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Notes about the Centerfold Lesson:
Literacy
as a KAT Issue: Using
KAT to Enhance Literacy, Comprehension & Civic Action
Okay,
educators may think, literacy is certainly a basic curriculum
issue…But
how can such an issue make a meaningful KAT project?
Actually, as this issue of KAT Talk demonstrates,
literacy is also a fundamental local and national problem .
Weak literacy impacts on hiring and job performance. Poor literacy
accounts for life-threatening errors in medication. Inadequate
student performance on statewide proficiency tests translates
into thousands of schools being singled out for repercussions
under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policies.
After-school homework help programs are rising to the occasion.
Literacy organizations mobilize senior corps and employee volunteers
to mentor at-risk students. Service learning coordinators promote
tutoring opportunities in-house and across communities. Libraries
sponsor adult literacy classes and book clubs. Numerous initiatives
place new books in the hands of children whose homes have no
reading materials other than perhaps a Bible, a phone book,
and a TV schedule. But the problem is far from solved.
The KAT
lesson in this KAT Talk is
geared to helping your students take co-ownership of the
literacy issue .
This
lesson suggests that your students divide themselves up among
the different categories presented, in order to research
various important aspects of the literacy problem. We emphasize
an inquiry approach, and offer several questions to get students
started with their study. As the students gather their information,
the class will come together to share new knowledge and insights.
As your students
complete the research phase of the project, they’ll want to begin considering what they might do
to help address the literacy issues particularly problematic
in and around their own community. Partnering with relevant
groups may kindle specific ideas – from launching book
drives to establishing reading clubs.
You’ll want to encourage students to view literacy
as an ongoing growth opportunity. Make sure they don’t
limit their own concept of literacy to basic functions, especially
since broader vocabulary and more sophisticated syntax become
keys to higher level understanding, enjoyment and career potential.
The more proficient their communication capacity becomes, the
more choices open to them and the more impact they can make.
Make sure you check out the Resources section of this issue
of KAT Talk for ideas to support this KAT
lesson.
CenterFold Lesson
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