Building Content Literacy

Book excerpt: Presenting a snapshot of how adolescents learn, Roberta L. Sejnost and Sharon M. Thiese offer research-based best practices and strategies that enable teachers to increase student learning by more effectively integrating reading, writing, and critical thinking into their content instruction. Building Content Literacy: Strategies for the Adolescent Learner begins with a discussion of the challenges of teaching adolescents and follows with: - Strategies to foster acquisition of specialized and technical content vocabulary - Specific processes and skills students may use to comprehend narrative and expository texts - A variety of writing-to-learn strategies Speaking-to-learn strategies. Finally, the authors consider the challenges that face students in the age of technology and address the new literacies that can be utilized to engage students and increase learning.