Importance of Integrating Literacy Across the Curriculum - Essay Example

Importance of Integrating Literacy across the Curriculum As a maths teacher, I have come to realise that so many adolescent who perform well in other subjects, perform poorly in maths. Over the years, research shows that such students are bright and they fail maths due to small mistakes, and fear. Integrating literacy skills with mathematics have worked for most of these students. Teaching adolescent students is at times difficult because their concentration levels are low. Integrating literacy across curriculum is a solution and thus the choice of the article.

Centre on instruction website defines literacy as, “A kind of reading proficiency required to construct of content-area texts and literature encountered in school” (Torgesen et al, 2007). Integrating literacy gives students the ability to make inferences from the text, learn new vocabulary, link ideas across texts, and to identify ideas and summarise the most important ideas across text. As a maths teacher, I plan to incorporate this in my teaching practise. Targeting poorly performing students, my main objective is that they will appreciate learning and move to better grades by the time I will be completing the teaching practice.

Motivation is the key for improvement of grades. Research has shown a great decline in motivation for students who have struggled to acquire grades in their elementary classes. Such students need great mentoring and motivation to perform. This means that besides maths lessons, part of the evenings will be spent with students, who are poor performers with the view of mentoring them. In addition, this will be done to improve the students understanding levels in all subjects. It is easier dealing with a known problem other that the unknown.

This means that my first efforts will be used in checking students’ ability to apply Blooms educational skills of remembering, comprehending, applying, analysing, and evaluating. This will enable me to get different ways on how to guide the students. In class, more involvement of these students in spelling of some mathematical words, explaining their meanings, applying them in real life will improve their performance in maths and other subjects. Since improvement is needed in the entire school, I will encourage fellow teachers to take their students through motivational classes to lift their performance.

There are many benefits of incorporating literacy and curriculum especially in adolescents. First, learning in any subject are requires use of language. To teach mathematics, I require students to have background information on how to write and talk the language I will use. These will act as the tools necessary for passing the information, failure to which no learning will take place. To understand the meaning of complex in a mathematics topic will require background knowledge of the language the teacher is using.

The process of teaching as defined by Blooms taxonomy requires remembering, and analysing as part of the processes. Mathematics teachers engage in literacy across curriculum the moment they request their students to give deeper meaning of some mathematical words. They also incorporate literacy across curriculum when they engage students to provide a real life example of the mathematical problem. Secondly, adolescents will build their concentration in situations that real life issues are presented in a study.

Authentic issues give adolescents motivation to listen and concentrate. Thirdly, literacy enforces learning in all areas of life and subjects. This assists students to appreciate reality. For example, taking students for an excursion after learning a maths topic on Bernoulli’s effect will help them build on many areas. Calculations of this effect mathematically will be easier and understanding the underlying issues like reduced pressure on some space will be helpful in their physics subject.

Thus application in life issues like why trees bend towards the roadside and not outwards will be easy. Fourthly, students who incorporate literacy in their curriculum are able to deal with issues that are more complex. Research have shown that the process of learning new skills may end after sometime where reading becomes a great tool for students’ educational life. This is only possible if literacy is incorporated in curriculum. Adolescent students need to prepare for high volumes of literature in their other levels of learning like colleges, master levels and when working.

This calls for great discipline at this stage of their life. In conclusion, though literacy is important when incorporated across learning, it is not easy in adults. This is because their level of motivation to read decline as the move up the ladder of education. Constant mentoring is needful to raise their reading standards. Reference Torgesen et al. (2007). Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents; A Guidance Document from the Center on Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.centeroninstruction.

org/files/Academic%20Literacy.pdf