Chapter 11 & 2: Ownership is Key

Both the readings this week spoke about the importance of developing student ownerships of texts, whether in reading or writing tasks. When students take ownership of their learning, they think more critically about content, relate ideas to aspects of their life, and feel more motivated to learn more.

Vacca, Vacca & Mraz (2011) approach ownership from the perspective of introducing trade books into the classroom. While textbooks have their uses, trade books can supplement student learning and boost critical thinking by relating "experiences and perspectives that may have been excluded in textbooks" (p. 360). Trade books can present a more emotional perspective through personal tales and provide more in-depth information that may be missing from textbooks.

Another important aspect of the use of trade books in the ESL classroom is their ability to help differentiate instruction. Many beginning English learners cannot access textbook material due to the unfamiliar format, specific vocabulary or difficulty of writing. A textbook such as this would be useless for many ELs since it provides little in the way of scaffolding, yet by presenting books such as this, this, or this, learning is supported through graphic representations and minimalist language. In addition, these books can help students relate new concepts to prior knowledge, their interests, or their everyday lives, increasing retention of information and interest in the content. Developing a classroom library with a wide variety of books at a wide range of levels will be a crucial part of supporting students in my own classroom.

Writing is another method through which students can take ownership of their learning, by processing new ideas and connecting to their prior knowledge. As Daniels, Zeleman & Steineke (2007) explain that we often use "writing to find out what's inside our heads, to dump ideas down on a page so we can play with them, move them around, make connections, figure out what's important, cross some out, and highlight others" (p. 21). Successful writers have all learned to do this, in some form or another. I jotted some thoughts on post-it notes while I read these chapters to emphasize important points and highlight what information applied to me. Yet, many students do not see writing in this way, as a process, but as a product that they are graded on based on word choice and grammatical accuracy.

As the authors explain, in order to learn, "kids need to grapple with ideas, transform them and put their in their own words" (p. 26 - authors' emphasis). Writing tasks can be used before a lesson, to prime student's prior knowledge, or after a lesson, to help students synthesize what they have learned. Teachers can incorporate writing into a lesson for students to organize their ideas and monitor their thinking. By using these sorts of writing tasks in class, we show students that they own their writing, and in turn, their learning.