
BCPS Literacy Field Guide for Educators
A Field Guide for Planning and Delivering High Quality Instruction
The Role of the Content Area Teachers in Developing Literacy Skills in Students
What is the role of Content Area teachers in this District’s literacy initiative? Vital to meeting the district’s literacy goals is the involvement of all Secondary teachers in the process. “Because content instruction comprises the heart of a secondary school curriculum, content literacy instruction must be the cornerstone of any movement to build high-quality secondary school” (Heller & Greenleaf, 2007). As a result, the district employs a Disciplinary Literacy approach to embedding literacy skills into content area classes.
A Disciplinary Literacy approach encourages teachers and students to understand how (as students move into high school) their literacy needs differ and become more specialized. For students to be college and career ready, even students who have demonstrated proficiency in literacy must be further engaged and challenged to meet those specialized literacy needs.
Through the Disciplinary Literacy approach educators must understand that different disciplines require different instructional and learning practices. Therefore, approaches to reading texts may vary according to discipline; and, writing tasks should be content-based.
What are some disciplinary differences in literacy?
How can teachers across disciplines build students’ disciplinary literacy skills necessary for post-secondary success? Effective comprehension tools across disciplines are structured note-taking, or structured, content-specific summarization to aide students with understanding specific content. Explicit teaching of academic language, extensive modeling, use of Think-Alouds and Scaffolding Instruction help engage students and allow them to produce authentic learning products that connect to ‘real-world’ learning. Incorporating texts beyond the course textbook also builds students’ disciplinary literacy. Providing time and support for students to collaborate and develop skills with accountable talk help them to master the content, meet state standards and prepare them for the demands of college and careers. In 2008, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) published the practice guide Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices (Kamil et al., 2008), which recommends that content area teachers provide explicit vocabulary instruction, direct and explicit comprehension strategy instruction and opportunities for extended discussion of text meaning and interpretation.
Social Studies |
Mathematics |
Science |
Career, Technical, Adult, Community Education |
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