Literacy in Agriculture

By: Emily Rudder

EDUC 340-Wellington
Case Study





































Part I:

All teachers are teachers of reading because no matter if you are reading instructions on
how to perform a science experiment or the FFA handbook, reading is essential in every
classroom, no matter what content area. As an agricultural education major, I was skeptical about
the practicality of using literacy in my classroom because very few textbooks fuel our content.
Being in Wellington helped me to realize that textbooks are not the only way to engage in
literature and literacy. During my time here, I had the opportunity to be in three different
classrooms this semester, and all three encompassed reading and literacy without a textbook.
The first classroom I was in was Ms. Catons classroom where she taught AVID, Outdoor
Living, and (I think) a 7
th
grade science class. The most unique idea that caught me off guard as a
literacy tool was the RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic) strategy in the Outdoor Living
Class. During the class period before, my CSU classmates and I came up with different scenarios
for the students to engage in. An example of a RAFT was a miner writing a poem to the gold
about how badly he would like to find the gold. When we handed out the RAFT topics, the
students were a little skeptical, but without hesitation, they dove right into their characters and
wrote some great paragraphs, letters, and poems. My favorite one was by Braiden Brown. He
wrote, Dear Minors, Im about to come rain on your parade. Im gonna give you the worst time


of your life. Once you think I am gone, booooooom Im back. You will lose hope because Ill
leave you hopeless. You might want that gold, but Im going to make it hard for you. You are
gonna wish you never came. Sincerely, the Weather. Without being able to engage and read the
background information that Ms. Caton had given them previously, they would have never been
able to put themselves in the shoes of some of these characters and experiences, and probably
would not have connected to the upcoming assignments as much. With this positive and fun,
hands-on activity, the students become engaged in the reading and are interested in learning
about that period of time. It was a true eye-opener, and I desire to use the RAFT in my classroom
(Caton, 2014).
The second classroom I was in was Ms. Jordans science classroom. Every day I was in
her classroom, I was drawn in by her topics because they related to agriculture. I could connect
with everything she said, and I was especially surprised by her tactics. As the students were
beginning a research project about biotechnology, she had the students writing paragraphs that
would be formatted into a presentation that they would be giving to the class later that semester.
Now, writing paragraphs was probably not the students favorite activity, but how Ms. Jordan
presented these paragraphs was the key to student success. These paragraphs were going to be
used in a unique presentation that the students were going to give, and this inspired the students
to focus and give attention to detail to write well-rounded paragraphs, so that their presentations
would be outstanding and original. During that class period, students were focused and multiple
questions were asked of Ms. Jordan and the other CSU students helping in the room. One of the
students, Olivia was still having some trouble researching to complete her paragraphs on
genetically modified bacteria that eat crude oil from oil spills. She had no idea that she was using
literacy skills, but she would ask me about using a certain cite for credibility or if certain


information could be incorporated into her paragraph (Sopris West Educational Services, 2008).
Olivia took a difficult topic and made it something that any person could understand. She could
write a paragraph about it, but more importantly, she could talk to someone and explain to them
about the technology, science, and controversy as a middle school student with a unique and
original presentation that she designed. By giving students the choice to choose what kind of
presentation they were going to do, this gave them the freedom to be creative and have their own
style, but it also was providing them with exceptional paragraph writing, public speaking and
literacy skills that are vital to science and the world of research.
The third classroom I was in was Ms. Baldridges classroom. Each class period I was in
room 50, we read in 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. This is one of my favorite books, and I
actually facilitated a few workshops based on its content, so by being in that classroom, I was
excited and engaged. Ms. Baldridges students all had special learning plans, but that did not
stop them from using literacy techniques that made them more active readers and writers. In our
last class, we used the 4As strategy to connect with the text. Each student had to place a sticky
note in a place where they agreed with the writer, argued the point or thought of the writer,
thought that the writer made an assumption about his audience, and where they would like to act
on something in their own lives to be better (Gray, 2005). My favorite sticky note was from
Becca, and she said that she would like to act on issues in her own life by talking to someone if
she thought they were in an abusive or negative relationship. By making that decision, she is
growing into a young leader and connecting with what the writer was saying. This activity did
not take more than fifteen minutes, but the information that I received from the students was
related to their own lives, and it was also relevant to what they would experience in high school
and college. I thought that the book combined with being active with the text helped students


increase their literacy skills and awareness of the young leaders they are. I would have never
thought that by using a leadership book or any book that was not related to a content area would
be considered or used when teaching literacy.
Part II:
Each day in Wellington has made me more and more excited to be a teacher and have my
own classroom with unique students. At the beginning of the semester, I thought it would be
difficult for me to come up with content examples, but as the semester went on, it became easier
and easier. I feel that agricultural education already does a fairly good job with incorporating
literacy without even knowing it. I think that I will use all the strategies in my classroom at one
time or another, but the five that will be used most often are RAFT, give one; get one, Cornell
notes, Somatic mapping and graphic organizers, and the 4A Model.
I plan to use the RAFT strategy in my classroom in my Introduction to Agriculture, Food,
and Natural Resources class in the Introduction to FFA unit. When we start to talk about the FFA
organization, one of the standards is to know about the history and how FFA developed into
what it is today. We would use different historical figures such as E.M. Tiffany who wrote the
FFA Creed and Leslie Applegate who was the first National FFA President. A few examples I
would use are:
Role- Pen
Audience- E.M. Tiffany
Format- Complaint Letter
Topic- Using it to write too many paragraphs and versions of the FFA Creed

Role-First girl to be able to join FFA
Audience- Other girls in her school district
Format- Persuasive Paragraph
Topic- Why they should join FFA too!

Role- FFA Advisor in 1928
Audience- FFA Advisor today


Format- Poem
Topic- How FFA has changed

The second strategy I plan to use is give one; get one. I love the personal interaction that
students get with one another, and I think that the class that does not provide relationship
building and classroom discussion is the shop and mechanics classes. I plan to use a structured
give one; get one with my students in mechanics by having students evaluate their own stick
welds, as well as have someone else evaluate the weld. I would have a chart formatted similarly
to the one below:
Welding Evaluations
Your Evaluation of YOUR Weld A Peers Evaluation of YOUR
Weld
Speed (too fast, too slow)
Angle (degree of angle)
Porosity (yes or no)
Improvements/ Suggestions
Summary: How can I improve my stick welding?
Although this does not correspond to any written text, it helps each student to interact with each
other, as well as grow and learn from one anothers experience and advice. It also helps each
student see the different welds to evaluate what will stay fabricated and is worthy of being in the
industry and what needs to be worked on to get better. The give one; get one allows for the
students to become literate in welding and evaluating welds to become more industry prepared
(Irvin, 2014).
The next strategy I will use in my classroom is the Cornell notes page. We use notebooks
in most programs around the state, but I would like my notebooks to be interactive and have
Cornell notes, especially for first year and more pathway specific classes. One plan I have for the


Cornell notes are in an animal science classroom. When we are beginning the ruminant nutrition
unit, we would start out with why ruminants such as cows and sheep need to eat certain foods. In
the Cornell notes, we would describe the four compartments of the stomach, which are the
Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum and the Abomasum (Montgomery College, 2012). After we
finished our lecture and discussion about the similarities and differences, I would have them
write level two or three questions about each section on the left hand side to help prepare them
for their upcoming quiz or test (Webb, 2005). I would also have them highlight or visit the rubric
and objectives I gave to them as we began the unit, so they know that it will be on the end of the
unit assessment (Willis, 2006). To help them identify what are level two and three level
questions, they would have a handout similar to the one we received in recitation.
The fourth literacy strategy I plan to use is the semantic mapping and graphic organizers.
In the plant and soil science areas, these tools are great to help students remember and identify
what we are working on. One that I particularly am interested in using is one in soil science
about soil horizons. Knowing where each horizon is in the profile and what the purpose is will
help students understand why soil is vital to our environment and natural resources and to
growing food. Below is the semantic map that I would use to help students identify and know
which horizon is which.
Once I have given them this
map (Google sites, 2014), we would
use our notebooks to make a part-whole
map that outlines the components of
each horizon and why each horizon is
important to soil science. This diagram


would be used for assessment, and my rubric and study guide for the test would outline that my
expectations are to label each horizon and describe what makes up each horizon or its
components and if plant life would reach it (Willis, 2006).
The final strategy that will be used in the agriculture classroom will be the 4As strategy
(Gray, 2005). In the agricultural leadership class, I would ask the chapter officer team and other
members of the class to read and evaluate the previous years banquet script. As the read and
evaluated, I would ask them to sticky note two different places where they agreed with the script,
argued the purpose or wording, thought that the speaker or audience may assume something
from the text, and something that they aspire to change for the upcoming banquet. This allows
students to think critically about what we say during the banquet, but it also allows for
improvement in our awards and how we present to the community about our success and
endeavors. It may also be a place where students can voice concern about how we do a ceremony
or logistics of how we dismiss for dinner. After they read the script, we would discuss as a group
things we should keep in place, things that need to be changed to better banquet, and things that
the community may not understand. Their new assignment will to be to re-write and edit the
banquet script to reflect the groups conversation (Vacca & Vacca, 2011).
With the exposure and experience I gained from my time at Wellington, I feel confident
in using these strategies in my classroom. I also feel that these are relevant to what I am teaching,
and that it is not a stretch to have literacy in my classroom. By using strategies such as the
interactive notebook and the Frayer Model, I will be able to show that students in agriculture are
literate and are using skills that they need to be able to use in the future. I am a teacher of reading
and writing, and I am aware of the significance of highlighting that to my students, other
teachers, administration, and community.





References:
Brown, Braiden. (Feb. 25, 2014). Raft Paper. Retrieved from Wellington Recitation for
EDUC340.
Caton, Deb. (Feb-April, 2014). Retrieved from Wellington Recitation Lectures and Handouts.
Google sites (2014). Soil Horizons and Profiles. Retrieved from Google images at
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO8ofjQ11T6BcAxE1XNyoA?p
=soil+horizons&fr=chr-yie8&fr2=piv-web#index=frame.
Gray, Judith. (2005). Four As Text Protocol. Retrieved from Wellington Recitation Handout
and can be found at www.nsrfharmony.org.
Irvin, Judith. (2014). Give One, Get One. Retrieved from Wellington Recitation Handout.
Montgomery College. (2012). The Cornell System for Note-Taking. Retrieved from Wellington
Recitation Handout, but can also be found at
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/enreadtp/Cornell.html.
Sporis West Educational Services. (2008). Traffic Light Colors for Accordion Paragraphs.
Retrieved from Wellington Recitation Handout.
Vacca, Richard T., Vacca, Jo Anne L. (2011). Literacy Matters. Retrieved from Pearson Custom
Education: EDUC 340: Literacy and the Learner for Colorado State University.
Webb, Norman L. (July 2005). Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels. Retrieved from Wellington
Recitation Handout.


Willis, Judy. (2006). Assessment that Builds Dendrites. Retrieved from Research-Based
Strategies to Ignite Student Learning.