Purpose

Too often, students' reading and writing instruction is limited to reading stories from basal or literature anthologies and writing stories about personal experiences. This common practice ignores important instructional opportunities to help students develop literacy skills associated with reading and writing informational texts. The major emphasis of this course is on preparing teachers to teach students reading and writing strategies that help them acquire knowledge from content area materials. These strategies also help students learn how their own efforts contribute to learning and motivation. Other methods taught in the course include integrating the curriculum across content areas, using children's and young adult literature to complement learning from information texts, and teaching students to navigate reference, Internet, and multimedia materials.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Analyze different kinds of texts and determine their instructional usefulness along with adaptations that may be necessary for effective instruction and learning.
• Apply common reading instruction techniques such as before reading, during-reading, and after reading strategies.
• Provide writing experience that will enhance learning across content areas.
• Use children's and young adult literature to supplement content-area studies.

Course Topics

• The reluctance of some teachers to teach reading in their content area.
• The nature and purpose of (a) different types of texts such as textbooks, trade books, essays, newspapers, etc., and (b) complementary materials such as primary sources, historical fiction, current periodicals, electronic texts, etc.
• Critical assessment of texts, including (a) readability, (b) "considerateness" issues such as text structure, coherence, etc., (c) biases and authority.
• Knowing ways to modify text for struggling readers and/or ESL learners.
• Reading and writing for different purposes and audiences, such as enjoyment, information gathering, learning, etc.
• Before, during and after reading strategies with content-area texts.
• The special role of vocabulary and prior knowledge in content area learning.
• Strategies and study skills for learning form text such as K-W-L, comprehension-monitoring, note-taking skills, etc.
• Assessment and evaluation of content area reading and writing, including formal and informal measures such as portfolios, rubrics, open-ended texts, peer editing.
• Using children's and young adult literature to supplement content-area study and create units based on conceptual themes.

Assignments

• Complete assigned readings and be prepared to discuss in class.
• Observe and reflect in writing on literacy practices in a content area in an elementary or secondary classroom. These may include previewing the text, engaging students in a class discussion of the topic, developing predictions of text content, developing questions about the text content, activities to increase learning during reading, extending students' learning through follow-up reading and writing.
• Examine, summarize, and share research to build in-depth knowledge about one aspect of content area literacy instruction.
• Analyze a content area text
• Prepare one or more sample lesson plans in several content areas. Include lesson objectives; materials; activities that occur before, during, and after reading; accommodations; and evaluation procedures.
• Implement and describe instructional strategies to improve reading comprehension in a content-area classroom.
• Identify children's or young adult literature titles that can be used to support student learning in the content areas.

Bibliography

Allen, J. (2000). Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Allen, J., & Gonzales, K. (1997). There's room for me here: Literacy workshop in the middle school. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Allen, J., & Romano, T. (1995). It's never too late: Leading adolescents to lifelong literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinmann

Alvermann, D., & Phelps, S. (1999). Content reading and literacy: Succeeding in today's diverse classrooms. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Doiron, R. (1994). Using nonfiction in a read-aloud program: Letting the facts speak for themselves. The Reading Teacher, 47, 616-623.

Five, C.L. & Dionisio, M. (1995). Bridging the gap: Integrating curriculum in upper elementary and middle schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Guillaume, A. (1998). Learning with text in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 51, 476-485.

Harvey, S. (1998). Reading, writing, and research in grades 3-8. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance comprehension. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Lapp, D., Flood, J., & Farnan, N. (1995). Content area reading and learning: Instructional strategies. New York: Allyn and Bacon.

Moore, D., Bean, T., Birdyshaw, D., & Rycik, J. (1999(. Adolescent literacy: A position statement. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43, 97-109.

Moore, D., Moore, S., Cunningham, P., & Cunningham, J. (1997). Developing readers and writers in the content areas K-12. New York: Addison Wesley.

Ryder, R.J. & Graves, M.F. (1998). Reading and learning in content areas. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

Taylor, B., Graves, M., & van den Broek, P. (Eds). (1998). Reading for meaning: Fostering comprehension in the middle grades. NY: Teachers College Press.

Tierney, R. & Readence, J.E. (1999). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium. New York: Allyn and Bacon.

Vacca, R., & Vacca, J. (1999). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. New York: Longman.