Literacy Practices Event Description

In the past teachers might have talked about classroom "activities" -- a term that doesn't provide much specificity or guidance for high quality instruction.

A literacy practices approach is based in the idea that literacy is actually learned in a context and for a reason. Literacy practice teaching calls for the creation of dynamic, goal-oriented classroom "real world" or simulated "events" that create purposeful situations for student learning.

Drawing on Teaching to Exceed, for this assignment you will describe an actual or virtual event or series of related events that you might use in your own classroom to foster meaningful writing.

Your description needs to include information about:

• The grade level of your students, and their social and economic situation.
• The "event" itself and why it will matter to your students.
• What "identities" will your students need to assume/take on to participate in this event?
• Given these identities, how will your students "frame" or understand the activity?
• How will they relate to and collaborate with others?
• What reading will be involved and how will the event involve sythesizing and connecting texts?
• What kinds of writing will students engage in? How might some of that writing be multimodal?
• How will the event involve critical thinking and social change? (might include addressing historical, institutional, cultural, psychological, economic perspectives)
• How will students engage in "metacognition"?
• What Common Core Standards will be addressed?

I am not looking for a traditional or detailed lesson plan, but a thought experiment of at least 4-5 pages.

Publish your event description on the Event Description Wiki. Including images, links, and other on-line resources will add to its appeal. This wiki is linked to the official website for Teaching to Exceed.

Created by: allen.webb@wmich.edu
Revised Date: 5/13