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?
I totally agree with your post Abbey! I think that informative text should have been in elementary schools decades ago! However, I had the same questions in my mind while reading the article. In our lab class, we learned that most social studies or science books are too complex or harder for an elementary student to read. How are we as teachers suppose to adapt or teach using these advanced textbooks? Hopefully we will find out as this class goes on how to use the advanced textbooks to teach our future students! Great questions girl!
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