2. Goals To support standards-based instruction across the curriculum To provide a rationale for using literacy activities in content area classrooms To introduce various literacy teaching practices that will enhance comprehension in the content areas To identify teaching practices that will be beneficial to each participant’s specific content area

3. Every discipline requires a reader to approach reading in a manner specific to that particular content area. Who knows better the demands of the specific content areas than the teachers who specialize in that subject?

4. Reading is the foundation of academic success and the primary tool used in acquiring knowledge in the content areas (Unrau, 2004: Vacca and Vacca, 2004).

5. Rationale for Teaching Content Area Literacy Textbooks are often the primary means for learning content information; therefore, teachers must provide students with strategies for reading specific content-area texts to ensure comprehension. Merely assigning reading does not help students construct meaning or ensure understanding of content-area goals. Students often find textbook reading irrelevant to their lives unless teachers help them make meaningful connections.

6. Rationale for Teaching Content Area Literacy (Continued) Without teacher support, students fail to make interdisciplinary and intra-content, connections as they read assigned texts. Without specific content-area reading instruction, many students do not comprehend what they read and lack essential strategies needed to understand core content information.

7. What Teachers Can Do Help students develop strategies needed to construct meaning during content-area reading. Model methods to support students before, during and after reading in their specific content area. Supplement required texts with a variety of reading materials related to content-area benchmarks. Allow time for students to collaborate to discuss, question and extend understanding of content related reading.