Finding a way to teach literacy in across all disciplines is a good way to make reading more of a way of life to students, as opposed to a school subject. In Moje’s article, she states that many teachers feel burdened by having to teach literacy to students(98). I cannot speak for other departments, but as a future history teacher, I am already thinking of ways to integrate curriculum and literacy so that my students have reading and writing skills that last. For example, history courses/classes are often heavily reliant on reading. However, I don’t feel like I was ever taught ways to read efficiently and therefore my reading speed was excruciatingly slow. It had nothing to do with my ability to read words, but everything to do with how I was reading. Once I realized it shouldn’t take me an hour to read 10 pages, I did some research and learned techniques and habits that would increase my reading speed. This, I feel is an appropriate lesson for a history lesson. Teaching this wouldn’t be a burden either. In fact, it would make the class easier on both the students and the teacher.
One thing I also plan to implement into my curriculum is how to prep and write an academic essay. Historical content is integrated by what topics kids chose to write about or I assign. By teaching kids step by step how to gather research, make an outline, write a paper, then edit it, the writing process is made easier. Though asking students to just write a paper may be more efficient, stretching the process out allows students to really think about their writing, improve their skills and learn the content.
I agree with Moje that it is essential that we eradicate the culture that implies that other content areas do not make sense and are not welcome in our own. On page 98 she states “few students… question the fact that little reading is assigned in their mathematics classrooms. Few students expect to construct charts and graphs about novels they read in English Class.” The truth that all subjects can be learned through the lense of another subject. By doing that, we could quite possibly de-stigmatize subjects and make them all easier to comprehend and master.
Hello Jessica,
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the article "Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A call for Change" by Moje. I agree with you that teachers fell burned when it's time to teach literary to their students. One of the things that I personally like from this article is that the author talks about the fact that not many teachers are thought to implement curriculum and literacy in other subjects therefore limiting the student to expand their knowledge, skills, and learning of how to critique and evaluate what they are reading. As future teachers it is crucial that we become aware that integrating literacy instruction in the subject area will help the future generations to become better citizens and responsible teachers. As a historian I experience at an early age this kind of literacy instruction in my history class, because the professor not only made us read, but we have to create maps, traditional customs of that historical period, we have to create poems, scientific explanations, every activity that we could think off, we did it in class regarding history, I believe we can have a new generation of better readers and better thinkers.
This week's reading really "hit close to home" so to speak. I am a 4th grade teacher who has taught in a self-contained classroom for 4 years. This year my team and I decided to switch to a departmental model, where the subjects are taught in isolation by various teachers. This year I am responsible for teaching social studies and writing. As approach this content, I continue to think of the curriculum as a reading course, specifically social studies. I am doing so in the hopes of targeting students' ability to comprehend expository, historical, and current texts. With this direction comes a great responsibility of integrating reading into social studies content without solely focusing on reading strategies.
ReplyDeleteMoje's article shed light on this issue when she referenced, "English departments at major institutions, for example, analyze popular cultural texts such as online fanfiction as almost as eagerly as they embrace canonical texts of English literature". I think this states the importance of possessing reading skills for all walks of genre. A student, or anyone reading anything for that matter, needs to know why they are reading that piece, how they should be reading that piece, and what other outside resource to consider to sufficiently understand the piece's content---whether that is Shakespearian writing or directions on a Google Map. What is the purpose of the reading? I think Moje is able to emphasis this importance by not isolating reading responsibilities to only the subject area of reading.
As you said, History classes are heavily reliant on reading, and this what driven me away from this subject to another subject area that doesn’t require a lot of reading and writing such as Chemistry and Math. I am also a slow reader and writer in English due to the fact that English is not my native language. I have started to learn English when I started college four years ago, but I still found reading history and English literature text challenging. My question to you as a future History teacher, could you consider thinking of ways to involve second language students in your class. Could you think of possible strategies to teach them to read history sufficiently.
ReplyDeleteAs Moje stated in her article, teachers will face many challenges at their classroom. For example, how they can support students as they develop their identities across different disciplines, how they can support students who think that learning in the subject areas is a matter of memorizing, and how to support students who enter classroom with a gab in knowledge and who find reading upper- level texts challenging. Finally, how teachers can engage students in their subject area and encourage them take on the identity as historian, scientist, or mathematics, and how they can make disciplinary knowledge and practices relevant to their lives. Therefore, I agree with Moje, that the work required to implement literacy practices in the subject areas is immense and required a lot of cultural and structural changes. For me integrating literacy instruction with all these challenges that I would face in my classroom will require a lot of work and efforts.
As you said, History classes are heavily reliant on reading, and this what driven me away from this subject to another subject area that doesn’t require a lot of reading and writing such as Chemistry and Math. I am also a slow reader and writer in English due to the fact that English is not my native language. I have started to learn English when I started college four years ago, but I still found reading history and English literature text challenging. My question to you as a future History teacher, could you consider thinking of ways to involve second language students in your class. Could you think of possible strategies to teach them to read history sufficiently.
ReplyDeleteAs Moje stated in her article, teachers will face many challenges at their classroom. For example, how they can support students as they develop their identities across different disciplines, how they can support students who think that learning in the subject areas is a matter of memorizing, and how to support students who enter classroom with a gab in knowledge and who find reading upper- level texts challenging. Finally, how teachers can engage students in their subject area and encourage them take on the identity as historian, scientist, or mathematics, and how they can make disciplinary knowledge and practices relevant to their lives. Therefore, I agree with Moje, that the work required to implement literacy practices in the subject areas is immense and required a lot of cultural and structural changes. For me integrating literacy instruction with all these challenges that I would face in my classroom will require a lot of work and efforts.
I agree that as teachers we should make reading more of a way of life in order to bring literacy into all disciplines. Being able to read and comprehend a text doesn't stop at a certain age or grade level so I also agree that as a future History and English teacher we should be teaching our students skills that will have a lasting impact. I definitely think students in elementary school and high school need to be taught how to write papers and outlines because I see too many students struggle with short papers because they were not taught how to write out their thoughts properly. To quote Buehl, "'Subject-area teachers should not be expected to teach basic reading skills, but they can help students develop critical strategies and skills for reading texts in each subject. (p.5)'" (Buehl, 2011). I think this quote exemplifies your point about learning subjects through the lens of another subject. We do not necessarily have to teach basic reading skills, but we should definitely continue to show students how to read and comprehend texts for all subjects because every subject requires reading and comprehension at some level.
ReplyDeleteHello Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your opinion that history courses are heavily reliant on reading. As a student who does not like reading or literature, reading too much historical articles or others must be a burden for me since I have no interest in it. However, I have met one history teacher in my middle school who helped me a lot with history reading and memorizing. He said "History is a series of story, maybe interesting, maybe sad or else. Do not treat history as a hell where you spend too much time on reading; instead, you should think it as a story teller, and then you will comprehend the text easily." It sounds interesting, and my teacher often taught the class as telling many historical stories which caused all students' interest so that we did not think his class was boring. Every subject has its logics in it, and as a future math teacher, I hope I can help my students improve their problem solving skills and comprehension ability. Many people would say there is little reading in math. Well, that's its identity and math needs more thinking than reading.
I agree with you and believe that history classes heavily rely on reading. However, history is not the only subject in which we must implement literacy skills. I believe that it is essential for us to teach literacy skills in each subject. Although, some educators might argue that they are not English teachers, I think that teaching literacy skills is a shared responsibility. This is due to the fact that every subject requires some form of reading to understand the content being taught. By students learning literacy skills they will be able to gain certain thinking skills as they move from one subject to another. Thus, allowing them to comprehend the material better. However, the challenge that still remains for us as educators is to actually teach these literacy skills to students who might not identify with certain subjects. Although, this might be seen as a challenge, it is still essential for the education of our students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and believe that history classes heavily rely on reading. However, history is not the only subject in which we must implement literacy skills. I believe that it is essential for us to teach literacy skills in each subject. Although, some educators might argue that they are not English teachers, I think that teaching literacy skills is a shared responsibility. This is due to the fact that every subject requires some form of reading to understand the content being taught. By students learning literacy skills they will be able to gain certain thinking skills as they move from one subject to another. Thus, allowing them to comprehend the material better. However, the challenge that still remains for us as educators is to actually teach these literacy skills to students who might not identify with certain subjects. Although, this might be seen as a challenge, it is still essential for the education of our students.
ReplyDeleteJessica, as a future history teacher, you already possess a good mindset by understanding the need to teach literacy in the history classroom. After teaching history for more than twenty years in a low-achieving school, I find it incomprehensible how any teacher outside of English could not teach various forms of literacy. There are problems, too, in certain schools where not enough textbooks are available for students, so every teacher should start building a collection of various readings to use in the classroom. Building a library of literature is essential and takes many years, and the process never stops. One always adds new things every year. Same with strategies, since it takes trial-and-error and experience to know what literature and strategies to employ in certain history lessons (some areas of history lend themselves better to teaching certain literacies). There are a variety of books for social studies teachers to help teach literacy. May I suggest Timed Readings Plus in Social Studies by McGraw-Hill - Jamestown Education (multiple volumes) or Enjoying Global History by Henry Abraham and Irwin Pfeffer (who also came out with a companion book, Enjoying American History), which are over a hundred stories written by actual high school teachers in the Bronx to make reading history more enjoyable and accessible to students. I was reminded of these books thanks to Shuqin Yu's response about her middle school social studies teacher's approach to make history more interesting. Film media is also another excellent tool, and showing clips from movies pertaining to a lesson provides a visual and audio aid to helping students understand a lesson better.
ReplyDeleteThere is also other forms of literacy to be taught in history classes as you are already aware, such as geography literacy and the teaching of finding locations through map coordinates (akin to plotting x & y coordinates on a grid in math class) or mathematical literacy when learning about timelines and the concept of time, as well as pie charts and graphs. History is one of those great subjects where you can bring in a lot from the other disciplines to be used in the classroom. As history teachers, we can reinforce what is learned in other classes and provide a different approach or insight that may help students understand what they are learning--and the reverse is true as well, since students maybe familiar with specific things you may introduce to them learned from other classes. That becomes an internal resource they can access. The brighter kids who really understand something may be used by the teacher as assistants to help other students struggling with a concept you are teaching.
Building of resources takes time and patience, but the results are well worth it and sharing them with other colleagues in the curriculum helps and empowers other teachers with better tools to do their job.
Christopher,
DeleteThanks for the encouragement. It is always nice to get affirmation from experienced teachers. I am definitely going to look into those books. I have always loved historical documentaries and movies too, so I am certainly planning on bringing those into the classroom.
I never really thought of how time lines and plotting count as literacy. From now on, I am going to think of more ways I can bring in other content areas. A teaching assistant seems like a positive addition to the classroom as well. Thank you for the comments and ideas!
Every class has a different load attached to it, and like you mentioned History can have a lot of reading. I’ve taken 2 history classes here at UIC and for one I can agree that it’s heavily on the reading side and as well as taking notes on the important facts that occurred. One thing did catch my eye though, you mentioned that in Mathematics there is a little bit of reading involved and as a Teaching of Mathematics major, and I can totally agree that. In Math we are often given word problems to solve and a way to incorporate this is to have students plan out their approach for the problem and the steps they are taking to solve it. Moje explains that “Mathematicians engage in what seem like similar practices of questioning, contextualizing, representing, proving, and consulting (Bass, 2008)”. So, even though we aren’t giving so much to read we are often thinking about the steps and figuring out the outcome for a problem. In a way it sort of similar to your approach for history, even though we aren’t having math students write, we are getting them to think about their process.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and feel like techniques on proper reading are greatly necessary, especially in history. And i too had some trouble with proper understanding of content when ever i had chapter notes to take or historical documents to read. I feel like as teachers we should always re-teach proper techniques of reading in order to make sure students know what to look for in the subject. Moje covers this pretty accurately in her article when she states " teachers often argue that the strategies are time consuming , especially given the pressure they feel to cover content information and concepts"(Moje 98). By finding a way to teach of few literacy strategies a day we ensure that these themes are fresh in a students mind and helps them through out the year. We as teachers should work with students for constant understanding, which is what i got to take away from your blog post.
ReplyDeleteFabiola,
DeleteWe should reteach, and teach new techniques as students get older. Students are taught to read at a young age, but not taught to read as their readings get longer and more challenging. You are right that keeping reading strategies fresh in the minds of students is a good way to assure their reading skills don't stagnant.
hey,
ReplyDeletegreat piece, although I do feel as though there is some extra steps you can take to make writing an essay easier and not so boring. one step could be to make sure you relate the historical perspective into a more modern context. which should allow students to be more focused on the assignment but it also shows them that what they are learning, although its about the past, is connected to the present and such. and I do agree with you, although some steps may require more time, they are important skills to have for some one academic life going forth
As a future history teacher myself, I agree with you that there is an almost automatic push for heavy reading in history classes. I also feel as though an emphasis on memorization persists through history courses. Moje's article strengthens the idea that how something is read is much more important than simply what it actually says. This is such an important tool, especially when teaching history.
ReplyDeleteWith this ideology, an educator can encourage students to think of real world applications to historical problems, rather than what happened.
I very much like the idea of looking at one subject through the lens of another, especially for the sake of what one might call 'uniting' different content areas to the point where a student's time spent studying distinct subjects serves to allow for a well-rounded academic experience, rather than one that seems to be unnecessarily divided-up. This is to say that different subjects could possibly be taught in a way that promotes the idea of each, if even minimally so, building on the others. For example, while many high schools hardly acknowledge any overlap between English and Mathematics, one of my first upper-level math courses during undergrad has been very writing-intensive, to the point where grammar can play a part in grades for some assignments. As such, Buehl (2011) points out in Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines that "[m]entoring students as [sic] insiders means they gain the ability to talk the talk of an academic discipline" (p. 11). And so, if classes were to be taught with other disciplines in mind, one can reason that every student would likely be benefited quite greatly.
ReplyDeleteThis week's readings were specially relevant to me as well. Like Colleen, my school also has decided to departmentalize the primary grades(K-2). I am responsible for teaching reading to the second graders. It is really interesting, how quickly my colleagues seem to have dismissed the idea of literacy throughout the content areas. We pride ourselves on being great teachers of literacy skills, yet, it seems that idea has changed. Teachers who are now responsible for teaching math, don't quite understand that they are also teaching disciplinary literacy to their students. It is now the belief among the staff that any literacy learning that will take place in the school will happen in the designated reading classrooms. Just like you provided an example of how you can incorporate literacy in history, my colleagues can and should also incorporate literacy during math: extended responses, word problems, and reading charts and table would be a great place to start.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers should find a way of incorporating literacy into their curriculum, however, I can see why some would find it a burden to do so. I think I would be safe in saying that many teachers would like to be able to get through the content they want to teach, without having to spend extra time in trying to get all the students up to par with the intended proficiency expected of them. Spending extra time trying to explain text to students might take away from the overall goal that the teacher has set for their classroom. I still believe that helping students grow is a group effort and that teachers from all content areas should try and incorporate literacy into their curriculum. I also agree that building writing skills is an important skills for students to learn throughout their academic journey. It is a skill that many people struggle with even in higher education. I believe writing about a topic is a great way to learn in depth, it allows for greater organization of thoughts and might help students reach new conclusions by the end of their essays.
ReplyDeleteAs a future history teacher, I should love to read, although I can appreciate the idea that teachers should all incorporate literacy in their own curriculum. I, however, love to hear history through stories and narratives and I think there's a certain literacy skill in analyzing that type of narrative as well that can be learned and perfected. I think this type of literacy is different and also very beneficial because students don't have to struggle to stay awake while reading and analyzing textbooks. In that case, it's easier to get students to not only develop those literacy skills but also the drive to learn more.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the idea of subjects needing to be separated from others should be abolished. English is not the only subject where reading and writing should be incorporated into the curriculum, rather they can be used to help students explain their ideas to their peers when simply verbalizing their thoughts does not allow their ideas to be as constructed as they could be. A well rounded lesson plan that utilizes skills that the students learn in their other classes will benefit everyone involved as it brings overall learning instead of just specific content to the forefront of every classroom.
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