Blog Post

Literacy Improvement Series: The Myth of the Literacy Block

Does this look familiar?

 

This is the sample schedule from a typical monolingual schedule. The content (math, science, social studies) and language (English Language Arts) blocks are independent from each other. The time allotted to each subject is either school- or district-mandated, and teachers are expected to spend the given amounts of time on each subject.

I have spent the last four months sharing with you some of the most effective literacy strategies I use in my Two-Way Immersion kindergarten and first grade classes. See my blogs on Oracy Development, VocabularyPhonics, and Language Experience Approach. However, these strategies are just a piece of the puzzle. I would like to challenge you now to look at the BIG PICTURE of literacy. And when I say YOU, I am hoping to pique the interest of ALL educators, whether you teach in a One-Way Immersion program, a Two-Way Immersion program, transitional bilingual, or a monolingual setting, whether you are elementary or secondary, or even if you teach adult learners.

We are all language learners – constantly, throughout our lives we continue to learn and grow our language capacity. Some of us are fortunate enough to be bilingual or even multilingual, with various levels of proficiency. With that, I want you to keep in mind all that is encompassed by LITERACY.

And so I begin THE MYTH OF THE LITERACY BLOCK…

Literacy is not just reading. It is also writing, listening, and speaking. It is LANGUAGE. And that language, that literacy, is encompassed in everything that we learn. There is the language of math, the language of science, the language of social studies. As we think about the needs of our students, regardless of the oral language they are learning, the goal is to be grade-level “literate” in all of these content languages to be academically successful.

So what’s the myth? The myth is there should be a separate and distinct “Literacy Block.” The reality is, literacy learning, in order to be effective for all of our students, should be constantly embedded in all that we do. Our block schedule might look more like this:

This is a rough example of how my Spanish-teaching partner and I split our 50/50 day between English content/language and Spanish content/language. The timing breakdown and content allocations are more specific than describe above but I wanted to keep the example simple; my attempt is to illustrate the use of English Language Arts (ELA) and Spanish Language Arts (SLA) within content instruction.

I’ve heard exasperated teachers claim, “My students don’t know how to read a science text!” My thought: “Have you taught them how?” Reading should be a regular part of science. It is not separate. What about writing in math? Do your students know how to explain their thinking verbally (speaking) then take it to a well-written paragraph (writing) for a classmate to check (reading)? Can your students take current events in social students, research them (reading), write an opinion paragraph on the issue (writing), present their opinion to the class (speaking), and respond to one another (listening)?

Literacy does not have to be taught separately – that is the myth. In fact, it is more powerful to teach the skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking within the content areas. It gives them purpose. It gives the standards and skills CONTEXT. Ninety-minute literacy block? How about six hours?

I am the English side of a Two-Way Immersion program, and, quite frankly, I don’t have TIME to teach a separate literacy block. I have my classes each for a half a day. I know I need to get the most “bang for my buck” by embedding all of my ELA standards with my content. Some examples:

Kindergarten Science/ELA: Living/Nonliving Unit

I could go on and on. What I hope you get from this wrap up to my Literacy Improvement Blog Series is that we can actually do this smarter. Relieve some stress from your already time-crunched day and assess where you can hit some solid language/literacy standards within your content teaching. Start planning now and get your new school year off on an efficient foot (did you know your feet could be efficient?!?). Have fun with it!

I’ll be taking August off of blogging to get my school year up and running. Come back mid-September for some tips on how to start the school year strong in a two-teacher model. Thanks for reading!

 

Comment (1)

  1. Deirdre Garcia July 29, 2017 at 3:15 am

    You are amazing! It takes teachers like you who are choosing to teach in dual language, who embrace this way of learning, who hold the greatest and most impactful message about the critical nature of this work for our shared and often invisible population.
    I will share this blog over and over!

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