I think it’s great that content area literacy is being encouraged more in lower grades now. Since our generation has been in elementary school, things have changed drastically. School is all about testing now and the common core standards are also moving things up two grade levels. With these two factors in place it’s enough to require content area literacy(CAL.) This being said, it should have been in place before now. Every child needs a base to build on and CAL can give them this. I myself do not feel as if I’ve been cheated, for I had some great teachers over the years who read informal text to us no matter what the grade. This got every student involved. Reading and comprehension were two things that I excelled in due to the encouragement I had. Before now, some teachers realized how important content area literacy was and some did not. It was important but not pushed as much as it is now. I think it is vital to a child’s education to carry out content area literacy through every grade (especially the 3rd and 4th grades where it slacks off) so they’ll realize the importance of it and can see how it connects to other content they might be studying.
Lauren, I totally agree that school has changed so much from when we were younger. Because of so much emphasis on standardized testing, it is important for children to be exposed to many different types of literature. This includes expository texts. I also had some pretty awesome teachers, and had plenty of opportunities to read read all sorts of books. I hope to e just as awesome to y students. Lastly, I agree with your comment on carrying out content literacy to every grade. It is important they continue to build upon their literacy skills from year to year.
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