The interpretive reading lesson included in this example is found at the end of a chapter addressing the topic of things to do in the city. This is the third chapter of an introductory textbook intended for postsecondary learners, and is thus part of a first-semester French curriculum. In this example, the lesson is considered within the learning objectives, language forms, and cultural content for the chapter as a whole.
Each part of the checklist asks you to analyze the lesson using multiliteracies principles. To facilitate this work, key terms are underlined . Whenever you are unsure of a term’s meaning, hover over it and a definition will appear in a floater box.
The information below provides a context for the interpretive reading lesson based on the textbook chapter in which it occurs.
Practices: Patterns of social interactions and behaviors. What to do, where to do it and how to interact within a particular culture. Reflect a culture’s perspectives and may involve the use of a culture’s products. Example: getting botox, coloring hair
In this section you will analyze the activities from the textbook lesson using the information from Part I and your understanding of the Knowledge Processes Ways that students interact with texts to make meaning; foundational types of thinking that students “do to know”. Include four different types of activities students can carry out—experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, applying—as they develop their foreign language literacies. Can occur in any order. of multiliteracies pedagogy. First read through the textbook lesson, then answer the questions in the table. At the bottom of the table, follow the directions to compare your analysis against that of the Literacies in Language Education project leaders.
ACTIVITY 1: Instructor leads whole-class brainstorming to elicit students’ previous knowledge about Montreal (e.g., location, size, languages spoken, landmarks, etc.).
ACTIVITY 2: Students read the blog and comments and answer multiple choice questions about place names (i.e., Montreal neighborhoods and suburbs) in the text.
ACTIVITY 3: Instructor leads whole-class discussion on positive and negative points of the city in which they live. Instructor provides topic categories to guide the discussion (e.g., safety, cultural activities, diversity, transportation, etc.).
Practices: Patterns of social interactions and behaviors. What to do, where to do it and how to interact within a particular culture. Reflect a culture’s perspectives and may involve the use of a culture’s products.
Example: getting botox, coloring hair
Refer to your analysis to help you answer the questions below. Type your answer in the box and then compare it to that of the Literacies in Language Education project leaders.
The lesson targets the learning objective of talking about things to do in the city and, to a lesser extent, asking or saying where a place is located. Most of the objectives for this chapter are language oriented, and although they are important for developing students’ accuracy and facility with the chapter’s targeted forms, none of these objectives encourage interpretation or critical thinking about the chapter’s cultural content or about the blog post students read. In addition to incorporating more of the chapter’s learning objectives, the revised lesson should include some additional objectives that address these gaps.
The lesson mostly focuses on vocabulary development through brainstorming activities and surface-level comprehension of textual facts related to vocabulary and place names. The lesson would benefit from including other of the chapter’s language forms that allow students to question the text or relate information from the text to their own activities and experiences. None of the lesson’s activities target cultural understanding, so none of the chapter’s cultural content is present in the lesson. The text itself has a number of language forms and cultural features that could be addressed in a revised lesson, including city, transit, entertainment, and shopping vocabulary; organizational features of a blog entry; cultural information about Montreal; and insider/outsider views of the city.
The lesson only targets the Knowledge Process of experiencing, and students only gain basic understanding of some of the facts in the text. They do not interpret information, use language creatively, or understand how language forms are used in the text to express ideas. To encourage all of these types of learning, the activities in the lesson should more deliberately build on one another; there should be more while-reading activities that help students understand how opinions about Montreal are expressed in the text (i.e., conceptualizing Learning how language forms, conventions, organization, and other features of texts work to convey meaning. Unpacking texts, practicing skills and knowledge, and explicit learning about textual features helps learners participate more fully in communication. ) and encourage cultural comparison (i.e., analyzing Learning by connecting the content of texts to social, cultural, and historical contexts. Questioning the meaning, importance, and consequences of textual content. Critically reflecting on textual content and its relationship to one’s own culture, perspectives, and learning. ); and the post-reading activity should require more creative language production that incorporates ideas gleaned from the text (i.e., Does this activity engage students in applying Learning by using new knowledge, skills, and understandings and by producing language in creative ways. ).
The brainstorming (Activity 1) that starts the lesson can remain, but should serve as a source of linguistic support for other activities that are added to the lesson. This lesson could be adapted so that students brainstorm words related to categories of chapter vocabulary (city, shopping, entertainment, transportation) that they think might appear in the text. After gaining initial understanding of the text, students could then identify words from the brainstorming activity that are in the text and add more words from the text to their list. (See Revised Lesson, Activities 1-3)
The multiple choice reading activity (Activity 2) can be a starting point for ensuring that students have general comprehension of text facts and can provide scaffolding more interpretive activities. Subsequent activities could include classifying comments on the blog post based on whether they present positive or negative views of Montreal, and then comparing these to opinions people might have about their own city. (See Revised Lesson, Activities 4-6)
The post-reading activity in which students describe their own city (Activity 3) isn’t clearly tied to the rest of the lesson. It should either be modified to connect more closely with what students do in the activities that precede it or should be eliminated in favor of a different activity. An alternative would be for students to write a blog post about their own city and then solicit comments from residents and non-residents. (See Revised Lesson, Activities 7-8)
See a revised version of the lesson based on this analysis.
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) • 140 University International Center • 331 - 17th Ave SE • Minneapolis, MN 55414
© Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer
Last Modified: March 8, 2022 at 13:38
