A Place for Con*tent Lit* Er *A*Cy

1. A Place for Con*tent Lit*Er*A*Cy Lisa Briggs EDC448 June 20,2012

2. Research • According to assessment data from The National Institute for Literacy as of 2007, many high-school students find subject-related literacy tasks challenging. • In 2000 The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development reported that students need continued development and reinforcement of Vocabulary and comprehension skill. • No longer is content literacy reserved for elementary classrooms.

3. Research • It was concluded that literacy skills need to be integrated into all content classrooms, including science where this would seem to be an tremendous challenge.

4. Vocabulary • After a review of the content, the teacher can make up word lists that will contain the terms that will be needed to understand. • Misulis, tells us that a strong connection exists between vocabulary and understanding especially in science, where focusing on vocabulary helps students better understand content.

5. More On Vocabulary • Vocabulary lists should be developed while keeping in mind the skills needed to learn the content. • Rather than making learning vocabulary an exercise in rote memorization, teachers should consider using alternate strategies to assist the students to gain understanding. • Such as identifying the different parts of the words, i.e. roots, word origins, prefixes, etc.

6. Making It Fun!! • To “Keep it Fun” for the students many different types of instructional aides can be used to integrate vocabulary and content literacy into lesson plans. • Brainstorming: Give the students in small groups a vocabulary prompt , for example, the word survival. Then have them write down anything that they can think of that relates to the concept.

7. More Making it Fun! • Brainstorming facilitates seeing connections among related concepts. • Other ways to have fun with vocabulary are. • Graphic Organizers • Categorizing activities: Where when provided with a list of words and a set of category labels the students sort the words into categories.

8. My Ideas • Bringing a couple of my own ideas in. • Level appropriate crossword puzzles and word searches. • An in room solve the clue: where the students would be broken into groups and would need to work together to solve riddles to reach a goal.

9. Comprehension • Comprehension activities are just as important as vocabulary activities. • They need tasks that encourage them to think at higher comprehension levels. • Activities can include: • Anticipation/reaction guide: used at both the beginning and end of a lesson these guides consist of a series of statements that reflect important ideas to be presented.

10. Comprehension 2.0 • The students review the statements and prior to the lesson and indicate agreement or disagreement with them. • The lesson is then taught. • At lessons end they reread the same statements and again indicate their agreement or disagreement- to show whether they have changed their minds after hearing the lesson.

11. Conclusion • The teacher has the ability to enhance students learning of science at the high-school level with careful planning and implementation of content literacy strategies in science instruction. • The teacher need to look at students prior learning, what do they want the students to learn(analysis of content), and skills needs. • Then the teacher must choose both vocabulary and comprehension exercise that move the class toward that goal.

12. Biblography • Missulis, Katherine E. "A Place for Con·tentLit·er·a·cy." Science Teacher 78.1 (2011): 47-50. EBSCOhost. Web. 18 June 2012 • About the Author: Katherine Misulis is an associate professor and assistant chair in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina