Understanding what content literacy actually is has been a big topic for us in class. Of course we probably all understand what is meant when you talk about content literacy for subjects like Math and Science, however, coming from English content I wasnt sure how I could benefit. After all, if you can read, you have English content literacy, right? Well I understand it better now, it isnt necessarily just content literacy as it is subject matter literacy. The example of the political cartoon on page 33 was the perfect illistration of this. If you dont have the background knowledge, you don't have the tools to really understand the cartoon.
More interesting to me were the statistics on 35-37. The fact that students who read more, in and out of class, scored higher on standardized reading tests and had higher scores on writing tests. It isn't surprising to me at all, but it is interesting because in my son's school and the schools that I have been in practicum at, the students are highly incouraged and rewarded for reading for fun. This is uplifting because it seems like our local schools are listening to research and are applying it multiple ways. I cannot speak to what goes on in other subjects, but as for Language Arts, the time spent on reading is great.
I am not suprised at all by the statistics that show students who read more score better on tests. So much prior knowledge is gained by reading or never found at all by not reading. I think the more we can get students to read(especially across genres), the more our students will perform in school across the curriculum
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