Planning for Academic Literacies in the Content Areas Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson Ithaca College

In this session…  Discuss the evolution of an assignment across years in my career, across the teaching of elementary and then secondary teacher candidates, and across developments in national standards for literacy;  Share a draft of the assignment, still in revision;  Discuss selected examples of how students have approached this assignment;  Share ideas for better reinforcing to secondary content teachers that language and literacy learning is significant, in addition to being a means to strengthen content area learning.

Academic Literacies  Common Related Terms  Content Area Reading  Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening to Learn  Writing Across the Disciplines  Reading and writing [and listening and speaking] as  “ social practices that vary with context, culture, and genre” (Lea & Street, 2008, p.368)  and as literacy practices that do not reside entirely in “disciplinary and subject-based communities” (Lea & Street, 2008, pp. 368 and 370)

My Interests  Helping teachers and teacher candidates to perceive--  Language and literacy as windows into content;  The variations in literate practices within and across disciplines;  Language and literacy as tools that feed content learning;  How to intentionally screen and select resources that are varied, appropriate for these students, appropriate to the discipline, and instructionally powerful;  There is no “method” or strategy they can blindly adopt;  That every teacher is also a teacher of literacy.

The Evolution of An Assignment  Reading in the Content Areas Course  Critical Reading in the Content Fields  Seminar in Reflective Practice—  Assignment designed jointly with students  Initial rubric designed with students  Revised annually

Changes Over Time…  Initially…  Focus on generic literacy strategies and traditional texts  Consideration of students’ prior knowledge and interests, but no explicit focus on cultural assets or developmental appropriateness.  Limited connections to assessment and student learning  Now…  More focus on student-centered approaches to content literacy and integrating CCSS  Combining/connecting the resources and the strategies  Greater variation in the types of “texts” that are reviewed as student resources

The Assignment…  Initial Overview  Annotated Bibliography of Resources for Students  Annotated Bibliography of Professional Resources for Teachers  Critical Analysis of Content Area Literacy Strategies  Reflective Overview

Student Examples  WWII Unit (Middle School)  Hinduism and Buddhism (South Asia Unit for High School)  WWI Unit (High School)  Probability (Middle School)  Debate (Middle School)  Farming (Early Childhood— Elementary)  Ohio Plants and Animals in their Woodland, Wetland, and Prairie Habitats (Elementary)  Geology (Elementary)  Genetics (Middle School)  Weather (Early Childhood— Elementary)  Electricity (Elementary)  Energy and Motion (Middle School)  The Great Depression (High School)  Day and Night, Phases of the Moon, and the Seasons (Elementary)  U.S. Civil Rights Movement (Middle)

Questions and Curiosities  How to help candidates feel a sense of ownership of language and literacy scholarship;  How to validate the lessons in which the CCSS are not directly an objective;  How teacher candidates with limited experience in literacy coursework or children’s and YA literature can be helped to see the benefit of these texts;  How to better build community collaboration into the assignment—not as an option but as a requirement.