Literacy In the Content Areas During this workshop we will be discussing research and strategies to improve student literacy in the content areas. Literacy In the Content Areas Thomas Jefferson Middle School Beth Raines 2011

Recommendations Provide explicit vocabulary instruction Provide direct and explicit comprehension strategy instruction Provide opportunities for extended discussion of text meaning and interpretation Increase student motivation and engagement in literacy learning Make available intensive and individualized interventions for struggling readers that can be provided by trained specialists http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/adlit_pg_082608.pdf The U.S. Department of Education recommended the following strategies in August 2008.

Intervention Strategies Why do you think content area reading is difficult for students? Take a couple of minutes to share your ideas with a partner or in your group. (Discussion) Intervention Strategies

What strategies are effective? Initial screening assessment to identify those students who need extra help. Diagnostic tests to provide a profile of literacy strengths and weaknesses. Students also have varied background experiences, lack of instruction in expository reading, may lack interest or motivation to learn the materials, have gaps in study techniques and may have been taught to read for skills not comprehension. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/adlit_pg_082608.pdf

What strategies are effective? Focus on reading strategies based on student testing. These elements include: phonemic awareness phonemic decoding text reading fluency strategies for building vocabulary strategies for understanding and using the specific textual features that distinguish different genres self-regulated use of reading comprehension strategies http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/adlit_pg_082608.pdf