Renita Schmidt & Paul Lee Thomas 
21st Century Literacy 
If We Are Scripted, Are We Literate?

Renita Schmidt and P. L. Thomas The guiding mission of the teacher education program in the university where we teach is to create teachers who are scholars and leaders. While the intent of that mission is basically sound in theory—we instill the idea that teachers at all levels are professionals, always learning and growing in knowledge—that theory, that philosophical underpinning does not insure that the students who complete our program are confident about the act or performance of teaching. In our unique program, students work closely with one teacher and classroom for the entire senior year and then are supervised and mentored during their first semester of teaching; the program is heavily field-based, and it depends on the effectiveness of mentoring throughout the methods coursework and the first semester of full-time teaching. Students tell us this guidance and support is invaluable, and yet we feel the disjuncture between university and school just as many of you in more traditional student teaching settings. Students hear “best practice” information from us in methods classes and they receive ample exposure to the research supporting our field, but have a hard time implementing research-based practices in their cla- room settings and an even harder time finding it in the classrooms around them.

Table of Content

The Bureaucratic Script.- Standards, Standards Everywhere and Not a Spot to Think.- Rubrics, Scoring Guides, and Testing, Testing, Testing.- The Corporate Script.- Marketing Child Readers: Ranking and Sorting.- English as a Scripted Language.- The Student Script.- “When Are We Going To Do English?”.- How School Works: Raise Your Hands When You Want to Learn.- The Parent and Public Script.- “Why Don’t You Mark the Errors on My Child’s Papers?”—Explaining Yourself Theoretically and Professionally.- “Why Aren’t You Teaching C. S. Lewis?”—Challenges and Expectations from Outside School.- The Administrative Script.- But Are They Ready To Do Best Practices?.- Building and Department Politics—Talking English.- Beyond Scripts to Literacy.- Literacy as Action—Empowering Students.- Assessing Our Way into Instruction: What Teachers Know and How They Know It.