Final Blog Post

Throughout all of my school experiences, elementary, middle, and high school, I do not recall focusing on literacy outside of my English/Language Arts classes. During this course, I have learned the importance of literacy not only in an English class, but in all other content-area specializations. For me, as a preservice science teacher, I never thought about teaching my students reading strategies or focus on literacy until after this class. I learned that literacy is just as important as any other additional science content.

Literacy can be defined as a multitude of things, but a huge part of literacy is texts. Texts can vary from print, video, audio, visuals, and more. In science, it is likely that students will see all these texts throughout the year. So, how well do students comprehend these texts? Students can be taught reading strategies to break down texts to get a better understanding. "Reading is about comprehension and thinking" (Subjects Matter, 28). In the textbook, Subjects Matter, it listed "Thinking Strategies of Effective Readers" and those are to visualize, connect, question, infer, evaluate, analyze, recall, and self-monitor. These are extremely important to think about when reading, especially when given a difficult text because these strategies help students understand how to approach the reading along with comprehending it. Throughout the course, we worked with these reading strategies ourselves whether it was reading an article that was given, Think Aloud, Book Club, and various in-class assignments. One of my favorite assignments that I was able to explore was the Strategy Assignment. Being given the strategy “Sketching a Text” was perfect for my group since we are all preservice science teachers. During this group assignment, we were able to sketch a given text and see how we did, as the teacher. We then applied this to the whole class by creating a lesson plan based around sketching a text. It was interesting and a lot more enjoyable to do instead of simply reading an article or listening to a lecture about the concept. I never focused on nor used these reading strategies while reading/looking at a text. Now that I know how beneficial these reading strategies are, I can teach my students these literacy skills which will being them a great deal of success.

I read an article that explained once the components of literacy are present in the classroom, teachers must “mindfully support the levels of reading, writing, and speaking skills your students possess, while focusing on content (Kesty 2018).” Not all students are on the same levels when it comes to literacy, so it is necessary for me to learn and adapt to students’ needs. With this being said, my future work is to be there and support my students in all ways possible. "If students experiencing difficulty are going to take the risk and give math or science or foreign language a new try, they need to know you'll be there to help, and that they're in a safe place where they won't suffer further hurt if they don't succeed on the first attempt" (Subjects Matter, 280). This quote is important to take in and understand because it is crucial for students to feel safe and accepted in their learning environment. This is why teaching and demonstrating the various reading strategies can help students grow as learners.

This course has taught me that literacy can and should be intertwined into all subject areas. It is just as much my job to teach students literacy skills as it is an ELA teacher. I thankfully have been given the opportunity to learn and teach just a handful of the numerous literacy skills. My plan is to continue to educate myself on how to become a better educator so my students can be successful in both science and literacy.

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