Building Informational Literacy Through a ProjectBased Approach

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Building Informational Literacy Through a
Project-Based Approach

• Nell K. Duke
• Michigan State University
• Literacy Achievement Research Center

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Plan for this Presentation

• In this presentation, I argue that projects
  provide one forum for building informational
  literacy.
• I describe some common characteristics of
  projects that make them potentially beneficial
  for building informational literacy.
• I discuss how explicit instruction, guided and
  independent practice can occur in the context of
  projects.
• I provide a number of examples of projects with
  the potential to build informational literacy.

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What is Informational Text?

• Briefly, I define informational text as text
  whose primary purpose is to convey information
  about the natural or social world, and that has
  particular linguistic features to accomplish that
  purpose. Common such features include timeless
  verb constructions, technical vocabulary, and
  graphical devices.
• I do not view informational text as synonymous
  with nonfiction. Rather, I view informational
  genres as a type of nonfiction. Other types of
  nonfiction include biography, nonfiction
  narrative, concept books, and others.

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What is a Project-Based Approach?

• Briefly, a Project-based Approach involves
  students in a series of activities toward a
  common goal, such as solving a problem, building
  or creating something. Projects are generally
• Long-term
• Multi- and inter-disciplinary
• Student-centered or student-directed
• And involve
• First-hand experiences
• Authentic literacy events
• A tangible product, often one that is socially
  useful

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What is a Project-Based Approach?

• Project-based approaches have been used with a
  variety of age groups and in a variety of
  contexts. Their roots lie in constructivist
  theory.
• Definitions of project-based instruction vary
  some of what I describe today would not count by
  narrower definitions.
• For a free resource on project-based instruction,
  see Railsback (2002) Project-Based Instruction
  Creating Excitement for Learning.
  http//www.nwrel.org/request/2002aug/
• For a discussion of Project-Based Instruction and
  English Language Learners, see Kuamoo (n.d.)
  Project-Based Instruction Learning in Real-World
  Context Benefits ELLs. http//www.prel.org/product
  s/paced/oct04/ns_project.htm

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What Makes Project-Based Approaches So
Well-Suited to Building Informational Literacy?

• Recall that projects are generally
• Long-term
• Building informational literacy is a long-term
  endeavor.
• Some informational literacy skills cannot be
  developed fully without going deep, using
  multiple sources, and so on.
• Multi- and inter-disciplinary
• Informational literacy is almost inherently
  multi-disciplinary.
• Much real-world informational text is often
  multi- and inter-disciplinary in nature. (Salt,
  Stiff, Ice Cream, Flu. . .)
• Student-centered or student-directed
• Informational literacy in the real world is often
  self-directed, requiring planning, organizing,
  searching, synthesizing, etc.

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What Makes Project-Based Approaches So
Well-Suited to Building Informational Literacy?

• Recall that projects generally involve
• First-hand experiences (see the following slide)
• Authentic literacy events (see later slides)
• A tangible product, often one that is socially
  useful (see later slides)

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First-hand Experiences

• There is considerable research and theory in
  support of integrating literacy and first-hand
  investigations.
• First-hand investigations provide opportunities
  for building and applying relevant prior
  knowledge.
• Many successful approaches involve applying prior
  knowledge (e.g., strategy instruction, KWL, ETR.
  . .)
• We learn more from literacy and first-hand
  investigations than from either one alone
  (Anderson Guthrie, 1999).
• Many successful approaches involve integrating
  literacy and first-hand investigations (e.g.,
  Guthrie, Wigfield, Perecevich, 2004 Palincsar
  Magnusson, 2000).

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Authentic Literacy Events

• Authentic literacy events are those that
  replicate or reflect reading and writing purposes
  and texts, specific to the genre, that occur in
  the world outside of a schooling context.
• Authentic reading of informational text involves
  reading for the purpose of obtaining information
  about the natural or social world that you want
  or need to know.
• Authentic writing of informational text involves
  communicating information about the natural or
  social world to people who want or need to know
  it.

(Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, Tower, in press)
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Some Set-ups for Authentic Reading of
Informational Text in Science

• Discrepant events to generate questions
• E.g., prisms on the overhead
• Demonstrations of phenomena to generate questions
• E.g., volcano, caterpillars
• Serendipitous events brought from world outside
• E.g., broken arm
• Announcing topic and asking for questions
• E.g., K-W-L charts (topic sound)

(Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, Tower, in press)
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Some Set-ups for Authentic Reading and Writing in
Science

• Literacy in response to a community need
• E.g., pond brochure
• Literacy as part of problem-solving
• E.g.. dying tadpoles
• (Audience integral to authentic writing --
  audiences include distant readers (e.g., Costa
  Rican pen pals), within-school audiences, and
  within-classroom audiences)

(Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, Tower, in press)
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Impact of Authentic Literacy Events in Science

• Second and third graders in classrooms with more
  authentic literacy events showed higher growth in
  informational and procedural reading
  comprehension and writing for 4 of 7 outcome
  measures, and in interaction with explicit
  instruction in informational text features for a
  5th outcome measure.

(Purcell-Gates, Duke, Martineau, in press)
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A Project-Based Approach to Building
Informational Literacy PABIL

• PABIL is a project-based approach.
• PABIL involves authentic literacy events.
• PABIL integrates reading and writing as well as
  content area learning.
• There is lots of theory and a fair amount of
  research showing relationships between reading
  and writing (Shanahan, 2006).
• Instruction in both processes may work
  synergistically Children are learning to read
  like a writer and write like a reader.

Collaborators include Hilden, Billman, Halladay,
Reynolds, Zhang, Park, Tanis, Thum, Fang, Subedi
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PABIL

• We developed and are testing PABIL in first and
  second grades.
• Informational reading and writing is
  traditionally neglected in the primary grades.
• Perhaps if we start earlier, we can mitigate some
  of the difficulties students and citizens have
  with this in later schooling and life.
• There has been some research on informational
  text in the primary grades, but we lack many
  research-tested instructional models for building
  informational literacy. Particularly lacking are
  comprehensive models.

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PABIL

• PABIL could occur during any part of the literacy
  or project block. We thought Writers Workshop
  was a good candidate.
• In our study, PABIL units (one major project per
  unit) are approximately 24 lessons plus a
  celebration.
• Each lesson is approximately 45-minutes long,
  including
• Read Aloud Teacher Modeling (15 minutes)
• Guided and Independent Experiences (20 minutes)
• Reflection Time (10 minutes)

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PABIL

• In the context and service of the projects,
  instruction is provided in
• Comprehension strategies
• Informational text features
• Vocabulary knowledge
• Vocabulary strategies
• Writing strategies

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Example PABIL Project, 2nd Grade

• Children developed informational booklets about
  Michigan -- a fascinating, important, amazing
  place worth knowing about!
• Childrens focus varied according to their
  individual interests. Focus topics included
  Michigan foods, wildlife, sports, Mackinaw
  Bridge.
• Booklets were sent to elementary students in
  China (who then worked on booklets about their
  region to share with MI students) and were shared
  with parents, siblings, and fellow classmates.
• Students and families celebrated the end of the
  unit with a Michigan Party complete with food
  produced in Michigan. Students read and shared
  their booklets at the celebration. 75 of parents
  attended the event.

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Example PABIL Project, 1st Grade

• Children in two classrooms developed
  informational booklets featuring their favorite
  foods to share with customers of a local
  restaurant as an audience for their booklets.
• When booklets were complete, a Favorite Foods
  Smorgasbord was provided by the parents of the
  two classes.
• 6 children, 3 from each classroom, met in small
  groups to read their food booklets to parents
• Each group visited the smorgasbord and chose
  foods to taste.
• Final copies of the booklets were presented to
  the local restaurant and are now on display for
  customers to read.

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Example PABIL Project, 1st Grade

• Children worked in groups to research aspects of
  a particular biome, including climate, landforms,
  animals, plants, and environmental problems.
• Each child created an informational booklet about
  their biome to share at an Environmental Fair.
• The class hosted parents, administrators, and
  fourth grade buddies for the Fair, where they
  shared their booklets and discussed environmental
  problems and possible solutions.

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Example PABIL Project, 2nd Grade

• Children created posters about microscopic
  animals, such as head lice and dust mites,
  including general and public health information
  about the animal.
• Different classes wrote for different audiences,
  such as their school, the local library, a local
  public health department, and so on.

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Example Comprehension Strategies Lesson

• Environment Project
• Read Aloud Teacher Modeling
• Teacher explicitly reviewed and modeled using
  the comprehension strategies with Taking Care of
  Trees.
• Guided and Independent Experiences
• Students read books on their project topic and
  used comprehension strategies to gather
  information for their webs. Students marked pages
  where they used strategies to share during
  reflection.
• Reflection
• Students shared examples of their strategy use
  with the rest of the class. Teacher scaffolded
  students explanations, How did that help you
  understand that better?

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Example Informational Text Features Lesson

• Microscopic Animals Project
• Read Aloud Teacher Modeling
• Teachers explains about diagrams
• Teacher draws a diagram of a microscopic animal
• Teacher models how to find a diagram
• Guided and Independent Experiences
• Children look through books related to project
  and mark diagrams with sticky notes
• Reflection
• Children share what they learned from the
  diagrams and about diagrams
• Children use checklist of literacy learning goals
  for unit
• Children write a reflection on Diagrams

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Example Vocabulary Strategies Lesson

• Read Aloud Teacher Modeling
• The teacher reads aloud from an informational
  text, thinking aloud and modeling ways to look
  for clues to word meaning in the surrounding text
  and text features.
• Guided and Independent Experiences
• Students work in pairs to read an informational
  texts related to project, marking unfamiliar
  words with sticky notes and looking for clues to
  word meaning.
• Reflection
• Students share what they learned from the text
  and ways they used text clues to determine the
  meaning of unfamiliar words.

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Example Writing Strategies Lesson

• Read Aloud Teacher Modeling
• Teacher models reading for information and adding
  information to a web
• Guided and Independent Experiences
• Students create a preliminary web on their
  project topic
• Students read for information to add to the web
• Reflection
• Students share their webs and what they learned
  about their topic

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Impact of PABIL

• We are conducting an exploratory study of the
  impact of PABIL.
• Analyses are underway. Thus far we have found
  that first graders in PABIL classrooms (2 units
  or approximately 40 hours) developed better
  overall informational writing skills. No effect
  was found for informational writing in second
  graders. Complete results will be posted when
  ready at msularc.org

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Building Informational Literacy through a
Project-Based Approach

• A project-based approach may not meet all of your
  curricular needs, but it does have much to offer
  as a means to build informational literacy.
• At this Institute you have already heard, and
  will continue to hear, about a number of
  approaches that are or that can complement
  project-based approaches.
• Best wishes in the important work you do!