I am Writing Identities

Portfolio for Joslyn Hunscher-Young

2016 Summer Institute
Eastern Michigan Writing Project

Portfolio Contents
Title

Type of Piece

Pages

I am Not a Writer

Personal

1-2

Better Now

Professional

3-4

Students Sourcing Skills

Research Proposal

5-9

Students Sourcing Skills

Annotated Bibliography

10-12

We Cant Afford to Wait

Book Reflection & Review

13-15

I am a Writer

Institute Reflection

16-18

Joslyn Hunscher-Young is a list-maker, a productive procrastinator, a teacher, a first-time Summer Institute

participant, a lover of colors, and perhaps, maybe, now a writer.

I am Not a Writer - Personal Piece

I am not a writer.
But Ive just been told that I should loudly and proudly proclaim, I am a writer, and Im here to write!
But I am not a writer.
Writers are the well-educated elite who have the time and money to work part-time in a coffee shop that
only serves fair trade coffee and locally-grown, organic baked goods.
I am a well-educated teacher who budgets thoughtfully and debates how much of my own money is
appropriate to spend on stickers, binders, and markers for my classroom.
Writers are creative thinkers who live in a world of imagined possibilities.
I am realistically creative, working to find new solutions to the practical problems that we face in daily life.
Writers see a puddle and describe it as the ants ocean, each ripple a tidal wave, marching forward to sweep
away all that theyve tried to rebuild after the murderous downpour that brought havoc and mass
destruction to their organized civilization.
I see a puddle and want to jump in it.
Writers sit and become inspired.
I sit and fall asleep.
Writers wear berets and/or skinny jeans that outwardly demonstrate their cool demeanor and slight
revolution against mainstream society.
I wear shorts and t-shirt from Target that are the same style as the ones a woman is wearing across the
street.
Writers see similes, metaphors, and all that other fancy language as useful because it adds to their message,
their story, their purpose.
I see fancy language as a nice but unnecessary distraction from the real point that youre trying to convey.
Writers find value and purpose in telling their stories and experiences.
I find value and purpose in helping others tell and question their stories and experiences.
Writers listen to jazz or alternative music. They scoff at the latest Justin Timberlake song and say it is
predictable, has no meaning, and it lacks the qualities of great music. Justin doesnt embody the graceful
adaptability and sly wit of Dizzy Gillespie; he doesnt write with the powerful questioning and tragic
honesty of Pete Seeger; his music is like a tiny germ, slowly creeping from one host to another, spreading
its infection, and leaving a trail of death behind it - the death of American music.
I listen to Motown, funk, and pop. I LOVE the latest Justin Timberlake song and say it is fun, upbeat, and
danceable. Justins cheerful voice embodies the hope I need reminding of when times are tough and goes on
full blast every time I hear it in my car - even if it may not include the slightest hint of sly wit or tragic
honesty as it begins spreading its infection.

Page 1

Writers write profoundly everyday and feel a day is lost if they havent had time to write.
I write emails everyday and feel a day is lost if I havent played with my dog.
Writers are this elusive, impractical vision in my head. They are people without real jobs that are somehow
able to survive and provide for themselves and their families. They are eloquent on the first try, constantly
brimming with ideas, and sometimes wear black.
I am not a writer because I am not that.
I am not able to survive without a job for long. I am not eloquent. Or maybe Im rarely eloquent, and if I
am, its only after many tries in my mind beforehand, which means the moment is long past, so the
eloquence stays just for me in my own head. I am not bursting to write, and if I wear black, it is only with
very colorful accents.
And yet, I know that writers also revise and rethink things, so they cant be perfect on the first try. I know
that writers are real people who have jobs. I know that writers are all around me all the time, and I know
that they dont necessarily wear black.
And, I remember when I was in fourth grade, I proudly proclaimed that I wanted to be an author when I
grew up. I remember when I was in high school and that dream transitioned to wanting a career as a
journalist. I remember in college when I started a summer program for high school students to tell their
stories through media, where I had to model and coach my kids through a writing process. I remember in
the spring of my senior year when I still had five chapters of my thesis to write and wrote one a day for my
entire spring break. I remember that I grew up scribbling furiously through stacks of paper leaving imprints
of my stages of handwriting on hardcover cookbooks next to me on the couch. I remember that am the
daughter of an English major and a speech writer. I remember how many hours I painstakingly put into
crafting a script, revising, recording, editing, and mixing in different elements to create a video that I love. I
remember that I worked in the Writing Center in college to help others with their writing.
I know all of these things, but still-I am not a writer.
Am I a storyteller?
Yes.
Am I a literacy teacher?
Yes.
Am I a person who more easily expresses ideas in writing than speaking?
Yes.
But I am not a writer.
Theres something about that identity, that label, that vision I hold of a writer that I just cannot take on. I
cannot loudly and proudly proclaim that, I am a writer, and Im here to write.
Yet.

Page 2

Better Now - Demanding Literacy & Numeracy in Teacher Education - Professional Piece
The World Before 1492, The World Since 1492, United States to 1865, United States 1865-Present,
Introduction to Political Theory, Introduction to American Politics, Introduction to Comparative Politics,
American Political Processes, Principles of Economics I, Principles of Economics II, Introduction to
International Studies, Introduction to Environmental Science & Geography, Doing History, Teaching Social
Studies in the Secondary School. This is list of required courses for those completing a comprehensive
major in social studies from the School of Education at the University of Michigan. That list is composed of
14 courses focused on the vast amount of content that social studies teachers could, one day, maybe, end up
teaching to middle or high school students.
In addition, the School of Education outlines the following courses for undergraduates seeking secondary
teacher certification: Practicum in Teaching Methods I, Educational Foundations in a Multicultural Society,
Reading and Writing in Content Areas, Practicum in Teaching Methods II, Methods for Social Studies,
Educational Psychology and Human Development, Methods for History, Directed Teaching in the
Secondary School, Seminar: Problems and Principles in the Secondary School, Teaching with Digital
Technologies, and Students with Exceptionalities. That is another 11 courses in which to learn about all the
other parts that go into the actual teaching new teachers will eventually provide to students in grades 6-12.
Only one of these 25 courses explicitly mentions the teaching of literacy skills in the discipline. Most major
colleges and universities seem to follow this trend - just one semester focused on how to teach reading,
writing, and other literacy skills to students in your content area. Sometimes, they do not even require that
much.
If all teachers are literacy teachers as been emphasized and reiterated by leaders, legislators, and others,
then why is it that this important focus, this goal for our teachers is only given one semester of preparation?
When we have 66% of Michigan 8th graders testing below proficient in reading in 2015, and when that
might be considered acceptable because it is roughly the same as the national average, why are our teacher
education programs not focusing on this obvious need?
And the same can be said for our shocking lack numeracy skills and nonchalant acceptance of that failure.
For some reason, it has become acceptable to freely and proudly admit, I dont get math. Or to say, Oh,
that math is too hard. I give up. When students (and their parents) struggle with a basic numeracy concept,
it is accepted because math is hard, but if a student were to give up on learning to read or write, it would
be an outrage. In 2015, 71% of Michigan 8th graders tested below proficient in math, which is below the
national average. And yet, there is no proclamation that all teachers are numeracy teachers even when this
problem may be even bigger and more challenging than our need for literacy teaching development.
Furthermore, teacher education programs do not include a course called, Teaching Numeracy in the
Content Areas - not even one semester of it. WHY?
As a young social studies teacher constantly striving to be better, I find myself wondering why. Why didnt I
get more training and focus in teaching literacy throughout my social studies courses? Why didnt I even
consider teaching numeracy skills until talking with my math teacher/statistician husband? Why arent these
essential skills taught explicitly, emphasized consistently, and discussed frequently?

Page 3

I wonder why, and yet, as a young social studies teacher, I also vividly remember the overwhelming feeling
of the existing expectations of undergraduate work and teacher certification programs. The long list of
required courses is daunting and leaves minimal options for other electives or exploratory classes that make
college engaging and fun. Adding something to this existing list of demands for students training to be
secondary students does not seem feasible or fair. Furthermore, we cannot take away the current
requirements because that leaves new teachers at a disadvantage because they may not be marketable for the
job market. For example, if you cut out the geography course, but a new teacher wants to apply to a
geography position, he may miss out because he is not as prepared as others applicants.
Because we cannot realistically add to or take away from the existing requirements, I argue that we should
be shifting our focus throughout teacher preparation programs and professional development opportunities.
The importance of teaching literacy and numeracy in all courses must be emphasized early and often for
teachers. Even more critically, there must be training in how to use those skills within and across disciplines
and how to effectively teach those same skills to students. Some universities and teacher preparation
programs are already doing this, but we need more. We need more opportunities to learn about literacy
and
numeracy across the disciplines, more examples of how these skills are already intertwined into the content
we teach, and more time to think through what skills were teaching and how were teaching them to our
students. We need to be better for our students now, and we need to step up and demand this training,
focus, and time now.
Sources
Bachelor's secondary teacher certification requirements.
School of Education at the University of Michigan.
Accessed from
http://www.soe.umich.edu/academics/bachelors_degree_programs/uste/uste_requirements/
Requirements for the bachelor of arts degree in history education.
Office of the Registrar, Michigan State
University.
Accessed from
https://reg.msu.edu/AcademicPrograms/Text.asp?Section=129#s10181

Secondary education social studies/history comprehensive major.

Eastern Michigan University.
Accessed from
http://catalog.emich.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=20&poid=10400&returnto=4194
Michigans 2015 NAEP scores.
Students First MI.
Accessed from
https://www.studentsfirst.org/state/michigan/pages/michigan%E2%80%99s-2015-naep-scores

Page 4

Students Sourcing Skills - Research Project Proposal

Research Purpose
As I sit amidst a whirlwind of reports about possible plagiarism in public speeches in a world where
Pokmon are being seen and collected on street corners, I am reminded of why I must teach, and
specifically why I must figure out how to more effectively teach the critical thinking skills involved in
sourcing. It essential that what we enable young people to question, interrogate, and critically examine all
that they find in their real and virtual worlds so that they can determine what to investigate, trust, and act
upon in their own lives. This need is real and it is one that deserves attention and focus now, which is why I
hope to examine my own teaching of the skill of sourcing to ninth grade students.
In addition to this overarching need for sourcing, as many excellent teacher research projects before mine,
this purpose connects to my own reflection on my practice. At the end of last year, my department met and
decided that we need to focus on this particular skill with our students. We have always taught it, but
recognized that students still need more support, instruction, and practice with writing source evaluations - a
task they must ultimately also perform on their International Baccalaureate (IB) exams since we are an IB
school. Furthermore, for many of students, the source evaluation often turns into a stressful word vomit
where they write everything they possibly can about a source, its origins, purposes, values, and limitations
without ever clearly addressing why it is useful for them as a researcher. In thinking about my own teaching
of this skill last year, I realized that my students struggled to make connections between the origins and/or
purposes of a source and its possible values or limitations. They also had trouble articulating why a source
would be useful to them and why a source should be used even with its biases. I know that I can do a better
job of creating a learning environment that avoids these pitfalls and encourages students skill development,
which is why I am doing this investigation.
Definitions
Before moving on, the following terms must be defined as they will be important for understanding this
research project:
Historical Thinking: a set of skills used by historians for reading, writing, and thinking to
participate in the discipline that includes sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration
(Monte-Sano, De La Paz, Felton, 2014)
Historical thinking includes sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, using background knowledge, reading the
silences, and corroborating (Wineburg, 2010). It also examines multiple perspectives, analyzes primary sources,
and looks at the claim-evidence connection (Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2016).
Sourcing: critically examining a source for its origins, purposes, values, and limitations in order
to better understand the source and its messages
Sourcing has been described as the ability to think about a document's author and its creation (Wineburg,
2010), interrogate historical texts by recognizing authors and their biases (Monte-Sano, et al., 2014), and
consider its origins to help us make sense of it Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2016).
Assumptions
As a teacher, I am always trying to find ways to make things better for my students, so I am assuming that
my students will learn more and benefit from the teaching strategies that I am proposing to try in this
research project. I assume that my students will learn more from the modeling I use, the opportunities to

Page 5

use peer response while thinking and writing historically, and targeted mini-lessons to focus on these
historical thinking and writing strategies through modeling and analyzing model texts.
I may also have some students who are reluctant to share their work with other students or with particular
groups of students. This may be a trust issue from past experiences, but it for some it may also be a
challenge to some religious expectations about genders interacting and sharing. Similarly, there may be some
reluctance to shift viewpoints or interpretations of particular texts, like religious texts, because of other
identities or beliefs that limit the ability to view the text as a historical artifact rather than a type of religious
gospel.
Research Question
What happens to ninth grade students historical thinking skill of sourcing as demonstrated in their writing
when the teacher models historical thinking and peer groups critically respond to each other's ideas and
writing while using mentor texts?
Sub-Questions
Will students annotate sources more often? With more detail? With more notes about the
specific historical aspects (origins, purposes, values, limitations) we look for in source
evaluations?
What will their annotations look like at the beginning, middle, and end of the year?
Will students mimic the thinking and/or annotating styles I model?
Will students mimic the argument and/or writing styles of the model texts?
Will students feel comfortable in their peer response groups? Will they be comfortable
socially? Will they be comfortable sharing their writing and thinking?
Will students find the modeling and/or peer response groups helpful in developing their
thinking and writing?
Data Collection & Analysis Plan
Included below is an outline of the types of data I hope to collect for this project as well as my plans for
analyzing them throughout the year.
Name

Description of Data

Analysis Plan

Artifacts of Student
Work

Students will write a short answer

and source evaluation for data
collection at least three times during
the year (August, November, and
February). The short answer will be
answering the question, How do
you decide if you can use a source?
For the source evaluation, they will
receive a short reading from a
textbook accompanied by a primary
source. They will annotate both

I will collect each set of source

evaluations. The written source
evaluations will be graded based on the
International Baccalaureate Middle Years
Programs rubric for Critical Thinking
in Individuals & Societies - Year 5 and/or
with a specific source evaluation rubric
(still in development). The annotations
will also be read to identify common
trends or themes. Scores will be recorded
in a spreadsheet, and the themes/trends

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sources with a specific research

question in mind and write a source
evaluation for the primary source.
Documentation of
Lessons

of the annotations will also be recorded in

a research memo I write after each
collection.

I will write and save lesson plans for

I will collect the lesson plans with
the lessons that include teacher
reflections into a folder and read through
modeling of source evaluation
them to look for successes, failures, and
thinking and writing strategies
trends in the teaching strategies.
and/or student peer response groups
for source evaluations. After each
(If videotaped, I will watch the recording
lesson, I will also take reflective field and/or look at the transcription to further
notes about how the lesson went and note successes, failures, and trends in the
any changes for the future.
teaching strategies.)
(If possible, I may have at least one
lesson videotaped through a
connection with the U of M Rounds
Project.)

Reflective Field
Notes & Research
Memos

I will write reflective field notes as I

I will collect the notes and memos into a
go through the year for my ninth
folder and read through them to look for
grade classes. These will likely be
trends, themes, and differences across
quick notes in a journal and/or
classes, within classes, and across students
emails to myself after each class. The
as well as within my own teaching.
field notes will include my teaching
strategies and also focus specifically
on observations of peer response
groups. Then, at the end of each
week, I will write a research memo to
report, review, and reflect on the
notes from that week.

Student Interviews

I will interview at least 1 student in

each class section at the beginning,
middle, and end of the year (after
grading their short answers and
source evaluations) to discuss their
thinking process while doing the
assessment and get their feedback on
the modeling lessons, model texts,
and peer response groups.
Occasional student interviews during
class work time or group response
time may also be included.

Page 7

Interviews will be recorded and relevant

portions will be transcribed and coded for
themes and trends about the teaching
strategies, peer response groups, model
texts, and students historical thinking and
writing strategies.

Proposed Timeline
The timeline below describes how I aim to complete this research by the end of March 2017.
Time Frame
August 2016

Tasks
Identify at least 3 model texts to use
Create 3 different student assessments (short answer prompt, readings, and
source evaluation prompt with research question)
Administer first student assessment to 9th grade class sections
Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 1)
Week 1 Field Notes & Memo
Week 2 Field Notes & Memo
Write Source Evaluation I Lesson Plan
Make peer response groups

September 2016

Interview selected students from each class section

Week 3 Field Notes & Memo
Week 4 Field Notes & Memo
Week 5 Field Notes & Memo
Week 6 Field Notes & Memo
Write Source Evaluation II Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups

October 2016

Week 7 Field Notes & Memo

Week 8 Field Notes & Memo
Week 9 Field Notes & Memo
Week 10 Field Notes & Memo

November 2016

Administer second student assessment to 9th grade class sections

Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 2)
Write Source Evaluation III Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups
Week 11 Field Notes & Memo
Week 12 Field Notes & Memo
Week 13 Field Notes & Memo
Week 14 Field Notes & Memo

December 2016

Interview selected students from each class section

Week 15 Field Notes & Memo
Week 16 Field Notes & Memo

January 2016

Week 17 Field Notes & Memo

Week 18 Field Notes & Memo
Week 19 Field Notes & Memo

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Week 20 Field Notes & Memo

Write Source Evaluation IV Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups
February 2016

March 2016

Administer third student assessment to 9th grade class sections

Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 3)
Interview selected students from each class section
Compile findings
Reflect on process
Write up & share findings

Support & Resources

I hope to include the other ninth grade teacher(s) in doing these lessons and student assessments with me so
that we can share ideas, reflections, questions, and resources with each other throughout the process and
compare our findings. I will also share this process and work with the social studies department and give
updates at our bi-weekly departmental meetings to help hold myself accountable for the work and to get
their insight and feedback. I hope to also have at least 2-3 other teachers come to observe at least one of the
source evaluation lessons as part of our rounds program at my school, and to then get their feedback and
input. Ill also check in with and use the questions and support of the Eastern Michigan Writing Project
members throughout the year.
I will also need to get the support and buy-in of my students, families, and administrators, so I will be
sharing letters of permission with the families at the start of the year and also share this research proposal
with my principal for permission and feedback.
References
References listed here were directly used in this proposal. Other resources that informed the design and plan
of this project are included in the annotated bibliography.
Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S., Felton, M. (2014).
Reading, thinking, and writing about history: Teaching
argument writing to diverse learners in the Common Core classroom, grades 6-12
. New York City, NY:
Teachers College Press & Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project, p. 7.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. (2016). What is historical thinking?
TeachingHistory.org: National History Education Clearinghouse. Accessed from
http://teachinghistory.org/historical-thinking-intro
Wineburg, S. (2010). Historical thinking: Memorizing facts and stuff?
Teaching with Primary Sources
Quarterly, Winter 2010.
Retrieved from
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/historical_thinking/article.html
.

Page 9

Students Sourcing Skills - Annotated Bibliography

Research Question:
What happens to ninth grade students historical thinking skill of sourcing as
demonstrated in their writing when the teacher models historical thinking and peer groups critically
respond to each other's ideas and writing while using mentor texts?
Annotated Bibliography:
This list is a start to what will end up being a longer list of relevant resources for
this teacher research project. Many of these sources have pointed me to other texts and sites to
examine for further guidance as I prepare for my research, and I am keeping a growing list of these
sources at the end of the annotated bibliography.
Brown, C.S. (1994).
Connecting with the past: History workshop in middle and high schools.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
This book essentially provides a case study report on the implementation of a history workshop in a
secondary history classroom. In this design for a class, Brown emphasizes the importance of using and
assessing primary sources and providing History Talk Groups as a sort of peer response group to help
students think through the information and values present in sources. Although the other aspects of the
history workshop are intriguing and worth testing out to help engage and motivate students in history, for
this research purpose, the most useful information is about these History Talk Groups.
Brown (1994) notes that these groups were likely the most challenging aspect of this project for her and her
co-teachers in the classroom due in large part to unclear expectations and a lack of time for the groups to
fully debrief. She hinted at student trust issues within groups, but also offered concrete steps and reminders
of how to structure these groups so could improve in the future. Specifically to help with group trust,
Brown (1994) suggests that students are allowed to pick a partner, and then the pairs are matched up into
groups of four for the discussions throughout the duration of the unit. Furthermore, she says assigning
specific roles to each student and finding ways to hold all students accountable by having them present or
submit work with everyones ideas represented in it can help ensure that everyone contributes.
Dobbs, C.L., Ippolito, J. & Charner-Laird, M. (2016). Layering intermediate and disciplinary
literacy work: Lessons learned from a secondary social studies teacher team.
Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy
, doi:
10.1002/jaal.547

This article summarizes the experiences and key findings of a team of six social studies teachers (technically
five teachers and one librarian who worked closely with them) who engaged in training in teaching
disciplinary literacies and inquiry cycles with each other over the course of two years. Throughout that
whole process the social studies [t]eam members learned that they must consider disciplinary
and
intermediate skills, constantly revising instruction to ensure that all students are fully accessing a given days
material and building skills to more effectively access future material (Dobbs et al., 2016, p. 6). Although
the program of teachers professional learning and the overall goal of the project and work by the teachers
was to ultimately target and improve students disciplinary literacy skills, the teachers found that students
actually still needed help in their intermediate general literacy skills. Then, in the course of adjusting their
instruction to meet students needs, they used a combination of teaching strategies that targeted both
intermediate literacy skills, specifically like how to identify the main idea of a text, as well as disciplinary
literacy skills, like how to determine the meaning of discipline-specific vocabulary words.

Page 10

The findings indicate that teachers must adapt to meet students where they are rather than immediately
jumping into or solely targeting disciplinary literacy skills. Instead, it is best to engage in professional
learning communities and use inquiry cycles to identify where students are with their literacy skills and then
adapt and adjust curriculum and teaching strategies to meet those needs. By targeting both the intermediate
skills and the disciplinary skills, this study finds that students eventually evidenced greater skill with both
the intermediate and disciplinary literacy skills that were taught (Dobbs et al., 2016, p. 6). Furthermore, the
researchers indicate, Teachers with deep understanding of their respective content areas must be partners
in the creation of disciplinary literacy instructional practices, and teachers must be flexible as they approach
literacy in a way that simultaneously builds students social studies skills (Dobbs et al., 2016, p. 7). This will
all be important for me to keep in mind: 1) that I must make sure to still teach other intermediate literacy
skills in combination with disciplinary literacy and historical thinking, and 2) that I should connect with our
Literature Department to identify ways to collaborate and connect and distinguish our reading, writing, and
thinking strategies for students.
Lattimer, H. (2014).
Real-world literacies: Disciplinary teaching in the high school classroom.
Urbana,
IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
This book highlights a wide variety of examples of disciplinary literacy teaching and teaching literacies in the
disciplines. What this means is that it includes information about both how to read, write, speak, and listen
as experts in the discipline would (disciplinary literacy teaching) and how to provide the more intermediate
literacy skills some students may need to develop (teaching literacies in the disciplines). Through specific
examples of a variety of disciplines and classrooms, Lattimer (2014) offers several clear take-aways about
strong disciplinary literacy teaching: 1) it must be authentic and true to the discipline, 2) it must engage
students beyond the classroom, and 3) it should apprentice students into these skills with lots of practice.
This book is particularly useful for its specific examples of how to target instruction in specific mini-lessons,
which I hope to use as guidance for writing my own lessons on source evaluations and historical thinking
modeling.
Lent, R.C. (2016).
This is disciplinary literacy: Reading, writing, thinking, and doing Content area by
content area.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Literacy.
This is Disciplinary Literacy
is a practical guide for teachers of all disciplines to think through and actually put
into practice disciplinary literacy in their classes. After establishing some background and the significance of
disciplinary literacy and the role of the teacher, Lent (2016) sets out to provide teachers with specific insight
and tools for how to teach reading, writing, and inquiry within the disciplines. She also goes on to highlight
strategies for collaborative learning that can be used across all disciplines. Interwoven into this book are
concrete examples from classrooms in math, science, history, foreign language, and literature courses as well
as resources to go to for examples of mentor texts, narrative writing, and more. I plan to use this book to
help me find mentor texts, explain to my students what it means to read, write, and inquire like a historian,
and some techniques for modeling historical thinking with reading aloud and annotation skills. Furthermore,
because this text addresses so many disciplines, I hope it can help me identify opportunities to build
interdisciplinary units or connections with other courses, and potentially be a useful resource for my
colleagues who want to learn more about disciplinary literacy in their own classes.
Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S., Felton, M. (2014).
Reading, thinking, and writing about history:
Teaching argument writing to diverse learners in the Common Core classroom, grades 6-12
. New
York City, NY: Teachers College Press & Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project.

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An incredibly useful resource book for teachers of American history, this book offers a number of specific
lessons with handouts of readings and examples of students work that teachers could pull out and use
almost immediately in their classes. However, for my research purposes, the more interesting and important
ideas come out in the theories behind the lesson designs and the ways in which the lessons go about
targeting specific historical thinking skills. Specifically, the authors describe how to implement a cognitive
apprenticeship approach to teaching literacies in history. This process is broken down into five stages:
1. Prepare students to learn
2. Model how to read and write like a historian
3. Support students practice
4. Provide additional, more challenging forms of practice
5. Promote independence (Monte-Sano et al., 2014, p. 18).
This theory and process helped me to establish my plan for using modeling and peer response groups to
teach sourcing, and the book offers several supports for guiding students through practice after teacher
modeling that I hope to use in my classes. This book may also help to provide some of the actual model
texts I will use when teaching and some of the sources that I will use in creating my student assessments to
conduct throughout the year, and it also provides clear and specific examples for how to model historical
thinking for students. However, my ninth grade classes focus on world history rather than American history,
so I may not be able to use many of the resources in the realities of my daily teaching practice for this
research project.
A Growing List of Other Sources to Examine
Burke, J. (2009).
Content area writing.
New York, NY: Scholastic.
Fang, Z. (2014). Preparing content area teachers for disciplinary literacy instruction: The role of literacy
teacher educators.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57
(6), 444-448. doi:
10.1002/jaal.269
Gillis, V. (2014). Disciplinary literacy:
Adapt
not adopt.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57
(8), 614-623.
doi:
10.1002/jaal.301
Lattimer, H. (2010).
Reading for learning: Using discipline-based texts to build content knowledge.
Urbana, IL: National
Council of Teachers of English.
Piercy, T. & Piercy, W. (2011).
Disciplinary literacy: Redefining deep understanding and leadership for 21st-century
demands.
Englewood, CO: The Leadership and Learning Center.
Reisman, A. (2012). The document-based lesson: Bringing disciplinary inquiry into high school history
classrooms with adolescent struggling readers.
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44
(2), 233-264.
doi:
10.1080/00220272.2011.591436
Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content-area
literacy.
Harvard Educational Review, 78
(1), 40-59. doi:
10.17763/haer.78.1.v62444321p602101
Wineburg, S. (2001).
Historical thinking and other unnatural acts.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

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We Cant Afford to Wait - A Review of and Reflection on

Real-World Literacies
When I was writing my first book and obsessing over the structure of a chapter or the wording of a paragraph, a good friend
and fellow teacher looked me in the eye and told me, It doesnt have to be perfect to be effective. It applies to teaching as well
as to writing. So often we get hung up on all the reasons why we cant do something But teaching doesnt have to be perfect to
be effective. If we wait to have more time, resources, or abilities, we may never get started. We cant afford to wait
(Lattimer, 2014, p. 139-140).
Heather Lattimer (2014) ends her book,
Real-World Literacies: Disciplinary Teaching in the High School Classroom
with the anecdote above, which reiterated one of the most important lessons for educators: that we must act
now and do so conscientiously and with the knowledge that we are also continuing works in progress. With
that in mind, I hope to use ideas and specific strategies found in Lattimers book in my own practice going
forward. However, I will also continue to question a piece of her structural argument and search for other
ways to justify the mission she has set forth in this book because it is an important one, but one that
deserves more authentic measures to warrant its exploration.
Although Lattimer (2014) splits her book into separate chapters about reading, writing, listening and
speaking, and assessment and critique, many of the essential ideas and implications for practice were similar
across all of those areas. She emphasizes the following throughout all areas of effective disciplinary literacy
teaching:
Instruction should be discipline specific, meaning that it reflects the disciplines norms and
expectations for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. These norms must be
modeled by the teacher for students, and students must further have learning opportunities
that involve them in authentic, disciplinary questions. The idea that classrooms should be
giving students the questions that scientists, mathematicians, historians, and others grapple
with (or have grappled with in the past) so that the students can practice the skills needed to
participate in that discipline. For example, Lattimer (2014) notes:
those who work in the discipline of history are expected to revisit historical
documents and interpretations with new questions to generate new learnings
that have relevance to our understanding of both past and present. If we
teach history from a disciplinary perspective, students are not expected to
memorize information so much as they are expected to learn to question,
read critically, suspend judgment, consider and effectively communicate new
interpretations, and cultivate puzzlement (Wineburg, 2001)a set of
expectations that mirrors professional, academic, and civic demands of
literacy in the twenty-first century. (p. 3-4)
Learning opportunities should utilize authentic tasks and audiences. This means that
students should be producing or creating work with the intention of reaching the real world.
Their work should be shareable with others, just as we would expect it to be in the authentic
work of the discipline. Lattimer (2014) provides examples of classroom activities where
students research various health problems and diseases in their community to create public
service announcements that will be shown at local health care offices, where students
interview people at a senior living community and then write and publish a collection of
their historical accounts while also including and sometimes questioning the accounts of the
historical events in their textbooks, and where students present proposals of where to start a

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new factory (based on research) to a panel of local experts. The authentic task helps students
find a purpose for continuing to research and find information, while the authentic audience
helps motivate them to deeply understand the information so that they can clearly and
effectively communicate it to others.
Disciplinary literacy learning must involve opportunities to reflect and think metacognitively
about the learning process. This reflection should be for both teachers and students (and
probably for other stakeholders like parents as well). It allows students to become better
advocates for themselves, and it supports teachers in targeting instruction to fit students
needs. Feedback from each other is helpful, but feedback from ourselves also help us answer
questions that Lattimer (2014) explains as originally coming from McManus (2008), [We]
must be able to answer three questions: (1) Where am I going? (2) Where am I now? (3)
How do I close the gap? (p. 112).
Teachers should use a sort of apprenticeship model of teaching. This mode of teaching
provides clear expectations for students and examples of quality work. It offers explicit
instruction, especially at the start of learning a new task, and models the thinking and other
skills necessary to complete the task at hand. However, that instruction and direction fades
away a bit as the learner becomes more skilled and proficient in the trade or discipline. This
transition is a good sign because it indicates that the student is becoming skilled enough to
be an independent learner.
Learning environments need to include tons of opportunities for practice. These
opportunities must be regular (in frequency), diverse (in nature), and during dedicated class
time. The students should be guided by the teacher, and the practice should be followed with
some sort of feedback, but the students need lots of practice. They need time to try things
out, make mistakes, and learn by doing. Whether in reading, writing, speaking, listening, or
giving and receiving feedback, students needed this guided practice to help them learn, and
the opportunities should be such that they allow students to practice with a variety of
purposes and audiences in mind.
These ideas and practices should be implemented throughout the disciplines to ensure that students are
receiving the support and opportunities they need to become effective learners, thinkers, and active citizens.
However, the main point of critique of the book is one that my colleague, Gayle Brooks, brought up on our
book blog and in our group discussions. On the
blog

, she wrote, this text talks about how teachers feel

pressured because of standardized tests and that shouldn't be the focus, yet the authors use standardized test
scores to show how students are lacking in their writing skills (Brooks, 2016). It does seem hypocritical to
say that the standardized tests do not accurately measure literacy skills as they would be used in real life, but
then use those same measures to explain why further literacy instruction is needed in schools. I do think that
we need improved literacy instruction, but there should be a better way to demonstrate this need than with
standardized test scores. I think the feedback from college professors and employers that says that our
students are not prepared for them may be more genuine feedback, and Lattimer (2014) does include some
of that in her book. Yet, we still need more - more teacher research and other real-life examples to prove
that we need improved literacy instruction in our classes and what that instruction might look like or how to
get there. I hope that my own continued research can help contribute to the growing list of examples and
ideas for how to incorporate and teach literacies in a social studies classroom.

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With all of that in mind, I will work to make my teaching practice more like this as I continue as an
educator. I already have ideas for how to make my unit assessments more authentic and provide real
audiences for my students. Im getting better at providing in-time class for practice, but need to implement
more targeted and specific mini-lessons based on students needs. I incorporate some reflection, but should
do more modeling of what it looks like and have students do it more consistently to help facilitate their
independence and metacognition as a learner. Most importantly, I need to do some of these things now
because there isnt time to wait and I dont have to be perfect to be effective.

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I am a Writer - Institute Reflection

I started our writing marathon on the first day of the Institute by writing I am Not a Writer and ended
that piece with the word yet, which displayed my still sort of secret hopes that this declaration of NOT
being something would change over two weeks, and I am both proud and happy to say that it has shifted.
Although I still hesitate to fully identify as a writer, the last two weeks have helped me grow into that
identity immensely. I think there is still a societal expectation or stereotype of a writer that is inaccurate
but still impacts my willingness to claim that identity. Nonetheless, there are a number of things about the
Institute that helped push me into beginning to claim this identity of Joslyn Hunscher-Young, writer.
I think the two things that helped and challenged me to become a writer included:
The clear, obvious, and dedicated time to writing every day. I felt a bit anxious about it at
first, assuming that I wouldnt have enough ideas to fill the time for each day, but by the end,
I found myself longing for sacred writing time when we had to edit anthology pieces or work
on uploading things to our portfolios. Even though I did (one day) write about how I felt
like I had run out of ideas and everyone else was still writing, it was an incredibly useful time
for me to just have time to write and process ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
The support and encouragement of other writers/readers. The response group meetings
were helpful in developing my identity because they gave me the support and challenges I
needed as a writer. I really liked that I could ask for them to bless, address, or press my
writing, especially because in the Writing Project, Im pretty sure bless is always part of the
equation, so it helped give me some confidence in my writing and that was I was saying was
clear and worthwhile for others as well. I also appreciated the opportunities to share my
writing when comfortable with the whole group at the end of the day and to get feedback on
my anthology piece from others. This helped me further validate my identity as a writer and
improve and think through my writing pieces.
In addition to becoming a writer through this Institute, I found some other added benefits to participating
in the Institute, including:
Writing to process death. At the beginning of June, one of my eighth grade students died at
school, and although I had processed his death a fair amount with my students, colleagues,
and the families in our school communities, I didnt realize what I was still dealing with
underneath. The first two days of the Institute, I was able to write about those things
because they just kind of spilled out. I think one of our guest presenters said that sometimes
it can be hard to write because the grief just spills out before you get to whatever it is you
intended to say, and that idea resonated with my own experience. Coming in, I thought I had
dealt with this to the best of my ability. In the first day (while at the cemetery on our last
stop on the writing marathon), I was able to write about and process my own feelings about
Xaviers death. The next day, during sacred writing, I went to look at the sort of
amphitheater outside the Student Center overlooking the pond. Xaviers memorial service
was held in the Student Center, and we did a balloon release in that amphitheater afterwards.
That day, I wrote a piece remembering that time, remembering Xavier, and allowing myself
to let him go. It was incredibly helpful for my own processing, and I wish some of my
colleagues and students would have similar opportunities to write and process (if that would
help them grieve and process his death).

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Reconnecting to being a researcher. I always knew I should be researching and reflecting

more conscientiously on my own practice, but its hard to find the time. Having the time to
reflect and also get critical feedback from other teacher researchers about my research
question and plan was incredibly helpful. Plus, having the community of the EMWP makes
me feel more accountable for actually doing this and following through with my plan. In the
past, even when Ive had the best of intentions, the research ends up falling through the
cracks because other things take precedence, and although Im still worried that similar
things may happen this year, I think having the support and extra push from the EMWP will
help me to make sure my research gets done.
However, as great as these parts were for me, there were some parts of the Institute that just did not
resonate with me as strongly or could use more development in the future:
Too much focus on the book. Although I appreciated the many opportunities to interact
with my selected book throughout the Institute, it felt like a bit much. We blogged six times
about it, we presented on it, and then we had to write a reflection on it. I think the blogs and
the presentation were helpful because they forced me to read carefully and also to synthesize
the information clearly and concisely. However, when it came time to write the reflection, I
felt like I was just reiterating what I had already said in the blogs and the presentation. For
me, the task didnt seem different enough in terms of audience or content.
Perhaps more consolidation of the teacher leader presentations. It was nice to hear from
different people about what they do as a teacher leader and how they have incorporated that
identity into their work and lives. However, not all of them were particularly engaging to me.
I wonder if there is a way to have them do less formal presentations and all be here on the
same day. So, instead of sitting, listening, and then asking questions for 30-45 minutes most
days, we could get a bit of background on each person beforehand and then pick 3 of 5
presenters to rotate through in small groups. Something like that would make it more
meaningful to me because I would have to actually think beforehand about what I might
want to do and who I should talk to for advice and guidance about how to get there.
Maybe more community building time. Part of why I wanted to join the Writing Project was
because of the community it would give me beyond my own school. Although I do feel a
sense of community now that were nearing the end, I dont know that I really felt that
connecting in the first week of the Institute. Some of this is likely my own doing since I tend
to be more quiet and reserved when I first meet people, but I think finding the time to do a
bit more than just brief introductions could be beneficial. Its hard because many people
already know each other, but I think still some kind of icebreaker or something else could be
helpful in the first week.
More strict deadlines along the way and/or more time. Im sure others will be writing about
how this Institute was too short, and now Im starting to agree with them. I dont know that
I could mentally handle signing up for more than two weeks of dedicated time inside during
my already short (only 7-8 week) summer because I need some break and some time to do
all the other things I want during the summer. However, I definitely felt the crunch of
getting everything done for the portfolio on time. Some of this might be helped by just
having more time, more days to write and revise. However, if it has to stay at two weeks, I
think it might be helpful to have more spread out deadlines for pieces or more reminders
about what to include. I dont think you need to require things or overstress people with

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constant reminders about deadlines, but giving guiding suggestions of how many things to
have done at the end of the first week, etc. might be beneficial for me and others in reducing
this crunch time stress.
Even with these critiques, I am incredibly happy that I participated in the Summer Institute, and I cant wait
to start sharing my ideas with my colleagues back at school. This was a helpful rejuvenation for me as a
teacher and researcher, it was a challenge for me to become a writer, and now Im working on developing
that identity of being a leader in disciplinary literacy. However, I know I still I have a lot to learn. Im still
not quite there. Yet.

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