Reading in the Disciplines

Reading in the Disciplines – Carnegie Corporation

I chose this article because it seemed to go well with the transcripts from the Content Area Literacy Conference.

1. Older students with reading difficulties have fallen through the cracks in the latest round of programs.  Not only do they have the same types of comprehension problems as younger kids, the complexity of the text has increased greatly due to “read to learn” in the various content areas.

2. That is the focus of the article – reading to learn.  Disciplinary literacy / content area literacy deals with the types of reading skills needed depending on the content students are reading.

3. NAEP – has three levels of proficiency: basic, proficient, and advanced.  In a survey of 17 year olds, the following was found: basic – majority of students (regardless of race of SES), proficient -  “stark differences aligned with race or SES (but they do not explain), advanced – less than 10% are able to comprehend complex texts (regardless of race or SES).

4. C.C. study says this suggests students learn basic skills, but do not learn skills that are content specific, thus hampering their comprehension at the higher grade levels.

5. Prior knowledge is one of the basic foundations of comprehension and includes 1) words and word forms, 2) sentence structure (syntax), 3) text structures or genres, 4) topics

6. [para.] Comprehension is a dynamic relationship between reader and text, combined with the demands of the text, plus prior knowledge and goals of the reader.

7. Generic skills do not go far enough – students also need techniques that are subject specific. Strategic Literacy Initiative is mentioned as one of the few programs designed to teach not only generic strategies, but also content specific ones as well.

8. The next section of the article goes into detail about “Reading in Science”.  I did notice there was information here that I had read in the “Content Area Literacy Conference” transcript. 

                * science textbooks are “text heavy” – pages can contain pictures, graphs, fact boxes, etc.

                * Comprehension can also require math literacy as well as visual literacy (to understand the                                        graphs, charts, etc.)

                * Syntax in textbook is much more difficult.

                * Latin & Greek word parts plus content specific meanings for words that is different from                                          common language.

                *Much of the taxonomic vocabulary is very abstract

                * Relationships may be inferred from word choice but not stated explicitly in the text.

I would like to interject that I teach Greek and Latin parts to my science students and show them the relationship to other words. Then I refer them back to those parts when we encounter them in new vocabulary.  I also point out words that have a different meaning in science from common usage. In the current text I would point out sections where they would have a graphic on one page and paragraphs explaining the same thing on a facing page, then tell them the way that made the most sense to them was the one they should use – that everyone’s brain works a bit differently.

9.  American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993 – benchmarks for 12^th graders require them to be able to do a high level of critical thinking, including taking studies and pulling them apart to examine them in detail. – Goal is to have scientifically literate adults.

10. Reading in History – this section repeated, once again, several points made in the conference notes.  One thing is that historians challenge texts, looking for bias, comparing facts against other sources, where scientists are expected to take texts more at face value.

11. the authors consider social science classes the training ground for citizenship, and schools have the opportunity to reach across ethnic / SES lines.

12. Side note – teens know about Vietnam War from films, not primary sources.  Adults of the time use film as a basis of fact, even when their own experiences contradict the film.  C.C. says film not a good choice to relay information. – I’m not sure why if you’re using newsreels, military films, etc.  instead of theatrical versions….

13. Historians use primary and secondary sources to not only get to details, but to get to the why of events.  Schools, on the other hand, present history as basically a timeline narrated by the text that should not be questioned.  (maybe this comes from the idea “anybody can teach history”).

14. CC points out that Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech is a rather good one to use to examine political issues since it was a campaign speech, not one given after he was in office.  Comparisons can be made to Douglas’s speeches and other historical documents from the time.   ( point of view, intended audience, etc.)

15. Textbooks for elementary students come under fire next.  According to studies quoted, in attempting to simplify texts, so much is left out that comprehension breaks down.

More to come.....