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Literacy History Journal
School of Education, Liberty University
EDUC221: Content Area Reading and Differentiated Teaching and Learning (D02)
Professor Katelyn Rigg
April 22, 2024
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Literacy History Journal
1- Literacy History
Early Memories
Somethings I remember from being a child, was the fact that my mother read me a
bedtime story every night before bed. I think back in time, and what I can remember about
reading and writing is very faint. 20 years ago, I started Kindergarten, and we were sent home
with little books that our parents had to listen to us read and sign off on, to show the teacher that
we actually read our books. I remember growing up, reading got a little more challenging for me.
I was reading slower than others, and always used to get scared when the teacher asked me to
read in front of class. Now, with writing, I believe I was always great at that. I enjoyed writing
throughout my whole childhood. There were times where I wanted to write a book. I kept
numerous journals and would just write. It could be about anything, but all I know is that my
writing utensil would write and write.
School Memories
In grade school, I had a strong resentment for reading. I still do until this day. But one
thing that made me really embrace that resentment, is when I would be in classes that I would get
an ‘A’ in still have only 10-15 kids in the class. It made me feel like I shouldn’t even be in that
class when it was so easy for me. Back in grade school, I used to dislike reading because I had
too. I liked to read when I wanted too. I had a few books that I was extremely interested in, and if
I could find them again, I most defiantly would go back and read them. Now, in high school I
had a few specific books I had to read. For instance, we read “To Kill A Mockingbird” and
“Romeo and Juliet”. I enjoyed both books, but considering how much I had to read, I did not like
reading a significant amount. One thing I remember learning in school was labeled as the
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“Hamburger Method”. I learned this when I first started writing papers. You had two buns, and a
patty. The first bun was labeled as your thesis, topic sentences, and an ending statement. Your
patty was labeled as your body paragraphs. This was known as the main portion of your essay. It
held all of your topics you were going to talk about. Finally, you have your last bun. It was
labeled as your conclusion. You had to make sure you restated your thesis in this paragraph.
Reading for Pleasure and Social Purposes
One book that I could not put down at one point in time, was the “The Bluford Series”.
These were my favorite books in high school. I read every single book they ever came out with.
Now, since I am an adult, they have a “banned book list”, I never knew anything about it until I
became an adult, but the book I have read when I was younger that is currently on that list is
Junie B. Jones. I loved those books when I was growing up. My favorite children’s book would
probably be “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”. I loved this book when I was a kid. I used to read it
every night before bed. I knew this book word for word. Since, I’ve grown up now, I no longer
read as much as I should. I still don’t enjoy reading, but I do still enjoy writing. I still write every
once in a blue moon.
Technology
Using technology every day is something I do very often. Considering I am currently in
college, I have homework that needs to be worked on just about every single day. I am also a
daycare teacher, and we use the technology to just play music to keep our kids engaged and
entertained. Now, communicating with technology, I also do every day. I am on my phone all the
time. I use my phone to call my family and friends, or even post on social media. Since I am in
college, I do use technology all the time. Just by doing research for a paper, or even going out of
my way too look something up on a problem I don’t understand. But in my opinion, I do not feel
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comfortable using technology with students in the classroom. I feel this way because I am trying
to become a secondary mathematics educator. I do not believe that people can really learn any
math online. I do believe it is very tough, especially when there is no way to verbally
communicate. Now, with math, one little mistake can mess everything up. Math is complicated
and that’s why some people have a hard time with that subject.
Critical Awareness
When I writing I try to put myself in another person’s shoes. There have been times
where I have wanted to continue writing about another character, instead of the main character.
There have also been times where I thought about writing another story about that character just
to tie things together. In my opinion, I believe that writing about another character, shows a
different point of view. It also allows the readers to get a better understanding of the characters
life. Now, most of my stories I wrote when I was younger were about me, and all the obstacles I
have went through during my lifetime, up until high school. I started writing in middle school,
back when I was bullied. It was the only way for me to get my feelings out without talking to
anyone else about my problems. Now, there was a time where I wanted to write from my friends’
perspective and make it into a story for the whole world. I felt like I needed to write from their
perspective to prove to people that just because your friend is being bullied, doesn’t make it right
for you to not say anything or help.
Word count: 984 words total.
2- Reading from a Critical Stance
Reading from a Critical Source: Print
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Sample: “First, outside, inside, last, multiply binomials fast” (Learning Upgrade App, 2022,
0:00:08).
Within this sample, the song lyrics demonstrates how to properly use the FOIL method,
taught within an Algebra 1 classrooms. In my opinion, I believe that writer of this song, wrote
this too educate students who struggle with grouping common terms that go with the FOIL
method. The song lyrics are very catchy, and the lyrics are simple enough to help a student that is
struggling within this aspect of math. Now in my opinion, I am already familiar with the FOIL
method, but it does help a student to better understand how to do it because of the catchy lyrics.
Another thing, the song isn’t that more than two minutes long, and it repeats “First, Outside,
Inside, and Last” (Learning Upgrade App, 2022, 0:00:08), numerous times throughout the song.
Television or Photographs
Sample: (How (and Why) I Teach Optical Illusions)
Optical illusions are a great way to keep students’ minds engaged. It really encourages
students to use their brains. Now, within this picture, you notice a square shape with a circle of
lines. The question that is displayed says, “Do the sides of the square appear to be bent in?”
(How (and Why) I Teach Optical Illusions). This illusion promotes students to use their mind.
Now, if I was to display this in my future classroom, I would allow a few minutes for students to
talk in groups to figure this out. When I was looking myself before reading the illusion, I
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thought the lines were bent in. It does say that they are all straight, and to use a straight edge to
see. I grabbed a sheet of paper, and come to find out, they are all straight.
Word count: 288 words total.
3 – Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary Practices
Using the Frayer model helps students but teachers as well. By using the Frayer model,
educators can use it to help their students learn vocabulary. “A Frayer model can be used
before reading to activate background knowledge, during reading to teach new
vocabulary, or after reading to assess understanding of vocabulary” (Stratford, 2023).
Stratford includes a significant number of different ways to promote vocabulary
learning in a classroom. Now using this in my content area, I could possibly have a
class period where all we do is vocabulary, to help students learn we could possibly
act out our vocabulary words. By acting out vocabulary words, it is a demonstration so
that students who doesn’t know the word, could act it out, and by acting out the word
it could help the student be able to remember the word.
Promoting These Practices
Sharing ideas has never been a problem for me. A way I could possibly share my ideas to
help other teachers could be in meetings. Seeing how my way worked within my classroom
could help other teachers be successful in their classrooms. By showing my fellow educators my
way, I could possibly demonstrate a way that was successful, and by doing so other educators
could either agree to use it or not use it. For instance, if I was using quizlet.com and I made it
accessible to all my students, my students would have a copy of all of the vocabulary for the unit
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that I am teaching. My students could have it on the go, or even a printout. Regardless, students
would be able to study the vocabulary anywhere, or at any time. Another thing, I could possibly
use is having students write down vocabulary words repeatedly, this will help with
memorization. “The circle begins with the vocabulary word in isolation and then progresses to
the word along with the definition, which students must independently discover in their textbook
and record… The tool then deconstructs, asking students to rewrite just the word and definition
before finally recording and ending with the word” (Stocking, 2010, pp. 24-25).
Word count: 345 words total.
4 – Instructional Routines
Use the chart below to complete each section:
Routine 1 Routine 2 Routine 3
Name of
Routine
Word Sorts Text-Dependent
Questions
Collaborative
Conversations
Used Before,
During, or
After
Reading
Before Reading During Reading After Reading
Explanation
(50 words)
Word sorts can be opened
or closed. They develop an
understanding about words
related to one another
(Fisher et al., 2015, pp. 139-
141). Using word sorts in
my future classroom should
be able to help students get
a better understanding of
the words. They could place
the words in different
categories based off of how
they remember them. For
instance, I could use this
routine as a warmup, or
Text-dependent
questions relates to the
content of the questions
themselves
(Fisher et al., 2015, pp.
112-114). By using text-
dependent questions,
students are able to
focus on a numerous
number of different
categories. Using text-
dependent questions in
my future classroom,
will help students be
able to understand the
Collaborative conversations
are discussions among the
students (Fisher et al., 2015,
pp. 17-18). Using this in my
future classroom, will help
students be able to
effectively communicate
with one another. It will be
able to get students to
effectively explain why they
agree with a statement I
have provided, or why they
disagree with that
statement. It also can give
students the opportunity to
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even part of one of my
lessons.
question that is being
asked, focus on the key
details, and pay
attention to vocabulary.
voice their opinions.
Classroom-
Ready
Sample
(Algebra Vocabulary Key
Words Match Up/ Card Sort|
Teaching Resources, 2020)
(Learning to
Automatically Solve
Algebra Word Problems |
Semantic Scholar, 2014)
(Learning to Automatically
Solve Algebra Word
Problems |Semantic Scholar,
2014)
5- Content Area Reading Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan 1: https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/exit-
slips#RelatedResourceTabs1
I think using exit tickets are a great way to recap what the student just learned. I think this
is a great way to see which students actually paid attention in class. Now when it comes to
mathematics, I believe this is a great way to have students really understand the material. Now
because of previous experiences with exit tickets, something I would change is give every
student a different problem with a different answer, because some students just want to hurry up
and leave instead of actually taking time to solve the problem. Another thing I would consider
doing with exit tickets are offering extra credit. Some students struggle more than others when it
comes to mathematics and in my opinion, once extra credit is offered, students tend to try to
work even harder because they want to get their grade up.
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Lesson Plan 2:
https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/involving-students-
families-ongoing#ResourceTabs4
This lesson plan is only for grades K-2, but I like it. It helps build student-parent
relationships. It also helps students improve on their reading because they aren’t just reading a
require passage, but they could read things that interest them even the most random things like
the back of a cereal box. “Read all sorts of material aloud: billboards, signs, flyers, brochures,
letters, commercials, ads, magazines, newspapers, comics, software dialog boxes, Web pages.
Read all sorts of material aloud: billboards, signs, flyers, brochures, letters, commercials, ads,
magazines, newspapers, comics, software dialog boxes, Web pages” (Garder). In my opinion,
using this lesson in my future classroom wouldn’t focus on the reading portion but I could use it
to make a project. I could have students calculate how much their families spend on groceries,
and calculate the mean, median, and mode in our classroom. It encourages students and parents
to work together.
Lesson Plan 3: https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/active-
reading-through-self#ResourceTabs1|RelatedResourceTabs3
I like the student-made quiz. “They work independently to choose quotations that
exemplify the main idea of the text, come to a consensus about those quotations in collaborative
groups, and then formulate “quiz” questions about their reading that other groups will answer”
(Wood). Now, in my classroom I could potentially use this by having students think of random
types of equations (even if it’s not whole numbers, that’s okay!), but using the equations we
come up with as a class, could help students understand how to solve the problems. It could
potentially be used as a quiz or a test. Regardless, it will help students use their brain and come
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up with an equation, as well as it will help students solve a significant number of different types
of equations.
Word count: 424 words total.
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References
[Learning Upgrade App]. (2022, July 29).NFOIL Song- Learn Algebra- Learning Upgrade
AppN[Video]. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbQJVZkEPzQ
K. (n.d.).NHow (and Why) I Teach Optical Illusions| Mrs. E Teaches Math.
Mrseteachesmath.com. https://www.mrseteachesmath.com/2015/06/how-and-why-i-teach-
optical-illusions.html
Stratford, D. (2023, June 29).NConnecting Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Benefits
Both | Edutopia. Edutopia.com. https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-ways-to-teach-vocabulary-
and-reading-comprehension/
Stocking, N. (2010).NConceptual Understanding and Retention of Vocabulary for Visual
LearnersN[Thesis, St. John Fisher University]. https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1103&context=education_ETD_masters
Fisher, D., Brozo, W. G., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2015).N50 Instructional Routines to Develop
Content LiteracyN(3rd ed.). Pearson.
Young, S. (2020).NAlgebra Vocabulary Key Words Match Up/ Card Sort| Teaching
ResourcesN[Photograph]. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/algebra-vocabulary-key-words-
match-up-card-sort-12429882
Kushman, N., Zettlemoyer, L., Barzilay, R., & Artzi, Y. (2014). Learning to Automatically Solve
Algebra Word Problems.NAnnual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics.
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Buie, M. (2013).NMath Conversation Starters Bookmark (Perfect for Talk Moves)N[Photograph].
TPT. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Conversation-Starters-Bookmark-
Perfect-for-Talk-Moves-968251
Garder, T. (n.d.).NInvolving Students and Families in Ongoing Reflection and Assessment.
Readthinkwrite.org. https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/involving-
students-families-ongoing#ResourceTabs1
Wood, J. R. (n.d.).NActive Reading through Self-Assessment: The Student-Made Quiz.
Readthinkwrite.org. https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/active-
reading-through-self#ResourceTabs1|RelatedResourceTabs3
