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BaCuLit: Basic Curriculum for Teachers´ In-Service Training in Content Area Literacy in Secondary Schools ISIT :„Implementation Strategies for Innovations in Teachers' Professional Develop ment“

Prof. Dr. Christine Garbe (University of Cologne)

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The BaCuLit Consortium

Team: 27 persons from 10 universities and in-service teacher training institutions from 7 European countries Consulting: 2 American experts in content area literacy Project coordination: Prof. Dr. Christine Garbe (Cologne), Dr. Karl Holle (Lueneburg)

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Principles of BaCuLit Lesson Planning

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Why Reading Matters in all Content Areas

What happens when we read? Self-experience: Comprehending a short narrative text

The PISA definition of reading literacy

One example: How reading matters in solving mathematical tasks

Assignment for a Collaborative Task

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Self-experience: Comprehending a short narrative text

Read the following lines. After each line take a break and write down what is coming to your

mind.

He plunked down 18.00 € at the window.

She tried to give him 9.00 €,

So when they got inside,

but he refused to take it.

she bought him a large bag of popcorn.

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY

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What is Reading?

Conclusion

In former times people considered reading to be an act of „taking some content out of the text“: transferring the content from one container (the text) to another one (the reader´s brain). This is the so called container model of reading.

Today we know due to research in reader-response theory, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology and brain research: Reading is an active (re-)construction of meaning. If we want to understand a word, a sentence, a text – we always need to link our background knowledge (about language, the world, action schemata etc.) to the written words in the text. Reading is thus an interactive process between the text and the reader.

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The PISA definition of reading literacy

"Reading literacy is understanding, using, and reflecting on written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society.“

(OECD 2002: 25)

PISA defines reading literacy as „active engagement with written texts. [...] In the psychological literature about text comprehension, there is a general consensus that the reader has to construct meaning in written texts. Reading is not a passive reception of what is in the text, but it is an active (re-)construction of text meaning. The written information are connected to the knowledge of the reader. Thus, dealing with written texts can be seen as an act of generating meaning by which the previous knowledge of the reader and the text itself interact.“

(Artelt/ Stanat/ Schneider/ Schiefele 2001: 70f.)

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Theoretical structure of reading literacy according to PISA

Reading literacy

Use information primarilyfrom within the text

Draw uponoutside knowledge

Reflect onand evaluate

form oftext

Reflect on and evaluate

content oftext

Develop aninterpretation

Form a broad

understanding

Retrieveinformation

Under-standing of

relationships

Independentpieces of

information

Focus onstructure

Focus oncontent

Focus on specific partswithin the text

Focus onindependent

parts of the text

(Source: OECD 2006: 50)

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One example: How reading matters in solving mathematical tasks

WORD READING

TEXT COMPREHENSION

PROBLEM REPRESENTATION

COUNTING

A B C D E F G H I J K L

Students who solved the task correctly

Students who started to solve the task

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PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY

Do you have similar experiences about the reading problems of your students in your content area (or of the participants in your teacher-training courses) as you have learned from the Hungarian study just presented?

Assignment: How do the reading and comprehension problems of your students – from the first encounter with the text until the successful completion of tasks – become manifest in your daily classroom practice? Please describe your observations in refering to the four levels of the Hungarian study / the model shown on slide No 7.

Please write down your observations and reflections on 1 – 2 pages and post them in the forum, which will be initiated for this assignment by your trainers. Please read the postings of your colleagues and comment on at least two of them.

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6. Outcomes: The BaCuLit Curriculum(6 Modules )

(1) BaCuLit Principles of Lesson Planning

(2) Text Structure

& Text Diversity

(6) BaCuLit Practice of Lesson

Planning

(5) FormativeAssessment

(4) ReadingStrategies

(3) Vocabulary Instruction

Supporting teachers´

selfconcept as teachers for content

area literacy

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6. Outcomes: The BaCuLitLesson Planning Framework

Interaction

Assessment

TextsVocabulary

Reading StrategiesEngagement Metacognitio

n

Supporting students‘ content area learning by

improving their literacy skills

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9. Contact and Further Information

Contact: BaCuLit Association, Office: Universität zu Köln c/o Prof. Dr. Christine Garbe

Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Literatur II, Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Köln info@baculit.eu

Websites http://www.baculit.eu www.adore-project.eu European Website on Literacy: http://ec.europa.eu/education/literacy/index_en.htm

Literature: Garbe, Christine / Holle, Karl / Weinhold, Swantje (Eds.): ADORE – Teaching

Struggling Adolescent Readers in European Countries. Key Elements of Good Practice. Lang: Frankfurt/M et al. 2010.

European Commission (2012): EU High Level Group of Experts on Literacy. Final Report, September 2012. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2012, 120 pp.

Download: http://ec.europa.eu/education/literacy/what-eu/high-level-group/documents/literacy-report.pdf