Bringing Literacy Strategies into Content Instruction

This document provides research-based guidance on academic literacy instruction in the content areas, specifically focusing on the effective use of text in content areas. It reviews the research evidence about content-area literacy instruction for adolescents and suggests ways teachers can use content-area texts to enable students to understand the vocabulary and concepts they contain. This document also provides a brief synopsis of working with adult learners and the most promising professional development practices identified in research. Intended for use by literacy specialists and other technical assistance providers in their work with states to improve educational policy and practice in adolescent literacy, it describes ways to assist states, districts, and schools in helping teachers develop the kinds of pedagogical skills needed to implement instructional practices that have been shown to improve student literacy outcomes. This document can facilitate effective literacy instruction in the content areas for schools implementing School Improvement Grants (SIG) and/or College and Career Ready Standards (including Common Core State Standards. The Center on Instruction held a webinar July 22,2010, to provide an introduction to this document. The archived WebEx file and PowerPoint presentation can be accessed here.

Files available for this resource:

This resource pertains to the following topics:

• Literacy
• Practitioner Guides
• Professional Development Events
• Adolescent Literacy
• SIG
• College & Career Ready Standards (including Common Core State Standards)

©2005-2012 Center on Instruction at RMC Research Corporation
1000 Market St. | Portsmouth, NH 03801 | Phone: 800.258.0802 or 603.422.8888
Funded by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of
Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.