Literacy in the Content Area Classroom

Grades 6-12

Literacy in the Content Area Classroom

Grades 6-12

Illinois State Board of Education ELA Content Area Specialist

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Today’s Outcomes Discuss Literacy in Today’s WorldReview the Illinois Learning StandardsDetermine Literacy Needs in Content Classrooms

1. What’s Happening2. What Needs to Happen3. How To Make it Happen

--Strategies for the Classroom

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Students who develop an even broader set of in-demand competencies will be at an even greater advantage in work and in life:

- the ability to think critically about information, - solve novel problems, - communicate and collaborate , - create new products and processes, and - adapt to change .

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Employers Expect More• Reading and

Writing• Collaboration• Independence• Critical Thinkers• Perseverance• Problem Solvers

Literacy for the 21st Century“Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st

century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advancedlevels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct theirpersonal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial.”

(IRA, 1999)

Overview of your 10 Reading Standards1. Cite evidence to support analysis...2. Determine central idea… provide a summary….3. Identify key steps, sequences…. (analyze in high school)4. Determine meanings of words…5. Describe how a text presents information.. sequentially, 

comparatively (analyze in high school)6. Author’s purpose/point of view (compare two or more authors)7. Integrate visual information with other information8. Distinguish among fact, opinion (M.S.) Assess whether text 

support’s the author’s claim(s). (H.S.)9. Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary 

source on the same topic. (H.S. Compare and contrast….)10. Read and comprehend texts in your content independently….

Overview of Your 10 Writing Standards1.  Write opinion/arguments2.  Write informative/explanatory texts3.  Write narratives

Standards 4‐10 help accomplish standards 1,2 or 34. Produce clear coherent writing….5. Develop and strengthen writing… 6. Use technology to produce, publish….7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects…8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital 

sources…9. Draw evidence from texts…10. Write routinely for extended and shortened time frames….

Schools/Districts Have Choice

All students in all districts are expected to demonstrate the same reading and writing skills at each grade level  standards.

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Increased quantity of materials and instructional time devoted to informational text

English Language Arts Teachers

Literaturefiction, drama, 

poetry

Literary NonfictionMemoirBiography

Social Studies, Science, Technical Subjects

Other informational Text

70% of the reading instruction students receive across their instructional day will be devoted to

informational text.

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Are students really reading in all of the subjects?

Two Biggest Problems Faced by Teachers

• Students have difficulty reading the texts of various content areas

• Students don’t want to read

C. Shanahan, 2013

Simply assigning hard books will not ensure that studentslearn at high levels!

Simply assigning hard books will not ensure that studentslearn at high levels!

www.fisherandfrey.com

The New Illinois Learning Standards Cannot Be Met without

Reading and WritingAcross all content areas students should… Read Write Listen/view Discuss/present Think critically and creatively Use language and vocabulary to read and

comprehend text to support the contenthttps://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/reading-like-a-historian-corroboration

Content Area vs. Discipline Literacy• “Content-area literacy”

– Generalizable routines, generic comprehension strategies intended to be taught by reading and content teachers alike and applied across the curriculum

• “Disciplinary literacy”– Specialized ways of learning and

communicating in each specific discipline– Includes the language differences across

disciplines

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Chemistry: experiments,

processes; connections between texts,

formulas, graphs & charts.

History: Consider author’s perspective, contextualize the text

with historical period & place, corroborating information across

sources.

Goal: arrive at truthClose reading is highly importantHeavy emphasis on error detection

Precision of understanding essential

Math – Disciplinary Reading

Elements:Pythagorean Theorem

Properties:Relation in Euclidean Geometry among the 3 sides of a right triangle

ProcessesValues are represented by a, b, and c. To find a missing value, substitute the known values and solve for the missing value.

Key DetailsVocab:• Right triangle• Side or leg• Hypotenuse• Equal• Square• area

Analogies Illustrations:

Allows prediction of how world works

Understanding of processes and

experimentsClose connections among graphs, charts, and formulas

Reading strategies

are corroboration

and transformation

Science – Disciplinary Reading

Chemistry Note-taking

Substances Properties Processes InteractionsAtomic Expression

Single texts are problematic

(no corroboration)

View history as argument based on partial evidence; narratives are more than facts

Interpretive, authors and sourcing are central in interpretation (must consider bias/perspective)

History/Social Studies –Disciplinary Reading

History Sources• Who is the author? Can I trust what

he/she says? Why or why not?• Who was the author writing to? Why?• When did the author write it? Does that

make a difference?• Do others agree? If not, who is more

credible?• What does the author say that makes

him/her believable?https://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

Multiple Text Discussion Web

Yes/No Question

YES

Text 1 Evidence

Text 2 Evidence

Text 3 Evidence

NO

Text 1 Evidence

Text 2 Evidence

Text 3 Evidence

Our View

Inquiry ChartQ 1 Q 2 Q 3 Credible?

Text 1

Text 2

Text 3

My Opinion

Is Oprah dangerous?

Is Oprah self-serving?

Is Oprah compassionate?

Credible?

Text 1Answer/evidence

No: [her accomplishments] “speak …to touching hearts, and leaving each one uplifted”

Text 2 Answer/evidence

Text 3Answer/evidence

Yes: “Oprah is a conduit to lead people to hell”

My Opinion

Deals with the human conditionConveys themes about the human experience