Tools for Teaching Content Literacy

Reading and writing across content areas is emphasised in the standards and on high-stakes tests at the state and national level. As educators seek to incorporate content-area literacy into their teaching, they confront a maze of theories, instructional strategies, and acronyms like REAP and RAFT. Teachers who do work their way through the myriad content reading and writing strategies are discovering not all activities are appropriate for content instruction: only those with a strong research base meet the high standards expected in classrooms today.

Janet Allen developed the ideal support for teachers who want to improve their reading instruction across the curriculum. Tools for Teaching Content Literacy is a compact tabbed flipchart designed as a ready reference for content reading and writing instruction.

Each of the thirty-three strategies includes:

• a brief description and purpose for each strategy;
• a research base that documents the origin and effectiveness of the strategy;
• graphic organisers to support the lesson;
• classroom vignettes from different grade levels and content areas to illustrate the strategy in use.

The perfect size to slip into a plan book, Tools highlights effective instructional strategies and innovative ideas to help you design lessons that meet your students’’ academic needs as well as content standards. The definitions, descriptions, and research sources also provide a quick reference when implementing state and national standards, designing assessments, writing grants, or evaluating resources for literacy instruction.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Assess and Build Content Knowledge

• K-W-L, K-W-L Plus, B-K-W-L-Q
• Skimming and Scanning (Comprehension)
• List-Group-Label
• Book Pass
• Text Structures and Supports
• Developing Questions for Reading: Concept Ladder
• Word Study: Developing Content Vocabulary
• Book in a Day
• Word Study: How to Learn Content Vocabulary Through Context
• Admit Slip: Establishing a Purpose for Reading
• Anticipating Content: Here and Now, Predict-O-Gram, Story Impressions
• Anticipation Guide

Part 2: Support and Monitor Comprehension

• Reciprocal Teaching (Comprehension)
• DR-TA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity)
• REAP (Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder) (Main Idea, Summarizing)
• Learning Logs
• Compare/Contrast: Discovering Patterns
• Questions Game (Comprehension/Discussion)
• TAG (Textbook Activity Guide)
• ReQuest
• Cornell Note-Taking
• QAR (Question-Answer Relationship)
• Academic Notebooks: Writing to Learn

Part 3: Evaluate, Extend, and Transfer Content Knowledge

• RAFT Writing (Role, Audience, Format, Topic)
• Text Highlighting
• SPAWN (Special Powers, Problem Solving, Alternative Viewpoints, What If, Next) (Comprehension/Writing)
• Test-Taking Strategies
• PORPE (Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice, Evaluate) (Comprehension/Writing Essays)
• Inquiry and Research: I-Charts
• GIST (Generating Interactions Between Schemata and Texts) (Comprehension)
• Homework
• Exclusion Brainstorming
• Exit Slips