My thoughts on the article Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades by Barbara Moss:
As I registered for classes last semester and throughout the summer, I thought about each of my classes and pondered what I would learn in each class. I often wondered what I would be learning in this course, Content Area Literacy, in particular, and how I would use what I learned. I enjoyed this article because it not only explained content area literacy but also gave a convincing argument on its importance in the elementary classroom. It made me understand the importance of this class in my journey to becoming a teacher.
The fact that an average of only 3.6 minutes each school day is spent on informational text was shocking to me. Because I have been exposed to using expository texts in the classroom, I assumed that it was a common practice. While reading through the article I tried to think back to use of informational text in my elementary years. The only time I could recall actually being taught how to use informational text was in fourth grade. Most of my encounters with informational texts in elementary seem to be from a teacher reading aloud the textbook, which is mentioned in the article.
There seems to be a small number of informational texts for lower-elementary students. The article claims that half of the books read in a classroom should be informational; however, a problem arises in finding so many informational texts that appeal to young children. Of course, textbooks are always available, but having younger children read textbooks could prevent a child from reading because the readability level of so many textbooks is above a child’s reading level.
This brings to mind two questions:
What are quality informational texts that can be used by children in the lower-elementary grades?
Because the readability level of a textbook is often higher than the grade level, what strategies can be used to help students besides reading the text aloud?
