Teaching Reading in the Content Areas Presented by: Melinda Jackowski

Pre-Assessment Look at the charts hanging around the room. Think about the before, during, and after reading strategies you use when teaching reading. List your ideas on the sticky notes. Place the sticky note on the appropriate chart.

Minute Reflection Complete this minute reflection. Be ready to discuss. How would you define content area literacy? Were you ever trained on how to incorporate reading strategies into the content areas?

Video Watch the following video. Then complete this minute reflection: Did your definition of content area literacy change? If so, how? aa/Reading-in-the-Content-Area

Defining Reading in the Content Areas Vacca and Vacca (2005) define content area reading as "helping students better understand what they read in a particular content area course." Students need to use before, during, and after reading strategies in the content areas to help them understand what they are reading.

Why do it? Comprehension in reading has become a big topic since the National Reading Panel listed comprehension has one of the five critical areas of reading instruction. The new CORE curriculum embeds reading and writing in the content areas

Why do it? In the primary grades, we tend to focus on learning to read. In the intermediate grades, we focus on reading to learn. However, as the students move into the upper grades, the students are not ready to read a variety of text, especially expository text. Two researchers, Shanahan and Barr (1995) call this the 'vaccination approach' (Altieri, J., 2011)

Why do it? Teachers in the primary grades tend to think expository text is too hard for early readers. Researchers Hoffman et al. (1994) and Duke (2000) did a study of first grade classrooms and "found very little use of expository text" (Williams, J., Stafford, K., Lauer, K., Hall, K., & Pollini, S. 2009).

Why do it? However, there is a lot of research that shows using expository texts in the early grades will help students comprehend more challenging expository text in middle and high school. Benefits of using expository text early: increased comprehension in all students, "developing students' familiarity with the sound of informational text, which aids in independent reading and writing of similar text" (Cummings, S. & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. 2011), and helps to build the students' background knowledge and vocabulary.

Why do it? Furthermore, Moss (2005) and Swafford & Kallus (2002) remarked that "because of integrating reading and content instruction during the elementary grades, students both have an ability to learn to read an read to learn" (Ulusoy, M. & Dedeoglu, H. 2011) Dreher and Baker (2005) found that "increased exposure to such text might also help prevent the decline in motivation and engagement that has been noted as children move through the grades" (Williams, J., Stafford, K., Lauer, K., Hall, K., & Pollini, S., 2009).

Why do it? In the real world, students will encounter more expository text than narrative. Example: internet (news articles), newspaper, magazines, signs/billboards.

How to do it You can integrate the content area into your reading block by choosing books/articles that pertain to what you are learning in Social Studies. You can also use make your Social Studies lessons, which are developed by the county, better by incorporating expository text and writing into the lessons.

How to do it There are several resources that can help you choose appropriate text for your grade level. 1. Website- 2. Word-copy at least 100 words of the book/text into word. When you do spelling/grammer check, click options. Under grammer, check show readability statistics. Then click, OK. Then do a spelling/grammar check on the document. At the end, it will give you the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.

How to do it Use the lesson plan format I gave you to plan your lessons. When using the county curriculum, look to see if any of this is imbedded into the lesson. Chances are you will have to add things. We will work on doing this in the next sessions.

How to do it Before reading strategies you can use include: -anticipation guide -Word Exploration -Word sorts -knowledge rating -KWL -Concept of Definition Word Map -Story Chain Source: Vacca & Vacca, 2008

How to do it During/After Reading strategies: KWL Discussion Web Summaries Note taking Compare/Contrast guide Cause/Effect guide Readers Theater Source: Vacca & Vacca, 2008

How to do it Writing Strategies Unsent letters Biopoems Admit slips/Exit Slip Dialogue Response Journals Double-Entry Journal Source: Vacca & Vacca, 2008

Now Lets Try! I will model by doing a science lesson on seeds.

How did you do? Complete this minute reflection: What did you learn today that you can take back to the classroom?

References Altieri, J. (2011). Chapter 3: Meeting the Reading Comprehension Demands of Each Content Area. Content Counts! Developing Disciplinary Literacy Skills, K-6. International Reading Association. Williams, J., Stafford, K., Lauer, K., Hall, K., & Pollini, S. (2009). Embedding Reading Comprehension Training in Content-Area Instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, Volume 101, No. 1. Pages 1-20.

References Cummings, S. & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. (2011). Teaching for Synthesis of Informational Texts with Read-Alouds. The Reading Teacher, 64(6). Pages Ulusoy, M. & Dedeoglu, H. (2011). Content Area Reading and Writing: Practices and Beliefs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 36, Issue 4. pages Vacca, J. & Vacca, R. (2008). Content Area Reading: Ninth Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.