Applying Literacy Standards Across Content Areas

Teaching literacy—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—was long thought of as the job of the English department, and if students weren’t considered proficient, it was that department’s fault.

Thankfully, that mindset has changed. It is our responsibility, whether you’re a classroom teacher, a paraprofessional, or an educational assistant, to give all of our students literacy opportunities in every discipline.

To begin that process, determine a set of guidelines that outline what you want your students to know and be able to do in terms of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. You can look to your district’s academic standards or your state’s standards.

An Example in Physical Education

As an example, in Wisconsin we use the ACT as our state’s standardized test administered to juniors in high school to test for reading and writing. Speaking and listening standards are not on the state test but are a part of the Wisconsin Department of English Language Arts.

In reviewing the ACT’s reading standards, you see phrases such as “paraphrase virtually any statement,” “summarize key supporting ideas,” “identify cause-effect relationships,” “interpret basic figurative language,” and so on. As you determine the standard to teach, look for key verbs that motivate the student to do something.

Next, create your vigorous learning intentions and scaffolded success criteria. Your learning intention is considered vigorous if “it focuses on the goal of the learning—what we want our students to know and do. The learning intention helps students stay focused and involved.”

Let’s say I teach freshmen physical education, and my students are learning how to play badminton. There’s a specific vocabulary associated with badminton, such as backcourt, baseline, and birdie. Without knowing those words, students wouldn’t be able to communicate accurately about the game.

I’ll begin with the standard. From the ACT Reading Standards, I have chosen Word Meanings and Word Choice (WME), a necessary standard that can be applied to all disciplines.

WME 302. Interpret basic figurative language as it is used in a passage.

However, since badminton is a concrete and linear sport, I will modify the standard as I write my vigorous learning intention and scaffolded success criteria.

Vigorous learning intention: I can define and interpret meanings as they are used in the game of badminton.

I added the word “define” since I want my students to define the words first. Once they are able to define the necessary vocabulary, I want them to be able to interpret, or explain, what the words mean. Now, I’ll write my scaffolded success criteria.

Scaffolded success criteria: I know I am successful because of the following.

1. I can define badminton terms.
2. I can interpret badminton terms.
3. I can explain badminton terms to my peers as I play the game.

Note that I want my students to be able to explain those words to their peers as they play badminton, not just define, interpret, and do nothing with what they’ve learned.

An Example in Science

Now let’s take a look at the ACT Writing Standards that support our students in writing. Some of the phrases from the standards are “Generate a clear thesis that establishes a perspective on a contemporary issue,” “Make use of clear reasoning and examples to arrive at an understanding of the issue and differing perspectives on it,” “Use transitions between and within paragraphs to clarify relationships among ideas,” and so on.

These standards support our students in becoming clear, organized, and articulate writers. All teachers, therefore, can benefit from applying them in their particular discipline.

For this example, I am an environmental science teacher, and I want my students to write an argument about climate change. We all know that climate change is a hot-button issue, so give students a chance to do some research and cite worthwhile and meaningful examples arguing the validity (or not) of climate change. I will give students a choice and ask them to pick their perspective: Yes, climate change is causing global temperatures to rise, or no, climate change is not causing global temperatures to rise.

Let’s design a robust lesson plan with the same components as the previous example, but this time developing an argument in environmental science.

Again, we begin with the standard. This time we have chosen an ACT Writing Standard that focuses on “Building and strengthening the argument (D&S–Development and Support–401)”—specifically, this standard, “Make[s] use of clear reasoning and examples to arrive at an understanding of the issue and differing perspectives on it.” However, for environmental science class, I will modify the standard to highlight climate change: Make use of clear reasoning and examples to arrive at an understanding of the issue of climate change and share differing perspectives on it.

Finally, I will design my vigorous learning intention and scaffolded success criteria.

Vigorous learning intention: I can successfully argue that climate change is/is not causing rising temperatures throughout the world.

Scaffolded success criteria: I know I am successful because of the following.

1. I can define climate change.
2. I can cite three examples of rising temperatures [not] caused by climate change.
3. I can argue my perspective based on my research with my peers.

Clearly, this same design can be replicated for any discipline where the teacher wants to focus on differing perspectives while supporting your students’ development of writing.

By applying literacy standards in your class, you are determining what your students are to know and be able to do in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It is up to all of us to utilize literary standards in all disciplines for the sake of our students’ academic success.