Running Head: AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 1

Authentic Literacy Experiences in Social Justice

Emily Squiller

Vanderbilt University
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 2

Introduction

In today’s increasingly diverse society, it is apparent that teacher-centered, curriculum-

driven approaches to instruction are falling short of effectively preparing young students to face

the realities of the world when they leave the classroom. Following a curriculum that

superficially skims over cultural differences only provides a romanticized narrative of the

dominant culture’s societal norms and values. I believe this model of instruction puts students at

a disadvantage for when they leave the mono-cultural bubble of their classroom and are forced to

face a reality full of social inequality and racial prejudice. In my opinion, not only is this type of

instruction culturally insensitive, but it can also promote an environment that discourages

meaningful and individualized learning. To combat this and prepare students for the ever

increasingly diverse communities in which they live, establishing your classroom as a space

where authentic learning opportunities can take place is paramount to not only students’

academic growth but also social and emotional growth. Students enter the classroom with a

plethora of prior knowledge and experiences that, when valued and discussed in the classroom,

can prove to be more enlightening than impersonal reading comprehension passages and

arbitrary assessments. In this paper, I will discuss what an authentic learning experience is—

specifically within the context of literacy instruction and social justice—and why it is an

important component of the elementary classroom. I will analyze the challenges of incorporating

ALEs and provide possible resolutions. I will also provide examples of ALEs that align to state

standards with rationales of what specifically is making the experience a meaningful learning

opportunity. Finally, I will discuss implications for educators who want to incorporate these

types of experiences and dialogues into their own classrooms. For the confines of this paper,

achieving literacy-rich experiences will be ones that integrate some combination of reading,
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 3

writing, speaking, and listening with ELA content standards or other disciplines but not in the

traditional ways we think of mastering standards (i.e. multiple choice unit assessments,

completion of worksheets, or basal reader recall questions and writing prompts). In addition, I

will be using the term “meaningful instruction” to mean that it is relevant to students’ lives and

that students are able to connect it to personal experiences or injustices members of their

communities have faced.

What is an Authentic Literacy Experience (ALE)?

Over recent years, federal and state mandated policies have greatly emphasized the

importance of standardized testing which amalgamated instruction to a uniform practice across

the nation. Policies such as No Child Left Behind and its reauthorization, Every Student

Succeeds Act, in theory provide the same quality instruction that is measureable to all students

and aim to be able to prepare young people to be productive members of society (US Department

of Education, 2017). While good-intended, in my opinion, these policies narrow academic

outcomes to be ones that are solely measured by a test; thus, with so much pressure to perform

well on these tests, meaningful learning opportunities that students connect with can be a low

priority because that growth is unable to be measured by state testing. This push for quantitative

education leaves little room for quality education to take place. Gert Biesta (2010) surmises that

there are three functions of quality education—qualification, the degree to which content

knowledge is communicated; socialization, the extent to which students are exposed to societal

norms and values; and subjectification, how students’ individual needs and abilities are

addressed in relation to learning. When schools value only what is measurable we are only

engaging in the qualification piece of a quality education; that alone does not assist students in
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 4

being able to apply classroom knowledge to real world situations. A way to provide students

with all three elements Biesta’s (2010) definition of a quality education is to incorporate

authentic learning experiences into the classroom—and what will further help students be able to

both perform better on high stakes tests and real world situations, is incorporating authentic

literacy experiences.

What is an authentic literacy experience (ALE)? Third grade teacher Dr. Mary E. Shorey

(2012), identifies meaningful instruction for students as being “hands-on, minds-on”. It is great

for activities to be hands on, indicating students are engaged; however, it is even more desirable

for students’ minds to be engaged as well in critical thinking and discussion of big picture ideas

that can span multiple disciplines and even promote the idea of taking social action or helping

those in need. Newmann and Wehlage (1993), identify the criteria of an authentic learning

experience to be (1) students constructing their own knowledge that yields a meaningful

connection, (2) students utilizing guided inquiry to construct meaning, and (3) students’ work is

being aimed toward a higher purpose than simply a response to a curriculum-given prompt, such

as audiences who are found outside the traditional classroom geography (Newmann & Wehlage,

1993). Similarly, Renzulli, Gentry, and Reis (2004), define it as applying related background

knowledge and learned skills to solving real world problems where students have a personal

investment—if students do not see a connection to their lives it will not yield meaningful

achievement. This kind of learning poses a question without providing students with a procedure

to follow, hence students are given the ability to construct their own meaning and purpose of the

task (Renzulli, et al., 2004). Therefore, by using these definitions as a framework, an authentic

literacy experience is one that student-developed procedures and solutions to real world

problems are created through the engagement with the four functions of language fluency—
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 5

reading authentic text, speaking to peers and relevant community individuals, listening to the

ideas and opinions of others, and writing with purpose to inform a specific audience of the ideas

they have constructed. Examples of activities that meet these criteria will be presented in a later

section.

Why are ALEs Important?

When we think about what students need in order to succeed, Maslow’s hierarchy of

needs tells us that students need to first have their physiological and safety needs met. A quick

inquiry about the student’s home life and background experiences can be done to identify if these

needs are met (Maslow, 1954). However, creating a learning environment where the students

feels as though they belong and their contributions are valued is a quintessential factor in the

equation of their academic success (Harris, 2016). Without this sense of belonging, students will

struggle with connecting to texts and academic concepts, despite a personal connection (Maslow,

1954). Once you have procedures in place for what respectful discussion looks like (see

appendix A) in your classroom and have acquired background knowledge on your students—

which is essential to student success (Harris, 2016)—ALEs are able to be driven by student

curiosity, and promote a “hands-on, minds-on” approach to learning that will result in students

having the ability to apply academic concepts to real world scenarios and high stakes

assessments (Allington, 2002). Barnitz (1994) highlights the idea that providing students with

access to authentic tasks and texts from their cultural environment results in meaningful literacy

learning. Being cognoscente of the texts you provide students is especially important because of

the messages it can convey. Curriculum in schools can be bias in sense of using dominant white-

culture values and norms to deliver instruction and drive behavior expectations (Ladson-Billings,

1998). America is increasingly diverse and classrooms are mirroring that shift, however
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curriculum is not meeting needs of diverse learners fast enough. In the 2011-12 school year, the

US Department of Education (2016) reports that in the elementary and secondary workforce, 80

percent of public school teachers were white; since teachers tend to teach within the culture they

grew up with and in the way that they learn best, incorporating ALEs that promote all types of

learning can help to limit the bias of the teacher and curriculum. Ladson-Billings (1998) calls for

teachers to supplement the given curriculum with narratives of marginalized groups in order to

bring to light the different perspectives of an idea or topic. If this is not attempted, students are

able to identify the null curriculum, or what is left out, and conclude that to mean a certain

culture is not important or deemed worthy of discussion. Therefore, since the inclusion of ALEs

provides the opportunity to present students with many different texts from multiple points of

view, it is easy to answer Ladson-Billings’ call. Thus elucidating the importance of ALEs in the

classroom as they help all students feel like valued members of the learning community.

ALEs inherently allow multiple styles of learning to be in use while constructing

knowledge. From the work Howard Gardner (2011) has completed, we know that not all students

learn material in the same way. While many fall into three categories: visual, auditory, or

kinesthetic, educators need to provide learning opportunities that are directed toward musical,

interpersonal and intrapersonal, naturalistic, and logical intelligences as well, and ALEs provide

students with the space to choose to learn in the way they know works best for them. In my

experience in the classroom, this choice acts as a motivator for students to be actively engaged in

reading provided texts and cooperatively working with classmates if ultimately the process of

learning and the way in which they are able to show acquired knowledge is decided by them.

When students are more engaged, they are able to for meaningful connections, and ultimately

reach higher success. In addition, the students will be engaged with a multitude of literary
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 7

resources that will inherently build literacy skills because of the exposure they are getting from

different works such as blogs, newspaper articles, advertisements, interviews, etc. Because you

are providing students with multiple access points to the content, students are able to construct

their own meaningful learning. And to take it one step further, teachers can capitalize on the

different texts to call attention to different genres of writing and what those look like—

something that specifically aligns to Common Core standards and will be assessed on

standardized tests (Common Core, 2017). Students often feel frustrated when they begin to

transition from learning to read, to reading to learn, especially if there was not a strong

foundation in fluency and comprehension (Silvers & Shorey, 2012). ALEs can be extremely

effective for lower-performing students because they are still able to engage students with topics

they are passionate about and they are flexible in the sense that the teacher can scaffold with

appropriate texts and questions to help them find meaning, and ultimately success from the

project (Silvers & Shorey, 2012).

ALE Misconceptions and Challenges

One of the aspects that can seem overwhelming for teachers pondering the inclusion of

ALEs is the amount of control you give up in order to have the students engage in self-discovery

activities. There is misconception that when students are given the agency to direct their learning

it becomes unmeasurable for the teacher to assess (Silvers & Shorey, 2012). However, if you

take the time to develop a rubric that covers overarching objectives such as using correct

grammar conventions and spelling for standard English, being able to read and summarize a

certain number of articles to inform your opinion, choose a style of writing learned in class

(opinion, informative, persuasive, etc.) as an instrument to convey learned information to a

AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 8

community audience, and being able to work efficiently in a group. All of these categories allow

the teacher to assess the students equally without compromising student choice.

A second misconception is that authentic tasks need to be elaborate, complex, and time

consuming. However, not all real-world applications need to be lengthy, drawn out projects that

last multiple class periods or even weeks. If tasks allow students agency to construct their own

meaning and reading and writing activities are purposeful, students are engaged in an ALE

(Newmann & Wehlage, 1993). For example, a real-world example of a piece of text students will

encounter is nutrition labels and deciphering meaning in a 40 minute class period. Students can

relatively quickly look at different examples and discuss how what they see acts as evidence for

making judgment as to whether the food is a healthy choice or not. This enables students to use

their background knowledge of foods they eat in conjunction with the text of the label to

construct knowledge that is meaningful. They are able to then share this information whether it

be in the form of a persuasive letter to the school regarding food served at lunch or orally to their

friends and families outside the classroom, giving advice on healthy eating. Regardless, both

responses to the given text are meaningful and give students a purpose to their learning. Another

authentic task could be as simple as an interactive read-aloud, which lasts anywhere between 10-

25 minutes. With questions prepared for students to engage with the text, students are creating

connections between textual content and situations they have experienced in their own lives.

Discussing choices the character has or why a character is feeling the way they are, allows

students to apply discussions of actions and feelings to guide their own actions and feelings

when they encounter similar situations.

Another deterrent of ALEs for teachers is that they believe just because they have no

formal experience with them, they will be unsuccessful in attempts incorporate it into the
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classroom. John Cronin compares this frame of mind to the misconception that if you do not

have a chef’s license, then you will starve (Cronin, 1993, 78). However, in a similar way that

Cronin expels the myth by saying that one can still cook without formal chef training concluding

that teachers do not need ample experiences to successfully create an ALE. With literacy

especially, it is easy to bring in styles of writing that students will find in the real world. You

might not have background in advertising or marketing, but you are a consumer and can easily

discuss the features of an advertisement and what the text looks like and what it accomplishes;

you can guide students to pick something they would want to advertise in the school (i.e. joining

chess club, buying a ticket to see the school play, coming to support the JV football team). It

constitutes as an ALE because students are given individual agency to apply what they have

learned from advertisements to create their own with which a real audience will be able to

interact.

Incorporating ALE into the classroom

I wanted to take some time to offer a couple ways in which to incorporate ALEs into

different content areas of the elementary classroom (see the Appendix D and E for full lesson

plans). The first would be able to take place in the first week of school; an interactive read aloud

with pre-planned discussion questions may not initially seem like an ALE, however, if done a

certain way, it can fit the definition outlined earlier in the report. To begin, students are actively

engaged in the reading of book with the inclusion of questions and the turn and talk activity.

Students are utilizing guided inquiry (Newmann & Wehlage, 1993) to construct meaning of the

text. Students are then given a call to action prompt where they have choice to come up with

rules to they will adhere. They are using their own knowledge of rules they have had in the past
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 10

at school and at home to create their own (Newmann & Wehlage, 1993). And finally, these rules

will be displayed in the classroom and other school locations giving their writing a real audience

and the platform to be seen every day (Newmann & Wehlage, 1993). Because students have a

personal investment in the solution of a real-world problem they identified from a piece of text it

can be considered an authentic literacy experience. This type of activity also can be a social

justice lesson because students are working together to make their community a place where

everybody is safe and treated with respect.

A second example could be to integrate science and literacy with a lesson on a potential

natural or environmental disaster. In this lesson plan, students are beginning with what they

know about oil spills, they are engaging with two different genres of text to glean information

about what an oil spill is and why they are major issues for wildlife and the environment. In the

middle of the unit, students are given the chance to investigate an oil spill when I create one in

the classroom. The feathers activate prior knowledge of what oil does and has them practice the

concept of predicting. The ocean clean up gives the students the opportunity to work through

how they would physically clean up an oil spill. It shows the students how difficult it really is

(see Appendix B and C for procedures on group work and distribution of materials). This is a

hallmark example of an ALE because students are not only engaging with text, but also spending

a great deal of time actively listening to group members and expressing themselves orally.

Cooperative learning is a distinctive feature of ALE according to Barnitz (1994), and as outlined

in the lesson plan, the majority of the unit takes place in groups. The act of finding a clean-up

method gets the students to personally invest in the issue because now they want to find a

solution (Renzulli, et al., 2004) The entire activity is “hands-on, minds-on” because they are

constantly asking themselves questions and brainstorming possible solutions (Silvers & Shorey,
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 11

2012). Students also spend time working with the intent that they will be sharing their newly

acquired knowledge with other members of the school, therefore hitting the third function

Newmann and Wehlage (1993) outline an ALE to have: work aimed toward a real audience.

Because students are thinking about how their actions can impact the world around them, this

lesson adds a social justice piece in that there is room for discussion about making sure to always

do what you can to help other people, even if it requires you to go out of your way.

I do want to acknowledge a drawback you may run into with ALEs in your classroom.

Every classroom is different and allowing student interests to guide your instruction may result

in different projects from year to year, and communities can also differ greatly depending on the

district you are in. Teachers will need to be constantly working to connect interests to standards

and actively looking for meaningful text to connect it with. The main obstacle here is remaining

open-minded to the realization that it will required extended planning and intentional decisions

made on your part when facilitating these authentic learning experiences for your students. If you

are able to create these experiences in your classroom you will be successfully developing a

quality education, according to Biesta (2010). ALEs provide qualification of information, as they

are content based; they provide opportunities for socialization, as their very nature encourages

collaboration and exploring topics that are of personal interest to the students; and finally, they

promote subjectification in the sense that they allow students to use the abilities students deem as

strengths and create a space where the projects meet the individual needs of students.

Implications for teachers

In compiling all this research, some implications for teachers who want to work to

incorporate ALEs into instruction in my opinion would be to reach out to families early in the
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 12

year to get to know them and their cultural backgrounds. ALEs are founded on creating

meaningful connections between the texts and the students, without knowledge of your students

and the experiences they have, ALEs will not be as effective. An extension of getting to know

the family, would be to get to know the community—drive through and see for yourself what the

people are like and what kind of stores and conveniences they have. Forming connections in the

community allows you to be able to call on them in the future if you want to bring them into the

classroom to make a lesson more authentic. It would beneficial to talk with teachers of the

previous grade to get the scoop on styles of learning you will need to plan for. And finally, to

encourage teachers and students to have an open-mind. Students will be different from you and

that is alright, viewing them as an asset to your class helps to create the classroom community

needed to facilitate the types of activities involved with ALEs; helping students to understand

what your community of respect will look and sound like on a daily basis will promote the type

of learning environment conducive of these incredible learning opportunities.

Conclusion

In this analysis, I discussed the definition of an authentic literacy experience, explained

why the inclusion of them in an elementary classroom is an essential factor in a student’s

success, highlighted possible misconceptions people might have about ALEs, and provided

examples of sample ALE lesson plans along with some general implications for teachers as they

begin to navigate ALEs. I believe that everyone who enters the field of education has it in their

heart the innate desire to help all children reach their full potential and help them establish and

achieve their goals; incorporating authentic literacy experiences is a way to help them
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accomplish those goals, but also help to make the world a better place. And in the end, isn’t that

all we can really ask for?

References

Allington, R. (2002). What I’ve learned about effective reading instruction: From a decade of

studying exemplary elementary classroom teachers. Phi Delta Kappan 83(10), 740-747.

Barnitz, J. G. (1994). Discourse diversity: Principles for authentic talk and literacy instruction.

Journal of Reading, 37(7), 586-591.

Biesta, G. J. J. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy.

Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers. Chapter 1, 10-27.

Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2017). “English Language Arts Standards”.

Corestandards.org. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/.

Cushman, K. & Rogers, L. (2008). Fires in the middle school bathroom. New York, NY: The

New Press.

Dewey, J. (2009). Democracy and education. WLC Books (Original work published 1916),

Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic

Books (Original work published 1983).

Harris, E. (2016). Getting off to a good start: The first three days of school, 10th ed. Nashville,

TN: Getting off to a good start.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field

like education. Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1),7-24.

Leonardo, Z., & Porter, R. K. (2010). Pedagogy of fear: Toward a Fanonian theory of 'safety' in

race dialogue. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(2), 139-157.

AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 14

Maslow, A.H. (1954). The instinctoid nature of basic needs. Journal of Personality, 22(3), 326-

347.

Newmann, F. M., Wehlage, G. G. (1993). Five standards of authentic instruction. Educational

Leadership, April, 1-12.

Renzulli, J.S., Gentry, M., Reis, S. M. (2004). A time and place for authentic learning.

Educational Leadership, 62(1), 73-77.

Silvers, P. & Shorey, M.C. (2012). Many texts many voices: Teaching literacy and social justice

to young learners in the digital age. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

U.S. Department of Education. (2017). Every Student Succeeds Act. Retrieved from

https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=ft.

U.S. Department of Education. (2016). The state of racial diversity in the educator workforce.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development,

Policy and Program Studies Services. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from

https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-diversity-

workforce.pdf
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 15

Appendices

Appendix A – Thoughtful Discussion

AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 16

Appendix B – Group Work Expectations

Our Guide to Great Group Work!

When working together, no matter the size of the project or group,
following these expectations will help you achieve great things!

et Along.
We will not argue with our teammates.

espect Others.
We will listen to all ideas.

n T ask Behavior.
Are you doing your job? On task talk only!

se level 3 voices.
Only your group should be able to hear you. !

articipate E qually.
Do your part. Do not let others do all the work.

tay in Y our Group.

Raise your hand if you have a question. I will come to you.
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 17

Appendix C – Materials Procedure

Material Responsibilities
-! Match the number on your desk to a colored box.
-! Read your responsibilities for the day.

!
!!!!Responsible!for! !Responsible!for!Using!!!
Gathering!Materials! !Materials!Respectfully!
! !
Gather!enough!materials!for!everyone! Think!about!how!we!use!the!materials!
in!your!group.!! on!your!table.!
! !
Walk!to!materials!and!wait!your!turn!to! Are!you!&!your!group!members!
get!what!you!need.!! treating!them!with!respect?!Are!you!
! using!them!for!their!intended!purpose?!!
Pass!out!materials!to!group!members.!! !
If!not,!remind!your!group!how!we!use!
materials.!

!!!Responsible!for!Using! !!!!Responsible!for!
Materials!Appropriately!! Returning!Materials!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!for!Given!Task! !
! Gather!all!materials!from!your!table!
Think!about!how!the!materials!are!being! when!they!are!ready!to!be!put!away.!!
used!to!complete!the!task.!! !
! Walk!to!return!materials!and!wait!your!
Are!you!and!your!group!members!using! turn!to!drop!them!off.!!
the!materials!in!the!appropriate!way?!! !
! Return!the!materials!to!where!they!
If!not,!ask!your!team!if!they!could!use! belong!in!the!classroom.!
the!materials!in!a!different!way.!

!
!
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 18

Appendix D – Interactive Read Aloud Lesson Plan

School’s First Day of School – Interactive Read-aloud

An Authentic Literacy Experience – 2nd grade ELA (and social justice)

Objectives
- SWBAT recall main characters and plot points from a read-aloud book.
- SWBAT discuss with classmates answers to teacher asked text-dependent questions.
- SWBAT apply moral of the story to the creation of class rules and procedures.

Standards
- 2.FL.VA.7c Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being
read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe.
- 2.SL.CC.1 Participate with varied peers and adults in collaborative conversations in small
or large groups about appropriate 2nd grade topics and texts.
- 2.W.PDW.4 With guidance and support, produce clear and coherent writing in which
the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.

Materials
- School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex
- Poster paper, crayons, markers

Anticipatory Set
- Welcome students to the second day of school and invite students to participate in a
get-to-know-you activity. Students will go around the circle saying their name and their
favorite flavor of ice cream. We will discuss procedure for thoughtful discussion (which
will be touched on many more times throughout the year).

Instruction
- I will begin to read the book making sure to point out text features, such as the author,
illustrator, title page. I will also teach students the procedure for listening to a read
aloud (eyes are on me, mouths are not moving, bodies are in control, actively listening)
- Throughout the story, I will pause to ask students questions related to the story
o First, they will be very literal: who is the main character? Where does the story
take place? What time of the year is it?
o I will next move into questions that get at how the text works: clarifying for them
what a janitor is, asking who is telling the story, asking what is meant by “this
place stinks”.
o I will utilize the strategy of turn and talk to get all students participating. I will ask
students to talk to their neighbor about how they think the school changed from
the beginning of the story to the end, how do you know. This question is asking
the students to examine what the text means. I would also direct conversation to
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 19

thinking about what the children in the story are feeling and if that has changed
from the beginning to the end.
o Finally, we will talk about how we can make our school feel happy while we are
inside of it (beginning a discussion about classroom rules, expectations, and
procedures)
- Students and I will discuss how we can use what happened in our story to inspire our
own actions in the school. We read about how the school did not like it when the rooms
were a mess and the kids were being mean. We can talk about how the school felt good
when students were working with each other and treating materials with respect.
o We will identify the places in a school where we will need to follow certain
guidelines to ensure the school is happy
 Classroom library, bathroom, cafeteria, playground, our classroom in
general
o Students will break up into groups, each focusing on a specific place in the
school. Groups will discuss how they think students should act when there. As
the teacher, I would monitor groups to make sure we are on task and the rules
are realistic and appropriate.
o Groups would share out their posters and we would agree as a class that these
are the expectations we have for taking care of library materials, how we act
when outside or at lunch, etc.
 I would then tell students that I am going to take the lists home to look
at, and I would make sure that certain guidelines are hit on for how I
want students to treat materials.
o The following day, students would get back into their groups to create a poster
detailing the rules and procedures when in a certain part of the school

Closure
- Students would be able to hang up their posters in those locations to act as reminders
of how students are supposed to behave.

Assessment
- This would mainly be used as a formative assessment to see what procedures of carpet
time, group work, and on-task behavior I would need to revisit.

Appendix E – Oil Spill Lesson Plan

Oil Spills and Us

An Authentic Literacy Experience in Science – 3rd grade
- I see this lesson taking about a week to complete
- I see it taking place in the middle of school year

Objectives
- SWBAT identify key points from the selected readings.
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 20

- SWBAT predict the harmful effects of an oil spill.

- SWBAT create a procedure for cleaning up an oil spill.
- SWBAT create a brochure detailing researched information on oil spills and how to
respond when one happens.

Standards
- 3.FL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

- 3.RI.KID.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as a basis for the answers.
- 3.RI.KID.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas
or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to
time, sequence, and cause/effect.
- 3.SL.CC.1 Prepare for collaborative discussions on 3rd grade level topics and texts;
engage effectively with varied partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their
own ideas clearly.
- 3.W.TTP.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and
information.
- 3.W.PDW.4 With guidance and support, produce clear and coherent writing in which
the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.

Materials
- Harriet’s Home at Sea by Evelyn Wang
- Chart paper for KWL chart
- Class set of Oil Spill! By Melvin Berger (National Geographic)
- YouTube video of an oil spill
- YouTube video of what is being done to assist after a spill
- Feathers, cups, water, oil
- Bins, paper money, cotton balls, straws, mini ladles, spoons, droppers, tissues, pipe
cleaners
- Class set of iPads
- Guided research template

Anticipatory Set (day 1)

- On the carpet, we will do a read aloud of Harriet’s Home at Sea by Evelyn Wang which is
a fiction book on oil spills. I will ask text-dependent questions to assist with reading
comprehension and to spark thinking about what an oil spill is.
- As a class we will create a KWL chart to activate prior knowledge and get a sense about
the wonderings we are having about the topic.

Instruction
- (day 2) All students will have a copy of the nonfiction text by National Geographic, Oil
Spill!
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 21

- We will engage in a shared reading of the text as I will read some and the students will
read some of the text I have predetermined we read (we will not read the entire text)
- Students will do a second read of the text in partners utilizing the strategy “Rally Read”
where students take turns reading paragraphs of the text. If they are not reading, they
are actively listening and answering a comprehension question I have created for the
paragraphs.
- We will regroup to discuss the things that were outlined in the text. We will compare
and contrast details from both texts
- (day 3) Mini Oil Spill Investigation
o Students will be paired with a partner
o Each pair will get a cup of water and a cup of water mixed with oil
o Students will talk with their partner to predict what they think will happen when
they dip the feathers into each cup, some can share out with the group.
o Students will dip the feathers into the cups and see what happens
o Students will talk with their tables about what happened and if their predictions
were correct, some can share with the whole class.
o We will discuss why and oil spill would not be good for the marine life in the area
and what can happen if the oil is not cleaned up.
- We will watch a YouTube clip that gives a real-world connection to oil spills and the
efforts being made to clean them up.
- (day 4) Students will engage in an activity that shows just how hard it is to clean up an
oil spill.
o Students will be grouped in teams of 4 and given the following prompt:
 The Squiller Green Corporation Inc. has contracted you, the world’s top
scientists, to conduct research on the best method to clean up an oil spill.
You will be given a budget of $1,000,000 to purchase supplies to aid in
the clean-up process. The object is remove as much oil as you can while
leaving as much water as possible in the bin.
 Students will have a bin of water in front of them and I will come around
to spill oil into their body of water. Students can purchase the following
items to help them remove the oil from the water: cotton ball, straw,
spoon, dropper, tissue, pipe cleaner, mini ladle.
 Students will first brainstorm ideas and write a plan of action. Students
can then purchase their tools and begin to work on the clean up
 Students will reflect on the process individually.
o As a group we will debrief on what strategies worked and which ones did not.
o We will discuss actual clean up methods scientists use to clean these spills. And
how long it can take for the damages of an oil spill to be repaired.
- (day 5-6) Students will work with their group of 4 using the iPads to research ways that
we can help prevent oil spills or what we can do if there is one. Groups will create
brochures detailing the information they deem important to share with members of the
school community. Groups will then be able to go to other classrooms to present the
information they have learned and will give their brochure to that class to learn more
information about oil spills.
AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE 22

Assessment
- Students will be informally assessed on their active participation in the read aloud and
shared reading of the nonfiction text. Students will be graded via a group task rubric
that gets at using materials responsibly, equally participating, writing down predictions
and ideas for the clean-up. Student brochures will be graded on accurate content,
conventions, and presentation.

*This lesson requires a great deal of planning in terms of acquiring resources and coordinating
the presentations in other classrooms
*And requires the explicit review of appropriate use of materials and technology.
*Group work expectations would also need to be reiterated (poster is attached below)