Fourth Lecture:
Literacy in
Content Areas
• For this topic, it is very important to consider
the following questions:
• 1) Is reading and writing teaching the
job of reading and writing teachers?
• 2) How can teachers teach reading and
writing while they have to teach their
subjects?
• 3) Are content teachers the best people
to teach reading and writing at the same
time?
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1) Is reading and writing teaching the job of
reading and writing teachers?
• Many people believe that teaching
reading and writing is the job of reading
and writing teachers.
• Currently, few middle or high school
educators ever receive more than a
small amount of training in literacy
instruction, and few see themselves as
teachers of reading and writing at all.
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• Instead, at the secondary level, most
teachers tend to regard themselves as
teachers of subject areas, such as:
biology, history, or algebra.
• Even English teachers — who might be
assumed to be responsible for reading
and writing instruction — tend to define
themselves first and foremost as
teachers of literature.
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• It should come as no surprise, then,
that researchers have found that little
reading or writing goes on in most
content area classes.
• Instead of requiring students to read
actual scientific papers and historical
documents, and instead of assigning
students to write and re-write many
kinds of essays, reports, and other
materials,
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• the vast majority of teachers assign
only brief readings (mainly from
textbooks) and short, formulaic
writing assignments.
• This can do little to the process of
literacy in content areas. It is very
important to define "literacy"
before discussing literacy in
content areas.
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What is literacy?
It was once known simply as the ability •
to read and write. Today it's about being
able to make sense of and engage in
advanced reading, writing, listening,
and speaking.
Someone who has reached advanced •
literacy in a new language, for example,
is able to engage in these four skills
with their new language in any setting -academically or casually.
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2) How can teachers teach reading and
writing while they have to teach their
subjects?
• Math, science, history, and English
teachers tend to get nervous when
people start talking about literacy
instruction in the content areas.
• "But I don't know anything about
teaching reading!" goes the usual
reply.
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• . "I don't know how to help kids
sound out words or read more
fluently." They're right.
• If the school enrolls struggling
readers, then the school should hire
specialists to work with them, leaving
content area teachers to focus on the
kinds of reading and writing that go
on in their disciplines.
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• What may not be so widely accepted,
however, is the idea that content
teachers can assist struggling readers.
• This premise (assumption) does not
mean that content teachers should
become reading teachers; rather,
content teachers can structure lessons
to assist struggling readers, boosting
(encouraging) them to proficient
performance when reading contentbased material.
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• Reading and writing are complex
combinations of skills that vary by
context. Reading a scientific journal does
not require the same set of skills as
reading a historical novel.
• Writing geometric proofs, lab reports,
short stories, poems, and persuasive
letters requires overlapping but not
identical sets of skills. Moreover, people
who are proficient in some aspects of
reading and writing are novices at others.
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• It is important for students to see
themselves and their classmates as
developing readers and writers,
continually trying to learn the craft.
• Teachers can effectively support
literacy development by making their
own processes as more expert
readers and writers in their respective
fields visible to the students.
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• Content is what we teach, but there is also
the how, and this is where literacy
instruction comes in.
• There are an endless number of engaging,
effective strategies to get students to
think about, write about, read about, and
talk about the content you teach.
• The ultimate goal of literacy instruction is:
to build a student's comprehension,
writing skills, and overall skills in
communication.
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• Teaching reading in content areas:
•
The days of believing that we could
hand informational text or a novel to a
student and assume he or she makes
full meaning of it on their own is a
teaching mode of the past.
• Whether we like it or not, regardless of
the content we teach, we are all reading
instructors.
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• There is another onus
(responsibility) not only on English
teachers, but all teachers as
reading instructors.
• They need to inspire both a love for
reading, and build reading stamina
in our students (this means eyes
and mind on the page for more
than a minute!)
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•
But, how do teachers do this? A
high-interest classroom library is a
great place to start.
• Content teachers should understand
that the difference between
successful and unsuccessful readers
is the ability to effectively apply
strategies to difficult texts, which is a
very relative term.
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• A reader who holds a Ph.D. in
history may find a manual on
building a car engine to be a
"difficult text."
• However, one can assume that a
Ph.D. is a viable reader who will
apply internalized reading
strategies repetitively in order to
attain comprehension.
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• Such a reader rereads,
paraphrases, considers context,
infers, questions, reflects, and
perhaps even consults other
materials without conscious
decision.
• The application of reading skills to
a difficult text is automatic for a
proficient reader.
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• A struggling reader, on the other
hand, either holds no intrinsic
repertoire of reading strategies, or
applies such strategies only to texts
with which he is comfortable.
• Thus, simple reading strategies built
into a content lesson can provide a
struggling reader with the scaffolding
necessary to meet success.
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• Incorporation of reading
instruction into the content
classroom is not as daunting
(scary) as one might believe.
• Any reading assignment can be
broken down into three
comprehension-building steps:
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Step One: Before Reading
This step activates a knowledge base
upon which students can build and
establishes a purpose for reading.
• Step Two: During Reading
This step allows students to measure
comprehension, clarify, visualize, and
build connections.
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Step Three: After Reading
This step expands prior knowledge,
builds connections, and deepens
understanding.
• Apply any of the following simple
reading strategies to aid students
during each portion of the reading
assignment.
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Before Reading Strategies •
brainstorm · predict · skim · assess
prior knowledge · preview headings ·
learn crucial vocabulary
• During Reading Strategies
reread · infer · question · support
predictions · summarize
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• After Reading Strategies
reread · confirm predictions ·
summarize · synthesize · reflect ·
question
• Incorporating learning aids such as
graphic organizers and reading
anticipation guides into reading
assignments can also help students
visually organize content.
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• *Sample Introductory Science Reading
Using Reading Strategies:
• Let us assume a Science teacher
discovers that several students in her
heterogeneously grouped class are
having difficulty reading the passages
about atoms in their science textbook.
• What reading strategies might she
employ to aid these students?
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• Before Reading
Provide background information about •
atoms, explaining that atoms make up
every known object.
Explain that while scientists have never •
seen an atom, they have collected
sufficient information to create a model
of an atom.
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Establish a purpose for reading by •
stating that the students will see
labeled diagrams of atoms to help
them learn about the parts and
characteristics of an atom.
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• During Reading
After reading in small groups, pairs or •
individually for several minutes,
pause and ask students to pair and
take turns explaining what they have
learned thus far about atoms and
charges.
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• Using individual two-column learning
logs, pause at intervals during
reading and ask students to phrase a
question about the passage just read,
then pair, exchange logs and allow
the partner to write a question in the
second column.
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• After Reading
Have students work in groups to
identify parts of the atom on a
diagram, identifying the charges for
each as well.
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• Another activity is the KWL chart.
Before reading, students complete the
first column of the chart, what I know
about atoms, and the second column,
what I want to learn about atoms.
• After reading, the third column, what I
learned about atoms would be
completed.
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• With either introductory activity,
the content focus is atoms, but
students have been engaged in a
purpose for reading.
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KWL chart: •
Date:………………
Name:……………… •
Reading selection:……. Subject:………….
Active reading KWL sheet
What I Know
What I Want to know
What I've Learned
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Teaching writing in content areas:
• Just like conversation, writing
helps us make sense of what we
are learning and helps us make
connections to our own lives or
others' ideas.
• You can't avoid thinking when you
write.
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• Writing opportunities within the
content area classroom can be
exciting and motivational, but some
content area teachers feel they are
not up to the task of "teaching
writing.
• They should not be held accountable
for teaching the skills needed to
accomplish writing goals.
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• Their field of expertise may be science
or history or math, and because these
teachers have done quite a bit of writing
in their own academic careers, they are
experts in the type of writing required in
their respective disciplines.
• These rich backgrounds help content
area teachers make indispensable
contributions to the refinement of
writing skills.
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• Content area classrooms are fertile
ground for extending and sharpening
writing skills. Examples of the types of
writing that content areas teacher may
ask their students to do include:
• solar system web pages, Civil War
newspapers, lab reports, immigrant
journals, science fair abstracts, play
scripts, biographies of scientists,
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• interview questions, timeline narratives,
response-note taking formats, and
storyboards for film or slide
presentations.
• Those are just a few of the infinite and
realistic ways content area teachers can
help students hone the writing skills
that language arts teachers have helped
them develop.
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• Students need to be writing every day,
in every classroom.
• Teachers can add to their instruction
more informal and fun writing activities
like quick writes, stop and jots, oneminute essays, graffiti conversations.
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• What is graffiti conversations?
•
Graffiti conversations are in
response to a content-specific prompt
(quote, question, image, etc.) and
require students to collect their
thoughts on paper in words, images, or
a combination of the two in order to
make their thinking visible.
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• Students work individually to respond,
but once thoughts are recorded can
verbally share their reflections or rotate
among and read the responses of their
peers.
• Graffiti can be recorded on bulletin
boards, white boards, paper
“tablecloths”, or sidewalks (using
sidewalk chalk). Not all writing
assignments need to be formal ones.
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• In USA there is what is called the National
Writing Project (NWP), it's the largest-scale
and longest-standing teacher development
program in U.S. history.
• Workshops are offered nationwide
(usually through a local university) where
teachers of all content areas learn new and
exciting strategies to encourage, support,
and grow the young writers in their
classrooms.
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• 3) Are content teachers the best people
to teach reading and writing at the same
time?
•
Research shows that better results
occur when students learn skills in
conjunction with examples and
teachers stress the relevance and
usefulness of these skills to students'
lives.
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It does not show strong results for •
students who learn skills in isolation
and are then expected to apply/transfer
them appropriately at their own
discretion.
•
Do content teachers have to deal
with the issue of reading and writing? If
students are expected to read and write
in your class, the answer is probably
yes.
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• While English teachers spend
considerable time addressing reading
and writing skills in their classes, their
primary text type at the secondary level
is literature.
• It is difficult to cover every type of text
a student will encounter outside of
their classrooms.
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• Reading and writing instruction is a
responsibility shared by all teachers,
regardless of level or content. Educators
who accept this idea are already a step
ahead - but for teachers unversed in basic
reading and writing instruction, the task is
daunting.
• You can help your students decode the
types of text they encounter in your classes,
whether they are from the hard sciences,
social sciences, or mathematics.
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• Educators owe struggling readers and
writers content reading and writing
instruction.
• Confident, proficient readers and
writers will not magically emerge from
the door of an English classroom;
rather, skilled readers and writers
emerge from classrooms where
effective reading and writing strategies
are taught and practiced regularly.
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End of the lecture •
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