Education

1. What is Content Area Literacy?
Created and compiled by Alyson Mitchell M.Ed.
Texas Tech UniversityTexas Tech University
June 2009

2. • “Content literacy is the ability to use reading and writing to acquire
information in a subject area.” (Gunning, 2003)
• Think about the books that are on your bedside table (or next to your
bed). At this moment, I have a weekly pop-culture magazine, a
textbook for this class, the novel, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult,
a Magic Treehouse children’s novel (by Mary Pope Osborne) that Ia Magic Treehouse children’s novel (by Mary Pope Osborne) that I
am reading to my children, a catalog with bedding that I would like to
order, my Bible, and a book about parenting. I read all of these
books for different purposes and with a different focus. When I read
for fun, it looks different than when I am reading for inspiration,
learning, or for more information… This is content literacy.
• “Perhaps the most significant change in elementary reading
instruction in the last few years has been the emphasis on reading
(and writing) for information.” (Frey and Fisher 2007)

3. Why Content Area Literacy?
Children need to learn early that they read informational texts different
than fiction texts. They need strategies that differ from reading stories.
Research suggests:
• Children’s attitudes towards reading is
generally positive in first grade and declines
by sixth grade.
• Instruction in 4th grade tend to be more
• Studies have found little or no use of
informational texts in first grade, as low as
3.6 minutes per day.
• On grade level middle school students score
a full year level lower on comprehension of
• Instruction in 4th grade tend to be more
group reading (round robin reading) and
virtually no independent reading takes place.
• Students who experience “4th grade slump”
on measures of achievement declined and
scored in the 25th percentile by eleventh
grade.
• On grade level middle school students score
a full year level lower on comprehension of
non-fiction texts when compared to reading
fiction.
• Approximately 80 to 90 percent of reading
that students will have to do in the future will
be informational in nature.
TRY IT!
Take a minute and think about the type of reading and writing you
have done in the past week. Think about the things that you have
done at home, work, school, in your personal life and daily routines.
Make a list on a scrap piece of paper before you go to the next slide.

4. • You may have listed some of these kinds of reading and writing:
read recipes
read and write a grocery list
read to a child
help a child with homework
read and write emails
read a syllabus or calendar
read an article or textbook for class
read a newspaper
read or write a letter
create a to do list
read a college scheduleread a college schedule
read a website
read a novel or magazine
I am sure there are many other kinds of literacy activities that you have engaged in.
Now, go back to your list. How many of these are for informational purposes?
Pike and Mumper tell us on page 8, “It is predicted that by the year 2020, the amount
of information will double ever seventy three days.” The children that we teach
need to be prepared for this to meet the demands they will encounter in their jobs and
world.

5. In order to understand Content Area Literacy, we
need to understand what is a nonfiction text.
Nonfiction is: “ A carefully crafted genre,
provides ideas, facts and principles
organized around main ideas, using both
verbal and visual texts. The purposes are to
inform, instruct, and enlighten. They can
include books about the science (natural,
social and physical), history, sports, crafts,
the arts, how-tos, newspapers, articles, the
World Wide Web, and so on, that discussWorld Wide Web, and so on, that discuss
factual information about a topic.”
Pike and Mumper (2007), pg 4.

6. What do nonfiction or informational texts look like?
**throughout this semester the terms nonfiction or informational texts may be
used. They are the same thing…a book that provides information.
• Frequently broken up into sections such as table of
contents, headings, glossaries, and indexes.
• They also include features that make the text easier to
read including bullets, captions, varied fonts, etc.
• We call these features Access Features.
• Look through DK Eye Wonder’s Rain Forest. What• Look through DK Eye Wonder’s Rain Forest. What
features do you see in this text that can be considered
access features?
• Jot down the access features that are found in this book
for children. As you write each down, think about why
the author included that type of feature. Move to the
next slide after finding as many access features as you
can.

7. What access features did you find in Rain Forest?
title page
table of contents
side notes or side bars
headings
captions
Photographs
glossary
Index
author’s note (websites)
varied fonts
maps
This is a list of what I discovered, you may have found many more!
Why are access features important?
It is imperative that we as teachers of nonfiction, show children how to access these books
that they are reading and gain the information provided by showing them (modeling during
read alouds, guiding them through shared or guided reading) how to use these access
features.
“Access features support comprehension of nonfiction and often expand information about a
topic” (Pike and Mumper, pg 5)
Take a minute now to review the many access features listed in Chapter 1 of your textbook
(pg 6-8). Be sure to be familiar with each as we will complete an activity in the TRY IT section
of the module with these terms.

8. Now we know what nonfiction looks like and what features are there to
support readers of nonfiction, what can we do as teachers to support
readers of information?
• First, as stated in the previous slide, children need to be taught how to use
the access features found in informational texts. “Students should be
explicitely taught the structures and styles used in texts.” (Frey and
Fisher, 2007)
• Second, children should be taught comprehension strategies in order to
understand this type of text. As you recall, comprehension is one of the five
essential teaching practices identified by the National Reading Panel (thinkessential teaching practices identified by the National Reading Panel (think
Big 5).
What are some comprehension strategies?
•Questioning strategies (What do I predict will happen next? What does this mean? Do I understand?)
•Summarizing strategies (What is important here?)
•Inferring strategies (What is really happening? Think reading between the lines)
•Self monitoring strategies (What do I do when I don’t understand?)
•Connection strategies (think schema here…What do I know?)
Adapted from Frey and Fisher, 2007

10. I think content area literacy begins the
moment a child uses reading to learn or to
enjoy or to inquire. As soon as kids are learning
to read they are reading to learn;
they are reading to enjoy, to inquire. I don’t
separate learning to read and reading
to learn. That is kind of a false dichotomy.
What motivates kids to want to learn
to read is that they are learning from whatto read is that they are learning from what
they read or they are enjoying what
they read. The emphasis is on the use of
reading which begins very early in one’s
development, using reading for lots of purposes
— that’s where content literacy
begins. (p. 57)
Richard Vacca (as sited in Adams, S and Bodrova, E. Beginning With The End In Mind:
Aligning Elementary Literacy (Electronic version) from www.mcrel.org.

11. References:
Adams, S and Bodrova, E. Beginning With The End In Mind: Aligning Elementary Literacy (Electronic
version) retreived June 24, 2009 from www.mcrel.org.
Frey, Nancy and Fisher, Douglas (2007). Reading for Information in Elementary School: Content
Literacy Strategies to Build Comprehension. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Pike, K and Mumper, J (2004). Making Nonfiction and other Informational Texts Come Alive. Boston:
Pearson.
Gunning, Thomas (2003). Building Literacy into the Content Area. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Pearson.
TRADEBOOKS USED IN THIS MODULE:
Ajmera, M, Versola, A, Edelman, M. (2001) Children from Australia to Zimbabwe. Shakti for Children.
Delafosse, Claude (2006). Butterflies. Scholastic.
Dieh, David (2008). Goal: My Soccer Book. NC: Lark Books.
Kreeger, Charlene (2002). Alaska ABC Book. Paws Four Publishing.
Page, Robin and Jenkins, Steve (2008) What do you do with a tail like this? Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt.
Pingrey, Patricia (2009) Meet George Washington. Ideals Publications.