Comprehension in disciplinary literacy is not something I had really thought of before this class. As a Kindergarten teacher, I am often focused on teaching students how to decode and comprehend text. I think sometimes the bigger picture of ‘one day these kids will be 11thgraders’ gets lost. Many times as teachers we are focused on the now. How do I teach my students to comprehend this now? How do I teach my students this vocabulary now? I think the bigger picture relates back to teaching students how to be strategic readers and to build on that knowledge base as they grow up. Students should be taught comprehension strategies from an early grade in all disciplinary literacies, so that when they get to the upper grade levels, they will have the skills to comprehend the various texts.
In the article written by Lee and Sprately( Article here), they have addressed the differences between elementary reading and high school reading and what they believed was necessary for students to do and possess while reading content area literacy in order to understand it. One section that really stood out to me concerned the empirical base of comprehension strategies. These included, asking questions, making predictions, testing hypotheses, summarizing, monitoring understanding and deploying fix-it strategies as needed Then, the article went on to state that students cannot do all of these strategies alone to understand the topic. Students also need background knowledge to fully comprehend the content areas. This was a huge ah-ha for me as a primary grade teacher. It is my job to ensure that students are learning content in addition to strategies.
I found this great video on youtube that discusses how it is important to include literacy in the content areas at all grade levels. It had some good points about viewing yourself as a literacy teacher no matter what you are teaching. I think this is a good way of thinking as I plan lessons in the different content areas in Kindergarten.
The PowerPoint posted in class also brought up many good points that were easy to see how as teachers, we can help students grow in their understanding of the content areas. I think something I would like to try more often is picking out specific pre, during, and post reading strategies that would help my students with the comprehension of the topic. I think that I personally could do a better job of ensuring that the activities relate to one another in order to build a deeper understanding of the topic. This brings me to my next learning from the video that was viewed in class.
The video located here titled Teaching Content is Teaching Reading made some really great points about going beyond decoding in order to comprehend content area literacy. The very last few slides really stuck out to me as a Kindergarten teacher. The slide said that once students can decode, they can decode anything, but if they do not have the background knowledge, then they are not going to understand it. I completely agree with this information and I am looking to add more content knowledge into my own classroom. For example, next week instead of doing a normal writing center (normal, meaning students can free write), I am going to include an informational text article about penguins in the center. The students will be expected to read this information and then share the information through a small book that they create. I believe this will help them learn some of the science language and apply then in their own writing. I hope that by doing more activities like these in my classroom that I will build more background knowledge as they make their way into first grade.
Finally, I was very interested in seeing how content area relates to Kindergarten and I started to do some research. I came across this article and found it very interesting. I would highly recommend reading it as a primary teacher. The research in this article related exactly to the video mentioned in the above paragraph. It stated that students performed better when they were exposed to more challenging and advanced content even at the Kindergarten level. I thought it was very interesting to see a study done on this topic.
Allison, as I read your blog I am thinking of the vast learning differences and changes our students go through from kindergarten to middle school. At your students' age, they are intrigued by most everything, they ask tons of questions, and because of their age and experiences (or lack there of), they have very little background knowledge. It's extraordinary to think, in matter of six short years, what they have learned academically by the time they reach me in middle school. One would think that with all they have learned, they would have a lot more background knowledge, but it surprises me how much they still lack. Not just what they have gleaned from their formal education, but what they have learned through life experiences. I am happy that you have taken the initiative to introduce informational texts to build more background knowledge during your writing centers. It's a great idea.
ReplyDeleteIn the middle school we watch Channel One, which is a news program for teens. They cover current events and some Pop news, but i'm always struck at the disinterest my students have in some of the stories. It seems they are very detached from the world around them at this age and the willingness to gain background knowledge wanes.
In order to give them more opportunities to gain background knowledge in my class, I have requested the school purchase a subscription to Scholastic Magazine for teens. I intend to use it for text analysis along with information for research projects, and of course, more opportunity for background knowledge.
Allison,
ReplyDeleteI also thought about how this would look at the kindergarten level but more in terms of close reading. I thought if kindergartners can't read much how would they do a close reading - in a content area or otherwise. I found this article with Tim Shanahan's response and thought it was very interesting and appropriate.
http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2013/07/close-reading-for-beginning-readers.html
Hopefully you will be able to link to it or copy and paste in your browser.
Ali,
ReplyDeleteI thought your second blog post was very informative! I love the video you posted to your blog. This points out how important literacy is in all classrooms. I know as classroom teachers we all feel there is never enough time in the day to fit everything in. However, as pointed out by you and in the video you provided, we need to be teaching the content areas through reading and writing. This will allow more time to dive deeper in those topics that we have little time for. The way you explained you are going to incorporate nonfiction texts in your writing center reminds me of how in my first grade classroom I have an ‘observer’ center. In this reading center students take magazine articles and nonfiction texts that are supplied for them to observe and read the information and then write and draw about things they learned. All the informative texts that are in this center are on topics we are currently learning about in science and social studies. In your blog you discussed the reading strategies and how we need to be hooking the students prior knowledge into the content areas. Have you changed your instruction based on this revelation?