Program requirements

Prerequisites (if any):

Catalog Description:

Provides opportunities for building a better understanding among teachers of the communicative dimensions of teaching and learning. Involves analytical examination of traditional (teacher-led) and alternative (discourse-rich) lesson formats and assessment of the costs and benefits of each. Provides training in the 'hands on' investigation of conversation and narrative in everyday and classroom settings.

Extended Description:

This course will explore discourse analysis as relevant to understanding teaching and learning in classroom settings. Major themes will include (a) the nature of classrooms as a communicative environment; (b) the influence of social and linguistic diversity in classrooms on teaching and learning processes; (c) alternatives approaches to analysis of classroom communication and their contribution to understanding (a) and (b). Topics to be discussed include:


1. everyday and classroom conversation
2. naturally-occurring and classroom elicited narrative
3. special features of classrooms as communicative environments
4. questioning strategies and other discourse techniques to advance learning
5. the contributions of narrative to early and advanced literacy
6. the discursive nature of cultural difference
7. how the school responds to cultural diversity
8. the dynamics of verbal interaction multilingual settings
9. how the school responds to linguistic diversity

Program goals:

** major goal

[under construction]

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

language and literacy development: the nature, breadth, and depth of and the overt markers of that development

individual and cultural differences: knowledge of economic, academic, social, and cultural diversity; use of this knowledge to inform instructional decisions

methods and materials: the range of techniques and materials appropriate for literacy instruction

literacy in society: societal changes in literacy usage, and implications for teaching and learning both inside and outside the classroom

task difficulty: relation to student learning, independence, and development

assessment of literacy: the value and properties of assessment methods and instruments

prevention and solution of literacy difficulties: management of the classroom context to prevent difficulties in the acquisition of literacy as well as to solve learning difficulties when they occur

technology: understand the nature and functions of information technologies in contemporary literacy practices; use relevant information technologies for teaching and assessment

organization of instruction: organization, regulation, and reform of literacy instruction

NYSED standards and core curriculum: knowledge of English Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science and Technology

self-extended learning: how to engage critically with professional text and research to extend learning, including success with their own professional reading and writing

Readings

(Note: these are suggested texts--actual readings in this course will be listed in the current course outline)

Everyday and classroom conversation:

The differences between naturally-occurring, 'casual' conversation among peers and the special characteristics of talk found in classroom settings

--turn-taking
--sequence and timing
--conversational inference
--teacher-led interaction
--peer-led interaction

Naturally-occurring and classroom elicited narrative: General features of oral narrative, including cultural variations in narrative style, and the use of narrative in early and later literacy practices
--models of narrative
--topic-centered and topic-chaining narrative styles
--conversationally-embedded narrative & teachers' elicitation techniques
--narrative, identity, and writing

Special features of classrooms as communicative environments:

The 'packed' nature of classrooms and distinctive institutional goals
--socialization to classroom norms
--managing interaction
--teacher-control of talk
--official and unofficial peer talk

Questioning strategies and other discourse techniques to advance learning:

Questioning and reformulating as ways of positioning learners and learning
--kinds of pedagogical questioning
--teacher-led questioning
--peer-led questioning
--revoicing

The discursive nature of cultural difference:

Social sources of cultural difference, cultural-bound, taken-for-granted expectations as a communicative resource
--cultural models
--the role of stereotypes
--tacit expectations and communication
--hybridity


How schools responds to cultural diversity:

Traditional approaches and multicultural initiatives, the dilemmas of equality and difference
--skills diversity and cultural diversity
--tracking
--the sources of cultural diversity
--recognizing cultural diversity
--the challenges of cultural diversity

The dynamics of verbal interaction multilingual settings:

Dimensions of linguistic variation, language difference as a communicative resource and challenge
--languages, dialects, and genres
--language variation in conversational inference
--ideas about competence in multilingual encounters

How schools respond to linguistic diversity:

Dimensions of linguistic variation in classrooms, the politics of language difference
--Prescriptivism, bidialectalism, and bilingualism
--the classroom politics of multilingualism: teachers and peers
--language difference and identity: influences on teaching and learning

New models of teaching and learning:

The challenge of learner-directed inquiry: talk and activity
--Discourse as learning
--Learning as situated practice
--Implications for literacy and literacy assessment

Required books:
Cazden, Courtney (2001). Classroom discourse. 2nd edition. London: Heinnemann.

Gee, James (1999). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. New York: Routledge.

Nystrand, Martin (1997). Opening up Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press

Other book chapters and journal articles:
Collins, James (1986). "Differential treatment in reading instruction." In J. Cook-Gumperz (ed.) The Social Construction of Literacy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hicks, Deborah (1996). "Discourse, learning, and teaching" In M. Apple (ed.) Review of Research in Education 21. Washington: AERA.

Hornberger, Nancy & Chick, Keith (2001). Co-constructing school safetime: Safetalk practices in Peruvian and South African classrooms. In M. Heller & M. Martin-Jones (eds.) Voices of Authority. Westport, CT: Ablex.

Kamberelis, George. "Producing heteroglossic classroom (micro)cultures through hybrid discourse practices." Linguistics and Education 12.1: 85-125.

Mehan, Hugh (1979). "The structure of classroom lessons." In Learning Lessons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Michaels, Sarah (1986). "Narrative presentations: An oral preparation for literacy with first graders." In J. Cook-Gumperz (ed.) The Social Construction of Literacy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

O'Connor, Mary Catherine and Sarah Michaels (1996). "Shifting participation structures: Orchestrating thinking practices in group discussion." In D. Hicks (ed.) Discourse, Learning, and Schooling. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pappas, Christine et al., "Dialogic inquiry around information texts: The role of intertextuality in constructing scientific understandings in urban primary classrooms." Linguistics and Education 13.4 (2002): 435-482

Perez, Bertha et al. (2003). "Biliteracy teacher education in the US Southwest." In N. Hornberger (ed.) Continua of Biliteracy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Wortham, Stanton (2003). "Curriculum as a Resource for the Development of Social Identity." Sociology of Education 76:228-246.