Effectively teaching students specific strategies that have been proven to show the greatest literacy improvement should be seamlessly interwoven into the classroom. The U.S. Department of Education indicates that there are practices that teachers can use to improve adolescent literacy. Instructions that use content specific vocabulary, comprehension strategies, discussions, and activities that encourage students engagement are proven successful in increasing adolescent literacy skills (Kamil, et al. 2008). I plan on implementing these strategies into my classroom to increase my students literacy ability while simultaneously increasing their social studies content comprehension.
Heller, R., and Greenleaf, C. (2007). Literacy instruction in the content areas: Getting to the core of middle and high school improvement. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Kamil, M. L., Borman, G.D., Dole, J., Dral, C.C., Salinger, T., adn Torgensen, J. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices: A Practice Guide (NCEE #2008-4027). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http:/ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc.