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Using Inquiry in Teacher Professional Learning

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Literacy as a Civil Right in the Past, Present and Future. pg. 19

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Literacy as a Civil Right in the Past, Present and Future. pg. 19

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Dr. Carlos Lopez- letter of recommendation for Melissa Brooks-Yip

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Advocacy Starts with the Self: Declaring our Intention and Purpose

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by Melissa Brooks-Yip Beliefs are basically the guiding principles in life that provide direction and meaning in life. Beliefs are the preset, organized filters to our perceptions of the world (external and internal). Beliefs are like 'Internal commands' to the brain as to how to represent what is happening, when we congruently believe something to be true.

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Letter of Support for Melissa Brooks-Yip (3-24-2024).docx

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By Dr. Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA, and Melissa Brooks-Yip, Washtenaw ISD

While the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 were presented to the educational community in 2016, did you know the roots go back to 2008? In 2008, Dr. Elizabeth Moje was called as an expert witness in The Right to Read Case in Highland Park, MI . Her testimony addressed two essential questions: What does instruction look like when it's serving adolescents well? and What must change to produce equal access to literacy? Answering these questions became the impetus for drafting what would become the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 . From its inception, the intent of the 6-12 Essentials has been to provide a roadmap for secondary educators and policy makers to create a more socially just, action-oriented, and literacy-enriched educational experience for youth, especially those who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and underestimated.

To find out more about the complex history of the 6-12 Essentials, we sat down for an interview with the lead researchers, Drs. Elizabeth Moje and Darin Stockdill. We learned the in-depth history of how the 6-12 Essential Practices came to be, the process and purpose of writing them, what is meant by essential, adolescent literacy vs. disciplinary literacy, and the hopes for future impact of the Essentials on education. These learnings will be featured in upcoming issues of this blog. In this post, we have lifted excerpts from our conversation that provide greater clarity on the history of and context for which the 6-12 Essentials were developed.

Dr. Moje: I set out to define the conditions that need to happen (in the classroom) so that all students can access text . What does it mean to share practices for teaching in socially just ways? Teaching socially just ways, and in ways that produce social justice, requires the recognition that learners need access to the knowledge deemed valuable by the content domains, even as the knowledge they bring to their learning must not only be recognized, but valued (Moje, 2007).

The Disciplinary Literacy Essentials work is designed to support the cycle of learning to read and reading to learn by committing to context in each classroom and fighting the "skills and process" only mindset when it comes to learning disciplinary content. The 6-12 Essentials are written in each discipline: ELA, Social Studies, Science and Mathematics, in such a way that gets away from a print-dominated idea of text; as Moje states, "we need multiple forms of (text) representation to get access to meaning." Disciplinary literacy is about navigating these forms and gaining access to the discipline. With additional work in the following years from Dr. Darin Stockdill and Dr. Michelle Kwok, that first list of practices became the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 that were presented to the educators of Michigan in 2016.

Moje, E. B. (2007). Chapter 1: Developing socially just subject-matter instruction: A review of the literature on disciplinary literacy teaching. Review of Research in Education, 31(1), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X07300046001

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By Dr. Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA, and Melissa Brooks-Yip, Washtenaw ISD While the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 were presented to the educational community in 2016, did you know the roots go back to 2008? In 2008, Dr. Elizabeth Moje was called as an expert witness in The Right to Read Case in Highland Park, MI .

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Dr. Cathy Fleischer- melissa brooks-yip rec 1-22.pdf

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Our Team

The daily YpsiWrites team is a group of people passionate about promoting writing within the Ypsilanti community and beyond. In addition to those listed below, our team is also comprised of our wonderful volunteers, supporters, and community members.

Ann Blakeslee, Ph.D., Co-Founder, YpsiWrites; Director, Eastern Michigan University Office of Campus & Community Writing;
Professor, Department of English

Cathy Fleischer, Ph.D., Co-Founder, YpsiWrites; Faculty Associate, Eastern Michigan University Office of Campus & Community Writing; Professor, Department of English

YDL and 826Michigan Collaborators

Catherine Calabro Cavin, Education Director, 826michigan

Joy Cichewicz, Michigan Avenue Branch, Ypsilanti District Library

Jodi Krahnke, Youth Programs, Ypsilanti District Library

Mary Garboden, Outreach, Ypsilanti District Library

Paula Drummond, Adult Programs, Ypsilanti District Library

Sam Killian, Community Relations Coordinator, Ypsilanti District Library

Our Staff

Geneva Korytkowski, M.A., Volunteer Coordinator, YpsiWrites; Instructor, Department of English

Kristine Gatchel, Community Outreach Coordinator; Instructor, Department of English

Alyssa Allen, Graduate Assistant, YpsiWrites and Eastern Michigan University Office of Campus & Community Writing

Kennady Klochko, Graduate Assistant, YpsiWrites and Eastern Michigan University Office of Campus & Community Writing

Drew Reynolds, Intern, YpsiWrites and Eastern Michigan University Office of Campus & Community Writing

C2W/YpsiWrites Advisory Board

Barbara K. Scheffer, Ed.D., R.N., M.S.N., Professor Emerita, Eastern Michigan University School of Nursing

Darryl Johnson - Director, Mentor2Youth

Kevin English, Principal, Emerson Middle School in Livonia

Mary Garboden, Head of Outreach Services, Ypsilanti District Library

Maria Dorantes, Spanish Lecturer and Spanish Internship Coordinator, University of Michigan

Melissa Brooks-Yip, Coordinator of Instruction, Washtenaw Intermediate School District

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The daily YpsiWrites team is a group of people passionate about promoting writing within the Ypsilanti community and beyond. In addition to those listed below, our team is also comprised of our wonderful volunteers, supporters, and community members.

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Leading for Equity & Justice Certificate was issued by Eastern Michigan University to Melissa Brooks-Yip.

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Earners of the Leading for Equity & Justice Certificate badge have the ability to lead equity-related personal, professional, and systems change within K-12 environments. Upon completion of six modules co-constructed by practicing school administrators and researchers, educators will have new knowle…

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My career in education and leadership spans over 22 years- from classroom teaching in middle school, high school, and college, to coaching teachers, designing professional learning networks, coordinating state level projects and community collaborations. Along with graduate degrees in both curriculum and instruction and educational technology, I have a wide range of experience in service to students and educators in public education. My work has been published in both Michigan and international journals. I'm delighted to begin doctoral studies at EMU in the fall of 2021.

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Melissa B. - Coordinator of Instruction - Washtenaw Intermediate School District | LinkedIn

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My career in education and leadership spans over 22 years- from classroom teaching in middle school, high school, and college, to coaching teachers, designing professional learning networks, coordinating state level projects and community collaborations. Along with graduate degrees in both curriculum and instruction and educational technology, I have a wide range of experience in service to students and educators in public education.

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Melissa: What was the first idea of the Essentials and the philosophy behind them? We're hoping to share the context and history of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials with educators.

Dr. Moje : We are looking at reading beyond 3rd grade (with the disciplinary literacy essentials). Nobody thinks you need to do anything with reading beyond third grade! Why third grade? We are (with the disciplinary literacy essentials) looking at teaching the necessary dimensions of literacy and expanding beyond K-3 and 4-5. And we want to expand this in every subject, not just ELA as everyone expects. (For more on extending reading instruction beyond 3rd grade, see Extended--and Extending-- Literacies," 2017 )

Dr. Stockdill: We first had to start with supporting ISDs with disciplinary literacy professional development with Institutes for two summers, and the Essentials followed in 2016. And we felt strongly about including the glossary, since there are different interpretations of the different terminology (in disciplinary literacy). It includes our operating definitions when writing this, not the definitions. It was created by a large literature review and is an important foundational piece.

Dr. Moje: This has been years of my work in disciplinary literacy and this (the Essentials) is the most exciting development! We have traction on the disciplinary literacy work.

Dr. Stockdill: A driving principle is that the Essentials are for all students not just AP [Advanced Placement]. So one of the challenges is to support teachers developing models that support students who may have a specific learning or processing disability. They (students) can do this work. We just have to figure out how to best support teachers and students.

Dr. Moje: The print dominance in schools disables students in some ways. If we want to think about disabilities, instead of putting the disability in the child, think about how some practices disable. If we use multiple forms of representation, then an English language learner or someone who processes text differently will have access to meaning that will bolster them. We can pull videos, images, audio, virtual reality tools and all sorts of things to provide access to so many more children. Using multiple modes will also help us deepen understanding of really abstract concepts.

Rosalyn: I really appreciate your framing - disabilities don't reside in people, it resides in practice. That is the perfect segue into our next question: Why was an interdisciplinary structure important to the design of the 6-12 Essentials?

Dr. Stockdill: One of the clearest differentiators between what happens in classrooms in elementary schools and what happens in secondary schools is moving into specific content area study. At the secondary level, texts become differentiated by their language, their vocabulary, and the thinking practices begin to vary across the academic disciplines. As students move up through the grades, the reading and disciplinary demands become more challenging. Oftentimes as these demands become more challenging for students and instruction begins to drop off. This is what Dr. Moje calls the "wide mouth gap." What was foregrounded in our minds was that these Essentials had to recognize disciplinary differences. We recognized how discourse communities privilege certain ways of reading, thinking, and processing, so it was important to help teachers understand that teaching content (i.e., math, science, and etc.) is based on interpretation and analysis of encoded information. Knowledge is passed on when teachers are able to make their thinking visible to students.

Dr. Moje: For me, disciplinary literacy is all about navigating. Entering the disciplines is like entering a new culture, and teachers are the cultural brokers for their disciplines.We know that when we travel or enter a new cultural practice, it helps us if we have cultural brokers who provide insight about the cultural norms and practices. If teachers surface the "hidden" cultures of their disciplines, it helps the process of navigating. Teachers know the discourse practices of their discipline; therefore, when they make that knowledge explicit, students understand that they're entering a different set of discourse practices in each content. It's about access, but it's also about the child making sense of the experience they are having. And that is why I believe it's critical to have the English language arts essentials, science essentials, mathematics essentials, and social studies essentials because all the teachers need to do this work.

, check out the
For more on the purpose, process and content of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 on-demand webinar featuring Dr. Elizabeth Moje, Dr. Darin Stockdill, and members of the 6-12 Disciplinary Literacy Task Force.

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Melissa: What was the first idea of the Essentials and the philosophy behind them? We're hoping to share the context and history of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials with educators. Dr. Moje : We are looking at reading beyond 3rd grade (with the disciplinary literacy essentials).

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Using Success Analysis to put the focus on student learning, by Melissa Brooks-Yip

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Using Success Analysis to put the focus on student learning
Guest post by Melissa Brooks-Yip Teacher success should mean student learning. My instructional coordination work with a group of cross content secondary teachers the last six years has shown me that when classroom practitioners talk abo…

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By Dr. Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA, and Melissa Brooks-Yip, Washtenaw ISD

The final post in a series telling the history, purpose, and direction of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12.

Future Impact of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials

Melissa: How would you say the Essentials are influencing our state?

Dr. Stockdill: The Essentials became a core document to inform new policy documents. More people within Michigan Department of Education are engaged with the Essentials. We have great MDE partners who are making this work more visible.

Melissa: Can you talk a bit about how the Essentials are impacting policy?

Dr. Stockdill: A new set of teacher education standards are being developed, and The Essentials was one of the core documents referenced in designing those standards. I'm hopeful that going forward the Essentials will continue to be lifted.

Rosalyn: What would you consider next steps for the work?

Dr. Stockdill: We want to make sure as new research emerges that we're adding, revising, and refining the Essentials as needed. A really important next step for U of M and GELN is to create a curated video resource library that shows what these practices look like in classrooms. We're really interested in teachers sharing their practices. One final next step is to find ways to make available curricula that more clearly align with the Essential practices.

Rosalyn: I'm really happy to hear that the DLEs are influencing the statewide work in regard to teacher preparation. My hope is that it will also influence funding sources in the near future. To reiterate your point, as children matriculate through the grade-bands, text becomes much more sophisticated as well as the child's interactions with the text, so teachers need support with apprenticing children.

Melissa: I appreciate the history going back to 2008. There are pieces here that I didn't know, and I know this will be interesting to our readers.

To further grow your knowledge on the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials, go to:

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By Dr. Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA, and Melissa Brooks-Yip, Washtenaw ISD The final post in a series telling the history, purpose, and direction of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12. Future Impact of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials Melissa: How would you say the Essentials are influencing our state?

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Dr. Troy Hicks- CMU Letter of Rec - MBY (12-15-15)

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Author Biographies

Cathy Fleischer is a professor of English at Eastern Michigan University, where she teaches courses in writing and English, co-directs the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, serves as Faculty Associate for the Office of Campus and Community Writing. Alaina Feliks, Melissa Brooks-Yip, and Sarah Andrew-Vaughan have all participated in Everyday Advocacy training facilitated by Cathy. Alaina teaches in Stockbridge Community Schools, Melissa is Coordinator of Instruction for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, and Sarah is District English Department Chair for the Ann Arbor School District

Abstract

What would happen if we began to see advocacy as part of teachers' professional identity, as an integral part of who we all are as teachers-not just in moments of crisis, but every day? This article demonstrates how three teachers have made everyday advocacy part of their identity after participating in advocacy training, by exploring the action plans they created surrounding issues of concern in their local contexts.

Recommended Citation

Fleischer, Cathy A.; Feliks, Alaina; Brooks-Yip, Melissa; and Andrew-Vaughan, Sarah (2018) "Everyday Advocacy as Part of Everyday Professionalism," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 33: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2176

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Everyday Advocacy as Part of Everyday Professionalism

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What would happen if we began to see advocacy as part of teachers' professional identity, as an integral part of who we all are as teachers-not just in moments of crisis, but every day?

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They leap over obstacles, tackle tough tasks, and use their knowledge-power to change outcomes. These modern day super heroes aren't in Gotham City, they're in the classroom, tackling the challenges of improving literacy in our youngest learners. Once a month a core group of educators from Washtenaw and Livingston counties meet for the Study of Early Literacy (SOEL), a long-term professional development that is arming them with new approaches to transform the way they teach literacy. Washtenaw and Livingston counties' Literacy Instructional Coordinator, Melissa Brooks-Yip, oversees SOEL and, based on current information, she said the time has come to aggressively bolster literacy.

"Studies and educational initiatives aimed at early childhood education all point toward an achievement gap in literacy, with low literacy levels being used as predictors of high school drop-outs and incarceration rates," she says. "The Study of Early Literacy began in an effort to prepare teachers to not only teach students to learn to read, but to read to learn from the start of their literacy journey."

Brooks-Yip structured SOEL to focus on an approach to teacher professional development (preschool through grade three) that empowers and leverages teacher knowledge and everyday experiences working with students. Currently there are 40 educators from 10 school districts participating in SOEL.
"Meaningful improvement in teacher's pedagogical content knowledge happens through education, not training," Brooks-Yip explains. "We are setting the stage for deep, collaborative learning over time, to empower teachers with their own knowledge of content, best practices and instructional decision making skills. This confidence building helps teachers become adaptive to their student's needs and are better able to provide authentic learning experiences for their students, rather than following a script written by someone outside of their classroom. Effective teachers, matter much more than materials, or programs."

During the first year of SOEL the group conducted an intense study of research anthologies of early literacy and tapped into the knowledge of early literacy experts at top universities. As a result of the study, five "Big Learnings" emerged that captured what is crucially important in preschool and early elementary literacy education. They are:

Classroom Culture

Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary

Integration

Inquiry and Collaboration

Assessment

In year two, participating educators are spending the school year identifying their own research question, observing and collecting data, analyzing that data, reporting results, and determining next steps in instruction and teacher professional development based upon their findings.
Kate Rossetter, a Howell Public School District second grade teacher, says engagement in SOEL is making a difference.

"The Study of Early Literacy has impacted my teaching by giving me the boost I needed to find unique ways to cover the common core standards and yet engage and inspire my students to want to learn," Rossetter says. "I am really working on being more of a facilitator than a teacher with my students. I am also using integration of the subject areas instead of teaching each subject area as a separate piece of the day."

Lynne Gronvall-Fountain, a first grade teacher with Dexter Community Schools, says she has been impressed with the results of putting SOEL practices in place.

"I am watching what happens when first grade readers and writers share common language and strategies between reading and writing. It has been fascinating to see some of my youngest readers and writers understanding and looking at text in a different way," Gronvall-Fountain says. "They are noticing things that in the past, most of my readers did not notice. As writers, they are working in concert with mentor text and mentor writers and deepening their understanding of what it means to be a writer. They are applying skills to their writing I never imagined a six year old would understand."

Brooks-Yip is gratified by the professional growth of SOEL participants and what they are able to bring to their districts.

"Many teachers now have a very intentional focus on building student's background knowledge and vocabulary. We learned that this may be the single most important factor in students' understanding in school," Brooks-Yip says. "Being aware of this gap, and knowing that the highest rate of vocabulary development occurs during the preschool years, we know that educators have time to intervene to help children make gains in vocabulary development."

Rhoshawda Miller has been a teacher for 14 years and says participation in SOEL has impacted her first graders at Ypsilanti Community Schools.

"Meeting regularly helps build off of the last session and to stay focused. A lot of the material that we are learning in SOEL supports our district vision, including building a better classroom culture and building students' vocabulary," Miller says. "I am inspired and confident in teaching more authentic literacy instruction. As soon as I learn something in my workshop I can't wait to get back to my classroom to try it out."

Many educators describe the literacy work as a "gift."

"SOEL allows us the gift of working collaboratively with our colleagues. Sustained, embedded, focused, professional development is a powerful way to grow as a teacher," Gronvall-Fountain says. "It is amazing what our youngest learners are able to do when we use best practices in instruction, supported by collaborative work with our colleagues. We have to build time in our school year to allow our teachers to work together as professionals if we are going to meet the needs of 21st century learners."

Rossetter, a 16-year educator, agrees that the camaraderie strengthens their skills.

"It is important for teachers to collaborate and allow them the space to try and feel comfortable with new ways and approaches to teaching that don't have to be a purchased program. Knowledge is power," she says. "I feel blessed to be a part of this amazing group and look forward to each session."

Follow the latest develops in literacy and SOEL through Melissa Brooks-Yip's blog.

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Early literacy is top priority with two local counties in Southeast Michigan

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They leap over obstacles, tackle tough tasks, and use their knowledge-power to change outcomes. These modern day super heroes aren't in Gotham City, they're in the classroom, tackling the challenges of improving literacy in our youngest learners.

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Recommended Citation

Brooks-Yip, Melissa and Koonce, Jacqueline B. (2010) "Taking Another Look at Struggling Adolescent Readers," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 26: Iss. 1, Article 13.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.1015

DOWNLOADS

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Taking Another Look at Struggling Adolescent Readers

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Recommended Citation Brooks-Yip, Melissa and Koonce, Jacqueline B. (2010) "Taking Another Look at Struggling Adolescent Readers," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 26: Iss. 1, Article 13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.1015 DOWNLOADS

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Because teachers are continual learners, dedicated to perfecting their craft, we need to help stakeholders understand the robust professional learning experiences teachers participate in as part of...