Fourth Lecture: Literacy in Content Areas

1. Fourth Lecture: Literacy in Content Areas

2. 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 is able to engage in these four skills with their new language in any setting -- academically or casually.

3. 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?

4. 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. 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.

5. 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 Instead of requiring students to read actual scientific papers and historical documents, and instead of assigning students to write and re-write many kinds of essays, reports, and other materials, the vast majority of teachers assign only brief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.

6. 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. "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.

7. 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 content-based material.

8. 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. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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. • 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!)

11. 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. • 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. 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.

12. A struggling reader, on the other hand, either holds no intrinsic (basic) repertoire (range) 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. 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:

13. 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. • Step Three: After Reading: This step expands prior knowledge, builds connections, and deepens understanding.

14. Apply any of the following simple reading strategies to aid students during each portion of the reading assignment: 1- Before Reading Strategiesbrainstorm · predict · skim · assess prior knowledge · preview headings · learn crucial vocabulary 2- During Reading Strategiesreread · infer (suppose) · question · support predictions · summarize 3- 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.

15. *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? Before Reading : 1- Provide background information about atoms, explaining that atoms make up every known object.

16. 2- Explain that while scientists have never seen an atom, they have collected sufficient information to create a model of an atom. 3- 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. During Reading 1- 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.

17. 2- 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. After Reading 1- Have students work in groups to identify parts of the atom on a diagram, identifying the charges for each as well. 2- Another activity is the KWL chart. Before reading, students complete the first column, during reading they compete the second column and after reading they complete the third column.

18. KWL chart: Name:……………….. Date:……………………………….… Subject:…………….. Reading selection:……………… Active reading KWL sheet

19. 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. • 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…

20. 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 (essential) contributions to the refinement of writing skills. • 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:::

21. solar system web pages, Civil War newspapers, lab reports, immigrant journals, science fair abstracts, play scripts, biographies of scientists, 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 (sharpen) the writing skills that language arts teachers have helped them develop. • 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, one-minute essays, graffiti conversations.

22. What are graffiti conversations? Graffiti conversations are done 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. 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.

23. Activity: • Make a Graffiti conversation about the following topics: • Family • Islam • Social media

24. 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.

25. 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. It does not show strong results for students who learn skills in isolation and are then expected to apply/transfer them at their own discretion. (the answer is mostly yes).

26. 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. 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

27. 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 (unskilled) 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.

28. Educators owe struggling readers and writers content reading and writing instruction. Confident, proficient readers and writers will not magically come out 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.

29. The End