Caroline Talbot

EDUC 340
November 20, 2014
Case Study and Reflection from this Semester
Part I:
In learning about education this semester, I have really grown. I can now approach
teaching my content area using literacy to build students reading and writing skills. It has given
me a new perspective on teaching, and I have learned so many strategies and methods that have
made teaching history possible in an exciting and entertaining way. When I look at the phrase,
All teachers are teachers of reading, I think of how reading and writing is now a part of our
lives more than any other time in our nations history. We cant go about our daily lives without
reading on technological devices, traffic signs, or even the restaurant menu when we go out to
eat. Literacy is everywhere.
In an article about this subject by an instructor from UCLAs Graduate School of
Education, Rebecca Alber, I read a post from a blog called Edutopia that supports the statement
all teachers are teachers of reading. The title of the article is, How Important Is Teaching
Literacy in All Content Areas? In the article, Alber shows that literacy is important for all
content areas and also states, It's common to believe that literacy instruction is solely the charge
of language arts teachers, but, frankly, this just is not so (2014, Par.5). To help students prepare
for their future, they must learn literacy skills regardless of the subject that is being taught to
them. She argues that literacy should be incorporated into all content areas. Literacy, according
to Alber, is when content does not depend solely on what is being taught, but focuses on how the
content is being taught (2014, Par.7). In the world of education today, every teacher is a literacy
teacher.

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In order to educate others, one must also be educated in literacy skills themselves. I dont
think this is saying we have nothing to learn from those who are illiterate, but in todays world,
learning to read is vital. I dont even think I know anyone who is illiterate unless they are
children under the age of five or six. Todays students need to not just simply be able to recite
text, but also to understand, relate, comprehend, and grow in knowledge from the text that are
given to them. Otherwise it is pointless and the student is just wasting their time. As Richard and
Anne Vacca say in Literacy Matters All content area teachers play a critical role in helping
students to think, learn, and communicate with text (2011, p.3). This is exactly what I have
learned how to do this semester.
At the beginning of the semester we were given The Sam Trap. It was a text that gave the
title in English, but everything else was written in code. In order to understand what was going
on in the story we had to literary match each letter with its symbol to decode the text, along with
using context clues from the pictures. This task was a challenge, but it made us really work to
understand what the text was saying rather than reading it without decoding it. The text itself was
actually at a beginning reading level, but it turned out to be written in a different language. I
couldnt understand much of the story (such as the name of the rat and the cat) without
translating, or decoding, the letters.
From this semester a lesson our lab group taught a lesson on was the RAFT strategy, and
I learned that it is very important to make sure that the students understand, for themselves, what
they need to look for as they read. It was not enough to just explain the assignment to them; we
had to also ask them to show they could explain the assigned task to us as well. We encountered
problems later when students admitted they did not know what was going on. It would have
saved us a lot of time and prevented the confusion that some of the students had.
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For that lesson, students were asked to read about the settlement in the colony of
Jamestown. Then they had to write in a format, of their choice, from the point of view of
someone who lived during that time period. As the read, they were asked to be looking for ways
to show what it was like living in that time period of history. If they did not do this, then they
would not have really retained much of the information from the text. They also would have been
wasting their time not learning about the Jamestown settlement.
Being a reader and being a teacher both have one thing in common: there is always room
for growth and improvement. A reader can always be a better reader, and a teacher can always
look for ways to become a better teacher. I can say that from this class I have grown as a better
reader, and as a potential teacher. From this semester I can see how much value reading can give
to learning. I have gathered that the idea of always giving students a purpose to what they read is
very important and constructive. All of the skills we have learned this semester all have one thing
in common, they all give learners something to focus on at they read.

Part II:
Teaching history cannot be taught without using literacy skills. My content area requires
reading and writing skills in order to make sure students are learning the material. It is very easy
to incorporate the literacy skills and strategies into lesson plans. Many of the skills we learned in
recitation Ms.Wymore also used in her class during the lab classes. Many skills stand out to me
as something that I could often use in my content area. For example, KWL chart, which asks
students to look at a text (or in some cases, an image) they use their prior knowledge to find what
they already know. Then they can ask themselves what they want to learn, and then finally they
explain what they have learned.
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For my class, I can use this skill for the iconic image called Manifest Destiny. I can show
students the image and give them an article about it to read, or I could give a lecture on the
image as they fill out the KWL chart. In the lab, Ms. Wymore used a BKWLQ chart, where the B
stood for building background knowledge and the Q was for what questions do you still
have? She used this chart when students looked at the significant events/images that occurred in
U.S. History during the colonization of America. It was a good way to get students to really
think about the images and have a better understanding of the events.
A fun but very effective skill I learned is the RAFT strategy. RAFT stands for: Role,
Audience, Format, and Topic. In this strategy, students would be given a reading assignment and
then assigned to identify each part of the RAFT according to what they would choose to write
about. The format they could choose could be about anything from a letter, a poem, or even a
social media tweet if they wanted to. This strategy challenges students to be creative, and think
outside of the box. It is also amazing to see what students have come up with when they have
finished.
The lesson that I mentioned earlier was the RAFT strategy which we used to teach during
a lab. The class was split in half and assigned to read either about the hopes and dreams version
of what people wanted the new world to be like, or the harsh reality side on the settlement of
Jamestown. Students came up with very creative letters and tweets based off of what they read
from the text. I think they had a lot more fun participating in the RAFT activity then they would
have if they just simply read the article, and then wrote a summary on what it was about.
There are a few ways to help students develop essays as they read a text. Students can
take notes during and after they read, but at the same time, they are making an outline for an
essay they could write. One way to do this is by using the CER, or CERC, skill. CER stands for:
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Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning. There is also CERC, where the last C stands Conclusion.
This strategy can be used to help students take notes, and have a better understanding of a text
they are reading. Identifying each part of CERC in a reading will challenge students to find a
claim, and use evidence and reasoning to back up the claim and eventually come to a conclusion.
Cornell notes are a very good method to use for saving time, and to increase efficiency
when teaching a lesson that you later want to test students on. They are similar to two-column
notes, but instead of having students make a vertical line split down the middle, the line is about
two inches from the left edge of the page. On the right side of the page students can take notes,
while using the left side to write down key points, and also any questions they have about the
lesson being covered.
During a lab class, Ms. Wymore used Cornell notes to teach a lesson and it was a very
good method to use. It reminded me of a Power Point presentation lecture, yet it had a more
engaging format. In my content area, I could use this method as a guide for students. If I give
them an article on something I am teaching, say the Thirteen Colonies, I could ask students to
take Cornell notes. As they read, they could use a Cornell note method as a guide. Then, they
could later refer back to these notes when they study for a test.
In literacy, it is important to teach students the ability to make connections while they are
reading. Regardless of what lesson is being taught, teachers can use three types of connections to
help students understand and relate, to the text. These types of connections are text to text,
text to self and text to world. They can connect anywhere from one text to another, from the
text to something in ones own life, and from the text to something that relates to the rest of the
world. If I were to teach a lesson on, for example, the Revolutionary War, using the connection
strategy would be a good way to have students relate to the event. I could take quotes from
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famous people of the Revolutionary War, and then I would ask students to write a response
where they would chose a quote. Next, I would ask them to identify a quote with a connection of
their choice, and then have them write an explanation in about two to three sentences on why
they choose that quote and what kind of connections they made. This activity would help them to
gain a better understanding of peoples mind-set during this time in America.
Before this semester, the idea of creating my own lessons and how to use them in a
classroom seemed a little scary. Now, after everything I have learned from this semester, I can
confidently refer to one of these strategies when I am making a lesson plan. It doesnt take a
formal laid-out lesson plan to teach on a topic (which was I have been used to and what I thought
I was going to have to do for every class). Teaching a lesson does not have to be as complicated
as I once thought it was. Approaching my content area, I can now incorporate literacy in a way
that can help students not only become better readers, but better learners as well.

Work Cited
Alber, Rebecca. "How Important Is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?" Edutopia. Teacher
Leadership, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
Vacca, Richard T., and Jo Anne L. Vacca. Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning across
the Curriculum. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print.
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