Final Synthesis Blog

Going into this class, I knew that being literate in content-area courses was an important aspect of students’ learning, but I was not sure what teaching content-area literacy would entail. However, over the duration of the semester, I learned many new concepts and ideas that shape what content-area literacy embodies. Whether we were working with reading or thinking strategies, this course introduced ideas that I will need to be a successful teacher working with students with different learning needs. As a potential social studies or science teacher, I now know that I need to go beyond just teaching content-specific concepts. For students to truly understand a content-area, they must be able to comprehend and think about a given text. As a teacher, it is imperative that I provide students with support and strategies that they can utilize to be successful. In addition to learning about potential strategies, the idea of differentiation resonated with me as an important concept. Throughout the semester, there were plenty of lessons and ideas that I can use as a future teacher. 

Reading the chapter “Help for Struggling Readers,” introduced me to valuable insight and ideas in a classroom. First and foremost, I believe that it is important to build supportive relationships with your students. Continuous encouragement and support can go a long way in helping students understand particular content-area texts. Also, introducing students to strategies that can assist them as individual readers can be productive. Many of the strategies that were introduced to me through the book and strategy lessons can be efficient resources for me to use in the future. Also, learning when to provide students with a particular strategy, such as before or after reading, can be important to student success. Think-alouds and KWL were strategies that I can see being beneficial in assisting my students while they are reading in the future. In addition, doing research on additional strategies, such as 3-2-1, was beneficial in order to explore new ways to assist students. 

For me, one of the most important concepts that I learned this semester was content differentiation. As a teacher, I believe that it is imperative to be able to differentiate the way you teach to different students. For example, a group of students might be struggling on reading a given text, while other students might be more proficient reading the text. It is important to use different strategies for both groups of students in order to support and challenge them. The video that we watched on content differentiation was something that I found beneficial. While observing Ms. Maronpot in the video, I noticed various ways that she differentiated her content. For example, I liked how she grouped students together with different achievement levels to work together. In addition to that particular video, watching the TED Talk about not teaching to the average student but teaching to all different students was helpful. I believe that it is important to teach to all students different learning needs opposed to teaching every student the same way. One particular way to teach to all students is through universal design. This idea allows each student to have different options that can benefit their own individual learning. 

Overall, this course has instilled confidence in me that I can be a teacher that understands content-area literacy. By providing students with support, strategies, and differentiation practices, I believe that I can assist students as they grow in their learning and reading development. In the future, I look forward to continuing to learn about new ideas and concepts about content-area literacy that can benefit myself and my future students. 

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