Classroom Caffeine

A Conversation with Stephanie Lemley

• Lindsay Persohn • Season 4 • Episode 1

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Dr. Stephanie Lemley talks to us about agriculture literacies and connecting with our communities. Stephanie is known for her work in the areas of disciplinary literacies and specifically agricultural education. Dr. Lemley recently served as a Mississippi Education Policy Fellow. She is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Mississippi State University.

Resources from this episode:

To cite this episode: Persohn, L. (Host). (2023, July 11). A conversation with Stephanie Lemley (Season 4, No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI:10.5240/0731-D2F6-B040-7F75-8B2C-T

Connect with Classroom Caffeine at www.classroomcaffeine.com or on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Lindsay Persohn:

Education research has a problem. The work of brilliant education researchers often doesn't reach the practice of brilliant teachers. Classroom caffeine is here to help. In each episode, I talk with the top education researcher or expert educator about what they have learned from their research and experiences. In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Lumley talks to us about agriculture literacies and connecting with our communities. Stephanie is known for her work in the areas of disciplinary literacies and specifically Agricultural Education, Dr. Lemley recently served as a Mississippi Education Policy Fellow. She is an associate professor of literacy education at Mississippi State University. For more information about our guest, stay tuned to the end of this episode. So pour a cup of your favorite drink. And join me your host, Lindsay Persohn. For classroom caffeine research to energize your teaching practice. Stephanie, thank you for joining me. Welcome to the show.

Stephanie Lemley:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Lindsay Persohn:

Thank you. So from your own experiences in education, will you share with us one or two moments that inform your thinking now?

Stephanie Lemley:

Sure, I don't know if these are really moments or just phrases that I keep repeating myself over and over, they're kind of become my mantra in life. The first one is to always keep learning. A lot of my research that I currently do now and work with teachers is vastly different from my own educational background. And so just to kind of give a little bit of detail about that my teaching background is in social studies primarily. And then middle school reading and creative writing. When I went to Middle Tennessee State for my undergrad, I got a degree in political science and secondary education. And I always really felt comfortable with social studies. It was something I was very passionate about enjoyed in school. And when I went to college, I just thought that'd be the perfect career path for me is to become a social studies teacher. And so when I moved to Florida, I started teaching high school social studies. And that led me to getting into some literacy work, particularly working with other teachers in the school site that I was at, and then getting a master's in reading and then pursuing a PhD and literacy studies. And while I was there at USF my dissertation work looked at high school, AP US History teachers and their disciplinary literacy beliefs, knowledge and practices and their implementation of disciplinary literacy in the classroom. So social studies really was my my main area of focus for quite a while when I was hired at Mississippi State. Mississippi State is a land grant institution, it is a an institution that has a very proud ag program and a college of that medicine and lots of opportunities there. And so I was afforded to collaborate with some people in human sciences, which is where agriculture education is housed at Mississippi State. And I served as the literacy expert on some grant works and applications and some other projects with them some theses and dissertation work as well. And that led me to some grant work with the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, specifically looking at professional development agricultural literacy. Now my mantra is always keep learning, because AG is very foreign or was very foreign to me. As a city girl from memphis Tennessee initially, I was very agriculturally illiterate. And so when I got these opportunities to work with some colleagues in human science, it really started changing my thinking. It caused me to really continuing the education process in a completely different field than I ever thought I would be in my husband is Animal and Dairy Science faculty. And so in 2021, we applied for a professional development and agricultural literacy grant on animal science, plant science and meat science content primarily with some literacy thrown in. specifically working with agricultural literacy and in the reading, writing, speaking and listening practices of scientist and agriculturalists and a little bit of teacher leadership. And so we targeted sixth through 12th grade Ag teachers and science teachers for this particular grant. And while I was the primary investigator of the grant and the coordinator of the PD, and primarily did literacy work with the teachers, I was able to do some of the science or the Ag experiences. And so part of that opportunity allowed me to ultrasound and palpate, a beef cow added our beef units, which was a learning experience. And so when I do professional development with teachers, I really want to participate in and experience as much as they are going to. So it's more of an authentic practice that I am also learning with them and doing the things that they're doing. So I try to participate in pretty much the entire PD as much as I can, I love to be there for the entire day, or week, you know, go into all of the different activities. And so part of that allowed me to learn more about reproductive physiology of beef cattle and how we can determine or detect pregnancy. And so this was a an amazing learning opportunity and learning experience. And so, you know, prior to my getting involved with this grant, in particular, my interaction with agriculture, even though my husband was an ag was still fairly limited. I was agriculturally illiterate. So I didn't know a lot about where products came from. I was one of those individuals that if you asked me where our milk came from, I probably said Kroeger, not even thinking about the dairy and the whole process. And so getting to step out of my comfort zone getting to have these opportunities with colleagues from different departments really informed my thinking, because it allowed me to understand more deeply that as teachers, we're always learning, right, we are always continuing to evolve in our practice and learn new things. And we can, in particular, get opportunities to experience those new things and then find ways to share them with others. And so I've been able to do that by sharing my experiences both with other in service teachers around the state of Mississippi, but then also my own pre service teachers in the College of Education. And so getting to host some agricultural literacy seminars for them, leading them on thinking about how we can bring agriculture education into our science standards and our social studies standards, thinking about how we can do things with different types of text in that field as well. And giving them opportunities to learn more about where they're from, in particular. And so, you know, Mississippi is a very agricultural based state, and a lot of our students go back to their home counties, or move somewhere else in the state and get put in situations where they're dealing with a lot of families that have ag experience either on the animal side of the plant side, and opening their eyes up to more of what the state has to offer, in regards to content that we can bring into our classes and make things more authentic for our students. Because agriculture content in particular, is one of those areas that's very hands on, it's very often in content in states where agriculture is a big industry. And so through this work, I've seen teachers really embrace these experiences and then take that back and share with their with their students. You know, learning really is this continual process, and we always can share our experiences with others and continue to just teach others in a variety of ways. The other I guess piece along with that is just the fact that it's really okay to get out of your comfort zone and to try new things. And I think that's really important as a teacher, to not get complacent. And that fact that you might feel very uncomfortable trying new curriculum or having a new experience, but that's okay. And we're all feeling the same way. For me. I was so agriculturally illiterate as I mentioned before, and incredibly nervous doing anything related to AG because I didn't want to mess up I didn't want to embarrass myself. But having those experiences really allowed me to to learn and really embrace an area of the curriculum that sometimes doesn't get as much attention as other areas. In Mississippi in particular, there's a lot of professional development for teachers, but not a lot of agriculture, professional development, and so Ag teachers might, or teachers that want to incorporate agricultural literacy into their classrooms might get an opportunity to go to an ELA or literacy PD or a science PD math PD, but not something that pertains necessarily to the content they're teaching. And so you know, having those opportunity He's getting out of your comfort zone, trying new things really embracing the learning process. Just something that I think really has reaffirmed to me how much I love education and just being in this field and wanting to share that with other people.

Lindsay Persohn:

Well, Stephanie, your energy is certainly very inspiring. And I, I would, I would guess that many folks, particularly after hearing you talk about some of your experiences might also consider themselves to be a bit ag illiterate, you know, we do live in a day and age where we can be so separated from things like where our food comes from, and what those processes actually look like, as you said, milk doesn't really come from Kroger, right, that's just sort of where it ends up before it lands in our household. So this is really important stuff, something that you we've known each other for a long time for the benefit of listeners. But something you might not know about me is that I was involved in the FFA and ag department in high school, I was I think I was vice president of our FFA chapter as well as I don't know, something like historian and I did dairy judging citrus judging all kinds of things at our youth fair. So So yeah, I know exactly what you're saying here that, you know, sometimes we become so far removed from these processes that we don't really understand where you know, where our food comes from, I do think that COVID changed that a little bit, we paid a little bit more attention when things weren't on the shelves, but that certainly, it leaves a lot for us to learn. So I also really love your overarching messages of always keep learning and it's okay to get out of your comfort zone. I think that this is such an important mindset for any educator. So I love the way you highlight that, while sort of underscoring it with lots of ag literacy tidbits. So thank you for that. Thank you. So what do you want listeners to know about your work?

Stephanie Lemley:

Well, I would say a couple of things. One, just the importance of agricultural literacy. And so we think about agricultural literacy. And we look at what that term means, essentially, the definition that is primarily used over and over and over again, is from the National Research Council's 1988 report. So quite a while ago, report that says, essentially, an individual is aware of the food and fiber systems. And so understanding where your food comes from understanding how, you know, products are made, but they leave out the literate portion, right. And so in disciplinary literacies, we talk a lot about those habits of mind, those habits of practice, what disciplinarians really do to engage with text in their discipline, to read to write to speak like a member of that discipline. And so for agricultural literacy, that definition is not really there, you know, so we think about scientific literacy, we can think about not just the idea of understanding science content, but understanding the habits of mind that a scientist engages in the types of texts that they read the graphs, the charts, the tables, you know, how they write in that field, the same thing with a historian. So going back to my social studies, background, you know, Sam Weinberg and his work with the historian heuristics, sourcing and contextualization and collaboration, and even close reading their history lens. And ag literacy is not really there, the definition that primarily has been around and continues to evolve by researchers in the field of ag ed, is really on the content of agriculture. So understanding, you know, where your food comes from understanding, you know, the cultural aspects, the societal aspects, the environmental aspects, but leaving out that whole idea of the literate practice. And so for me, one of the things that I'm really intrigued with, is trying to figure out what that is. And so what that process is, what does it mean for an agriculturalists? To read a text, for example, going back to my husband, he's an animal scientist, specifically, he does a lot of work with reproduction, with cattle. And so a lot of those texts are not your traditional texts that you quote, unquote, would read. in that field, he can view an ultrasound and knows exactly what he's seen on the on the screen, he can use a thermal camera, and take pictures and look at different distributions of heat in color and understand what that means in regards to that cow that he is he's looking at or the herd. Those are text. And so one thing that I'm really intrigued on is number one, what do agriculturalists read? And then how do they write? How are they different than other scientists? You know, because a lot of times when we think about disciplinary literacy in the schools, we talk a lot about science and social studies and we We all put those areas in one, when in fact science is physics and astronomy and geology and biology and chemistry, agriculture, but within AG, there's plant science and soil science and meat, science and animals that there's all these different areas. And so what does it really mean to be agriculturally literate? And how can we bring those practices in to help our students make sense of what they're reading and writing in those classrooms, not just in ag ed classrooms, but in any classroom that a teacher wants to bring in agricultural content, you know, in the state of Mississippi, fourth grade is Mississippi studies. And so there's a whole section of the standards on geography, there's a whole section of the standards on the history of the state. And so bringing in text and letting students learn about the Delta and the row crops that are growing, they're letting them learn about aquaculture, you know, products Vardaman, in the sweet potato capital of the world and the plant side of things. You know, there's so many different ways to bring ag into our classrooms to really help us meet state standards. But how do we teach our kids how to access those texts, and really learn how to understand them in a way that agriculturalists would at a grade appropriate level. One of the other things that I would like listeners to learn about me is when I talk to my students about disciplinary literacy practices in my K to six content and disciplinary literacy methods course, I talked to them about the idea of teaching them to use those practices with their kids in a grade appropriate way. And that in kindergarten, we can have our students asking questions, making a hypothesis, sourcing a text, and that might look different than a fifth grader or a sixth grader, just because of the fact that the practice can get more complex and more deep, so to speak. As you go through school, you know, you can ask more questions you can you can do some of those things. So when I talked to my students about accessing agricultural text in a grade appropriate way, for example, I talk a lot about vocabulary in the classroom and how our students can learn terminology. And they can utilize those terms. But again, that level of complexity might differ slightly depending on grade level. So for example, I have an almost six year old going to kindergarten in the fall and he loves to learn about what his daddy does at the farm. And one of the texts that I use with my students to kind of highlight this is the milk makers by Gail Gibbons, I love Gail Gibbons text, she's got some phenomenal books, specifically related to to ag and to science, but also some beautiful social studies text as well that are really great to use in primary grades. And so my almost kindergartener could learn the term udder, u DD ER are about being read aloud. Gail Gibbons, the milk makers, right, we can talk about what another is what it's being used for in that cow. A high school student might learn about a cow's udder while reading an extension publication. You know, extension publications are written for the public's consumption, maybe producers in the field to read, they're written in a very clean, easy, X easy way to explain information. And so if I have a, an extension publication, let's say on dairy cattle, judging going back to what you were saying earlier, Lindsey, then a student in a high school or middle school classroom, might learn more about that specific part of the cow though that publication but we're both teaching discipline specific terminology. We're both having our students learning about agriculture and ways that they can communicate through vocabulary precise terminology about a given field. And so I'm really intrigued on how we can do more of that teaching discipline specific practices, and really uncovering what they are specifically those comprehension practices and those writing practices in the field. And I'm trying, I'm just starting to really try to scratch the surface there and working with faculty on some some research ideas for that.

Lindsay Persohn:

That's great information. And I'm glad you also mentioned a book title there. I'm wondering if you have any kind of resource lists that you've compiled that we might be able to share with listeners?

Stephanie Lemley:

Sure. Yes. One phenomenal resource just to mention in regards to lesson planning is National Ag in the Classroom, National Ag in the Classroom is I believe it's run by Utah State University or it's housed there, Utah State University right now. They have lesson plans for K through 12, students, science, math, ela, you know, there's some art opportunities there, you can find things for across the grade levels and in a variety of subjects. And so a lot of them are, you know, very hands on, but there's a lot of really nice reading that goes along with them. And so what's really neat about those lesson plans is they provide you with vocabulary to teach, they provide you with a Background section. So if this is not your area of expertise, but you still want to teach your kids about it, you can access that information and share the kind of the history and the Background section with them. They do a lot of cross curricular work, which is really nice. So you can bring in science and math together, or ELA and social studies or ELA and science into the same classroom. And so that's a really great resource. I'm also on a USDA grant right now called farm to classroom, which is a grant that Dr. Carly Morrison, who's in our School of Human Sciences and myself are both co PI's on. And for that grant, in particular, we're working with Mississippi teachers K to 12, on agricultural literacy, and how you can bring it into the core four in your class. So English, science, social studies and mathematics. And so for Mississippi, in particular, we have some Mississippi based lessons that are really neat, that I could share out, you could always bring them into any other classroom as well, but they pertain to the Mississippi commodities. So what is recognized by Farm Bureau as the products that we sell in our state agricultural commodities. And that's a really, you know, really neat opportunity project. Learning Tree is another great program that does some phenomenal work with resources, natural resources, as well. So I can certainly get you some, some things. But then again, Gail Gibbons is just phenomenal. As an author, I can't preach more about how much I love Gail, if I could be Gail, when I grow up, I think I'd be okay. Because she's just phenomenal I mean, if you corn, she's a book called corn, and if you can make corn sounds super awesome. And so cool. You know, I mean, that's just amazing, right? I mean, yeah, it's such a well done book, you have to purchase it and share it with your students. So I can't sing her praises more, I preach about her every every semester in class.

Lindsay Persohn:

That's great. Yeah, thank you, and, and anything that you do have compiled, we can certainly link that on your guest page, and also in the show notes for your episode. So thank you so much for that. And as you've been talking about your work with a Stephanie, the phrase that my mantra that keeps ringing through my mind is that everything is connected, right? We might think of agriculture as being some specialized field, which of course it is, but it is also related to economics, health, it is a part of reading science, social studies, math, you know, all of the above. Everything is so very connected. And so I hope that that kind of thinking will also prompt listeners to think about how they can bring ag concepts into other lessons, if they feel as though this isn't something they have time carved out for in their day.

Stephanie Lemley:

Yes, I think what you said is just perfect there that everything is connected. And so you know, we're thinking about in a, you know, ela classroom, and we're meeting those informational text standards, going back to National Ag in the Classroom, they have little newspapers, on different ag topics that you can, that you can buy, get a class set of 30 of them, and they're relatively cheap. And you can use them to teach about text structures, you can use use them to teach about making sense of charts and graphs. So how to read data, you know, there's so much that you can do with them. And you can ELA classroom or you could use them in a science classroom or a social studies classroom or a math classroom, we're thinking about making a context for our mathematical learning, right, and how important it is to see not just give students problems on a page that have no contextual component to them. And so AG is such a great way to do that. And there are so many resources out there that are pre made, that you don't have to be like you have to recreate the wheel, you know, and that's something that I think might give people a little bit more give the listeners a little bit or assuring that they can do this because there are things out there made for you, so that you don't have to now go learn all about soybeans, for example, to now teach Ag in your classroom, you can utilize resources that are made for you done really well and then implement in your classroom and it gives your students an opportunity to do some hands on learning. So and research skills. So, last summer one of the things that I did with some teachers, I had a two week professional development, it was called acre, agricultural science professional developments. And it was on meat science, plant science, animal science, specifically, mainly cattle, although we did hit on other livestock, and then literacy instruction and teacher leadership. And so when the lessons that we did, for example, from National Ag in the Classroom was beef based burgers versus plant based burgers, and so Beyond Meat, and then Morningstar veggie burgers and all of those things. And so we were able to bring in some samples, and have the teachers investigate what those products were made from. So we got to do some research, they got to practice some research skills, putting together some anchor charts on each product. And then we got to do some sampling and tasting and kind of ranking our preference order and things. And that's a really cool opportunity and really neat experience. So one of our acre teachers, Miss Tammy bright, duplicated the lesson this past year with her AP environmental science class. And so, again, practicing some of those research skills, getting the students to look up what is valid information online, you know, reliability of Sources, bringing in all kinds of critical thinking components. And so all of that is just, again, a premade lesson, all she had to really do is purchase some of those products and have her students cook them and then taste them. And so you know, really awesome opportunity. We've done desktop greenhouses, as part of our, our work. And so bringing in, you know, the plant science piece, I've done DNA extraction from strawberries in kindergarten all the way up through working with high school teachers. And again, kind of how you approach it and talk about DNA, genetically modified organisms, all of those things, berries, certainly in kindergarten, we're going to be talking more about just strawberries and what berries are. And I read again, a Gail Gibbons book called berries. I just love her work. She's so phenomenal, that again, you know, pre made lesson, I modified according to the grade, and the kindergarten students loved it, you know, and I've taught that in probably three or four kindergarten classes now in the Starkville area. And you know, just a really cool opportunity. And the kids are excited about it. When they come home and tell their parents, they got to extract DNA from a strawberry today and the whole process of that. So really neat opportunities there.

Lindsay Persohn:

Yeah, for sure. What a cool experience for young people to not only see that come to fruition, but also, you know, to spark their interest for the future as well, right, because this is never a one and done kind of experience. But I think it could prompt other taste tests or other conversations about DNA and genetic modifications to plants and animals. And I love the idea of a desktop greenhouse. That sounds like a lot of fun. So Stephanie, given the challenges of today's educational climate, what message do you want teachers to hear?

Stephanie Lemley:

So I'm going to try not to get emotional, because I always get emotional. When I talk about teachers, two things really get me crying pomp and circumstance. So talking about graduation, I cry. Every time I hear pomp and circumstance, it doesn't matter if I'm walking into a graduation, or if it's on TV, I'm boo hooing. And teachers make me cry and make me cry in the sense that I see you. And I still respect the work that you're doing. And I really appreciate you. Right, teaching is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be a teacher. And they're not. And just the sheer amount of gratitude that I have for our public school or private school or charter school, every teacher, our daycare, you know, teachers, my son's teachers from the infant room to now bless them. I mean, you know, I so appreciate and respect and love what they do. It makes me so mad when people don't, and they don't value what they do. And so I want to tell them, first of all, that I see you and I appreciate you. And I see all the work that goes in and out of being a teacher and I respect you so much because it is hard. And people don't don't know what they're getting into until they get into it. You know, and those of us that have taught know how much work it really is and how wonderful of a profession it is and how you really deserve all the respect in the world and all the pay, but we're not going to get into all of that, you know. So that's first. And then second, a little bit of what we touched on earlier, the fact that collaboration is really key here, right, some of these experiences that you can do in your classroom, collaborate with each other, you work with each other, you know, we don't always have to do things on our own teaching is not a silo, you know, we need to lean on each other, we need to work with each other. We're in a time right now, where teachers are so overloaded with 1,000,001 things that they have to do. And so collaborate with each other, collaborate with your peers, collaborate with people at other school sites, get opportunities to form partnerships with each other, you have faculty at universities, collaborate with them, you know, I, I love going into classrooms, and I rarely turn down an opportunity to go in and work with a teacher and do a lesson or a couple of lessons. And, you know, I know there's a lot of University personnel that want that opportunity to and we're here to help just collaborate with each other, and conquer the world. Because that teachers drive every other career, we wouldn't have anyone else in this world, working without teachers to get them there. I just I just love the teaching profession.

Lindsay Persohn:

Thank you. I you know, I think that's such an important point too, about collaborating. And I think specifically about reaching out to collaborate with your your universities. I know when I was a classroom teacher, that was probably the furthest thing from my mind to think that I could reach out to a local university or, or even a not so local university, particularly now that we've gotten so adept at working remotely, I don't know that I would have ever realized that that was an option. And so I hope that listeners do know that there are so many folks who work in higher education who want to partner with classroom teachers in order to, like you're doing support their professional development, or sometimes it's working to support their students directly. So what an important message to share.

Stephanie Lemley:

And, you know, depending on your state, in regards to University personnel, if your state has extension offices, extension is a wonderful resource. Not only are extension agents, individuals that can come into classrooms and do lessons, but they also can provide you with materials if you don't want them to come in and do something and you want to do it all yourself. In Mississippi, for example, we have an extension office and every county. And so you know, even if you don't have one in every county, every every state has a land grant institution. And so you can reach out to those individuals there. So that's another way to bring agriculture into your classroom, you know, you're not necessarily comfortable teaching it yourself, reach out to extension, have them come in as guest speakers, get your kids to go on a field trip, you know, if that would be possible. And again, that's giving them an amazing learning opportunity. But reaching out to those University personnel where this is their job, you know, extension agents are supposed to work with the public. And so bringing that all together is a is a wonderful way to start building a relationship with that local university or not. So local university.

Lindsay Persohn:

Yeah. What a great tip. What a great tip for folks. Well, Stephanie, I thank you so much for your time today. And I thank you for your contributions to the field of education.

Stephanie Lemley:

Well, thank you so much for having me.

Lindsay Persohn:

Thank you. Dr. Stephanie Lemley is known for her work in the areas of disciplinary literacies and specifically agricultural education. Through her work, she seeks to enrich her community through outreach and play space education linking people with agricultural related resources. Her research has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. In addition to presenting her work at state and national conferences. Her work has appeared in venues such as the Journal of higher education Theory and Practice, the Journal of Agricultural Education, Journal of Extension, literacy, Research and Instruction, Journal of language and literacy education, reading in the middle and the Journal of Social Studies Education Research. Before moving to higher education, Stephanie taught reading, creative writing and Social Studies at the middle and high school levels. Dr. Lemley recently served as Mississippi Education Policy Fellow She is an associate professor of literacy education at Mississippi State University. For the good of all students classroom caffeine aims to energize education research and practice. If this show provides you with things to think about, help us spread the word. Talk to your colleagues and educator friends about what you hear. You can support the show by subscribing liking and reviewing this podcast through your podcast provider. Connect with us on social media through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, on our website at classroom caffeine.com You can learn more about each guest find transcripts of our episodes, explore topics using our drop down menu of tags, request an episode topic or potential guest support our research through a listener survey or learn more about the research we are doing on our publications page. We would love to hear from you. As always, I raised my mug to you teachers. Thanks for joining me