Four Years in the Making: 12 BYU Professors Publish Book with MSE Faculty Member Roni Jo Draper
For the past four years, twelve BYU professors from across campus have met every two weeks to discuss how to better prepare middle school and high school teachers. Roni Jo Draper, the Teacher Education professor who spearheaded the collaborative discussions, is now publishing a book based on the conversations.
“When we began, we had no idea it would turn into a four year project,” Draper said. “But the ideas we have been discussing are interesting and powerful for teachers of all subjects and grade levels.”
Draper’s group consists of professors in a variety of fields, such as music, fine arts, history, mathematics, biology, engineering, and visual arts, the bi-weekly discussions focused on literacy and what literacy means in each of the respective disciplines.
“Literacy as it is discussed in the book is used differently than our normal understanding of the word,” Draper commented. “Literacy in this sense means being able to understand, create, and negotiate texts in a specific field in a way that others can interpret and gain meaning.” So whereas an artist may become literate in the art field by learning to understand the use of color, shape, light, contrast, and texture, so may a mathematician become literate in the math field by learning how to use and interpret equations, symbols, proofs, and graphs.
The book, (Re)Imagining Content-Area Literacy Instruction, includes 11 chapters, eight of which are written by the participating faculty members and explain how literacy looks in each of the discussed fields. “What’s really different about this book is that those who are discussing the literacies are actually those steeped in the disciplines. Previously, this work has been done by literacy educators alone,” Draper said.
Most universities offer literacy classes for teachers of all disciplines, Draper explained, but because BYU doesn’t, Draper wanted to discuss how she and other content-area teachers could incorporate literacy ideas into the method classes already provided. She commented, “We wanted all our education students to have access to these ideas without having to create a separate course.”
The book also addresses the reasons for the frequent conflict between literacy educators and content area teachers and explains ways to prevent misunderstandings that occur between the two. Most importantly, the book helps prepare future teachers to develop curriculums that better prepare their students to become more literate in each field.
20 September 2010
Congratulations, Team! I’m delighted you’ve moved the field forward with these conversations (and, I am sure, with this publication).
Eula
Congratulations to Dr. Draper and all of her colleagues for authoring this book. The way in which they have addressed literacy attainment in secondary grades — by looking at it through a discipline-specific lens — is exactly what is needed. I’m eager to read their book. I’m sure it will break new ground in an area that is in desperate need of sound instructional insights.
Don Deshler
University of Kansas
When is the book due out? I assume the BYU bookstore will carry it?
Way to go Roni Jo and team! As a result of my experience at BYU in the teacher education masters program I certainly have a broadened view of literacy. Thanks for helping me better understand literacy in the content areas. This book should be a valuable resource.
Big congratulations, R.J.
You, along with a fistful of other wizards, were one of my favorite professors down there at the Y. You deserve accolades and lemonades, and beyond that all whoooooping!
Is this resource also geared to Family and Consumer Science teachers? My middle school the Midwest, like probably everyone else, is focusing on literacy. I am always looking for resources.
JW, while the book does not have a chapter specifically for Family and Consumer Science, I think there is much a FCS teacher would find helpful. There are chapters on mathematics, science, engineering, history, language arts, theatre, visual arts, and music along with three chapters describing our views of literacy, reading, writing, text, and the value of collaboration.
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