What role does literacy play in your classroom? Don't stop reading because you don't teach ELAR.
It is becoming more and more apparent that literacy cannot be the sole responsibility of the ELAR teacher. We cannot expect to see students improve without every teacher playing a role, regardless of content or level. Often, when content teachers are asked what the student is struggling with, the response is almost always reading and writing. Yet, these teachers don't offer quality time in class to read and write.
A coach would not expect a multi-sport athlete to stop running or weight training because he/she is now participating in a different sport. The coach would continue working on building a foundation and add skills specific to the sport. Most importantly, the coach has the athletes practice!
Below are resources to get you started and sustain literacy in your classroom:
- An Eduphoria article on the importance of reading, writing, and speaking in every content.
- The Lead4ward instructional playlist with specific strategies to promote student engagement, student interaction, and more.
- The Learning Network by The NY Times offers lessons across all contents with daily articles, activities, writing prompts, and quizzes.
- Word Generation promotes academic language development, providing current event articles for all content areas.
- 89 Visual Prompts by Gretchen Bernabei (Heinemann).
- Literacy instruction tips to use with English learners.
- Content instruction tips to use with English learners.
