Content Area Literacy- Post 1

          Making a case and place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades:

A reflection

          When I was given this article to read I thought "oh boy, another boring article." Surprise, surprise I found this article very interesting and it gave useful information for present and future classroom situations. At first, I wasn't exactly sure what the phrase "content area literacy" meant. I was glad to see that early on in the article it was clarified so I could better grasp the information.

         After reading this article I completely agree with introducing expository text from kindergarten. The article suggested that students should read to learn as they are learning to read. This point to me lines up directly with the balanced reading approach. It amazes me that most schools are incorporating little, if any, informational text into the younger grades because I believed that schools were teaching from a balanced approach of teaching.  The statistics the article showed were the parts most staggering to me; for instance, "by the time U.S. students reach the tenth grade, only a third are reading proficiently (Moss 47)." It was alarming to read a study found that only 2% of instructional time is spent teaching comprehension. I agree that teachers to effectively teach reading teachers need to be taught effective ways to teach not only narrative, but expository text.

          The section I found most relevant was how to integrate literacy instruction with content area instruction. I found it interesting that in many cases teaching content takes the upper hand over teaching the process of reading informational text. I have always liked the idea of learning logs and the information presented in this section only strengthened my view for them.  

          Overall, I really enjoyed this article. It was very educational, but was presented in a way that was easy to read and understand. Because I have read this article I feel I am a more educated future educator and will strive to incorporate the ideas I have gained from this article into my classroom.   

Two questions I have after reading this article are:

Why aren't more schools/teachers enforcing/teaching content area literacy from primary grades if so many studies have found it beneficial? 

What resources are available to schools and/or teachers to learn to better teach expository text especially in primary grades?