To me, literacy instruction is all about giving students the ability to "read" their entire world, their whole lives, as a "text". Teaching literacy is not only teaching students how to understand the texts they encounter while learning the content in your class, but giving them the tools to understand texts in the future, and the power to teach themselves to understand any text they may encounter. In my classes, students need to understand (either through reading or other forms of acquisition) scripts, textbook entries, journal articles, writing prompts, models, demonstrations, performances, diagrams, experiments, films, and web sites. I now know that literacy instruction is critical to students' understanding of these "texts," and that I must support their "reading" and "writing" in these various forms, and teach them how to grapple with all of these texts in the future.
In my science classroom, I am especially excited to teach my students how to "read," compare, and create representations, and to ask critical questions about the representations they see. The comprehension and vocabulary strategies will make my traditional-text-based assignments for effective and useful for my students. And hopefully, using what I learn in this class, I can even reach out to students with different intrinsic motivations or native languages.
I imagine that a perfect integration of literacy instruction into my content areas would result in this:
Students of all languages, backgrounds, and cognitive abilities interpreting these "texts," understanding what they mean in other contexts, asking critical questions about the creation and presentation of the text, and being able to transfer their understanding of the content and their literacy skills into every aspect of their lives.
Wouldn't that be beautiful! I feel like literacy instruction brings a more well-rounded feeling to content-areas, because it gives students' skills that they will absolutely use every day of their lives. Even if they don't become professional biologists, or choose to ignore biology for the rest of their lives, they will have the skills to make sense of all the "texts" that inform their world. 
I appreciate that you pointed out that literacy instruction helps our students read texts throughout their adult lives. Although science plays a very minor role in my daily life, I am grateful I was taught scientific literacy as a high school student: I have recently been reading research regarding vocal mechanism efficiency in untrained singers. If I had no background in understanding the scientific process, mathematical basics, etc, I would not be able to pursue my vocal pedagogical interests today. So it's important to not give up on a student who will most likely never pursue your field; they will need at some point!
ReplyDeleteHI Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI especially liked your comment that reading extends beyond the word. Your posting reminded me of a quote by Alberto Manguel in his "History of Reading":
"The readers of books, into whose family I was unknowingly entering, extend or concentrate a function common to us all. Reading letters on a page is only one of its many guises. The astronomer reading a map of stars that no longer exist; the Japanese architect reading the land on which a house is to be built so as to guard it from evil forces; the zoologist reading the spoor of animals in the forest; the card-player reading her partner's gestures before playing the winning card; the dancer reading the choreographers' notations, and the public reading the dancer's movements on the stage; the weaver reading the intricate design of a carpet being woven...the Hawaiian fisherman reading the ocean currents by plunging a hand into the water; the farmer reading the weather in the sky--all these share with book-readers the craft of deciphering and translating signs. We all read ourselves and the world around us in order to glimpse what and where we are. We read to understand, or to begin to understand. We cannot do but read. Reading, almost as much as breathing, is our essential function."
You will go forth and set the world on fire. I'm glad I got to work with you a little on your journey.