“A
major finding from our longitudinal study and our current research is that a
student’s progress is unique to the individual and that we must pay constant
attention to understanding learning at that level and in relation to specific
contexts. To be consistent with our original intent to understand adolescent
literacy from students’ perspectives, we must also ensure that we provide
opportunities for students to discuss the manner in which the curriculum and
pedagogy are affecting their learning” (McDonald, Thornley,
Staley, & Moore, 2009, page 722).
The above quote stuck out to me the most when I read
the article, The San Diego Striving
Readers’ Project: Building Academic Success for Adolescent Readers. This
article was about a research study on strengthening adolescent literacy. The
study was done on students from New Zealand and some findings were from some
San Diego schools. San Diego Unified school was using a literature-based
literacy instructional approach for adolescents who were struggling in the
content areas, so the research team used the approaches that New Zealand was
using. What is so great about this study was that students were very outspoken
about whether the approach was too challenging for them or if they were very
successful at it. The literature-based literacy instructional approach became
known as the Strategic Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas (SLIC)
curriculum. Schools used this new curriculum across the content areas and
grade-level appropriate texts were used for academic success because teacher-adapted
texts were not very successful. “Our challenge is to teach students how to be
successful using the very texts required for that success” (McDonald, Thornley,
Staley, & Moore, 2009, page 721).
What is so important about this article and what I have
learned most from it is that students will learn best when they read texts
appropriate for their grade level. As teachers, we must always listen to the
students’ needs first. If there literacy and comprehension is low, we must
found out the answers from our students as to why they are struggling so much.
The best quality of a teacher is listening to his or her students’ needs
because they come first. As I read “The Iris Center” website, I learned a lot of
similarities between the website and the article such as learning literacy
across the content areas and how to come to understand a text when reading one.
Students cannot understand a text if it is not on their reading level. They
become successful when they understand a text. “Successful performance in subject areas depends on strong
reading skills. A surprising number of middle- and high school students lack
academic literacy skills and would benefit from explicit content-area reading
instruction” (Iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu, 2016).
What I also learned
from “The Iris Center” website was that some teachers believe it is not
required by them to teach literacy in the content areas. “Many content-area
teachers believe that reading instruction is not their responsibility. They did
not receive the relevant training and generally feel it is someone else’s role
to teach reading skills” (Iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu, 2016).
However, I do believe that every
teacher should be trained in literacy to teach in all content areas. A teacher
may come across a word that students may not comprehend from a text and that
teacher will need to teach the meaning of that word. For example, it is a
science teacher’s responsibility to teach what atoms and molecules are in
science class. Students should not learn that in a literacy course because that
term is a scientific term that should only be taught and learned in a science
classroom.
Comprehension is so important and the key to students’ success. If a
student did not comprehend what he or she was reading, they would never be able
to learn from appropriate texts. So it is every teacher’s responsibility to
monitor comprehension and to teach the meaning of words and texts if they are
not comprehended.
References
Iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu,
(2016). The iris center: Secondary
reading instruction (part 1): Teaching vocabulary and
comprehension in the content areas. (online) Available
at: http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/sec-rdng/challenge/#content
(Accessed February 18, 2016).
McDonald, T., Thornley,
C. Staley, R., & Moore, D. (2009). The san diego striving readers' project: Building academic success for adolescent readers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(8), 720 – 722.
