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The Struggles of Implementing a Content Literacy Initiative in grades 6-12
What is Content Literacy? Content Literacy utilizes reading, writing, speaking, and listening to learn subject matter. The important relationship between language and learning rises to the surface in Content Literacy. “Reading and writing (speaking, listening, and viewing for that matter) are foundational to thinking” (Lenz, 2005). In fact, “a critical aspect of learning in any discipline involves learning to communicate through oral and written language” (Moje, 2004). More and more secondary schools are seeing the need to support students with literacy skills not just in Language Arts classes but within the other core content areas, as well. Students who have literacy skills are more likely to have success in school and beyond. “Making the commitment to improve literacy in secondary schools must be at the very heart of school reform efforts” (Fisher, 2005). It is hard to claim that Content Literacy would not benefit students in the long run; however, implementing a Content Literacy initiative can prove quite challenging. The following are some of the difficulties school will have to work to overcome as they implement Content Literacy Initiatives. Within the challenges are some ideas for improvement. Challenges of Content Literacy 1. Use of generic strategies 2. Teacher mindset 3. Professional Development 4. Curriculum 5. Research and University relations 6. Motivation and Interest Use of generic strategies
Content literacy support should help teachers “learn how to teach reading in a way that is both specific to subject area and the students being taught” (Hall, 2005). In fact generic strategies for all content areas, while commonly used, tend to have the least impact because they are not tailored to meet the specific reading and content of each discipline (Moje, 2004). It is important to help content teachers see that their content regularly utilizes specific types of text. Content area teachers’ roles can be to help their students understand that specific text in more depth, so students’ understanding of content can be enhanced and students can develop independent learning skills. “Content area teachers need to be proficient in their subject matter as well as understand how to help their students develop the sophisticated skills needed to read texts in ways that are specific to their content area(s)” (Hall, 2005). Providing this type of specific support to teachers can be very time intensive and requires the expertise of many content and literacy specialists. How do schools provide this type of support for developing specific content area literacy strategies for diverse students?
Teacher mindset
Convincing teachers of the importance and necessity of content literacy in their classrooms can be quite a challenge. The “Every Teacher is a Teacher of Reading” mantra has not been successful and many feel as though it devalues content and the work content area teachers do. Instead Fisher and Ivey suggest presenting “literacy as a way to engage students in the content at hand” or focusing “on the role that language plays in learning” (Fisher, 2005). Content Area teachers often feel discredited when their content is reduced to simply a way to address language. Content Literacy must address the importance of language but also the content itself. It seems likely that there must be some flexibility, as well, for content teachers to balance literacy and content in meaningful ways.
It is important to reiterate to content teachers that they are not teaching students to read, but rather they teach students “reading and writing strategies that would help them learn their content more effectively” (Thibodeau, 2008). When content area teachers understand and begin to see that literacy strategies will help their students to understand and delve into the content in more depth they are more likely to be excited about Content Literacy. There are times when perhaps literacy strategies would not enhance the content. Content area teachers need reassurance that it is not necessary for literacy to be embedded in every minute of their lesson. Hall’s review of research revealed that learning content does not always require effective interaction with text (Hall, 2005). It seems, though, that literacy and thinking strategies will enhance content knowledge the majority of the time. Teachers saw “content area reading instruction as a non-traditional teaching method that might not be accepted as a legitimate practice” (Hall, 2005). Changing this mindset is daunting, but until teachers see that teaching students to read, write, speak, and listen effectively in their content area is essential, Content Literacy initiatives will continue to falter. Just selling teachers on the importance of Content Literacy can be a challenge. The struggle for power and resources among disciplines contradicts the cooperative nature of Content Literacy and can make Content Literacy more difficult for some teachers to support. “…Struggles for power among the disciplines intensify boundaries between subject areas and confound attempts to infuse interdisciplinary teaching and learning innovations such as content literacy into the curriculum.” Therefore, “Content literacy may not be a popular commodity because it threatens to blur subject area divisions deeply embedded in the curriculum” (O’Brien, 1995). What can be done to move beyond our disciplines and see the benefits of cooperating to help students learn more effectively and efficiently?
Professional Development
Content Literacy professional development is characterized by whole staff lessons in implementing generic strategies. This one time instruction heightens teachers’ awareness to the importance of reading in content areas, but lacks specific ideas for implementation in their classrooms and the expert support teachers need to implement strategies. Hall found that only when teachers were given training that offered help in integrating reading instruction into their disciplines and time to discuss outcomes in their classrooms did teacher instruction actually change (Hall, 2005). Zipperer explored surveys of secondary principals. The surveys revealed that none of the principals surveyed had an undergraduate degree in reading. However, all principals surveyed agreed upon the importance of reading and well over half indicated that students today are poorer readers than students were in past years (Zipperer, 2002). Even with administrators who support Content Literacy initiatives, how can administrators serve as instructional reading leaders with little experience in the field?
Lack of cooperation among school leaders and teachers can quickly derail even thoughtfully organized Content Literacy professional development sessions. In fact Lenz suggests that lack of cooperation may explain part of why reform, in general, has been unsuccessful at the secondary level. It is essential that school leaders work cooperatively with teachers to bring about meaningful change throughout the building. “School leaders must be able to create a shared (a) vision that allows for individual contributions, (b) knowledge base that leads to individual learning, (c) system of leadership that seeks the voice of individuals, (d) sense of responsibility that shapes individual planning and action, (e) system of evaluation that guides self assessment, and (f) accountability system that motivates individual action” (Lenz, 2005). School leaders have quite an arduous job ahead of them. Perhaps PLC’s could offer some answers. Thibodeau’s voluntary literacy PLC was interdisciplinary and supported by a literacy specialist. The PLC met monthly to introduce new strategies, plan the use of strategies, discuss how strategies had been working, work through the adjustments teachers had made to strategies to better fit their students’ needs and the content area, and analyze student work for evidence of growth. By the end of April, “teachers were integrating literacy strategy instruction and their content instruction far more than they ever had before... [which led] to less teacher-directed learning and more student-centered practices in many of the classrooms.” Students’ outcomes were very exciting as well; they included “the effective use of text as a learning resource, the development of independent learning strategies, and less dependence on teacher lectures for content learning” (Thibodeau, 2008). The teachers reported that they could solve problems better as a group; they felt ongoing support throughout the year; they had time to practice, adjust, and try strategies multiple times; they received feedback from each other and the literacy specialist that helped them move forward; and sometimes they just needed the repetition of advice or strategy examples until it made sense to them. Another exciting piece of the PLC was that the “team learning was transferring to others in the school, a first step in influencing the culture of the school and in raising the capacity of the entire organization to improve” (Thibodeau, 2008). Would a non-voluntary PLC for all school staff not supported by a literacy specialist yield similar results?
Curriculum
Secondary curriculum itself can make Content Literacy a challenge. A focus on breadth of understanding not depth to cover more content leaves students more and more required to be independent learners, leaving students with limited literacy skills at a serious disadvantage. However the amount of content to cover can make it difficult to allocate time for literacy strategies. Secondary content teachers need to focus instruction on “critical content and critical comprehension strategies” so all students can master the material (Lenz, 2005). Deciding what to eliminate or what to focus on can be quite overwhelming. Once teachers have decided to focus on the critical content and literacy strategies, they have to commit to consistently modeling and supporting students in the use of literacy strategies to learn content. “Direct instruction, teacher modeling, and practice in literacy strategies must become authentically embedded in the teaching practices of all secondary teachers” (Lenz, 2005). It is essential for teachers to focus students’ reading and writing on big ideas. “If conceptual understanding is the goal, then lots of reading and writing makes sense…students can learn deeply through literacy experiences that focus on big ideas-that is, through constructing knowledge by linking new information to prior knowledge, relevant life experiences, and contemporary issues...Everything needs to be placed in a larger perspective” (Fisher, 2005). While it takes time, helping students focus on big ideas in more depth and helping them see how the content matters, especially to them, is essential to engaging students with the curriculum and supporting them in the development of important literacy skills. Content Literacy strategies tend to center around one textbook that no one truly wants to read. In fact the “dry and difficult exposition of typical textbooks actually gets in the way of learning and teaching” (Fisher, 2005). The one size fits all curriculum is a problem. Textbooks that half the class can’t read and literacy strategies presented for the entire class to utilize on the same reading are not going to be effective in today’s diverse classrooms. “Students need access to a wide range of texts, in terms of difficulty, topics, and genre…and effective teachers use a multi-sourced and multi-leveled collection of texts for learning” (Fisher, 2005). Finding, scaffolding, and affording those texts can prove challenging, though. Content Teachers can control the curriculum more easily when they lecture or utilize one text. “Secondary students often depend on teacher talk rather than texts as their primary source of information” (O’Brien, 1995). Teachers express concerns about covering the content and making the content accessible to all students. When students struggle to read the content materials provided to the teacher, lecture seems like a reasonable solution. However, students need help in developing literacy strategies in content areas in order to truly learn the content in depth and for future educational success. It seems that for Content Literacy initiatives to be extremely successful there needs to be a change in the expectations of content area teachers and classrooms. The expectation needs to shift from a focus on learning content information to an emphasis on learning to make sense of a variety of different texts and funds of knowledge (Moje, 2004). However, most secondary schools are a long way away from being ready to make that type of philosophical shift.
Research/University Relations In general, secondary schools and universities need to cooperate more. O’Brien explains that “content literacy, with its focus on multiple, diverse texts, active engagement in learning, student-centered instruction, and social construction, is antithetical to the dominant school culture” (O’Brien, 1995). In order to deal with the culture shock of Content Literacy O’Brien suggests that universities work to understand schools as social and cultural entities and see how teachers and students fit into the school. Likewise, University coursework should offer pre and in service teachers opportunities to develop and incorporate strategy instruction into curriculum, school, teacher, and student culture. O’Brien also explains that future Content Literacy research should focus on “participants as well as on strategies.” Students cannot be overlooked in the implementation of literacy strategies. O’Brien describes students, “as social beings” who will take from the strategies what they perceive to be most important to get the work done. Students’ perceptions and needs vary greatly and must be taken into consideration when implementing literacy strategies. O’Brien believes that “research and practice in content literacy should reciprocally inform one another” instead of research seeming to overlook the reality of teacher practice, students, and school culture (O’Brien, 1995). How exciting to think that instead of teachers just transferring what researchers uncover in their studies directly into classrooms, researchers could start in classrooms and construct and adapt strategies to fit specific classrooms and schools.
Motivation/Interest Some content texts are dry, difficult, and focus on topics that interest students very little. Many students have the strategies they need to navigate texts; the problem is the texts presented to them in schools are texts that few people actually want to read (Moje, 2004). Another challenge facing teachers is that some students find reading and writing very taxing and therefore are not easily motivated to participate when reading and writing are the sole ways to access the content. How can teachers convince students that they should actually want to read their content texts? Students need to experience real success in using literacy skills in order to develop motivation to keep trying to improve (Lenz, 2005). Setting students up to experience success with materials that are too difficult is not going to work. Teachers have to find materials that are more interesting and at students’ independent or instructional reading level so that students can truly be successful. Finding those materials and funding the purchase of them is no small task. Fisher and Ivey suggest dedicating some instructional time to self-selected reading. When students were asked what was the most worthwhile part of their language arts classes, they overwhelming answered free reading. Students said that when “they were left alone to read, they could actually think and learn” (Fisher, 2005)! Content area teachers must give students ample time to read and think about texts that students choose. “If we want students to consider the new texts we bring to their attention they need ample opportunities to read the texts they prefer” (Lenz, 2005). Limited time and resources are definitely challenges when it comes to allowing students to choose what they read within content classes, but the benefits make the work seem worthwhile. Moje et al explored the importance of developing third space within classrooms. “The goal of constructing third space is... simply to make a space for multiple forms of knowledge and Discourses in the interpretation of classroom texts” (Moje, 2004). Students will be more motivated and learn more when teachers capitalize on what students already know including experiences and interactions with families, peers, community, and popular culture. Convincing students that what they know and value outside of school is appreciated and relevant to school content can be challenging, but if students can be convinced their motivation to succeed in school and with literacy tasks increases dramatically. “It is important that the funds of knowledge and Discourse of youth of color, of urban areas, and of poverty be uncovered, understood, and brought from the margins of teaching and researching practice to the center” (Moje, 2004). Taking the time to genuinely get to know students and what they know and value outside of school is a daunting task for secondary teachers, but if teachers don’t know their students, motivating them seems hopeless. Teachers know that motivating their students is essential to student learning and success. “Being aware of the importance of motivating students to be active readers is one thing; finding the right ways to do so is often quite another” (Brozo, 2008). However, reading content text is essential to acquire background knowledge and vocabulary. Content reading is also important because it can be quite different from reading required elsewhere, so students need a great deal of practice reading content texts to gain skills to do so more effectively and efficiently. Brozo and Flynt provide 6 evidence based principles to “serve as a guide to instructional practices in the content areas that are motivating and engaging.” The principles are as follows: 1. Elevating Self-Efficacy in an effort to make students feel more competent so that they are willing to “sustain effort to be successful.” Again, this is not going to happen if the curriculum materials are at the frustration reading level for many students. 2. Engendering Interest in New Learning so that students are willing to put forth the effort required when reading to learn. Many teachers have a gift for generating interest in new topics to prepare students to read and learn. 3. Connecting Outside With Inside School Literacies with the hope that students’ interests outside of school can be applied to school literacies in meaningful and motivational ways. 4. Making an Abundance of Interesting Texts Available to increase the likelihood that students have access to reading materials that truly interest them and that they can actually read. 5. Expanding Choices and Options knowing that increasing choices for students tends to “increase autonomy and agency.” 6. Structuring Collaboration for Motivation both between teacher and student and among students helps increase motivation, belonging, and therefore motivation to read and write (Brozo, 2008). Most teachers try to follow through on these goals, but implementing these principles with limited time, resources, and support can be quite daunting.
Conclusion Implementing a Content Literacy Initiative is going to require a great deal of time and effort. In addition, it seems that there are more challenges to implementation than solutions. Literacy Strategies must be specific to content areas and the students who are to use them. Content teachers must know that they are not to teach students to read, but rather teach students to learn their unique content through the basics of language and thought (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). In this way students learn content in more depth and learn how to be more independent learners. One time, whole group professional develop offerings are not going to work well. Professional development in Content Literacy must be specific, as mentioned earlier, and it must include support and time for teachers to experiment, ask questions, help each other, etc. Content area teachers must focus students on critical content and literacy strategies and offer extensive modeling of thoughtful reading, writing, and implementation of strategies. The curriculum cannot revolve around lecture or one textbook. Students need access to a variety of texts to meet their diverse needs and interests. Research institutions and secondary schools need to cooperate more in order to more effectively meet the needs of students in the areas of content learning and literacy. School, student, and teacher culture cannot be ignored either. Motivating students to read, write, and be engaged in content classes is not an easy task. However, teachers can work towards exciting students about the content and the literacy tasks in a variety of ways. While there are no easy answers, it seems that hard work and determination towards engaging students in literacy behaviors within content areas will benefit students in the long run. Therefore, amidst all the challenges, we teachers should forge on with our literacy and content learning efforts, keeping in mind the challenges and using them to make our efforts more effective.
References Brozo, W.G., & Flynt, E.S. (2008). Motivating Students to Read in The Content Classroom: Six Evidence-Based Principles. The Reading Teacher. 62, 174-176.
Fisher, D., & Ivey, G. (2005). Literacy and Language as Learning in Content-Area Classes: A Departure From "Every Teacher a Teacher of Reading.” Action Teacher in Education. 27, 3-11.
Hall, L. A. (2005). Teachers and content area reading: Attitudes, beliefs and change. Teaching and Teaching Education. 21, 403-414.
Lenz, B.K., Ehren, B.J., & Deshler, D.D. (2005). The Content Literacy Continuum: A School Framework for Improving Adolescent Literacy for All Students. KU Center for Research on Leaning. 1-6.
Moje, E.B., Ciechanowsik, K.M., Kramer, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working towards third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and Discourse . 39, 38-70.
O'Brien, D. G., Stewart, R. A., & Moje, E. B. (1995). Why Content literacy is difficult to infuse into the secondary school: Complexities of curriculum, pedagogy, and school culture. Reading Research Quarterly. 30, 442-463.
Thibodeau, G.M. (2008). A Content Literacy Collaborative Study Group: High School Teachers Take Charge of Their Professional Learning. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 52, 54-64.
Zipperer, F.M.J., Worley, M.T., Sisson, M.W., Said, R.W., (2002). Literacy Education and Reading Programs in the Secondary School: Status, Problems, and Solutions. NASSP Bulletin. 86, 3-17.