Reading+&+Writing+Across+the+Content+Areas

=Analytical Writing in the Content Areas= Because writing is thinking, the organization of students' writing reflects both the structure of their thinking and the depth of their understanding. Students should be writing in all their classes, explaining what they know and how they know it. Thus, it's essential for content-area teachers to give students meaningful analytical writing assignments. Read An Introduction to Analytical Text Structures for more information and graphic organizers to help with writing instruction.

=ReLeah Lent's Powerpoint on Engagement and Literacy= Click to access.

=Genre Matching Cards= Remember the genre matching activity we did with Tammy Elser during a 2011-2012 PD session? Nearly every reading passage on the CRTs has a question that asks about the genre of the selection. By constantly referencing the genre of everything read in class (even a school lunch menu can be either fiction or non-fiction depending on what is actually served) and by using activities like genre matching, we can help our CRT scores go up.

=Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)= The Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

=Reading Comprehension Modules= Current research at all levels of schooling emphasizes the importance of effective reading comprehension. Even as adults, our students need guidance with this ability. However, many of us are not familiar with strategies for helping our students become more effective readers.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) invites you to participate in these 14 instructional modules that provide ideas on teaching reading comprehension for college-level faculty. These modules offer insights into reading difficulties as well as effective strategies to improve reading comprehension in college courses across disciplines.

The modules are designed to work both independently or together, and each takes 45–75 minutes to complete. Each module also provides printable handouts of strategies both for faculty and for students.

=Adolescent Literacy Classroom Strategies= Explicit strategy instruction is at the core of good comprehension instruction. "**Before**" strategies activate students' prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. "**During**" strategies help students make connections, monitor their understanding, generate questions, and stay focused. "**After**" strategies provide students an opportunity to summarize, question, reflect, discuss, and respond to text.

Teachers should help students to understand why a strategy is useful, how it is used, and when it is appropriate. Teacher demonstration and modeling are critical factors for success, and student discussion following strategy instruction is also helpful.

Strategies on this page are divided by before, during, and after categories and a focus (vocabulary, comprehension, and/or writing) is also indicated. Graphic organizers are included where appropriate.

=The Write Source= Contains writing prompts for K-12, as well as student writing samples by grade and format, MLA and APA format, and info on judging sources.