On the road to my masters degree I enrolled in a course called Content Area Reading. Using my schema and prior knowledge I figured that this course would be about teaching reading. I was looking forward to this class. Even though I am in a specialist position, I have my alternative certification and never formally took any courses on teaching reading. Everything I have learned I have picked up in the field or during professional development.
It was quite a surprise when I began reading the assigned text book and attended class the first day. It never occurred to me that this course was about bringing reading into other content areas. Honestly, my first reaction was that I was enrolled in the wrong class. I'm becoming a reading specialist why do I need to learn about other content areas?
Today is only day 3 and my attitude has already changed. This class has already made me reflect on my past, think about what I am doing currently and excite me about what is to come in the future. I have come to realize that this class is going to strengthen me as a specialist even more.
Everyone at the campus I work at knows of me and I know the names of everyone on campus. Through reflection I realize that the only teachers that I truly know are all ELA teachers. I have often times made the comment " I don't really deal with so in so much because they teach math". What kind of "community" is that? In simple terms, it's not. They all know I am willing to help out if they need me to but I didn't go out of my way to offer support.
This class has now given me a new mission. My mission is to get to know all of the teachers at my campus. I can still use reading to do this. I have had my "aha" moment. CONTENT AREA READING!! I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before. THIS is the missing puzzle piece our school needed. Not only will it cause all of our teachers to work together building and strengthening relationships, it will also strengthen each of our content areas and ultimately increase our scores.
When I return to school in August I am going to start offering ideas, strategies and support to all of our teachers for bringing reading into their content. Modeling strategies such as close reading, think-alouds, GTA, and QARs we can get our students to start asking and answering deeper level thinking questions. I am now able to show these teachers and give them examples of how to adapt these things to fit their class makeup and content.
Content Area Reading- turns out I'm as excited now as when I first enrolled!
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