Draper - Chapter 1

March 2^nd, 2012

(Re) Imagining Content- Area Literacy Instruction - Chapter 1

The chapter starts off by talking about how teachers must use their imagination in order to make a change. It talked about breaking the idea of literacy driven vs. content driven. The chapter discussed the strengths that content- area teachers and literacy specialist have to offer. It went on to say that evaluation was also important when it came to collaboration of the two.

While reading this chapter I found the point of criteria evaluation interesting and important. It helped me to understand that many things need to be worked together in order to make re-imagining successful. I want to keep in mind that it is important to helps students to use the discipline in order to enable them to use their newly acquired knowledge and illiteracies to solve problems and generate new settings within a discipline.

I also thought it was interesting when the author talked about literacy and “doing school”. I think that it is important to make sure that students are growing and learning in all parts of their lives. We as educators need to make sure that what we teach our students is applicable in school and in their everyday lives. I also believe that it is very important to make sure that content and literacy are not thought of separately. The book talks about how focusing on both of these two things helps adolescents live fuller lives.

The reading strategies I used while reading this chapter were taking notes and re-reading. The text was packed with information so I had to re-read and take notes in order to organize my thought and stay with the text.

Citation

Draper, R. (2005). (Re)Imagining Content- Area Literacy Instruction. New York, NY: National Writing Project.