The past few years I have definitely noticed a shift in mindset. It used to me that science teachers taught science and social studies teachers taught socials studies and so on and so forth. There has been a big push (at least in my building) for subjects to support each other and plan cross curricular activities. Essentially, math and science team up and support each other and ELA and social studies do the same because naturally, it makes sense. It is interesting to hear the kids question, “What class are we in?” or “Why are we doing this? This isn’t ELA!” We are definitely taking a step in the right direction, but there is more that can be done.
As we have already talked about in this course, literacy needs to be a focus in all subject areas. I found an article on Edutopia about the importance of literacy in all content areas. One of the things that stood out to me was one of the sub-headings that read, “Literacy is an every century skill.” Literacy was important in the past, it is still important today, and it will continue to be important in the years to come. The approach to teaching literacy and the skill set that the students need is what has changed.
I found myself laughing at the Ferris Bueller clip that Dr. Dell posted this week. The clip of Ben Stein’s character lecturing his zombie-like students was great. What made it funny was that it was spot on! Most of us sat in at least one class like this and we were bored out of our minds. In the lecture, Dr. Dell mentioned how we are making our move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age which means we are stepping away from talking at the students constantly and giving out worksheets galore. We need to give them a chance to collaborate, research and problem solve.
In ELA, our focus is always on reading, writing, speaking and listening since that is what our standards are all about. Providing opportunities for students to practice those skills in other content areas is crucial. Just like with everything else, the more they do it the better they become. There are some great tools and resources out there that anyone can use to teach literacy. Newsela and Tween Tribune were two tools that were mentioned that could be of great use. They cover age appropriate articles from various categories and you can adjust the lexile level in order to differentiate.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteRE: "It is interesting to hear the kids question, “What class are we in?” or “Why are we doing this? This isn’t ELA!” We are definitely taking a step in the right direction, but there is more that can be done."
I love this! As I mentioned in my comment on Krista's blog, I believe that we are moving in the direction of a fundamental change in the way the school day is structured. I envision a school day that is not divided by subject areas. There is just learning time based on a topic of study in which students read, write, compute, solve problems, and create solutions using technology to do so. School must make strides to reflect the real world. I don't ever stop and say, "I'm going to do science now (or social studies, or math...).
Dr. Dell
“Literacy is an every century skill.” Absolutely true! One of my favorite elements of your blog post is that you included speaking into this discussion. I think that is spot on. This can be developed in so many formats. We can use a think-pair-share method with a shoulder partner, have presentations on projects or let students take a position and create a debate on either a generic argumentative topic or an event in history with multiple perspectives. When I taught Social Studies my first year I loved finding examples of multiple perspectives on a topic or event and having students pick a side and being able to defend their position with evidence. One example of this was reading two different accounts from people at the Boston Massacre. Two people … one event…. VERY different interpretation of events.
ReplyDeleteRE: "I found myself laughing at the Ferris Bueller clip that Dr. Dell posted this week." Watching that clip made me giggle, too. I remember watching that movie as a kid and thinking that scene was hysterical. That feeling of boredom was definitely a familiar scenario in a lot of my high school courses. It makes me think of my husband and how we always talk about how he would have enjoyed school if he had been a kid in today's schools. What you said about the kids not understanding why an activity was happening because it "isn't ELA" makes me think that it would be nice to walk into a classroom and not be able to tell which content area the class really was. It's also nice that your math/science and social studies/ELA partner up. Transdisciplinary teaching is something that my school has as a goal, and we are still having a hard time because it really requires "buy in" from all teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best part of a lesson is when students are like why are we doing this it's something that we should be doing in a different class. I also think it's great when we get the kinds really invested in an activity in Social studies that is normally something that they would find in English, like writing a journal entry of someone who is traveling west on the Oregon Trail, or figuring out the weight of the wagon preparing to leave.
ReplyDeleteThe four standards that you list here are also the ones that are a focus for my EL students. We try to incorporate those standards into every lesson that we are teaching with our students. We are hoping to work them into a greater understanding of what the English language is and how to communicate in it.