Content Area Literacy

          As I was reading this article, I realized that this is no foreign concept to me. Content area literacy has been an important idea in my world for a long time, although not in those words. My mother was a teacher and she always stressed the importance of reading to me and my siblings. All of us love to read in some form. Since my mother home-schooled us, the majority of our learning experience was reading or writing, in all content areas. When my brothers were 4 and 6, they were in the library picking out the informational texts on bug species (most of which would be hard for a 5th grader to read) and my mother would read them out loud. My youngest brother shocked our friends when he pronounced the scientific name for a common insect at 4 years old. I realize this is before actual reading began for my brother, but it continues throughout his education to read a variety of texts.
           I think it is very important for young students to become comfortable and familiar with all types of texts while they are in the early grade levels. Not only does it increase comprehension, but it also provides more experience with reading and writing to learn. Writing becomes interesting and relevant to a child when they can write about something they enjoy. Reading can also make content areas more interesting. I could never really get into history until my mother decided to go with a series of books spanning from founding America, to the great depression and beyond. These books sparked my interest and caused me to want to learn more about the many events in our history. Learning in all content areas can be such a literature rich experience! Teaching lower elementary grades all of the possibilities will prepare them for the types of reading they will need to be able to accomplish in high school.  It doesn't have to be a dreary, dreaded process. In my classroom, I hope to provide many different opportunities for exploring many subjects at a deeper level through literature. When a student shows interest in a subject, I will introduce him or her to the informational and fictional texts that are available. The internet can also be used. Blogging could be a great tool to start an interest group on a subject as a class project. Students can write about their experience using a computer, or just the old-fashioned pen! They can use pictures and many other media to go along with their reading and writing experience.
           Writing can also be used across many content areas.I really liked the idea of learning logs in math, as Barbara Moss mentioned in her article. Not only are the students improving their writing abilities, but they are reflecting on their own understanding of the material. This can be a great learning tool for each individual student as well as a teaching tool for teachers! Teachers can use this to understand where students are struggling and how to help them. This article has illustrated for me how important it is to teach many different reading, writing and comprehension strategies to students in lower elementary grades across content areas. By teaching students many different reading strategies early on in their education, they will be well equipped for future learning through content area literacy. Providing students with the tools they need to be effective readers and writers opens whole new worlds to them, making them life-time learners.