Literacy

Many the teachers expressed concern and questions about the how to manage the diverse needs of their students in larger and larger classrooms. These articles address why literacy, in all subject areas, is an ever evolving issue in education today. It is becoming more difficult to direct classroom discussions and deepen student questioning because of the number of high school students non-proficient in reading. Differentiating classroom text or the purposes for reading classroom text, is one way to engage all students. These articles are meant to promote your questioning and discussion of how you view literacy in your classroom. If you want more information on a specific area of literacy, put it in your reflections and we will post what we find on the wiki.
 * Literacy**

__Literacy defined:__ McKenna and Robinson define content literacy as "the ability to use reading and writing for the acquisition of new content in a given discipline"(1990, p. 194). In other words, students are expected to read to learn in our classes.

__Remember the goals for the rest of the year are:__
 * 1) Explore one or more of the focus areas
 * 2) Have collaborative conversations surrounding these areas - let's begin to articulate what we do well
 * 3) Try some things in your classroom
 * 4) Have more discussions in your collaborative groups about how the things you are trying are affecting student learning
 * 5) Explain what you have done, reflect on the process, describe how it affected student learning, and what other resources you need for professional development - create a page on this website with your group name and document your reflections there by April 21st.

__Resources:__ Laura Robb is a Director of Language Arts and Curriculum Coordinator in Virginia.

Robb, Laura. (2003). //Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Science, and Math.// New York: Scholastic Professional Books. pp. 9-29.

Giving students a purpose for reading our classroom text helps to improve classroom discussion and overall engagement. Cris Tovani is a middle and high school English teacher and literacy staff developer.

Tovani, Cris. (2005). " ". //Educational Leadership//, 63(2), 48-51.

Tovani, Cris. (2000). //I Read It, But I Don't Get It//. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. pp. 13-21.

Tovani, Cris. (2000). //I Read It, But I Don't Get It//. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. pp. 23-34.