Advanced Placement Curricula: Moving From Exclusion to Accessibility With Disciplinary Literacy

• In Event: 21.025 - Changing Access to Literacy Through Disciplinary Literacy

Abstract

This paper describes the research effort of an interdisciplinary team consisting of high school teachers, literacy education researchers, a historian, and history education professors to render Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula accessible for traditionally marginalized students who are often excluded from such advanced courses. In a collaborative effort, the team employed a framework to systematically modify the existing curricula so that students in two high schools in a large, urban school district could access and learn the course content. The findings explore (a) teachers’ evolving professional identities; (b) the complexities of defining literacy from within a discipline; and (c) classroom observations, which indicate that students were more engaged.

Authors

• David G. O Brien, University of Minnesota

• Laura Lemanski, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Megan McDonald VanDeventer, Weber State University

• Danielle J Heinle, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Deborah R. Dillon, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Robert Poch, University of Minnesota

• YongJun Lee, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Patricia G. Avery, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities