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The content area instruction neededed would include the pre-reading activities, while reading activities, and post-reading activities that I could teach my students in order for them to read and write materials.

I would use the making predictions and reviewing vocabulary activities to help students with their reading and writing.

While teaching math, I need to not only focus on computing the numbers, but showing my students how to navigate through a math textbook. Showing them how to read through the text and be able to get "unstuck" using the material they have instead of relying only on the teacher. I also think I tend to sugar coat the material and make it too easy for them, and this article showed me that I need to challenge the students so that they can reach their fullest potential. One of the most helpful things that I can do for my students is to help them relate the problems we face in class, to their lives and this will give them a purpose to read further in the text.

I teach US Government. My text is very bland, so I need to give the students the tools to outline chapters, interpret charts, political cartoons, and timelines. One way I have had success with this is using the SQ3 method. The students take the subtitles and make them into questions to be able to identify the main ideas. Methods for vocabulary acquisition are the Frayer method, Pictionary, TABOO, matching around the room, Power Point slide shows where students identify pictures that convey the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. Reading for purpose is another successful strategy for my content area. Currently my kids are reading a story about a man who was arrested, they have to highlight every time his 5th or 6th Amendment rights are violated. As far as writing is concerned, I like the word count method as a summarization tool. I also like doing RAFTS and using prompts such as pie charts, statistics, and political cartoons. The students have to interpret the data by writing.
The article reinforced a lot of what is already happening in Union classrooms. I appreciated its emphasis on adapting strategies for each content area rather than a generic one-size fits all approach. Some of the approaches can work across the board. The article mentions the necessity of pre-reading, during reading, and post reading activities. I think this is a great approach for an entire team, department, or school to follow. Then each activity can be specifically tailored to that content area.

While teaching math, I need to not only focus on computing the numbers, but showing my students how to navigate through a math textbook. Showing them how to read through the text and be able to get "unstuck" using the material they have instead of relying only on the teacher. I also think I tend to sugar coat the material and make it too easy for them, and this article showed me that I need to challenge the students so that they can reach their fullest potential. One of the most helpful things that I can do for my students is to help them relate the problems we face in class, to their lives and this will give them a purpose to read further in the text.

I need to help my students understand the difference between science text and other texts. Science text can sometimes be dry, it’s not written to entertain like fiction. Its uses a lot of quantitative information to get its point across. Students need to learn how to work their way through this type of text in order to glean the appropriate information. I also need to teach my students that writing for science is very different from writing for other classes. The writing needs to be descriptive but not fancy. Its needs to convey what has happened during an experiment and only that, not how you felt about the experiment.

If students are reading from a science textbook (which I think I need to figure out how to make them do that), they would need to be able to classify the information as they go. If they are reading an AP chemistry question or ACT science question, they need to go a little beyond "just the facts" and be able to make logical inferences from the information. As for writing, I would like students to be able to summarize textbook information in their own words. For lab reports, I would like to be able to (1) explain in more detail their sources of error and how they affect their final calculated value (2) describe a little better what they have learned in their conclusion. For their science fair research papers, I think I've done everything I can to prevent plagiarism, but they need more purpose and focus for their research, which I believe would affect their writing too.

As an English teacher, I try to connect to my student's background knowledge before reading a literature piece. I feel as if this is an important literacy strategy because my students will not become engaged or be active readers if they do not connect to the piece of literature. While reading a piece of literature, it is important to have students reflect upon the reading. For example, writing a journal entry after reading a piece of literature or a chapter in a novel will help them stay connected to the work and allows for me to check their understanding. Futhermore, after finishing a novel or short story, students can complete post-reading strategies. Double Entry Diaries are great tools to use. This allows for students to put down their thoughts about a character. This can also be turned into a characterization essay.

Mcrel05---I like what you said about not relying on the teacher so much. I have spoonfed and enabled my students with difficult text for a long time, rather than give them the tools to get "unstuck". When I surveyed kids, almost 80% said their number one strategy if they don't understand is to wait and have the teacher tell them the answer.

In Language Arts, I need to teach my students how to assess various literature and then apply specefic reading strategies. For Language Arts in reading my students need to connect with characters/plot, and make inferences. In writing, I must teach my students how to write a well developed expository paragraph using the 6 traits of writing. I also teach them the importance of determining audience and purpose. I need to do a better job of teaching them how they can use the writing strategies presented in my classrrom on other assignments outside of English.

Psychology is all about vocabulary. Literacy strategies would have to include a lot of vocab work such as the four square method and/or the one (don't know the name) where they draw a picture of the vocab word and say what it reminds them of. As for writing in Psychology, it is a cross betweenEnglish and Science. For example, on the AP Psych free response, students are not required to write an intro or conclusion. They are required, however, to be able to define and give examples of theories and vocab that are used with each new idea. That is where the Vocab stategies help so much; they have the definition and what it reminds them of (example) at their fingertips. They would also need strategies that would help them navigate through studies that have been done on each new issue. They would need to learn how to tell if a study is showing real significance, if it is trying to prove correloation or even cause and effect. (I'm not sure exactly what literacy tools you would need for that kind of reading but maybe we will discuss that.)

As a math teacher, I have noticed that students get confused with many different steps. First, they may get hung up on the vocabulary, so I need literacy strategies on teaching the vocabulary. Second, in a word problem, they may be able to read the problem, but so many times students don't understand what the problem is asking them to do. Third, I think teaching the students about the textual features in a math book would be helpful to the students. Many clues are found on the pages of the lesson. Finally, after students have been taught several skills, I think they have trouble deciding which process to follow to solve the different problems. In this case, using some of the strategies of comparing and contrasting the problems and their solutions could be beneficial.