Ell Instruction in All Content Areas

1. Literacy In All Content Areas

Literacy In All Content Areas: It's Everyone's Business!

With the Common Core Standards comes a new awareness of literacy, and new expectations with terms like technical literacy, content literacy, writing literacy, multiple literacies, critical literacy. The definition of literacy is, “The quality or state of being literate; the ability to read and write” (Webster's Dictionary, 2013). Preface that with any of the above, including content literacy, and it changes inflection to become an action rather than a skill-set, or ability. Literacy then becomes a “form of” something…a form of writing in math (math literacy), a form of reading in science (content literacy), a form of mastery in many areas (multiple literacy), and so forth. Literacy then becomes the sub-set for a standard we hold our students up to, specific to each area of content they need to master, or that we need to teach. Here is what the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 defines literacy as: “…an individual’s ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.”

Research continues to make strong connections between reading and writing in active engagement, student interaction, and meaningful negotiation. We know that reading and writing is, by design, built from automatic skills that include semantics, syntax, and phonics – automaticity. Textbook programs are no longer one-size fits all; we no longer use them to address all students’ needs, and therefore we differentiate. Whole-class novels are no longer the norm, and curriculum standards drive district, school, and classroom decisions. This all has all driven new and exciting trends in education, particularly in the teaching of reading and writing to adolescents. Below are some methods that support the literacy initiatives of the National Common Core. See if you can identify where they plug into in your own curriculum. We will also explore this in the activity that follows:

Comprehension strategies in the content areas require deep analysis and response to text structure

The following are strategies that support text structure:

Writing descriptions
Sequencing ideas
Comparing and contrasting concepts and ideas
Analyzing for cause and effect
Problem-solving and solution-finding

Writing

Effective writing requires mastery on both the micro and macro level; while students must think about spelling and choosing precise words, they must also be mindful of overall organization of ideas. If the students have learned how to write in another country, they may organize their ideas differently and/or use a less direct argumentation style than is typical of the American academic context (Fox, 1994). Teachers should also be aware of the differences between the writing styles of different genres. Since learners’ expectations affect their ability to perform in English (Walqui & DeFazio, 2003), teachers should highlight their disciplines’ unique features. “For example, in American history, this might include period rhetoric and referents such as the Constitution; in science it might include the ways that conclusions are stated; and in literature, it might include the routine phrases that indicate a fairy tale is in process” (Walqui & DeFazio, 2003, p.5). For low-literacy students, teachers should begin by focusing on the meaning of the writing, then move on to mechanics as their writing progresses (Barron & DiCerbo, 2006).

The following teaching methods of writing have demonstrated positive effect sizes. They are presented in order from most to least effective.

1. 1. 1. summarization
    2. collaborative writing,
    3. specific product goals
    4. word processing
    5. sentence combining (rather than de-contextualized grammar exercises),
    6. pre-writing, inquiry activities, process writing
    7. studying models
    8. writing for content area learning (Graham & Perin, 2007)

In addition, ELLs must learn explicit strategies on how to write, depending on the type of text (Calderón, 2007). Students should be exposed to the various genres of writing used in schooling such as procedural and historical recounts, reports, persuasive writing and others (Schleppegrell, 2004). Writing is essential in a reading curriculum because it doubles as an assessment of reading comprehension.

Brisk, Horan, & Macdonald (2008) recommend the rhetorical approach as an effective instructional strategy for developing ELLs’ writing skills, which consists of the following steps:

1. 1. 1. explore a general topic;
    2. define the purpose and audience;
    3. select subtopics;
    4. select the genre and appropriate organizational structure;
    5. select information;
    6. order examples and details,
    7. write a draft;
    8. revise and edit; and,
    9. prepare a final copy (Brisk, Horan & Macdonald 2008, p. 18).

Teachers should also provide feedback and explicit grammar instruction to support ELLs’ writing, especially at the secondary level (Scarcella, OELA Summit, 2005).

These activities support text structure:

Teach students how to identify overall text patterns – cause effect, problem-solution, compare and contrast, chronological order.
Teach students how to identify text structures when they read them, and the value of this as an aid to understanding.
Students must recognize words that signal shifts in text structures, such as transition words: first, next, finally, and so forth, numbers, initial capped headings, italicized print and so forth.

Teach students the specific genres across all content area, through reading or writing exposure. Students must know how to identify these genres, and how to respond to them in reading and in writing:

Biography
Autobiography
Informational text
Essay
Memoir
Magazine and newspaper articles (feature articles)
Diaries
Science experiments
How-to and directions
Speeches
Hypertext

Literature as a Model for Writing in All Content Areas (Graves, 1983)

The following materials can be downloaded from the Course Objectives | Research | Materials folder housed at the beginning of the course:

Reciprocal teaching (Brown & Palinscar,1984)
Anticipation guides (Vacca & Vacca)
Graphic organizers
Teacher-made study guides
Two-column notes
Learning logs
Survey, question, read, recite, review (SQ3R)
Think-alouds
Concept Maps/Webs (Alvermann, 1991)
Expectation outlines (Spiegel, 1981)
K-W-L (Ogle, 1986)
KWHL

Always include activities that activate prior knowledge, and use this knowledge to leverage with new text, challenging text, or any gaps in concepts. Engage students in background-building activities, such as rating familiar with a topic (Knowledge Rating Charts), having class discussions, using story impressions and making predictions.

Use graphic organizers to help students see connections.
Assist students in making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.
Use brainstorming approaches with semantic maps and graphic organizers. Scaffold this approach to their notebook.

Teachers must teach students how to monitor their own comprehension in content area texts, and what to do when comprehension breaks down. Students must have a variety of strategies to select from, such as predicting, questioning, fix-up strategies, and making connections. The goal of strategy instruction is not only to increase comprehension, but to increase independence in content area reading. Other techniques for using content area text include:

*The following can be downloaded from the Course Objectives | Research | Materials folder housed at the beginning of the course.

Question–answer relationships (Raphael, 1982)
Questioning the author (Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1997)
Socratic seminars
ReQuest (Manzo, 1969)
Evaluating the purpose for a writing piece, author tone, and point of view from multiple perspectives (critical literacy)
Critically evaluating web-based sources

Multi-media Approaches to Content Area Literacy for Struggling Readers and Writers

Project Look Sharp, a media literacy project out of Ithaca College in New York State, promotes and supports media literacy through a critical literacy curriculum. They are a perfect marriage of district, state, and community interests and their design is well entrenched in curriculum-driven initiatives throughout the country. Their goals include providing strategies and resources, developed in the field with a strong efficacy base, to support teaching to a critical literacy curriculum that uses media at all grade levels. Below are some methods that work as well to differentiate, as they do to make multi-media happen without any financial prejudice: