Accelerating Content Area Learning through Literacy Instruction

1. Accelerating Content Area Learning through Literacy Instruction FDRESA Fall 2013

2. Imagine… • Imagine speaking in Italian, French, and Spanish in the morning and in German, English, and Swahili in the afternoon. • What would be the result? • How is this multi-language example related to our students as they move from science to social studies to business ed and automotives?

3. It’s a fact… • The stronger their literacy skills, the more likely adults are to hold fulltime jobs, vote in national elections, participate in community organizations, volunteer in their neighborhoods, and spend time helping their children with homework. ~Literacy Instruction in Content Areas, Alliance for Excellent Education

4. The mystery of content areas… • For content area teachers, a key challenge is to articulate and make concrete the skills, knowledge, and concepts they may take for granted but that many students need to be shown explicitly. • If students are to succeed in content areas, teachers will need to demystify the reading and writing that go on there. ~Literacy Instruction in Content Areas, Alliance for Excellent Education

5. Essential Questions • How can content area teachers help students master the required vocabulary? • How can we help students read and comprehend the text structures in our content areas?

6. dermatoglyphics • Derma-to-glyphics • On TV, forensic investigators specialize in dermatoglyphics in order to use fingerprints to identify suspects. • Derma = Skin • Glyphics = Symbols

7. dermatoglyphics • The study of skin patterns such as fingerprints.

8. Steps in teaching new vocabulary terms • Pronounce the word and have students repeat it several times. Repeat in syllables if necessary, building from the first syllable to the last. • Display word in context-rich sentence. Ask partners to discuss possible meanings. • Look for roots and affixes that may help unlock word meaning or may validate possible definitions offered by partners. • Display definition and ask students to record both the word and definition. • Have students draw a visual to help them recall the meaning. • Repeat the word chorally and then individually. Call on non-volunteers to define or explain the term.

9. Your turn… • Choose a difficult word or phrase you will soon teach. • Use the modelled procedure to plan the teaching of the word or phrase. • Be ready to share your word, the context-rich sentence, the meanings of any common roots or affixes, the definition, and a visual representation. • Consider volunteering to teach your word or phrase to our group!

10. Reading Informational or Technical Text • Before teaching, read the selection and divide it into manageable and coherent segments appropriate for MOST students in the class. • Lead students in reviewing selection: read headings, boldface words, captions, and examine pictures, diagrams, or illustrations. If needed, define key terms when they are encountered. • Ask students to predict what the selection will be about or what will be learned from reading the text. • State a specific purpose for reading the first segment of the text. Ask students to read silently, looking up when finished. When most students look up, call time. Ask students to talk with a partner for 2 minutes about the stated purpose for reading. • Call on a non-volunteer to state an answer. Use a note taking tool for students to record information from the text.

11. Reading Informational or Technical Text • State a specific purpose for reading the next segment of the text. Again, students read silently, sharing with a partner, and then sharing with the class. • Continue until selection or excerpt is completed. • Over time, students should be expected to read longer and longer passages, and they should set their own purposes for reading, based on previewing of the text.

12. Your turn, again! • Work with a small group of teachers who work in the same or similar content area. • Read the sample informational text and work as a group to annotate the text, preparing for guided reading of the selection. • Identify segments to read, purposes for reading each, and a note taking tool for student use. Be sure to refer to literacy standards to help determine purposes for reading.

13. Looking back… • How can content area teachers help students master the required vocabulary? • How can we help students read and comprehend the text structures in our content areas?

14. Looking ahead…. • Come back for day two of the training in January to learn how to use writing to help students recall your subject content and how to easily and effectively grade student writing. • Implement the vocabulary and guided reading strategies. • Bring artifacts showing student use of the strategies taught.