Ideological Stance In Content Area Instruction

1. My Ideological Stance in
Content Area Instruction
Aziza Abdul Kareem
EDUC 505
Dr. Nelli

2. Background of Students
• Business, Science, Mathematics, and
Technology High School in urban setting.
• Ninth grade class ages range from 14-17.
• Students come from low socioeconomic
background.
• Reading and writing abilities of students
varies.
• Active learners who prefer group work and
very opinionated.

3. Learning Outcome
As a result of classroom instruction students will be able to construct
knowledge about the application of multiple reading strategies while
deciphering when and how to utilize comprehension techniques
through engagement with texts. Implementation of this learning
outcome will result from a dialectical constructivist model which
emphasizes the teachers’ ability to anticipate student’s needs by
providing strategies that serve as a scaffold to reading awareness,
supervising the learning process through modeling exercises, and
guiding student’s understanding as they internalize the model provided
in creation of their own comprehension techniques (Pressley, Harris, &
Marks 1992).

4. Critical Thinking
&
Academic Language
Critical thinking is supported through the continued interaction between
the student and the classroom environment. Acquisition of new
knowledge and reorganization of what is already known (e.g., White,
1959) is motivated by the gap between current understanding and the
understanding required to comprehend the world as it is (Pressley,
Harris, and Marks 1992). In turn, academic language stemming from
the social science discipline is developed through group discussion
and explicit instruction such as think aloud or guided practice using
morphemic analysis (word chunking), context clues (use of context to
interpret reading), and key concepts (general class linked by a
common element or idea) (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz 2011).

5. Ideological Stance
My ideological stance is based upon three concepts:
promotion of intellectual social justice or the ability
to make intelligent claims that counter authority
figures’ beliefs, open minded acquisition of learning
or the ability to consider opposing views, and
encouraging students’ critical judgment in the
analysis of ideas and comments faced in texts while
supporting claims with evidence.

6. Goal
Academic Literacy
•Academic Literacy involves becoming proficient in reading and writing
while developing characteristic methods of acting, interacting, valuing,
feeling, dressing, thinking, believing with other people and various objects,
tools, and technologies (Gee 2012 pg. 152).
•Access to Social Science Enduring Understandings comprises academic
language proficiency which requires students use linguistic skills to
interpret and infer meaning from oral and written language; discern
precise meaning and information from text, relate ideas and information,
recognize the conventions of various genres, and enlist a variety of
linguistic strategies on behalf of a wide range of communicative purposes
(Dutro & Moran 2003 pgs. 230-231).

7. Challenge
• Elliot (2008) suggests, that the “critical analysis of the
relationship between belief and practice is fundamental to
teaching, yet many educators do not see it as imperative” (pg.
210).
• The tension between use of reading strategies and student
construction of social science enduring understandings is
based upon the teacher’s ability to implement techniques that
provide students with competencies while grappling with
complex vocabularies, and developing necessary skills in the
areas of analysis and synthesis of ideas. In other words,
although reading strategies are implemented in instructional
practices, this is not an indication that students know how to
use these techniques independently.

8. Pedagogical Approaches
• Cooperative Learning
• Modeling
• Active Literacy

9. Cooperative Learning
• Cooperative groups facilitate active participation and should be a primary form
of classroom organization when teachers bring students together to
comprehend texts (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz pg. 152).
• Based on the social constructivist theory in which the collective efforts of
students impose meaning on the world (Ormrod, 2011 pg. 221).
• Equity and Access occurs when students’ zone of proximal development
includes learning and problem solving with assistance from more competent
adults and peers (Ormrod, 2011).
• Social Science enduring understanding is achieved through positive
interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation, and
simultaneous interaction (Kagan, 1998).
Examples:
Jigsaw Groups Group Investigation
Learning Circles Group Retellings

10. Modeling
• Modeling of academic skills can be especially effective when the model
demonstrates not only how to do a task but also how to think about a task
(Ormrod, 2011 pg. 330).
• Based upon the social cognitive views of learning cognitive modeling helps
students learn many academic skills, at least in part, by observing what others
do (Ormrod, 2011 pg. 330).
• Equity and access occurs through the use of demonstrations, integration of
technology, and use of think aloud to provide follow up assistance to students
with varying needs (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz 2011 pg. 129).
• Social Science enduring understanding is achieved through making predictions
or showing students how to develop hypothesis, describing visual images,
sharing an analogy which links prior knowledge with new information,
verbalizing confusing points, demonstrating fix-up strategies(Alaska
Department of Education & Early Development Instructional Methods).
Examples: Think-Aloud, Modeling with Explicit Strategy

11. Active Literacy
• Active literacy involves what a teacher does before, during, and after
reading (B-D-A) as a crucial, active, and purposeful component of
reading (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz 2011 pg. 131).
• Based upon the constructivist theory students take many separate
pieces of information from before, during, and after reading activities to
build an overall understanding or interpretation (Ormrod, 2011 pg.
218).
• Equity and access is achieved through assignments that allow
students to process content from multiple perspectives (Vacca, Vacca,
& Mraz 2011 pg. 283).
• Social Studies enduring understanding is developed through
generating questions, summarizing, clarifying text, and predicting.
Examples:
Anticipation Guide, Double Entry Journals, and Exit Slips

12. Conclusion
In conclusion, use of the three pedagogical practices of
cooperative learning, modeling, and active literacy
provides the necessary scaffold for students’
comprehension and acquisition of literacy strategies. In
turn students will develop skills necessary for academic
language development and content understanding.
Through collaborative interactions meaningful learning
takes place as a result of collective metacognition.

13. References
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development Instructional Methods Retrieved on 11/21/12
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/frameworks/sstudies/part3a5.htm
Dutro, S. & Moran, C. (2003). Rethinking English Language Instruction: An Architectural Approach. In G. Garcia (ed.) In English Learners: Reaching
the Highest Level of English Literacy. Intl Reading Assoc., Pgs. 227-258.
Elliot, P. (2008). Mapping the Terrain(s) of Ideology in New Urban Teachers’ Professional Development Experiences. In L. Bartolome (Ed.)
Ideologies in Education: Unmasking the Trap of Teacher Neutrality. Peter Lang. Pgs. 208-228.
Gee, J. (2012). Discourses and literacies. Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (4 th ed.) (pp. 147-178). New York, NY:Routledge.
Kagan, S. (1998). New cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, and inclusion. In J.W. Putnam and R. W. Slavin (Eds.), Cooperative learning
and strategies for inclusion: Celebrating diversity in the classroom (pp. 105-136). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.
Pressley, M., Harris, K., & Marks, B. M. But good strategy instructors are constructivist! Educational Psychology Review, Vol 4., No. 1, 1992
Ormrod, J.E. (2011). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J. Pearson.
Vacca, Richard T., Vacca, Jo Anne L., and Mraz, MaryAnn. Content Area Reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston: Pearson
Education, Inc. 10th Edition 2011