Literacy Inquiry

Assignment
Andrew Weber
TE 802
Owosso High School

Demographics
Owosso Public Schools (from MI
School Data)
Economically Disadvantaged: 61.6%
Students with Disabilities: 13.5%
Proficiency (MME 11th Grade):
Reading: 54.8%
13-14 Target: 64.14%
Writing: 34%
13-14 Target: 48.68%

Observations of Owosso
(from my placement)
Little diversity
Many students go on to
attend 2 year colleges or
trade schools

Tight-knit community
Infrequent parental
involvement

Focus Class Demographics

11th Grade World Literature

50 minute class
English Language Arts
30 students: 17 males, 13 females
Racial Makeup: 28 students white, 1 student African-American, 1
student Asian

5 students have IEPS

Accommodations are needed mainly for testing purposes

Survey
Transition from literacy
in the ELA classroom to
real-life applications
Literacy questions
based around interests
and hobbies
Trying to expand
literacy beyond
reading/writing

Survey
Outside influences
Providing autonomy
in the classroom by
asking about their
preferences
Using single words to
describe themselves
Favorite word

Survey Results
Views on reading and writing mainly from an academic
standpoint
When you hear the word reading, what do you think of?
Books
Boring
When you hear the word writing, what do you think of?
Essay
Papers

Outside Influences
What does your family read at home?
33% Magazines and Newspapers
31% Nothing

What does your family write at home?

56% Nothing
17% Communication Purposes (writing letters, emails, social media)

Nothing indicate many students strictly see reading and

writing as an assignment

Literacy
What does the word literacy mean to you?

Writing and Reading

Connecting the idea of literacy to their hobbies and
interests
Can you be literate in your hobbies and interests?
Definition of Literacy (created after survey results):
The ability to understand and explain the world around us through
the use of our skills and interests

Artifact Idea
Taking the survey results into consideration, I wanted the artifact
to be an introduction into the expanded thought of literacy
Also incorporating their own interests into the artifact as well
Use of Informational texts
Many students indicated they were familiar with newspapers and magazines
Introduction to Dialogic Instruction as well

Feedly.com
Creating your own personalized newspaper based around your
hobbies and interests

Artifact
Students chose a
newspaper/magazine article
on Feedly based on their
interests
Summarize it
It needed to have two sides
to the story
Introduction to
Debate/Discussion

Feedback on Feedly

Curricular Goals
After survey and introductions of the classroom, my mentor
teacher and I decided to base the class around:
Focus on dialogic instruction
Use of informational texts as a means of expression
Stepping stone to short stories and novels
Discussion and debate-oriented classroom
Real-life applications (exploration and research of different cultures)
ACT preparation responsibilities (Average Score: 19)

School-wide Standards
Owosso based around International Baccalaureate (IB)
standards
Students should be able to:
Analyze the content, context, language, structure, technique, and
style of texts and relationships among texts
Justify opinions and ideas, using examples, explanations and
terminology
Great for debate and discussion

Common Core Standards line up perfectly with IB

Upcoming Unit
Social Injustice
Students will be doing research about a social injustice in the
world
Use of informational texts as research
Many of the activities will be hands-on
Students will be using their interests and skills to present a social
injustice to the class

Students will be required to discuss the social injustices to the

classroom
Transition into Night by Elie Wiesel

Curricular Goals Moving

Forward
Students will be engaging in ELA through constant use of discussion and

interaction with each other

Students will be reading short stories and plays about social injustice to
better understand the cultures/societies that surround them
Students will be using informational texts in relation to discussion/debate
to further development arguments that can lead to a dialogic classroom
Students will be collaborating in groups to form activities and assessments
around structured roles
Students will be preparing for the ACT by reinforcement of grammar and
other necessary components of the test