Handbook of Strategiesfor

Content Area Literacy

A Guide for Classroom TeachersBy

Lyn Gagne

PurposeThe purpose of this handbook is to provide elementary classroom teachers

with strategies and suggestions for supporting all students as they transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. Beginning with descriptions of the various terms used in reading education, and continuing with examples of these strategies, this handbook seeks to provide educators with a “quick reference” guide for improving literacy within the science, math, social studies, and RLA areas. Also included is a template for planning lessons that feature before, during, and after reading strategies.

Learning StrategiesLearning strategies are the specific strategies that a student uses to

understand various concepts or to master skills. An example would be the things that good readers do to help them understand a text, and includes strategies such as activating prior knowledge, monitoring comprehension, and asking questions.When teaching learning strategies, it’s important that teachers explain what the strategy does, why it’s important to use it, and how the strategy will help them.

Instructional StrategiesInstructional strategies are the practices that teachers use to facilitate

learning. Some examples would include Cornell notes, anticipation guides, reciprocal teaching, and summary frames. Instructional strategies can help students organize information, and can also act as learning strategies as they help students understand new concepts and develop skills.

Best PracticesBest practices include routinely using instructional and learning strategies

to foster student learning. Best practices are based on evidence from research in education and include proven procedures such as the before, during, and after support, and the gradual release model. Before reading strategies occur before the reading begins and prepares students for learning. During reading strategies help monitor comprehension, and after reading strategies help connect learning. The gradual release model progresses from direct instruction to collaboration to student independence. Both of these practices form the majority of the strategies in this guide.

Things to RememberWhen selecting strategies, it is important to consider which strategies will

best support student learning and which strategies are the best fit for the content area being taught. For maximum effectiveness, it is also important that these routines are practiced on a regular basis.

Literacy in the Content AreasToday’s students are often unprepared for reading and understanding the

increasingly complex texts required in the content areas. The structures of the texts in math, science, social studies and language arts are vastly dissimilar and require equally different skills to comprehend them. Using effective learning strategies aids greatly in student understanding and critical thinking in all core areas.

ScienceScience textbooks can be difficult for students to read due to the more

complex vocabulary, expository style of writing, and generally higher than actual grade reading level. For these reasons, science texts can be especially challenging for struggling readers. In this content area, it is important to focus on explicit modeling of comprehension strategies and development of content specific vocabulary. Teachers should consider using texts that are leveled to the students’ ability, and assigning collaborative group projects in lieu of individual projects. Hands-on work in the science lab can be a good opportunity for students to make those important connections between reading and writing as they record their data, observations, predictions, and conclusions. The use of graphic organizers can help students select and organize information, which ultimately helps them to summarize, connect information, and draw conclusions.

Connect literacy to this content area by asking students to: Form hypotheses Collect and organize data Compare and contrast Draw conclusions Record observations

MathMath textbooks tend to be full of technical vocabulary, explanations,

symbols and data. These information rich texts must be read slowly and carefully in order to understand the problems and concepts presented. Students need to be able to read graphs, decipher word problems, order operations, and then explain their thinking. When teaching math, teachers can use explicit instruction to help students understand math terms, set up problems, and identify important words in word problems. Give students the opportunity to construct their own meaning through discussion and group investigation. Have them write about their thinking by reflecting on the processes of problem solving, thus helping them understand the concepts and not just the operations.

Connect literacy to this content area by having students: Translate words into problems, and problems into words Use journals to reflect on solutions Compare and contrast concepts through writing Translate concepts into symbols Write elaborations on processes

Language ArtsThe ability to read and comprehend literary texts is a vital part of language

arts. Teachers need to be able to teach learning strategies that will help students learn new vocabulary, analyze story elements such as character, theme, and plot, make inferences, predict, and summarize. In addition, teachers must motivate students and nurture a love of reading. Student interest should guide the selection of at least some of the required reading, and students should be instructed in how to select appropriate material. It is important to include a variety of non-fiction in various formats including magazines, newspapers, biography and autobiography, and factual accounts. It is also beneficial to students to expose them to a variety of genres, and to teach the specific strategies that help them effectively respond orally and in writing to new concepts and ideas. Collaborative group activities in the form of literature circles and reciprocal teaching can foster the cooperation, discussion, questioning, and communication skills that are so important to today’s learners.

Connect literacy to this content area by helping students to:

Generate a variety of writing formats Understand the different literary genres Understand literary devices Use context clues Articulate their oral and written responses for various audiences Know proper mechanics of writing Understand author’s purpose

Social StudiesReading social studies textbooks requires many different literacy skills.

Students must be able to identify main ideas and details, analyze text formats, evaluate points of view, summarize, and synthesize information from varied sources. Students need to construct meaning through questioning, identifying cause and effect, comparing and contrasting, and recognizing cause and effect. In addition, social studies texts also contain many of the features of math texts including graphs and data. Teachers of social studies need to identify the strategies that will best help students understand concepts and relationships, learn facts, and make connections between history and current events. Strategies such as QAR (question, answer, relationship) can help students move from simple recall to making inferences to develop a deeper understanding. It is also important to design activities that connect reading and writing, such as writing persuasive essays and arguments. These activities help students define their thinking, understand points of view, and identify cause and effect. Assignments could include writing newspaper editorials from particular time periods or points of view, writing historical fiction, debating ideas, and writing persuasive letters.

Connect literacy to this content area by having students: Make connections between events in history Understand social studies text structure and features Evaluate sources such as websites for prejudice and accuracy Write about fact versus opinion in specific sources Write about cause and effect for historical events

The Effective TeacherInstructional strategies are vital if students are to understand content, but

in order to develop these literacy skills, teachers must use the strategies on a regular basis. Effective teachers use a combination of teacher behaviors (i.e. the use of research based strategies) and instructional practices (i.e. explicit instruction) to help their students learn concepts and understand text in content areas. Effective teachers model strategies, support students as they practice them, and eventually release responsibility to the students. In addition to the use of the gradual release model, effective teachers provide opportunities for collaborative learning that includes reciprocal teaching and think-pair-share. Effective teachers use the appropriate strategies to help students make connections before, during, and after reading. These strategies include graphic organizers, questioning, understanding text structure, monitoring comprehension, visualizing, summarizing, activating prior knowledge, predicting and developing vocabulary.

Before, During and AfterUse of before, during, and after reading strategies is an effective practice

for helping struggling readers in their content area learning. Some of the strategies for each stage are listed here.

BeforeBefore reading strategies help prepare students to learn. They include:

Activating prior knowledge – helps students discover what they already know about a topic so that they may more easily link it to new information.

Setting a purpose and generating questions – helps students decide reasons why they are reading a text including gaining information, reading for pleasure, learning a process, or understanding a subject’s relevance.

Previewing text structure – helps students discover the features of a text, including charts and diagrams, so they may better understand its content.

Making predictions – helps students understand text as they consider what might happen, adjust their predictions as they read, and discard predictions that contradict the text.

Before Reading

Teacher Instructional Practices Sample Student Activities

Teachers must:

Activate background knowledge

Establish purpose for reading

Help students generate questions

Ask for predictions

Facilitate use of graphic organizers

Connect reading with writing

Students will:

Brainstorm concepts, key words and ideas

Establish goals based on purpose

Turn headings into questions

Predict and verify predictions

Construct GO for use during reading

Connect reading to writing through journals, vocabulary notebook or other form

During During reading activities support student comprehension in the content

areas as they construct concepts and relationships. They include: Questioning – helps students clarify meaning and strengthen

understanding. Monitoring reading – students monitor their comprehension and use fix-up

strategies when they don’t understand their reading. These include rereading, reading on for context clues, and examining words for known word parts such as affixes and roots.

Connections – helps students use their own experiences, texts they have read, and world knowledge to help make sense of their reading.

Inferring – students use their prior knowledge and synthesize it with their reading to arrive at new conclusions that are not explicitly stated.

Drawing conclusions – students arrive at conclusions and refine the according to any new information they acquire.

Summarizing – students review what they have read by stopping and reflecting for understanding during reading.

Visualizing – students create mental images or “movies” during their reading by “seeing” the written words as images, and incorporating their senses to heighten the experience.

Analyzing text structure – students use the structure of the text to predict events (narrative story), to determine important information (captions, headings), and to summarize (charts, graphs).

Synthesizing – students combine information and ideas from various texts to come to a more complete understanding of the content.

During Reading

Teacher Instructional Practices Sample Student Activities

Teacher must:

Model metacognitive and cognitive processes

Verify and/or formulate predictions

Facilitate integration of new data with prior knowledge

Encourage thinking about reading

Help students construct Graphic organizers

Summarize text

Read aloud

Think aloud

Students will:

Find answers to self-initiated questions

Read silently.

Read with a partner

Predict and verify

Re-read if necessary

Take notes

Construct and use graphic organizers

AfterAfter reading strategies help learners reflect about the content, summarize

their learning, draw conclusions, and make connections. They include: Reflecting – students contemplate their reading as they relate on a

personal or emotional level. Rereading – students read text additional times to improve understanding. Summarizing – students provide a summary or gist of the text. Strategies

for summarizing can include Summary Frames and Somebody Wanted But So.

Discussing – students discuss the text in small or large groups. Written response – students complete a written response to their reading.

Responses can be in a variety of formats including summaries, letters, journal entries, news stories and persuasive essays.

Verbal response – students provide an oral response to the story. Responses can be in the form of presentations, debates, and dramatic events.

After Reading

Teacher Instructional Practices Sample Student Activities

Teacher must:

Encourage student reflection

Prompt students to evaluate predictions

Examine questions that guided reading

Require response through discussion

Require response through writing

Prompt retelling or summarizing

Connect writing to reading

Students will:

Discuss Debate Respond to questions Verify predictions Construct graphic organizers Write in a journal Retell Summarize Role Play Research Read additional materials

Gradual Release ModelAn important component of teaching literacy across the curriculum is the

gradual release model. With the model, teachers begin by explicitly teaching and then modeling the chosen literacy strategy. At this point, the teacher should also explain to students what the strategy will help them do. For example, when teaching the Somebody Wanted But So (SWBS) strategy, it’s important to tell the students that this strategy will help them to become better at summarizing. After the explicit instruction and strategy explanation, students should be given the chance to practice the strategy, either in pairs or small groups, and then to reflect on their use of the strategy and how it helped them. Teachers should also give students the opportunity to ask questions and to receive feedback on their work.After completing these two important steps, students may begin to practice the strategy independently, again with feedback. Though it is time consuming, the

gradual release model is extremely effective. Some students may take longer than others before they are ready for independent work, so the teacher must continue to offer explicit modeling and support as needed.

Planning Effective Literacy LessonsEffective lessons should consider the purpose of the lesson and its desired

outcome for students. Teachers should select the most effective before, during, and after strategies, and then implement them using the gradual release model. Strategy choices are crucial and should be suited to the lesson’s purpose.

Planning Before Reading ActivitiesConsider the purpose of the before reading activity.

If you want to- Then try this strategy- Activate prior knowledge KWL Chart, Anticipation Guides Build background knowledge Anticipation Guides Generate questions KWL Chart Establish purpose for reading Anticipation Guides Pre-teach vocabulary Word Scrolls, Frayer Model Initiate predictions Probable Passage, Tea Party

Teachers also need to consider the content of the lesson. If the lesson involves a new concept, try building background knowledge. If the lesson is a review of familiar content, use a strategy that will activate prior knowledge. If the lesson contains vocabulary that might be difficult, consider word scrolls.

Planning During Reading Activities

Consider the purpose of the during reading activity.If you want to- Then try this strategy-

Use mental imagery Think Aloud Integrate new/prior information Rereading Construct graphic organizers Concept GO Self-monitor comprehension Say Something, Think Aloud Summarize Somebody Wanted But So Make/verify predictions Post-it Notes Engage with text “Mark…” bookmarks, Post its

If the content of the lesson is difficult, choose an activity that requires students to stop as they read, reflect upon their reading, and monitor for comprehension. If the text structure is challenging, consider dividing the reading into chunks and assigning groups that will be responsible for reciprocal teaching or whole group discussion.

Planning After Reading Activities

Consider the purpose of the after reading activity.If you want to- Then try this strategy-

Reflect on the content Text Reformulation, GO’s Respond to text through writing Sketch to Stretch, Text

Reformulation, Most Important Word

Evaluate predictions KWL Summarize Somebody Wanted But So,

Summary Frames Reflect on questions It Says – I Say, GO’s

It’s important to consider the content of the lesson as well. If the lesson builds on previous knowledge, focus on activities that forge connections while evaluating the new learning. For content that can be represented visually, use graphic organizers to help students organize the information and concepts, or to help organize summaries. Word Scrolls can lead to a deeper understanding of vocabulary, while Most Important Word can lead to lively discussions or written responses.

Template for Planning Effective Literacy Lessons

The following lesson planning template can serve as a reminder to plan activities that use before, during, and after reading strategies to support students as they read and write in the content areas.

Lesson Planning TemplateInstructional Outcomes

Lesson

Standards

Content Learning Outcome

Literacy StrategiesBefore Reading Strategy:

Materials:

Literacy Outcome:

Teacher Role:

During Reading Strategy:

Materials:

Literacy Outcome:

Teacher Role:

After Reading Strategy:

Materials:

Literacy Outcome:

Teacher Role:

Future Instruction

Strategy Descriptions

Anticipation guides - a series of statements about a topic that students respond to either by agreeing or disagreeing¸ or by choosing a response on a Likert scale.

KWL Chart – a type of graphic organizer where students can list what they know about a topic, what they want to know about the topic, and what they learned.

Word Scrolls – a graphic organizer for vocabulary words, with areas for examples, non-examples, and sentence practice.

Frayer Model – a graphic organizer for vocabulary. Similar to word scrolls.

Probable Passage – pre-reading activity where students are supplied with several words from a passage, which they use to “predict” what the passage will be about.

Tea Party - pre-reading activity where students are given phrases from a passage. They then circulate, as in a tea party, and discuss each other’s phrases. Finally, they form groups of 3-5 students and “predict” what the passage is about.

Think alouds – strategy teaching technique that includes the teacher “thinking” their approach to difficulties, connections, predictions and other strategies as they read the text aloud to students.

Rereading – texts or passages are read over again 2 or more times, either by themselves, with a partner, or as part of a group.

Graphic organizers – visual representations that help organize information.

Say Something – a strategy where students follow a set of rules to “say something” in response to reading a text or passage.

Somebody Wanted But So – a summarizing strategy that guides students in defining the essential elements including characters, what they want, what happened as a consequence, and the final result. Also called SWBS.

Post- its – students write questions, predictions, or comments on post-its and place them on the part of the text where they occurred.

“Mark” bookmarks – bookmarks with specific purposes that are used to record information including vocabulary words, setting, and bold-faced text.

Text reformulation – non-fiction texts are reformulated into another genre such as narrative into comic book or social studies passage into newspaper article.

Sketch to stretch – students draw a sketch in response to a text or passage. On the back of the sketch, they write about the sketch and discuss in groups.

Most important word – students choose the “most important word” from a passage, and then engage in debate about their choices.

Summary Frames – a type of organizer that provides partial phrases or sentence starters to scaffold students’ summaries of text.

It says-I say – students record interesting portions of a text, and its page number, in one column of a response sheet. In the adjacent column they record their responses to that portion of the passage.

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