Not Just for Reading Class Anymore: 5 Tips for Teaching Literacy Across Multiple Subjects

The very first year I taught middle school science, I found myself teaching more reading lessons than I had ever expected—and that didn’t change when I switched to a middle school math classroom two years later. Add in the fact that I had several English language learners in my class, and my lessons on mitochondria and tetrahedrons largely started with basic vocabulary and sentence flow instruction.

But looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It’s not just the Language Arts or Reading teacher’s sole responsibility to teach literacy. In fact, teaching literacy is connected to any and every subject—and it’s only getting more necessary as the online and offline worlds become more intertwined.

Literacy Builds Life Skills as Well as Language Skills

Schoolchildren who read and write at home with their parents may build not only their academic literacy skills, but also other important life and learning skills, a recent study found.

The project, a study by researchers at the University of Washington, followed children for five years, either grades one through five or three through seven. It looked at their reading and writing activities at home, their school progress and their skills, both according to their parents’ reports and according to annual assessments.

How important is pronunciation instruction for English learners?

One of the most notable identifiers of someone whose primary language is not English is speaking with an accent. While accents vary in English in different countries — and even by region within those countries — for most native speakers it is easy to tell if someone learned English later in life.

Interestingly, there are many people who spoke a language other than English as a child, learned English and now have native pronunciation in English. This generally occurs when people learn English (or another language) early in their life or during childhood.

How to Embed Foundational English Skills In Meaningful Work

Many teachers are seeking ways to better help their English language learner students, who often have additional challenges to overcome. These students are learning English alongside all the content standards, and some have had their education disrupted by life transitions. The challenges that face them are many, but there are strategies to help them develop language and academic skills.

Program helps students new to U.S. adjust to English

In her Fircrest Elementary School classroom, 7-year-old Yana Koroteyev is buried in books.

Her favorite, she says, pulling one from the stack on her desk, is “Elephant and Piggie,” a book series by Mo Willems. She flips quickly through an edition of the animal friends’ adventures, reading aloud as Elephant and Piggie prepare for a party.

“Party! Party! Party! Party!” she reads, running her fingers across the words on the page, giggling at the dancing animals.

5 Strategies for Increasing Engagement with ELL Families

As educators around the country know, the percentage of English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools is growing at a brisk clip. Recent figures show that ELLs make up close to 10 percent of the total student population — 4.6 million students by some estimates. With schools adding as many as 100,000 new English language learners each year, educators need to get strategic not only about the way they teach students, but about how they communicate to families as well. Parental involvement is one of the key drivers of student success, and research has shown that income level and ethnic background do not, by themselves, impact levels of family engagement.

How Listening to Podcasts Helps Students Read and Learn

High school English teacher Michael Godsey’s favorite work by William Shakespeare is Hamlet. But a few years ago, he stopped teaching his students about the centuries-old classic in favor of a story that was unfolding in the fall of 2014: Serial, the podcast.

The story of Adnan Syed, Hae Min Lee and the community at Woodlawn High School captivated podcast listeners around the world, including Godsey. The story was so engaging, he made listening to Serial in real time an assignment for his students and eventually made podcasts a regular part of his English class. He also teaches with episodes of This American Life, RadioLab and Serial Season 2 that cover subjects relevant to the lives of students.