How Content Area Teachers Plan And Design Instruction

Competence and confidence in literacy, including competence in the three major areas, reading, writing, speaking and listening, are essential for progress in all areas of the curriculum. To broaden and enhance children’s literacy skills, opportunities need to be given by providing them with a wide range of different contexts in which to use and practice there skills. With reference to the aims of the Primary Framework for Literacy ‘To support and

According to CMS Superintendent Ann Clark regarding literacy as our North Star, it “is the most important skill we teach. Literacy is the foundation for academic success from pre-kindergarten through high school.” Literacy is key to achieving academic success and the responsibility of literacy encompasses every educator and discipline. Many media coordinators have been trained in Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and district adopted reading initiatives, such as Balanced Literacy and Reading Apprenticeship. However, most struggle with linking our programs with literacy initiatives. According to the 2015 Nation’s Report Card percentages of fourth graders and eighth graders reading on grade level continues to decline, especially among urban school districts (nationsreportcard.gov). “That is, when reading grade appropriate text these students cannot extract the general meaning or make obvious connections between the text and their own experiences or make simple inferences from the text. In other words, they cannot understand what they have read.” (National Assessment of Educational Progress). And, furthermore, principals are trading media coordinator positions at an alarming rate as evidenced by the more than 30 schools which no longer

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,

For many decades now there has been a scope of definition for what “literacy” incorporates and those are the basics skills like reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices which involve basic communication skills, and hand and eye coordination. However, with the world of technology continually growing, and the level of diversity in the student population becoming vaster it has become necessary to also include speaking, listening, viewing, and visually aspects to the curriculum. One of the best ways to address a wide range of literacy is to pair the categories with each other based upon their connections in the real world. The categories include written language (reading & writing), spoken communication (listening & speaking), and visual language (viewing & visually representing). (Standards for the English Language Arts p. 6) Many of these can be done with a range of creative activities such as students being able to choose what they write about, share their own personal experiences in their writings, and then read them together; this helps the students stay engaged in the work they’re doing, and also increases their level of retention of the material. The importance of a student being engaged is best explained in the article “Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Brief” with, “The number of students who are not engaged with or motivated by school learning grows at

English learners (ELs) struggle with content literacy task because the “academic language of texts is not the language of conversational speech” Vacca et al. (2014, P.77). Every content area has a specific language. ELs find it difficult because they are not familiar with the academic language in that content area. For example, an English learner in first grade might have difficulties understanding his peers in a reading group excises because of the content language but, when they go outside to play, they communicate fluently because this English learner has mastered the playground language. Teachers can make content more accessible to students by using a variety of instructional strategies or aids to assist students with English language problems in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Interactive, cooperative activities, pictures, relevant media etc. are some of the shelter instructional strategies which teachers can use to make content accessible to students (p.82).

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;

In the past, classrooms across the nation have focused on teaching students skills, not content, expected to learn in a subject in order to master standards. Today, strict Common Core Standards emphasize content, and has forced teachers to choose between spending more time teaching a variety of content or skills. With the trend increasingly growing toward content than skills, one can’t help but wonder about the role content will play in the curriculum of the modern day elementary school.

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

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.

Literacy Instructional Strategies Babies begin to learn language even before being born and respond to variety of sounds. It’s crucial for parents or educators to build their language skills which will further develop their skills and start to make connections. Literacy is the ability to read, write, communicate, and comprehend if the child can’t read then they will struggle to communicate. The younger the child is taught the better they will develop stronger listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. Not all children develop in the same way and can struggle with some components of literacy so differentiation is essential for teachers to incorporate in order for the child to succeed.

The fourth layer of meaning in the comprehensive literacy instruction focuses on the strategies students need to learn when reading and writing in a balanced program. This layer also relies on the five components of instruction. This section will add strategies and skills teachers can use to teach each of the five components. This section builds on what was written before by adding these strategies and skills to help build strong readers and writers.

In regards to English learners, this chapter mentions the challenges these students face in learning content area information and how teachers adjust content area instruction. Some challenges English learners face include, English language proficiency, lack of necessary background knowledge in content are topics, unfamiliarity with vocabulary, reading, and writing. In order to address the challenges these students face, teachers can adjust their instruction to meet all their needs and choose alternative

The STARS unit plan and teacher work sample address ILA Standard 5 by showing how I can differenciate instruction, create a varriety of learning opprotunities, and display a literacy rich classroom enviroment. The STARS unit includes several lessons I created to teach a variety of learners in many different ways. The unit also includes several photographs of the literacy rich enviroment I created with the students. The teacehr work sample exhibits my ability to use literacy routines and scaffold instruction to meet the needs of learners. These artifacts can be connected to Holdaway's Theory of Literacy Development. Holdaway's theory states there should be a plethora of literacy related materials in a classroom including labeled materials, the

The theoretical framework is founded on the pretense that much has been written concerning the problems that many students have with the comprehension of reading materials, especially content texts--science, math, and social studies. Alexander (1988) suggested that these children may be those who have little trouble with their basal readers or trade books, yet are unable to derive meaning from what they read in content area textbooks.