Transcript of an Online Discussion About “The Role of Text in Classroom Learning,” an Article by Suzanne E. Wade and Elizabeth Birr Moje

The following comments were posted to ROL’s Online Communities bulletin board between October 31, 2001, and February 28, 2002. They are presented here without editing, as they were posted by ROL readers.

I’d like to welcome everyone to this discussion. I believe it is a unique opportunity for our professional community to engage in dialogue. Suzanne and Elizabeth have written a terrific article on a subject that is critically important: the role of text in classroom learning. At the end of their article, they post a number of questions. These give us a good starting point, but we should not feel constrained by them. I’ve copied the questions below for your convenience. I’m looking forward to this conversation.

• Who should be responsible for choosing classroom texts? If students are given a role in choosing texts, how can teachers expand their choices of books?
• How can all students’ voices and perspectives be included in discussions of texts, without marginalizing or silencing some?
• How can teachers integrate the use of written, oral, aural, video, and artistic texts to foster critical thinking? How should naturally occurring media texts be used in participatory content area classrooms?
• Should student-created texts be considered as primary classroom texts for writing workshops? What are the implications of making student texts the centerpiece of language arts or content area instruction?
• How can explicit instruction of reading and other textual strategies best be integrated as needed? What reading strategies are useful in helping students comprehend, interpret, and critique content texts? How does the teacher know when text reading instruction is needed?
• Given that print texts are important tools for mediating and communicating experience, how should content area teachers engage students in learning how to negotiate a variety of content texts?
• What role should primary sources play in content area instruction? Should primary sources be modified to meet students’ reading abilities?
• What role should unsanctioned texts play in classroom teaching and learning?

Gary Moorman
Online Communities Facilitator
October 31, 2001

Welcome to our online discussion! We look forward to engaging with you in a discussion of this article and its implications for practice. Rather than outline what WE thought might be the implications for practice, we would like to draw on your expertise and experience. We hope that sharing ideas for classroom practice around the issues raised in this article will increase our understandings as only a shared dialogue can do. And what better way to use the electronic medium in which this article is published!

To begin our discussion, we’ve brainstormed some questions that you might like to address. You can find these at the end of the article and in Gary’s welcome message. This is only a starting place, and we encourage you to add to the list of questions as new posts, as well as respond to those that are there.

Thanks for your participation!

Suzanne Wade and Elizabeth Moje
Article Authors
November 9, 2001

Dear rdgonlineboard

I posted this note earlier to the wrong board. Shame on me. IRA sure has constructed a cumbersome set of telecommunications tools. They can be made simple.

I read the Wade & Moje chapter last year with a doc seminar. During that pass, I took a “traditional view of text-comprehension.” In doing so, I think I limited what I generated from the reading. During this reading, I took a sociohistorical stance informed by Vygotsky and Bakhtin. I like the outcome I attained much better this time. Rather than taking an elaborate theoretical excursion on Vygotsky and Bakhtin, I will develop a few postcards, (an appropriate text:-) as the discussion moves along. The postcards will be intended to shape how I view what counts as text.

What counts as text in classrooms? Everything counts as text. A text (any text) can become an object. A reading group is organized around the object to complete a task and attain an outcome: a univocal understanding of the text or a generative or polyvocal understanding of the textual object. In doing so, the text becomes a kind of boundary object that is shared by members of the group. The potential outcome is influenced in part by the cultural, historical, political content the object contains and the tools used to transform it into an outcome.

School is an institution. A reading group organized around a textual object is generally managed or mediated by an institutional text. Students and teachers also bring their texts to the reading group. The reading group becomes an “authoring space”. Thus what counts as authoring text and the outcomes it produces becomes at least as important as the particular textual object. The authoring text opens an arena or “pins” one down. The distributed cognition of the reading group is not reflected in the text of the reading group, it is consitituted in the reading group and appropriated by the participants.

So what I used to think of as a traditional reading text, I know think of in terms of a text and a (con)-text. Text is surrounding by text. A question about what counts as text has very broad implications for understanding reading instruction and its organization.

What do you think?

Textually yours
Bill Blanton
November 12, 2001

As a new teacher it was good to read an article that reinforced the ideas that I already have about the role of text in the classroom. I am a substitue teacher and have the opportunity to see text being used in, often times, not so many different ways. It is my belief that all types of text are important and can be used in classroom learning. I feel that it is also important to use text in as many different ways as possible. I have a lot of learning to do...but I look forward to incorporating varying types of text into my classroom instruction.

Susan Thornton
December 18, 2001

As a new teacher, and a substitute at that, I found the article to reinforce what I already believed about the role of text in the classroom. It also supported what I believe about what is considered text. All things written, be it student produced or a published piece, are text and can play an important part in classroom learning. I feel that it is important to use a blend of the different types of text as opposed to using only one or two. I am new to ROL and I enjoy this opportunity to interact with other professionals. Thanks!

Susan Thornton
December 18, 2001

The article addressed the different types of literacy’s students need in our world today due to the different types of information resources that they come in contact with outside of the school environment. There is a disparity between the text book world and the real world that the students experience and this is causing students to tune out the traditional, unrelated, presentation of material that teachers currently use. The article stated that even though new teachers are taught to use a variety of texts and medias to present their topics, when they begin in the classroom they are often swayed to more traditional modes of teaching by more experienced, “old-school” teachers. There is also a need for students to practice new types of literacy: critical media literacy and critical literacy. Critical media literacy is where student need to be aware that not all information presented to them on such things as the Internet and popular culture magazines or newspapers may be correct. Critical literacy should also be addressed because students must realize that things are written to reflect a view or idea and that information is often omitted or slanted to support a cause. Simply reading outdated, boring textbooks will not help to support these types of literacy learning. To help increase the number of students reading, the article suggests that teachers use young adult novels that have a main character that the students can easily relate to and are related to the content area and that easily lend themselves to group discussions. The more successful teachers can be with engaging their students through different modes of literature that mirror popular culture and their lives outside of the school, the more connections will be made by the students and subsequently, more learning. I loved the article because it made sense of an important and overlooked problem occuring in most schools today. Lets keep our students involved and engaged.

Margie
February 10, 2002

For a class assignment, we had to read your article and respond to it in this manner. One quesion we have is: “As we discussed your article, we formed the conclusion that you believe the transmission approach is not an effective method of teaching because almost everything you stated was negative. What are some of the positive apsects of the transmission approach? How would you incorporate this into a classroom?”

Krista Deveney, Jenny Phillips, Travis Robbins, Stefanie Buckner
February 13, 2002

Your article covers both transmission and particpatory teaching styles. Is there any research indicating positive effects of successful integration of these two styles in a classroom environment? What are your recommendations for classroom integration and the two techniques?

Sincerely,
Chris Cooper, Tamara Couture, Shannon Pruitt, Matt Daigle, Justin Townsend
Appalachian State University
February 13, 2002

We as future teachers read your article and found it very interesting. However, we do have one pertinent question. In regards to student-authored texts, you stated that the only areas in which student-authored text occurs is in language arts and English. Given this, how do you account for the writing that occurs in History classes, Mathematics, and other classes such as essays, presentations, daily journals, and research papers?

Jeremy Magee, Randy Royal, Tabitha Horton, Kim Makosky, Scott Strickler
February 13, 2002

Thanks for addressing the topic of unsanctioned text, however we would like to ask for some elaboration. Exactly, how is a teacher supposed to address this in the classroom? We feel the graffiti example was extreme--it can be acknowledged and studied, but do you mean that we should encourage such texts? Also, how far should we go in covering all cultural backgrounds?

Thanks for your time,
Christy Blankenship, Kate Johnson, Jon Carpenter, John Spencer, Jared Brush
Christy’s Group
February 13, 2002

In your article, you emphasize the role of text in the classroom and the many forms of text. However, what are your suggestions for the textbook in building critical reading skills and do you believe textbooks can be used effictively in the classroom?

Natalie Knight, Matthew Wood, Brad Ferguson, Josh Williamson, Kathleen Young
February 13, 2002

Transcript posted March 1, 2002. To return to the article, click here.