2. Bridging the Gap

    In Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, Doug Buehl outlines the potential reasons for academic gaps in disciplinary knowledge which can greatly affect disciplinary reading or understanding of those readings. As Buehl explains, students' identities as readers can potentially make reading in certain disciplines easy or difficult and prior knowledge or experiences can contribute to whether or not a student understands an academic reading (77-82). Buehl argues that in the field of History, in particular, students can have many difficulties with the academic reading because there are even more layers of obstacles including: generational experience or memories which altar understanding of historical events, misled knowledge due to non-academic sources (media, movies, video games, social media, novels, etc.), or vast amounts of vocabulary or assumed knowledge embedded in texts of which students may not have any understanding (82-84, 95-97). In order to help support students in this complicated process of understanding disciplinary reading in History/Social Sciences, Buehl suggests that teachers should find ways to make the material relevant to students by connecting it to their identity (92-93). More specifically, Buehl argues that teachers should frame learning in history and selection of material in any way possible to make it relevant to their students (be it culture, experiences, existing knowledge, ideas, interests, philosophies, or future plans)(92-98). It is with this approach, Buehl says, students are able to “merge everyday knowledge resources with disciplinary learning” and in turn, student identities become more “compatible with reading, writing, and thinking through different disciplinary lenses” (92-93).
    In my teaching, I have attempted with a number of struggling students to bridge the gap between academic/disciplinary knowledge and their own experiences or existing knowledge. With one student, in particular, he/she (I am using he/she for the sake of confidentiality) would be considered “low” on the scale of academic knowledge and becomes discouraged in class, especially in regards to reading. With this student, I have attempted to find ways to allow the student to manifest his/her identity into projects and assignments, with the intent that self-expression can help aid the student toward success. For example, one particular assignment revolved around the Bill of Rights, and students were assigned a graphic organizer wherein they had to write the Amendments, copy and paste them in their original written forms, re-write the Amendments in their own words, include a supplemental picture for each, create a mnemonic device to remember each, and finally, include a meme relevant to each Amendment so as to better remember them. As for my focus student, I know that this particular student very much enjoys video games and internet “meme” culture, which was the reason for the meme addition. I thought that the student's vast knowledge of internet culture and memes would fuel a process where he/she would read the Amendments more carefully in order to find a more relevant meme for the project. In other words, I believed the student would have to know each Amendment prior to adding a meme appropriate for that entry on the Bill of Rights, which could help bridge between his/her enjoyment, knowledge, and experience of internet culture and the material at hand.

An example of the project (this is not the focus student's project, to protect confidentiality)

    My experiment was met with mixed success. The student (and other students) were excited with the idea that they were enabled to add a meme to their Bill of Rights graphic organizer, and the student did finish the project all the way through (which has been a struggle from time to time if the reading is too heavy). The student was able to rephrase many of the rights into his/her own words, and did indeed become more engaged and immersed in the project. However, the detrimental side effect was that the purpose of the assignment for the student became the memes and not the content. On numerous occasions, I put a stop to the student's long quests and wasted time spent on finding memes for the project. In other words, the search for the memes became a distraction and the thrill of looking for the them overshadowed the academic content.
    In future projects, instead of choosing a novel aspect of students' identities to tie to a project or academic content, I would devise more ways to have students critically think about the ways in which the content ties to their identities. For example, in my unit about Native American Indian removal, students would have to recall in writing their own experiences regarding their emotions regarding migration (i.e. a time when they had to move, or a friend/family member had to move, or how they would feel if they were forced to move, etc.). After completing a writing or other tangible product which revolves around their own experiences, then they could read or research accounts of the “Trail of Tears.” Because they will have tapped into their own emotions, thoughts, experiences, and ideas regarding migration prior to going into information on the “Trail of Tears,” students would be able to establish an emotional and experiential connection upon delving into the content. In actuality, this fits more in line with Buehl's suggestions to merge student knowledge with content, instead of being a mere supplemental novelty.

Some questions I would ask readers to consider:
    •    Do you agree with Buehl's approaches? Why or why not?
    •    In what ways would you merge student identity and academic content?
    •    Is there another strategy you would use to help students with lack of disciplinary knowledge?

An additional resource: Don Bender, "Funds of Knowledge Theoretical Model"