Dr. Allen Luke

Today I got to see Dr Luke, please see my notes below...

Dr. Allan Luke: The New Literacies

Effective educators understand that what happens in educational systems must align with the world students will face in the 21^stcentury. Although it is impossible to know precisely what the future holds, educators do know that students will live in a rapidly changing world where knowledge and information increase exponentially. Individuals will need to be lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and flexible, creative problem-solvers who work well collaboratively and independently. They will need to be responsible global citizens, open-minded, and able to communicate effectively with people from all over the world. Students will need to develop habits of mind that help them embrace change with enthusiasm, wonder, and a sharp critical eye.

Dr. Allan Luke is an educator, author, activist, and international researcher and policy change agent in all Australian states as well as New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. His work has influenced educators globally, including in Canada and the United States.

In this webcast, Dr. Luke presents his views and provides an international perspective on the new literacies, with a focus on the importance of helping our students develop in the area of critical literacy.

The purpose of this webcast is to promote professional learning. The following questions are intended to stimulate thoughtful dialogue and inspire action that changes educational practice and improves student learning and achievement.

• What are the new literacies? Why are the new literacies so important to student learning?
• What do educators at every level need to consider during their planning in order to prepare students for the 21^st century?
• What is the new "eduscape" and what does it mean to teachers, administrators, and board-level staff?
• What are the current issues that face educators in all parts of the world?
• What is critical literacy?
• What does critical literacy look like in practice?
• What is the Four Resources Model of reading and how does it impact on the teaching of reading?
• Where do phonics and basic decoding fit into the Four Resources Model of teaching reading?
• What practical steps can be taken to create an environment that effectively prepares students for the future?
• What obstacles might stand in the way of change? What strategies are most useful in dealing with such obstacles?

"We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn."

Notes:

Where the social justice and equity happens is in the classroom, the face to face.
We are doing a good job with social class-in Ontario, the data confirms this
Teacher and principal are the  lynchpin, keep wheel from coming off

Instructional focused leadership is what moves kids ahead

Postal codes= social class- middle class no incentive for teachers to do well , kids do well despite us

Poverty matters but pedagogy matters too

Scatter gram regression analysis social class is not accounting for as much variance in Ontario but within district see outliers poverty does matter, you can take 2 schools who have same social class and you can see a difference with good pedagogy

Mobilize elementary easier than secondary, disciplines are never what they used to be except in high school! Secondary is a tough nut!

There is a generation of young teachers that have never had to plan their own lessons (USA mostly)

New fad online portfolios result of high stake testings failure to produce

We will begin testing creativity future assessment will be digitalized

We are losing market share , moving to privatization of education globally,

Teacher Merritt pay does not show results

Social class accounts for 15% of achievement so does prior performance, kids who are low performers get locked in

Phonics is necessary but not sufficient decoding knowledge is a  constrained skill, comprehension much bigger job unconstrained skill

Permeable flexible reading groups!

Streaming /tracking systems increase and exacerbate the equity gap...think about French Immersion?

Grade 1 gifted?

Train mammals educate human beings!

Cool curriculum means you have some autonomy hot curricum means no thinking

early yrs instruction should be developmentally based

Pull out does not work , like throwing stones in grand canyon,

Principals create schools in the image of their own expertise

Move their culture and SIPSA toward their area of expertise

Pd for a common vocabulary is absolutely necessary

Agnostic about pedagogy- there is no right way

Direct instruction ,Rote memory has its place- supports rich tasks

To Generate an overview of current school literacy program:

•  Post the following four headings on the wall
• 4 resources model, coding, semantic, pragmatic/critical
• Have teachers post their assessment tasks under the correct heading
• teachers will engage in accountable talk about the assignments then they will learn what is happening in other grades
• Last...Hypothetically walk a kid through the school, see where there is overlap and gaps

Audit of staff expertise ~drop consultants and have teachers teaching teachers

Scaffolded reading comprehension important

Assememt is DVD of kid reading and first step curriculum

Requires teacher moderation

Moderated assessments valid but not completely reliable-moderation is the pd, talking about student work is the best pd

YouTube thumbs up moderated marking,

Staff turnover? Marker of an easy middle class school no turn over

Substantive content- don't dumb down curriculum for social class, or esl

Rich tasks!

Aboriginal kids first person and narrative, esl kids marginalized kids get slaughtered when the move from story telling to content knowledge

Essays lab reports biology uses passive voice

 

Secondary esl needs to focus on genre specific instruction in texts required in secondary science, arts, vocational knowledge

Book Review David Corson Lexical Bar

David Cordon the Lexical Bar:

Lexicle bar- keeps lower social class and ELLs down

Vocabulary, words words words raise the lexical bar