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Consider This Scenario

Mr. Baker is a high school English language arts teacher who is passionate about helping his students love literature. He has taught everything from Chaucer to the latest young adult novel, helping his students to dig deep into the text to understand it, while also considering how the characters and situations reflect and deepen their own experiences. Many of his students have expressed interest in pursuing writing as a career based on the love of literature that he has inspired in them. However, he is not sure how to help his students who struggle to read or who do not display a high level of passion about novels. He wants to consider how to use different text genres and how to help all of his students to access, enjoy, and think critically about texts. 

Connection Point

In your Course Companion Document, consider these questions:  

• Can you relate to the above scenario? In what ways are your challenges in literacy instruction similar or different? 

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Literacy in English Language Arts

English Language Arts requires students to access complex texts across many different genres. Students need several components to be in place in order to effectively comprehend the texts they encounter in their ELA classes. These include: 

• Sufficient background knowledge to support their understanding of the text
• Reasoning to draw inferences, identify relationships, and make logical conclusions about a text
• An understanding of key academic language and vocabulary
• Searching and sourcing to better verify author's claims 
• Literacy knowledge including how text structures work, styles and genres, and the use of visuals such as graphs
• Perspective taking to understand points of view in both fiction and non-fiction writing

While some students in middle and high school seem to read naturally and do not need supports, others will need significant support to fully comprehend the many texts they must read. 

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Supporting English Language Arts Literacy – Video Presentation with Dr. Joshua Lawrence 

In this video presentation, Dr. Lawrence describes the Simple View of Reading and its application for supporting English language arts students. He also provides strategies for supporting disciplinary literacy in English language arts.  

Reflection Question: Consider some components of the Simple View of Reading identified by Dr. Lawrence that impact reading in English Language Arts (Background, reasoning, academic language & vocab, searching & sources, literacy knowledge, perspective taking). Which of these elements of effective reading do you commonly draw on in your classroom? What elements might you begin to employ to more effectively teach your students? 

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Knowledge Check

Take the brief quiz below to test your knowledge. Click the square button to expand the quiz. 

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Resources

Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts – This document rom Dr. Lawrence provides an overview of content from this course in addition to several tools that can be used in English language arts classrooms to support students’ literacy.  

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Course Reflection

Which of the tools and/or strategies identified by Dr. Lawrence could you incorporate into your current instruction? What steps do you need to take? 

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To Learn More

Reading and Writings in the Disciplines by Annenberg Learner: 

Reading and Writing in the Disciplines contains video demonstrations of classroom lessons in addition to explanations and resources to support literacy in mathematics, science, English, and social studies.  

Feedback: 

Please take a moment to fill out this feedback form. We will use your feedback to improve this and other courses. 

Last Modified: 2/19/2025 10:11:27 AM

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