"Read THIS book."
"Today we're going to talk about THIS chapter."
"Here's your essay topic (that SOMEBODY ELSE decided was yours)."
For so many learners around the world, this is what English/Literacy courses are like. Pre-loaded.
When you get an opportunity to use an Applied Literacy program (as I have), with broad learning goals ready for rich contextualisation and personalisation, at a level that designates Year 12 as being a time for independence and leadership to emerge in one's learning, it can feel incredibly liberating. Learners themselves can choose what to read and what to write about.
Unfortunately, morbidly mesmerised by the English classes they've had for the preceding eleven or twelve years, this liberation can be a bit daunting for learners. Many of them have never really liked the food on their literacy platter, but have become very accustomed to having it served up to them. Taking them from the line up at a school lunch hall to a lounge with a BYO-style smorgasbord can be hard for them to swallow.
I've blogged in the past about this issue of the learner-directed literacy program (The difference between a syllabus and a silly bus?), and also the issue of utilising alternative methods of assessment to help in avoiding the burn after reading reaction, and some months on I have to admit the more emergent, learner-directed literacy approach is paying off very nicely.
However, for many learners, the whole notion of their own, self-directed literacy program can still be complicated, if not daunting.
Grasping the formal outcomes is one complication, but what I'm starting to find is that learners lack models and contexts to really get a grip on how they might make their own literacy program work for them.
To that end, I've come up with an interactive set of literacy profiles and portfolios, featuring learners of different genders, interests and trade/career goals:
(You can also see the full online version here).
I used this with my Year 12 classes last week. They skimmed through the portfolios and completed a worksheet grid featuring all the formal outcomes, the actual context/task applied by each of the different profile students, and then drew arrows and bubbles to show how various outcomes had been combined or linked up via topical or situational 'sets.'
I was frankly surprised how well it worked. The learners really dug into it and looking at their completed grids and connections it was clear this made for a powerful discovery/noticing activity. Classroom discussion hints that the learners now grasp what this independent/applied approach to literacy is about a lot more clearly, and are more ready to give it a shot themselves based on the the contexts and samples they've analyzed.
We'll see what emerges, shall we?