Classroom Instruction And Lesson Planning Process

Times are changing. Literacy is not only a problem that the English teacher has to deal with. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write (Oxford Dictionaries). However, you have to use different skills to read a novel than you do with reading a science question. So it only makes that literacy should be taught in different ways for each different subject. It does a student no good to be able to physically read a science question but have no idea what it’s asking for. The last five years have seen unprecedented attention given to the literacy achievement of adolescents in secondary schools in the United States. Spurred by the release of flat or declining reading scores on national tests. (Donahue, Daane & Grigg, 2003). This could be easily linked to a lack of literacy techniques being taught in schools.

Why do pre-reading strategies that activate prior knowledge and raise interest in the subject prepare students to approach text reading in a critical frame of mind?

Content area teachers can implement strategies and scaffold learning when planning and designing instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy. According to Dobbs, content area reading instruction includes: the information present in the text, and the instructional plan teachers use to help students understand the content (2003, p.3). Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz explain that in order to plan instruction effectively, teachers must be aware of the explicit and functional dimensions of content literacy. The explicit aspect of content literacy involves the development of skills and strategies that enable students to comprehend what they are reading. Functional instruction focuses more on the application of strategies needed to derive knowledge from a variety of sources of information.” (2014, p. 134). Forget defined literacy as “listening, thinking, reading, and speaking in such a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self and society” (2003, p. 5). Content area teachers need to plan and design lessons so that students will actively engage in literacy. Forget goes on to discuss that poor performance in schools can be do to a lack of basic literacy skills. Therefore, teachers need to implement the skills and strategies found to be successful in literacy to ensure

As time goes on the familiarity with reading and writing is essential for an individual to better themselves in life, for the world we live in is a place for competition between every human to succeed. The value of literacy is not only for high-end people but anybody that want to gain knowledge. As one gains knowledge through literacy, it can extend toward one achieving their goals or achievements in life. The strategies when going over a reading assignment is a significant part of what one is trying to comprehend the text.

Once the basic skills of reading are learned, like vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency, there is rarely any more practice being done and most of the time is dedicated to the writing process. At the college level, professors have limited time to talk about everything, therefore reading instruction unintentionally yet easily gets ignored when professors want to move on and talk about other material. The article “Not Just for Writing Anymore: What WAC Can Teach Us About Reading to Learn” by Mary Lou Odom discusses the importance of reading to learn and how many students and faculty struggle with this concept. Odom emphasizes that students receive little to no additional instruction in reading once they have mastered the skills taught at

In the article Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy written by Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan, they argue that “disciplinary literacy” should be the focus of middle and secondary school settings. The purpose of the study is to reveal how content experts and secondary content teachers read disciplinary texts, make use of comprehension strategies, and teach those strategies to adolescent readers. However, in different content areas different comprehension strategies work for the adolescents.

Before considering the proper balance between content and disciplinary literacy, I must first understand where my students are in terms of their reading skills and ability. One of the most difficult aspects of teaching is being able to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners who come from different backgrounds as well as learning styles and abilities, I do not believe that a proper balance can be determined that will meet the needs of every learner. It is equally important however to insure that a balance exist.

To begin the planning, teaching and assessment process, it must start with discovering what children know and understand, this can be done through assessment and, therefore, is where to initiate the cycle according to Webster (2009). However, some practitioners start the cycle by planning for lessons based on the curriculum content of the previous year (Fisher, 2013). The practitioner may then start teaching according to the predicted lack or extended knowledge, and, therefore, confuse and fail to progress their learning stated by Fisher (2013). An example of this would be presuming that the children had completed and felt confident in using halves and quarters, and, therefore, starting an activity on writing fractions or using bigger fractions. Completing an activity like the example would only cause more confusion and could end up being a more difficult task than it had originally begun. Therefore teachers should start with assessment, and plans should remain flexible until the information of all the learners is collected (Fisher, 2013). One way of assessing children is through formative assessment, this is by obtaining information within a teaching unit that is then adjusted for future educational scenarios (Antoniou and James, 2014). Formative assessment can help to identify both weaknesses, strengths and help enhance the student’s motivation (Yan and Cheng, 2015).

Content area literacy is something that I see relating to my career in the classroom. Prior to reading the first chapter in our text, I did not understand what the course would be about or even what “content area literacy” fully meant. Literacy has always meant to me the ability to read, write, and articulate, however, I had not connected listening into that as well. Also, knowing historical or background information on a text has always been important and interesting to me individually even if presented as separate information by the teacher or professor simply because I enjoy history and learning about authors of the texts used in my English courses. After reading the first chapter and viewing the videos, however, I understand more now how these two things are essential parts of what it means to be literate and how that literacy applies to content. In English courses, there is a lot of terminology

According to Bean and Dagen (2011), “The very best curriculum taught poorly is no better than the worst curriculum taught well.” (p. 152). This statement is close to my heart, as it is something I have been struggling with the past two years at my current institution. I am currently teaching at a school without any curriculum in place, hence, I was challenged to find a balanced and comprehensive literacy program that was also rigorous. However, I realized that having a sound literacy curriculum could be jeopardized by the delivery of instruction (Bean, 2011). Therefore, I have decided to further research the International Literacy Association’s, Reading Specialists/Literacy Coach 2010 Standard 2: Curriculum and Instruction; to gain further understanding of how and what curriculum should be taught as well as how this standard is important for literacy coaches.

Good morning, Trina. Thank you for your input on the topic of Content Area Literacy (CAL) from the standpoint of special education. Although I had not thought of it before, including the ability and desire to read in the definition of CAL is quite appropriate. Yet, ability and desire are effectively very different attributes of the cognitive processes, correct? Is it your contention that without one or the other, the learner cannot succeed in literacy?

While reading “The Challenge of Content-Area Reading: A Conversation with Donna Ogle”, I noted several instances that I found interesting, agreed, disagreed, and questioned.

Kane (2008) explained that 40 percent of high school graduates lack the literacy skills necessary for employment. By teaching effective literacy strategies in content area learning, teachers can foster “deeper understandings of texts and increase students’ ability to generate ideas and knowledge for their own uses” (Kane, 2008, p. 3). Using literature in the content areas to increase literacy enhances

This essay will provide details about how the lesson plan and sequence of lessons for the mathematics unit of symmetry caters for individual students’ needs in regards to active engagement in learning activities and what differentiation measures are put into place for students with varying levels of ability.

Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the self-motivated interaction among the reader’s knowledge and the material proposed by the written language and the context of the reading situation. The understanding of reading comprehension is to teach reading to students acquire reading skills to become independent learners. The strategies of teaching will be used to help students achieve their reading goals. In areas such as mathematics, developing teacher content knowledge has been a major concern because it is generally accepted that teachers who know these subjects are better able to teach them. As teachers, we need to research strategies that can be used to teach students how to read in every content area. Our focus in this literature review will be on mathematics and how teachers can find different strategies and activities to use to help students learn to read and also to use prior knowledge as they implement these strategies.