Barbara W. Coles Trader
There is always a need in the subject areas to develop and implement teaching strategies. The new image of teaching language arts/literature requires teachers to become coinvestigators in the process of learning and structuring the basic skills. I, a content educator, am expected to create a rich environment that allows investigation, educational growth and provides students ample room to solidify their priorknowledge in making connections to new content such as paintings, photography and literature.
Current research, using literature in the content areas, suggests that contentrelated literature should supplement or supplant textbooks to facilitate conceptual learning. Even though, contentrelated literature appears in many forms, tradebooks/paperbacks, are often suggested to use as supplementary educational materials in conjunction with textbooks, tradebooks/paperbacks are fiction or nonfiction books which are not textbooks. Hence, it will be very easy for me to introduce paintings and photography with the literary components.
The students are assigned to my Chapter ILanguage Arts classes by requirement rather than by choice. Many of the students are not interested or do not show enthusiasm for the subject of reading/ language arts, because they are reluctant readers, when enrolled in my classes. I use various motivational and innovative teaching strategies to arouse the students’ curiosity. I give them opportunities to read topics/materials which are appealing and interesting to them. I have observed, during the past years, that most students enjoy drawings/paintings even though they may not be gifted painters; whereas, a few of their classmates are usually very talented. I will include a family painting and photograph each month in my weekly literature classes. For example: at least 5 paintings and 5 photographs = 10 pieces by renowned painters and photographers during the school year. I will teach one family literary story each month.
The students are seventh and eighth graders; thus, the curriculum unit will be adaptable for grades fifth and sixth in regular education classes. My students are regular education students whose
Degrees of Reading Power
vary from high to low. Some of the eighth grades have instructional comprehension reading levels as low as fourth grade while others have higher levels within the same class/es. Hence, I use a wide variety of trade books/paperbacks and supplementary materials to accommodate a broader range of reading abilities rather than always using a single textbook. According to current research and my observations, textbooks are not appealing for recreational reading and do not usually encourage the reluctant reader/s to become more independent readers. Bernstein and Woodward notes that “textbook authors respond to pressure to match state and local curricula by presenting too many concents in too little depth to be comprehensible let alone enjoyable” (p. 14).
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When teaching literary works, I will have the freedom to replace an expository format with a narrative one when desirous to inject humor and/or incorporate artistic designs/paintings and the like. My diverged formats will reflect the author’s and painter’s varied purposes; explore topics; profile personalities; enhance storytelling; absorb the messages that content is not just informative, but very enjoyable; the students can also answer their questions about topics/ideas with greater ease and self-confidence.
Relevance and Students’ Prior Knowledge: Students can understand new information more readily when they are able to correctly relate/associate their ordinary life experiences with concrete experiences, and they can use the real world examples of concents which are familiar.
