Teaching reading throughout the content areas is a necessary skill often neglected in most classrooms. As stated in Maryann and Gary Manning’s article Teaching Reading and Writing: Literature in the Content Areas by using literature combined with reading and writing strategies, students develop a content literacy. Using a variety of literature helps children to develop the needed depth and breadth in the specific content areas of learning, especially English.

In the common English classroom, literature plays a crucial role. By working less with dry textbooks, the students naturally acquire comprehension skills and become personally intertwined with the topics they are studying. Maryann and Gary Manning discuss how specific genres of books are vital to different learning methods and how they help advance the students’ reading capabilities. Expository books, descriptive and hands-on books, stimulate students’ interest in topics and help to strengthen their reading abilities. Through the use of biographies,

Teaching Reading and Writing: Literature in the Content Area gave many examples as to how to implement literature as a form of reading into the content areas. Maryann and Gary Manning listed seven specific strategies. The first one dealt with reading aloud often. The teacher should review a list of books on different topics and choose ones that would be interesting to read aloud and that would increase awareness. As a teacher, the selected books should also be of personal interest so the enthusiasm possessed can be conveyed to the children. The second strategy is to give students time to read literature in the content areas. This integrated approach would immerse themes. The third application is to confer with students about what they have been reading. This can be done through individual conferences with the student which promotes reading growth and understanding. Peer conferences are another way to reinforce what the students have read. The next suggestion was to include literature circles in the content area by reading, discussing and then engaging in a book extension activit

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