Evaluating Historical Learning and Literacies Through Scholar
- Jessica Harroun
- Jul 15, 2016 at 11:11 AM
Background/Context
A historical fiction reading unit is a common unit of study in many reading and language arts curricula. Historical fiction, "...happens in a time and a place that the reader has never inhabited, the characters become complexly entangled in both historical and social issues, and the events of the story are based on real historical events," (Calkins 76). It has also been said that historical fiction can "satisfy the urge of the audience to be lifted out of ordinary lives and to imagine lives of great adventure and heroism," (Calkins 76).
Historical fiction also creates opportunities for teaching learners to tackle complex texts with their peers. Learners engage in book clubs where they read several books related to a historical time period - World War II, The Great Depression, or The Civil Rights Movement. One of the challenges for teachers and learners is that often learners lack the background knowledge related to the time period. Historical fiction novels challenge readers at all levels because they have historical references that many readers do not understand. Thus, one major goal of a historical unit is that learners “emerge from this unit of study as more knowledgeable readers, who have a new confidence in tackling complicated literature,” (Calkins 76).
An additional challenge is created due to limited resources. Often there are not enough books for all readers to be engaged in the same era. Learners must read about different historical time periods. Some book clubs would be reading historical fiction books that are set during the Great Depression, while other clubs - in the same class - would be reading books set during World War II and The Holocaust. This creates great disconnect between book clubs - even book clubs within the same class. Since learners are not reading about the same era and they are involved in separate book clubs, very little whole-group collaboration is occurring. Thus, the information that each book club was gaining is not shared with learners beyond the book club members.
My co-teacher and I felt that our historical book clubs unit was missing some of the most important learning:
- Learners getting a sense of what it was like to be alive during a historical time period.
- Learners having multiple opportunities to engage in active reading (of fiction and nonfiction of the time), thorough interpretation, and deep questioning of historical events and experiences.
In the past we would assign unofficial research as homework before historical book clubs would begin. Learners would have to take a page worth of notes to show at the first book club. While learners seemed to enjoy engaging in book clubs, it became abundantly clear that learners were not walking away with a better understanding of a historical time period or an understanding of the experiences of those living in that era. Learners may have gained some understanding about the time period, but few had a depth of knowledge that would encourage thorough interpretation, and deep questioning of historical events and experiences.
My co-teacher and I decided that we needed to refocus the unit. If we wanted to get learners to a deeper understanding of a historical time period we would look at collaborative knowledge production to guide the learning. We would use Scholar as a tool for creating opportunities for learners to gain background knowledge of the era they would read about with a deeper and more engaging approach.
Objectives
In the historical texts book clubs unit, collaboration is incredibly important. Learners spend a large amount of time working within their book club as well as working in small groups to study the historical time period. In the curricular plan the authors - including Lucy Calkins - point out the importance of collaborative knowledge production, “readers learn how to build collective interpretations, how to listen closely to each other as they read, and how to carry ideas across time - both across the days of their book club discussions and across more than one text,” (77).
The unit reflects a shift from the individualism of the didactic learning model to a more collaborative learning model. In their book, New Learning, Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope discuss the importance of this shift: “Collaboration goes beyond the kind of learning that fosters autonomous, personal or individualised competence. Collaborative competence is a capacity to contribute something of your own experience and knowledge in a group learning context, where the sum of group knowledge is greater than the sum of the individual parts,” (220). Kalantzis and Cope also point out an important component of collaborative learning that is very important in a historical fiction unit. They state, “Learners make the inside/outside connections, between education and the rest of their lives, and between their lives and other people’s lives, in all their difference. Each learner has a sense of their unique perspective in relation to knowing, their perspective and the contribution they can make in the learning context,” (Kalantzis and Cope 220).
Since collaboration is so significant in this unit and is an essential 21st century skill, my co-teacher and I decided to explore the impact of collaborative knowledge production through the use of Scholar. Below is our intervention research question:
Intervention Research Question: How does collaborative knowledge production impact learners' depth of knowledge in a historical reading unit?
Below are the learning objectives that are guiding the unit.
Historical Unit: Learning Objectives
- Learners get a sense of what it was like to be alive during a historical time period.
- Learners have multiple opportunities to engage in active reading of complex texts (including fiction and nonfiction of the time), engage in thorough and collective interpretations, and deep questioning of historical events and experiences.
“The Common Core State Standards expect that students will read across increasingly challenging books,” (Calkins 76). In order to do this work we matched several important CCSS literature standards to our unit work: however, as learners progressed through the unit it became clear that we needed to rethink the standards attached to the unit.
We originally chose the following Common Core standards because of their ability to support growing readers in increasingly complex texts.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.9 Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
As learners began reading their first historical fiction books and engaging in online and face-to-face book clubs, it became clear that learners were struggling with the text complexity. Many learners struggled with making inferences and this had a huge impact on their ability to synthesize the diverse information presented in the historical fiction novels and informational texts. We determined that the demands of the historical texts unit and necessary skills were unrealistic so early in the school year. We also needed to make sure that learners had a solid foundation of reading skills from which they could grow.
As a result of this experience, several major changes will be made for future years and learners:
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Learners will engage in a character unit, dystopian society unit and/or other literature unit that focuses on inferencing and citing textual evidence. These units will occur before the historical fiction unit in order to ensure that learners have the necessary skills for deeper analysis of complex texts. These units would also focus on determining themes and central ideas.
- Character Unit/Dystopian Society Unit/Other Literature Unit Learning Targets:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
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Learners will engage in a nonfiction/narrative nonfiction reading unit or mini-unit prior to the historical fiction unit. This unit should focus on strategies for reading more complex expository texts. This unit will align to the following CCSS standards:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2 Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3 Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
Since the historical fiction unit relies heavily on reader's ability to synthesize narrative and expository information, it became necessary for readers to have the opportunity to practice the foundational skills in texts that were not so complex. Having the historical unit after a solid fiction and informational unit would likely build a solid foundation.
Below are the revised objectives - Common Core State Standards - for the Historical Texts Unit:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.9 Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
In the Teacher’s College curriculum, the historical fiction unit is matched with a Writing About Your Reading unit. The writing unit focuses on two important ideas that were easily aligned to our learning targets in historical reading. Even with the changes in learning targets, the writing unit was still aligned to the learning in the historical texts unit.
The first focus in the writing unit is that learners are able to demonstrate their reading skills through their writing. The second focus is that learners are able to examine and develop a topic through writing, support their idea, and present their ideas in a clear and coherent way.
Below is the Common Core Standard that learners would be working on throughout the unit:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
Throughout the unit, learners had many opportunities to write about their reading. During the read aloud learners and teacher wrote together about the complex historical text (Feathers). This modeling and scaffolding was important in developing strong reading skills and were the building blocks to writing about our reading in the Scholar community and creator areas. Learners engaged in “I write, You write” where the teacher modeled a strategy for writing about our reading and then learners wrote a section of the piece. In the community area of Scholar, learners wrote collaboratively with a partner and/or small group to continue practicing their skills. In the Creator area of Scholar, learners demonstrated mastery of the standards through a work that analyzes an aspect of their historical fiction reading.
At the end of the unit, learners engaged in a collaborative reflection and whole-class conversation. Learners were invited to “step back a little from the historical worlds they’ve stepped into, and from the heady interpretation work they’ve been doing within and across texts, to think more largely about the meaning these tales bear for their own lives - and for the world at large,” (Calkins 86).
Methods
Using Scholar for our historical fiction unit was a natural transition. My co-teacher and I used Scholar to leverage our argumentative writing unit at the end of the 2012-13 school year. We found that the classes of learners using Scholar were more engaged and motivated throughout the unit. Peer feedback had been transformed and learners were more likely to seek information and feedback from their peers before seeking a teacher.
Since we saw improved engagement and motivation in our unit last year, we knew that using Scholar would encourage collaboration, interaction, add some fun to the instructional process, and had the potential to improve learning outcomes.
The historical unit was the first time learners were introduced to Scholar. The unit did require additional time for teaching the Scholar how-tos: however, the outcomes were worth the time spent.
Background Information On Scholar
According to Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis in “Towards a New Learning: The ‘Scholar’ Social Knowledge Workspace, in Theory and Practice” “Scholar evolved from a research and development project, ‘The Assess-As-You-Go-Writing Assistant’.” (Cope Kalantzis 3). Scholar is “a web working space for learners, grounded in we want to call a ‘social knowledge’ technology,” (Cope Kalantzis 1). “the Scholar intervention is an attempt to reframe the relations of knowledge and learning, recalibrating heritage modes of pedagogy in order to create learning ecologies which are more appropriately attuned to our times,”(Cope Kalantzis 2). Like so many other new technologies, Scholar offers “a number of pedagogical openings, or affordances,” such as “...ubiquitous learning, active knowledge production, multimodal knowledge representations, recursive feedback, collaborative intelligence, metacognitive reflection and differentiated learning, (Cope Kalantzis 2).
One of the main reasons my co-teacher and I decided to use Scholar to leverage learning in our classroom came from the conclusion section of Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis’ work, “Towards a New Learning: The ‘Scholar’ Social Knowledge Workspace, in Theory and Practice”. They state, “it is time we create the conditions for learning and assessment which connect collaborative with individual intelligence, which supplement extrinsic motivations with intrinsic motivations,” (Cope Kalantzis 29). In using Scholar for our historical fiction unit, we hope to change the way we learn and assess through collaborative knowledge production.
Methods for Using Scholar
- Learners will engage in collaborative, historical centers created using the update and comments features in the Community area of Scholar.
- Learners will write their book club reading responses using the update feature in the Scholar Community.
- Learners will create discussion around their book club books using the comments feature in the Scholar community.
- Learners will write a literary essay that analyzes the impact of the setting on characters as revealed in a historical fiction novel in the Creator area of Scholar.
- Learners will provide formative, peer feedback with the reviews feature in Creator.
Methods for Assessment
We used several data points as means for evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention. We compared learner book club assessment scores to the previous year’s scores. The literary essay scores were compared to the previous year’s scores. We also analyzed a survey that learners completed.
| Book Club Rubric Scores | Each individual is assessed using the Book Club Rubric | Average learner scores were compared to learners in the previous year. All scores were based on a 5-point rubric. |
| Literary Essay Rubric Scores | Each individual is assessed using the Literary Essay Rubric | Average learner scores were compared to learners in the previous year. All scores were based on a 5-point rubric. |
| Learner Survey | Learners completed a questionnaire with several responses and questions: - Discuss the benefits of using Scholar in our Historical fiction unit and Writing About Our Reading.- Discuss limitations, areas for improvement, or other struggles as we use Scholar in the historical unit. - Would you like to continue using Scholar or would you prefer to do this work in your reader’s notebook? | Responses were assessed based on positive vs. negative comments. The final question was assessed based on percentages. |
Assessing Learners' Mastery of CCSS
Our literacy team unpacked each standard for the unit. First, we looked at the standard across the grade levels to become more aware of the continuum of learning. Then, we broke down the grade-level standard by explaining what the students need to know to perform the skill (KNOWLEDGE / UNDERSTANDINGS). Next, we explain what the students need to be able to do (SKILL). Finally, we created a performance task that would allow learners to demonstrate mastery of the Common Core State Standard.
Below is an example of this work for RL 7.3.
The following table is the continuum of learning for RL 7.3
| RL 5.3 | RL 6.3 | RL 7.3 | RL 8.3 | RL 9-10.3 |
| Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact). | Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. | Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). | Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. | Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. |
The following is a table that breaks down RL 7.3.
| CCSS Strand | Common Core State Standard (ELO) | Explanation of what the students need to know to perform the skill. (KNOWLEDGE / UNDERSTANDINGS) | Explanation of what the students need to be able to do.Students will… (SKILL) | PERFORMANCE TASKS |
| INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS | RL 7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). |
|
I can describe elements of a story or drama. eg:● setting● plot● characters● conflict
|
Part I:After reading______ I noticed that if the author changed/eliminated(story element), it would change the story...Explain.Part II: Now that I’ve analyzed how the story would be different if the author changed/eliminated (story element), I realize the reason the author chose(story element) is because…Explain using text evidence and background knowledge. |
Using the read aloud, teachers demonstrated this performance task with one chapter. Learners completed the same performance task as a pre-assessment with a new chapter from the read aloud. This allowed teachers to create small groups to differentiate instruction. Teachers also selected exemplar pre-assessments to show learners how to demonstrate mastery of the learning target.
With each Common Core State Standard, teachers shared exemplar performance tasks with learners. Then learners and teacher created a success criteria. Below is an excerpt from one of my previous works on formative assessment. One key idea in my work was the necessity for creating success criteria and how a teacher would do this in the classroom:
When introducing a learning objective for the first time, pupils must generate the success criteria for maximum effect. Use one of the following techniques, or your own ideas for this to happen:
- Give them a good finished example of the work they will be doing (writing/mathematics/art/PE video etc.) and ask what features they can see/what the thing consists of.
- Show 2 contrasting pieces of finished work as above and ask which is best and why. The analysis via talking partners will generate the success criteria, by focusing on what the poorer example could include to be as good as the better example.
- Get them to do one example first (if a repeating exercise or skill for which the finished product does not reveal the success criteria) then tell you what steps they followed or needed to include)
- Ask pupils ‘Can you……?’ If yes, ‘Prove it! What do I have to do first, next and so on?’
- Demonstrate how to create the finished product by doing everything wrong, so that the pupils have to correct you, thus creating the success criteria
- Have ‘sloppy success criteria’, with an incorrect piece, which need to be put right
- Demonstrate, possibly with a visualiser, with talk partners deciding what the elements/steps consist of as they watch you
- Create a success criteria that translates into a student-facing rubric (Harroun 2013).
Learners completed a pre-assessment for the standard, a formative assessment of the standard - to ensure growth- and a final summative or benchmark assessment of the performace task. Learners would go through this process for each Common Core State Standard.
We did find that there were more opportunities for practice and formative work within the book club setting. Teachers were able to adjust the expectations and instruction to better meet the needs of the individual learner and/or group.
Implementation Processes
Below is a link to our deep unit plan for the historical texts unit. Please understand that this document is a draft and is regularly revised to meet the needs of our learners.
Historical Fiction - Deep Unit Plan
Immersion Centers of the 50s, 60s, and 70s:
Before book clubs begin, learners needed to be immersed in the historical time period. Each class had its own community in Scholar. We set up centers in our Scholar community. In their learning groups, learners worked through the centers to immerse themselves in the era and gain some initial knowledge of the times. The centers focused on various components of our society. The centers focused on: music of the era, newspaper articles, photographs from the era, important events, significant figures, commercials and advertising during this time. Each center had its own update in the community. The update gave directions and provided links to guide learners in the work. The group collaborated to find information, analyze information, and synthesize their learning. Then the group wrote a comment for that update (center). To further synthesize the information gathered in the centers, learners created a large timeline in our classroom and had a whole class discussion (learner-centered).
The creation of the timeline did take longer than we had anticipated. In the future, we would like to have a way for kids to create the timeline before the whole-class discussion. We also saw a need for history "experts" to help clarify the information kids were finding.
Each center provided learners with a focus - teaching point - along with directions, links, and questions to help them gain a better understanding of the historical time period. Learners were also working on writing clear and thorough responses to questions.
I
Introduction to Centers and Book Club Responses
To introduce the immersion centers we created a whole-class center around the film, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” (1967). Not only did we study the time period and the portrayal of interracial social relationships and marriage, we modeled how the way we study the film can be similar to the way we study our historical fiction books.
Book Clubs in Scholar
Each book club had its own community in Scholar. In this space, each club member was required to post a weekly update. In addition, each member commented on three or more updates by other club members. These posts focused on characters, setting, themes, and other elements they were encountering in their books. In some cases, posts were related to the reading-level skills that the group was working on.
Each book club posted a weekly update to the class community. This post did not focus specifically on their book; instead learners chose a topic or issue that they encountered in their book as it relates to the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The clubs researched more about this topic and presented the information to the class through the updates in the class community area. For example, one book club read Glory Be! by, Augusta Scattergood. The group decided to further research The Black Panther Party and write a collaborative, explanatory update to share in the class community. This not only allowed the book club to gain a deeper understanding of the characters in their book, the era, and the topic - it also gave other learners that were not in the club important information. Plus, many other clubs read books that referenced the Black Panther Party. Each learner is required to comment on at least one other book clubs’ weekly update. Thus, this one update provided information for many learners and enhanced the collective background knowledge necessary in such a unit.
In the first weeks of the unit, we realized that a weekly share out was a nice way to verbally share and discuss some of these posts. Each Friday we set aside time for learners to share with a group of other learners that were not necessarily in their book club. Then each group took a couple minutes to share some of their new learning with the entire class. This was a nice way to wrap up and reflect on the work that week and begin thinking about the week ahead.
Interactive Read Aloud
Interactive Read Aloud: In the interactive read aloud the teacher models his/her thinking about the text and the students share their thinking as well.
We had originally decided to read Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson to demonstrate reading skills related to the following Common Core State Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Unfortunately, with the goals of the new historical texts unit the book was no longer meeting our needs. While the story is a good one, we were unable to really model R.L. 7.3 with true depth. There were few historical references, and the book was largely focused on character development. We realized that the books the clubs were reading did focus on character development, but also emphasized how the setting (time and place) and events impacted characters. There were few opportunities for this type of analysis in Feathers. We continue to look for a shorter historical fiction novel in this era that meets our needs. We may consider using Glory Be! by Augusta Scattergood as our read aloud instead of offering it to our 'V' level readers in book club.
Poetry, Songs, Short Stories, and Primary Documents will be used to meet the following Common Core State Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.9 Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.
We had a difficult time finding resources that would allow learners to practice and demonstrate R.L. 7.9. In the future if we were to read Glory Be!, we would then compare Scattergood's portrayal of Freedom Summer to articles from this same summer. For example:
Poetry Read Alouds:
"Friends in the Klan" by, Marilyn Nelson 1923
The listening center led many learners to seek out more information on the music of the era. Many engaged in studies related to how music revealed the struggles of the time. Learners commented on the similarities between lyrics and poetry. Several songs became interactive read alouds in our class.
Learner Outcomes
This was an area of weakness for our unit. We were not as diligent in our variety of assessments to really determine the efficacy of the intervention.
Here is our original plan:
Learners Reflect On The Unit
Learners will complete a mid-unit survey on paper. The focus of the survey will be Scholar. We hope to determine if learners are understanding the importance of collaboration online. We also hope to find out what learners feel is working and what needs improvement in the unit. Below are tentative survey questions:
- Discuss the benefits in using Scholar in our historical fiction unit.
- Discuss limitations, areas for improvement, or other struggles as we use Scholar in the historical unit.
- Please share any other thoughts you have about using Scholar in our class.
At the end of the unit, learners will complete a survey through Scholar. We will ask learners to reflect on the impact of collaboration and using Scholar throughout the unit. Our hope is that learners will reflect and also provide suggestions for improvement. Whole-class discussion will also provide an opportunity for further reflection.
Compilation of answers to the first response question.
We surveyed and assessed 156 7th grade learners. We were unable to complete on Scholar, so we had learners do this in a GoogleForm. Below are a few general pieces of un-official data we found:
- Results of the mid-unit survey revealed that 57% of learners wanted to continue using Scholar. 43% wanted to go back to all work being completed in the reader’s notebook.
- In a whole-class discussion, learners were asked to provide some reasons for returning to the reader’s notebook. Many learners stated that the notebook work was easier than the work in Scholar. One learner said, “I don’t like that you can see everything that I do.. or don’t do!”
- Results of the final unit survey revealed that 68% of learners would like to do another unit in Scholar. 32% wanted to stick with the reader’s notebook.
- Book Club assessment scores were compared to last year’s data. Learners earning 4s and 5s on the book club rubric assessment increased by 11%. Unfortunately, those receiving 0s increased by 22%. We hesitate to link Scholar with this increase in learners earning 0s. As a grade-level, we have noticed that this year there has been a huge increase in learners not completing their in-class work and/or homework. We were not surprised by the number of learners not completing their work in Scholar. A majority of them were the same learners not doing the work in other formats and classes.
- Similar statistics were found in the CCSS assessments. Increased number of learners earning 4s and 5s. Unfortunately, there were a greater number of learners earning 2s and 1s on CCSS assessments. There were fewer learners earning 3s.
- There was a clear shift to a more collaborative approach to knowledge production. Prior to the unit a large amount of the work was individual with preset times for sharing. The intevention shifted teachers and learners to an approach that relied heavily on learners gaining knowledge from one another.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The historical texts unit offers a unique opportunity to wrap-up a unit in a fun way. Our learners wanted to celebrate by dressing like the fashion icons of the 50s, 60s, or 70s. While we did host a party that played music from this era, there was far more conversation about the songs and artists that were playing. Many learners requested that we watch more movies from this era. While learning may not have been ass obvious in this type of celebration, learner engagement was noticeable.
The primary literacy goals of the historical texts unit are to increase learners' ability to read more complex texts, read to discern more than one idea from a text, summarize texts, and synthesize information from a variety of texts. These are skills that a sophisticated reader applies to informational and fictional texts. At the end of the unit teachers and learners may want to reflect on the importance of integrating information gained from multiple texts - including digital texts. This knowledge and skill set is important in speaking and writing knowledgeably about a subject.
The end of the historical texts unit is an ideal opportunity to move into topics related to other content areas, such as science or social studies. Learners should have multiple opportunities to apply what they have learned to any kind of text and topic.
The shift from knowledge consumption to knowledge production was dramatic in our experience. In previous years, a learner received information from the teacher and it was his/her job to apply this to his/her historical fiction texts. The instruction was univocal and book clubs served as opportunities for learners to demonstrate that they read and comprehended the text.
This year, learners relied heavily on each other. From the beginning, they were communicating face-to-face in a group to gain understanding. Then, they went in the community space on Scholar where they collaborated to build more knowledge and understanding. Book clubs were no longer individuals trying to impress each other (and the teacher) with their insights; instead much of the discussion was debating, sharing, and contemplating information in order to gain a deeper understanding. While there may be other ways to achieve this shift, we felt that the Scholar intervention was a success. We were much closer to meeting our objectives than we had been in the past:
- Learners getting a sense of what it was like to be alive during a historical time period.
- Learners having multiple opportunities to engage in active reading (of fiction and nonfiction of the time), thorough interpretation, and deep questioning of historical events and experiences.
The collaborative knowledge production increased engagement and the learning experience reflected this essential shift.
Sources
Calkins, Lucy. "Historical Fiction Book Clubs: Tackling Complex Texts." A Curricular Plan For The Reading Workshop Grade 7. Portsmouth, NH: Firsthand Heineman, 2011. 76-93. Print.
Cope, Bill, and Mary Kalantzis. "Towards a New Learning: The 'Scholar' Social Knowledge Workspace, in Theory and Practice." E-Learning and Digital Media 10.4 (2013): 1-30. Print.
Kalantzis, Mary, and Bill Cope. New Learning: Elements of a Science of Education. Port Melbourne, Vic.: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, and Council of Chief State School Officers. "English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Literature » Grade 1." Common Core State Standards Initiative. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.