• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

September 21, 2016 Instruction & Curriculum

How to Integrate Literacy into the Non-ELA Classroom

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Christina Gil

Christina Gil was a high-school English teacher for sixteen years, but she recently left the classroom to follow a dream and move with her family to an ecovillage in rural Missouri. She believes that teaching creative writing helps students excel on standardized tests, that deeply analyzing and unpacking a poemis a fabulous way to spend an hour or so, and that Shakespeare is always better with sound effects. When she is not hauling water to her tiny home, she can be found homeschooling her two kids or meeting with her neighbors about the best way to run their village.
  • Homeschooling: Making Education Natural Again - October 28, 2016
  • Six Reasons Why Tests Suck - October 20, 2016
  • I Remember When Teachers Were Allowed to Teach Their Passions - October 14, 2016
  • By Not Allowing Your Children to Fail You Are Making Their Brains Smaller - October 13, 2016
  • Why Poetry Is So Great for Teaching Growth Mindset - October 7, 2016
  • Deliberate Practice and Growth Mindset - October 5, 2016
  • Seven Steps to a Fresh Start for your Class - September 23, 2016
  • How to Integrate Literacy into the Non-ELA Classroom - September 21, 2016
  • How To Do A Focused Writing Bootcamp - September 16, 2016
  • You Probably Shouldn’t Be a Teacher If... - September 12, 2016

If there is one message that I get when I examine the Common Core standards for reading and writing, it’s this: Share the load. I think that English teachers have often shouldered the burden of literacy.  We have felt that it is simply our job to teach students to write and to read and to analyze challenging texts.  But I also think that this martyrdom needs to end.  The standards are clearly for history/social sciences, science, and technical subjects—not just ELA.  English teachers aren’t responsible for all of it, even if we think we can get it done alone.

I could be cynical and believe that biology or American history teachers would rather sit back and give students multiple choice quizzes and powerpoint presentations while they let their colleagues down the hall read through stacks of essays.  Or, I could be more hopeful and believe that those who have not spent years teaching ELA are just a little nervous.  They’d like to do their part to teach literacy—to integrate more reading and writing into their classrooms—but they need a little guidance, or at least a few pointers.

And if I choose to believe this, then I do think it is at least partially our responsibility as teachers of ELA to help them out.

My suggestion for a good first step to integrating literacy into the non ELA classroom is to assign outside reading of high-interest texts.  Books like The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston or Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell are good reads, and could easily be assigned for independent reading.  If a book is too much to take on, an essay from a current magazine or a chapter from a good book would also be good practice for reading non fiction, and could make for some great discussions or research projects.

Want to have a few peaceful class periods?  Spend class time silently reading or reading out loud to your students.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]an essay from a current magazine or a chapter from a good book would also be good practice for reading non fiction Click To Tweet

Want an easy assessment?  Make a simple twenty-question quiz on the text with objective answers that cannot be answered by watching a film or talking to a friend.  (Anyone who reads the first chapter of The Hot Zone will never forget that horrible list of symptoms, for example.)

Want to get some writing in at the same time?  Assign an essay on the independent reading.  Encourage students to write about the ideas that they discover in the texts that they read rather than summaries or pure opinion pieces about their likes or dislikes.

But how do you grade that writing?

This is my best tip for grading writing without losing your free time (or your mind): Just worry about the content.  I know that there is an idea that grading writing is grading grammar and structure and spelling, and that English teachers don’t actually grade content.  That idea is false.  Your goal with assigning student writing is to see if they can understand a topic and then explain it clearly to a reader.  As long as you make sure that students know what is expected and you create a rubric that clearly outlines those expectations, you won’t have such a hard time grading.  You know when they know, and that’s most of what you need.  Don’t worry about nitpicking grammar or spelling—you’ll just make yourself crazy, students won’t usually read all your red marks, and anyway, studies have shown that that isn’t the best way for them to improve on those elements.

I’m not going to lie and say that grading an essay is just as easy as putting a sheet through a scantron machine.  But it is a lot more interesting, and my guess is that you will get to know your students on a whole new level.

Keep in mind what you want them to get out of the assignment, explain your expectations clearly, give them an assessment based on that, and the rest will fall into place.

how-to-integrate-literacy-into-non-ela-classroom

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

The New Teacher Chronicles: The Benefits of Cross-Curricular Education What Do You Do With the Highly Advanced Reader? How to Create Reader Response Prompts MockingbirdIs it Time to Kill Mockingbird and Embrace Mercy?
« My Math Learning Disability: A Student Perspective
Teaching a Superpower »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • Teaching Strategies for Gen Z Students
  • How Educators Can Honor Judith Heumann's Legacy
  • Struggling to Learn: How Decreasing SNAP Benefits Will Hurt Students
  • What COVID Could Have Taught Us

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.