993). At the same time, beliefs are neverneutral and have historically worked to preservethe status quo (Hollingsworth, 1989; Lortie, 1975).

Because we have seen that teacher beliefsprovide an early glimpse into the thinkingprocess that precedes classroom action, we are in-terested in examining how our secondary candi-dates make sense of their learning in our courses.What are their espoused beliefs about teachingand learning generally, and what are their beliefswith respect to adolescent literacy development?Furthermore, we believe that a careful examina-tion of these beliefs contributes to a healthy criti-cal discourse among students. If beliefs predictaction, our efforts to help students develop theirbeliefs must be deliberate and ongoing.

Ultimately, we want our prospective candi-dates to move from “students of teaching” to“teachers of students” (Dewey, 1938). And whilewe know field experiences are essential to our stu-dents’ learning, we also recognize that what stu-dents experience in this context can easily bemiseducative (Dewey; Smith, 1998). Needed aredeliberate attempts to help students reflect ontheir experience (Schon, 1987). The pairing ofSecondary Content Literacy and GeneralMethods offers us an opportunity to make ado-lescent literacy the focus of our two courses andto use the field placement as a “site” to experiencecontent literacy.

MethodologyUsing techniques of narrative analysis (Clandinin& Connelly, 2000) to analyze meaning in writtentext and grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin,1998) to tease out patterns in text, this study exam-ines students’ writing across both courses for evi-dence of growing knowledge and skill as teachersof content area literacy. The data includes field-



based reflective essays, self-assessments, readinglogs, child study reports, and a final unit plan.

In sum, 66 students across five semestersvolunteered to participate in the study. However,the analysis reported in this article is limited todata collected from students enrolled in the 2003(n = 17) and 2004 (n = 15) summer terms. We dothis for two reasons. First, this is a reasonable wayfor us to reduce the data, and, second, students inthe summer session are typically quite motivatedand engaged, often limiting their credits to thesetwo courses. Because we are interested in whatthey learn across the semester, the summer classesstand out as a particularly robust set of samples.

Students in these cohorts represent a mix ofmales and females from all four core content ar-eas, plus world languages. Most are in their junioror senior year, approximately one year from theirinternship, and most are middle class whites—areflection of the students enrolled in our pro-gram. Preinternship placements include middleand high schools in urban, suburban, and ruralsettings, although at least half of these studentswere placed in a large urban high school.Fieldwork during the summer session occurs dur-ing the first four weeks of an eight-week term.

Given the distinctive nature of writing tasksassigned in each course, two different sets of ana-lytic questions guided this analysis. For GeneralMethods, we asked (a) What are students’ generalunderstandings of teaching, students, and learn-ing? For Secondary Content Literacy, we asked(b) How do our students’ understand literacyprocesses? and (c) How do our students under-stand their role in supporting secondary students’literacy development? Across both sets of data, weexamined how these understandings developedover time. Ultimately, we draw on these separateanalyses to answer our broader question, How docandidates come to understand their role asteachers of literacy?

Early analysis consisted of coding passagesfor a particular writing assignment according toemergent themes related to the analytic questions

outlined previously (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Second-stage analysis compared and contrasted

themes across courses and writing assignments,

as well as by content area and whether it was ear-

ly, mid, or late semester (Miles & Huberman,

1997). To increase validity, initial coding was

done collaboratively to ensure consistency. To

demonstrate the strength and consistency of stu-

dent responses, we draw broadly from the data in

order to illustrate our findings. (See Table 1.)

General methods: Developingunderstandings of teaching,students, and learningIn order to achieve the course goals of General

Methods, candidates are asked to complete a

number of reflective writing tasks across the



Ta b l e 1R e s p o n s e f r e q u e n c y b y

c o n t e n t a r e a

Number of

Content area Student and year responses used

Biology Betty ’03 1

Kathy ’03 2

English Alice ’03 2

Joan ’04 1

Karen ’04 3

Linda ’03 1

Lucy ’04 1

Mary ’04 1

Sally ’03 1

Geography Mike ’03 2

History Nate ’04 3

Susan ’03 1

Tom ’04 3

Math Alice ’03 1

David ’03 2

Physics Rob ’04 2

semester, beginning with an analysis of theirreasons for wanting to be a teacher. Once the fieldplacement begins, candidates are asked to inter-view their mentor about preferred approaches toinstructional planning, teaching, and assessment,as well as beliefs about content area literacy.Additional writings include a midterm and a finalreflection on their field placement. To reinforcethe main ideas of the course, candidates designand teach a short lesson segment called a “mi-croteach” to their peers three times over the term.As a culminating activity across both courses,candidates are asked to prepare a three-week in-quiry unit that incorporates a range of literacystrategies using multiple text materials. The find-ings reported below draw on three key writingtasks: the “why teach” essay, a midterm reflectionon their field experience, and a final essay wherethey are asked to evaluate their growth over thesemester. What patterns did we discover?

Early weeks: A sense of naive wonderThe first essay asked students to reflect on whythey wanted to be a teacher. Responses consis-tently pointed to a set of factors, including con-firming experiences (e.g., encouragement ofothers, positive experience with kids or teaching),passion for their chosen content, genuine interestin working with adolescents, a love of learning,and a desire to make a difference. These early es-says were charged with emotion, as evidenced bythe frequent use of words like exhilarating, chal-lenging, and rewarding.

Although many students impressed us withthe quality and sophistication of their reflection,these early essays leaned toward superficial andclichéd responses, as illustrated by the followingcomments related to the theme of “making a dif-ference.” Note the relative absence of references tosubject matter or adolescents as learners.

I want to make a contribution to the world.... My onegoal in teaching is just to know that one child’s life hasbeen bettered by my presence, teaching, and love that

I have for each and every one of them. (Karen,English)

I want to become a teacher so I can make someone’slearning experience worthwhile and enjoyable. I amexcited to get into the classroom and make a differ-ence in someone’s life, whether it is through providingthem with new information or just by making a newrelationship with a student. (Joan, English)

Further analysis of data collected in the ear-ly weeks, across both courses, led us to coin thisphase as one of “naive wonder.” In these early es-says, candidates described teaching in overly opti-mistic terms and devoid of details, especially interms of their relationship with students and themultiple ways in which students learn. As candi-dates began their field placement this overwhelm-ing sense of idealism was often replaced withmomentary silence in their writing. Solutions toproblems observed in the classroom were over-simplistic, with frequent references to their ownexperience as students.

Midterm: A time of dawningrealizationBy midterm, we see a significant shift in candidatewriting. Gone are the abstract platitudes, devoid ofcontext; in their place are more concrete andgrounded reflections. Particularly noteworthy isthe shift from a primary focus on themselves asteachers to their students as learners.Simultaneously, the field placement is beginning toprovide candidates with a real setting in which totest what they are learning. In the following ex-cerpt we see the reality of the classroom settling in.

It’s a challenge to get the students motivated. Then,it’s even more of a challenge to get them to stay there.Sometimes you can only keep their engagements justlong enough to get the bare minimum concept in andthen they are done. They are hungry, tired, and crab-by.... They are drawing, reading, giving pen tattoos....So I am supposed to be the calm eye of the hurricanethat is their life. I have to draw them into this calmcentered place where they can be comfortable enoughto enjoy learning. (Betty, biology)



As this quote highlights, candidates are nowbeginning to see themselves as teachers workingwith students. Their reflections are now frequent-ly prefaced by phrases like “I learned” and “I real-ized,” as illustrated in the following excerpts.

I also learned that it is important to get to know thekids personally, even if it is just a small bit of informa-tion. Having some kind of connection with a kid real-ly changes the teacher–student dynamic.... When Italked to kids about stuff they were interested in, theywere more willing to cooperate when I asked them todo something.... (Alice, math)

I realized how important it is to be prepared. I foundthat I really needed to scour the material, come upwith questions that would provoke student discussion,and decide what I wanted to achieve in whole-groupdiscussion. (Linda, English)

Finally, these midterm essays hint at candi-dates’ growing sense of what it is to teach formeaning, including a commitment to their ownlearning as teachers, as suggested in the followingquote.

I need to learn as much about my content as I can...soI can be as prepared as possible for my students’ ques-tions and desires to learn things that weren’t necessar-ily planned for.... I hope to structure my futureclassroom as a community environment and thateveryone has an equal voice in the room. (Lucy,English)

Candidate writing midway through thecourse is typically full of personal stories and ex-periences with students and in classrooms. Essaystend to ramble on as candidates try to make senseof their learning. At the same time, statementscarry a tone of tentativeness. As a result, we havecome to characterize this time in the semester asone of “dawning realization.”

Semester’s end: Intellectual rigorCandidate writing continued to highlight lessonslearned through the remainder of the semester.However, as the weeks passed, their reflections be-

gan to take on a future orientation as seen throughcomments like “in my classroom....” As one studentwrote,“I’ve gone from wanting to make historyfun to knowing specific strategies and ideas that Ican and will use to engage students in understand-ing history and its relevance.” Overall, these end-of-term essays are rich with details about the kindsof teaching candidates aspire to.

I don’t want a lot of worksheets that are copied fromoverheads, crossword puzzles that don’t pertain to thematerial, and movies that take up most of the class pe-riod. I don’t want to blame my students for not know-ing material that I could have taught better.... I wantto set my students up for success by helping them beprepared for class time, keeping my classroom movingand not relying on points and grades to make themfeel successful. (Sally, English)

Furthermore, these end-of-term essays re-flect a growing recognition that the teacher role iscomplicated and effective teachers are alwayslearning. In essence, candidates are beginning tosee teaching as intellectually demanding work.While they are quick to note what they don’tknow and have yet to learn, a significant numberof candidates express confidence in their readi-ness for the internship semester, as illustrated inthe following quote.

When I came into these classes I had no idea that Iwould have learned so much in this amount of time. Ihad never written a lesson plan. I had never studied lit-eracy strategies, assessment, or had experience teachingin school. I only had the ability to learn and take onnew challenges and that is what I have done. I havelearned so much from doing the microteaches, papers,and unit plan. But I know I have so much more tolearn.... I feel that I have grown as a teacher, to thepoint where I am ready to take on the new challenge ofthe internship and beyond. (Mike, geography)

As this excerpt highlights, students now dis-play confidence in and readiness for the nextphase of their professional training as teachers.We characterize this step in their development as“intellectual rigor”—a phase that most of ourstudents reach by the end of the semester.



Secondary content literacy:Developing understandings of literacyWe now turn to students’ developing understand-ings of literacy, as highlighted in the SecondaryContent Literacy data. Course topics forSecondary Content Literacy include literacyprocesses; comprehension and information or-ganization strategies; use of appropriate oralreading strategies; text set development and useof inquiry as a framework for planning; evalua-tion and assessment processes; strategies for vo-cabulary development, reader response, andcontent area literature-circle strategies; and issuesof language and dialect. As Table 2 suggests, ourstudents, learning progressed through the threestages as their repertoire of literacy strategiesgrew and built on one another.

Our analysis of the Secondary ContentLiteracy data revolves around two related ques-tions: (1) How do our students understand litera-cy processes with particular attention tounderstandings of the four-cueing systems(grapho-phonic, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic)and how these influence engagement, compre-hension, academic concept, and vocabulary

development? (2) How do our students under-stand their role in supporting adolescent literacydevelopment with particular attention to inquiry-based learning, multiple materials, and studentchoice? Because similar patterns hold true acrossboth sets of data, we have used the same frame-work of developmental stages (naive wonder,dawning realization, and intellectual rigor) to re-port our findings.

Early weeks: A sense of naive wonderThe primary data sources for this time period werethe students’ Information Sheets and Reading Logs1–3. On the Information Sheet, the students ad-dressed two items pertinent to this research: (1)What characteristics would you use to determinewhether someone is a proficient reader and writer?(2) List all the ways in which your students woulduse literacy as a tool for learning and assessment inyour content area. The first three Reading Logswere in response to readings concerning issues oflearning and engagement, reading process, contentknowledge, and the importance of talk.

Level of understanding of literacy processes.The level of understanding demonstrated at thisstage can best be described as simplistic and



Ta b l e 2S t a g e s a n d s t r a t e g i e s

Early weeks: Naive wonder

• Reading process and cueing

systems

• Inquiry framework

• Text sets of multiple materials/

multigenres

• Frontloading

• Think-aloud

• Sustained silent reading

• Reader response strategies

• Retrospective miscue analysis

Midterm: Dawning realization

• Oral reading strategies (no

round robin)

• Comprehension strategies

• Content area literature circles

• Know/familiar/new charts

• Graphic organizers

• Vocabulary development

• Readability/importance of

pragmatics

• Assessment strategies

Semester’s end: Intellectual rigor

• Unit planning with inquiry frame

• Attention to issues of diversity

• Development of text set

• Embedding literacy strategies

within content instruction

vague. In answering the two questions on theInformation Sheet, all of the students were able touse reading process words such as comprehensionand fluency, but what these meant to them was akind of one size fits all readers in all contexts.Many students further stated that fluency was thesame as comprehension and that if students arepaying attention and involved in class they areprobably proficient readers.

Language used to discuss literacy processes. Inthe beginning stages, the students used very ten-tative statements, such as the following, to prefacetheir ideas and thinking in relation to the theoriesand practices they were reading about and dis-cussing: “It really made me think and reconsid-er....”“I never realized....”“I’m not sure how thiswould work in a real classroom....”“This can bevery scary for a teacher....” This kind of languageallowed us to see that they were working towarddeeper understanding but were still mostly won-dering about them.

Application of knowledge and understandingsof literacy processes. The students had the ideathat literacy is important and that secondary stu-dents should be good readers, but what thismeant to them as prospective teachers in terms ofdevelopmental processes remained vague andsimplistic at this stage.

I never realized that I predict words and that is why Istumble over some sentences and miscue others.... Ialways figured those who stuttered or slipped overwords were not paying attention; I never consideredthe idea that it may not even matter as long as thephrase is semantically fitting. (Nate, history)

It seems to me that a majority of the learning break-downs occur in miscommunication and a majority ofmiscommunications occur because of a lack of vocab-ulary. (Karen, English)

Role in supporting literacy development. At thisstage, the students were focused on literacyprocesses and had very few strategies in theirteaching toolkits. In addition, each of them wasalso squarely focused on her or his content area.As a result, while grappling with their burgeoningunderstandings of literacy processes they were

more apt to ask questions about the feasibility ofadding literacy development to their already fullplates of content responsibilities. For example, itwas not uncommon for students to make com-ments such as the following: “One strategy that Iam unsure of is ‘skimming, scanning, and readingahead.’ How will that be helpful?” At this stage,the students were after answers and reassurance.

Our students were also beginning to see theneed for providing their students with somechoices in reading material, but it often still wasdiscussed as an add-on—something to do whenall the real work of the class was completed. Anexample of this can be found in the statements ofone of our science students suggesting that hewould have “a shelf of issues of Popular Mechanicsavailable for his students to browse through.”

One idea that the students embraced earlyon was frontloading (Wilhelm, Baker, & Dube,2001). This was a concept that supported thepragmatic cueing system and helped our studentsto see that they had a responsibility for determin-ing prior knowledge and providing prereadingstrategies that built not only background andsupported vocabulary development but also cre-ated interest and purpose. They readily adoptedsome of the strategies for frontloading as the fol-lowing quotation demonstrates.

I believe that for especially ninth and tenth gradersand middle schoolers, frontloading a science readingis very important. At this stage, many students havealready come to the conclusion that they cannot un-derstand science or anything related with science. I, asthe teacher, have to give them some idea of what theyneed to look for. This does not mean giving them aworksheet to fill in the blanks. I feel that if the stu-dents were to do a quick write...this would give me abetter way of knowing if the students were developingcomprehension of the subject matter. (Kathy, biology)

Midterm: A time of dawningrealizationThe primary data sources for this time periodwere Reading Logs 4–7 and a Midterm Self-



Evaluation. The four logs were responses to read-ings that concerned inquiry as a curricularframework, vocabulary development, and con-tent area reading strategies that both enhance lit-eracy development and content knowledge. TheMidterm Self-Evaluation asked the students todefine or describe strategies they would use inconnection with their content area that includedany three of the following concepts studied thusfar in the semester: inquiry framework, multiplematerials, reading process and cueing systems,learning theories in relation to literacy issues,vocabulary development, and the role of talk(literature circles).

Level of understanding of literacy processes.The level of understanding at this stage can bestbe described as burgeoning complexity. The stu-dents are beginning to put the ideas together andto focus on what it means to be a proficient read-er. They are also beginning to be more specific intheir examples. They are acknowledging the im-portance of nurturing the pragmatic cueing sys-tem, as well as recognizing the complexities of thesemantic cueing system within academic disci-plines. As one English student put it,

Another problem with simply looking up the meaningof the word in the dictionary is that students are oftenconfused about which definition they should use.They are unable to make a connection between one ofthe definitions and the situation in which they en-countered the word. (Alice, English/math)

Language used to discuss literacy processes. Inthe middle of the semester, students are begin-ning to use more decisive phrases and more spe-cific terms, but these are still prefaced with “Ithink...” or “I would like to try...” or “I could mod-ify...,” and they are beginning to realize just howcomplex literacy issues are. When discussing vo-cabulary strategies, one math student said,

I think these activities should be used in every contentarea, so that students understand the vocabulary weare trying to teach them. I can’t tell you how manystudents are confused about finding the dependentand independent variable because they don’t truly un-

derstand the definitions of those words, especially inthe context in which we are using them. (Alice,English/math)

An English student owned up to the complexitywith,

OK, so this whole teaching thing is more complicatedthan I imagined. Right now I feel a heavy weight onmy shoulders. How I run my classroom and presentthe material to learn will greatly affect my students....It seems as if the inquiry cycle promotes a sense ofcommunity that is essential in any classroom. (Mary,English)

Application of knowledge and understandingsof literacy processes. Midterm responses indicatethat the students have a developing handle on therelationship between the literacy processes andstudents’ literacy development. They are recogniz-ing the critical underpinnings that support theirstudents’ continual literacy development. Thequotations below demonstrate this connection.

When reading aloud it is often difficult to realize themiscues made due to prediction. But these miscues donot change the meaning of the text to the individualbut rather puts it in their own words. (Rob, physics)

I was observing in class today and my mentor startedteaching a lesson and came to a point where she need-ed to define what is meant by the word undefined. Soshe defined it as “when the denominator is zero.” Thekids were real perplexed about this...even the smarterones. She obviously didn’t take the time earlier in theyear to properly teach what a fraction really meant inwords because then it would have been easy for themto understand. Then when they saw the word unde-fined they would make the connection that you can’tdivide “nothing” (denomination zero) into pieces.This connection that they made would save me sometime explaining to every individual student what itmeant by undefined. This sort of explaining things, bymaking connections, is very similar to what was de-scribed in the book by looking at context and then an-alyzing the information to put it into a chart similar tothe KFN charts [know, familiar, new] we make inclass. I think they are similar just because they put thevocabulary work into a context that the kids do un-derstand, and hopefully by doing this they are un-knowingly learning vocabulary. (David, math)



Role in supporting literacy development.During this time period, the students focused pri-marily on the following strategies: role of talk inrelation to content reading; vocabulary develop-ment strategies that included active use of wordwalls, KFN charts, and personal glossaries; andthink-aloud strategies. Also, at this stage the stu-dents were introduced to the inquiry frameworkand use of multiple materials. As their under-standings developed and deepened, they graspedonto inquiry as a way to embed many of the spe-cific strategies they were reading about and dis-cussing. The following quotations provideevidence of this integration.

Inquiry is an awesome teaching tool. By allowing stu-dents to make their own connections between factsand life, teachers are enabling the information gainedto be turned into long-term knowledge. All too oftenteachers simply make students memorize facts anddates with producing the most important element inlearning: purpose. Inquiry is a recipe for success espe-cially because you are there every step of the way,guiding them to that end result. (Nate, history)

I think that using informational trade books is a greatidea. They do span many different areas of interest andprovide students with a plethora of information. Thesekids are full of questions that need to be answered, andfictional books will probably not provide them with theanswers they are looking for. (Karen, English)

Semester’s end: Intellectual rigor The primary data sources for this time period areReading Logs 8–10 and the students’ Final Self-Evaluations. In Logs 8–10, the students respondedto readings that offered case studies and tied to-gether the content concepts covered in the course.The Final Self-Evaluation asked the students to

Describe your classroom from the perspective of anoutside observer—a parent, principal, or colleague.What might this observer see students doing and you(the teacher) doing? What does the classroom looklike? How is it arranged? What’s on the walls? Whatkinds of materials are in it? How is it evident that lit-eracy is a major learning tool both continuously de-veloped and employed by the students?

Level of understanding of literacy processes.The level of understanding near the end can bestbe described as deepening and more sophisticat-ed. For example, one science teacher wrote,

I have to make sure that I have clear guidelines for thestudents...then let them browse through books untilthey find an idea that challenges them about the sub-ject. Planning without a doubt is going to take a largeportion of my time, but when it is successfully done, itwill be very beneficial to my students and ultimatelymyself. (Kathy, biology)

Many were also able to evaluate their ownshifts in thinking. As one of our math studentsput it, “My biggest misconception about readingwhile growing up and going through high schooland even in college was that reading was just abasic skill.”

Language used to discuss literacy processes. Bythe end of the semester, the students’ languagewas more decisive and committed. The focus ison their students learning and why it is importantto facilitate their content learning side by sidewith their literacy development. They are moreintent on looking beyond their teaching to theimpact of that teaching. As can be seen from thequotations provided next, they are beginningtheir statements with phrases such as “If wegive...” or “Allow students...” or “A student is...” or“I now realize....”

Application of knowledge and understandingsof literacy processes. As the selection of quota-tions below demonstrates, the students are able toverbalize the complexities involved in literacy de-velopment and its importance for their students’content learning.

The objective to alternatives to the dictionary strate-gies is the production of longer lasting vocabulary forstudents, rather than the short-term vocabulary that isregurgitated on a vocabulary quiz. (Mike, geography)

A student is not just to be filled with fact after fact.The facts need meaning and to discover that meaningthey need analysis and inquiry. I now realize that thepragmatic system can change the semantics of a word.



Our background, setting, and experiences can changethe context of vocabulary. A dictionary alone cannotfully define a word; you need things such as its contextand an individual’s personal experiences and back-ground. (Tom, history)

Role in supporting literacy development. By theend of the semester, the students were matchingliteracy strategies with other learning strategies topromote both content learning and literacy devel-opment. Some of these are content area sustainedsilent reading, rehearsed read-alouds, questioningthe text while reading, K-W-L (Ogle, 1986) andKFN charts, use of teacher read-alouds and therole of picture books in secondary classrooms,building background, literature circles, and con-tinual vocabulary and comprehension develop-ment. In order to deepen and widen theirsecondary students’ literacy use, our preservicecandidates also recognized the importance ofmodeling many of the strategies they anticipateexpecting their students to use.

The individual has to make the choice to read. So it iskey for educators to recognize the interests and abili-ties of the students and provide direction and oppor-tunities to foster literacy and increase their exposureto the world. Saying it is the easy part, doing it is an-other. Teachers should stick to and promote elementsrelevant to their content area. (Kathy, biology)

Without defining this [purpose] in the beginning ofthe reading, students may not even make an effort tocomprehend the material. There are many ways tomake purpose, one of the worst being tests or quizzesand some of the more creative are life application andcultural relevance. (Nate, history)

Final thoughtsWith this study, we have seen that deliberatelylinking the content and work of General Methodsand Secondary Content Literacy provides ourstudents with a useful mechanism to think morebroadly, deeply, and concretely about teachingand learning and the role of adolescent literacydevelopment in both. At the same time, we foundthat using literacy as the “content” of the generalmethods course helps draw students into the fin-

er details of the plan/teach/assess/reflect cycle.Through the countless hours we have spent read-ing and analyzing student writing, talking aboutour goals and approaches to teaching, about ex-pectations for student learning, and about stu-dents’ responses in the context of our courses, wehave become learners alongside and with our stu-dents, modeling the inquiry process we advocate.

Our analysis shows that by going through thestages of naive wonder, dawning realization, andintellectual rigor our students have grasped thetheory and concomitant practices to facilitate theirsecondary students’ acquisition of content knowl-edge through increasingly sophisticated literacydevelopment and use. As course instructors, wehave learned the necessity of being patient as ourstudents adopt these new beliefs and practices.

By semester end, our students show enthu-siasm for embedding literacy into their futureclassroom; they describe their teaching as inquiryoriented, featuring student choice and authenticlearning tasks and assessments; they describe abeginning repertoire of literacy strategies formaking the content of their discipline more ac-cessible to their students. Given the difficulty ofchanging teacher beliefs, we find this to be an es-pecially powerful finding in support of carefullydesigned teacher preparation.

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Documents

Preservice Teacher Understandings of Adolescent Literacy Development: Naive Wonder to Dawning Realization to Intellectual Rigor