|
Sitemap
| Jobs
|
Contact Us
|
Building Smart Education Systems |
Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Adolescent Literacy
VUE Number 3, Spring 2004
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
Adolescent Aliteracy: Are Schools Causing It?
By Donna E. Alvermann
Donna Alvermann is a Professor at the University of Georgia.
> Complete Biography
Many young people are capable of reading and read frequently and well outside of school, but they choose not to do so in class. By making reading more engaging and relevant to their lives, schools can motivate these "aliterate" youths.
“You can't fix what you can't face,” remarked Dr. Jeanne Pryor, assistant superintendent of schools in Montclair, New Jersey, in a recent interview conducted by Debra Nussbaum (2003) of the New York Times. Nussbaum was on assignment gathering data about the Montclair “Prep for Prep” program, one of several such programs established in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and elsewhere to close a persistent academic achievement gap that separates Black and Hispanic students from their White peers. In making this remark, Pryor was referring to a decision made by Montclair educators and parents to end their earlier reluctance to discuss a minority achievement gap and, instead, to work toward a blueprint for improvement.
When I reflected on Pryor's comment, I was reminded of a similar conclusion I had come to recently as I considered what I had learned in two decades of research involving adolescents and their in-school and out-of-school literacy. I know from my own work — now, as a researcher, and earlier, as a classroom teacher for thirteen years in Texas and New York — that, as educators, we can't expect to fix what we can't face. Specifically, we cannot improve adolescents' motivation to read in school unless we face the fact that, for some young people, this kind of reading is perceived as uninteresting and even irrelevant. For these students, aliteracy — not illiteracy — is the bigger challenge. They have the ability to read but choose not to do so — perhaps, in part, because certain aspects of schooling sap their motivation and give them reasons to believe they are not readers.
In Their Own Words
“It's boring, just tellin' back what we read in our textbooks. It's like, why bother, you know?” Jimmy's assessment of what occurs almost daily in his high school is reflective of an all too common model of instruction in the United States — the teacher-centered transmission model of instruction — which treats texts as repositories of information to be memorized and regurgitated. A transcript of one of several videotaped observations that I conducted in Jimmy's general science class captures the transmission model in action (all names are fictitious):
Archives
Adolescent Literacy
VUE Number 3, Spring 2004
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:Adolescent Aliteracy: Are Schools Causing It?
By Donna E. Alvermann
Donna Alvermann is a Professor at the University of Georgia.
> Complete Biography
Many young people are capable of reading and read frequently and well outside of school, but they choose not to do so in class. By making reading more engaging and relevant to their lives, schools can motivate these "aliterate" youths.
“You can't fix what you can't face,” remarked Dr. Jeanne Pryor, assistant superintendent of schools in Montclair, New Jersey, in a recent interview conducted by Debra Nussbaum (2003) of the New York Times. Nussbaum was on assignment gathering data about the Montclair “Prep for Prep” program, one of several such programs established in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and elsewhere to close a persistent academic achievement gap that separates Black and Hispanic students from their White peers. In making this remark, Pryor was referring to a decision made by Montclair educators and parents to end their earlier reluctance to discuss a minority achievement gap and, instead, to work toward a blueprint for improvement.
When I reflected on Pryor's comment, I was reminded of a similar conclusion I had come to recently as I considered what I had learned in two decades of research involving adolescents and their in-school and out-of-school literacy. I know from my own work — now, as a researcher, and earlier, as a classroom teacher for thirteen years in Texas and New York — that, as educators, we can't expect to fix what we can't face. Specifically, we cannot improve adolescents' motivation to read in school unless we face the fact that, for some young people, this kind of reading is perceived as uninteresting and even irrelevant. For these students, aliteracy — not illiteracy — is the bigger challenge. They have the ability to read but choose not to do so — perhaps, in part, because certain aspects of schooling sap their motivation and give them reasons to believe they are not readers.
In Their Own Words
“It's boring, just tellin' back what we read in our textbooks. It's like, why bother, you know?” Jimmy's assessment of what occurs almost daily in his high school is reflective of an all too common model of instruction in the United States — the teacher-centered transmission model of instruction — which treats texts as repositories of information to be memorized and regurgitated. A transcript of one of several videotaped observations that I conducted in Jimmy's general science class captures the transmission model in action (all names are fictitious):
TEACHER: What is the frequency of a
wave, Jimmy?
JIMMY: The number of waves passin' through a surface point.
TEACHER: Okay. The number of waves that pass the surface point in a given amount of time. What determines how many waves pass that point? Uh, Stephanie?
STEPHANIE: The number of vibrations.
TEACHER: Okay. That's true, but that's in sound . . . and I'm asking you: What part of a wave would I want to look at to figure out how many are going by? Leroy?
LEROY: The wavelength.
TEACHER: [writes on board] The wavelength [draws several wavelengths on board]. So we have large wavelengths. Are my waves real spread out or are they packed together?
STUDENTS: [in unison] Spread out. TEACHER: They're spread out. So, if my waves are spread out, are they coming by very quickly?
STUDENTS: [in unison] No.
TEACHER: No. So, a large wavelength will have what kind of frequency?
STUDENTS: [several speaking at once] A high one. A low one. A short one. A low one.
TEACHER: A low one. So I'm gonna write down here [writes on board] low frequency, [repeats herself] low frequency.
JIMMY: The number of waves passin' through a surface point.
TEACHER: Okay. The number of waves that pass the surface point in a given amount of time. What determines how many waves pass that point? Uh, Stephanie?
STEPHANIE: The number of vibrations.
TEACHER: Okay. That's true, but that's in sound . . . and I'm asking you: What part of a wave would I want to look at to figure out how many are going by? Leroy?
LEROY: The wavelength.
TEACHER: [writes on board] The wavelength [draws several wavelengths on board]. So we have large wavelengths. Are my waves real spread out or are they packed together?
STUDENTS: [in unison] Spread out. TEACHER: They're spread out. So, if my waves are spread out, are they coming by very quickly?
STUDENTS: [in unison] No.
TEACHER: No. So, a large wavelength will have what kind of frequency?
STUDENTS: [several speaking at once] A high one. A low one. A short one. A low one.
TEACHER: A low one. So I'm gonna write down here [writes on board] low frequency, [repeats herself] low frequency.
|
Annenberg Institute for School Reform Brown University, Box 1985 Providence, RI 02912 |
Telephone: 401.863.7790 Fax: 401.863.1290 |
AISR_info@brown.edu
|
© all material AISR