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//[|Great English Resource]// //Welcome to SED 555: Liter////acies in the Disciplines//

The graduate students of Rhode Island College's Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (ASTL) are in-service teachers across the disciplines at the middle or high school level. In SED 555, the final course in their masters program, this community of professional teachers conducts action research in their classrooms. They look closely at their students, giving particular attention to students' development as readers and writers in their disciplines. They also design, implement and analyze literacy-based lessons.

The overall goal for our work together is the improvement of students’ reading and writing skills in their discipline-based courses, as well as in out-of-school life. Many students manifest what we can only call “an alienation from text.” They are intimidated and overwhelmed by any text that seems formal, or academic, or that contains a specialized vocabulary. Although they may act uninterested or resistant to reading, research suggests that alienation from text is the source of these ways of acting. Overcoming this alienation is our goal. By allowing students to confront difficulties, to think of reading as a process and to have an opportunity to talk back to texts through their own talk and writing we begin to bridge this distance.

We invite you to explore the teaching/learning theories and strategies this professional community found meaningful.