Creativity is Key

Thank you for following folks! I hope you have enjoyed the content that I have expressed here on my blog! On this week's topic, we will be focusing on reading and writing across the curriculum. Gail E. Tompkins (2017) has some rich content about how we, as effective teachers, can help our students succeed. Enjoy!

Being an effective teacher requires you to find multiple and differentiated ways to help your students overcome any challenges and succeed in the classroom. One of the ways to do that is to teach students practical learning tools that they can use in any subject. One of the focuses this chapter digs deeper into is how to "integrate reading and writing instruction with content area studies" (Tompkins, 2017). This means that teachers will be teaching students how to think smarter, not harder. So, instead of only asking students to think and analyze literature work critically, they can thoughtfully reflect and investigate in ANY school subjects. Not only will this help students process and understand the material better, but it is a life-long skill that can last them a lifetime.

As effective teachers, we want to "ensure that students learn how to comprehend nonfiction books and content-area textbooks and how to use reading and writing as tools for learning and to demonstrate new knowledge" (Tompkins, 2017). This means that we offer students options and multiple ways of expressing what they have learned or understood from a lesson or unit. Often, students find content area textbooks boring, unappealing, or difficult to understand. So when students are not motivated to read, they lose interest in the material being taught. That is why it is crucial to "plan instruction to make content area textbooks more comprehensible and to supplement students' learning with other reading and writing activities" (Tompkins,2017). Giving students options to draw a visual, do an act, or write poetry, gives them the motivation to understand the content. As teachers, we should always be open to giving students options on how they want to present what they learned. It opens up creativity, and it allows students to show off their skills.

Using a variety of activities gives students the knowledge and support to understand the information. Teachers need to teach students to look for "special features used in content area textbooks, including headings, highlighted words, illustrations, end-of-chapter questions, and a glossary, that make the books easier to read" (Tompkins, 2017). When students are informed about these tools, they can take advantage of it and use it when they are confused or lost about what they are reading or learning. These tools are also helpful for when students want to express what they learned when they need to write a paper, do a presentation, or do a project. "Successful readers think about the text while they're reading, and the textbook features encourage students' active engagement" (Tompkins, 2017).

Thank you for reading!

-Melissa