LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM-BEd notes
Unit 5 – Developing proficiency in written Comprehension and Production
Prepared by
Sabarish P
Contents
Reading across different subjects
Techniques of reading based on content
Techniques of reading – Skimming & Scanning
1) Reading across different subjects
After the elementary and middle school years, the student seriously engages in reading for learning. This process sweeps across all disciplinary domains, extending even to the area of personal learning. The student encounters a variety of informational and fictional texts and reads texts in all genres and modes of discourse. In the study of various disciplines of learning (language arts, mathematics, science, social studies), the student must learn, through reading, the communities of discourse of those disciplines. Each subject has its own specific vocabulary, and for a student to excel in all subjects, he or she must learn the specific vocabulary of all subject areas in context.
Reading across the curriculum develops the student’s academic and personal interests in different subjects, as well as his or her understanding and expertise across subject areas. As the student reads, he or she develops both content and contextual vocabulary and builds good habits for reading, researching, and learning. The Reading Across the Curriculum standards focus on the academic and personal skills a student acquires as the student reads in all areas of learning.
2) Techniques of reading based on content
At secondary level, the student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines.
The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas. For example, the student chooses an important figure from a culture different from his or her own who has significantly contributed to a specific field (i.e., mathematics, science, social science, literature, sports, entertainment, the arts). The student learns about the selected figure by reading primary and secondary texts.
The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas. The student:
a. Identifies messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
b. Responds to a variety of texts in multiple modes of discourse.
c. Relates messages and themes from one subject area to those in another area.
d. Evaluates the merits of texts in every subject discipline.
e. Examines the author’s purpose in writing.
f. Recognizes the features of disciplinary texts.
Example
Using the information learned from the reading about a notable figure, the student constructs a body diagram to share with the class. Adopting the voice of the figure, the student completes the following statements and records them on the body diagram:
head=thoughts: “I think . . .”
heart=desires/goals: “I desire . . .”
gut=personal beliefs /values: “I believe . . .”
arms=achievements: “I have accomplished . . .”
legs=obstacles/challenges: “I have overcome or faced . . .”
feet=geographic locations: “ I am from . . ./I am going . . .”
The student acquires new vocabulary in each content area and uses it correctly. The student:
a. Demonstrates an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects.
b. Uses content vocabulary in writing and speaking.
c. Explores understanding of new words found in subject area texts.
Example
The student selects a “hard” news article and a “soft” news article from a print or online publication that addresses the same multicultural topic (i.e., immigration/border issues, elections, civil rights, education, life choices, housing, child labour, single-parent families, employment, technology).
a. The student makes a list of unfamiliar vocabulary from each text, comparing and analyzing the level of complexity of the vocabulary from the two sources.
b. Revisiting the texts, the student identifies the “loaded” words and evaluates how the connotative meanings produce an intended rhetorical effect.
The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas. The student:
a. Explores life experiences related to subject area content.
b. Discusses in both writing and speaking how certain words and concepts relate to multiple subjects.
c. Determines strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unfamiliar words or concepts.
After learning about the seven essential strategies for reading comprehension (i.e., activating background knowledge, visualizing, creating connections, making predictions/monitoring for meaning, inferring), the student creates a graphic organizer and records data about the daily use of these strategies in a minimum of two classes.
a. Engaging in a group discussion, students compare and contrast their experiences to determine which strategies work best with which content areas.
b. Following the group discussion, the student reviews the graphic organizer and writes a reflection about reading strategies. The reflection should include inferences about the reader that may not be obvious from the factual data (i.e., feelings about reading, challenges, influences, interests, preferences).
c. The student creates an individualized reading plan based on successful strategies.
3. Techniques of reading – Skimming & Scanning
Skimming
General understanding of the whole text
Fastest type of reading based on purpose
Also called rapid-survey reading
Skimming is used to review a topic.
Scanning
Look for specific information in the text
It makes you “skip more than you read.”
Also called search reading
Prepared by
Sabarish P
