The course Reading and Writing across the curriculum was expectedly an eye opener for me. As per usual with courses taught by Dr. Saul and Mrs. Rock, I expected to be involved in activities which showed the importance of reading and writing across all subject matter in the curriculum. My first thoughts of reading and writing were that it was linked exclusively to Language Arts but this course has shown the importance of reading and writing throughout the curriculum.

The first topic that intrigued me was Chall’s Stages of Reading Development. These six (6) stages show step by step the process of reading development a child undertakes straight up to adulthood. By having an understanding of these stages and the characteristics that children portray in each, a teacher can effectively cater to the needs of the children. For example, in the first stage, the Pre-Reading Stage, aged six (6) months to (6) years, children garner information via being read to by an adult, who responds to and warmly appreciates the child’s interest in books and reading and via play with books, pencils, paper and blocks. This stage creates a foundation for reading and writing as children identify letters and understand words they hear even though they can read few if any at all. Teachers or adults can let children choose books of interest and read them to them consistently to aid in retention of knowledge. Knowledge of Chall’s Stages of Reading Development is also immensely useful when dealing with children at stage 2, the confirmation and fluency stage, aged seven (7) to (8). At this stage, children begin to read fluently with a focus on identifying individual words quickly. This makes reading of familiar text become automatic and reading is not focused on gaining information but rather to gain control of reading. Teachers can use familiar text to help children improve their decoding skills. Use of interesting, familiar text is also useful in building confidence in reading skills and encouraging children to read text above their own independent reading level and this in turn helps develop vocabulary and language.

Another topic that captured my attention is Reading to Learn and Learning to Read. I have learnt that there is a major difference between the two even though they are linked. Learning to read is essentially acquiring the skills in order to read which are awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, motivation and confidence. Reading to learn is the ability of using the skills said above to better comprehend, question, analyze, summarize and synthesize text. In reading to learn, students are told what they are expected to learn from the text before reading and should be able to summarize after. As students begin to read to learn, the need to read for comprehension and meaning becomes very important. Strategies like questioning and visualizing are instrumental in helping students understand material. So it is clear that both learning to read and reading to learn are important in the development of reading and writing skills across the curriculum as they provide a basis for the teaching of all concepts in all content areas.

The importance of text structure was also found to be very important. Text structure refers to the organization of text and Meyer (1985) states that as authors write text to communicate an idea that they will use a text structure that goes along with the idea. Structures like compare and contrast, chronological order, cause and effect, problem and solution and description are structures authors use to get across their ideas. These structures are helpful as when readers do not have a strong knowledge of the topic, they depend on the structure for help. For example, knowledge of the cause and effect structure can aid a student in answering questions due to knowing that causes come before effects and this can narrow the search.

I also learnt of the importance of graphic organizers in teaching of reading and writing across the curriculum. Graphic organizers are very useful in aiding in the understanding of concepts of text and organizing content. They present material through a visual mode to reinforce ideas and concepts thus helping students internalize what they learn. By integrating text and visual imagery, the graphic organizers actively engage a wide variety of learners, including students with special needs and English language learners. Graphic organizers can be used for any subject matter and are easily integrated into any curriculum. The two I found most interesting are the Frayer Model and the Concept Map.

The Frayer Model was designed by Dorothy Frayer and was designed to provide a thorough understanding of new words. It was also designed to help students understand relationships and similarities between concepts (Clark 2007). The process of using the Frayer Model is a step by step process:

1. Assign a concept that might be confusing because of its relational qualities.
2. Explain the Frayer model diagram.
3. Model how to fill out the diagram.
4. Provide students with time to practice with assigned terms.
5. Once the diagram is complete, let students share their work with other students. Display students' diagrams as posters throughout the unit so students can refer to the words and continue to add ideas.
This strategy can be very beneficial to students as it is interactive and allows for group cooperation and provides details of terms and concepts via characteristics. It is a strategy I believe can be instrumental in the teaching of social studies and science which have alot of concepts and concepts which overlap each other.

The concept map I also found captivating as it is a very practical strategy that can be used effectively in my classroom. Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts. We define concept as a perceived regularity or pattern in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label. Concept mapping serves several purposes for students: • Helping students brainstorm and generate new ideas • Encouraging students to discover new concepts and the propositions that connect them • Allowing students to more clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information • Helping students integrate new concepts with older concepts • Enabling students to gain enhanced knowledge of any topic and evaluate the information

This new learning can assist monumentally in the teaching of Social Studies as this content area is heavily dependent on reading and writing skills. Social Studies is defined as an educational discipline which focuses on various aspects or branches of the study of human society and the main mode of teaching this content area is via text. Therefore it is essential that students are well rooted in the skills of writing and reading to learn to fully grasp the concepts found in the social studies curriculum. However, due to this course, I can readily admit that my mind has been changed towards the teaching of reading and writing in social studies as I previously believed that it was the task of the English teacher to teach reading and writing as a core subject. In social studies, students must read to learn. Struggling readers stand to learn a lot less than those who are proficient in reading. I have realised that a teacher can make a difference by recognizing social studies-specific reading difficulties and by teaching strategies designed to overcome them. Eighty-Five (85) to Ninety-Five (95) percent of the content addressed in social studies comes from textbooks and some students may not have the necessary prior knowledge on topics to have a firm understanding of concepts therefore they will seek text as their main form of incoming knowledge. This poses a problem because these students will not know vocabulary attributed to concepts in social studies. The use of word webs or word walls can aid in this issue as it exposes students to definitions and how words are used in different circumstances via visual aids. Other students may have the necessary prior knowledge needed but fails to link this knowledge to the concepts given in the text and thus some pre-reading activities like brainstorming or the use of a concept map will be useful to trigger this knowledge. Expository text may provide a stumbling block for students as it is the main text structure of social studies textbooks. It explains concepts rather than the narrative story-type writing that children are accustomed to. It also contains unfamiliar vocabulary that cannot be skipped without harming comprehension, and generally provides fewer context clues. One can draw students' attention to helpful features, and model how to use them. For example, you might show a class how to use chapter titles, overviews, and headings to determine main ideas, make predictions about content, and set specific purposes for reading.
Thus, it can readily be seen that this new learning can be effective in the teaching of Social Studies in the classroom.
Two strategies that I have been exposed to that can be beneficial to me as a learner and a teacher in training are DRTA and the Frayer Model. DRTA is the Directed Reading Thinking Activity and it is a strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. DRTA may be used with an individual, a small group, or a whole class. This activity can be easily adapted for a variety of subjects and reading levels. This strategy helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills. As the teacher guides the process, the DRTA teaches students to determine the purpose for reading and make adjustments to what they think will come next based on the text. The amount of reading should be adjusted to fit the purpose and the difficulty of the text. Introduce the text, the purpose of the DRTA and gives examples of how to make predictions. Be aware of the reading levels of each student, and be prepared to provide appropriate questions, prompts, and support as needed. Encourage students not to be intimidated by taking a risk with predictions and not to feel pressure to state only correct predictions. Breaking down the letters in DRTA gives you:
D - DIRECT - Teachers direct and stimulate students' thinking prior to reading a passage by scanning the title, chapter headings, illustrations, and other explanatory materials. Then teachers should use open-ended questions to direct students as they make predictions about the content or perspective of the text (e.g., "Given this title, what do you think the passage will be about?"). Students should be encouraged to justify their responses and activate prior knowledge.
R - READING - Teachers should have students read up to the first pre-selected stopping point in the text. The teacher then prompts the students with questions about specific information and asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. This process should be continued until students have read each section of the passage.
T - THINKING - At the end of the reading, teachers should have students go back through the text and think about their predictions. Students should verify or modify the accuracy of their predictions by finding supporting statements in the text. The teacher deepens the thinking process by asking questions such as: • What do you think about your predictions now? • What did you find in the text to prove your predictions? • What did you find in the text that caused you to modify your predictions?
This strategy is effective for me as a learner because it provides me with an alternative way to tackle difficult or new text and also as a teacher in training because it is a strategy which students can use for the same purpose of finding the main idea in all content areas.
I also found the Frayer model to be a beneficial strategy for me as a learner because with it I can take vocabulary unknown to me and create links and portray differences as well as finding definitions. In this strategy, students are asked to provide a definition of the word, facts or characteristics of the word, examples, and nonexamples. This graphic organizer will lead students to a deeper understanding of a word and its relationship to their own lives. The Frayer model provides students with the opportunity to understand what a concept is and what it is not. As a teacher in training, it will be an effective strategy for the teacher of vocabulary in the classroom across all content areas and provides a link between vocabulary specific to the said concept areas.
On reflection of this course, I must admit that I was of the view that the teaching of reading and writing was the sole responsibility of a language teacher. However, from the activities given to me by both Dr. Saul and Mrs. Rock, my eyes were opened to the importance of teaching reading and writing in all content areas and provided me with the tools to aid my students effectively by way of reading and writing strategies and knowledge of text structures and graphic organizers.

Bibliography
Jennings, C. & Shepherd, J. (1998). Literacy and the key learning areas: successful classroom strategies. Eleanor Curtain Publishing.
Lenski, Susan D., Wham, Mary Ann, & Johns, Jerry L. (1999). Reading and learning strategies for middle and high school students. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Murdoch, K. (1998). Classroom Connections: Strategies for Integrated Learning. Eleanor Curtain Publishing.
Stauffer, R. G. (1969). Directing reading maturity as a cognitive process. New York: Harper & Row.
Meyer, B. J. F. (1985). Prose analysis: Purposes, procedures, and problems. In B. K. Britton, & J. Black
(Eds.), Analyzing and understanding expository text (pp. 11-64, 269 304). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Clark (2007). Writing Strategies For Social Studies. USA: Shell Education.