Dr. Shannon Clapsaddle, Dr. Larry Bohannon, and Carrie Mueller ______________________________________________________
Think Outside the Textbook: Harnessing Content Literacy “I don’t know how to teach reading. I’m not an English teacher, I’m a science teacher!” marked the beginning of our unexpected collaborative relationship several years ago. Gone are the days of clinging to to the idea that, although departmentalized, teachers are responsible for their content only (Fisher & Ivey, 2005). Teaching high school in Illinois, the authors found the intersection of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (CCSS ELA) presented new opportunities for teachers to rethink what content area literacy looks like in middle and high school content classes. This intersection also exists among the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science (OASS) and the Oklahoma Academic Standards for English Language Arts (OAS for ELA), particularly when considering the OAS for ELA Employability Skills. While NGSS and OASS require students to go beyond surface facts and figures to gain a deeper understanding of science content, the expectation that students encounter a wider range of reading materials increased with CCSS ELA in the Content Areas and the OAS for ELA. This article outlines a collaborative effort between a reading teacher and a science teacher, who teaches biology, physical earth science, forensics, and chemistry, to address the new standards, as well as to increase the amount of time spent reading and number of texts students read in various science classes. Norris and Phillips (2002) described science literacy as both derived, or “being knowledgeable, learned, and educated in science” and fundamental, or “reading and writing when the content is science” within their claim that fundamental literacy skills are essential to science literacy (p. 224). If educators expect students to learn science from texts, we also must foster the literacy skills required to do so. We knew that many of our students were struggling readers because they were enrolled in mandatory remedial reading classes, and we knew that many of our students had learned to hate both science and reading based upon the interest inventories that students completed in their reading classes at the beginning of the year. Textbook reading was particularly difficult for many of our students who were struggling readers (Allington, 2002). Ivey (2002) explained, “Even the best strategies in the world will not help students read something that presents unfamiliar concepts in language far beyond their reach” (p. 20). We knew that new standards required us to provide students with opportunities to read more informational texts, and we wanted to incorporate texts that would enhance both students’ derived and fundamental literacy skills. As we began our collaborative efforts, we discovered that a source of hesitation from the science content area teacher surfaced and needed to be addressed. The science teacher, although an avid reader herself, had little background or professional development in teaching literacy in her content area. The reading teacher knew that this
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