Authentic Literacy Strategies
for Content-Area Teachers:
Practical Tools to Enhance Achievement for All Students
Why is this important?
•Global information economy requires advanced literacy
skills.
•One of seven U.S. adults is functionally illiterate.
•Reading skills = key achievement predictor in all subjects,
especially math and science.
•When students read effectively, teachers can teach more
in-depth content in less time.
•Content learning and reading/writing to learn are deeply
intertwined.
Issues to consider . . .
“Teachers waste an extraordinary amount of
literacy-instruction time on activities that
have marginal effect on students’ literacy
development” (Schmoker).
•The Montillation of Traxoline
•“Red Square Question”
Red Square Question
“. . . It wasn’t like it was spread all over the place, like you had to
read it. It was just like, if the ‘red square question’ was here, you
knew it was somewhere around that area, right there. And you
could just look for the answer and copy it down and you got full
credit for it. So you didn’t have to read. It was something that you
could like slide by without them knowing. I don’t know if they
cared or not, but that’s the way everybody did it. You see the “red
square question” and you sort of calculate where it’s around, you
find the answer, and you write it down, and that’s it.”
~Rosa, 9th grader, describing her experiences reading history
(Leem 17).
What works?
•Develop students’ abilities to work to make
meaning from what they read.
•Teaching content knowledge and reading
strategies in tandem through a process of
explicit instruction, guided practice,
independent practice (NIL 55-56).
•Daily literacy practice integrated with content
instruction and technology in all classrooms.
What successful strategies/procedures
are you currently using that marry
content and literacy ?
Summarize your department’s ideas in
the Current Practices discussion (click that
subject) on the wikispace discussion tab. In
the subject line, add the department name.
In the reply section, summarize ideas in
response to the above question. Be sure to
click Post to add your discussion comment.
Practical Strategy #1:
Close/Strategic Reading
•Reading with discipline-specific purposes with selected short
passages; promotes fluency and deep understanding
•Modeling “think alouds,” meaning making, expert readers
•Encourages readers to ask questions
•Builds vocabulary skills with pre-teaching new words
•Modeling and practice easily integrated with technology; MS
Word (highlight, thesaurus, comment, symbols)
•Repeated practice internalizes skills. “Practice is so powerful it
changes the brain.”
•Reciprocal teaching model, NIL 57-58; Think Alouds, NIL 49
How can you use the close reading
strategies to develop content?
Summarize your department’s ideas in
the Close Reading discussion (click that
subject) on the wikispace discussion tab. In
the subject line, add the department name.
In the reply section, summarize ideas in
response to the above question. Be sure to
click Post to add your discussion comment.
Practical Strategy: Active Reading
•Students work to make meaning of
discipline- focused texts to build
knowledge over time.
•Shift responsibility for thinking and
making sense of texts to students
themselves through guided supports.
Practical Strategy #2: Active Reading
with Graphic Organizers
•Helps students organize concepts during and after reading
•Contributes to development of critical analysis and reading
skills
•Integrates with range of technology:
MS Word: Insert→Smart Art (note relationship categories)
Inspiration (on all CFF laptops)
Webspiration (collaborative resource)
•NIL 24, 50-53
Practical Strategy #3:
Question-Answer Relationships
(QAR )
•Types of Questions
•Models/guides students to generate
questions
•Supports “strategies that work”
•Used before/during/after reading
•NIL 20-21
Practical Strategy #4:
Student-Generated Charts
•Reflection Chart
•Inference Chart
•Inquiry Chart, NIL 54
•MS Word tables, charts
• SmartNotebook tables
Practical Strategy #5:
Bookmarks/Reaction Guides
•Anticipation Guide, NIL 54 (for key ideas for
inquiry during reading and re-visit after
reading)
•Similar strategy incorporated in
before/during/after interactive bookmarks
Practical Strategy #6:
Active Reading Post-Its
To “annotate” texts:
Pose questions
Mark main ideas
Make predictions
Mark reactions
Practical Strategy #7:Note taking
Generalizations and Recommendations
Verbatim note taking=least effective way to take notes.
Give teacher-prepared notes to students to annotate.
Notes should be considered a work in progress.
Notes should be used as study guides for tests.
The more authentic note taking, the better.
Have students practice a variety of note-taking formats
and combination notes:
Inspiration Templates
 PowerPoint (notes on bottom, view notes page)
Practical Strategy #8:Vocabulary
•Pre-teaching in context (see close reading)
•Window pane
•Word splash: all words in one paragraph
rather than unrelated sentences
•Word map, NIL 59
Practical Strategy #9:
Writing to Learn
What not to do: “Not worksheets, not vapid
questions at the end of the selection, not
canned formulas” (Schmoker).
What works:
Writing to learn
Writing to disclose learning
Writing to express opinions
Writing to connect
Writing to Learn
•Diverse demands of content areas: lab report example
•Paragraph: basic unit to develop “chain of logic”
•Managing this challenge of daily writing:
Collins Writing Program.docx; Collins online:The Collins
Writing Program; Other examples
Quickwrites, exit slips
MS Word; Office Live; Wiki discussion
•Analytical and persuasive writing for advancing critical
reasoning: estimating (similarities/differences), synthesis
paper
•Purposeful writing: real world relevance (project based,
math, simulations, iEARN )
Authentic Literacy
Across-the-Curriculum Benefits
Repetition of strategy or skills in “different
contexts and with different texts . . .
contributes to the improvement of adolescent
literacy skills” (NIL 39).
“Thoughtful reading, writing, and discussion
in redundant abundance, promote faster, more
enduring achievement gains on state
assessments than quick-fix approaches”
(Schmoker).
How can you use active reading and
writing to learn strategies
to develop content?
Summarize your department’s ideas in the
Reading and Writing to Learn discussion
(click that subject) on the wikispace
discussion tab. In the subject line, note
the department name. In the reply
section, summarize ideas in response to
the above question. Be sure to click Post
to add the discussion comment.
Works Consulted
Leem, C.D.; Spratley, A. Reading in the Disciplines:The Challenges of
Adolescent Literacy. New York: Carnegie Corporation, 2009.
National Institute for Literacy. What Content-Area Teachers Should Know
about Adolescent Literacy. Washington: NICHD, US Department of
Education, 2007.
Pitler, Howard, et al. Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver:
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel), 2007.
Schmoker, Mike. “Radically Redefining Literacy Instruction: An Immense
Opportunity.” Phi Delta Kappan 88.7 (2007): 488-93.
Time To Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success.
New York: Carnegie Corporation, 2009.
VanDeWeghe, Rick. “ Research Matters: Authentic Literacy and Student
Achievement.” English Journal 97:6 (2008): 105-108.