First and foremost, it is important for all of us as content specialists to realize that we DO have an important role to play in teaching literacy. Content literacy, or disciplinary literacy as our first learning module explained it, is where we get to show our students the exciting and unique materials of our subject. Since my two focus areas are geography and political science, teaching my students to how read, understand, and connect with maps, data charts, primary documents, current event news articles, etc. is extremely important. Students are technically "taught" how to read during the primary years, but reading to learn is an entirley different ball game. This requires our content specific knowledge to help teach students how to read different types selections and gather important information or comprehend certain views, main ideas, biases, detailed facts, etc. Teaching students how to "read like a historian" or other specialist allows them to learning the content authentically, and we know that authentic learning means better retention which leads to better understanding and higher achievement.
Some readers may sturggle with content specific reading. Going from reading a Shakespeare play in 1st period to a set of complex science lab instructions in 2nd period to a historical primary document in social studies in 3rd period, and so on can make already struggling readers feel even more discouraged about their reading abilities and foster negative views and reactions to reading in general. As social studies teachers, we can help make our readings more relative, applicable, and easy to understand by using some of the strategies from our in-class discussions and readings, the BLSS text, and Buehl's work. A key way we can do this is by getting away from the textbook! Other ways to help students who are struggling with history or political science texts include giving shorter passages for students to read, having activities for students to do with reading selections, and frontloading (giving students background information and vocabulary prep so they can comprehend the selection more easily).
These same strategies to help struggling readers also help engage students in the content. I see the multiple intelligences coming into play here. Many of the strategies that Dr. Webb and our course text authors have introduced include using visual information to accompany passages, having students do something active with information gathered from the reading, having interpersonal and intrapersonal reading opportunities, etc. An important thing for teachers to always remember about engaging students in the concepts and ideas of the subject area is having a variety of materials for students to read and engage with in regards to any particular subject. Having different reading levels, types of selections, lengths, etc. available for students to experience is the key.
Beth, I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about disciplinary literacy. Although none of us will begin our teaching career as literacy specialists, we still have the responsibility to include literacy strategies in our classrooms. I thought your strategies were very interesting and vital to use in the classroom. It is important to use the textbook, but include many additional sources, provide vocabulary prep for the class, provide shorter passages to read, and have activities that correlate to reading selections. Like you said, it's important to note that these techniques and strategies help all students with literacy, not just those students who struggle with readings. If we include some of the reading strategies that you listed, all of our students will succeed.
ReplyDeleteI like how you described the different types of reading. Once I began to read things in a way that allowed me to make connections to my content, primary documents and other content-related literature were both easier to comprehend. I can't expect students to comprehend a book on the Crusades when they have no idea what the Crusades are! Reading like a historian is so unique to our content area because it is hard to read like a.. mathematician? Reading as a historian is vital to our students' achievement in social studies.
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