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Susan
Florio-Ruane is the first to tell you that the idea was simply
to get teachers together to read ethnic autobiographies and
then discuss them. By reading the stories, the teachers could
gain a better understanding of culture in the context of an
increasingly diverse American classroom, and the literary
discourse could give them a feel for the powerful potential
of the book club idea for their students. There was no grand
design to expand it beyond the initial group of Lansing-area
teachers, or add other locations, or branch off into other
areas.
But
three years after the group of teachers first met as a class
and then as a book club, the idea has evolved into a network
of three teacher groups in Michigan linked by the Internet
and actively exploring different facets of literacy and
learning.
"It's
been amazing," says Florio-Ruane, who has worked closely
with Taffy Raphael of Oakland University in developing the
network. "For me, the network is all about supporting
thoughtful teachers and supporting reflective and engaged
teaching.
"And
at the same we are all learning about teacher learning and
literacy learning. We're trying to understand how a curriculum
can make sense for children in ways that allow them to be
active constructors of meaning. So it's been quite an exciting
time." The work of developing a network has been serendipitous.
Raphael, who had worked with the Florio-Ruane and the initial
group of educators while she was teaching at MSU, moved
to Oakland University two years ago. At Oakland, Raphael
gathered a group of teachers and started a book club there,
known as Book Club Plus Study Group.
Teachers
in that group had already had experiences in book clubs,
and focused on developing a curriculum that some of them
will begin implementing and studying throughout this school
year. Last year, Florio-Ruane began working with Bellevue
Elementary School in Detroit. She was the field instructor
for MSU interns, and began developing relationships with
administrators and teachers at the school. It was school
officials, she said, who approached her about starting a
study group focused on literacy.
For
Florio-Ruane, it was a perfect complement to the groups
in Rochester and Lansing. "This brought into the network
a very different kind of setting because it was urban and
low income and all the members of the study group worked
in the same building," Florio-Ruane said.
"What
I have come to love about our network as it has grown is
that the different groups have identified different key
issues." The group of teachers and administrators in
Detroit, known as the Literacy Circle, began reading and
discussing material produced by the Center for the Improvement
of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA), of which Florio-Ruane
and Raphael are both research team members. Meanwhile, Florio-Ruane
has moved forward in bolstering the burgeoning network.
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"For
me, the network is all about supporting thoughtful teachers
and supporting reflective and engaged teaching. And, concurrently,
we are gaining knowledge about teacher learning and literacy."
Susan Florio-Ruane
Over
the last two years, the groups have met at retreats and
all-day institutes and a computer network has been created
to foster online discussions. "One of the neatest things
is that we aren't isolating suburban teachers from urban
teachers and rural teachers," she said. "We are
beginning to break down some the geographic and economic
and social borders as the teachers begin to know one another
and each other's settings."
The
experience has greatly informed Florio-Ruane's research.
In fact, Florio-Ruane, Raphael and number of doctoral students
have published research through CIERA and, along with the
teachers, have made presentations at a number conferences
and meetings.
Through
the use of ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods, the
researcher have been documenting the effectiveness of book
club and autobiography as a teacher development model.
The
researchers have analyzed the learning of the book club
members in Lansing and have found that their participation
has become the means for conducting autobiographical studies
of their own lives and led to a more inclusive and nuanced
understanding of literacy, schooling and cultural identity.
The
experience, the researchers found, has made the teachers
more aware and sensitive to the different ways other cultures
use literacy in and out of school. The next phase, Florio-Ruane
said, is to assess student learning as the teachers implement
reading interventions inspired by their participation in
book clubs.
In
addition, Florio-Ruane is writing a book that she plans
to publish next year on the role of conversation and autobiography
in teachers' learning about culture. In the end, Florio-Ruane
said the growth and development of the network, now known
as the Teacher Learning Collaborative, has been among the
most gratifying projects of her career.
"For
me, this is one of the most interesting and rewarding projects
I've ever been part of from the point of view of what we
are learning and also the difference it seems to make for
the participants."
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