This past November, I was able to attend the NCTE annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland. I learned so much and was able to attend many sessions, but one that has stuck with me the most is a speech given by author Tommy Orange. Author of There There, Tommy went up on stage and gave a powerful talk on representation in novels. There were so many great takeaways from his speech, and a lot of what he covered could answer one of the essential questions of this course: What teaching methods can secondary school teachers adopt to support diverse students' disciplinary literacy? If I were to give an answer based off of Tommy's session, it would be to bring more representation into the classroom. Teachers can use books to engage students, and to show them people like them matter and they have stories worth writing about. It is important to remember "reading is not just a basic skill", it is a "complex process [and] reading is problem solving" (Greenleaf). Reading can be a great way to enter a student into the English discourse and allow them to begin their thinking as readers, writers, and learners in the English field. It is so much easier to be apart of something if you can see yourself in it already, and that is why we need diverse texts in our schools. This allows for more opportunities of class engagement and the use of different literacy practices. Literacy practices "are the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives" (Barton). Using books our students can relate to can help implement practices that allow us to make connections beyond the classroom as well. One key thing about literacy practices is that they"are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices" (Barton). The point is to make our students literate in their discipline in the classroom, which prepares them for the real world. We need diverse ways of teaching disciplinary literacy so that more of our students can engage and partake in the life long learning experience in and out of the classroom.
In response to the Tommy Orange event, I wrote a piece that I plan on submitting to the NCTE Blog. I have linked that piece below if you care to read further.
Link To Response: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tXtrY3Mh0AS_aImO7bykfadXMIU1aA6g4IeczTDgHjE/edit?usp=sharing
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Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton . “Literacy As a Social Practice.” Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context, Apr. 2005, doi:10.4324/9780203984963.
Greenleaf, Cynthia, et al. Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms. Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, 2012.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/7/2/17514954/there-there-tommy-orange-review
