Instructional Techniques

• across the curriculum or reading in the content areas
• anticipation guide
• assisted reading
• choral reading
• cloze
• directed reading thinking activities (DRTA)
• dialog journal or double entry journal
• focused imaging
• guided reading
• KWL and variations
• literature circle
• modeling, coached practice and reflection (MCR)
• question/answer relationships (QAR)
• questioning the author
• readers theater
• readers workshop
• reciprocal teaching
• sketch to stretch
• Socratic questioning
• storytelling
• technology
• transactional strategies instruction (TSI)
• word walls
• writers workshop

Literacy across the curriculum (in the content areas)

Background

Literacy experts stress the importance of reading and writing to the development of content area understanding. Supporting Adolescent Literacy Across the Content Areas (PDF) describes how we can enhance adolescent learning in the content areas by enhancing their literacy skills. This 2001 document is published in the Perspectives on Policy and Practice series from the Northeast and Islands Regional Education Lab at Brown University.

As students progress through their schooling, they encounter texts and concepts that require different reading strategies than the familiar forms and narratives of the early elementary. The National Council of Teachers of English published a porition/action statement in Mary 2004 describing What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs. It reflects the theme of an earlier statement that "No matter what the subject, the people who read it, write it, and talk it are the ones who learn it best." (1997, no longer online)

Explanation

The teacher can help students with the initial approach to new text.

• Make connections to prior knowledge: prior lessons, personal experiences.

• Preview.

• Select strategies appropriate to text and purpose.

• Facilitate understanding of aspects unique or specific to the discipline.

• vocabulary

• ways of communicating (discourse conventions)
  example: debate, geometric proofs, scientific hypotheses, historical reenactment

• types of text (discipline specific text structure)
  example: screenplay, scientific journal article, marketing plan, recipe

• textbook comprehension (text features)
  example: chapter overview, subheadings, summary

• Provide for an organizing or study scheme.

• graphic organizers

• WWWWH - who, what, when, why, where, how

• Apply to different setting or situation

• Synthesize into different format

• Create a project, report/paper, webpage

• Reflect: discuss, journal

• Evaluate

Links to resources

• Math and Literature: Perfect Together
  Trade books for grades k-2 listed by math themes; for example: counting, place value, money, patterns.
• Math and Literature!
  Booklist for grades 1-2 grouped by math topics; for example: addition & subtraction, money, time.
• Books in Education Center: Math
  Books for grades 1-3 that reinforce math concepts. Articles with reviews.
• Math And Children's Literature
  Recommendations for using books in the k-8 math curriculum. Articles and book annotations.
• Math Songs & Poems
  Original poems set to familiar melodies and grouped according to the NCTM standards. Most are secondary level, but a few would be enjoyed by as low as grade six and could inspire students to create their own.

• Reading in the Sciences
  Compares skills and strategies of reading and process science and describes their integration in the classroom.

• ReadingQuest: Making Sense in Social Studies
  Both the theorical basis and practical descriptions of content reading strategies. Written for social studies teachers, but appropriate across the curriculum.
• Strategies And Techniques
  Literacy strategies and examples of use in high school social studies classrooms.
• Building Literacy in Social Studies: Strategies for Improving Comprehension and Critical Thinking (by Ogle, Klemp & McBride, © 2007 ASCD)
  Read two chapters of the book online. Chapter 1 introduces strategies by comparing those of struggling and fluent readers. Chapter 6 gives eight comprehension strategies when using textbooks; each with a teacher section of how to teach and a student section with instructions for guided practice and application activities.