Content Area Literacy

In chapter five, by Cris Tovani, “Why Am I Reading This” explains how educators need to establish a clear reading instructional plan. In order to accomplish understanding students need to concentrate on main ideas from the readings. Tovani explains that it is vital for teachers to model how students should hold their thinking or slow down their reading. Throughout the chapters she gives examples as question strategies, highlighting text, or summarizing key points. As this will benefit students in their reading assignment. Tovani also explains throughout the chapter that teachers should model thinking aloud. This strategy will benefit students on how to negotiate difficult text.

Literacy is having an understanding that oral language can be brought to life through print. Thoughts, that are translated in text or through writing, are used to inform, entertain or persuade the reader. Literacy (the ability to read and write) is a much-needed tool to survive in today’s society. Without it, one would become a life-long dependent. The building blocks for becoming a successful reader begin with emergent literacy.

The ability to recall the parts of a story and determine the main idea of a reading passage is the basis for skills such as inferencing, sequencing, and overall comprehension of what has been read. Based on this knowledge, this author would address Jose’s ability to recall main story elements and therefore understand the main idea of the reading passage first.

In today’s society reading is essential to function. Everywhere people turn they are required to read directions, labels, books, what’s going on in the news, or mandatory rules they need to follow. Just think about if a majority of the world couldn’t read how chaotic society would be.

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

Literacy plays a huge role in many people’s lives everyday, whether it is learning how to read and write for the first time or writing a five-page essay for the hundredth time. We experience literacy differently and have our very own unique stories on how it has impacted our lives and had made us who we are today. It is an essential aspect that I use in my everyday life, such as in relationships, daily interactions with others, and learning. It has become such a powerful aspect and human right in which it allows one to speak his/her mind and in some cases express their opinion to the world. My personal literacy history has shaped me into who I am today because without my experiences I would not have been able to gain the confidence and

As I think what literacy means to me, the most important thought that comes to mind is my understanding of it: the ability to read and write, I feel that without the ability to read and write, mankind is unable to properly function because there is no foundation for adequate communication. So literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Everyone has some moment which have the potential to influence the craft of understanding that directly has the undying impression for the lifetime. As for learning process which comprises the reading and writing aspect, there comes events that helps people to grasp the authenticity of learning which turn out to be moments of learning for some people in a very inspiring and motivating manner. In this essay I will talk about my literacy history and how it has been developed throughout portions of my life.

Since a child going up, literacy was not my strong suit. Literacy throughout my life seem not to cope with me. Later as I grew up, literacy meant to me that it is one’s ability to read, write, and speak. More importantly there is a more meaning of literacy, meaning that not only writing, reading, and speaking, but able to understand, analyze, and communicate with other peoples’ ideas. Soon enough literacy has made an impact on my life, it has been and will be a lifelong process. Literacy will always be with me, starting from my past and ending in my future.

Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning from an early age, as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum. Being literate increases opportunities for pupils in all aspects of life and lays the foundations for lifelong learning and work.

To assist students to “read with purpose and anticipation,” Vacca et al. (2014, p. 173) suggests, in their book Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, that teachers need to “create an instructional context” that activates their students’ “prior knowledge” and helps them to become interested in a lesson. Throughout chapter six, “Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest,” Vacca et al. (2014, pp. 172-173) explain instructional strategies that can lead students to “read with purpose and anticipation.” This chapter presents the reader with a plethora of instructional strategies and means for applying them, along with example for real educators. As I journeyed through this chapter, I discovered many instructional strategies,

Our view of literacy upon commencing this course, was that it is the ability to read and write. Our understanding of it however was partially true because, reading and writing are essential of any person’s literacy, but reading and

Having a solid grasp of the concepts that build up to content area literacy is extremely important. In fact, I believe that it is my duty as an educator to have a complete understanding of the different processes and how to apply them into my lesson plans. If I were to ignore them, it would definitely hinder my effectiveness as a teacher and in turn my students' education. Understanding the concept of connecting to text, for example, could turn a boring lesson that students will forget as soon as they leave the classroom into a lesson that sticks with them for the rest of their life.

All of the topics that have been covered so far in class have all interconnected in one way or another. Learner development, knowledge transformation, and connecting to text are all foundations that lean upon each other in order to surmount and achieve the goal of content area literacy (Hodges, 2015). Content area literacy alone is extremely important, but it requires the aforementioned applied skills in order to be successful. Personally, I consider these concepts to create a fantastic base for students and teachers to build towards content area literacy. Obviously, a student needs to be able to connect to the given text in order to be interested in it, which aids in retaining the information gleaned. Learner development is fairly self-explanatory;

Emily, I enjoyed reading your response. I am very new to the concept of Content Area Literacy (CAL) so I totally understand why you (and I) might think that literacy across the board of content area is not important. Perhaps none of us can really “feel” the integration of CAL until we have actually experienced it. As I read chapter 1 and 2 of Harvey and Goudvis Strategies that Work, I consistently came back to the thought, higher level thinking skills. It is true, each area of content has specific needs (documents, charts, latin terminology), and that all needs require some form of comprehension. My curiosity comes into play when I ask myself, “Is CAL simply a way to implement higher level thinking skills into the instructional design?”

When we first started discussing content area literacy, my first thought was fabulous. Let’s just add one more thing to worry about when writing lesson plans. After I read a few articles and listened to the lectures in class, I realized that content area literacy was a pretty simple element to include. Being an elementary education major also makes it easier to accommodate. To count the number of children’s books there are on any given subject would be impossible. I have discovered that content area literacy is not as intimidating as it sounds. As I have gained knowledge on the subject, I believe that reading should be a part of any lesson you do. Before reading and sitting through lecture including reading in most of my lesson plans