The Power of Literacy: Read, Write, Think, Discuss—Disciplinary Literacy
Summary
TLDRIn Fairfax County Public Schools, the engagement model fosters student-centered learning through disciplinary literacy. Teachers from various content areas implement this model to enhance student thinking, reading, writing, and discussion skills. The model emphasizes student agency, allowing them to take ownership of their learning process. By facilitating rather than directly instructing, teachers encourage critical thinking and problem-solving, leading to a more engaged and effective learning experience.
Takeaways
- 📚 The student-centered philosophy is foundational in Fairfax County Public Schools and supports learning through disciplinary literacy.
- 🧠 Disciplinary literacy involves mastering the language and thinking processes specific to each subject area.
- 👩🏫 Teachers act as guides, helping students read, write, think, and discuss content rather than simply delivering knowledge.
- ✍️ The engagement model emphasizes student agency, where students actively participate by thinking, discussing, and creating.
- 🔄 Learning through this model involves students solving problems, critical thinking, and collaborating rather than focusing on getting the 'right answer' immediately.
- 🎯 Teachers act more as facilitators, allowing students to take ownership of their learning while they monitor student engagement.
- 🔍 The classroom environment adapts based on formative assessments, adjusting lessons according to students' needs.
- 📊 The model promotes flexibility, allowing students to work on activities and develop key skills like reading, writing, and critical thinking.
- 💡 The process of student engagement evolves over time, with teachers adapting and refining the model each year based on student progress.
- 📝 Even small, daily practices add up over time, contributing to students' overall growth in reading, writing, and problem-solving skills.
Q & A
What is the engagement model in Fairfax County Public Schools?
-The engagement model in Fairfax County Public Schools is a student-centered philosophy that focuses on disciplinary literacy, allowing students to learn by reading, writing, thinking, and discussing content. It emphasizes student agency and ownership of their learning.
How do teachers use disciplinary literacy in the engagement model?
-Teachers use disciplinary literacy by guiding students to navigate the language and thinking processes specific to each subject area. They plan instructions that encourage students to actively engage in reading, writing, thinking, and discussing to build content knowledge.
Why is content literacy important in the engagement model?
-Content literacy is important because it is at the heart of the engagement model, where students actively engage with the material, think critically, and build knowledge through reading, writing, and discussion.
What is meant by 'student agency' in the context of the engagement model?
-'Student agency' refers to giving students control over their learning, allowing them to become deeply invested in their work. It encourages them to be active participants in the learning process rather than passively completing assignments.
How do teachers facilitate learning under the engagement model?
-Teachers act as facilitators rather than delivering knowledge from the front of the room. They guide students in thinking, talking, creating, and collaborating while providing support and structure to enhance student engagement.
What are some strategies teachers use to implement the engagement model?
-Teachers use various strategies, such as warm-ups, reading sessions, and work time organized around larger goals like essays or presentations. They adjust their teaching based on formative assessments to meet individual student needs.
What advice is given to teachers interested in using the engagement model?
-Teachers are advised to try the engagement model even if it may be messy initially. The benefits of increased student ownership, engagement, and learning outweigh any potential disruptions.
How does the engagement model benefit students in different subject areas?
-The engagement model benefits students by encouraging them to think critically, solve problems, and collaborate, regardless of the subject area. It helps them apply learned strategies to new situations, such as math problems or discussions about historical events.
What challenges might teachers face when implementing the engagement model?
-Teachers may face challenges like ensuring all students are on task, managing a variety of student engagement levels, and dealing with minor classroom disruptions. However, these are outweighed by the positive outcomes of the model.
How has the engagement model evolved in classrooms over time?
-The engagement model has evolved as teachers have gained more experience with it, adapting and refining their methods each year to better engage students, encourage critical thinking, and foster collaboration in their classrooms.
Outlines
🎓 Student-Centered Engagement in Learning
This paragraph introduces the core philosophy behind Fairfax County Public Schools' student-centered learning approach, emphasizing the 'engagement model' where students build knowledge through disciplinary literacy. Teachers play a key role in guiding students by planning lessons that focus on reading, writing, thinking, and discussing. This model encourages students to engage deeply in the content, developing not just subject skills but also critical thinking abilities.
🧠 Fostering Student Ownership and Deep Engagement
The focus of this paragraph is on the importance of student agency and ownership in their learning journey. The speaker reflects on how giving students more time to engage in meaningful tasks rather than simply completing worksheets enhances their development as readers, writers, and critical thinkers. The engagement model is employed to encourage students to think, write, and discuss their learning, allowing them to approach problems more thoughtfully rather than mechanically.
🔍 Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in Action
This section emphasizes the role of critical thinking and problem-solving in the engagement model. Teachers observe how students tackle challenges and develop their skills, working through solutions even if they make mistakes. This process of collaborative problem-solving builds essential skills that students need for future academic success. The teacher's role shifts to facilitator, encouraging students to find their own answers and think more deeply about the problems they encounter.
👩🏫 Active Learning in the Modern Classroom
Here, the speaker describes the transformation of the classroom into an active learning environment where students collaborate, think, and create. Teachers step back from traditional lecture-based methods and instead focus on engaging students with tasks that involve discussion and hands-on activities. Students are no longer passive recipients of knowledge; they are actively involved in constructing their understanding, which leads to more meaningful and lasting learning experiences.
🏫 A Classroom as a 'One-Room Schoolhouse'
This paragraph describes the teacher's approach to managing a diverse group of students, comparing the classroom to a 'one-room schoolhouse' where students at different levels work together. The teacher starts with warm-up activities to stimulate thinking and conversation, followed by structured reading time and work periods focused on larger goals like essays or presentations. Mini-lessons are tailored based on students' progress, with formative assessments helping to guide the instruction.
🔄 Continuous Improvement through Engagement
The speaker reflects on their seven-year journey with the engagement model, noting how it has evolved and improved over time. The approach has fostered greater student engagement, particularly in areas like writing and problem-solving, even in math classes. The speaker encourages other teachers to embrace the model, noting that while it may seem messy or imperfect at times, the incremental benefits of student-led learning accumulate into meaningful growth in reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.
✏️ Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking Across Subjects
This section highlights the teacher's belief that their role is primarily to foster reading, writing, and critical thinking, with content serving as the foundation for developing these skills. The speaker emphasizes that this is a different classroom model than what teachers themselves grew up with. Students are not only learning the material but also building essential skills for future success in the modern world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Student-Centered Philosophy
💡Engagement Model
💡Disciplinary Literacy
💡Content Knowledge
💡Student Agency
💡Critical Thinking
💡Problem-Solving
💡Formative Assessment
💡Workshop Model
💡Student Ownership
💡Messy Learning
Highlights
Student-centered philosophy is the foundation for the engagement model in Fairfax County Public Schools.
The engagement model supports student learning through disciplinary literacy, focusing on content reading, writing, thinking, and discussion.
Disciplinary literacy is a complex skill set, involving language and thinking processes in each subject area.
Teachers guide students by constructing instructions that emphasize active learning, rather than passive absorption of content.
The engagement model encourages student agency and ownership of their learning, rather than just completing assignments.
Math teachers using the engagement model focus on getting students to think critically, talk about math, and write about their thinking processes.
The engagement model helps students focus on problem-solving and critical thinking, rather than repetitive tasks.
Collaborative activities and peer discussion are key elements of the engagement model.
Students learn by engaging in real thinking and collaborating, with the teacher acting as a facilitator.
The engagement model can work with different student levels in a classroom, allowing for differentiated instruction and workshops.
Formative assessments are used to guide instruction and create small group activities to hone students’ skills.
Giving students ownership of their learning leads to higher engagement and meaningful learning outcomes, even if the classroom environment becomes a bit messy.
The model has evolved over seven years and has grown as a flexible and adaptable approach to student engagement.
Students are using strategies learned through the engagement model to solve new, unfamiliar problems.
The focus is on building essential skills for the future, such as critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving.
Transcripts
[Music]
Sam Bennett's words ring true in Fairfax
County Public Schools that's because a
student-centered philosophy is the
foundation for the engagement model a
structure that supports student learning
through disciplinary literacy
disciplinary literacy teachers do it
every day it is a complex set of skills
that involves navigating the language
and thinking processes of each subject
area as the experts of these skills
teachers construct and guide students
and disciplinary literacy by planning
instructions for students to read write
think and discuss content literacy is at
the heart of the engagement model where
students do the work to build content
knowledge in the next few minutes you
will meet four teachers
representing four different content
areas who have adapted the engagement
model to meet the needs of their
students remember learning is messy but
whoever is doing the thinking reading
writing and discussing is the one
getting smarter
how many words here one two three four
five six words four of them are images
so for me the engagement model is really
about student agency and student
ownership of their learning I think the
more time that we can give students to
be to become deeply invested in the work
that they are doing and not just handing
in papers or completing a worksheet the
better we're able to help them develop
as readers and writers and and learners
what we did there is called making an
influence so we've been using the
engagement model to get the kids to
think about the math talk about the math
do a little bit writing about their
thinking to really be thinking about
what's happening in the problems rather
than just doing the same type of problem
over and over okay so blue markers going
to be your consent I want to start
hearing your lovely voices I missed them
go talk
I agree with your idea what do lectures
we have to tell us not about coming up
and showing them the right answer it's
about them trying to find an answer
whether or not it's right or wrong
that'll come at the end with the
critical thinking the building the
problem-solving watching them do it
together these are the skills that these
students need it's that house you're
thinking about FPR and the New Deal
change this will be a quicker response
so based on the conversations you just
in my classroom what the engagement
model means is that students are doing
the work and I don't mean a worksheet I
mean students are doing the thinking
they're doing the talking they're doing
the creating so doing the collaborating
I should be a facilitator of that but I
should not be the person standing at the
front of the room delivering the
knowledge I know the magic is happening
when I look at a kid's face and I see
them engaged and you can tell as a
teacher if a student is engaged or is
looking under his desk and externally
these kids with this strategy are
engaged I think we give these kids
sometimes a bum rap about they can't do
this they can't do that give them a
canner you will need to lightbulb so
well that's why we do what we do
I think of this classroom as a one-room
schoolhouse because we do have so many
different levels of students in the
class some of the images that we wrote
here up on the sentence strips we know
every day we're going to start with a
warm-up that gets students talking and
thinking about either language or
drawing conclusions and then we're going
to have the reading time so that's very
easy and that gives us a framework and
then the work time is organized around a
larger goal whether it's an essay a
presentation and we just kind of think
about what are the steps along the way
what are the mini lessons and those you
really can't decide upon until you see
where your students are who's ready for
doing some sort of enrichment and what
types of things need to be revisited so
we're doing a few steps a blue we're all
kind of going over the same type of
thing in a mini lesson and then as the
students go to different workshop
activities either one of us or if
there's two of us in the room we might
both pull and group with them to kind of
hone those skills based on the formative
assessment my advice for a teacher who
is interested in moving towards more
student engagement in the classroom
would be just to give it a try it might
get a little bit messy every student
might not be on task all of the time but
the benefits that students will get from
having those opportunities to have some
choice to have some ownership to really
do the work and to get smarter by doing
the work far outweigh any you know minor
shenanigans that might happen
back of the classroom it's been kind of
a journey I think I've been doing this
seven years and it's changed every year
and I've kind of grown with this model
with this workshop model from the
beginning
it's definitely involved and each year
that I learned a little bit more about
how to get students engaged how to get
them thinking more how to get them
writing even in math class I've seen the
models kind of really flourished and
really take off and you can see it and
what the students come up with even when
they're given a problem they haven't
seen being able to think about the
strategies that they have and use those
strategies in a new problem situation it
doesn't have to be this all-or-nothing
calculation so I think like don't let
the perfect be the enemy of the good we
want to see something more like this
problem what was your opinion about fgr
well I thought a CR was cool why did you
think it was cool I don't know we don't
need to do everything huge the little
things that you do every day if you add
those up over time they are getting by
writing practice they are getting
reading practice which is a reason so I
think it's completely doable you know I
really think of myself first and
foremost as a reading writing critical
thinking teacher and then the content
that I teach support so skeletiger let
them guide each other it is a different
classroom than the one we grew up in and
not only are they getting it but they're
building these really essential needs
who's really essential skills that
they're going to meet as they move
forward into the next century
you
[Music]
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