Spotlight on Literacy
Student Disposition: WILF

by Rebecca McKay Director, Literacy and Professional Development

On the road again…
Recently on a site visit, I was lucky to participate in a debriefing session with literacy fellows, coaches, and teachers new to the Cornerstone network. The setting was in a Cornerstone Foundation school immediately following lessons hosted by two teachers new to the profession. Starting their career in a Cornerstone school a few years earlier, teachers Sarah Moylan and Jacqueline Hebert had just demonstrated that there was no limit to the potential created by a school desiring to bring focus to instruction. They were “new teachers” at Harris Elementary just a few years ago. This year you will find teachers sitting alongside a coach on any given Wednesday in Sarah and Jackie’s classrooms. As the teachers and their students go about the business of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, the coach explains the structures, rituals, and routines of the literacy block. What a testament to the power of embedded staff development!

At the lesson’s end, Literacy Fellow Wendy Seger asked, “So what did you see? What is different about these classrooms and the children?”

The answer came in one word: disposition.  Wendy and I looked at each other thinking how lucky we were to be sitting at the table with teachers from Lynch School who had just observed in the lab classrooms.  Just the day before we had discussed disposition with the Harris team as we planned the January 10 Struggling Reader Focus Group. The group around the table savored the opportunity to take part in a professional conversation around the disposition of the students to do the hard work required of readers. As we talked over each other, our thoughts tumbled out and we interrupted and competed for a turn to add to the conversation.

Discussion about disposition revolved around the active student conversations taking place during lessons. The students dug deep into their reading and strategy work with total engagement. The connections made to lessons and texts students read caused the classrooms to bubble over with a mood of intensity and satisfaction in successfully completing hard reading work.  All who participated in the debrief went away with a strong desire to make this learning accessible to Lynch School students as well.

Searching for the source of student disposition…    
I had many questions about the disposition of Harris students and phoned Deb Lantaigne the next week to report the success of Wednesday’s observation and debrief session. I retold the conversation about disposition and asked why these Wednesday sessions were causing such a stir.  Deb thought the teachers who were writing and demonstrating the lessons made the process transparent and clear to students as well as teachers.  I dwelt on this idea for days….their focus on writing clear descriptions of teacher expectations in the form of what we know as the WILF or “What I am looking for…”  What part did the WILF play in building student disposition during the model lessons? 
    
I revisited my notes and resources on disposition.  I reread Lillian Katz’s definition of disposition and found the following:

A disposition is a tendency to exhibit frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a pattern of behavior that is directed to a broad goal. In the case of curiosity, for example, children can be said to have the disposition to be curious if they typically and frequently respond to their environment by exploring, examining, and asking questions about it. (Katz, http://ericae.net/edo/ED363454.htm)

I thought about an observation earlier in the school year at Harris. Terry Powe, Springfield reading supervisor, and I participated in a lesson observation in Sara Moylan’s classroom. We sat alongside Balliet teachers and explained what was happening in the literacy block. I watched and studied the children just as we learned to do in Lesson Study.

I noticed the students were diligent in their efforts to fulfill the requirements of rigor as set forth by the teacher on the first twenty days of school. The students were acutely aware of the teacher’s desire to show the full literacy block and all elements of crafting, composing meaning, and reflection. It occurred to me that these children were serving as knowledgeable others to the teachers. They were actually showing, not telling, what rigorous work students do during the literacy block. The opportunity for these children to show what students do when all is going well in a literacy block is a motivator that all Cornerstone schools could utilize as a part of observation sessions.

Suddenly, I realized this idea of what students do is directly connected to the teacher’s expectations found in the WILF.  Disposition to meet the broad goal of “composing meaning” in a literacy lesson started with the clarity of the teacher’s expectations expressed as a WILF.  This clarity provides a successful teacher observation experience while paving the way for student achievement of the broad goals in the literacy block.  Student behavior patterns to meet expectations (WILF’s) over time build disposition.

This realization made my previous conceptualizations seem naïve and immature. Could it be that I am experiencing what all learners do when they construct meaning and reflect?  Whatever! It feels useful and connected to other thinking that is circulating in my brain around the Winter Conference.

Carrying this connection into a new context...
The 2008 Winter Conference is 50 days away and my mind is full of science, inquiry, and literacy connections! My fascination with the disposition of the Harris readers and my new understanding of the power of a carefully crafted WILF grows as I think about the upcoming demonstration lessons in Muscogee schools. How could the power of the WILF support student disposition to do the rigorous work of composing meaning? How could this be useful in the demonstration lessons? Where should the Muscogee coaches and teachers commence?

Starting with the vision of the National Science Education Standards of a scientifically literate person is a beginning.

“Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.” (NRC, 1996, p. 22)

Robert Yager (2004) uses this definition to define what a scientifically literate person can do:

• Ask for, find or determine answers to questions about everyday events.
• Describe, explain, and predict natural occurrences.
• Read and understand science articles.
• Engage in conversation around science articles and the truth of their conclusions.
• Search out and identify scientific issues that impact local and national decisions.
• Express opinions about issues in the community that involve science and technology.
• Evaluate the quality of scientific information based upon the source and method to generate it.
• Pose arguments around scientific topics.
• Evaluate scientific arguments using evidence as the criteria.
• Apply scientific conclusions in suitable contexts.

These actions of a scientifically literate person can be compiled into a list of active verbs for the creation of science and literacy lesson WILF’s. By putting the active verbs in a chart, displaying the chart, and pointing out that scientists and citizens interested in science take action, Winter Conference demonstration teachers can clarify the doing of science and literacy for their students as well as the teachers observing in their classrooms.

Continuing to travel and learn…
After admitting to naïve and immature conceptions of teacher expectations and their creation of WILF’s, and the building of student disposition, I find solace in the words of Christine H. Leland, Jerome C. Harste, and Caroline J. Shockley:

      “Being committed to social change is a good place to start, but it is not
        sufficient for actually achieving it. Teachers who are always asking
       questions and are aware of the limits of their own knowing have a far
       better chance of making a difference than those who think they
       already know everything.” (Leland, C., Harste, J., &Shockley, C.,
       2007, p. 134)
 
If we would all take time to reflect over our questions, concerns, and most urgent desires to know, opportunities to help children certainly could grow. It is my desire that the 2008 Winter Conference forces each of us into that uncertain place of admitting that we do not know it all and gives us opportunities to see and know a better way.

Leland, C., Harste, J., & Shockley, C. (2007). Literacy education, equity, and attitude. Language Arts, v. 85, 2, pp. 134-143.

Katz, L. (1993). Dispositions as educational goals. [Retrieved November 30, 2007 @ http://ericae.net/edo/ED363454.htm]

National Research Council (NRC). (1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Yager, R. (2004). Science is not written, but it can be written about. In Saul, W. (Ed.)  Crossing borders in literacy and science instruction: Perspectives on theory and practice (pp.95-.109). Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.