The definition of literacy has expanded. It no longer includes just the privileged population who can read and write. Literacy now includes

the development of a set of interrelated skills that include reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening and questioning; all leading to the ability to critically assess and use information (Debbie Shults)

A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that “national and international tests incontrovertibly prove that far too many of American’s children are reading at levels that are unacceptably low.” Realizing that this issue needs to be addressed, policymakers set into law mandates for educators to improve the literacy skills of our students. These laws include the common core standards and content area literacy.

Many educators are apprehensive about instructing content area literacy. Some reasons are that they believe they lack knowledge of strategies to integrate literacy into their curriculum, feel that literacy instruction is the responsibility of the ELA teachers, feel that they do not have sufficient knowledge base to teach literacy, and feel that they do not have enough time to teach both literacy and their curriculum. As more data about low student literacy scores and information on literacy strategies that can be used by teachers in all content areas are published, more educators are joining the vision that student literacy scores must be raised and are including literacy into their lessons.

As more content area lessons include literacy practices such as vocabulary, research, readings, reports, investigations, current events, internet projects, class discussions, whether large, small or one-to-one, and finding evidence to support their answers, students will gain better literacy skills. The repetition of literacy practices will help to build student self-esteem, motivate, and encourage them to remain engaged in learning. It is important for educators to understand that their content area has specific vocabulary words that may be a challenge to students. They should spend quality time making sure that their students understand and can apply these words to the curriculum. Without a clear understanding of content area vocabulary, students will have a difficult time remaining engaged. The article, Reading in the Content Areas: Strategies for Success suggests one strategy that can be used in all content areas. This strategy has three comprehension-building steps: (1) Before Reading – activate a knowledge base which students can build and establish a purpose for reading (brainstorm-predict-skim-assess prior knowledge-preview headings-learn crucial vocabulary); (2) During Reading – allow students to measure comprehension, clarify, visualize and build connections (reread-infer-question-support predictions-summarize); (3) After Reading- expand prior knowledge, build connections and deepen understanding (reread-confirm predictions-summarize-synthesize-reflect-question).

As content area literacy continues as part of each teachers lessons, our students will be able improve their interrelated skills that include reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening and questioning. Educators, administrators, policymakers, and parents must collectively demand effective literacy programs in all content areas. In my opinion, as content area literacy becomes a common practice, our students should be able to receive quality instruction to help them think critically and face the challenges that will be prepare to them to productively survive our competitive global world.

As educators plan to integrate literacy into their content area, will there be sufficient time given to effectively maintain the higher level of skills required of students? Perhaps all future educators should be required to enroll in reading classes.

Literacy is important in all subject areas. And I think subject area teachers feel as though literacy should be in the English/Reading classes. However, literacy in the content areas is just as important as literacy in the English classes. In content areas, students are exposed to a variety of different types of text and information. Students should learn hwo to read, write etc. using the text that is prevalent in the subject.

I stumbled across two articles that were interesting. One was titled “Content Literacy: Beyond the Language Arts Classroom” and the other was “Supporting Adolescent Literacy Across the Content Areas”. The first article deals with how content literacy in Math and the second article deals with the policies and practices behind supporting content area literacy.

In the first article the author states that,

Teachers across the entire curriculum spectrum are beginning to realize that they are responsible for producing learners who possess the literacy skills needed for the 21^st century. They are realizing that literacy is the ability to comprehend all sorts of text, and helping students accomplish the goal of comprehension requires more than asking them to open a book and read the chapter

If students are aware of this ultimate goal for their students they need to create ways to pull literacy into their content area. The author goes on to say that “Teachers are teaching their students how to evaluate all types of information sources. Whether it’s hard text, electronic informational sources, MTV, or a documentary film, teachers are helping students to learn to think critically about the information they encounter.”

The author of the first article shares an example of how literacy can be infused into a math classroom. She explains that traditional math lessons are “repeated teacher demonstrations of problem solving with students copying examples and going home to repeat the process”. She suggests some changes that need to occur in order to fuse literacy into the math classroom. Here are her suggestions:

• “Math teachers are developing their own classroom libraries”
• “Use pre-reading strategies to help students get the most from their math book”
• “Word walls help students learn the language of math”
• “Design lessons that integrate multiple resources”
• “Read, write and speak about math”

In the second article, the focus is more on the policy and practices behind supporting content literacy. The article starts with the quote “Reading is a different task when we read literature, science texts, historical analyses, newspapers, tax forms. This is why teaching students how to read the texts of academic disciplines is a key part of teaching them these disciplines” (Key Ideas of the Strategic Literacy Initiative, 2001). This quote really ties up my opening statements about how it is important to gain strategies for literacy in all content areas. Science text and math texts do not require the same strategies and skills and the texts in history or English.

The article goes on to say that “At the middle school and high school levels, literacy skills must become increasingliy sophisticated to meet more challenging academic expectations. The ability to transact meaning from academic text of different disciplines is often not directly taught, with the consequence of failure to comprehend those academic topics”. I strongly agree with this because when I was in school I don’t ever remember the teachers teaching me how to utilize the resources we were given. If you came across a term you did not understand you either looked it up (and did not understand the words in the definition) or skipped it. The one major skill I still remember learning, though, was using context clues. I think that was in elementary school. However, that technique does not work if you do not understand the text around it. The article raises some excellent questions.

After reading this article think about the following questions, that were asked.

1. “Why now are educational practitioners and policymakers concerned about adolescent literacy now?”
2. “What recent developments have taken place on the national and state levels?”
3. “What would a successful approach to improving literacy include?”
4. “What is the Adolescent Literacy Support Framework?”
5. “How does the Framework address the needs of all students?”
6. “What does adolescent literacy development look like at the adolescent level?”
7. “How will adolescent literacy across the curriculum improve test scores?”
8. “What doe educational leaders need to know?”

Given the changes we are experiencing now, how would some of the answers changes to the above questions? How would you change how you add literacy to your content area? What strategies might be helpful in ensuring that literacy is fused into your content?

Reading to children when they are young is essential to the development of emerging literacy skills. Parents and guardians are a key factor in creating reading success for children. In today’s society it is not uncommon for parents to have very little time to spend with their family. Between soccer practice, grocery shopping, work, and laundry, it can be difficult to find the time that is so crucial for our children. Parents may assume that because their young child is at day care and learning literacy skills from a teacher, that they do not play as much as a role in the success of their child. Research has proven that this wrong and parents in fact do play a very important role in reading success for their child. According to the U.S. Department of Education children who were read to at least three times a week by a family member were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading than children who were read to less than three times a week.

When parents show a positive attitude towards reading, children start to build that same attitude. According to research, “children’s beliefs, attitude, values, and expectations towards literacy and school is strongly affected by their parents” (www. Buddies.org/hs/Biola/F97-530a.pdf). Reading one book before bed time is a great way for parents to help encourage children to enjoy reading. I feel that parents and children should make reading before a priority. It should be an enjoyable moment together. Parent and child should pick out a book together and take a few minuets to talk about why they chose a book. This can help start conversations about reading and help to encourage language development. Parents can teach important reading skills by allowing the child to turn the page as the parent reads. Parents can also talk about the pictures and have a moment to talk about any real life connections they might have to that book. For example, if the book chosen is about airplanes, the parent and child can have a brief talk about a time they were on a plane together. Not only does reading to your child encourage literacy, but it can also help the parent and child connect and spend time together. With our busy schedules, it can be hard to have time to just talk to our children. However, not every family is a traditional family in today’s society. How can we reach parents that may not be home at night? How do we reach the families that don’t have the resources? How about single parent families? How can we encourage ALL parents to read to their children?

Helping your child succeed in school is one of the best things a parent can do for their child. There are many resources and tools out there for families and parents. Local libraries and schools have many programs to help assist parents in finding the time and the books for their children. Reading with your child will help ensure that your child will create lasting memories for your family.

When thinking about literacy in schools it is important to see the need for literacy in all subject areas. Just the other day, I was sitting in a conference with a strategic learning specialist who used to be a math teacher. She was expressing her concerns about student’s ability to write out their math answers. This got me thinking about what we have been discussing in class, and I realized that literacy is in every subject.

This same discussion was brought up later in the week during a principal’s cabinet meeting discussing RTI. Students need to be able to read and write in order to successfully complete work in their other courses. If a student cannot comprehend the material, how are they supposed to be able to learn what is expect? Teachers do not know strategies of how to incorporate reading and writing skills into their lessons. When listening to the math teacher I described above, she claimed, “Students cannot simply write an answer, they cannot write concise statements that summarize their work”. This makes me think of a video I have watched on the common core standards.

In the video on the common core standards, David Coleman discusses how about 80% of all writing is personal narrative for students. This would explain why our students cannot simply state how they came to their answer in a math problem. Even further it can demonstrate that students cannot answer how they did the problem because they cannot comprehend what the problem was asking and how they arrived at their answer. The new common core standards are put an emphasis on the “ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence” (Common Core State Standards Initiative 2011). This would mean that students would need to create logical arguments based on research, or defend their answer in a clear and concise manner.

Content area teachers will need to know how to incorporate these skills into their classrooms. These skills will now be emphasized in every subject as the writing will shift from personal to information based. The common core standards will strengthen the writing and reading skills of students because the standards build upon one another to strengthen student skills. They focus on key skills that build upon and strengthen as students move on in their educational career.

After reviewing the common core standards, I began to think about strategies content area teachers can used to strengthen these skills. Teachers always claim that they do not have enough time in their day to incorporate an English lesson, so how can they teach these skills through their lessons? I have found this website in which they provide you with various content area literacy activities. This website splits the strategies by different content areas. They then provide you with ways you can incorporate them in your classroom. Do you think these strategies are sufficient? Are there other strategies that can be used? How do we know these strategies are reaching the student’s needs?

(authored by Heidi King)

As a pre-service math teacher, I am currently taking my last course needed for certification, and it’s a literacy course! I have put it off until the end because I couldn’t think how it could possibly be relevant, and maybe the state of NY would change their requirements before I had to take it. No luck! Here I am, deep in my exploration of “what in the world is content area literacy and why do I have to teach reading?”

In the Book Subjects Matter, authors Daniels and Zemelman outline the Thinking Strategies of Effective Readers:

• Visualize – mental pictures
• Connect – to experience, events, other readings
• Question – actively wonder
• Infer – predict, interpret
• Evaluate – determine importance, make judgments
• Analyze – notice structure, vocabulary, purpose
• Recall – summarize, remember information
• Self-monitor – recognize and act on confusion

If you are able read for knowledge, and think critically about printed material you are a successful reader, you are literate. Many students in the US today are not literate. An article by David Rutenberg reports that about 70% of high school students graduate from high school without these skills.

This made me wonder if there exists a similar list for mathies… a “Thinking Strategies of Effective Mathematicians” list. In my search, I found a 2010 report on the latest PISA survey of education performance by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The big news was the province of Shanghai, China. Shanghai, China took part in the testing for the first time and scored higher in reading than any country. It also topped the tables in math and science. More than one-quarter of Shanghai’s 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex math problems. This >25% compared to an OECD average of just 3% (U.S. scored below the 3% average). As part of the report, the OECD listed the skills demonstrated by Shanghai-China’s 15-year-olds; I’ve used them to make my list…

Thinking Strategies of Effective Mathematicians:

• Conceptualize
• Generalize
• Investigate
• Apply insight and understanding
• Creatively use information based on their own investigations
• Model complex problem situations
• Develop new approaches and strategies

Looks to me like successful readers have skills remarkably similar to successful mathematicians. I guess this answers the question, why do I have to teach literacy skills. This is not about teaching students to read, this is about helping students be independent effective learners. As a math teacher (or any content teacher), how can I expect my students to be successful without these skills? In fact, if students are not learning these skills in their content classes, what are they learning?

When I took my first chemistry class, I remember hearing and reading a wide variety of words that I had never seen or heard before. Some of these words were actions performed, adjectives for observations or directions telling me what to complete. This was initially when I thought, “it would be really beneficial to teach literacy skills in a content area class.” From working in groups, I quickly realized that I was not the only one struggling to gain scientific literacy skills. The textbook was frustrating to comprehend and often the teacher was struggling to get through all the necessary material in time. By the time I reached college level chemistry, we were expected to know words such as titration, stoichiometry, fractional distillation, polymers, redox reactions and many more. In fact, there are so many of these terms for chemistry, there is an online Chemistry Glossary for all these terms. Not only did we have to know these words, but also we had to know where to apply them and even how to perform them. All this material made chemistry, not just a bunch of new vocabulary words, but also an entirely new language. Jerry Wellington and Jonathan Osborne, who wrote “Language and Literacy in Science Education,” agree, “Every science lesson is a language lesson.”

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, “High school students’ ability to read complex texts is strongly predictive of their performance in college math and science courses.” This suggests that creating good literacy skills in the content area courses would increase the success rate of high school students in college. So, now that we understand why it is important to have scientific literacy, how do we achieve it or even teach it? Let us start with the definition of scientific literacy from the National Science Education Standards, which states

Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions. Scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed. A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it. Scientific literacy also implies the capacity to pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.

As you can see, a lot goes into scientific literacy, which means there may be a lot to go into teaching and attaining scientific literacy skills. One article, Games for Teaching Information Literacy Skills by Felicia Smith, suggests applying games to classroom discussion increases content literacy and decreases boredom in the classroom. The author’s reasoning is that today’s students are accustomed to continuous entertainment, which has shaped their expectation for a more amusing instruction. Therefore, Smith incorporated crossword puzzles, riddle mirrors and various types of humor. Smith claimed that students were more entertained, therefore paid closer attention and were able to retain the literary content required for the course. In conclusion, Smith states that “No matter what we try to convey, if students aren’t listening, instructors are not being effective.”

In my opinion, games in the classroom could be productive in promoting content area literacy. When a student does not know the meaning of a word, instead of just reading about the word and not understanding, an engaging activity may be appropriate. For instance, if a teacher was to create a humorous skit or game from the literary term, it would give the students a connection to that word that was more meaningful that just reading about the term. Therefore, the teacher would be offering a reading definition that could be enhanced through a game or humorous demonstration. By using different resources, it may help different learner’s gain better understanding of the literary content. As teachers, we are responsible for promoting learning and we should use the tools available to us, even if it means incorporating literary games such as cross word puzzles into the curriculum.

Do you think that it is appropriate to use games to promote content area literacy? Do you think adding games to the classroom is beneficial or just distracting? By making the classroom constantly entertaining, is that just encouraging more entertainment or is it really helping students develop content knowledge?

In an article written for Education News, author, lawyer, and expert on public education law Miriam K Freedman discusses her one drastic change to fix all public schools.  According to Freedman, there is only one solution to fixing our public school system, and to her it seems like an obvious fix; to close all private schools.  While she realizes that this change is very unlikely to happen, she still provides several reasons for why this change would eliminate the problems we face within the public school systems.

The major benefit that this solution would provide is that it would force all students into the same school, giving them all the same opportunities and educational experiences.  Freedman states that

this step will force all students (the very rich, the very poor, the smart, the average, the disabled, the at-risk, and everyone in between) into public schools, creating overwhelming pressure to fix them at last.

When the families whose children are enrolled in private schools are forced into the public school system, they would have no choice but to fight for the high quality education and resources that they once had in their private schools.

Freedman also offers several more changes that would need to be made within the schools and the benefits that this type of radical change would provide for our educational system.  Her first benefit is that education will focus on teaching all children.  Instead of only closing the gap between students within the public school, they would now focus on closing the gap between all students.  The focus would basically shift from the individual groups of children, to one group as a whole. Second, Freedman believes that this solution would also fix discipline and behavior problems in the classroom.  She suggests that students who disrupt classes and disobey school rules should be removed to alternative school programs.  “Disruption and time away from learning are key reasons that parents opt out and choose home or private schooling.”  This new method, in her mind, would eliminate wasting essential teaching and learning time in the classroom, which is what parents and teachers want more of.   Third,  teachers would no longer be scorned for their classroom practices or instructional methods.  Freedman believes that we need to rebuild trust and respect between teachers, parents and administrators, and to do so, we need to respect the teacher as the expert.  Finally, and possibly most importantly, parents would be forced to play a more significant role in their child’s successful educational experiences.  “We will change laws that do the opposite, that treat parents as consumers of services and passive participants in improving outcomes, and even require some to advocate for children against the schools! We will see that parents help children with schoolwork, feed and clothe children appropriately, and put them to bed at night.”  Parents and teachers working together is an essential component for a students success, and is something that is seriously lacking in our current school systems.

When I read the end of this article, about forcing the parents to become more involved and responsible in their child’s education, I was reminded of an article that was recently in the Rochester City Newspaper.  In the article Eye On Education Part II: City school teachers, one of the major focuses was on effective teaching practices in the urban setting and how parent involvement can really help, or hurt, these efforts.  However, this isn’t always due to the fact that the parents don’t want to be actively involved.  Sometimes, they don’t know how or don’t have the resources to do so; “the teachers we talked to say most parents want to be supportive, but don’t always have the means. Transportation, language barriers, conflicting work schedules, and parents’ educational limitations are all part of the equation”.  In my opinion, this is why I don’t feel as though Freedman’s suggestion to force parents to be responsible and involved in their child’s education is necessarily going to be a realistic reform to enforce.

After reading Freedman’s article, and comparing her suggestions with the problems that exist within our own city school district, I feel as though her idea for reform is a bit too optimistic.  Even if we incorporate all types of students within one school by eliminating all private schools, those gaps between students and their learning are still going to exist.  While everyone would have equal opportunities and resources for learning, students still possess their own differences.  All students are never going to be on the same level as everyone else in their school, regardless of what is available to them.  What we really should be focusing on, rather than completely closing the gap between all students, is how we can educate each student to the best of their ability, to make them the most successful, and contributing member of society that they can be.   Also, forcing parents to be involved in their child’s education is an unrealistic option, unless we plan on somehow eliminating poverty and other problematic situations.  We can’t control a students home environment and we can’t control the resources that parents have available to them.  Therefore, forcing all parents to be equally involved, when their means of involvement are not equal themselves, is impossible.  I also disagree with Freedman’s suggestion of sending the behaviorally challenged students to alternative school programs.  I agree that behavior management distracts from learning and teaching time, but it seems wrong to completely eliminate them from the general classroom setting altogether.

Based on Freedman’s article and her suggestions for eliminating all private schools and how it would impact our public school systems, do you think it is a feasible and realistic idea?  What issues or problems do you think would stand in the way of this type of change actually being implemented?  Do you think there are any aspects that would need to be changed to make this more successful?

Current events are available to us in a variety of ways, so why not take advantage and use them in the classroom! We can get current events from the newspaper, magazines and even the internet.  Students have these resources available, so as teachers we should bring them to life and put meaning to non-fiction reading.

In the article Extra, Extra, Read all about it! Current Events in the Classroom by Alycia Zimmerman,  she suggests this same idea.  She decided she wanted to start reading the newspaper everyday and then realized she could even get her students involved.  She even gives statistics that prove students have little interest in non-fiction reading.  However, since the implementation of the Common Core Standards, things need to change! Zimmerman suggests that current events are a great way to meet the requirements of the Common Core Standards.  She states that

as students read and discuss the current events, they analyze evaluate text claims, and determine the important ideas within a text. And news stories are generally short texts — perfect for shared reading, Socratic circle discussions, and homework assignments.

She then goes on to give examples of where news articles can be found that are age and grade appropriate.

I think it is great that this teacher is using current events in conjunction with the Common Core Standards.  It can be difficult to find non-fiction text that students can relate to.  Current events are happening in the world that the students live in so they are easier to relate to especially if the source comes from a local newspaper or website.  I am definitely open to using current events in the classroom because they are available and can be found very easily.  However, it may be challenging to find a variety of articles that the children can relate to, as well as material that is differentiated for the different levels of readers we may have in our classrooms.

If you were to use current events in your classroom, how would you differentiate? What types of articles would you choose? What activities could be used with the students? How can we be sure the students understand what they are reading?

It’s no surprise that improving literacy skills in the United States continue to be on the mind of parents, teachers, and politicians. After all, the literacy statistics in the United States continues to be below average. A comprehensive five-year study commissioned by the United States government in 2002 showed that “21% to 23% of adult Americans were not “able to locate information in text”, could not “make low-level inferences using printed materials”, and were unable to “integrate easily identifiable pieces of information. In 2006, the same group of researchers did a follow-up study and showed no statistically improvement in the United States adult literacy (Wikipedia).”

Our government has introduced numerous laws mandating changes in the educational arena. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was enacted to address the War on Poverty in the United States. Prior to federal ESEA, state and local governments had exclusive domain over education. The ESEA changed the federal government’s role in education by controlling educational laws and mandating equal access to education for everyone. In 1994, ESEA was reauthorized to include Title I – adding laws to support children with disabilities. Regardless of the federal educational programs mandated and the amount of money that was given to each of our states, the data gathered by our government continued to show that adult literacy had not improved. In 2001, another federal program, No Child Left Behind, was put into law. The NCLB law held states accountable for student progress. Some of the NCLB requirements were that each state annually test each student and report on the academic achievement of each of their schools. Although the law “allowed states to set their own annual benchmarks, provided they reached 100 percent proficiency by 2012-13, some simply refused and several states did see failure rates over 50 percent (Education Week).”

A common theme of NCLB was to “teach to the test”. Using instructional strategies to “teach to the test” became a very controversial issue in the educational arena, especially with the teachers unions. In 2009, the Race to the Top became part of the federal education program. This program contained criteria such as complying with national common core standards, evaluating teachers by their students’ test scores and closing schools with low test scores and, perhaps, turn them over to a charter school. The civil rights organizations criticized this plan. They “insisted that access to federal funding should be based on need, not competition (Ravitch).”

Common core standards have been developed to prepare all students for success in college and the workplace. These standards recognize equity at all government levels. They define what all students in all states should know at each grade level. All curriculums are to be aligned with the common core standards by the 2012-2013 school year. However, any State may add another standard as long as it does not exceed 15% of that State’s total standard for a particular content area. With common core standards as mandates, all students across the United States will go through their educational programs with the opportunity to develop a higher level of proficiencies and achievements. The goal is that all students improve in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This will help students with critical analysis, social interaction and confidence when communicating. Teachers, in all content areas, will be responsible for assisting students improve reading, writing, listening and speaking competencies.

There has always been federal, as well as state and local, support for the education of our students. Although not all of the educational mandates have proven successful, it is apparent that our government continues to make laws to help educate our citizens and protect their general welfare. It is the duty of our government to support all of its citizens and not leave their education to chance. Although there are many controversial issues about the common core standards, it is my belief that having common core standards across all states is a good pathway to allowing all students, regardless of age, disability or income, to be literate.

…of the four “very hot” topics—adolescent literacy, comprehension, Response to Intervention, and core learning/literacy standards (those which at least 75% of respondents agree are receiving a great deal of attention), three topics were “very hot” in 2010 as well. Core learning/literacy standards is new to the list of the “very hot.”

The Association goes on to say that the purpose of the survey is to familiarize educators with the topics that are receiving attention and to encourage further investigation and research into those topics.  Given your area of expertise, which topic do you feel is the most important?  What outside research have you discovered in this area?  What connections can you make between the topic and content area literacy?